Interview by Rachel Jablonski
Struggling to overcome band member changes, van accidents, a hurricane, and coping with the death of friends, Soilent Green has faced disappointment. But disappoint they will not. With an excellent new release, Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction, fresh excitement, and a deep love for playing music, the band is pushing forward, now signed with Metal Blade Records. I was able to speak with a humbled Brian Patton, guitarist of Soilent Green, a couple days before the band’s first tour in support of their new record.
Rachel: Let’s get right to it! So you have a fabulous new album coming out next week, April 15th, called Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction. What can we expect from this album?
Brian: Well, basically, another incarnation of Soilent Green. We had a lot of time to recoup from lots of bad stuff that was going on around us for awhile, so we had really fresh minds in writing this record. We’re really proud of this record. It’s definitely slightly different than our other records, though I’d say all of our records contain a slightly different sound, but it’s definitely true to our sound and if you’re a fan of the band you should not be disappointed. So we’re expecting and hoping for positive feedback so we can get out and tour for this thing. It’s been quite awhile since we’ve been able to do that.
Rachel: The album title is pretty deep and screams desperation to me. What was the driving force behind the record?
Brian: The overall theme of the record is pretty depressing, but that is where our minds were when we were writing at the time. To be honest, we were disgruntled and kind of in a bad place overall in life. You know, when a lot of your friends are dying around you and all of this tragedy happens, every time you try to do something with the band it kind of humbles you and it actually makes you realize why you even started in the first place. That’s why I feel like this record has a little bit more of a pure sound, our pure sound as opposed to the last couple of records. Because all of this stuff is happening and it just brings back the love of playing and not worrying about all of this other stuff. It’s a way of escaping. And yeah, we had a slightly disgruntled outlook on life, we actually still do, because I mean these tragedies and even life in general is filled with disappointment and basically it will probably be the ruin of our lives. Life is filled with disappointment unfortunately and we elaborate on that fact a little bit in concept on this record.
Rachel: Well with the release of this album I hope it brings a little light back to your life. It’s a good record.
Brian: Yeah, we hope so. We have a lot of positive, positive energy right now and we’re just really excited to be able to work and do what we do through the entire recording process, the writing process, and we have an extensive touring schedule set up and we’re just happy to be doing what we’re doing. Unfortunately, we’ve had a long period of time in between records as a result of something going on in our lives whether it’s a friend dying or a hurricane going through and destroying our city. But we have our fingers crossed, we’re hoping that the black cloud has lifted. We’ve had a lot of good buzz so far and have a good record to promote and yeah there’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel from this point forward.
Rachel: The riffs on this album are fantastically heavy, bluesy, and diversified. What was the writing process like to incorporate these with the other manic time shifts and layers of the rest of the instrumentation and vocals?
Brian: As far as the writing goes, we always try to incorporate different styles and try to do it in different ways. The writing process is just natural, it’s always just whatever comes out, comes out for us. We were able to have a good amount of time without anything else clouding our minds. We were able to really concentrate on the writing a little bit more and really write with fresh minds as we did when we were kids. We felt like we were kids again when we wrote this record. There's a little bit more hook laden riffs I would say.
Rachel: This is your debut album on Metal Blade Records. What are you hoping to get out of your relationship?
Brian: Metal Blade has been amazing to us so far. What we hope to get out of it basically is just to be able to play as much as we can and get our record into as many people’s ears as we can. We’ve never have a “rock star” persona. The last thing we’re trying to do is be the most popular band in the world, but we just want to share what we do with people. Metal Blade can put it out there, they’re promoting it very well, and they’re treating us very nice. They were fans of the band before we even signed with them so when you have people who are really into what you do behind you it’s an amazing feeling. We haven’t had that in quite some time, to have that enthusiasm behind us for what we can possibly do and what we are doing and what we have done. They’re really stoked on us. We’re a bunch of old guys, not to say my age at this point, but we grew up with Metal Blade so it’s an honor to be on their roster and it’s an honor to be associated with them. They’re doing really well right now and so far so good.
Rachel: You said earlier that you were able to write with fresh minds on this record. How were you able to pull Ben [vocals] away from Goatwhore and incorporate fresh ideas from him?
Brian: Ben has been in this band since 1993 so he has his own flavor when it comes to this and for whatever he does with Goatwhore. I play in Eyehategod and Tommy [drums] plays in Crowbar and we always do our other things, we take pride in that we are able step away from Soilent Green and do our own talents in different ways. It’s the point of doing something different. Ben’s doing a really great job with Goatwhore and those guys are traveling and it gave us a lot of time to sit back and write and now those guys are going to do their thing and sit back and write while we push our record. There’s a lot of scheduling going on, but when you plan things the right way it works out.
Rachel: Your tour with Hate Eternal, Skeletonwitch and Toxic Holocaust kicks off this week in San Antonio, TX. What are you looking forward to on this tour?
Brian: In general, I’m just looking forward to playing in front of people. But right now we’re going out with Hate Eternal for awhile and then after that we’re heading out with Death Angel. So it should be an interesting bunch of tours. But we are just looking forward to playing in front of people. We’re a live band, we’ve always prided ourselves in being a live band - that’s our true form. I know a lot of bands say this, but it really is true for us. It’s tough to catch our live tone in the studio, we’re a live band; we’re an organic band. We’re playing the New England Hardcore Metalfest as well and we’re just looking forward to getting out there and jamming. We’re simple folks, we like getting out there, playing music, and having a good time. If we’re able to do it in a different city every night then we’re happy. We’re really excited.
Rachel: What was it like working with Erik Rutan from Hate Eternal to produce this record?
Brian: Erik, man, he’s the man. We met Erik when he was playing with Morbid Angel because we had toured with those guys. We got to know Erik very well and he’s an amazingly nice guy. I know he likes to portray himself as being a hard ass in the studio, but for us he is like working with Mr. Rogers. He’s an amazing guy. He knows what we want. Unfortunately, a lot of the “metal” bands that are coming out these days have an extremely polished, extremely digital sound. We’ve never really went that route before, before we’ve always recorded analog to capture our raw sound. Erik was able to adjust to it. A lot of the stuff he records is a way digital sound and for us he is an amazing producer because he was able to keep that organic sound we want. Granted, he is a hard ass to the point of if something’s not right, he wants it done right, but that’s what you’re paying for. So it’s that kind of respect that makes the product what it should be. He enjoys recording and we enjoy him and really hope that he’ll produce the next album. We’re getting ready to go on tour with him in a couple of days and I’m really excited about that because we haven’t toured with him since the Morbid Angel days and he only lasted on that tour for a couple of weeks because that’s when our first van accident happened.
Rachel: Do you have any videos or other promotions in the works for this album?
Brian: Yes, we have a video that’s finished actually. It’s going to be viewed on MTV, I believe the 12th, the weekend before the release date. It will be the version with the director’s cut because it has somewhat of suggestive subject matter in the video. The other version will also be posted on Youtube.com, our Myspace page, and Metal Blade’s website, so it’ll be circulated. It came out really good actually, we’re proud of it. We filmed in an abandoned school that no one had been in since the 1950s in upstate New York. You know, lead paint, asbestos everywhere, and we were in this big auditorium on stage. It has a very hysteria feel, grind house look to it, with some licking going on.
Rachel: What song is it for?
Brian: It’s for “Antioxidant.”
Rachel: What’s next and is there anything else you want to talk about?
Brian: As far as I’m concerned I guess if you dig what we do come see us live and hopefully you’ll enjoy it even more. We love playing for people and we’re happy to be able to do what we do after all we’ve been through. We’re very thankful and a humbled bunch of fellows.