Society 1 Interview / MUEN Magazine

Society 1
An interview with new band member Stevil

MUEN: Alright now..lets take a little hardcore metal, a little war going on with the band ministry, a few members of one band jumping to another add some tattooing, beautiful naked women, some theatrics and stir it around with the transcendental satanist, suspension artist lead singer Matt Zane who directs porn an hell yeah you got you one bad mfn band called Society 1 that takes all of that to the limit And we got an interview with one of the newer members of the band Stevil (Steve Helmer) who has almost as much going on as lead singer Matt Zane. Stevil has two other projects that are just on the back burner right now, Idea Killer- his own band, it sounds like it's moving along and it definitely is something to keep an eye out for when it comes together and the second one is crazy "Die Hard Till Death" that has Nigel Murphy of Time is Mine, Shawn Brown from Last Crack, Phil Burstette of White Zombie/Last Crack and Marshall Beck from Rebirth. A good friend of his Scott Smally will be doing some bass playing and Joe from pork Belly is making an appearance on drums, these guys are using music that they wrote, that they couldn't or did not use in their band and are in the process of recording this. It should be interesting to say the least. Right now he has a lot to juggle so first up for him is Society 1 and getting ready to start recording at NRG studios Hollywood.

MUEN: Sin Quirin left this band and is now in Ministry, how did it come about that you are now apart of Society 1?

Stevil: I am glad you worded that correctly. Sin quit he was never fired. Its really a cool story how I came to be part of the band. I was sitting in Chicago working on some of my own material and one day I got an email from Dirt (Society 1 bassist) asking me if I wanted to come out to L.A. and audition. Its not that unusual for bands to hit me up to see if I want to join their band. It happens relatively often but as always I go to do some homework on the band to see if it might be worth my time. When I went to do my homework on Society 1 it was very clear to me it was a major deal. All I had to do was see them live on video at the Download Festival playing in front of 40 thousand screaming fans. I listened to all their songs, watched 150 videos of them from the past. Those videos included some very high pro glow videos they did while on Earache Records I also read a ton of old interviews with Matt Zane so I could get a feel for what kind of guy he is. All the signs pointed to I should do it ! I didn't really think I was gonna get the job. I mean I rehearsed the material for a few hundred hours before coming out but I'm not all that full of myself I guess. I was just damn glad to be getting a shot at it ! I really loved the material though and knew it was right up my alley. Its this really cool mix of influences that I just get into. It's very industrial but at the same time it has all these other influences like thrash, death and doom metal. Some hardcore in it too I think...but its surrounded by an industrial over lord.

MUEN: We will get into Ministry and Society 1 and the "stuff" that is between the bands, but can you tell us what made you want to become a part of this band?

Stevil: I asked my self very honestly how much I liked the songs and the answer was I totally got into the vibe of the band. It wasn't just the music though. It's combination of wanting to work with very motivated players who are also very creative. Its not this atmosphere of ass kissing though at all. Matt and Dirt know what they want to hear so my role is to keep presenting them with my own ideas and learn all of theirs equally as well. The outcome is this perfect musical tension that makes for great songs and great execution of them.

MUEN: "Society 1 captures the essence of abuse, overkill and ultimate inspiration..." This is on the Society 1 page. What is Society one to you? Is it more music? More porn? More theatrical? Or a complete melting together of everything?

Stevil: For me its the inspiration of all of those things. I spent over 20 years getting into this band so yeah there were some very tough times along the way getting here. The list of bands that have accomplished this level of accomplishments is very few in the grand scheme of all the bands in the world.

MUEN: What is it like working with Matt Zane? You and him both seem to , hmmm...like to live and work with your plates always full.

Stevil: hahaha......I said this to Matt once. I do think we have our similarities in some ways. I cannot just sit in a room and do nothing. Always busy busy busy. I play in three bands, and I also run a management company with Val Brutal of Century Media and Joe Hollow from NYDM called Brutal Management. So there is no more time left in a day when I fall asleep at night.....Yeah so what is it like working with Matt ? I hate that fucker ! haha no no no just kidding. That is one thing I always liked about Matt is that he is brutally honest. If he thinks what I am doing sucks balls then he will tell me straight to my face. Some people can't handle that but I actually prefer it over just being told everything I do is great.....Its just more honest that way and I know it also make for a better record in the end. I have done at least four versions of every song on the new Society 1 release Sadist Messiah that will be out in 2008. How much of those ideas will actually make it on the recording I don't know, some of them at least I hope.

MUEN: What do think is the cause for the jump from Society 1 band members to Ministry?

Stevil: It does seem to be a trend huh ? Let me state for the record that I won't ever join Ministry ! LOL. Society 1 is a better band. oh ? did i just say that out loud ? I guess I did ;) If given a Warner Bros. promotional budget Society 1 would certainly give Ministry a run for their money. Finding someone with the balls to kick down that level of budget is yet another story. So I would say the ONLY cause for that jump from Society 1 to Ministry is the money. I really don't mind saying that I have never owned a Ministry record and I never once went to see them live. Society 1 I would go see......in fact I am going to see them live from the stage ;)

MUEN: Matt Zane made this statement, �Whenever you bring up my band Society 1, you always get a lot of colorful responses within the metal community. I find it kind of amusing now that when people try to talk negative about the band I am always going to be able to say that my members were not only good enough for Society 1 but also for Al Jourgensen and Ministry." .... did you feel in checking out and doing the research about the band before you joined, that the metal community has negative feelings towards Society 1 and if yes why?

Stevil: I watched 150 videos on youtube and read interviews spanning ten years and honestly I found nothing negative at all in them. It wasn't until just recently I read a few of Matt's interviews on Blabbermouth.net that I witnessed some negative comments. I expect that the world is full of haters who just want to use the fact that Matt is a porn director to slam him. Some have used the suspension art as a reason to hate, some have used the religious overtone of the band to hate it too. If you were to remove the suspension, porn and religious overtones from the band what you get is Matt Zane the composer. If you were to put on a set of headphones and listen to all the music very carefully what you would hear is well crafted and thoughtful songs that cannot be easily categorized by genre. I feel its really a shame that more people dont just realize those things. Have you seen the video of 40 thousand screaming fans at the Download Festival ? I did see that video several times and what I saw was 40 thousand happy metal faces raising their fists in the air and loving the music to the hilt ! If you don't watch the video then you miss the reality of it all.

MUEN: It is the rare band that starts and stays with all its original members. Then the right combination comes and it explodes everywhere ..with that in mind what is the �war� going on between society 1 and ministry? It has to be more than going from one band to another.

Stevil: I don't know the deeper details and as much as I want to believe success in the music industry is based on talent alone its not. Who you know and who you have worked with in the past really does matter. 20 years in the music industry and I've seen it all believe me haha.......worse disagreements have happened and I'm sure its not gonna be the last time someone jumps ship for a bigger boat. I will say I have high hopes for all the music I work on. Idea Killer is ten years old now too and Die Hard Till Death is moving right along too. I have A LOT of things going on outside of Society 1 and way too much to dwell on a feud between people I don't even know.

MUEN: Back to Society 1, would it be fair to say you seem to be feeling comfortable yet excited about what is happening and coming together musically with the band and your part in it?

Stevil: Comfort really isn't the level. Its my job to play in the band and my fun is playing in my own bands. There is a very distinct difference between playing someone songs and playing your own I think. Its pretty simple. No guitarist is ever going to play my songs better than me and no guitarist will play Matt's music better than Matt. So I do the very best I can at playing both.

MUEN: Society 1 is in the recording studio, can you give us a release date AND any show dates that might be coming up before then?

Stevil: We are not actually in the studio yet and there are no tour dates locked in either. Progress has been slow due to an overwhelming amount of obstacles with securing a label deal. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled to the myspace page at www.myspace.com/society1music for news ! something has got to give.

MUEN: As this interview was being edited the news came in that Matt Zane lead singer of Society 1 has broken Criss Angels suspension record. Angel used 8 hooks Zane used only 4 hooked through the skin on his back and hung for over 6 hours. During this time he meditated promoted his video Punk'd ur ass and had in attendance some of his beautiful porn stars. The details are on the Society 1 page..... along with the music... check it out.

RL Segarra