__________________________________________________________________________________
Lincoln Live Music: What are your names and what do you play?
Scott: Scott Schelsinger. Lead vocals and guitar.
Brian: Brian Nystrom. Bass.
LLM: You also have a drummer, the returning original drummer. What is his name?
Scott: Brandon.
LLM: How long ago and for how long was he originally in the band?
Scott: This will be our tenth year, and he was in the band, we'll say 4 or 5 years, and now he's back. We're playing a lot of old stuff from 10 years ago to writing new stuff.
LLM: Have you played a show with him yet, or is the upcoming December 1st show at Knickerbockers his first show back?
Scott: Well after he originally quit, we did some one-off shows with him. He'd come and fill in for a show. Just because those shows were kind of important. We wanted to play with Deicide for a long time, so when we played with them, he came back for that show. He played with us at other shows sporadically.
LLM: I'm glad you brought up Deicide, because I was told to ask about the Christian status of the band. How does that play into your group?
Scott: I'm Catholic. I don't really think of it as Christian music. It's just metal. I got thrown into the lead singing spot and really didn't know what to sing about. I just found a topic, and that's what all of the lyrics are about. It's more Catholic lyrics than the whole Christianity thing.
LLM: I also heard maybe the promoter for the Ezra/Deicide show was a little iffy about having a you open for a Satanic band, but you ended up being cool with Deicide.
Scott: Yeah, they were really cool. They did pull out contracts and stuff before the show. In their contract, it said no Christian bands. By that time, we were pretty much set up to play, and Glen Benton came up to me and was like "I don't care what you sing about, just don't mess with our equipment." And I was like whatever. It's not like we were going to cut their plugs or something. I think that's happened to them before, though. Where like way back in the past with Deicide, I think they had trouble with a band called Believer. I think they messed with their equipment one time and that's how they got that into their contract. The crowd at that show was a little different. There was the usual Ezra crowd and the Deicide fans too, but there was no real trouble. Just that some guys were assholes. But Shawn and Chris at Knickerbockers thought it would be a good idea if I didn't put the statue of Mary on the stage. Well, they thought it'd be a good idea if i didn't take the cover off of it, but we did take it off for the last song. It was a really fun show, pretty memorable.
LLM: You've gone through many lineup changes. How many people do you think have been in the band?
Scott: We've had quite a few people. Some for not very long at times. I'm just glad it went back full circle and we're playing the old stuff again. There were times we were going through member changes and we're not playing songs from those times anymore. Because it wasn't as good without Brandon as the drummer, he's really technical with double bass. Where other drummers didn't have the same technique or played that fast.
Brian: I've been with the group three years this spring. Before that I was in a Pat Benatar tribute band. We were called Invincible.
Scott: We were both in that group, but instead of guitar and vocals, I did drums, and Brian still did bass.
LLM (to Scott): Have you been in any bands previous to Ezra?
Scott: Yeah, you know, like 12-15 years ago. One was Mercy, another one was Hourglass, one was Execution.
LLM: Where are your hometowns, what brought you to Lincoln?
Brian: I'm from south Omaha. My job brought me to Lincoln.
Scott: I'm from Duncan, Nebraska. It's a town of 400, so I had to move to Lincoln to find musicians.
LLM: Were some of the bands you've been from Duncan also?
Scott: Yeah, we always rehearsed there. People would drive from Columbus to rehearse there.
LLM (to Scott): Your brother is the drummer for Wasteoid, have the two of you ever collaborated?
Scott: Yeah, just messing around. That's about it, though.
LLM: Are there any Ezra recordings?
Scott: We've done enough demos that if we put them all together, they would fill a CD, but we haven't made a true album in 10 years. Back when we started they were all on cassette. We did put out like 3,000 cassettes. And then in 2002 we did a 4 song CD which we gave away or sold for a few dollars.
LLM: Do you have any plans of a recording release soon, maybe for the 10 year anniversary?
Scott: We'll see, right now, just probably have fun at the shows. There is a lady in Detroit, "The Metal Mom", she has a record label called Castle Black, I try and keep in touch with her. Maybe someday she can help us out financially. She helped out Xenomorph, which was an Omaha band that was extremely heavy from way back when.
LLM: What are your influences, what did you listen to growing up?
Brian: I listened to classic rock growing up. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix. Then as I got older, I listened to Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, White Zombie, stuff like that. Since I joined Ezra, it's been much heavier stuff. (laughs)
Scott: My early influences for the death metal stuff would be Morbid Angel, Deicide, Napalm Death.
LLM: What are we listening to right now?
Brian: (laughs)
Scott: Captain and Tennille. I can put something else on if you'd like.
Brian: (uncontrollable laughter)
LLM: No, that's fine.
Scott: Well I'll put this on next. (grabs Kiss's Hotter Than Hell album)
LLM: What are some of the bands you've played with over the years?
Scott: There have been tons, I can't remember the names of all of them. Some of the more popular ones from the hardcore scene were Fall Silent, Cursive. Some of the more death metal ones have been Deicide, Hanzel Und Gretyl, L.A. Guns, Origin, Fall, Coal Chamber, Drain S.T.H., Snot. Mikey Dolenz from Snot went on to Soulfly, and Lynn Strait the singer died in a car wreck. Right after Snot got signed to Geffen Records, they did a tour where they got paid $100 a show, and they played The Royal Grove, that's when we opened for them. We've done shows recently with Sore, Dirt Nap, Puddle of Mudd.
LLM: Where have you played out of state?
Scott: We have played in South Dakota quite a bit. We played at the South Dakota Metal Fest in Brandon, South Dakota, right by Sioux Falls. That was with Apparition, Deranged, Origin, and Fall. We've also played Colorado, St. Louis a couple of times. We played the St. Louis Metal Fest once. We've played most of the surrounding states.
LLM: What would be one of your most memorable shows?
Brian: Well, the South Dakota show where Delerium opened up for us. There was a show at The Grove where we played with Brandon that was pretty good.
Scott: My favorite was the show with Deicide for sure. I wanted to see those guys for like 5 years, and then we got the chance to open for them, so it was one of those double your money types of deals.
Brian: I just remembered that show at The Point After with Creagrutus and Wasteoid. That was the most crowd action we've seen.
Scott: Another fun one for me was with L.A. Guns in '97 or '98. That was the biggest crowd we've ever played in front of.
LLM: Cool well, thank you guys. Enjoy the show December 1st at Knickerbockers.