Show & Tell - Machine Head, an interview with Rob Flynn, 04.30.04

MACHINE HEAD
ROB FLYNN

04.30.04
New England Metal & Hardcore Festival
Worcester Palladium, Massachusetts

It's been ten full years since Machine Head's debut release and instant metal classic, Burn My Eyes.

Moderate success and critical acclaim followed until three albums later, in 2001, the band released Supercharger. We won't dwell on it, Supercharger was a flop. Water under the metal bridge.

Now, with the critical and financial disappointment of Supercharger behind them and a new guitarist in the loop, Machine Head is currently out touring their best work since Eyes, their latest release Through The Ashes Of Empires.

Machine Head is back.

We sat with singer Rob Flynn at this year's New England Metal and Hardcore Festival:

Show & Tell: Is that a tape player or a CD player? [Ed.'s note: Interviewer Kevin is asking Rob about the built-in system in their tour bus's back lounge.]

Rob: CD player.

S&T: Is it a tape player too? [Ed.'s note: Kevin, who at first glance appears to be obsessing, notes that, in his defense, the player does look "really weird and deceiving."]

R: I don't know, I haven't actually used it. This is just mainly the game room, so I guess it could be. We got the Playstation 2 so everyone just comes back here and plays video games and the front lounge is just kinda like movietime, satellite.

S&T: You have satellite hooked up?

R: I think only (back here in the lounge). The other one busted first day when we got it so they've been driving all around New York City trying to get us another piece.

S&T: Are you big into gaming?

R: I don't play games at all; Dave McClain (drummer) is the big gaming guy.

S&T: You don't even touch it?

R: I don't even touch it 'cause those things like fully consume my life! I'll just sit there and fucking play that thing for too fucking long and I'm just like, "okay, I got more shit to do." I get all obsessed and I go to bed seeing the game pieces go.

S&T: Yeah, I'm big into gaming.

R: Yeah? Seems like everybody is into to it, you know.

S&T: It's everywhere.

R: Oh yeah. There's more commercials for like games now then there are movies. Especially on like MTV. It's just fucking nuts, man. Kids are digging it so...

S&T: So life treating you well?

R: Very well. We just got our first week numbers in 2 days ago. Our record came out a week ago and you get Soundscan or whatever, Billboard's charting number 88 and we fucking sold like 11,000 records in our first week which is, in light of everything that's been going on with the record, for (already having been released) for 6 months overseas and on import like it's a miracle that we outsold Supercharger by like 1,000 units. So we're just like, "fuck yeah!" We're stoked.

S&T: Is seeing 11,000 a huge surprise to you?

R: Totally. I mean, not to sound negative, but we thought we were going to do half that and we were going to be happy with it, you know? We had MTV approve the video and then reject it 'cause of the FCC, the fucks... So we had to go in and edit the fuck out and it didn't even get played the week of the release. Even with all that, in spite of everything... To come out and sell that many records, it was phenomenal, you know? It was more than anybody, ANYBODY, label, us, expected. It was just a huge groundswell of support from our fans so it's really cool.

S&T: Yeah, I liked how you did the video.

R: Cool, thanks, man. It's a long song so we had to mix it up a little bit. That's seven minutes of molten metal mayhem so you're like, "okay, we have to have a lot of scenes," and people were like "next!" "Okay, I'm sick of looking at the guy with the fucking nose ring." (laughs) Can I swear? I don't know if that's okay.

S&T: Say any swear you want. You know any others?

R: (Laughing) Oh Yeah!! Sure, now that I have permission.

S&T: Are you a big fan of Europe?

R: Europe the country or Europe the band (laughing)?

S&T: (laughs) No, the country, not the band.

R: (sings) "It's the Final Countdown!" (laughing) Yeah, we toured, we pretty much do it evenly I think. I think the press over in Europe is a little kinder to us than the American press is, you know, but aside from that... I mean they're more enamored with us and over here they're like, "whatever."

S&T: The past two records have sold better over there.

R: Well, this one was out six months earlier so that's why. But yeah, we do really good over there.

S&T: Supercharger did better over there?

R: It did, yeah.

S&T: Why do you think that was the case?

R: Umm, I don't know. I think that definitely a few years ago there was (more metal coverage there) than here in America, you know? It was like taboo and metal was un-fucking cool as you could possibly imagine, you know. No magazines cover it. Now all of a sudden it's like "Rolling Stone's top 20 heavy metal albums!" And it's like where Spin just did one, you know? Alternative Press just did one and I don't dislike any of those magazines but, you know, for the longest time now they haven't wanted to cover it and it's become like cool again. And (in Europe) it's always just been tons of old glossy magazines that you can buy in the airport. They're just everywhere.

S&T: Like the scene is bigger there?

R: In that sense it is. I think that metal, for awhile, especially right when we came out, had gone underground, like Headbangers Ball had gone away. Like a lot of the bigger rock and roll magazines had kinda gone because everyone was trying to be alternative and stuff so, you know, I think we kinda knew that that was going to be the case so we went about building our fan base through touring and like the old fashioned way, you know? From the grassroots thing up and so we've never really have been overly concerned about it. I think just profile-wise though being on the magazines and stuff just kinda makes it seem like things are different over there.

S&T: What kind of genre do you consider yourselves?

R: You know I just consider us like metal, that's it. You know we're not metalcore, we're not this metal, that metal. We got like hardcore influences and we've got The Cure as an influence or you know Radiohead or Coldplay or something like that. I mean that's all in there but pretty much just consider it metal.

S&T: So, I hear you're a big vodka and Coke fan.

R: Yes, I am.

S&T: What got you started on that?

R: Hmm, what got us started on vodka and Coke... We were in Europe doing a press tour and went to this... there was this metal bar like you just go in there and they're just like playing Machine Head, Slayer, Pantera, Morbid Angel all the way to Biohazard... cool place, and, umm, at that point we were just kinda like, you know, standard vodka and orange juice, vodka and cranberry, shit like that. And, umm, they didn't have any juices, they had run out of juices that night so we're like, "fuck!" We were kinda full and we didn't want to drink a lot of beer so we're like, "alright, brainstorm. What can we put in vodka that'll be good, Jack and Coke, rum and Coke, why not vodka and Coke?" We're vodka drinkers and so we did it and we tried it and was like, "this is killer!" I prefer vodka just because like brown alcohol tends to make me wanna go fight everybody whereas with vodka I'm the guy that you'll see running down the street naked. So I'd rather be that guy, you know?

S&T: (laughs) Take me through the last two or three years...

R: It was a very kinda topsy-turvy, you know, couple of years, being completely label-less as of about April 2002. We went about writing and our guitar player left and we just kinda regrouped and started writing (as) a three-piece and still carrying on and just kinda asking ourselves a lot of like "why are we doing this" questions and "what are we trying to get out of this" and, you know, we just kinda fell back in love with being musicians and just trying to make music for the sake of making music and art for the, the sake of making art.

I've always had hobbies and stuff and I had a little bit more time to take part in those. I'm an avid wake boarder. My wife and I are both wakeboarding freaks; we've got a wakeboarding boat, master craft, so I go wakeboarding. We have a lake an hour and a half north and I was going wakeboarding like three times a week. Whenever I would stress out on Machine Head I would just go up there and let off a bunch of steam and you know it's fun 'cause you're up there with your friends and you're drinking beers and it's the sun, the lake, it's awesome, man. It's killer and in a lot of way I think it kinda kept me sane doing all that. You know just watching my wife, who goes out when I'm on tour. She's considerably better than I am, she like kicks my ass. She's like, "oh look at this flip I learned," and I'm just like fuck! I'm still trying to like do an ollie.

S&T: How long have you been with your wife?

R: A long time, before Machine Head.

S&T: She's been a strong supporter?

R: She has. She's my support system for sure. She's as tough as nails.

S&T: How did you guys meet?

R: Umm, the very first time that we met I was in a fight with her boyfriend (laughs). She got in the middle of it. We didn't really, you know... there wasn't a connection and then we met a couple times after that and we just kinda hit it off. The day that we actually got together I was trying to not pick up on her 'cause she was dating a friend of mine at the time. All the dudes I was with, I was with like ten dudes, you know, out looking for chicks. So all 9 dudes tried picking up on her and I was the only guy who didn't, you know. She just like, she came up and was like, "alright, finally I can talk to one guy whose not like all over me."

S&T: (laughs) Any other hobbies besides boarding?

R: Umm, not really, no. Boarding is kinda like my main hobby. And magnets. I just got a bunch of stupid little things.

S&T: You collect like different state magnets?

R: They're from all over the world. I just get like funky weird magnets.

S&T: Any hard feelings now that (ex-guitarist Ahrue Luster, who left Machine Head due to "creative differences") is doing well in Ill Nino?

R: You know, he's happier doing what he's doing now and we're happier doing what we're doing now. The chemistry within the band is just a lot better now. I've just known (replacement guitarist Phil Demmell) half my life, man. We've known each other since we were kids and, you know, to have that kind of chemistry... like his style compliments mine, my style compliments his a lot better I think and we're definitely all into riffing and trying to out solo each other and shit like that and I just think that that really is what Machine Head has really been about. He brought in a different element which I think was just as good but it was different.

S&T: What affect did Ahrue leaving and Phil coming in have on the new album?

R: Well, I just think that it opened up things. Like once (Ahrue) wasn't there... you know, it was always the three of us doing one thing and him pulling the other way and, uhh, he wanted to write music like Ill Nino, like more... I don't have anything against those guys, they're more commercial, you know, kinda Linkin Park/Brazilian vibe. There's nothing wrong with that but that's what he wanted to do and we're just like a heavier entity and we wanted to stay heavy and if anything we want to get heavier. So when it happened it wasn't really that big of a deal, you know? I mean later on he came and like talked a bunch of trash and stuff and I was like, "oh, okay." We've tried to be pretty civil about it but you know once he opened that can of worms...

S&T: Are you back in the swing of things live?

R: No. I think the first show that we did in Poughkeepsie on this tour, it was a warm up date. I think we sounded at that point like a really bad Machine Head cover band. And then by Philadelphia we sounded like a really good Machine Head cover band and I think today we're gonna sound like a bad-ass Machine Head cover band. And I'm confident in about four weeks that we'll hopefully sound like Machine Head.

S&T: Excited about tonight?

R: Yeah, totally man. We're definitely looking forward to this.

S&T: You guys gonna be playing a lot of new songs, old songs, mixture?

R: It's a good mix. It's not a headlining set so we can't bust out as many, you know? We're kinda sticking to the fan favs tonight, not digging really too deep into our regular set right now.

S&T: You going all the way back to Burn My Eyes?

R: Yup, we're doing something from everything.

S&T: Are you excited to see any of the other bands here?

R: Oh yeh, totally. I wanna see God Forbid even though they're gonna be on the tour with us. I've never seen them live so I definitely wanna check them out. Everybody like Arch Enemy, Killswitch, and I haven't seen Killswitch Engage since they played in front of like 30 people in San Francisco...

S&T: Are you nervous about coming back?

R: It's like, you know, this almost didn't happen. A year ago the possibility for us to play the Metalfest and to be on tour looked like it might not ever happen again. There was a period there we didn't know and nobody cared if Machine Head lived or died. Like our fans cared but not from a business standpoint. No one cared, no one in the music industry gave two shits. You know, we got turned down by every label out there when we were shopping for stuff. So the fact that we're out here doing this... we're fucking stoked, you know? We're fucking damn glad to be here.

S&T: Well, I want to thank you for taking the time out to talk to me. It was a real pleasure.

R: Oh yeh. Cool, dude.

interview by kevin curtis