KELLY SHAEFER (Ex-ATHEIST...Currently in NEUROTICA).
ATHEIST were one of the greatest death metal bands that came out of the state of Florida in the late 80's/early 90's. Releasing three records,the leaps and bounds this band grew by was astounding. By time of their last album, Elelments, the band was easily a stand-out amongst the other Florida death metal bands. Unfortunatley,the band broke up...but Vocallist/Guitarist Kelly Shaefer is back with his new band NEUROTICA. Erik recently got an interview with Mr Shaefer...read below to find out about ATHEIST and NEUROTICA. By the way...Roger Patterson, you are missed and will continue to be missed.
Interview by - Erik Chrupalyk.
U.F.-FIRST AND FOREMOST, THANKS FOR AGREEING TO THE INTERVIEW MAN. WHAT HAS THE
BAND BEEN DOING LATELY?
K.S.-Well the band as a whole has not done anything for
the last few years, individually we have accomplished different things, but we are about to embark upon a new record sometime next year, and that should be really amazing!
U.F.-ATHEIST HAVE ACHIEVED A CULT-STATUS FANBASE, ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT, OR DID
YOU WANT WHAT SLAYER AND MEGADETH HAD DURING THE '80'S
K.S.-I would be a liar to say that I did not want what they had in terms of success, but I like where
Atheist ended up in the timeline of history, I think it took so long for people to get what Atheist was putting out, that it still seems current, musically that is, all 3 of those records could come out and make an impact today!
U.F.-ARE THERE ANY NEWER BANDS THAT YOU'VE COME TO APPRECIATE?
K.S.-In the "heavy music spectrum, i really enjoy where Gorguts went compared with there earlier efforts, i have a video of a live "Emperor" show that I though was very impressive, but honestly I have been into all kinds of different music in the past year, I listen to music about 9 hours a day, and play music
about 5 hours a day 5 days a week or more, so I am sort of hard to please, actually I have a huger appreciation where Cannibal Corpse is now, the last
record was fucking great!!!! Corpse has done a great job of picking up the torch and he is as brutal as they come, props to those guys, they are legendary!
U.F.-HOW LONG WERE YOU SINGING AND PLAYING GUITAR BEFORE THE RELEASE OF "PIECE OF TIME"?
K.S.-About 2 years, maybe 3, we were very young, and immature musically at first , and then we sort of became musical sponges, and soaked up as much
knowledge as we could in the following year, before we did Unquestionable, we were basically a "busy" death metal band
U.F.-WHAT HAS BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR MUSICAL CAREER?
K.S.-Well one would be working recently with Brian Johnson from AC/DC, he was a joy, and a huge
help with my new band NEUROTICA, with Atheist the highlight would be touring Europe, we really enjoyed that, all the appreciation for technical music in
places like Denmark, and Holland, they really made us feel welcome!!!
U.F.-WHAT KIND OF DAYJOBS DID YOU HAVE THROUGHOUT ATHEIST'S CAREER?
K.S.-Cooks, door guys at clubs, weed dealer!!!
U.F.-WHO INFLUENCED THE BAND TO FORM?
K.S.-Well I had set out to put a band together and ran into Steve Flynn who I had known for a time at school, and we just pulled it together from there, so I would say myself and steve formed the first incarnation of the band.
U.F.-DO YOU THINK THE CURRENT STATE OF DEATH METAL IS IN GOOD HANDS? PERSONALLY,I THINK IT HAS DEGENERATED AND THEN STAGNATED.
K.S.-Hmmm well its not fair for me to say cause I am not a collector of all the new bands, there was a time
when I had to know every single death metal band and had to have the album etc, but it is a bit stagnated at the moment. but I tell you there are still
some great acts out right now, but it just seems that when the focus in the late 80's down here was Obituary, Morbid Angel, Atheist, Death, Massacre,
Malevolent Creation, etc, it was more of a focused state in this kind of music, I only wish that that much diversity existed in todays death metal!
U.F.-WHAT BAND DID YOU MOST ENJOY SHARING A SHOW WITH?
K.S.-Benediction was a lot of fun, Obituary was always real cool, you should have asked which band i DID
NOT enjoy hahahah, you would have gotten a long ass answer hahaha!!!!
U.F.-WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MAX CAVALERA GOING 'NU-METAL' WITH SOULFLY?
K.S.-Max is fucking great, Soulfly is a tight band, I have always respected Max's sense for heaviness!! Its writers that create tags like "nu metal" what does that
mean exactly, if your heavy, your heavy!!!! And there is no denying that Max is heavy!
U.F.--DO YOU FEEL HEAVY METAL SHOULD BE LEFT UNDERGROUND FOREVER, OR DO YOU FEEL SOME OF IT SHOULD BE SACRIFICED TO EXPLOITATION, IN ORDER FOR IT TO REIGN
AGAIN, THE WAY IT DID DURING THE '80'S?
K.S.-Well I think that if its underground then it stays underground, know what i mean? If it dabbles in mediocrity then it surfaces as above ground mainstream shit, but I have to be honest , I have grown a lot as a person, and I have far different values for what is
good and what is not, there used to be a time when I felt that if it was not technical, or well played , I was not into listening to it, but that's different now, cause I have grown to appreciate "melody" as well as technicality, so my opinion may not be the one that kids want to hear, but they will someday feel the same, its a shame to not explore music for all of
it wonderful "different" soundscapes, and then when you go to make the music you want to make, it will be diverse in its textures, that's why Atheist
sounds like NO ONE! We used bits and pieces of our influences of music that most death metal kids do not listen to and fused it into this completely
different sound!
U.F.-WHAT MAKES A DEATH METAL BAND, A DEATH METAL BAND TO YOU?
K.S.-The vocals I would say are key to the traditional death metal sound more that anything, inevitably death metal is a tag created to help people tell other people
what they sound like, and I like many others hate tags
U.F.-DO YOU THINK TRUE METAL, BE IT PRIEST, ATHEIST, VENOM OR SABBATH, WILL BE FORGOTTEN BY THE NEXT GENERATION? IT SEEMS TO ME THAT A SMALL RESURGENCE OF
YOUNGER FANS IS HAPPENING.
K.S.-No way will it be forgotten, if anything it will
become more a part of history as others grow and learn, I mean look at what spawned from Black Sabbath!!! Many of todays bands owe a lot to Sabbath,
hopefully it will be the same with Atheist, kids that are just learning, will go back to the roots of death metal and soak up all of that original flavor and push themselves to an even higher level!
U.F.-'90'S ERA METALLICA-WHAT DO YA THINK MAN?
K.S.-Bbblllllah very lackluster, they sure forgot where they came from it seems, James is still one of the best rhythm guitar players on the planet, but man the songs are just horrible in terms of interesting to listen to , but i guess it seems that interesting
does not always mean sales and we know how those boys like to get paid!!!!
U.F.-WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION TO WRITE A SONG?
K.S.-Like many just hearing others make music was inspiring to me, I was really into Hendrix, Morrison,
Priest and Maiden early on so I just loved the expression, I am an artist and I had planned on going to art school, but I heard this kid playing his
guitar one day at school, and I was like shit I gotta do that !!!! I never wanted to play covers unless it was to learn how to achieve a certain technique.
U.F.-WHAT ARE YOU FAVORITE BANDS, OUTSIDE OF METAL?
K.S.-Chris Cornell's solo record,
Supergrass, Mr Bungle, C.O.C. I like a lot of hip hop, timbaland, bubba sparxxx, jay-z the beats are truly heavy in there own way, I love gangsta rap era shit, like snoop and dre, I also like the Alicia Keys record, and just so much more, I am a true fan of all music except opera, and country!
U.F.-ATHEIST SEEMED TO HAVE AN INTEREST IN SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY, HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED THOSE AS CAREERS, OR DID YOU KNOW FROM THE START IT WAS GOING TO
BE MUSIC?
K.S.-No it was always music and art, never science, far to boring, no perks hahahah! Lyrically I had written about some topics that might lead you
to believe that I was into some of that, but nope never, now philosophy is something that I enjoy, but mainly my own hahaha, I like the world according
to Kelly hahahahh!!!
U.F.-HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO UNSTOPPABLE FORCE BEFORE? IF SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF OUR SITE?
K.S.-Yeah before the interview I was at your site, it seems quite informative, I will visit as often as I can!!
U.F.-ABOUT NEUROTICA, DOES THE WWF HAVE ANY PLANS FOR YOU GUYS TO APPEAR ON TELEVISION OR ANYTHING? (THE BAND ARE ON SMACKDOWN RECORDS, OWNED BY THE WWF)
K.S.-Sure, you should see ads for the record and shit like that, but you will not catch us making fools of ourselves in the ring or any of that shit, SMACKDOWN will only use the WWF programming to further our career with ads, it will be amazing promotion that is something that most record companies just do not have access to!!!
U.F.-DO YOU THINK A CONTRACT WITH THE WWF WITH EITHER HELP OR HURT THE BAND?
K.S.-Neurotica is a great band, the only thing that our relationship will do is promote the fuck out of the band, so I would say, it will only help!!! 26
million a week watch the WWF programming so you do the math !!!!!
U.F.-WELL KELLY, MEGA-FUCKIN'-THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN KEEPING METAL GOING STRONG, AND FOR GIVING UNSTOPPABLE FORCE AN INTERVIEW TO POST. DO YOU HAVE
ANY LAST WORDS OR PLUGS FOR THE FANS AND READERS? (FOR THOSE WHO ARE BAFFLED, "PLUGS" MEANS PROMOTIONAL WORDS)
K.S.-Well thanks to you my friend, and if you
are reading this interview spread it around to others who may want to check it out, keep up the networking of death metal, the internet is a great tool
that we never had so keep it alive and thanks to unstoppable force, watch for the re-issues coming out on SEASONS OF MIST early next year or sooner!!!!!!!!
U.F.-INFERNAL HAILS BRO! LATER
Kelly Shaefer/nEURoTiCa
www.neurotica.net
phreakie@gte.net
DISCOGRAPHY - Atheist
LINKS
