Union Underground

Going Deep with Union Underground
By Troy Schmidt

Hardrock.com: You guys had a great show tonight. First of all, I want to admit that I'm the one that threw the thing at you on stage tonight.
(all laugh)
Hardrock.com: It just slipped out of my hand. Sorry.
BRIAN: It happens, it happens.
Hardrock.com: You work a lot of video into what you do. Do you think rock 'n' roll is a whole sensory experience?
PATRICK: It should be if it is not yet. The best entertainers always leave you with more than just a great song.
JOHN: You hear the music, you feel the beat, you see the band, great lights, and video footage in our case, and you walk away blind and your ears spanked.
PATRICK: Pink Floyd does it and they're still going.
Hardrock.com: Patrick you were telling us earlier, how did you put that together? Who did that?
PATRICK: Initially Brian and I actually came up with it and thought that the show should actually look like and represent the album artwork and the lyrics. So we thought that in some multimedia fashion, there needed to be something that people saw in the show that maybe they could talk about to their friends and reflect on the record. It was just a brainstorm. Just like everything else it grows and you have this thing that everyone freaks out on.
BRIAN: It's cool to be able to bring the lyrics to life a little bit, and you know, some of the songs don't necessarily—the image doesn't necessarily represent the lyric, but everything is open to interpretation, and everyone's interpretation can kind of add, at least mood-wise, to what the lyric is and we can set it up that way so they can understand it.
JOSH: If you came away from the show and you hated every song, it's O.K. because you'll still walk away saying that was bad ***.
JAKE: It doesn't have to be a sensory overload, but we like it that way.
PATRICK: There are a lot of bands out there that have great songs, but it's another thing to have a great show and great songs. We're all ticket buyers too, and we like a good show.
JOSH: Really it's just a ******** disclaimer.
JOHN: It's much better than Cats.
Hardrock.com: You've been together for a while, how did this group come together?
BRIAN: Patrick and I go way back to middle school, picking up guitar together, clicking on Master of Puppets and playing together.
JOHN: Brian's a great guitar player and basically that's how they met—playing the guitar.
BRIAN: Yeah, and we hooked up with Josh a few years ago and Jake (John Moyer) is the new boy.
JOHN: I was the addition to close the revolving door where the bass guitar is involved, I was horse-**** enough to enter a situation where they had never recorded with a bass player before, and then even when they were half-done recording the record, they brought me in.
BRIAN: We had never even heard him before. We saw him walking through the club and playing with this other band and we all said, "We have to have him in our band." We have to have at least one guy to bring the chicks in.
PATRICK: The day after we had fired our 20th bass player.
BRIAN: So before we even heard him, we hired him.
JOHN: Josh and I were both stolen from bands. Union Underground pissed off people—started fights—always stories.
PATRICK: Pissing off all the bands.
BRIAN: We took the best people from the bands.
Hardrock.com: How did you guys do in school?
JOHN: I, myself, graduated with barely enough credits and a 70 GPA, which at the time was—barely—I just squeezed over the line. I think I had some kind teachers.
PATRICK: I think our senior year was pretty easy (to Brian). We had a work program where we told them we had jobs but we'd go home and make songs.
JOSH: I did that too.
JOHN: Mine was so hard because I had to make up for all of the ******* off I had done for the three years prior.
JOSH: The minute I decided I wanted to be involved with music and rock bands, all I wanted to do was rehearse in my garage or be in the band box or recording 24-7.
BRIAN: I actually went to college for one semester.
JOHN: You didn't tell me that.
PATRICK: He kept that from me for a long time.
BRIAN: I went on a skiing trip like two weeks into it and just blew the whole ******* thing.

Hardrock.com: What particular subject would you say that you liked?
JOSH: I'd say music
BRIAN: I would say that I'm actually very good at math. Have you ever seen the movie called Pi? It's a bazaar cool independent film, the pi symbol.
PATRICK: Is it like Rainman, the math?
Hardrock.com: How far can you do pi? 3 point…
BRIAN: I can do a lot of pi.
PATRICK: This story has got a lot of pi.
JOSH: You're already going down the wrong path.
Hardrock.com: How do you feel about the clean versions of your songs?
JOSH: That was a conscious decision on our part.
BRIAN: (Putting up his middle finger) that's exactly how I feel, like that.
Hardrock.com: Why?
JOSH: Because some kid who lives in BFE, who has to buy our CD at Wal-Mart, shouldn't be subjected to that.
PATRICK: Some of us have lived in towns like that, and you know, if you can only go to stores like Target or Wal-Mart to get your record, because of course back then we didn't have the net, then you get the clean version, but you know that their friend got the explicit version, and then they'll need to get two.
BRIAN: Censorship always increases record sales. That's what's funny about it. It's a drag that you have to take what you meant and change it. Some kids can't be exposed to that so that's cool that they get to hear it.
JOHN: We try to put a positive spin on it, but it's a negative idea for us.
PATRICK: At the end of the movie, they know what we're saying. They're not dumb.
JOHN: I get these emails from these kids that say, "I ******* bought the clean version, ****"
(Laughter)
Hardrock.com: What do you think in music can get too violent?
PATRICK: I don't know that music is ever to blame for the violence. No matter what, do I think if there wasn't any music that there wouldn't be any violence? Absolutely not.
JOSH: I'm sure music evokes certain emotions in people but obviously those emotions are already there. Before they heard that particular song, or that album or that band that made them do whatever they were going to do.




Hardrock.com: Do you think people can go too far with whatever their message was? What message do you think could go too far?

JOHN: That's like talking about this broad image you're talking about—art imitating life and life imitating art. It's impossible to gauge that. Music has gotten more aggressive and crazy. Why? Because the exploitation of reality has become more and more in depth. That includes rap artists, that includes us, that includes whoever, but when you deal with your psyche you write a song—you write about your personal experiences most of the time and not some fairy tale about violence or aggression. I've always been more on the side of art reflects more as a sign of the times rather than the other way around.
PATRICK: If you use music or a movie to dictate your daily actions as to how you control yourself on yourself as an individual then you've got problems. I've never needed an album or a movie to tell me how to treat other people and myself. If that's what you look to to figure out how you're going to treat other people, then you've got bigger problems.
JOHN: Exposing issues is a good thing, no matter how aggressive that is.
BRIAN: You can't kill the messenger. There is a message. As a writer, you're a messenger.
JOHN: There is a reason Ice-T came up with "Cop Killer." Because L.A. police, as we know now, were completely corrupt. And that goes on down the line.
PATRICK: It doesn't mean that any of us have ever killed a cop. We're not in that position.
John: Reality is a hell of a lot scarier than anything we've ever come up with is.
Hardrock.com: One song, "Bitter," where you talk about apathy, do you think anyone really cares about apathy? (Laughter)
BRIAN: We get asked a lot about the imagery we portray live during the song. The images we played initially had nothing to do with the lyrics. But it in a way kind of fits. They automatically take it as a negative. The song is about being your own person and not believing what people like that preach to you. But people won't read--they just look. It's easier to look and not read. They're supporting it.
Hardrock.com: You're talking about the Nazi images.
JOHN: That again goes back to the reality. Real life is scarier than anything we could come up with.
BRIAN: You put it to music, and people once again think you're condoning that kind of thing. You can watch it on the History Channel and it is a documentary telling you the facts, but if you put it to rock music or rap music and people automatically think it is something you are trying to push.
JOHN: It's funny how the imagery incites so many emotions but it is nothing that is really so extreme. We don't show any sexual extremities, there is some "T&A," but we don't show people dying—no bodies being pushed. We show the propaganda. That stuff—that's really the more scary stuff.
PATRICK: We had all the shock theme, we knew what we could draw from to make people go "Oh my God, I can't believe they showed that." That's too easy. We want to make people think. It's better to shock when you go around the corner and come in through the back than when you hit someone right on the head.
JOSH: Plus it's fun when you leave it up to their imaginations rather than make it so black and white.
PATRICK: Exactly.
JOHN: Josh and Patrick did a big portion of it. They started it, and then in the second wave these two (Patrick and Brian) collected a lot of pictures and did most of the second part.
Hardrock.com: You guys are on a Smackdown album right—WWF?
BRIAN: It's in the works. We haven't decided if we are going to do it.
JOHN: The Undertaker needs to do "Turn Me On Dead Man," or Steve Austin needs to.
JOSH: I'm not a big wrestling fan, but that seems good to me.
JOHN: We all, I know the truth, watch wrestling. I watch WCCW out of Dallas, Texas.
BRIAN: I remember when I was this small.
PATRICK: I remember the Great Kabuki!
JOHN: Yeah, he would spit out the green ****.
PATRICK: Yeah.
Hardrock.com: George "The Animal" Steel?
JOHN: Yeah, he was crazy. He had hair all over his body.
PATRICK: Sounds like my ex-girlfriend.
(Laughter)
Hardrock.com: So what band would you like to take on in a death match?
JOHN: It would have to be a four on four thing.
BRIAN: Or it could be a band with three guys so we'd have the advantage.
JOSH: That sounds like a personal question.
PATRICK: I think that would be easy. What band has the biggest mouth? The biggest mouth.
John: Oh, Limp Bizkit--I was going to say Godsmack, because it could be four on four. And we're both kind of rock bands.
PATRICK: They're twice our age. We'd take them out.
Hardrock.com: Have you toured with them?
PATRICK: Not yet, but we'd love to.
JOHN: They're awesome. I tell you this, I wouldn't take on Manson.
BRIAN: Oh, Manson is a sweet boy.
PATRICK: He is a nice man.
Hardrock.com: How has he helped you? Did he ask you to come on the tour?
BRIAN: He personally picked the band. His manager played us for him.
PATRICK: We weren't off stage five minutes and he was in our locker room. He knew the music. He knew the songs.
JOHN: He told us he was in a nudie bar and he heard "Turn Me On Mr. Deadman."
BRIAN: He was sitting with the ugliest girls in the place. Listening to Turn Me On Mr. Deadman in a strip club.
PATRICK: That's like the Pope giving a priest a blessing, for us.
Hardrock.com: Do you think all this controversy surrounding him is unfair.
JOSH: I think it has calmed down a lot, so there hasn't been that much that we've seen. I think he brings it all on himself. I don't think it's unfair.
PATRICK: He knows exactly and precisely what he is doing.
JOHN: He has pissed off the right people. He actually stands up for the Bill of Rights, freedom of religion, freedom of speech. I don't know about the right to bear arms. He's pissed off Christians who like to impose their will. I love it.
Hardrock.com: What was the worst day job you ever had?
JOSH: I was a plumber's assistant. I don't ever want to think about it. It makes me sick.
BRIAN: We did one of those phone service things for a carpet cleaner—working on commission.
PATRICK: I think I made two dollars the first day. I quit the next day. You (Brian) made some good money, though.
JOHN: My worst was working the bathroom at a rave. Everyone is coming in there and puking, uhhh.
PATRICK: He couldn't figure out why he was always the guy without the pants.
(Laughter)
Hardrock.com: Which song is your favorite to cover? Not your own, but another band's.
JOSH: Anything on Guns and Roses' Appetite for Destruction. BRIAN: Pretty much—there you go.
JOSH: Something off Shout at the Devil, perhaps.
PATRICK: Early Metallica.
JOHN: Alice in Chains stuff, with all the vocals.
PATRICK: We've all played in like 12 other bands besides this one which have all played Alice in Chains.
JOSH: I'd like to do a Rush song, but these guys.
PATRICK: You need to edit that out!! Edit that out!
JOSH: A Pantera song?
PATRICK: You got a deal.
Hardrock.com: Talk about the song "A Trip with Jesus."
JOHN: What an interesting song to pick out. Why did you pick that out?
Hardrock.com: The imagery—it was wild—deep. Is it a spiritual message?
BRIAN: No, not really, unless you consider heroin spiritual. It's basically a song that touches on drug abuse. I grew up around a lot of it, so it stuck in my psyche. I think a lot of junkies find God, and I think it's really about hypocrisy of it all—a trip with Jesus. I don't know your experience, but you kind of have to be around these people to understand it. It's got nothing to do with religion at all. Jesus represents the drug.
Hardrock.com: What is your most embarrassing CD in the collection?
JOSH: Extreme.
BRIAN: Frank Sinatra.
PATRICK: Twisted Sister.
JOHN: Sam Cooke.
Hardrock.com: We have a motto at Hard Rock. It is "Love All, Serve All." What does that mean to you?
JOHN: That's what we do every day.
PATRICK: I think we love and serve everybody that comes on this bus. That is this band—being about yourself and being true. I love myself and I love others. What else do you need? But it's true, and it's the same thing as your motto.