I never realized it before, but after looking at the video for “A Certain Death,”, you look pretty damn hot behind bars. Have you done any time?

Mattress Pounder (Karl Schubach): Well it seems the only time I’ve done is in the jail cell of your cold dead heart. It appears that I’m serving a life sentence. Am I wrong?

You have spoken correctly!…If you and I were doing time together as cell mates, who would get the top bunk and who would be on the…ahem…bottom?

Mattress Pounder: I could only dream of being caught up in such a situation. I can’t think of anything better than spending 24 hours a day in a 6×9 cell with a gay zombie. Little known fact: I’m a little afraid of heights, so the …ahem…top bunk would be all yours ……unless you wanted to share the bottom with me.

Well now I’m all goose-bumpy. So….If we wanted to have a necromantic night alone in our cell, would you play a song like “Worlds and Dreams.”….or …”Ebb and Flow?…or what is the ultimate romantic night in a prison cell song from Misery Signals?

Mattress Pounder: Ebb & Flow would definitely be the “ultimate romantic night in a prison cell” jam! Admit it, the clean vocals make your zombie boner swell to epic proportions.

Indeed they do! So why did the Japanese mortals get that song acoustically, as an extra track?

Mattress Pounder: As far as I understand, the whole reason Japanese versions of albums get extra content to combat the importing of CD’s from other countries. Records over there tend to release months later than their release dates in the US and Canada. So, to keep record sales up in Japan, they stuff the cd full of extra stuff to insure people over there buy them.

Ahhh…I see. Well, aside from your desire to attract the gay undead, where did your desire to sing clean on some of the tracks come from?

Mattress Pounder: I never had any sort of desire to sing cleanly. But every time I listened to the demos of what turned out to be “A Certain Death” and “Ebb & Flow”, there were parts where I just kept hearing these melodies in my head. When it came time to record the vocals, I laid them down and Devin Townsend (who produced Controller) was blown away. So we just rolled with it!

You are really a good singer, in both styles. Is it difficult to reconcile the two in your shows?

Mattress Pounder: The only problem I have is when we run into shitty run-down clubs that lack monitors on the front of the stage. Not being able to hear myself poses a problem. I can only compare the result to a cat on a hot tin roof.

When you have an orgasm, is your voice sound more like the heavy growl side of your vocals, or the clean side? ….or do you scream like a little girl?

Mattress Pounder: You’ll have to get me black out drunk/slip something in my drink and maybe you’ll find out for yourself.

Don’t tempt me!…I know this is a generic, boring question, but what are some influences that give the band it’s sound?

Mattress Pounder: We all, individually, have very contrasting influences. But the bands that we all can agree on that we take influence from collectively are Deftones, Cave In, and Shai Hulud. Anything that’s heavy with a lot of melody.

Who did the beautiful video for “Worlds and Dreams?”

Mattress Pounder: What beautiful video? (laughs) We have only shot music videos for “A Certain Death,” “Anchor,” “The Failsafe,” and “The Year Summer Ended In June.”

Oh…I found this one…

Mattress Pounder: Well, we didn’t do that one. It’s quite good though. Maybe you and our guitarist, Stu, could film the OFFICIAL Worlds & Dreams video. We’ll make it too hot for YouTube. I have now spoken.

For a band at your level, you videos are really well-done. Who comes up with the concepts?

Mattress Pounder: Our guitar player, Ryan, is the Art Department of Mis Sigs. So he usually handles these sorts of things. He always has some sort of crazy vision or concept that he wants to develop and portray through our music. Seems to be working out thus far.
You have the kind of face I could see in film. If you had your choice of being in a certain type of movie and play a certain type of character, what would you choose?

Mattress Pounder: Aww, Maris, that’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me…..It’s really creeping me out. I always figured I’d make a good Stiffler (American Pie) or a character similar to that. Though I’m sure you’d rather see me in a role like Leonardo DiCaprio ala Titanic…..only with more nudity.

You have spoken correctly! Now that Controller has been out for awhile, how do you see it?

Mattress Pounder: I haven’t listened to the actual record itself in the longest time. You get so used to playing the songs live, night after night, that when you finally go back and listen to the record it’s like hearing the songs for the first time again. I’m really proud of Controller. Though it was the second MS record I’ve been on, I feel like it was the first record I could call my own. Fans all over the world have embraced it. The new songs have been going over exceptionally well live, and all the kids love to sing along. It’s a great feeling.