Micah (RM): You play a Carvin [bass] right?

Evil J: No, my Carvin was what was stolen from me a few years ago. Uh… I'm a Peavey guy. And they're actually… I'm a Peavey bass guy and now I'm using Trace Elliot bass amps, which are imported by Peavey. But, it kind of created a dream come true of me… of mine, cause back in the day, there was a lot of 80s bass players - Tony Levin played with Peter Gabriel, like he was playing Trace Elliot, and I had posters of it on my wall, and now I'm playing Trace Elliot, and I just did a photo shoot for them. Peavey's actually working on the Evil J model, so there will be an actual Evil J with this, uh… with this tattoo, here, which is cool, cause Otep drew it, so I got that and, so… I was excited, but they're really supportive too, though. I mean, they… they see that I want to utilize the situation in all the respects, and I want to represent their instrument as well as I can and hopefully inspire other kids to, not only pick up the instrument, but to also, maybe buy a Peavey (laughs). You know, I mean this album's the best sounding bass sound I've ever had, ever, and I was using a Peavey bass with a Peavey head, you know, I didn't even have the Trace Elliot stuff yet. The Trace Elliot stuff, now, has just added to the equation. I'm like, 'Ok, I'm ready for the next record,' cause it sounds, even, a little bit better. A little bit more availability with tone.

Micah (RM): You've been with Otep for seven years now, right?

Evil J: Seven years in August.

Micah (RM): I read an interview with Otep where she called you her creative life partner. Is that what it feels like to you? Sort of like a union of creative souls?

Evil J: Yeah… Yeah, I mean, we've been doin' this for so long. You know, we've been through the best of times, and the worst of times, and we just keep comin' through , and manage to, quote un-quote, rise and overcome. Which is also our nickname for this tour. We will rise and overcome, and continue going. But, yeah, I mean, she's inspired the Hell out of me, and… and in the same respect, I've done the same, or at least I hope I've done the same, and I've tried to with… just to introduce her to all the different types of music stuff that I was exposed to. You know, I mean, she teaches me an awful lot about art and politics and history, that now I'm able… Like, before I wasn't really a politically active individual because I didn't know enough, and I wasn't about to be just one of those stupid people or say, like, 'Yeah, I'm whatever they say.' You know, I want to know why I want to say that, so I've had the opportunity to learn from her, a lot of that stuff. And just the idea, like when we first met, me realizing how much she was into poetry, and how she, herself was this poet. I was just like, 'wow,' you know 'you're gonna utilize me as a bass player, I wanna utilize your poetic aspect, and introduce it, and incorporate it in the act. You know? And that's where she and I have managed to connect the most is when we're doing spontaneous creation. I mean, there's a piece on the actual album where it's just her on it, and there's no overdubs. It's just me and her, sitting there, and just feeding off. And, I'm not even playing the bass like you'd play it. I was just making like… We're really into creating soundscapes, you know, I mean, I don't have a very hard time, seeing us doing, like film scores later on. I mean, I'm a huge Danny Elfman fanatic, you know. I mean, I have all of his cds. I have the Music for a Darkened Theater Volume I and Volume II, and like, when I was in college, his work, and seeing The Nightmare Before Christmas, for the first time, in the theater! You know, it's just like, 'This guy? Really? This guy from Oingo Boingo is singing like this? Yes!' So, it was just really, really cool and she and I are really into that aspect. Diggin' Hubert movies because of their warmness, and you know, all that… A lot of times, we see our music. It's not just notes and tones. It's an actual visual feeling or an emotion, you know. And, in our minds, we are actually seeing our music be created, instead of just going, 'I'm going to put my finger on this fret for this many strokes, and then I'm going to go and put my finger on this fret.' You know, it's like, this is just a combination of the lock, and this will eventually unlock that for me, so I have to do all these things in a specific order, in order to achieve the opening.

Micah (RM): You mentioned Otep, and her political views. Has she converted you to…

Evil J: I don't think it was ever a conversion. I think it was more helping me to, like, redef… reiterate what I was already thinking. You know, it was the reassurance that I wasn't really… I mean, I've always been a kind of the democratic guy to begin with. My parents were like that. You know, and then, of course there's always, depending on the year and who's running, do I flip to Green party or not, you know, and … it's… ya know… It was pretty much, she and I, pretty much, fully, agree, eye to eye, on our political beliefs. You know, we both support the same thing. And also, you can't say that everything's completely right or wrong. It's not that simple. There's certain elements in certain parties that, may be more effective at a certain moment, or whatever, and you know, maybe that's not… maybe I'm not picking sides. Well, it's not about picking sides. It's what's in my best interest at the moment. I don't really care if it doesn't really fit with you. I… It's not, you know… like… I can't just stay that way. You know, that's why I have a hard time being raised Catholic and saying that in the end I'm going to stay with that. I won't say I'm not. You know, I don't know really what I am. You know? I know I… I appreciated the stories and such that were present… and the life lessons that are supposed to be told from them. I don't know that I would necessarily bow to a deity because of some good story telling with a good moral ending, but… you know… Maybe when I get older I'll need that. I don't know. Right now, I don't. Right now, music is my… god. You know? It's what Otep and I have been doing for awhile now. The church of 'tep. The body of 'tep… The body of 'tep. (laughs)

Micah (RM): Could you explain, in your own words, the creative process of The Ascension?

Evil J: It… It's, you know… Most of all the records start with Otep writing…having a plethora of lyrics to choose from, cause she's pretty much constantly, always writing. You know, and that… The beauty of being a word writer, in some respects, is that the ability to record what you come up with is as simple as a piece of paper and some writing utensil. With an instrument, you have to actually have some form of tape recorder and an instrument to play it on, somewhere quite where you can write and record it. It's a little bit more of a pain in the ass sometimes, so it's like, I try to keep something at home, always set up, in case, you know, the opportunity happens, which, now I realize that the digital camera's the best. You know, so just record yourself playin' it, and then you go back and you just upload it, and… Just the coolest way for me to keep writing riffs, is using my digital camera, just sitting at home, like… You know, it starts off like that, and then, you know, almost two years ago, she and I were hangin' out at her place and I was just playin' some riffs that I'd write, and… and, if she felt a rhythm or something that she could grab on to… cause it almost sort of immediately happened where she could hear me play something and go, 'Wow, that really kind of fits with this that I had going, but what if we put a push here,' ya know and then start melding them together and it's usually like… 'March of the Martyrs' was the first song that she and I wrote together on this one, you know. And then, we did 'Milk of Regret.' You know, and it was just the process of doing that, and then as things were going on, we really wanted to… We just saw no limits to this process, and since, at that moment, it was just me and her. There was no drummer and no guitar player. It was like, 'Alright. Let's reach out to management and see if anybody else wants to collaborate - come and hang out.' So, we were lucky enough to get Greg from Mudvayne to come by. And, it's like, 'How cool is that?' I got to stay with him for a week in a house, and wake up drink coffee and write music all day, and have a cold beer at the end of the night and go to sleep and do that all over again the next day. Wow. This is a hard-knock life for us, so... Who puts Annie references in there?… But, um, you know, it was great to have that experience, and then we got 'Crooked Spoons' and we got 'Confrontation,' then we got 'Invisible,' so once we got five songs added in we were starting to see the album come together and were really starting to dig the directions from it. When Greg was with us, I ended up getting a drum machine and I was the drummer. I'd program the drum beats to the stuff… the track, with the guitar and bass, and then I'd sit there and program the drum machine and that's when Dave Fortman was introduced to the project. He came down and heard us doing that. Not even real drums, and he was like, 'I wanna do this. This is awesome.' So… And then, Otep got to work with Holly Knight on 'Perfectly Flawed,' and then I got to sit in on the later sessions of that and throw in a bass part. Now, I was just like, 'This song's rad anyway!' Even… Me, coming from wanting to be a studio musician - you know that was the main reason I moved to Las Angeles, was to try to pursue studio work. I didn't think I'd be a rock star guy, or be in a band, like…and you know, hearing that song, I was like, 'I want to play on that song. I don't care who's song it is. I want to play on that song.' It's awesome it's our song, you know, and then that message gets out there, then when she got to sing, and then me, when I managed to… I… I played tap harmonics and fretless and fretted and I did the same thing with like 'My Confession' with 'Perfectly Flawed' but then getting to do tap harmonics and stuff on a, quote un-quote, more mainstream song. I still got to throw in my Berklee chops, and make it taste cool and still have a good time with it, and… And then was when Brian, our drummer, started comin' into the group, and we started, you know, having him come up with the drum parts for these songs like and then ended up getting Karma Cheema in the band for awhile, and he and I and Brian started writing songs right away. And, he had a bunch of ideas to bring to the table, and then once that happened the ideas just started exploding and Otep, comin' in and being like, 'Ok, I like this one. Not so much, this one.' You know, and just picking from what we did just because there is a new element because there is another half of the band, now, incorporating some of their ideas, and we want to be absolutely open to that, but how do we still maintain that integrity of an Otep song. So, that was the cooler part. Then, writing a whole bunch, like 'Noose and Nail,' and then I wrote 'Homegrown,' one day again, later, like when Otep and I sat down again, and she's like, Let's write a heavy song. I'm like, Ok. So, I wrote 'Homegrown' with her and we worked on the arrangements together, and then 'Communion,' like the second to last song on the record, was just borrowed from an interlude that we did, you know, at a show once, which came from a bass exercise that I used to practice. And then I just moved one not, and I was like, 'Whoa, that's kinda cool,' and it's in six, so it kinda gets that really cool circular vibe and feel and it's one of my favorite songs on the record, too, because it has that crazy match, but then, I could say that about all of them. 'Which one's your favorite one?' All of them.

Micah (RM): You guys recorded in New Orleans, right?

Evil J: Yeah, we did drum tracks in New Orleans, and then we did the remainder in Covington, Louisiana.

Micah (RM): Did recording in that part of the country have any effect on you, being post-Katrina?

Evil J: Yeah, I mean, definitely… definitely, definitely, but even more so, just the actual place, in general. We did the drum tracks in New Orleans, so we stayed there and lived in the city for like ten days, and it was awesome. We were able to rent a very old, like, I think, 1870s house. And, it was way rad, and I was so convinced it was haunted, but I never heard anything, and it made me sad, but… (laughs) But, um, it was just great, because the studio, itself, was like an old mail, like post office, with just like crazy doors and really high ceilings. The first night we just went out and was walking around and got to see the different music, you know, like, some different jazz band here, and some cajun style music here and that kind of really just fueled me and the drummer a lot. He's another music student kind of kid. He actually graduated from MI…Musicians Institute in California. Little brainiac had a 4.0... But, you know that's where he and I really connected, was with that vibe, and then, at first, thinking, 'Wow, man. This is post-Katrina. The city's very dirty, and messy still.' You know, and One Way signs are facing the wrong way and all the devastation, and then you ask people about it, and they're like, 'Nah, it's always like that.' (laughs) Then you realize, 'Wow! Ok!,' but then, we did take a drive with the producer, one day, to the 9^th Ward, and to the other areas that were really hit where we saw boats in the sides of homes and stuff. It was kind of freaky, walking around, seeing all of the FEMA spray paint on the houses and trying to figure out what it meant, and then, now knowing what it means, and seeing them and going, 'Oh. Damn.' But, that was definitely the… It made us feel good that we're bringing economy back…you know, and doin' it there… I so fell in love with The Biwater Grille, and I would always get a cup of Gumbo, everyday. The drummer and I would delve into their gumbo, but, you know… And then, doing the rest in Covington, which you're like, 'Ok, where's Covington?' As far as I know, it's north about 45 minutes, to an hour or so. But, that was even more effected in the respects that, like, IHOP closed at two in the afternoon…IHOP's closed before dinner?…And, you know, McDonald's and Wendy's and stuff were closing at, like, 5 and 7 o'clock, because they didn't have enough people, living in the area anymore to work - to keep them open. Wal Mart closed at 12 because they didn't have enough people to work in them. There was no night, social life. Like, we were, literally, like… When there was a day off we're like, 'Ok, let's go out and do something. Then, we're like, 'Well…what?' There was one place called, Daiquiris and Cream, and it scared me, because it was a drive thru…bar… You could get your gallons of Daiquiri mix, and they give you cups, in the car! They're like, 'Here. Now drive away. Thank you.' It was the most craziest thing. Plus, it had, like, Miami Vice colors. It was all pink and blue. It was all creepy. You know… You could just imagine what I would look like, in there. It's awesome. I scared people.

Micah (RM): Is there any available news on a release date of The Ascension?

Evil J: As soon as corporately possible. (laughs)

Micah (RM): As soon as corporate…Ok…

Evil J: That's our newest…um… Everything's still in a forward motion. I wish there was something to an actual finalized thing, but unfortunately, all this does take time. Mainly, because everybody, in the end, wants to make sure that they are… or we are making the right decisions. Are we… Don't… Don't do something out of, 'Ok, well, this one time you did this wrong, and I'm going to allow that to give me an impression of how I should do it.' You know, it's like we really have to make sure it's being… that everything's being handled the right way, and done the right way, because I'm not ready to let this record just, kind of, slide by. It's just too good. It needs to be out there. I think the music scene needs it, as far as, in the respect that… Just keep the pot brewing. Keep adding some more spice in there. Make it a little more diverse again. You know, it has become… which it always does. There's always a surge of original bands, which it's kind of like that grunge era, which totally killed glam-rock. Ya know, how many 'W' bands…White Lion, Whitesnake, Warrant, ya know, and VH1 is the one who's reminding us of all of that. And then, Grunge comes along and dethrones everybody, and then you get this new flow of flux of like really innovative bands, and… Stone Temple Pilots doesn't sound like Nirvana and it doesn't sound like Pearl Jam, and it doesn't sound like Alice in Chains, but they're all the same style of music. Now, we can go Emo, where, now, there's about 30 or 40 different bands that sound the same, and they either have a Bullet in their name, or a Valen…you know, they all have that similar word usage, that they use, and ya know… It's great that they enjoy playing that music, but I think it's the responsibility of an industry to, kind of, syphon it out a little bit, and kind of weed some of it, and not over do it, because now, they've really kind of hurt the scene. Record sales aren't as big as they used to be, and you see a band where you think, 'Wow, they're extremely successful,' and then you hear the amount of numbers they have and you're like, 'Really? That's what really successful is, these days?' That's sad, ya know. Gold was just the first step. Platinum is where you want to be. People are selling 350,000 records, and acting like they're king. It's like, 'No, man. You really have a bit more to go before you even get a certificate that says you did good.' And it's just because the genre… There's just too many bands that are sayin', We'll just go buy it. What are they gonna do? We also have to deal with downloading it, and all that stuff. I use Itunes - I love it! I buy all my stuff on Itunes, cause then it goes right to my Itunes library, and I can sync my Ipod to it, and you know, I mean, if that's the way music's gonna go - cool! You still get artwork on Itunes. You know, and you can still have an entirely, unique experience with… with everything. It's just a matter of keeping it… keeping it goin'. But, now, I think… You know, when Slipknot came out - so original. When Mudvayne came out- so original. These bands… Even Disturbed put their… put their niche into a very original heavy metal band that was a little bit more edgy than a Godsmack and made me really kind of dig that… Even looking back in 2001 at Ozzfest. We had Linkin Park, and all these other bands… again… Linkin Park sold 12,000,000 records? Now, that's big, man! That's when you can walk around being king of the castle, king of the castle. I have a chair…but… I love Borat too much. (laughs) System of a Down! You want to see that kind of stuff! It just seems like… I dunno if I want to point any fingers…

Micah (RM): Go ahead! I would…

Evil J: It's just that, it… it's… The music industry, when they see something that works, they just totally, totally overdo it, and that's what ruined and killed that glam era. That's what killed that… that rock n roll, L.A. style music era, is that they just overdid it, oversaturated the market with all of this, to the point where it's like, nobody cares anymore. It had it's heyday, and I'm not sayin' that Avenged Sevenfold's even close to the success of any of those bands, even though they might act like they have, but, I mean… Why represent an era of music that wasn't even that good to begin with? Ask the dudes who were there if they were really proud of themselves, and they'll say, "No." But now, we're gonna… that's what we want to do. I wanna show these kids out there, because they do have more exposure than we do, but, I'm gonna go out there and show 'em how an asshole acts, and maybe they're gonna want to grow up to be a dick, like me. Hopefully, I want them to do that. I just want to kick them in the nuts, and ask: Hey, what the Hell are you doing? Have some responsibility for yourself. Is that how you were raised? Really? Is that what you glorify, in growing up? Cause that's pathetic. It's sad. You know, I mean, it just belittles everybody, and it's like… I want to have people learn stuff, and gain knowledge and experience, and have a voice. You know, and so many people are just cheap in so many respects. It's just like, it doesn't really take a lot of time to do research and learn about something new everyday, and if you do that, you just start to feel a lot more accomplished about yourself, ya know?

Micah (RM): Absolutely. With the internet, with Google now…

Evil J: And YouTube! See some dope Topla player go nuts, man. Then go watch some Irish clog dancing, you know. And, watch some of the first flight attempts of certain things, you know… You know, there's so many things at your fingertips, and done in a medium that's not like us having to deal with cassette tape hand-offs and stuff. I mean, people come to shows and record on their cell phones. Ya know, I'm watching clips, and as crappy as it is, it's like, dude, you're still seeing a live show, man! That's cool as hell! There's just so much stuff there, so… (laughs)