Brent and Boyd, you are brothers. Your Mother must have been fooling around with the mailman, cuz you don’t look or sound even remotely alike.

BOYD: The reason for that is I’m a real man and Brent is a pretend man (Laughs)

BRENT: Boyd looks more like the mailman (laughs)

Are brother’s wee wees genetically alike? Do you both have look alike wee wees?

BRENT: I have specifically avoided seeing Boyd naked my whole life. Seeing Dan naked was the most traumatic thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life.

BOYD: I haven’t seen my brother naked and that’s the honest to God truth. I have seen Dan wearing Speedo’s or something like that (laughs) a long time ago. That has scarred me forever as well (laughs)

You guys run the Colorado Heavy Metal Committee. How did that come into being?

BOYD: Actually we ended up leading it because I got drunk. I took over the situation and had everyone vote for Brent. (Laughs)

BRENT: It was a suggestion from Jimzilla of Malignari and Shane who was with Sodomy of Christ. They all suggested it at COMA (Colorado Music Association) meeting. We planned the first meeting at Woody’s (bassist of Cold Moon) Whoever wanted to show up did, and in the first meeting we decided someone needed to be elected. I ended up getting picked.

Since then, you’ve expressed a lot of disappointment in lack of support from the metal community.

BRENT: Well it was really exciting the first two meetings. The first meeting there was 14 people. The second one was at the Ogden. N.I.P.P. and Russ Austin were kind enough to let us have it there. There were over 50 people there. It was really exciting. Things started out great. We continued to have meetings on a monthly basis but the attendance started to drop off. Fewer and fewer people started showing up. It came to the point where I was really wondering if it was really worth my time to baby-sit these people. I decided it wasn’t worth it to me. At the last meeting we had, one person from a local band showed up, aside from Rod Brown, Boyd and I. I expressed my discontent at the COMA meeting. I actually got a lot of email responses. All you people out there reading this, I’m gonna email you back.

Is there still interest?

BRENT: Yeah. There’s interest from people that haven’t been a part of it before. We are gonna have another meeting and see what happens with that.

Do you think the metal community likes to bitch, even if things are going OK?

BOYD: From what I can tell, it goes from a band to band basis. Some bands bitch about every little thing and some bands just roll with the punches. I think there’s good times for a band to bitch and bad times for a band to bitch. There are plenty of things for everyone to bitch about. Then again, bitching about it isn’t gonna get anything done so…

Do you think the metal scene here is healthy?

DAN: It could be better. After being involved with the metal scene for a couple of years, there’s a superficial cohesion. There is some cohesion but as soon as someone has to work and do something that’s gonna benefit somebody else and maybe themselves at the same time, (they act as if) it’s not worth it. If something is gonna help them, then yeah, they’ll support it.

Why do you think that is?

DAN: Because it’s the nature of American youth. I feel a lot of kids today, even people my age have had everything handed to us. We have a strong economy; we are the best country in the world. Everybody’s parents have had jobs; nobody has had to starve. People expect to have everything- we live in a microwave society. If my hamburger takes longer than 4 minutes, I’m angry. So if somebody isn’t suddenly a rock star

WAITRESS: Are you guys OK?

DAN: …Yeah we’re fine…If we aren’t suddenly rock stars there must be something wrong. It can’t be our fault. Somebody else isn’t discovering us…Know what I’m saying?

Which local bands do you feel have their shit together?

BRENT: Serberus. It’s interesting watching them. They’re doing so many things right. Their shows are amazing. They are doing something unique. I think they got it together. It will be interesting to see what happens with them.

Who in Serberus do you think is the most well hung?

DAN: I can definitely say that Cory has got some…meatage (laughs)

How do you know? Tell me about it. I promise, I won’t print it. It will just be our secret.

DAN: A gentleman never tells (Laughs)

Oh man! You’ve left me all high and hard. OK let’s go to a more basic question. How did ANOMY start?

BOYD: All three of us have different thoughts on how we started (laughs) It was such a long time ago, that we really don’t remember (more laughter)

Why don’t you each give me your version?

BOYD: As far as my point of view, ANOMY started when Dan and I started jamming. I have no idea what year that was. I was in 7th grade, so it was like, ’90?

BRENT: Here’s my version: Being I am the older, wiser brother, I remember things more accurately (laughs). All three of us all went to the same church. That’s how we met. Dan performed a song he wrote, acoustically, no lyrics. It interested me a lot because I wanted to play guitar. I met Dan after one of the services and he said, “Yeah, let’s jam sometime” So we ended up bringing our guitars to church services. For a few weeks we would practice there. Dan taught me some Led Zeppelin stuff. My earliest memories are of Led Zeppelin and old Metallica. Boyd had been playing drums for a couple of years by that time. Him and Dan had already met and had formed a band together. They left me in the dust (laughs)

DAN: The way I remember it was that my father, who’s a very religious man…he loves everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe. He wanted to reach out to the youth and he thought the best way to do that was through the pop culture. At that time, Stryper was hitting it big but were quite controversial. My father thought there would be no better way to bridge the gap then to play some Stryper. So we had this gentleman in the youth group who was a very talented pianist. We got a little group together. Boyd was the drummer. I distinctly remember practicing with Brent in the (church) basement. Him and I jamming, learning Led Zeppelin covers, Metallica covers.

Who came up with the name ANOMY?

BRENT: I did.

What does “ANOMY” mean?

BRENT: Social instability resulting from a break down of morals and standards. Also, personal unrest and alienation.

How do you classify your brand of metal?

BRENT: We’ve always struggled with what we are and we’re always going through changes too. We have a lot of acoustic stuff and a lot of heavy stuff…some Gothic influences. But we never knew what to call it.  We knew we would need to be able tell somebody who asked us what we were, so we just came up with the term “post progressive dark metal”. “Metal” obviously comes because we can be heavy. The “dark” part comes from the Gothic influence. I write most of the lyrics and that tells you a little about my background. The “progressive” term comes from the fact that we’re progressive to a certain extent. We have a lot of time changes, signature changes…we do a lot of switching around between styles. I call it “Post progressive” because we end up combining all the styles.

Is there any Rush influence?

BOYD: As far as drums go, my biggest influences come from Lars Ulrich. Pantera, Dream Theatre and Rush are also influences. That’s pretty much what I’ve listened to over the last 10 years and what I listened to now, every day.

What about you two Brent and Dan? What are your influences?

BRENT: I grew up on Heavy Metal strictly. I never even listened to anything besides Metal until I got to college. At that time I really got into Goth and Industrial. I appreciate a lot of stuff. I like really heavy stuff and really soft stuff. I like bands that can combine both. Acid Bath is one of my favorite bands.

DAN: I have a very large range of things I listen too. Popular music has always been a part of my life. It’s not necessarily my passion, but it’s something I’m familiar with. In my younger days I unfortunately went through my Glam rock phase of listening to Warrant, Firehouse and all those guys. It doesn’t really influence my playing though. I remember when I first heard (Metallica’s) “Fade To Black” it changed my entire perspective on guitar. These guys introduced me to Pantera. That really heavy crunch guitar is a really big influence on me. But as far as just listening, I’ve listened to everything across the board. I even like Broadway musicals (laughs)

(Maris The Great’s zombie cell phone rings)

Hello…oh everyone, it’s Kale Lacroux, lead singer from Mazard. (Speaks into the receiver) I’m interviewing ANOMY right now. Do you have a question for one of them?…(listening) Oh, OK. Kale directs this question to Brent. He wants to know:
How disturbed were you as a child to act the way you do in general?

(Everybody laughs)

BRENT: I don’t really think it was my childhood that was to blame. I think it was…

DAN: A lack of pussy (Everybody laughs) It’s been so long since Brent has had sex that he’s starting to wonder if it’s different than he remembers (Much laughter).

BRENT: I think it was my sheltered lifestyle. When I went to college, I was able to broaden my horizons a bit. I broke out of a shell, I think.
(Into the receiver) Thank you Kale. I will call you back after the interview…what’s that?…Oh, OK.
Kale wants everybody reading this to know that Mazard are playing this Friday (4/20/01) at Cricket on the Hill.

Rod Brown recently told me that you’re gay, Brent. Tell me about that.

BRENT: Well…I have no comment on that (laughs) No…But I’d probably get laid a lot more if I were gay huh?
Oh man, green makeup and staples are the way to get pussy, let me tell ya! (Much laughter)

BRENT: (Laughs) It’s frustrating being straight sometimes…Uh, I don’t know what Rod’s background is on that. Maybe I shouldn’t have moved in with him (laughs)

I didn’t know you live with him.

BRENT: Yeah I do. He’s a FANTASTICALLY awful roommate (Laughs)

What’s the name of the new CD?

BRENT: “Promulgations Of A Self Consuming Misanthrope”. Promogate is to make public, to publicize. A misanthrope is a person who hates mankind, in general. “Self-consuming” I stole from Moby Dick. There’s this great line in there describing “boiling the whale fat”. It’s a line that nobody reads because it’s about whale fat. It described the flames because they were self-consuming. It just was really interesting. So I see a self-consuming misanthrope as a person who hates mankind but is really focused on themselves.

You guys seem to be too happy to have such sad music.

DAN: We’re young Christian boys. You go to church and put on a great face your whole entire life, no matter how awful things are at home. No matter how bad things are in your personal life.

BRENT: I’m not Christian, but I was raised Christian. As soon as you start to think for yourself and you see the world, at least from my perspective, it’s not a great place to live. I sing about the things that affect me. I write the lyrics, so it’s not really a reflection on Dan and Boyd, but I can’t write about anything other than what I know. What I know is it’s not such a great world, and that’s what I write about.

What religious, spiritual or lack of belief do each of you subscribe to?

BOYD: I really don’t have any beliefs other than treat people the way you want to be treated at all times. No matter what the situation is. That’s something I use in every part of my life.

BRENT: I am an extreme atheist.

DAN: The only thing I believe is we don’t know what we don’t know. And we don’t know what we know. There is no answer. Nobody can come up with the answer. I’m kind of a biologist by nature. I believe in the scientific method. I don’t want to rule out any possibilities. I personally want there to be a God. I want there to be a Jesus Christ, who’ll forgive me for all I’ve done. However, I don’t think there’s direct evidence of that. I’m paranoid about believing in something that 100 years from now that people will think is the same as the Incas believing in the sun god or something like that.

Let’s go through the new CD song by song. What can you reflect upon with each song?

BRENT: “Hatred And Contempt” It’s a song about misanthropy- hating mankind in general. It’s really blatant. It’s the most political one we have really. I try to stay away from politics and religion in general, but this is the one song that was a summary of everything I despise. That includes sports, religion, wasted hope in some…government…whatever. It’s summed up in this one song. The stupidity of just following the herd bothers me a lot.

DAN: That comes from a guy who wants to be different, so he wears black like everybody else (much laughter)

BRENT: “Bile”. This song is really traumatic for me. It’s really a personal one. It almost is embarrassing for me to have people to hear it because it’s like a piece of my diary or something. Throughout my life I’ve always been very unsuccessful with women. One of the most recent experiences that happened to me…

WAITRESS: Can I get you guys anything?

BOYD: Can I have chocolate milk?

WAITRESS: Sure.

BRENT:…so anyway, I had this friend who tried to fix me up with one of her friends. So we met and had a really good time but it just didn’t really work out. It was just another reminder that I didn’t want to deal with it any longer. That song is pieces of poetry that I’ve written throughout my life about every single girl that has rejected me. I pulled it all together and wrote some extra lyrics. It’s a summary of my life with woman.

BRENT: “Cyclothymia”

DAN: Cyclothymia is a psychological term. It’s not manic-depressive; it’s not bi-polar. It’s above average mood swings. A lot of people are cyclothymic that are having trouble with work. They’re not euphoric, but they’ll be on the upper end of happiness and then they go to…they won’t be depressed, but they’ll be on the middle of the lower end. It’s a little more severe than the average person. This song is basically about ups and downs.

Let me stop for a moment and ask Boyd something. Boyd, have you ever had a woman lick your anus?

BOYD: I have not personally, no.

Why do you think that is?

BOYD: Because I date quality women.

What if a woman wanted to do that to you?

BOYD: I would have no problem participating in that.

OK back to the songs!

BRENT: “A True Friend”. Boyd actually wrote the lyrics for that one.

BOYD: “A True Friend” I wrote the music, minus the solo and some other shit. I wrote the lyrics too. What it’s about is I had a good friend who helped me out when I was seriously fucked up, head-wise. She really helped me out and helped me figure out what things are. I wrote that song to her pretty much but what it’s really come to mean to me now is what a true friend should really be.

BRENT: “Gothic Winter” is the next song. It’s actually the oldest song we’ve recorded that we still play. Lyrically, it’s a fictionalization of the change I went through college where I was strictly metal. There was a girl there that was Goth. I’d never seen a girl that was Goth in my life. I was in love. She was so hot. She was wearing all black and all that kind of stuff. Purple tinted hair. The song is basically a summary, fictionalization to a certain extent. It was basically about me going from Metal to Goth.

BRENT: The next song is “Mountains of Madagascar”. The song is about making mistakes in your life. Regardless of what it is you can never take it back. There’s always someone that knows about it. Maybe over time they’ll forget about it, but just knowing that they still know is always going to remind you that you made that mistake. The parallelism is to the Mountains of Madagascar, which in the early 1900’s were heavily deforested. They were beautiful, originally, but now there is serious erosion there. It’s the idea that there is a mistake you can make that you can never take back.

Cool. Let me ask Boyd another question. Boyd, what time of the day do you think you are most likely to masturbate?

BOYD: It’s really about when I have time, which really doesn’t happen that often. Morning, night, middle of the day, whenever I have time, I smack it around (Laughs)

BRENT: I love this! I never get the hard questions (Laughs). OK…the last song is “Epilogue”. I wrote a lot of that one just before we went into the studio. It started out as kind of a joke. My friend who set me up with this girl, back in “Bile” (laughs), we were at this show and this metal band was playing a set of acoustic material. I thought it was wonderful. They were amazing musicians. She thought it was crap. So, I was like, “I’m gonna write you an acoustic song”. (Laughs) you know, just to spite her.

DAN: So Brent had the bass line and the general feeling of the song. I was struggling coming up with the guitar part that would match his vision. The chords were so powerful that I knew there had to be something done with it that was special. When we were in the studio Dave our producer got so excited about the chords that I handed him the guitar and he tried a few things. That inspired me. That’s how the guitar parts came about. Dave was really the key. He really captured the feeling we were going for. We played off of each other. That’s how the duel guitar parts came about.

Boyd, you have a rather hot, butch pick up truck. Have you ever had sex in it?

BOYD: Well actually, I’ve had sex in every vehicle I’ve ever had.

When was the last time you had sex in your truck?

BOYD: The Chevy? About a month ago I…

DAN: Shhhh! This is suppose to be our secret (Much laughter)

Let’s talk about Erebus Music. What’s the mission?

BRENT: Erebus music was initially Erebus records. We did research and found out a lot about how labels work especially the major labels. It was pretty apparent to us; you don’t want to go the route of a major label, even if you have the opportunity because they will suck the blood out of you. So we started Erebus Records several years ago as a way to promote ANOMY. It was just gonna be our record label. If it worked out, we would do other bands and stuff. We saw tons of great talent in Denver. We knew there was something there. It evolved to the point that it became a real financial burden to do something like that. So Erebus Records turned into Erebus music. We found there was a need for live sound re-enforcement. We started wanting to build a studio. We got a lot of mics. We found they were great for live performances. We invested in a great PA that people rent from us now. We actually booked a club for awhile. We are involved in all aspects of the music scene that way. We’re doing a lot of shows at The Raven. We’ve done the Bug (Theatre).

BOYD: Erebus music is a major resource for anybody in the local scene. We do know a lot of people. We have phone numbers, contacts, how to do this, how to do that. We’re really down to help anybody with anything. If it’s answering your questions, if we can’t answer it we know someone who can.

Let’s talk about Throat Culture Mag.

BRENT: We got involved several issues ago. I did an interview with Seraphim Shock. That was my first involvement with it. We saw that they had needs that we could help out with, plus our understanding of the music scene. We knew as much as they did. It keeps on going through changes. With every issue we keep on redefining what our roles are gonna be. Right now, I do office manager type of stuff. Just handling all the day to day type of operations as far as that goes. I also maintain the web site. I built the website.

BOYD: I kind of keep the schedule as close to what it’s suppose to be as I can. I work with the editor and make sure everyone is on the same page. The biggest part of what I do is…I do the advertising, I’m the sales manager, I’m also the distribution manager. I’m trying to not only sell space to the magazine, but also sell the magazine abroad. We’ve got a lot of distributors; it’s an international magazine. Talk to me if you have further questions.

What type of porno do all of you like?

BOYD: I love lesbians. Lesbian’s kick ass. Lesbians with toys are even better.

DAN: I’m more into the softer side of pornography. Things like Playboy women. I’m not really into hard core pornography. For me it’s not about watching or talking about it, it’s about doing it (laughs) So I love seeing young lovely ladies. But when they are in my hands, that’s when the real porno starts (much laughter).

BRENT: Porno for me is a real weird thing. I’ve never felt comfortable with misogyny. I’ve never felt comfortable objectifying women like that. It’s something that really bothers me. This is gonna sound really strange but I’ve owned only ONE porno magazine for about four years now. That’s all I’ve bought. That’s all I need. It’s enough to do what I need to do (Laughter)

Where do you keep it? Do you hide it?

BRENT: Of course I hide it. I don’t want Rod to find it (Laughs) No really…I’m so self-conscious about it that I move it around. I don’t want anyone to find it. (Laughter)

BOYD: Well I’ve got a shit load of porn because I’m a carpenter (Laughter) My girlfriend got me a subscription to a very good porno magazine.

Which one?

BOYD: Uh…“Cherry”. I have all of them in my desk. It’s all in order because I’m kind of anal about everything being in order.

Is it all alphabetized?

BOYD: It’s not alphabetized but it’s all in dates. I can tell when my brother has been looking through it (Laughs) I don’t care as long as it’s put back (laughter) and as long as none of the pages are stuck together (More laughter)