Interview with Billy & Will of Skrape
September 6, 2003
Interviewed by Bill Steinbacher

 

Bill: Alright. Um…When did you guys get together as a band?
Will: 97
Billy: 97
Will: Yeah 97. We came together after I was playing in Stuck Mojo and came back from Europe and wanted to put together a heavy band and just started finding players and putting it together. He ::points to Billy:: turned me on to the guitar player. Needed a bass player after that – I stole him.
Bill: I had no clue you were in Stuck Mojo. I miss Stuck Mojo.
Will: They were a good band.

Bill: But anyway…What do you do in the band?
Will: Drums
Billy: Sing
Will: Drums

Bill: When did you start playing drums?
Will: Oh shit…when I was five. Saw Kiss on Jerry Lee Lewis’ telethon.
Bill: What inspired you to play drums?
Will: It’s weird it wasn’t a drummer; it was Gene Simmons spitting blood. I don’t know how the correlation of that happened.

Bill: Yeah how bout you, what made you want to be a musician?
Billy: Man I started when I was like 12. I think I sang in front of a large group of people with a band when I was 12, probably.
Will: What made you start singing?
Billy: Umm…I don’t really know man. It just kind of happened. My mother, from when I was a real tiny guy had been always playing killer music around the house. Ya know, just everything R&B artists to Elton John. The list goes on. That’s where it started for me, just at home in the living room. Then, I think from that first performance where I just got thrown out into that situation and I realized I liked that, that was pretty cool. That was a long fucking time ago.
Will: It wasn’t that long ago since you’re only 25

Bill: So, tell me about your new record.
Billy: Well “Jimbo” Barton produced it, James “Jimbo” Barton and this new record is just full of all kinds of different sonics and textures and we just took the whole thing to a different level.
Will: Better songs, yeah. We didn’t set out to be a Heavy Metal band this time; we just set out to be a Rock n Roll band. We’re not trying to get into the” who’s heavier than who” contest, that’s because we learned that there’s really only truly one heavy band, and that band’s Slayer and everybody comes second to that. They’re the best metal band in the world and to me…I’m in to being heavy, but they’re doing it so well, why bother. There are other grounds to conquer aside from that.
Billy: Yeah we’re carving our own niche. Man, we’ve got our own sound, our own thing going. It took going out on tour with those cats though to realize we had to get some thick skin and realize we weren’t trying to be that type of band. We wanted to be more of a…this band you’re hearing on the new record.

Bill: When you were out with Slayer, Pantera, Static-X and Morbid Angel; what was it like on that tour? Did you see a lot Skrape fans out there?
Billy: Absolutely. We did see a lot of Skrape fans. Believe it or not they were in the midst of all the haters, but they were there, man. We had people singing our songs in the midst of all the Slayering and the middle fingers.
Will: Ya know what, tonight we’ll even get some fingers tonight I’m sure, and it’s inevitable because we never set out to win those guys over. I don’t give a fuck what those guys think. They can suck my left ball. It’s like, if you don’t like my music then fuck you; don’t listen to it.

Bill: Did you get to hang out with any of the Slayer guys?
Billy: Fuck yeah, man. Those guys were all over us.
Will: We were talking about that today ‘cause I think they’re coming here in a couple of days; aren’t they?
Bill: Yeah with Hatebreed.
Billy: Yeah
Will: Yeah. Tom Araya, he was our bro. He hung out on the bus a lot. He just chilled with us. We got into listening to some old Kiss. That was funny.

Bill: Up until this tour was that the last tour you guys were out on or were you on the road in between that?
Will: We’ve been to Korea and Japan since then.
Billy: Yeah we did a couple other things here and there, but no touring.

Bill: What’s coming up after this tour?
Billy: Static-X and Soil.
Will: October 7th we start with Static-X, Soil and Lo-Pro in Tuscan.

Bill: Alright, There’s a five disc changer here on the bus I open it what five albums will I see?
Will: We’ve got the ghetto bus, with the single disk changer.
Bill: Well, I’m, just saying…
Will: But hypothetically…
Billy: I’d have my COC record. I’d have both my Down records, some of the deepest Black Sabbath greatest hits. I have an Eye Hate God record that I really dig a lot. Um…
Will: That’s five.
Billy: There is it.
Will: Me? You would find probably “Dress to Kill” or “Love Gun” from Kiss. Disc One of Skynyrd’s greatest collection and you’d probably find some good trance music in there. What else would I have in there…maybe some Slayer, maybe some Hatebreed; something along those lines. I’d have to have a Down CD in there somewhere.

Bill: So, how do you guys fell about the general state of rock music now?
Billy: It’s sad man. It’s fucked up. There’s a lot of bands. A lot of labels sign bands that sound like shit.
Will: I think there is a smaller audience for rock now than there ever was.
Billy: It’s time for another break out band to happen.

Bill: Alright guys, I think it’s time for me to get going.
Will: Cool man. Well, thanks for dropping in, dude.
Billy: Thank you very much Bill.

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