If you could change one thing about your wee wee, what would it be?

TODD: I would make it curve more like Bill Clinton’s and put more veins sticking out of it. (Laughs)

DAN: I’d definitely get rid of all these nasty sores and warts on mine (Laughs)

MILES: I’d by a toupee for the head. (Laughs) It kind of looks like Elmer Fudd right now (Laughs)

CRAIG: I’d like mine to look like a French tickler (Laughs)

How did ROCKET AJAX start?

TODD: It started three years ago, last August. ’97 of August. I was in a band with Miles called Chaos Theory and I was in a band with Dan called Post. Neither of them was exactly what I wanted to do, even though Chaos was the biggest band at the time. This band was somewhat of the idea I had.

Why did Chaos’ end?

MILES: Todd left because he wanted to play guitar. I left because the band just wasn’t working anymore. When I quit the band, the rest of the guys just weren’t working together and it just pretty much broke up. I wasn’t going to play music anymore. I was pretty much gonna take time off and do my own thing. Then Todd came up to me and said, “Oh we need a bass player. We’ve got this project.” I came down and heard it. I was real apprehensive at first because I didn’t want to get into a full time band. But once I heard the music, I knew I had to stay. Fuck it. I really liked it. I’ve got a lot of fuckin’ respect for Todd.

Tell me about Post.

DAN: Post was around five years ago. It was just…our guitarist quit, and I asked Todd to do a show with us. He ended up playing for almost a year. Then we broke up.

Did ROCKET AJAX sound just happen or was there intention from the beginning?

TODD: When we first started, we wanted it to sound like Prodigy. Like that, but with heavy guitars. We started writing, but it didn’t come out that way at all, which is fine. But Dan and my initial idea was to have total dancy, Techno type music. Part of the reason some of the songs have long intros was because of that. That was our total idea. More like club music with heavy guitars.

How did it end up Heavy metal?

DAN: Because our style came through, I think. And then we got Miles…and Craig, who hits the drums harder than anybody.

Techno is usually pulled off with drum machines. Can it be pulled off with real drums Craig?

CRAIG: Absolutely. There’s no problem. I think that using a drum machine is really repetitive though. I think, no matter what you program into a drum machine, it never has the feel of live drums. Drum machines should be a secondary thing. There’s nothing that can replace a live drummer that’s hitting the skins.

How did you get hooked up with these guys?

CRAIG: I was in a band called Suffer Structure. They basically booted me out of the band because I had a conflict of opinion with the lead singer. We were even in the studio recording a CD at the time. I had already laid all the drum tracks to it. Todd and Dan were looking for a drummer at the time. They went in there and listened to my drum tracks. They called me up and said, “You want to come down and play with us?” I came down here one night. Twenty minutes later they said, “You want the job?” and I said, “Yep, let’s do it.” It’s been history ever since.

How does ROCKET AJAX keep it together? A lot of bands fall a part due to internal conflict when they are so close to making it.

CRAIG: That’s real simple. One thing that about this band, that I’ve never experienced with any other band, is everyone is willing to compromise for the sake of the music. We’re all in it for the music, know what I mean? Sure we have differences of opinion and stuff, but nobody lets their ego get in the way.

How long were you together before you got around to doing the CD?

DAN: It took us about a year to do the demo tape. That’s when we met Craig.

TODD: We had a lot of these songs already recorded. We had just gotten Craig, and we said, “Let’s take what we have and press it into a CD.” We mastered it and listened to it at Miles house and it sounded horrible. Craig is like, “I ain’t putting my name on that thing” (Laughs) So we decided to go back in and re-do the entire thing.

DAN: We went to the best studio in town. We went to FTM. Tony Bennett has recorded there. It’s won awards all over the world for it’s accuracy of how it sounds. It’s not that expensive. We spent a lot of money to get it right.

How much?

DAN: $13,000.

Did you go in with the intent of spending that much money on it?

MILES: We figured $5,000. That was our budget. We went through that really quickly (Laughs) so then we had to be creative on finances. We had a lot of people help us out. Todd spent a lot of his own money to help us out. He broke into his own 401K. It shows you how much he believes in the music. Todd has put a lot of his time and money into this band. Craig’s Mother in Law gave us $2,600. A lot of people put in money to help us out. Also, we all put in personal money. I only put in $300 (Laughs) but that’s all I had!

What were you going for that you weren’t getting for the initial $5,000?

DAN: We’re pretty meticulous.

TODD: The first song we mixed took 9 hours. “Sucker Punch” was the first song we did. With “Boredom Strike” there were 32 tracks of just electronics. The electronics alone was about $1300.

Why isn’t there any lead guitar solos on the CD?

TODD: I can’t play ‘em (Laughs)

I’ve heard you’re one of the best guitarists around.

TODD: I don’t know. The whole style when we were writing…leads weren’t really in, you know? They’re coming back now. Maybe on the next CD.

The whole “no solo” thing was a left over from the Alternative movement.

TODD: When Korn came in, they totally changed everything too, you know. Nirvana totally destroyed the entire pop-rock movement in a matter of months. It was more about playing heavy grooves and stuff like that.

CRAIG: Todd can play like Yngwie, if he wants to.

Lets talk about influences

TODD: If you want to go back to the beginning, it was like Quiet Riot. When I was playing solos, it was like Steve Vai and George Lynch. More recently it’s Rob Zombie. I worship that guy. Right now I’m into Slipknot and Deftones.

DAN: When I was a kid, it was probably classical music. Then I got into Elvis and stuff like that. Then…I don’t know, Alice In Chains, stuff like that.

MILES: Spinal Tap (Laughs) Umm…when I was little there was a lot of jazz in the house. A lot of Miles Davis. My mom sang jazz in a band. When I started to get into rock and roll, Rush blew me away when I was a kid. Geddy Lee was the best. Then all of sudden, I heard Iron Maiden. Steve Harris was the first bassist that made the bass sound fuckin’ mean. I was like a ‘Maiden fanatic. Every time a ‘Maiden album came out I would wear out the whole album. Now, I’m into a little of everything. I really like Filter. I like a lot of weird stuff. I like New Age stuff. Whatever I’m in the mood for. When I want to get heavy, it’s like, Pantera or Rage Against The Machine.

CRAIG: My mom was into Motown, so that was what I was into. I listened to Peaches and Herb and fuckin’…all that shit. When I decided I wanted to play the drums was when I saw Buddy Rich play. It was an old black and white video. I was just watching this guy play and I was like, “Oh my God!” you know? Just watching the sticks fly and all that stuff. I was like, “Man that’s what I want to be doing.” My Mom was real supportive. She hooked me up with a drum set and all that other shit. What I listen to now is…I like real heavy stuff. I really like Disturbed. I like Tool, Alice In Chains. A big influence for me drum-wise was Matt Cameron from Sound Garden. He’s fuckin’ unbelievable. He just fuckin’ wails.

What’s the best music to have sex to?

TODD: I listen to Dead Can Dance. That’s kind of tribal. I don’t know…mellow stuff. I don’t want to listen to Slipknot or else I might kill the bitch (Laughter)

CRAIG: I would listen to Slipknot and I would kill the bitch! (More laughter)

DAN: Probably Mazzy Starr. And if it’s a guy…

CRAIG: Village People! (Laughter around the room)

MILES: It depends on what kind of sex you’re tryin’ to have. If you’re having luvvy duvvy sex, probably Kitaro. If you want something grinding and kind of dirty…probably Nine Inch Nails (laughs) That or Wayne Newton is always good. (Laughter)

This is a very important question. Who in Rocket Ajax has the hairiest tush?

EVERYBODY: Dan! (Laughter)

DAN: Yeah it would be me! (Laughs)

OK, back to the music. You have a song off of a compilation CD called “Flood.” You mentioned once, Todd, that you didn’t like that song.

TODD: The last time we played it was at Cricket on the Hill. I told Craig that was the first time I really enjoyed that song. I don’t know. Maybe I initially thought it was too grungy.

What really stands out in that song is Dan screaming his ass off.

CRAIG: No shit! I was listening to it just the other day. I had to back it up because Dan was just going off.

I’ve never heard anyone who can scream like you, Dan.

DAN: I don’t know what to say. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I don’t know. It’s never damaged my voice. You get used to it I guess.

CRAIG: I think he has a lot of talent. He can go from a scream to a crystal clear note.

Since you guys already have a Techno flavor to your music, would you consider doing a remix CD?

DAN: I actually started doing that with Joe from Blister66. We wanted to do a whole remix of the CD. But then he got back in Blister66.

TODD: I’d like to still. If I got a computer, I could do it then. I don’t have enough space on my keyboard. I’d like to remix “Necro Lust.” I’d like to remix “Still born.” I think “Yellow Beads” would be cool if we did like a…faster beat or something totally off the wall. “Sucker Punch.” I think they all could be remixed in one way or the other.

Do you think “Sentenced To Life” is the best sounding local CD?

TODD: I think it is the best sounding local CD. The only other CD that I think sounds as good as this is Skull Flux.

DAN: The only reason is because the four of us care. Not that other people don’t care, but I think the performance of the entire band in the studio was the key for the CD to come out that way. You know what I mean? It turned out awesome because everybody put so much into it.

MILES: We were really meticulous. We would scrutinize everything. We figured, if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it right. We didn’t worry about money. We figured it would come to us. We just did it until it was right.

DAN: We even went in and redid “Necro Lust.” There was one part where Craig was just a little off. We couldn’t get the electronics to line up, because it was just a little off. So we just decided to go back in. It’s one of the strongest songs so it was worth it.

Do you ever get tired of playing these songs live?

TODD: I’m not tired of them, but we need some new songs to play live.

If you were going to do a cover, live, what would you choose?

CRAIG: I’d love to do a Helmet song. Nobody does Helmet songs. I know they’re an early ‘90’s band, but they’re sweet!

MILES: We’ve talked about doing covers, but it seems like everybody is doing covers. I kind of thought “Dead Man’s Party” would be kind of cool. I’d rather do something really obscure, you know?

DAN: Either “ I Ran” or “Space Age Love Songs” from Flock Of Seagulls.

TODD: I like “I Ran.” Also, I would like to do The Cure’s “Fascination Street.”

Since you’re known for screaming Dan, would it work for you if you ever did a soft song?

DAN: Definitely man, I’d love to.

TODD: We talked about doing something that was just electronics, with just Dan singing.

MILES: Like Filter. They are so heavy and cool, but yet they do songs like “Picture”, which is really cool and moody. But yet, they keep their image. There not being a bunch of wimpy guys.

There has been label interest in ROCKET AJAX. Tell me about it.

TODD: Yeah. There was the whole Artemis thing. There was a lady who worked for them that was in town. She liked us. Interscope, one of the reps from TVT.

What’s come of those?

MILES: Nothing yet. We haven’t been approached. I think right now they’re just watching the band and seeing how we are progressing. The most important thing is that the word is getting out there.

What do you think record labels look the most for in a band?

DAN: Total package. Something they don’t have to put a whole lot of effort into. Local bands that come out, they’re gonna need some help with production and image, stuff like that. But I think labels look for bands that have it together.

CRAIG: I think they look at the market-ability of the band. The way the guys look in the band, the way the guys play together in the band. They look at everything.

MILES: The most important thing they look for is good music. The bottom line is you’ve got to have good songs. Even if your image isn’t quite there yet. If you have good songs that people can relate to, that are unique enough to where you have your own sound, I think that’s what they look for. I think what sets us a part is that while you can hear certain influences in our music, we don’t sound like anybody else. We sound like ROCKET AJAX.