Interview With USURPER

questions answered by Necromancer

Interview conducted by Steve Helmer

1. DESCRIBE A USURPER FAN, WHO ARE THEY AND WHY DO THEY DIG YOUR MUSIC?
A Usurper fan is an alcoholic, tattooed, sex addicted, burn out, drug induced, metal-psychopath, maniac. They dig our music because they are just as fucked up as we are!

2. HOW IS THE RECORD COMPANY TREATING YOU GUYS AND WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU OFFER OTHER METAL BANDS IN LOCATING A GOOD LABEL TO WORK WITH? HOW SHOULD THEY GO ABOUT GETTING WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
Necropolis is treating us just fine. We've had no surprises from them over the years. They've always been good about keeping their word, even when it must have been a pain in the ass. Hopefully we'll be ironing out a new contract with them again. Trying to find a good label can be a real pain in the ass, especially in the beginning. When your a new band trying to get a deal, you can't really expect that much from your first signing, unless your this unbelievable new thing that is selling thousands and thousands of demos. You just have to use your best judgment. Don't sign with labels that seem really shady. And don't sign your life away either. 1 or 2 releases at the most. That way, if the label sucks and they're treating you like a jack-off, you can leave it easily and try someone else. That's what we did in the beginning, and now that we found Necropolis we're very happy.

3. WHAT IS THE MOST HILARIOUS RUMOR OR STEREOTYPE YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT YOUR MUSIC?
A long time ago, there was this band from Chicago who started spreading anti-Usurper flyers through the underground. They would send them to their so-called "friends", who would immediately write to us and rat them out. It was pretty funny. I don't know if they thought that they would be able to do it without us finding out or what. It sure didn't seem like they wanted us to know when we confronted them about it. It was the fistfight of the century, I promise you that. I never got to read the flyer. Now they've broken up to form an alternative band. I guess they weren't making enough money. Talk about poser fucking gayrods!

4. IF I WAS TALKING ABOUT USURPER BEHIND YOUR BACK WHAT WOULD YOU WANT ME TO SAY?
The worst shit you could think of. Say how bad our album is, how much we suck live...maybe you could even start a rumor that we're gay....

5. WHAT DOES USURPER MEAN?
A Usurper is someone who attacks a king, defeats him, and then rules in his place. He just takes over his whole fucking kingdom by force!

6. ARE ALL OF YOU GUYS FROM PREVIOUS BANDS? TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DARK PAST SND WHAT A BITCH IT IS TO GET WHERE YOU ARE NOW...
All of us have been involved with different projects since the 80's. Diabolical Slaughter (Vokills), and Scythe (Guitars) started together back in '87. I started in my first band in '89, and Hellstorm (Percussion) started in '85. Its funny to think back on some of the shitty bands we had. There is actually an advantage to being in some really bad bands for a good period of time. You really learn what not to do. That's the most important thing. Your goals stay pretty much the same over the years. Everyone wants to get signed and record albums, then go on tour. When your 18, you go at it one way. By the time your 28 or 30, hopefully you've learned enough in your tenure to make it fucking happen. If not, then you maybe you should go to community college or something.

7. WHAT IS THE IDEAL ATMOSPHERE FOR WRITING MUSIC AND HOW WAS THE TRIP TO THE STUDIO? WHERE IS YOUR MUSIC RECORDED AND BY WHOM?
Rigor Sythe writes all the music at home. Then he and I meet where we rehearse and he shows me the song. Then we sit down and use a drum machine to write most of the drum parts. After that we record the drums, guitars, and bass on a 4-track. We add vokills if Sythe has written them, otherwise we see if Diabolical Slaughter has any. Then we give the rough tape to Hellstorm (Percussion) who takes it home and listens to it. About a week later we begin going over the whole song as a band. Sometimes we change or modify certain parts as we go along, but not usually. We iron out all the rough edges, and it finished. Sometimes we'll accidentally add little nuances and play it slightly differently as it evolves, but once its recorded, that's it. That's how the song is. The studio was killer, as it always is. We record at a small studio just outside of Chicago called: Eaton Records. Its run by the engineer, Brian Eaton. The place is great. Its small, but all the right equipment is there. The most important thing is that Brian knows exactly what we're going for. He's not completely ignorant about how a metal band should sound, unlike many engineers. He is also willing to try things out in the studio, like experiment with different sounds, instruments, feedback, etc. Most engineers have one way to do everything, and if you don't fit in with their formula then you're out of luck. That is not the case with Eaton Records, and we have always recorded all of our releases there. On this album we had to record the drums at a different studio because Eaton Records is too small to accommodate Hellstorm's drums. Once that was done, we took the reel to Eaton's and the rest was easy. This recording really brings out the full Usurper sound. There are more almost subliminal elements on this recording. Sythe uses different guitars to create an almost hypnotic sound and overall dark tone. There were no keyboards used in the recording, as we believe that all the sounds should be recorded by us ourselves, not some machine.

8. HOW ABOUT LEGAL STUFF? WHAT WAS THE GREATEST PRESSURE IN HAVING TO HANDLE CONTRACT DETAILS? DID YOU GET A LAWYER FOR IT OR DO IT YOURSELF?
There wasn't too much guesswork with the contract. We pretty much talked to Paul "Typhoon" who runs Necropolis and sort of wrote the contract over the phone. Then he drafted it and sent it to us. We do know a lawyer who looked it over, but everything was exactly the way we wanted it to be. We didn't want any hassles, or anything that would either commit us for an extensive period of time, or fuck ourselves. We wound up with everything being in order before the contract was actually written.

9. IF YOU COULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT HOW YOU DID IT? I MEAN GENERALLY OVERALL?
Believe it or not, we probably wouldn't change much of anything. Maybe we would have started trying to tour earlier, but that's about it. Even that isn't really an issue, as we wanted to wait until we were ready to tour. Its no use hitting the road to promote your releases if nobody has ever heard of you before. Everything has gone smoothly.

10. IS THIS A DEBUT RELEASE? ARE THERE MORE ALBUMS OUT THERE AND HOW DOES THIS ONE COMPARE? HOW ABOUT A DISCOGRAPHY OF ALL THE RECORDINGS YOU HAVE DONE?
This is our 4th release, if you include the demo. The discography is:
-"Visions from the Gods" - mid '94
-"Diabolosis..." cd - mid'95
-"Diabolosis..." re-release on gatefold vinyl - mid '96
-"Threshold of the Usurper" mcd - mid '97
-"Usurper II: Skeletal Season" cd and gatefold vinyl - '99
If everything goes as planned, we will re-release the "Visions..." demo by the end of the year on cd with some bonus tracks, and maybe some live gems. We should also be in the studio by the end of the year to record the next full length. Many of the songs are already written. Some of the titles are: "Bonefire", "Black Daze", and "Into the Oblong Box".

11. WHEN CAN I COME AND SEE YOU LIVE?
We are playing on the West Coast this April with Sadistic Intent and Exhumed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland Oregon. We will also probably play at Milwaukee MetalFest again this year. We are also trying to work out a tour this summer across the States, but its too early to tell the details on it.

12. IS THERE A USURPER WEBPAGE?
Not yet. We are also beginning to work on the layout for one. We're all very computer illiterate. Everyone is pretty much clueless. All I know how to do is e-mail interviews, and that's it. There will definitely be one in the future though. Right now Necropolis has a website that has all relevant information on Usurper, plus any other Necropolis bands. Also news, info, mailorder, etc. The address is: http://www.necropolisrec.com . If it is under any construction, COMPLAIN!

13.DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO THE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO SLAM THIS KIND OF MUSIC?
YOU'RE GAY!!!

14. ANY COMMENTS ON THE "DRUG WAR"? IS THERE A POLITICAL STANCE IN YOUR MUSIC AS A RESPONSE TO POLITICAL VIEWS?
Of course we wish drugs were legal, but that would take all the fun of going to the ghetto to pick up smoke, coke, PCP, etc. Usurper has no political statements to make at all. We give two shits about politics, and are only interested in Metal!

15. ANY FINAL COMMENTS FOR A FINAL IMPRESSION?
Eat pussy!