Let’s Get Real with Jeff Paulick is a column on Metal Insider featuring the thoughts and opinions from Lazarus A.D.singer/bassist Jeff Paulick. He’ll be sharing his views on everything from the music industry to life on the road (and everything in between) in this bi-weekly column.
I’m back. For a while now! I’ve been touring my ass off. Just got back from Japan, it was an amazing time. I am now taking time off from touring for a few months. I will be tracking bass for Dirge Within’s new LP due out next Spring, shit is sounding heavy! I am also beginning to write the next Lazarus record, and all I can say is I’m pissed off right now. So the riffs are starting to sound more and more crushing. The lyrics are angry, I don’t think I’ve had this much inner rage in my entire life, and I really don’t know because I’m pretty happy, hahaha. So I’ll be back to blogging regularly for at least a few months. Let’s get real!
A lot has happened since I’ve been gone and there is a common theme I wanna talk about, even defend some shit I probably shouldn’t. It’s artistic expression. We all know the Loutallica record is ‘effin terrible, BUT, I still give Metallica respect for doing something like that. It wasn’t them whoh yped the record into being something actually worth a damn, it was their publicist and the media buying into it. Musically the record isn’t even half bad. It’s just Reed’s vocals just don’t fit it at all. Which is fine, it was an experiment, it didn’t sell well, and lets all agree it’s not for us, it was for them. As an artist, you need to explore, experiment, and sometimes fall flat on your face, but it’s all the name of satisfying your artistic desire. I back that notion one thousand percent.
Another band that took a slightly different sound is Korn. When I first heard the Korn-Skrillex song, I was like “what the fuck is this?” I had never heard dubstep before, and I have never really been a Korn fan. Then I listened to Skrillex on Spotify for about a month while on the road. I started to like it, it’s aggressive techno with big crazy breakdowns for the choruses. Really it is very similar to metal and it makes a lot of sense that Korn collaborated with him. Then I started reading the backlash against Korn. And Jonathan Davis’ response, I loved it. He was happy people were pissed and didn’t get it. He is a huge fan of dubstep and wanted to take a different artistic direction. A band like Korn will always have a loyal following. They are allowed to literally try whatever they want and still ride success on their past material, even if the new shit isn’t received well. That’s gotta be a crazy feeling. There are so many bands that simply could never afford to experiment like that. In the end, I still don’t like Korn or that song, but I respect the shit out of them for collaborating and thinking ahead of the game instead of releasing stale bullshit they know will sell (cough, FFDP, cough).
And now that leads me to talking about dubstep. Since the discovery of Skrillex, I have gotten into the genre, and Spotify has really catapulted me into discovering new artists and genres. It’s super refreshing. I feel like I’m 16 again, except back then all I cared about was metal. I’m so involved in heavy music that very few bands slip past me today. It’s great to listen to new genres and bands, and have that crazy awesome feeling like you struck gold. Skrillex is playing in Milwaukee on New Year’s Eve. That just sounds like a great party. If he sucked live, my view would totally change, but I’ve been to DJ style concerts before, and they usually kick total ass. It’s the asstard college bros that attend that ruin it, not the artist. Either way, I’m digging dubstep and Skrillex right now, even if it is very repetitive. He has a lot of room to grow, and I could see so many remixes in the future, especially in metal. And if done properly, it could be really fucking cool, or totally lame, haha, who knows.
And finally, Spotify linked up with Facebook. It rules. I can see what everyone is listening to if they choose to display, and vice versa, everyone can see what I’m listening to. It doesn’t sound like much, but to me that IS the cat’s ass. That’s tape trading without doing a damn thing! I want to know what people are listening to, and I really want to know what other artists are listening to. I’m so overwhelmed with new music right now, and I absolutely love it. If you have Facebook and Spotify, add me up, lets enlighten each other.
Also, I started running the NFL blog on Metal Sucks. Be sure to check that out weekly as well! Packers are 12-0, wtf is good!?
