t’s not exactly medieval torture,
but on a rock ‘n’ roll tour you can’t
make a single stop in any village,
city or capital across Europe without
some rat with a 18 beanie telling you about
the latest perfect new concrete wave right
around the corner. As a gesture, you take a look at your non-existent wristwatch and realize
London’s time zone no longer applies because you’re standing on a faceless, spotless corner in
Stuttgart, Germany—a town which looks brushed clean with a brand new extra reaching
Colgate whitening blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I’m sure most of you will sympathize that an
uprooted sidewalk via a tree stump will often spark the mind’s flame far higher than a
politically-ordained kicker and flatbar. There is only one destination I’ve really had on my list
for years now because it is so bizarre it looks like an accident left on the moon from a mission
the history books don’t mention. I approached this crater in Biarritz, France, by entering the
surf museum that is deposited beneath it. I informed the young girl at the counter that I hadcome to check the bowl and she looked confused, as if I had insulted her by asking. Seems it
was none of her business. You don’t need permission; you don’t need to pay; you don’t need to
sign a waiver; you don’t need to weave through three pre-teens on scooters; you don’t need to
pass go and or show your get-out-of-jail card. Turns out you just need to clean up some broken
glass. I stood in awe of the clip of Dustin dropping in on this cobblestone monument. Having
sold all The Shrine boards on tour, I raced into town to find anything to ride. I was at the point
where I would have settled for a used longboard just to get myself a scratch. Finally found one
surf shop which sold me a complete two minutes before they shut for a lunchtime siesta and
quickly headed back to the bowl. I cut my finger on some leftover glass on a final sweep and
began to skate. Lumpy and uphill in
the wrong direction with a flat metal
ring around the lip as a unique
coping/tile combo, I managed to get
my legs to work for 30 minutes as I
skated all alone. It wasn’t a dream
backyard Blue Haven session with
little brother Jason, but for the
one-and-only session all tour, it
couldn’t have been better than this.
Make sure you stop in Biarritz next
time you’re driving from Paris to
Bilbao. —Josh LandauNOTES from the
UNDERGROUND
NOTES from the
UNDERGROUND
“Like an accident left on the moon”
I
SAYERSBIGAGLIGod exists and I think that resonates with
Christians who enjoy the blasphemy.
It’s true. That’s a good way of looking at it. They
have some skin in the game. Like I say, agnostic,
atheist, Christian, if they like the music and the
screaming, we don’t give a shit.
Is it true that you used to fill a mannequin
with meat and let the crowd tear it apart?
Yeah, we had a few shows like that. Glen would go
to the butcher shop and buy the entrails and start
throwing ’em around. It was fucking disgusting.
It reeked. One club got shut down and the cops
came around to see if it was a human sacrifice.
I remember when we first went to Europe people
were like, “Where are all the fucking guts?!” We
don’t do that anymore. They’d get all pissed off.
Your music is calming for me. Do you
get that?
Absolutely. I get psyched to do it and then there’s
a release and I can blow out all the frustration.
Everything comes out. Running, playing drums for
an hour, it’s cathartic and helpful and it blows out
the tension. Go rest and have a burger. It’s kept my
hair from going gray.
Do you have any contact with the Hoffman
brothers, former Decide guitarists?
I saw them recently and it was a little bit buddy-
buddy. We tried to keep it light. I think most of the
horrible feelings are gone by now.
Did you know Glen was going to brand his
forehead before it happened?
No, that was a surprise. But we had been branding
each other anyway, on the arm, and then he
showed up with it on his head. I wasn’t too
surprised, but I was like, “Well, I guess that’s
something.” It got a fuckload of press and I didn’t
have to do it, so that was great.
Did you like any black metal stuff?
It was alright. It was dark and satanic, but I always
thought it was a little sloppy. And the production
was shit. We had Morrisound to go through where
production was getting very good. They were
recording in basements and it was heavy and evil,
but it was sloppy. Musically we were more into
precision and tightness and they didn’t have that
then. Immortal and Marduk, they became better.
How do you break through plateaus?
You just have to push through it. The speed you
can do in bursts. Once you’ve done your burst of
your new fastest whatever, then you try to extend
that burst. Then the same with doubles. Once
everything goes numb, just keep going. As long as
you don’t hear yourself fucking up, you may not
feel anything or you may feel terrible, but if it
sounds all right, you’re breaking the plateau, and
eventually you won’t get numb at all and you can
increase your speed.
What about tempo and mistakes? Do you
play slow enough to not make mistakes, or
just as fast as you can?
You have to push yourself where you’re on the
verge of falling off the rail. But then keeping it on
the rail. Work out the bugs at practice before
you’re in front of people. If it’s too fast for your
band, then good for you. That’s where songwriting
comes in. Once you master this group of songs,
make the next set harder and master that and on
up the ladder.
from THE SHRINE
with Josh Landau
TOUR STORIES
203