Eyehategod guitarist, Down drummer, Jimmy Bower interviewed May 26, 2010, while in New Orleans.

Hey Jimmy, this is Patrick Douglas, how you doing?

Hey Patrick. Is there any way I can call you back in about five minutes, man?

Yeah, no problem, man.

I’m at the bank takin’ care of some business. I’ll be done in two seconds. I apologize.

Cool.

(calls back)

Hello?

Hi, Patrick.

Yeah.

Hey, it’s Jimmy Bower. Sorry about that, bro.

No problem.

I’m at the bank setting up an account for the band.

Nice.

All new to us. To the band.

It’s official then. You’ve got a bank account (laughs).

Yeah, man. We’re real now (laughs).

After 22 years as a band ...

… We now have a bank account. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a band thing.

Where are you today?

I’m in New Orleans.

I’m in the warm state of Montana.

Sounds good to me, bro. You got it set up in the middle of nowhere?

Nah. I live in a town with like 60,000 people. I grew up in Denver so it’s cool to be able to live in central Montana and still be connected to the world without the world right there in your face.

I love Montana. I think Montana’s gorgeous. I like to fish and stuff like that and I know there’s a lot of really good fishing up there.

Have you been up here at all for recreational purposes or do you just go through on tour buses?

Can’t say that I have. I wish. We’ve played in Billings one time and somewhere else. I remember talking to some guy at one of the shows in Iowa who was from Montana telling me how good the fishing was. Like stream fishing and stuff like that.

Starting this tour in New Orleans in a couple of days tell me how stoked you are hitting the road as Eyehategod once again.

Ah, man. It’s awesome. We did the east coast and the west coast, like three or four shows on each coast and it’s already been since November or December since we did that. We’re just completely excited man. We’ve got a van and a trailer. It’s also us getting back together. We just got off tour in Europe but we shared a van with another band so we didn’t really have time to talk and all that. So, we’re like five best friends so we’re totally excited about going on this tour. We wish we had a record to push behind it. Just going back out there and trying to get everybody reacquainted with us and people that are new fans in the past ten years since we haven’t done anything, haven’t seen us, give them a chance to see us fresh. We’re excited that people wanna see us.

When’s the last time you guys had a tour of this many dates strung together? The one at the end of last year was just a few dates, right?

Yeah. We did like three shows in the east coast and four or five shows on the west coast. Before that, in 2005, we did like three weeks and it was basically like east coast. That was right after Katrina and a lot of personal stuff had gone on with members of the band. Kind of bad timing, but it was still a good tour. That was for the ‘Preaching the End Time’ release that we had. Had like three new songs on it with a collage of live stuff on it. It wasn’t a real, real release but it is a release.

You’ve been touring a lot with Down over the past few years. How different is it for you to tour with Eyehategod and strap on the guitar with a whole different role?

I love it, man. Actually doing all the touring with Down and everything did nothing but inspire me to get back and do things with Eyehategod. We’ve had all kinds of junk in the past that stopped us from doing things and we’ve kept ourselves alive by playing locally but personal problems seem to get in the way sometimes. It’s just switching from Down to Eyehategod to me is just fun. What I do on guitar is not brain surgery. It doesn’t take that long to get back into the groove of it.

Why now? Why 2010 to get back together with Eyehategod and start up a tour and begin writing new material?

No real reason. Just the timing was really good because Down had just finished up touring the cycle for ‘Over the Under,’ and we’re in a writing mode right now as well. Usually that’s what we do. When we have time, we’ll go out with Eyehategod and Down still has to record the record before we start touring with that again. It’s the efficiency of finding more time. Certain members getting off of probation where we’re able to leave the state again. We’re a little group of illegal fuckers. (laughs).

What’s the latest on the writing/recording of the new record? Have you put anything down yet or has it just been individual contributions?

Actually we have about seven songs and we’re tossing around a concept idea of making it a double record and one record being like Eyehategod and the other being more like experimental stuff that we’ve had on our previous records. Like little ambient things, noise things, spoken word things or something like that. Not to give it all away but trying something different.

Are you shooting for early 2011 or is it too early to tell?

Yeah, we’re shooting to have it completely recorded and finished by the end of September. Eyehategod’s the kind of band you’ve gotta put a crunch date on or it’s not gonna happen (laughs).

Shit, it’s been ten years (laughs).

Right (laughs). It’s only been ten years, what do you wanna do? Yeah, so we set a little date for ourselves and it seems to have made the progress go a little faster now, you know.

Speaking of that gap between releases. Is it more difficult or relaxing to get together and write after having so many years between writing sessions?

In a way, it’s a little difficult but in a way, it’s not. Being difficult for one in us trying to sound original just being ourselves. It’s been so long and I think Eyehategod’s the kind of band that inspired the sludge genre or whatever you wanna call it. We find ourselves in the room just playing along and then we’re like ‘Man, this sounds like somebody else that’s trying to sound like us.’ It’s trying to come to terms with that and realize that we are us and, of course, the older you get the more you overlook things. I think the same thing applies to songwriting. We want this to be our best record but there is added challenges. That’s what I like to call ‘em for this record, at least personally.

Talk about this Chicago show where you’re gonna do the first two albums in their entirety.

We’re gonna do the first record the first night, ‘In the Name of Suffering,’ and ‘Take As Needed For Pain,’ on the second night. Obviously play more songs than that but we played both records in one night in Austin, Texas, about three weeks ago and it went over really good but we realized that we need to split both records up over two nights. We also realized that there’s certain songs that we didn’t play live and we now remember why we didn’t play ‘em live because they didn’t work. Some people don’t wanna walk through peanut butter for an hour and a half (laughs).

I can’t imagine that (laughs).

We have some mid tempo stuff, some fast stuff and some slow stuff. Over the years, we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. Like ‘We don’t really play this song.’ We play it and there’s the same reaction we would get if we weren’t playing it in the first place. Kind of a weird irony there.

I was thinking about this the other day. In rock and roll, every five or six or seven years there’s a new wave of young musicians that come along and start a new genre and everything gets saturated and then something else comes along. I’m 35 and maybe this is where I officially start to get old, but I don’t see many brand new bands trying to change things. Starting that new thing, the new sound that gets people excited. Do you see anything going on now?

Yeah, I think a lot’s got to do with our age, man. I’ll be completely honest with you. I’ve searched and searched and searched (for) something new. I know exactly what you mean. It’s seems like rehash of rehash of rehash. Like, we wear costumes, alright rehash costumes. Different pants, different belts. Same music. There’s no Pantera’s coming out. I completely understand what you mean. That’s what I meant about the challenges of writing this new record. Not saying we’re going to change music but being from New Orleans and being soaked and basically drown in music, there’s no reason we can’t come up with something different, you know.

For a metal fan like myself, it’s like you’re always looking for the new Down album, but Down’s been around for a long time, or the new Eyehategod album, but you guys have been around for a long time. I’m really into the new High On Fire, but they’ve been around for a long time. Wait, there’s something new, Them Crooked Vultures is cool, wait those guys have been around forever.

Yeah, it seems the older we get, the more saturated things become but quicker. It’s like, fuck, I remember I’ve always been into Skynyrd but when I really got into their obscure stuff. Like the songs they didn’t play on the radio, dude I was trapped for 10 years. Trapped. I didn’t care about anything else. Nothin’s really done that for me except listening to old country records that I like. That’s what really gets me going still. I find heaviness in other music. That’s what I have to try and do. To me, the Eagles are heavy. Obscure Eagles and more songwriting. You can always add a heavy tone to it. That was always me and Kirk’s idea for Crowbar. Like ‘Dreamweaver,’ as an example type song but done heavily. Stuff like that but with a different tone or different twist put on it. That’s why we are excited about this tour because there’s a whole new genre of kids that have discovered Eyehategod and have never had the opportunity to see it. That sort of inspires me to get up there and bore them too (laughs). Make them walk through peanut butter too.

For twenty minutes (laughs).

Right. Exactly (laughs).

Louisiana’s getting hammered again with this oil leak. How is that affecting the area? Obviously it’s not affecting your house, but how is it affecting your region and is this another bummer for residents or do you take these kinds of things in stride anymore?

This is kind of something you can’t really just take in stride. It’s pretty much the beginning of the end of New Orleans. I think. 95-percent of our industry’s seafood and our port. I just don’t think people really understand how bad this really is. I think people do, but after Katrina, it’s like now you’ve got the government fighting with BP or the coast guard to ok all the crazy Cajuns down here. Like man, let’s just build a levy. 65 miles long and that’ll catch the oil. It’s a genius idea. But the fuckin’ coast guard won’t ok it. It’s insane, man. I’m listening to talk radio and everything and they’re like this is a genius idea. If we start now, they can stop it. You always got big brother comin’ in and saying you can’t do this and can’t do that. It’s sad. It’s sad because New Orleans is such a new place. It thrives on food and basically for the next 10-15 years, we’re not gonna be able to even eat fish out of our own water. Kind of ridiculous.

That’s why I asked. Obviously living in Montana, we don’t’ have a regional concern about it. I’ve been wondering how you guys have been handling this whole thing.

Just sitting back and waiting for the coast guard to ok things. It’s crazy.

I’ve talked to Brian Patton and I’ve interviewed Dax Riggs a few times and I always get a sense from you Louisiana dudes of being down to earth, pretty positive guys with a real emphasis on playing quality music. You have the same way about you. Why do you think that is?

To me that’s a personal issue but I guess it’s the way we were raised. In New Orleans or Louisiana, you’re flooded with so much music that it becomes a part of you. You grow up with Mardi Gras and you enjoy it. You’re taught to enjoy music. We don’t really have anything else, you know. To be completely honest with you. It is a big part of our life and it makes us happy. It could be something in the water (laughs) I don’t know. It’s all we’ve ever done and we’ve gotten opportunities out of it and we’re very grateful for that. Music seems to be our ticket for all of us down here to get the hell out of here for a little while. As much as we love our city, we wanna get away from it sometimes as well.

I saw you play live with Down in 2002 at Ozzfest in Denver. That was an interesting show because it started raining on the guys up front as they’re playing. It was interesting too because Phil kept stopping the songs in the middle to get on the crowd so as a drummer, you’re having to start and stop and start and stop. When you’re playing with Down and that conglomeration of fellas and now you’re up front with Eyehategod, what’s the best part of going from that band to this band as far as the live show?

I get to interact with the crowd a lot more which I really like to do. Being up front for me. I’m gonna get in kid’s faces. I learned early on that it’s 50-percent of the music and 50-percent how you get it across. That’s our attitude down here. You can’t just stand on stage like a tree and expect people to get in to you.  You’ve gotta be into your own music for people to get into you. Being behind the drum kit, I’ll wave my hands and try and act an ass as much as I can but there’s only so much you can do. Being up front gives me an opportunity to get up close with the people and express what I’m feeling with the music to them, right in their face. If that makes sense (laughs).

If you could set up the ultimate festival show and you could share the stage with any bands that have ever played past or present, which ones would you choose?

Oh, man. Skynyrd, Captain Beyond, Slayer, Darkthrone, Celtic Frost, Melvins, the Obsessed, Witchfinder General, Merle Haggard. I like country because country’s bluesy. Not new country but old country. I’m in a country shop right now. I’ve got a wedding to go to tomorrow night and I’ve gotta find a shirt so that’s why you hear the bad country music in th background.

Speaking of the Melvins, I saw them two years ago in a tiny bar in Missoula, Montana. You can still see a great band like the Melvins in a bar. It’s probably not great for them but it’s great for a fan of the music.

We just did that Down tour with ‘em and we did two months with ‘em, which being a Melvins fan as well, since 1988, being able to hang out with ‘em and see them live every night. I think they could do that for the rest of their lives and sustain themselves very easily. They make a comfortable living playing in clubs. The interaction’s there and I don’t think they’ll ever lose … there’ll always be Melvins fans because of the way they do it. I respect every aspect of the way they do everything. It’s really cool. A don’t get too big for your britches kind of attitude and keeping it real, man.

Jimmy, I appreciate you taking the time to visit with me. It’s really cool because I’m a huge fan of Down and now that I’ve talked to you, I’ve actually spoken with all you guys in the band at different points over the past ten years, which is kind of cool. I’m happy we could visit.

Thanks, man. The honor is mine, sir. The honor is mine. Definitely.

I’m absolutely looking forward to hearing what you guys come up for the new Eyehategod.

Alright, Pat. You have a good day, brother.

You too.

Thanks for the opportunity, man.

Bye.