There’s talks of another Hellraiser movie?

Well, what there’s talk of is a remake of the first one. That’s as much as I can tell you, really, because that’s as much as I know. I know that someone on IMDB has posted that I am "in talks". All I can say is if that’s the case, then these talks are very, very, very, very quiet. Nobody’s contacted me about anything to do with the remake either as to say they’re going to be using me or as to say they’re thinking of using someone else.

I would assume that remaking the first Hellraiser film implies as far as the series as it is stands is static. I can’t imagine them wanting to make a Hellraiser remake before they make a Hellraiser 9. I think it’s a "that must be it, then" sort of way. I think the series as a whole is finished.

So there’s not going to be a Hellraiser 9?

Don’t take my word for that! I’m just trying to put 3 and 3 together and make 29. But I just assume they won’t. I can’t see why they would want to go back and remake Hellraiser and then wanting to go back and having to continue the series.

So that’s where we are on this. Obviously history is not on my side for doing remakes. When they waste everybody’s time and money remaking a movie, they don’t tend to use the original cast.

But it’s less than two years since the last Hellraiser movie was released so I’m very confident it might not happen. I’m absolutely ambivalent about remakes. Really ambivalent. It doesn’t make it more "real". But if they were to offer me the chance to re-do it, if I had the time I’d probably do it. But exactly what that plan is, I don’t know.

Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance said you’re the ONLY "Pinhead"!

Well, the fans have been absolutely wonderful, I have to say. It’s rather humbling. They’re all saying the same thing. A horde of fans say the same, "You know what? If you’re not in it, we’re not going to see it." They’re talking about writing campaigns to Dimension Films and online petitions and so forth. They’re all saying "It won’t be the same without you in it."

You know what? They’re absolutely right. It wouldn’t be the same. It would be different. I don’t want to talk myself out of a job, but somebody else could do it. It just wouldn’t be the same.

OK. What’s this Dominator X?

That’s a computer generated animated films by a comic book writer in England (Brighton) - Tony Luke. I’ve worked with him and collaborated on various things for a number of years. It’s a live action/animation mix of a science fiction thing for The Sci Fi Channel called Archangel Thunderbird several years ago, which the Sci Fi Channel screened and it did very well. It got good numbers. The Sci Fi Channel was supposed to on the back of that to be committing either to a TV movie or a series.

We went to a series of meetings and went ‘round and ‘round and ‘round. It was soon evident that the Sci Fi Channel was not interested in having anything to do with it. So, sadly that came to naught. I want to say that it’s a really, really great story! It had been DaVinci Code-ing a little bit before The DaVinci Code.

So we’ve sort-of moved on from that. Dominator X is very, very influenced by Manga. It’s a bit Rock & Roll, Horror, Science Fiction. It’s funny, too. That’s ongoing at the moment. As well as voicing characters for Dominator X, I’m involved in the production as well. It’s been a really, really great experience! It’s been a bumpy road as far as the funding is concerned - it’s the same old story. So, that will be ongoing for most of the summer.

I would hope so. I hope if everything comes through with the Renga work (which is Tony’s company) the working relationship will be ongoing.

What about the Crowley movie that Frazer Lee will be doing?

In this stage, as far as I know, (you’ll have to talk to Frazer) it hasn’t really gone beyond the "Hey wouldn’t this be great?"

If we were to do anything, I would think and hope that it would be Urbane which is his feature horror script. I don’t understand why he hasn’t had his hand torn off - it’s an outstanding script! It’s a great story. It certainly has "Hit Movie" written all over it. We are tip-toeing towards a situation where the funding will be in place, but the wheels turn slowly.

Crowleymass was the working title we came up with. Basically Frazer mentioned it and I bit his hand off. I said I’ll bulk up and shave my head and I’ll do it! We’ve discussed a few ideas but it hasn’t gone beyond that.

I like the poetry you do on the new Cradle of Filth album - Rise of the Pentagram. (Actually, I’ve loved all the appearances you’ve made on their albums!)

I’ve known Dani for quite awhile now. He contacted me to ask me to work on the Midian album originally. It was a kind-of tribute to Nightbreed. I just said "Yes". I really like Dani’s writing, and I get along really well with the band. They’re a cool bunch of guys.

As you know, they were up here at Horrorfind yesterday afternoon, and a few of us managed to get down into Baltimore to see them play last night. It was actually the first time I’ve seen them onstage. It was quite a thrill for me to hear my voice boom out of the speakers last night! To get a name shout from Dani onstage was very cool! I managed to hang out with them for a beer for a bit afterwards, so that was cool.

They called me again to ask if I would contribute to the Nymphetamine album, then again for the new album, Thornography. For their last 3 albums now I’ve contributed spoken lyrics, spoken word intros one way or another. It’s been really. It’s been really cool.

Nope.

Pumpkinhead 3: Ashes to Ashes. I’ll be honest with you, when I knew the Pumpkinhead 3 script was coming my way I was thinking, "mmmm, yeah. Pumpkinhead 3. It’s a job." But I was very pleasantly surprised! It’s a strong story, and a really good script. Plus it gave me the opportunity to work with Lance Henriksen. Lance is a god as far as I’m concerned. It’s the second time Lance and I had worked together - the first, of course, was the last Hellraiser: Hellworld.

I think I in common with the whole Horror clan feels that the first Pumpkinhead movie is a really good movie. The second one was not. So they’ve pretty much taken the point of view that the second film never happened, and This is the sequel.

It was shot in Romania last Spring, and it premiered on the Sci Fi Channel Halloween of last year. I believe, if I read my Fangoria right, it’s about to be released on DVD, which is great because I haven’t seen it yet. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Yes, it was a cool movie to make. I loved the first two Prophecy movies. But, yeah, I’ve done 4 movies in Romania in 4 years. I thought it came out pretty well.

What was your favorite movie that you’ve worked on?

By favorite movie, do you mean most fun or most rewarding?

You know what? That’s tough because there’s good and bad and in-between in every movie, really. I’ve always said that Hellraiser 3 was one of the most fun - just a work-hard, play-hard film, really. I’m not very good at trying to pick out favorite bits and pieces.

Frazer told me about a funny moment when you were working on On Edge.

They were fun movies to make, both On Edge and Red Lines. I’m very proud of both of those films, particularly On Edge. I saw it again recently at the Rock & Shock Convention in Worcester, MA. They were screening it, and I went up and introduced it. As I was leaving I started watching it. It was a short film, so I just sat down and watched it again. It was actually a pleasant surprise to see it again.

There was a whole thing with that, because I’m not good around syringes.

Remember that when anybody has an injection in a movie, there’s an unwritten law that there has to be a close up. You will appreciate that they always cut away. So when you or I cover our eyes, they cut back.

So, I’ve got that issue. I’m not good around dentists, and there’s the drill thing going on as well. Basically in order to get the "valium" injection into Charley Boorman in the dentist’s chair, we clamped a tampon onto his arm to inject the stuff into. Which I found funny for some reason. I don’t know why.

I’m very bad at remembering stuff like that as well, off the cuff.

It’s all fun! That’s the reason I have trouble answering, because it’s ALL fun! That’s part of the special privilege for us as actors. All our work is fun.

No, I think we covered all the bases. There are - apart from Urbane - a couple of other projects. One’s going to be announced soon, so we can talk about it. Midnight Syndicate are doing a movie called The Dead Matter and they sent me the script. They’re planning to shoot later this year. Nothing’s negotiated so nothing is finalized yet by any means, but I’ve said I’m interested.

There’s another movie also that I’ve been sent the script, and in fact had dinner with the writer and director here in Baltimore on Thursday night. That’s kind of a Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse end-times story set in the present times. I think that’s a really, really strong script. I’m very interested in that.

But those are just possibilities - slip, stuck, many a twixt, if that makes any sense.

Your band members are from a wide geographical range like from Los Angeles, Canada, Japan, South Carolina? How did you get together? Who’s from where?

Kirk, Brandon & Duane all know each other from living in South Carolina. I'm originally from Québec but was living in Florida where I met Kirk & Brandon in college. We all moved to L.A. for work and perhaps to start a potential band. As the band took off in a great direction, we recruited Duane who was living in Japan at the time.

Yes.

Your unique sound layers strong musicianship with ethereal vocals? Who does most of the songwriting for the band? Do the lyrics come first? Does the music come first? What is the songwriting process like for you guys?

We all take part in the creative process. It begins with Brandon coming up with some riffs, then he & Kirk will jam on it for a little bit, then we piece together which riffs go well with each other until the song structure is in place. Once that is done, I will come up with a vocal pattern that will melt into the song. Both Brandon & I write lyrics; they are usually written after the music is in place, but oddly enough, sometimes the actual song title is created first and then the music & the lyrics come after. It really helps set the mood for the song and gives it a certain direction.

It's a song that keeps moving forward, almost like a march. It never slows down. Brandon created the song title and I created the lyrics. It speaks of contemplating your life and realizing that you, your life, and your surroundings - you created all of it. You are what you believe you are. There is no reality - only perceptions.

The DaVinci Code speaks of the sacred feminine. There are many female deities throughout many cultures and various religions that used to worship a male and female figure. None of us are really affiliated with any organized religion in particular, but we are spiritual and the way I see it, the male & female is like the Yin & Yang. Each one needs the other to be whole.

We shot the video last weekend in Downtown L.A. and in Runyon Canyon. It was shot, directed, and is being edited by Olle Carllson.

I love them all, but I think my favorite one to sing is "Voices In A Dream."

All the artwork was created by a Brazilian artist by the name of Wendell Pendeo. He created a piece for each song which is featured in the CD booklet, originally the name of the album was to be Burning With Life, but when we saw what he did for The Forgotten Goddess, we loved it the most and thought it encompassed our music better. It's mysterious, beautiful, and aggressive.

We plan to tour extensively in '07, but have no specific dates at the moment.

It's a lot heavier live than on the album. Since our music was written for 2 guitars, we just announced out new guitarist, Sam Young. There's also a lot more energy live than the studio album.

Eventually, yes of course, we'd like to do a live DVD, but that won't be for a while.

Yes our website www.echoesofeternity.net will be up & running shortly. The website & the merch is also designed by our artist Wendell Pendeo, who did the cover art.

Our debut album comes out Feb 20th, and all those who pre-order it through www.cmdistro.com will get a free autgraphed poster! When we come to your town, come catch us live, we always hang out afterwards & talk to our fans!

You guys came together with the dream of creating music that blends jazz/fusion and technical Metal?

Kaj: Yes, I guess that a fair description of how Twisted into Form came about, even if it might have been more of a natural development that a conscious decision. We are all into this kind of music, or, to rephrase it a little: The sum of the members' tastes includes a wide variety of genres, and what is on the album is a reflection of this. Metal is the foundation for all of us. The rest comes from being open to all the other styles that inspire us, individually and as a group.

Kaj: For me it's not that different musically; what I did in Spiral Architect compares well to what Twisted is doing, except that Spiral is more extreme in its expression. For me, the biggest difference is in the way we work, since Twisted is much more of a relaxed band when it comes to writing. When Erik and I started, we did it because we wanted an arena where we could play around with ideas and be creative, but without all the stress and pressure that normally comes with life in a band. We had no deadlines, not even any real thought of recording anything. It was purely based on the pleasure of creativity and the freedom to do whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like doing it. This is a pretty rare thing for a band, I think, and it has made our music so much better.

For David it was a bit of an adjustment compared to what he’s been doing in Extol all these years. Even though Extol delivers quite technical and complex music, it’s still more riff-based and controlled than what we’ve been doing in TiF, and I think it took him a while to get used to some of the more non-linear ideas we’ve thrown at him. But he’s a great drummer, so he caught on really fast, and I know he loves the challenge of it.

When it comes to Leif, that’s a very different story; he is not at all used to this kind of music, he is much more of a straight rock/heavy kind of guy. This might come as a bit of a surprise to people if they’ve heard only what he’s done with us, but the truth is that he works really hard to get our songs into his system, even if it often is a struggle for him. But then again, I think his distance to our particular scene is part of what makes him so great for us - his voice is not a typical heavy metal voice, and that slight difference is what brings out that little extra emotional edge in our music.

Erik: As for me, the intensity of Twisted resembles other bands and projects I’ve been involved in. However, the blend of jazz/fusion inspired tonality and technical structures that we landed on in Twisted received a very warm welcome in my department. It was very motivating and refreshing to work with such a challenging expression while at the same time having few restrictions idea wise as well as time wise.

Kaj: There are in fact many reasons why it took so long to release this album. First of all, when Erik and I started playing together around 2000, and even as David joined in some time later, we weren’t very focused on the production side of the music business. Twisted into Form began as a hobby project, and remained so for the first three years of its existence. We rarely rehearsed more than once a week or so, and solely for our own pleasure.

I guess the turning point - the reason we actually ended up recording at all came after I made my decision to move from Norway to Portugal in late 2003. This decision forced another: What to do with the music we had made up till this point? Obviously we decided it would be a waste not to record it, so we set a date and started working really hard to make the deadline.

When we finally started recording at the beginning of 2004, we had the basic structures of most of the songs, and from there the rest was added as we went along. We took our time and did not rush the recording process, and we were fortunate to have ample access to MultiMono Studio, courtesy of Asgeir Mickelson (Spiral Architect, Borknagar). In short, we were not done by the time I moved to Portugal... For me, that meant going back to Norway some months later to finish the guitars and Leif’s vocals. The good thing about this was that we had more time to prepare ourselves, writing new melodies and testing new ideas while at the same time getting some distance to the material. In the end I think it made the album better as a whole.

At this point, which was September 2004, we did what we thought would be the final mix and started shopping around for a deal. Ken Golden and his Sensory label responded very positively to the music and wanted to release the album, but he also wanted a few more songs first - which to a large degree explains why it took another two years for the album to hit the streets. We had recorded all our material and had to come up with two more songs, starting from scratch. Writing and recording these added another year to our schedule, and by then we - the band and Sensory - had also decided to let Neil Kernon remix the entire album.

To conclude, we finished recording more than a year ago, and the time between that and the release was purely industry related delays and decisions. Well, there you have it - the short version of the story behind the album...

Kaj: Erik and I have split the songwriting pretty much fifty-fifty. The songs grow from a sketch either he or I bring to the table, and whoever comes up with a certain idea has the main responsibility for developing it, but always relying heavily on input from the other. When the sketches are ready, we bring them to the rehearsals, where David contributes to the final arrangements. So far, the vocal melodies have been my responsibility, and I've written most of the lyrics, with some very welcome input from Erik every time I got stuck...

Kaj: We always start with the music, the vocal melodies and the lyrics are only begun when almost all the other stuff is in place. Before we started recording the album, we typically followed the pattern outlined above; Erik and I met once a week or so to work on the songs, and later we'd show what we had to David and take it from there.

But this changed drastically once we began recording. Once David had finished the drum tracks, we started building on the original ideas, adding more and more textures and layers to the basic structures of the songs. We were incredibly privileged to have almost infinite time in the studio, which allowed us to develop the songs in any direction we wanted, and basically we recorded ourselves most of the time, so we didn't have to worry about boring anyone to death with all our musical meanderings. But because of the different processes we had to go through during this rather extended recording session, we were also forced to try other ways. The extra material Sensory wanted was written with Erik in Norway and me in Portugal, sending sound files back and forth, and finally making a click track for David so that he could record the drums together with Erik.

Actually, we did one other thing which worked out pretty well: While we were recording the main part of the drum tracks, we asked David to lay down about three minutes worth of drums without any input from the rest of us, basically just jamming by himself for awhile. The idea was that we would later try to write a song on top of this in the studio, something that was never rehearsed or otherwise planned beforehand. It turned out to be quite a challenge, but I’m pretty pleased with the final result - the song Erased.

As you can see, the process of writing is not particularly static for us, but I see this as a good way of keeping both the music and the work of making music interesting, and I think it brings a certain freshness to the final result. At least, I hope it does.

Kaj: We wanted something that was not typically "metal", but could also mirror the rather bleak vision of the world that we portray in our lyrics and music. We went many rounds with the designer (Samuel Durling from Sweden, a friend of David) before we were satisfied, but it turned out really great. As it is now, the cover gives an extra depth to the atmosphere of the album, while simultaneously hinting towards the band’s name.

We were, however, pretty nervous about the outcome for awhile; the cover is printed twice, first in normal 4 colour, then with an extra layer of bronze on top. It turned out that the print shop used by Sensory had never done this before and would not give us any guarantees about the final product. We still insisted that they go ahead, leaving us with the risk of being left with a few thousand ruined covers. Those were some fairly long and nervous days, waiting to hear how it had turned out - but all’s well that ends well, right?

Erik: I really wanted to have cover art that represented the band’s expression, rather than fitting into a particular category, i.e. Metal. I’ve always been a great fan of the artwork for the German jazz label ECM in this respect.

Kaj: That's a tough one... I like different songs for different reasons, and the favourite changes according to my mood any given day. I like Instinct Solitaire a lot for its sheer energy and drive, and I like Torrents for being both heavy and very melodic at the same time, and having kind of a "loose" quality to it. I love to listen to Erased, it’s just so different from everything else I’ve ever done, and knowing how it was made gives it an extra dimension - some of it was almost immediate, but there were parts of Erased that took me a long, long time to get right... The problem is that I could go on like this with all the songs on the album, and I honestly don’t think I can single out just one song.

Erik: I definitely depends on the mood. It also depends on which part of the songs I tune in on when listening. For instance, if I listen to the drums primarily I might prefer other parts of songs than if I tune in on the vocals. It’s difficult to listen to the songs as "wholes" when you know the structures and textures intimately (that is to say when you have made them and know what they consist of). Most often I tend to deconstruct them in some way and focus on certain parts when listening. It can be frustrating as well!

Kaj: So far we have no plans to tour at all, I’m afraid. Our situation has become a bit tricky after my move to Portugal, which makes rehearsing rather difficult right now. Also, David has a very full schedule with Extol, they are constantly either on tour or recording - and Erik just became a father for the first time... For now, we have decided to concentrate on writing more music and see where that leads us.

Kaj: Hehe - what live show?! Truth be told, we have never played live with this band at all, and even though I would love to, it will probably take us a long time to prepare for something like that - mostly for the same reasons as I mentioned above. Though we haven’t completely ruled it out, it’s just that in order for us to play live we would want to be able to present a spectacularly good show - any less just won’t cut it - and this is presently not conceivable. I’ll keep bugging the other guys about it regularly, though!

Kaj: Well, not in the normal sense, maybe; we haven’t made any plans for a proper video shoot in the near future, even though it would have been interesting to try it, but I am trying to compile a video from the recording sessions, which will hopefully be added to our website at some point. We have quite a few hours worth of video from the studio - maybe it would be interesting for people to see it. As for a proper video, it would take a pretty good idea before we’d venture into the world of visuals; there are so many boring videos out there, and personally I’m not interested in releasing a video just for the sake of having one. If, on the other hand, a brilliant idea were to suddenly materialize, I would love to do it. I’m a film freak by nature and the thought of a video is certainly tantalizing.

Erik: Check out our album. There are also some samples available on www.myspace.com/officialtwistedintoform and we have some tabulatures for the guitar freaks out there on www.twistedintoform.no

Thanks!

You guys have already made a video for Resurrection?

We did. It was directed by Todd Bell who actually directed some of our other videos and directed both of our DVD’s - the one that comes with our new CD and our old one: The Dehumanizing Process. We’re really excited to work with him again because unlike other times, he actually had a buzz under him this time because Ferret is really pushing it hard.

The basic theme or concept of the video is it’s kind-of like an underground Fight Club type scene: clubs and girls. It was shot on film so it looks real crisp. Then we’ve got the real fighters in it. The one fighter, Mavrick (The Soul Collector)’s this big guy who was kind-of beating the Hell out of the little guy. He’s basically beating him down. Then the other guy comes back and beats the crap out of the bigger guy.

It’s about a little guy coming up and beating up the bigger guy. It’s kind-of like an "F-You" attitude towards anyone putting a ceiling on you. The song Resurrection (the same title as the CD), we picked that just because it’s like our rejuvenation, our rebirth. It’s like I said, our "F- You" towards anyone who puts a ceiling over us in general. Besides the meaning of the song, it’s kind-of like the meaning of where we are right now as a band.

It’s a little bit of the reason. The main reason was because we didn’t feel that - right now with Ferret, we feel on top of the totem pole, whereas Roadrunner was leaving us down towards the bottom of the totem pole. They were not really supporting us in the way that we wanted. The kids were complaining that the records weren’t in stores. They weren’t really putting ads out there. We weren’t doing as many interviews as - not even close to what we’ve already done so far before this CD’s even out for Ferret.

But, yeah, if you look at it in that aspect like putting a ceiling over us as far as that goes. They were not really letting us do what we want.

This album - as opposed to especially the last one where Rob had the biggest part of the writing - was written by Rob, myself, and Mark, kind-of equally, then everyone else had their 2 cents. I think it’s a more eclectic album because of that, because it has more influences from everyone. It’s kind-of a constant roller coaster from the first song to the last song.

We had kind-of a jumpstart writing this one, too, because back in February when we got rid of Kevin {Talley - drums} and then Andols joined the band, we had to take some time off so Andols could get familiar with the new songs because we still had some touring to go on that tour cycle. So we sat back. While we were doing that, we also wrote on our own, like me and Rob and Mark. We wrote full songs on our Pro-Tools, and just sent them back and forth for some feedback from each other. We didn’t really jam with those songs because we were still just rehearsing.

But when it came time to write back in June and July, we kinda had a jumpstart as opposed to other times. We don’t really write on the road and we don’t really have anything until after we come home from touring, then take some time off and then start from there. So that was a big difference, too.

Six was a very interesting song. It’s very complex. Did I detect a hint of a Middle East-type vibe in there?

A little bit with the samples, definitely. Yeah. That song was actually real cool. Usually what will happen is somebody writes a full song and bring it to the table at the rehearsal space; or write some riffs and just build off of those riffs. But with this song, Rob had an idea with the instrumental part, the more acoustic part in the song was mainly written by Rob. But he really didn’t have anything beyond that. Mark was really impressed with all the heavy riffs that I written for a song that we really didn’t do anything with. Then Mark at the same time was jamming out with what has become the intro and other parts here and there within the song.

For the first time ever, we were like, "Well, why don’t we combine them?!" And it worked, for some reason. We basically combined 3 different songs, and for some reason they just worked and everything was good. It was kind-of magical, how it came together.

That was real cool, and we felt that it’s a long song but it’s not too long. When you listen to it, it needs to be that long. You don’t think of it as a super-long song.

True. I don’t know, the sequencing is always Mark’s idea, then we kind-of give our OK’s or Nay’s. I don’t know - it worked like that. I don’t think he was really thinking of song titles when he did the sequencing. He just felt, "This song should go fourth."

The reason it is called Six, I asked Mark because he thinks of all the titles and the lyrics. This is called Six because it just describes the 6 of us.

Yeah. Definitely! I think that song is brutal and in-your-face and very aggressive. I think that’s why Chris chose those samples. It’s just a very driving song, a crazy song. We wanted it to grab your attention right away. I think it does with that breaking glass and everything.

True, true! That’s kind-of out of our realm. That was Mark’s concept, that whole song. More of a laid-back Nine Inch Nails type of vibe, but still pretty brutal.

Honestly, I think The Flame is. I like songs that are very mean and in-your-face, like I said, and just very groovy.

A little bit, with the final decision. But Mark and Chris initially found the artist online and were so impressed with that piece of art that we just had to use it. It’s basically, we think, just like going through a rejuvenation and rebirth. We’re going through a change just like the cover. We loved it because it was like comics like our last two covers. It’s not too busy of an album cover. We think it would stand out in record stores.

We just thought it was the coolest art. It just really fit. So we just went with it.

Yep! We’re in Ft. Lauderdale right now. Florida.

We’re actually on the No Fear Tour with Killswitch Engage and Dragonforce.

Oh, that’s right! That was just here in my area, but it was here the same night as the Horrorfind Convention and the Cradle of Filth show!

Right on! Right on!

So true!

It was awesome! We actually did 2 nights there, which is real cool! Both shows were great! I think on this tour we’re gaining a lot of fans that might not necessarily have heard us before. Killswitch kind-of crosses over to the radio crowd and everything, which is nice. Usually when we go out, we’re almost preaching to the converted. We’re trying to get out to a different spectrum of audience now.

It’s cool because they’re kind-of thrown back because we are pretty heavy compared to the other bands. At the same time, they’re so impressed that by the second song, they’re really getting into it. It’s been real cool!

We’ve got a couple weeks off, then we go down to South America for the first time ever. We’re going to play Chile, which is awesome! Then we’re playing some dates in Mexico.

We’ve got May off - Rob is getting married, so we’re taking the month off. He’s really excited.

Then by June we’ll be in Europe for the European festivals. That’s all that’s planned right now, but we keep on booking because we plan on touring on this record for a long time.

There’s definitely going to be a second video. I’m not sure what song and I’m not sure when, but the Resurrection video just dropped about a week or two ago so we’re going to wait awhile.

Not as of right now. Maybe we might do that eventually for a headlining tour. But since we’re not headlining, probably not.

On this tour just a half hour. That’s all. We’re on and off. It’s kind-of nice only because it’s the first tour of this tour cycle. So, we’re still kind-of getting used to being ourselves up onstage. It’s a good way to break it in.

Actually, no. We’re doing two new songs a night. We’re kind-of rotating them every night just in case the shows are close together so people don’t see the same set every night. We’re playing old and new, but two new ones every night.

We do! We’ve got Guitar Hero, which we’ve been playing a lot. We go online a lot. We watch DVD’s. Nothing too exciting. We’re not that crazy of a band. The craziest thing you’ll ever see on our bus is me drunk and passed out. No drugs, no nothing crazy.

Buy our record. It comes out tomorrow {March 6}. We’re nothing but excited! We’re most proud of this record as opposed to any other record. Tomorrow’s the drop date.

The Lucifer Messiah is truly a visionary work of twisted art. What originally sparked this story?

First of all, thank you for saying that, I think that’s probably the single coolest thing anyone’s said about the book.

Oddly enough, The Lucifer Messiah wasn’t originally a novel and it wasn’t even a horror/fantasy. It began as a screenwriting project in college about fifteen years ago. In those days it was a film noir about a heroin dealer on the run from some mobsters. It didn’t sell.

Years later, I started re-working the idea as a novel when I became interested in doing an urban fantasy. I already had a basic storyline, and I tried to re-imagine it as something much weirder.

Slowly. And a little bit at a time. I didn’t really have a well-defined concept of what they were when I started writing. I just kind of developed them as the story progressed, then I went back and filled in the gaps later. One thing usually leads to another though. You come up with one weird idea and then you think, "hey, maybe they could do this too…" and it builds on itself after a while.

The starting point though, came of out Ovid’s Metamorphorses, which recounts a number of transformation stories from Greek and Roman mythology. Those kind of stories seem to exist in almost all folklore, so I started with the premise that the stories weren’t myths, but rather folk-memories of actual people, who for reasons even they didn’t fully understand, had the blessing (or curse) of being able to change their shape and form.

The rest just followed from there.

That’s hard to say, because a lot of what I used for background wasn’t exactly research. Back in college I worked for a summer in the neighborhood where I set the book, and I heard lots of stories from the old-timers about the history of Hell’s Kitchen. Years later I followed up on some of that, but I don’t really remember where the stories ended and the research picked up. Also, my family is from the NYC-area and I borrowed as many details as could remember from things I’d heard growing up. The rest I just made up, and hoped it sounded real.

I hope so. I’d love to write another book in the same "universe" as this one. I’ve got some ideas, but I haven’t really settled on anything yet. I’d really like to write something set in NYC in the 1970s, maybe re-visit these characters thirty years later. I have a morbid fascination with the New York City of Serpico or Donnie Brasco. To me that period kind of represents a low point in the city’s recent history; a dark, grimy, dangerous urban nightmare, which is just about the perfect setting for the kind of stuff I write.

Well, this is my first published novel, but hardly the first novel I’ve written. I’ve been trying to write a novel since I was about 15. The Lucifer Messiah was published last summer, when I was 33, so it took a while. Professionally-speaking though, I have absolutely no other publishing credits -- zilch. This book represents my entire professional writing career at the moment. Every single thing that I wrote before this has been roundly rejected, and rightly so, for the most part.

I majored in Film in undergrad, because I wanted to be Martin Scorsese when I grew up. Of course, when I graduated I discovered that the position was already quite ably filled. So I got a job in a post-production facility in Manhattan, which meant that I did things like transferring film to video for broadcast, or editing various programs (like late-night infomercials for things like vacuum-cleaner-based hairstyling devices). It wasn’t bad work, and I did it for about three and a half years. But ultimately I decided that the reason I got into film and TV in the first place was because I wanted to do something creative, to tell stories, and as much as I liked the job, the creative potential was pretty limited.

After that I went to law school, which is something I always wanted to do anyway, and it actually gave me a fair amount of time to write.

Probably. You certainly hear a lot of stories in my line of work, and most of them turn out to be less-than-true, in one way or another (that goes for both sides, by the way). But I haven’t really used anything from work in a novel yet. I don’t have much interest in writing about lawyers (neither would you if you spent all day with them).

Yeah, I’m in the middle of writing something, but I’m reluctant to say too much about it. Mostly because the story changes as I’m writing it, so I honestly don’t know how close what I have now is going to be to what I ultimately end up with. I figure it out as I’m doing it, so I can’t say what I’ll have six months from now.

Here’s what hasn’t changed yet: I’ve got an eighty-year old serial killer with supernatural powers, a mythical Sumerian god-cult, and an FBI agent with violent nightmares and a Boston accent that comes out when she has a few too many.

If I’ve had one complaint or criticism more than any other with this book, it’s been about the title. As you pointed out in your review here on The Perch, this is NOT a book about Satan or the anti-Christ.

I understand the questions though, and looking back now I wish I’d done more to make that clear on the cover blurb or the promotional materials. At the time, I wasn’t sure how to do that without giving away too much of the story, and I erred on the side of giving away less, which may have been a mistake.

So for the record, let me say now that that this book is about the myth of a messiah. It’s about the idea of an anointed savior being a flawed and superstitious notion that we’d be better off without.

What I wanted to do to show that, to turn that whole concept on its head, was to take the point of view of the monsters. From the vantage point of a bunch of creatures that humanity has demonized for centuries, the ultimate savior would have to be the thing we fear the most. But from their perspective, Lucifer wouldn’t be an evil force at all-he’d be a hero. And in fact, if you look back far enough in history, the modern Christian concept of Lucifer turns out to be an adaptation, you might even say a corruption, of a much older, benevolent pagan concept.

Now, if you push that idea even further, if monsters aren’t inherently evil just because they have horns or fangs or claws, then maybe our concept of Lucifer is wrong too. It might just be one more myth that people manipulate to serve their own interest. And that’s where the title comes from.

So what I’m saying is, if you read the title and you’re expecting some kind of warmed-over, empty-headed pseudo-Satanism, you’ll probably be disappointed. But if you want pagan rituals and blood sacrifices and twisted creatures hiding in the shadows, then this book might be for you.