Chatting with Josh Silver of Type O Negative
-By Andreas Veneris, andreas@metaverse.com, (c)1996 OnRamp
For Type O Negative the summer of 1996 is a busy one. The guys have just finished the mixing of their highly anticipated album, 'October Rust ', the follow up to the certified-gold LP 'Bloody Kisses' (1993), and as soon as they exited the studio they performed a few support dates to Ozzy's arena 'Retirement Sucks' tour. When this warm-up tour was over, Pete Steele (vocal/bass), Josh Silver (keyboards), Kenny Hickey (guitar) and John Kelly (drums) traveled overseas to perform a couple of dates and give interviews. 'October Rust', their fourth studio album, will be out by the end of August. Roadrunner, their record label, has high expectations from the band who recorded the moody, dark-visioned, and somehow sarcastic tunes, 'Black No.1' and 'Christian Woman'. Indeed, 'October Rust' stands close to the high expectations of their label and their fans. Somehow slower, it is able to create this dark, gothic and heavy mood through tunes as 'My Girlfriend's Girlfriends' (1st single), 'Love you to Death', 'Die With Me' and the paranoid 'The Glorious Liberation of the People's Technocratic Republic of Vinnland by the Combined Forces of the United Territories of Europa', a song full of marching, screaming, sounds.
Peter, the founder, main composer and most intriguing figure of Type O Negative, had to go back to the States to rehearse with his former band, the legendary cult-band Carnivore. Carnivore, a hardcore thrash band of the 80s, reformed after a 9 years hiatus to play, The Milwaukee Metal Festival. In the meantime, Josh and Kenny continued their European interviews tour, and I was lucky to catch up with Josh and chat with him on his way to Athens' (Greece) airport.
How is Europe treating Type O Negative? "Very well", Josh replies with determination. " We did some shows and many interviews. Fans here pay more attention to the music and the lyrics than US fans do. We've been around this continent for a month, we will now fly back to the States but we will return in August to do the Donington festival". For those who don't know, Donington is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, rock festivals in Europe. It takes place every August at Castle Donington-UK and drops more than 70,000 maniacs each time. How does Type O Negative feel about it? "I think it's a great privilege to be sharing the stage with acts like Kiss", Josh replies. "Kiss will play with their make-up and everything. I think that this would be their only European show so people will run crazy, I'm pretty sure about that". Oh yes, I'd totally forgotten that Kiss is currently touring America and the Type O Negative guys are missing the event since they're traveling, playing, and giving interviews in Europe.
Busness over pleasure? Maybe not, their summer schedule includes tickets to a Kiss show! " No, we won't miss their show. Friends of ours bought us tickets for their NYC show, therefore we'll have the chance to see them once and, subsequently, play with them at Donington. I'm really excited for both events", he replies with relief in his voice. So are you a big Kiss fan, I'm asking him while he's watching the street leading to Plaka, the equivalent of Bourbon Street for Athens. He smiles to me and this smile left me no doubts that Josh Silver is indeed another big fan of the old Kiss party band; but as far as his current listening preferences go, things are different. " I love The Beatles and Black Sabbath and these are the only two bands I spend time listening to. Black Sabbath and The Beatles, both changed the way music sounded forever", he replies and refuses to add any other band to the list.
"It was a great pleasure playing with Ozzy", he continues, referring to their recent US tour supporting Ozzy. " The guy is such a rock giant, he can still go on the stage and create panic in the crowd. It was a great experience meeting him, playing with him and having the chance to talk to him. We all are big Black Sabbath fans, Pete Steele included". Will you tour the States again? "Oh yeah, this was just a warm-up support tour. Once the album is released in late August and we're done with all festivals and tour dates in Europe, we'll be back to the States to headline our own tour nationwide".
I remember, last time I interviewed Pete Steele he said that
Type O'Negative is a band that would prefer not to tour if they had the chance to do so. Does this still
hold for the group? "Touring can be fun, and can be a real big pain in the a**", Josh says. "Sometimes you
have to go on the stage and do your job although you're not in the mood of performing. It's a job, man, and
you have to do it, regardless if you like it or not. On the other hand, playing music releases the aggression
you have inside. At those times, I really enjoy doing it". What about 'The Origin of the Feces', I ask him
while we're stuck in traffic. Was it a real live album or a joke? I heard weird stories about it. He smiles
and replies "Well, Roadrunner wanted us to release a live album but we're Type O Negative...we have always
been different and so was this album! What we did when we got into the studio, was to record all the songs
and then add up voices on the background to make it sound like a live album. We cheated the record company
this way, delivering a 'live' album to them and saving up some money for ourselves!".
Since we were approaching the airport, I started asking him questions about their forthcoming release 'October Rust'. "It's a slow album, much slower than what we previously did. Make sure you smoke lots of marijuana and have sex while you're listening to it", he says. Indeed, 'October Rust' is a slow-tempo album that hardly reminds the band of 'Slow, Deep and Hard', their first release back in 1991. "We came into our own thing with our last album, 'Bloody Kisses'", Josh explains. "The slower stuff, gothic heaviness and mesmerizing rhythms is what fits our mood the best, that's why 'October Rust' follows that mood more that anything that we've done before". Is Pete still the main composer of the band? "Yes he is", Josh replies with no regrets. " Type O Negative has been his own idea and he is the one who has defined the style and mood of this band. He comes in with all the parts and riffs and the remaining members can add or suggest something, but Pete remains the main axis of the band"...which is not true, I say, since Josh Silver did a lot of the production on the new album! He smiles, as he lights another cigarette. "Well, yeah, I did some of the production but I rarely write any new stuff", he concludes.
Where do you believe Type O Negative will be five or ten years from now, I ask. "Well, it's hard to believe that we will all still be together into Type O Negative five years from now", he replies with honesty and continues " I will still be a musician and I will still be making my living out of music, that's one thing that's for sure. Music is the only thing I know how to do and I plan to do it for a long time, but I really doubt that Type O Negative will be alive for such a long time". A last question as we're entering the airport. Would you ever pose for Playgirl as Pete Steele did last summer? "Naaa...", he grumbles out, "I don't have as big a penis as Pete does". He smiles, picks his suitcase from the trunk and approaches the check-in area.
