Chaos Downunder - Big Day Out Tour Site

An Interview With Rich Jones (Amen)
Thanks to John for the help with this interview, and of course Rich Jones, good luck buddy. Since no one sent in questions in the time frame that i set, all these questions were done by me. Sorry to the couple of people who did send in questions, they were just too late. Anyway heres the interview ::

[Timmy] So Rich, whats it like teaming up with one of the most chaotic metal bands in the world?, [and singers I must add!]

It's pretty overwhelming right now. Casey is one fo the most prolific songwriters that I've ever met and he's literally got 2 more albums worth of stuff written right now, besides the album that we just finished! So I came
into this thing and had to learn around 30 songs right off the bat and it seems like we're adding more every day. I've gotta say though that I've never played with such amazing musicians before, these guys fuckin' tear it
up. I can't wait for the BDO shows!

How'd you get recruited into the band?, Audition or was it word of mouth?

A little bit of both. Casey was familiar with my last band, Black Halos, as we were supposed to tour the UK with Amen last summer. Unfortunately that tour got cancelled and it never happened. When I heard that Amen needed a guitar player, I got in touch with Casey through a mutual friend and they flew me down to LA to audition. So I was at a bit of an advantage since they already knew of me, and I was the only guy that they flew in for an audition, but I still wouldn't have gotten it if it had gone really horribly. Fortunately I managed to bluff my way into the band!

Give us a quick summary of your life to date. [country of birth, previous bands etc]

Born in England, lived in Toronto Canada for most of my teenage years and played in a lot of trashy punk bands there. I moved to Vancouver around 8 years ago and played guitar in a band called Flash Bastard before starting the Black Halos in 1994. We released 2 albums on Sub Pop as well as a score of singles on various labels, and we toured extensively in North America and Europe. then I joined Amen and came to Hollywood last saturday.

Any favorite new acts you've heard recently?, What do you think has changed in the metal / punk scene today?, opposed to the era that you grew up in?.

I think that music has become more extreme and experimental these days, which can be a good thing as long as it doesn't sacrifice good songs. Fave new bands? I listen to a ton of different shit but I love the last Zeke
album ("Death Alley"), Ash "Free All Angels", The Explosion "Flash Flash Flash", and a band from seattle called Post-Stardom Depression. The Kinison demos are pretty cool as well. My heart kinda lies with all the old-school NYC punk rock though: The Ramones, Heartbreakers, Dead Boys, Iggy, Television, The Dictators, etc.

For those of us that are not familiar with your previous work, what are the differences, musically you've had to come across, after making the switch to Amen?.

I've always been in more straight-ahead, trashy punk bands. This is probably the first band I've played in whose main influences aren't Johnny Thunders or the Ramones. But it's cool, I always liked Amen because they are on of the few bands in the world who truly manage to give you that feeling of danger when they play live, and I think that that's something that's sorely missing from punk rock these days.

Are you participating on the new album at all?. Or, have the guitar parts only been done by Sonny, and Paul?

Casey and Sonny did everything, it was pretty much all finished when I got here. But we keep changing our minds as Casey keeps writing songs every day so the final track-listing hasn't been decided yet, so who knows?

Tell us about the new album. What can we expect?. Anything different to the previous albums?

Since we haven't decided on the final tracklisting yet, the album could come out a bunch of different ways. But I will say that the stuff is a lot more varied than the stuff off "...Parents". Casey likes to call that album a 45-minute knifefight and this time I think the stuff is a little more anthemic, kinda like "Waiting 18", but it still has that violent element to it.

By the time you get to answer these questions, you will have blown us all away at the Big Day Out gigs in New Zealand and Australia. What was it like in your first 'festival' atmosphere performance with Amen?.

Ha! beat you to it. I'm still in LA.

How have the Amen fans treated you since your arrival in the amen camp?. Any negative feedback from the hardcore Paul Fig fans?.

No way. Everyone has been really cool and welcoming to me, including Fig. Me and Sonny went and hung out with him the other day. For the record, those guys are all still friendly. No one holds a grudge against Fig for wanting to move on, he's a really cool guy. The fans are great, I'm on the Comaamerica board all the time and everyone's been super-cool.

Which band would you most like to tour with?

Personally I like to mix it up, as does Casey. He always wants to take out bands like Mortiis or Satyricon, but then at the same time we want bands like Zeke. There's so many cool bands out there that we'd like to tour with, I couldn't just pick one.

I have to ask this question. Will you be returning to New Zealand / Australia in support of your new album?. Because if you don't, you can expect us to hunt you down and kill you.

I honestly have no idea. I can tell you this though: we're all really psyched to be coming over and I'm sure we'll wanna come back at the first opportunity that we get. Plus, you may just get to hear us play a new song or 2 at these upcoming shows, assuming I can get my shit together in time, haha!

What does the future hold for Rich Jones?, [apart from ripping shit up with Amen].

I think ripping shit up with Amen is gonna be a full-time job for a while now. all I really have in mind is learning the songs and making this band sound better than ever. We can't wait to hit the road and fuck things up in
2002. It's gonna be amazing.

there you go kiddies, hoe you liiked it - timmy