Steph interviewing Marten Hagstrom (new revolver)

[lungdamage]

here ya go, this is a funny read  :



Rebel Meets Rebel: Stephen Carpenter interviews Mårten Hagström. Deftones' six-string stoner gets deep with one of Meshuggah's mad scientists.


Calcululs-thrash band Meshuggah got their only real taste of mainstream exposure in 2002, when the Osbourne family blasted their song "Soul Burn" (off of 1995's Destroy Erase Improve) at un uncooperative neighbor on an episode of their hit MTV reality show, and Ozzy's son, Jack, secured them a slot on Ozzfest's second stage. Otherwise, Meshuggah have pretty much maintained their status as champions of the underground for the past 18 years, concocting challenging extreme music full of atypical time signatures, unconventional riffing, and antiestablishment themes.

By contrast, nu-metal-cum-alt-rock heroes Deftons have, over about the same amount of time, had four albums go gold or platinum, played Ozzfest's main stage (in 1999), toured on Family Values (last year), and sold out countless headline dates at large theaters around the world. Which means that Meshuggah and Deftones are seemingly from entirely different worlds, with fan bases that rarely cross. But that's not the case, according to Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter. Just ask him what his favorite band is, and he'll say, without a pause, Meshuggah.

"I've been lucky because i'm always asked in interviews who I like, and I've always been able to plug Meshuggah," he says with a laugh. "Through all these years, I've been waiting to hear someone that does something more pummeling, and it's just not coming."

But Carpenter isn't drawn to just the heaviness of Meshuggah's music; he's also compelled by the power of their lyrics and insists that the group's messages of self-reliance and self-control played a major role in his transformation from a flaky, unenlightened rocker into a more analytical and aware human being.

Still, it was unclear how productive a meeting of the minds between Carpenter and Meshuggah guitarist Marten Hagstrom would be. The interview couldn't happen in person, since Carpenter was in L.A. and Hagstrom was in Stockholm, Sweden. Carpenter was Making last-minute preperations for his band's South American tour, which started the next day, and Hagstrom was severely hungover.

But we needn't have worried. Within minutes, the two were sharing theories of life and art like scholars at a philosophy symposium--or at least stoned college students at 4 A.M. United by an interested in gold, a love for weed, and an obsession with self-actualization, Carpenter and Hagstrom quickly proved that the distance between being cult favorites and rock stars is shorter than we imagined.

SC: Do you keep up with what other bands are doing in order to always stay ahead of the curve?

MH: For us, it's more about ignoring everything else. That's the best way for us to stay focused on our vision and evolve. And I think the most interesting thing about bands that are evolving is they seem to be caught up in a motion that they can't really control. You get together and something happens, and hopefully it makes you feel inspired about what you're doing. Any band that can do that is going to be a major influence on other musicians. That's definitely the case with us, and the same holds true for the Deftones, I think.

SC: Yeah, it's really a natural thing. When we're working on new material, more often than not it's usually just a matter of where we're at and how we're feeling. The hardest part for us is that the five of us are so different from each other as far as what we want, outcome-wise. In the past, we used to argue about which direction we were gonna take the music. But now, if it works at that moment when we're playing, all of us will jump on it. Then, the minute we run into a part where someone's not really vibing on something, instead of trying to fight through it, we'll just take a break, and play ping-pong or smoke weed. I know it sounds pretty lazy, but...

MH: [Laughs} It sounds like a fuckin' perfect plan to me, man. Anyway, we're the epitome of lazy. If you look at our track record, usually we take about four years between releases. But I think before you can do something meaningful, you have to get into a creative place where everything starts rolling. It's like a snowball going downhill that gets bigger and bigger, and finally you get a release. Then you go touring, and when you're done, there's a lapse. We can't just jump back on the horse and go for it. We need to get some perspective and some distance.

SC: Sometimes I feel the most creative when we just finish our albums. But then I get back into the mode when we're trying to get back out there and tour, and I let the creative side go for a while.

MH: I read somewhere that you're really into golf.

SC: I'm trying, but it's an incredibly difficult sport. I went into the game really feeling strong and confident about making strides really quick, but in a year and a half of playing it, reality is setting in. I just wish we had the summer sunlight that you guys have in Sweden. That would really help me improve my game.

MH: Yeah, but having light for 24 hours really fucks you up. You don't know which way is up or down.

SC: But if i could set a tee time for 11 P.M., that would be the shit.

MH: Golf never attracted me until a friend of mine invited me to go on a driving range. I went, and it was an incredible challenge. You're always competing against yourself. I took it up and played for a year and a half.

SC: What I love about the game is it's something that reflects upon self. Everything about it is trying to make my actual human body, the corpse I'm stuck with, swing that club consistenly every time. You see the shot, look at your line and the endless angles, and all the time you're figuring that out.

MH: It's a lot like playing music. You know where you're going to go. You know the optimum route. But actually getting there is difficult.

SC: It's funny to hear you say that, because to me your stuff is the utmost in absolute confidence, strength, power and intelligence. It's changed my life in ways I could never even heave imagined. I got into you in around '97, and I was changing as a person at the time. I was trying to prove myself as a human. I wanted to be mentally stronger and more aware of so many different aspects and angles. And you guys are the quantum physics of music as far as I'm concerned. It is truely expansive, and there are no other bands I know that do that.

MH: Wow, thanks, man. It's always nice getting some props from someone who's doing something of their own like you guys. A lot of bands might have some gimmick or be successful, but so few have taken care of their own turf first before thinking about what someone else wants.

SC: When we're sitting around and making up songs and riffs and ideas, out last thought is, "Is this going to be a commercial track?" There are people who push that upon us, but I don't even care about all that. i just want to make shit that sounds fuckin' sick. it's not gonna be on the top 10. That kind of shit doesn't even cross my brain.
MH: And it shouldn't. But the problem is, for many people, it does. That's why I have a tremendous amount of respect for anybody who can keep their integrity intact regardless of what genre they're in.

SC: Do you hate when poeple go, "Man, will you make another record like [1998's acclaimed] Chaosphere?"

MH: We always have people asking us if we're going to do another record that sounds like something else we've done, but we only know that we cannot care.

SC: That's awesome> Just totally mess up everyone's brain sequence and leave them blind. I love it.

MH: That's the beauty of it. you're in the midst of the process yourself, and if you don't care, anything can happen. We actually released one song, "I", which is 23 minutes long. That's our idea of a single. It's not a matter of not wanting to think in commercial terms. We can't. For us, it's all about making something that inspires us.

SC: For me, inspiration usually comes from the things that make me feel good. It doesn't have to be music.

MH: I get the most inspired by movies I've seen or something that's happened in my life or something I read in a book. People always think we're inpsired by what we listen to, but 95 percent of the time, it's something else entirely.

SC: And there's an absolutely infinite source of material for people to tap into. It can't be measured. And it can be measured all at the same time. I have this conversation with people all the time. A lot of people are really lost in this world. They don't know what they want to do. they don't know what they're thinking half the time. And I try to break it down in the most simplistic terms. Every one of us, as long as we're alive, is the absolute perfect balance of all that exists. Every one of us possesses the power, ability, and energy of all that is, and if any of us wants to waste away that kind of power, that's totally fine. I'm not here to tell anyone what to do. but any time there's something you want in life, the equation will always start with you.

MH: I totally agree. You are in control. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can accomplish your goals. But so many people seem to be in a state where the only things they see are the restrictions they put on themselves. If you look inward and say, "This is an endless journey, and I have a certain amount of time, and I know so little about things, but I want to know more," then it becomes very wondrous. you tend to sound a bit religious when you talk like that, but I think you know what I'm saying.

SC: That's the crazy part. When I talk about it, people ask if I'm religious. And I'm really not a religious person. Religion is really me. I am all. I am everything. And I can't give away my personal power to something I can't prove exists.

MH: Yeah, but if you say that you are your own religion, people think that's very egotistical, when in reality, it's the opposite. If everyone learned to love themselves so much that they realized, 'i have the power to do anything,' then they wouldn't be so afraid, biased, and judgemental.

SC: The minute you truely acknowledge yourself, you cut the distance between you and another person in half because they're likely to be feeling and thinking and experiencing similar things.

MH: And that same principle crosses over into music. If you sit down and go, OK, here's a blank page, and I set the rules, and for me there are no rules, so where can i take this? If you channel that through your instrument and your band, then whatever you do is going to be so much less restrictive.

SC: I think everyone who is guided by rules needs something to break down the walls. Whan I was 16, I got hit by a car skateboarding and had an out-of-body experience. I never saw or heard or felt the car hit me. It didn't exist other than what I was told. But I did recall not being here and floating above the treetops and going, Oh, this is really cool. What's going on? Meanwhile, there's this voice repeating, "Man, you're gonna be all right." And I was l ike, Who the hell is telling me this? And why the hell are you floating above the trees? And my final question was, Man, while you were skateboarding, did you fall asleep? And I woke up instantly. I wasn't in pain, but I was right there in the moment. There wasn't a smell, a color, or an angle that I wasn't aware of. i acknowledged everything at once, and I've been that way ever since.

MY: Was that awareness difficult to understand at first?

SC: It was, and between the time I was 18 and 25, me and the guys in the band drank everything we could get our hands on, and I realize now I did that because it was the path of least resistance. To go that way made me not ever concentrate on anything because otherwise I was focused on everything all at once, and it was way too much to handle. But when I was 25, I weaned off the alcohol and went to weed, and that really made me feel good. And in that period, I discovered Meshuggah, and it directed me back to what I already knew--which was that I was already focusing on everything. I gained respect for the fact that I am everything that is. And I owe a lot of that realization to you guys.

MH: And the weed.

SC: [Laughs] Often, when I speak about the weed, it's mostly in humor because my mind is already free. I don't do anything but enjoy the actual physical effect on my body. I just think that's life challenging, and to actually feel good is what you do to balance that challenge.

MH: The morality principle dictates that if you feel bad and you're struggling, you're a good person. And if you're feeling good and doing whatever it takes to make your life feel good, then you're a bad person. To me that rings so false.

SC: What it comes down to is this: Happiness in life is truely dictated by you simply choosing to be happy, and that's something I think a lot of people just can't comprehend.

MH: Right. Life doesn't owe us anything. We owe it to ourselves to make something out of life.
END

[lungdamage]

ps - stephs weed is deep

[theshadeisatool]

It would be fucking awesome if they incorporated more of Meshuggah's irregular time signatures and changes into their music. I felt as if Stef was held back a bit with the riffage on SNW. There are some tight riffs tho: end of HITE, Rapture, end of Beware, Rats!, Combat, etc...

[buddyboy101]

sweet interview, thanks for posting it!

[The Captain]

MH: I read somewhere that you're really into golf.

Hands down, best part.

[Martin]

Cool interview.

It's hitting a nerve.

[tarkil]

Yeah, thanks very much for posting that... Stef really seems to be a cool person.

[cyppe101]

sweet interview, thanks for posting it!

[Far away]

always nice to read his interviews
thanks for the read

[TheRoach`]

Stephs the fuckin man

[Subliminal]

Haha it's like a discussion between the Gods man.

[Jizzlobber]

man, Steph is such a weirdo! its cool though, he has an enlightened way of thinking

[st3v3n_g]

^ His way of thinking usually comes from within people who "stone" for a while... I identify with alot of what he and the guy from Meshuggah are saying, and I'm a fan of both of their music, as well as a former 'stoner'.

Edit: Apologies for bringing up an old post, just thought it was interesting, especially now that Stef has an 8-string.

[13hourstoparadise]

Cool read, thanks for posting.

[Corleone]

"MH: The morality principle dictates that if you feel bad and you're struggling, you're a good person. And if you're feeling good and doing whatever it takes to make your life feel good, then you're a bad person. To me that rings so false. "


*brain explodes*

[lungdamage]

"MH: The morality principle dictates that if you feel bad and you're struggling, you're a good person. And if you're feeling good and doing whatever it takes to make your life feel good, then you're a bad person. To me that rings so false. "


*brain explodes*

taking you back in time.....  great quote

[iceache]

"MH: The morality principle dictates that if you feel bad and you're struggling, you're a good person. And if you're feeling good and doing whatever it takes to make your life feel good, then you're a bad person. To me that rings so false. "


*brain explodes*

taking you back in time.....  great quote

....

Was it necessary to bring up a 4.5 year old topic?

[cvthedrv]

MESHUGGAH / DEFTONES concert would be motherfucking dope!!

[Far away]

sweet interview, thanks for posting it!

this

[Shadow46/2]

lol stoners