How did Kronow come into being?

JAMES: Ted Beer was the original founder of the band

Ted who? My, my. Why is it I don’t see anybody in the band named Ted?

JAMES: Ok, let’s get this out of the way.

Why did Ted leave the band and I don’t want any bullshit

JAMES:…

Kronow had a different lead singer originally. How did you get the gig?

JAMES: I found these guys on Musicmates. I had just moved to Denver. I had been here about six months. I had tried to get a band started with a guitarist I had known in California. I had convinced him to move out here. We tried to get something going, but he ended up screwing me over in the end. He’s actually the one I wrote the song “Tenfold” about. Anyway, I initially had a tough time finding the right people to play with. Jackie (Ted Beer’s wife) was the one who called me. She asked me some questions and I ended up talking to every one of the guys in the band over the phone. I was auditioning for a bunch of bands like Tripcage, Fomofuiab – I had talked to a lot of bands. Kronow was like the second or third band I auditioned for. I think I ended up in the right place because everything feels right.

RANDY: I rode down here with you on your first audition.

JAMES: That’s right. Randy drove me down here in my truck. I came down here and everything just clicked. They started playing a couple of songs and the cool thing was that they let me re-write all their songs right from the get-go. I said I didn’t even want to here their former lead singer.

Well la dee da, I’m shocked you didn’t want to rename the band The James Brennan Band

(Everybody laughs)

JAMES: (Laughs) No, no, that’s not how it is.The funny thing is I kept auditioning for other bands, but nothing clicked like it did with Kronow. After spending a couple of weeks auditioning for other bands, I came back and played with the guys a couple more times. That was it.

PHIL: I used to come and hang out with the band before I even joined. I was the quiet guy who sat in the corner and watched. I always wanted to be on a stage since I was like 13 years old. The opportunity came about, where they lost their former bassist, and I just fell into the spot because I was here.

RANDY: A new way to join a band! Just hang out long enough until someone leaves! (Everybody laughs)

Who made you want to play bass in the first place?

PHIL: You know, I never really wanted to play bass (everybody laughs). I always wanted to be a guitarist. They asked me to give it a shot, so is said “sure.” As soon as I picked it up, I realized I should have been playing bass all along.

KENNY: I was in a band called Shwa. They were a jam band. These were guys I had been playing with since High School. We started out playing Death Grind.

What was the name of the Death Grind band?

KENNY: We had like 10 different names over a period of time. I think one of them was Demonafuge (laughs). It fit me well because I really liked players like Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Pete Sandoval (Morbid Angel). I was really into learning how to play double bass. I had just bought a double bass pedal and then hooked up with these guys. I played Death Grind for about three years. Eventually, I realized I had my feet going, but my hands weren’t really doing anything, I stopped playing with the guys and started listening to Chic Korea and Neil Peart. That got me interested in studying the jazz side of drumming. If you listen to the early stuff by Rush, you’ll notice Neill has a swing style of playing. Now he can’t swing to save his life, but he’s still one of the greatest drummers of the world. He changed my thinking into realizing I needed to be more “hands on” than “feet on.” So anyway, I started to get into a lot of Jazz stuff. I got into a lot of Free-Form and Fushion styles. Eventually, I started playing with the band again because as fate would have it, they all had started playing Jazz. I had known and played with these guys since I was like 15, but now I’m like, 23 years old. Eventually, I realized I just wanted to play music and not be so technical anymore. My roots have always been on the aggressive side, so that’s how I came back to Metal. Ted eventually approached me. I was doing a lot of fill in work, because I was bored with my band. Ted approached me and told me how they were having problems keeping drummers, so I ended up coming down and playing with them several times and learning the songs. We did a House Of Rock show…

Were you a member of the group at this point?

KENNY: No, I was just a fill in. They had auditioned another drummer, who was going to be like their permanent drummer, but he ended up crushing one of his hands. He delivered raw materials like steel and stuff like that. A couple thousand pounds of this stuff crushed his hand. As fate would have it, I had to keep sitting in with these guys. I didn’t have a problem with it. I was enjoying myself. The only problem I had was I didn’t particularly care for the vocalist.

Randy, tell me about your past as a guitarist.

RANDY: One of my main influences was George Lynch.

Going around the room, tell me the hardest thing about playing your respective instruments

PHIL: The hardest part is keeping locked in with the back beat. It’s really easy to want to go along with whatever the guitarist is playing. The hardest thing is to find that groove behind the beat.

KENNY: The hardest thing for a drummer to learn is knowing when not to play and finding a pocket. Being able to play just a hair behind the beat to provide that pocket. That’s really the hardest thing to learn, because when you’re new, you want to go out there and solo all night.

RANDY: The hardest thing is to be one step ahead. I learned that in the studio – to be one step ahead.

JAMES: The hardest thing to learn as a vocalist is that it either comes or it doesn’t and…to sing in key. If you practice, anyone can “get it,” but to have it naturally and to do it all the time is difficult. Singing harmonies is also tough for a lot of people. I learned a lot being in the studio. Mark Obermeyer is a pain in the ass! (laughs). Here I was, being a pain in the ass with all these guys when they were playing their parts. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. When it came my turn to do my vocals, Mark did the same thing to me (laughs). He made me do it over and over and over. It was difficult, but when I play live now, I’m a thousand times better than I was. I thought I had been singing in key, but when you record it (your voice) you can really hear it. Anybody can growl and scream, but singing in key is the hardest thing to learn and do consistently.

Do you want to be famous James?

JAMES: Fuck yes! Who would not want everything that goes with being a rock star? I mean, being a rock star on a local level is friggin’ cool, but christ, imagine being on a tour bus, having money, playing shows in front of thousands of people, money, chicks, money, drugs, partying, money…(laughter) I mean, I think the coolest part of being famous would be that rush of walking out in front of 10,000 people. I can’t even imagine what that would feel like.

KENNY: All I have to say is be a rock star about three feet to the left of me (laughter).

Let’s talk about the CD “Tenfold.” How did you come up with that name?

JAMES: We tried to come up with a bunch of different names. “Tenfold” is just one of the names of one of our songs. There were ten songs on the CD and it was one of our favorite songs. The name just fit.

What was the approach in recording it?

JAMES: We made the CD with the intent of writing songs that people would remember. It wasn’t about writing a seven minute song that goes through four different time changes. Sometimes that’s cool, but for people to remember your song…the radio fuckin’ knows. They play three minute songs and it’s a formula that works. Some people think it’s tired and lame, but there is a formula to writing music that works. Being a lot of us have influences from the 80’s old school Metal, I think it’s showed up in our music. All of those songs were verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It’s a formula that works and I think it comes through in our music. That’s what the radio wants.

Yeah, but a lot of the stuff that’s on the radio right now is stuff like Disturbed. Kronow doesn’t sound at all like that.

PHIL: I think we’re at our best when we sound like Kronow.

But how much does one blend in order to make it on a national level?

JAMES: I think when you get into a studio with a producer some of that happens. I think a lot of producers are coached by the label to try and make a CD sound a certain way. There has to be a ton of pressure when someone is paying you a ton of money. It comes down to believing in what you do, but being willing to compromise to an extent. Plus, you’ve got to be willing to accept the input from the people who are the pros at doing it. However, if it ever got to the point that we were playing something we didn’t like at all, we wouldn’t. It would defeat the whole purpose of being in a band and playing this kind of music.

You infuse a lot of melody into your Metal. Where does that come from?

JAMES: Randy plays a lot of cool, really clean, melodic, flowing parts. Ted had some really cool, heavy rhythms. And then Randy has some really heavy, low end rhythms. I think when those two styles came together, it just worked. I think it complimented each other well.

PHIL: I think all of us are kind of on the same wavelength. We all kind of are looking for the same feel in our songs.

JAMES: I always knew I didn’t want to just sing or to just scream. I wanted to combine both styles. A lot the lyrics and a lot of the things I write about are things that make you at first feel a little more emotionally introspective, but then really get you pissed off!

Like “American Nightmare?”

JAMES: The music for that song was already written when I joined. It was something the rest of the guys already had. I had a set of lyrics I had written previously. When I heard them play the music for the song, I realized the lyrics I had written fit it perfectly.

What was the inspiration behind the song?

JAMES: I had written those lyrics when I lived in California. Basically everybody in California is taking advantage of the system. In California there are a ton of illegal Mexicans. I have nothing against Mexicans, because none of us are all white. All of us have some Mexican in us and the song isn’t even about Mexicans anyway. It’s partly about illegal immigrants. If you’re not supposed to be in our country and you’re making money, not paying taxes and taking jobs away from Americans, I just can’t stand that. In California you see it everywhere. Americans are fuckin’ Americans too. Anybody that has some kind of problem and is sponging off of other people are part of the American nightmare.

KENNY: I used to be pretty chronic on the weed. In my high school days, I did my fair share of acid, ecstacy -when it was still herbal. I’ve also done speed. I stayed away from anything that had to do with a needle or anything I would have to snort. Just getting hooked on the easy stuff, the gateway drugs created problems for me. To get away from it, I had to stay away from certain bars. I had to start hanging around a crowd where I wouldn’t feel as susceptible to bad influences. If you look around you, you’ll find there are kids – mere high schoolers, that have expensive cars, expensive clothes, already buying houses off of the cocaine they are selling. To see people living off of drugs is the American nightmare.

Let’s talk about something a little more cheerful. James, you once told me you have a ten inch wee wee. Tell me about that.

JAMES: Um…what do you want to know?

Give me a review of your wee wee as if you are reviewing it in a magazine

JAMES: Which magazine?

“Better Homes and Penises”

(Everyone laughs)

JAMES: It has the length of broom handle, the width of a tuna can, it has a wonderful bouquet and flavor (laughs), just enough hair- not too much..

What are your ethnic origins?

JAMES: I’m Irish by heritage, I’m black by penis

(Everybody laughs).

Are you circumcised or uncircumcised?

JAMES: I’m circumcised. I’ve never even seen an uncircumcised penis. I couldn’t imagine my dick having extra stuff on it.

You look like one of those kind of guys that shaves his balls. Do you shave your balls?

JAMES: No I don’t.

Do any of your Kronow mortals liked shaved vaginas?

PHIL: Anything trimmed nice. I like it groomed. I want something that’s pretty to look at, not something I get lost in.

JAMES: The hardwood floors are OK, but I like a patch.

RANDY: I don’t like that 70’s style, hairy shit, but I like a little mohawk.

KENNY: Shaved or at least just a little strip. A landing strip (laughs).

What’s the freakiest sexual experience any of you have had?

RANDY: I once had sex in a closet. I was giving this chick a backrub and the next thing you know, I was in the closet, bangin’ away. (laughter)

PHIL I’m still a virgin

(Everyone laughs)

KENNY: It was a park bench

RANDY: You fucked a park bench?

KENNY: (Laughs) Yeah!…um…I don’t want to incriminate myself any further so I’ll just say I’m a typical drummer. Any time, any place is fine with me!

JAMES: Well this wasn’t the craziest thing that ever happened to me, but the craziest thing that almost happened to me. When I was in college, I was in a fraternity. There was this one girl I met. I was walking up some stairs, she said “nice ass.” The next thing I knew, we were fucking. (laughter). But, the thing that was so weird was I fucked her in a coffin.

COOL!

JAMES: We had a theme party in our fraternity house and had a coffin sitting in the living room. It was three in the morning so that’s where we fucked. Yeah, but then it gets really weird. I went out with her for like a month or so. One night, I woke up and she was straddling me, sitting on my stomach holding a knife – checking out how sharp it was. So I’m like, “what the hell are you doing?’ and she said, ” I want to carve a swastika in your chest and have the blood blow all over us while we have sex.

(Everyone groans in unison)

This is clearly an acceptable request!

JAMES: I said, “I’m gone…see ya!” (laughs).

All you straight mortal men are alike. Can someone please explain why it’s considered normal to see two women having sex together but two men having sex together is perverted and gross?

KENNY: Because there are two dicks involved.

Yeah but dicks are a beautiful thing.

KENNY: No…there not!

JAMES: Women are just incredibly, fuckin’ beautiful. They are graceful, they are sexy, they are curvy, they’re soft in the right places

Yeah but a vagina looks like a goddamn hatchet wound!

(Everybody laughs)

JAMES: Well, you’re not supposed to look at the vagina, you’re supposed to feel the vagina. You focus on the titties, the face and the stomach – though there’s nothing wrong with looking at a vagina either, quite honestly. Dicks look like some weird growth.

RANDY: If it smells like cologne, you leave it alone. If it smells like fish, you put it on a dish!

(Everybody laughs)