Interview2001

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Interview 2001

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Unfortunately, I don't know anymore, where I found this interview... All I know is that it is from September 2001, �shortly before "Silver Side Up" was released.

Reporter: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

Mike: My pleasure.

R: The last time we caught up with you guys we spoke with Chad while you were on tour with Creed and Sevendust. We're basically going tom pick up from there and talk mostly about the new album. But before we get into that I wanted to ask a few background questions.

M: OK.

R: You guys have been on the road non-stop for the last couple of years promoting "The State", what have been your favourite bands to tour with so far?

M: Actually the two bands you mentioned: Creed, Sevendust; we forged some really good friendships out of that. And also 3 Doors Down with whom we are travelling right now. We've become really, really good friends with them.

R: I saw you guys with them about a year ago.

M: Yeah, we're travelling with them again right now. Actually, we're in Cleveland, Ohio.

R: Least favourite band to tour with?

M: Least favourite band to tour with? Can't really think of one. That's the diplomatic answer, isn't it?

R: Yeah! (laughs)

M: I can't really think of one. To be honest with you all the bands have been really cool, the only time we've ever really had a problem or it's been difficult is with the crew. Like the bands themselves have been really cool. We haven't played with any real assholes.

R: Not yet! (laughs) Any favourite funny stories from the road?

M(laughs): Well ok. Just recently we were in Germany. I don't know what it is in German beer. Have you ever seen any of the Pantera home videos?

R: Sure have.

M: You know how they pay their crew guys to do ridiculous things? We do that too. For 600 Deutsche Mark, we got one member of our crew, who shall remain nameless, to place one piece of his anatomy into a tabletop fan to stop the fan.

R: Ouch!

M: It was a piece of one's anatomy, if one were a male.

R: Oh my God!

M: It''s the piece of one's anatomy that you wouldn't want to go into a fan. (laughs) It was 600 bucks and apparently that is the price of that.

R: I don't know if I'd do it for 600 bucks.

M: Well, it's about 300 U.S. That's one of the most recent things.

R: We're heard horror stories of other bands featuring brothers. Oasis, Black Crowes. Is there any kind of sibling rivalry between you and Chad?

M: No, I think we both know what we are both doing. We're not really like fighting over control over this band. We're a democracy; a four-way democracy, not just a two-way one. It's not like we have two brothers who are fighting over the leadership because it's pretty clear that the band leads itself with all members concerned. So we really don't have to worry about that.

R: We know how you and Chad hooked up, but how did you guys team up with the Ryans?

M: We went to school with Ryan Peake, the guitar player. I met him when I was in like grade 7 and he was in grade 6. We met then for the first time. Actually, that was when he moved from this one town called Brooks. He moved to our town called Hanna in grade 6. Where he moved from is where Ryan Vikedal, the drummer, is from. And they were friends there.

R: Small world.

M: Even weirder, yeah.

R: The next question comes from our special features editor Debbie who interviewed Chad last year. Chad told her that in the States, Nickelback wasn't considered to be really HEAVY band, but in Canada, they were about as heavy as it gets.

M: Yeah.

R: In the past year or so has that changed any?

M: Um, no, I wouldn't say so.I'd say the climate of music in general is still consistently getting heavier. Where we have big bands like Slipknot releasing records now. Slipknot had a new record coming out and it's going huge. We're obviously light compared to Slipknot but I guess everybody is. In Canada it's very much the same as it was. It's a lighter, more conservative, radio atmosphere in Canada.

R: More along the lines of Our Lady Peace as apposed to Slipknot.

M: Yeah, more straight head rock leaning more over to the lighter side rather than heavy. But it's getting better. As far as I'm concerned, heavier is better. Not everybody holds that view, but that's my view.

R: Speaking of heavy, you guys are signed to RoadRunner in the U.S. They are primarily known as a nu-metal imprint. Your sound and musical direction really stick out from the rest of the bands on their roster. What made you decide to go with them?

M: It was purely a matter of... we kind of knew this when we were putting our deal together. There are sort of two ways you can go at it. You can go with the small company that's gonna work it's ass off to try and make you break or you can go with the great big company that doesn't really have to do anything. They can just nudge everybody out of their way to make you huge but they might not. They have thousands of acts on their roster. Who knows if you are going to get the focus and priority you deserve? You don't know that. So you can go with the little label that will work with everything they have and it might not be enough or you could go with the big label that has all the power but could decide not to use it for you. You know what I mean; it's either one way or the other. We felt a lot of enthusiasm coming from RoadRunner. They were genuinely interested in making us break America. They wanted to see it happen. Where as with the big guys like RCA, if Elvis keeps selling records, they don't care. They don't care, what difference does it make really?

R: Yeah, they are not known for artist development.

M: No, not really. Like they sign you, they put you on the road, the put out your record, you have six weeks. If it doesn't start to go after six weeks, you should really start typing your resume because you're gonna have to get a job. That is really pathetic because I understand on one side of things it's a business and businesses run on money. However, what everybody at these labels does not understand is when they sit on a band and hinder their growth. What they are doing is they are not only taking that commodity, that group but there are people's lives, people's careers are getting flushed. You know what I mean?

R: Yeah, definitively.

M: There is way more to it than just dollars and cents. Which the big labels pay more attention to the bottom line. The bottom line isn't really what you're thinking when you pick up your guitar for the first time or you play your fist gig or anything like that, decide to get into this business or whatever it is. It's not really much of business because I've never seen a business run like the music industry. (laughs) ...unbelievable.

R: Now that Road Runner has sold a minority interest to Universal has anything changed over there?

M: Well, the way they do is pretty much as much in our favour as it can possibly get. By that I mean, it just seems like everything is landing in our laps right now. I like to thank God for it daily, you know.� Like Islands controls 49% of corporation and RoadRunner retains 51%. It's essentially the same company with a whole bunch more muscle, whole bunch more marketing, a whole bunch more money, you know what I mean? It's kind of interesting; it's like a great big heavy weight independent. Which is what we like.

R: Ok now onto the new album... You guys basically recorded, released and promoted your first couple of releases yourself. With that in mind, did you approach the writing and recording of this album any differently?

M: We had less to deal with. You have people taking care of the business, people taking care of the details. So we could focus more on making a good album than getting caught up in the details. That is how it has been to this point. Being your own boss is good but bad. It's good to have full control over your business; however, you also have to baby-sit it every day, every hour of every day, which we are continuing to do at a slightly lower level. We are able to focus more on the recording and the making of the album with the label helping us out with money and everything else. Having a bigger team working for you cuts off a lot of things because the peripheral details that you were taking care of before is now being taken care of by someone who is HIRED to take care of them! Then we can be left to make our music.

R: How was working with Rick Parashar?

M: Great. He really did what a producer should do and that is get us to make the best music we can make. And that was exactly what he did, he inspired us and helped us along so we were producing our best stuff. He made the best Nickelback come out.

R: Were you guys expecting the single "How you remind me" to become such a success so early?

M: We felt pretty strongly that it was going to be our first single and felt pretty confident that it would do well. But everybody feels confident when they make a record and everybody's label feels confident when they give it to them, you know. Every label says the same thing "We're gonna make this sucker go gold, fellas, hang on! It will be a hell of a ride, you know what I mean? If the label didn't have that in mind, what's the point? Everybody is trying to do the same thing but very rarely does turn this optimism actually into something, where the expectations are met and that's what kind of where we are at now. Just yesterday we got the news that we were officially No.1 on rock radio in America and Canada.

R: Very cool!

M (in a laughing tone): So we have control over North America at this point.

(R. laughs.)

M: We are one step to our ultimate goal of world domination! So we're quite happy with this. Even in our wildest dreams I don't think we saw this. Optimism and positive thinking are all good but this is crazy!

R: It pushed "The State" gold, didn't it?

M: "The State", if it isn't gold now, it will be very, very shortly.

R: I heard RoadRunner is expecting to ship the new album gold which is very cool.

M: Yeah, very crazy shit man!

R: I want to get into the songs a little bit.

M: Sure.

R: I'll give you the title and you could give us a little background on the songs, their meanings or any story behind them, let's start with "Never Again".

M: That is a song quite tightly directed at the issue of domestic violence. A lot of our songs are sort of loosely based on a theme but this is not like that at all, this is very, very tied to issue. There is really no other way to interpret it other than what you hear. It's basically just the story of an abused, battered wife.

R: Heavy stuff... "How you remind me"?

M: "How you remind me"? That was something that Chad kind of used the material that he got from an ex-girlfriend. That's where that all began and it's basically about having your shortcomings pointed out by your significant other. I think that's where he is kind of going there.

R: I think we can all relate to that.

M: Yeah. You know a lot of these coming up are going to be a little more loose and a little more kind of interpretational so hang onto your hats here!

R: "Woke up this morning"?

M: Loose and interpretational! (laughs) It's about a variety of things but I would be hard pressured to nail it down to one. I say just listen to it and see what you get.

R: "Too bad"?

M: "Too bad" is something that Chad came up with about his relationship with our Dad. Our Dad had to leave real early on in our lives and it was hard. Everybody needs that father figure around and we didn't have one. So it was pretty tough.

R: "Just for"?

M: That is interesting because that again is about a girlfriend situation and that was kind of somebody getting too close to a girlfriend. I don't know if it was Chad in particular or if it was somebody that he knew but that's what that song was written about.

R: "Hollywood"?

M: "Hollywood"... that is loose and interpretational! I would say listen to that one and draw what you can.

R: Well, "Money bought" I remember hearing you guys play that live. What's the gist of that one?

M: That one is basically just about people who basically have everything handed to them but are still screw-ups. They get everything and they think they are better than everybody else but they're in many ways quite beneath people who have a lot less.

R: How about "Where do I hide"?

M: That I wouldn't say I don't know but I would say if you listen to our last record you know that it is sort of a variety of themes happening at all times. And this is another song where this is happening.

R: It's another magic mushroom inspired song, is it?

M: I don't know about that, it's kind of the 5 second attention span, changing topics rapidly.

R: "Hangnail"?

M: "Hangnail" is one I remember when that one came up because that one was... I don't know how the lyrics tie in but it came from this one journalist in Vancouver who panned us so hard on a show that we read it and... you know every artist is going to get some negative feedback or criticism, right? That's just to be accepted. We read this through and this guy was so out in left field that we were almost positive that he wasn't at the show.

R: Yeah, I see that a lot.

M: At the same time it was obvious that he couldn't find his ass with both hands, he didn't know music at all. And second he couldn't have been at the show because he made references to things that just couldn't be, you know what I mean, like the kind of comparisons he was drawing are not possible.

R: I've seen reviews of shows that I've covered personally and I don't know where this other writer is coming from.

M: Exactly, and you can kind of attribute some of it to them not knowing anything about music or not even liking music because I find a lot of the people in the music press are not music fans. You know what I mean? They have kind of almost hate on for music or maybe just hate on for musicians, maybe that's more like it. It just seems like an odd profession to be in if you don't love it. There is always going to be those kind of people whether you are a musician or a construction worker or whatever. There's always gonna be people you meet with their head up their ass. The music business is no different.

R: Exactly. Ok, what about "Good Times Gone"?

M: "Good times gone". I'd say it's easily drawable from the lyrics I don't want to keep anyone in suspense but I'm gonna. One more week and you will find out what I'm talking about. (Laughs)

R: What are your favourite tracks on the new album?

M: I think that the whole band is on the same page and that is that there are two songs that just sort of like happened. They were basically done and we learned how to play them. I mean like the songs taught themselves to us. One of them being "Too bad"; another one being "How you remind me", both songs were written in a matter of half an hour. They just sort of happened and I don't understand how it happened but it happened in this way. It was very much a... I don't know... it was like channelled through us. I can't imagine how to communicate this to you. It was something that was just a, it was already done and we just had to put it to paper, put it to music or whatever. It was already done, it was just given to us. You know, what I mean, it sounds really nebulous and weird but those things just came out of us.

R: Ah, very cool!

M: Yeah, if you listen to "Too bad", it starts out with a guitar part and that guitar part was... you haven't heard it yet, so it's hard for me to tell you this, but the opening guitar part for "Too bad" is what we based the song on. When you hear how ridiculously simple that part is, you can see what I mean when I say that there was a lot of intuition that took place when we began putting that together. Because that opening guitar part could not be any simpler but we were all so focused on the same exact direction that it just unfolded to us and it was like "This goes here", "This goes here", "We're gonna put a stop there" and this is it once it was done. Rick was there and he was like, we were playing it for him and we asked "What do you think we could do?" and he was like "Nothing, it's done!"

R: Is that how you write most of the songs? You just get together and jam or...?

M: Um... we do collaborate but usually Chad brings... like sometimes with like "Too bad" where sometimes it just sort of came to Chad just playing this guitar part, this opening guitar part and then everything fell into place. He had some ideas and he just brought them in, little by little. But usually the way it goes is Chaddy writes the initial skeleton of the song and he takes care of the lyrics and we come together, all of us and complete it.

R: You don't have to answer this but I'll ask it anyway. Did the fact that a Beaver is on the back of the Canadian Nickel have any subliminal influence on you guys selecting your name? You know the sexual connotation?

M (laughs): What the hell are you talking about?

R: You know beaver?

M (laughs): Oh, I see where you're going... No, no... I have had people ask me what's on the back of a Nickel in Canada.

R: Do you know what's on the back of a Nickel in America?

M: Someone just asked this another day. I told him I didn't know and they said they didn't either but they thought it was the Lincoln Memorial.

R: Nope...

M (laughs): Haha, an American was wrong about their own Nickel!

R: It's actually Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

M: Oh, ok.

R: So you learned something today!

M: Shame on that American I was talking to! (laughs)

R: One final question for you: What do you want people to take away from your music?

M: Ahhh... I just want them to feel it. I want them to come to the show and to feel it how we feel it and the people close to us feel it. I want people that... when they see the show I want them to get Goosebumps. I want them to feel the chills because we do! And there is something magical about that when music can do that for you.

R: Alright, that's all I have. Good luck with the new album. I'm sure, it's going to do great! I'm looking forward to seeing you in October here in L.A.

M: Thank you. You're in Los Angeles, are you?

R: Basically.

M: Well, we'll have a good time there. We always have a good time in L.A., it's gotta be one of the craziest towns in the world. (laughs)

R: That's a headlining date so it will be doubly cool.

M: Yeah, doubly crazy!

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