Eulogy interview

EULOGY IS ONE OF THESE PROMISING BANDS, THAT WERE NOT ENOUGH LUCKY TO GET AS BIG AS THEIR FELLOWS FROM TAMPA IN BEST TIME FOR DEATH METAL, EARLY NINETEES. NOR THEY DID GET ENOUGH CULT BAND, LIKE SAY GOREAPHOBIA. DESPITE THESE INCONVIENIENCES, JARRETT DID NOT DISARM. NOW, WITH NEW LINEUP, STRONGER THAN EVER HE ONCE AGAIN CHALLENGES THE FLORIDA DEATH METAL THRONE. AND THE WEAPON FOR INITIAL BATTLES IN THE CAMPAIGN ARE THREE TRACKS OF PURE DEATH METAL IN WELL KNOWN WAY. HERE`S THE GENERAL HIMSELF WITH HIS OWN WORDS ON PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF EULOGY...



HI THERE JARRETT, HOW WAS YOUR DAY?

Not to bad. I worked all day, I work as an engineer and tour and work in a mastering studio mixing and mastering records. I work with the guy who mastered Necrophagists first record.

IT WAS QUITE A BREAK IN EULOGY ACTIVITIES SINCE OLD DAYS. WHAT WAS IT CAUSED WITH, AND WHAT WERE YOUR CONTACTS WITH DEATH METAL SCENE ALL THESE YEARS?

Well, I guess thats a 2 part question. Part one what caused it. Being homeless, the scene just getting stale and everything sounding alike and so many shitty bands getting record deals and the good ones putting out shitty records. Defiantly differences of opinion about what needed to be done musically. I was very into speed and just being different. Others were of the opinion that I was going to fast that I needed to make it more accesable. I always think thats funny as hell considering what came next in the rise of black metal and more technical wave of grind core. Eventually I just decided that I wanted to engineer and give it a rest. I think for a while there I got very mellow also and I think you need a certain fury to write and play and contribute something dark and vicious and genuine... when those feelings calm down or subside I think you shoud stop as opposed to releasing or writing a bunch of bullshit generic filler and calling it death metal... just my opinion.
My ties to the scene over the years... well lets just say that alot of my friends were very well known and of course we always kept in touch. I would of course go out and see them play or whatever. I mastered `The Age of Miracles has passed` for Lecherous Nocturne, I mastered the Harkonin Records, ahhhhm I am the American FOH (sound guy) for 1349. I did a run this winter with Suffocation and mixed the mighty Goatwhore along with Thy Will Be Done. I mixed Suffocation for Fuel TV, I tracked some of the last Ressurection album... Just a few things here and there. Like I said obviously playing and being part of the Tampa scene I had alot of friends in Bands who did very well and we stayed friends...

ARE YOU IN TOUCH WITH GUYS FROM EARLY LINE UP?

Off and on. Clayton and I are still very good friends. He is the drummer for Harkonin from ST Louis. I am actually mixing the new Harkonin album now. I don`t talk to the rest of the guys much. Not for any reason really just differant paths.

WHY ARE YOU STILL INTO DEATH METAL? THERE WOULD BE SO MANY NEW/MODERN GENRES IN EXTREME MUSICK TO PICK FROM?

That is a good question. I wouldn`t pigeon hole myself into saying that I`m into any one kind of music. I like all kinds of things. Alot of things I`m sure your readers would be like `What!!!!!!?????` but that`s my deal. I like the Death metal, I have always liked. I am very ancient and old school in that way... I should say though that I think Lecherous Nocturne are one of the most bad ass bands ever and I totally love what those guys are doing. Into Death Metal... When I started writing the music for my band Eulogy there was not really a concious decision to be metal. I was a total Punk Rock dude in the 80`s I was just into fury and being berzerk. I was really into the Accused. From there it took me to Kreator. It was a very gradual natural progression, I guess I`m into death metal at least what I write because it`s natural to me... I don`t know. Like I said I got really bored with the whole scene for a while and I really just stuck to listening to what I had always listened to-Frost, Voivod, Possesed, At the Gates, Morbid Angel, Ripping Corpse, Entombed, Acid Bath, Human Remains, Neurosis, but also alot of other things... Especially like Nebula, Fu manchu, High on Fire, Sleep, Kyuss, alot of older music 70s rock.

NOW LET`S GET INTO CURRENT BANDS ACTIVITIES. YOU CAN HARDLY SAY IT`S REUNION, SINCE LINE-UP NOWADAYS IS DIFFERENT, DOESN`T IT? HOW DID YOU COME TOGETHER WITH ROB, MIKE AND TONY TO REFORM A BAND?


My initial intention was to have a reunion of my original band. Didn`t work out. People had gone places in thier lives that prevented them from being a part of it. Rob was interested because I guess the guys in Cannibal always supported us and were into what we were doing, Tony has been a friend for a long time as well and to me filling Clayton gore`s shoes was a tall order, and I`m not talking about the speed or the blasting or the doubles or the dumb shit people get so obbsessed with and loose sight of PLAYING and ORIGINALITY. Clayton was a very original styled drummer and we clicked musically very well... I was unsure I would be able to even come close to finding someone technically gifted and that I connected with on that level. I got lucky Tony and I had been friends for a long time and we jammed and checked it out and it worked and it was the way to go. Mike P was suggested to me by a few people and I contacted him and he was down and... Well there you go.

WHO IS MAILNY RESPONSIBLE FOR SONGWRITING AND HAW CAN YOU COMPARE OLD EULOGY WITH NOWADAYS INCARNATION OF IT?

The Songwriting has always primarily been me, I think the riffing and the note progressions and the feel is very similar to what I have always done. I think of course the new stuff is better written song wise and of course a little more fulltilt but that all came about with me and a drum machine doing demos. There was no limit to what I could get the machine to do so I wrote around whatever I thought would work.

YOU HAVE QUITE BADASS LINE UP IN EULOGY BUT GUYS ARE QUITE BUSY WITH THEIR OTHER BANDS. WON`T IT BE A OBSTACLE FOR EULOGY DEVELOPMENT, ALSO IN TERMS OF LIVE PERFORMANCES?

Yes the guys are all busy and so am I with engineering and touring. However we will just have to see what happens. If there is an interest in seeing the band live or us putting out an album I am sure we will figure it out. Of course I would like to see it happen but I knew when I asked these guys to play that it would be hard... Some things are not about the end it`s about the means.. its the journey. I would love to tour and play live and we probably will.

YOU HAVE RECORDED 3 TRACKS. DO YOU SPREAD THEM IN ANY HARD-COPY WAY EXPECT MYSPACE. ALSO ARE THEY GOING TO BE OFFICIALLY RELEASED? BY WHOM AND WHEN?

As of right now those songs are not even mixed. What is up on the site are rough mixes just to see if anyone was listening. I don`t have an answer I`m sure when we are out on tour (Tony and Myself with 1349 in april we will talk about it and possibly make some decisions) so the songs are not out or released at all yet.

CAN WE EXPECT FULL LENGHT FORM EULOGY? DO YOU HAVE MORE STUFF WRITTEN? ARE SOME OF OLD SONGS GOING TO BE USED?


That is the Idea. I actually wrote 11 songs total. When I decided to open this up again I sat down for about 3 months and just wrote. I told you above I had to wait until the fury returned and it did so I wrote it. We may play some of the old stuff but as you said aside from me having written for both incarnations it really is a differant band... Maybe though.

SOME IN 1994 WHEN I WAS MAKING INTIE WITH LEE OF MONSTROSITY AND ASKED HIM FOR SOME NEWCOMING BANDS FROM HIS AREA, HE WAS LIKE `EULOGY IS REALLY RECCOMENDABLE!`. WHAT WAS YOUR FEELINGS THEN, YOUR EXPECTATIONS ON THE BAND AND ARE THEY THE SAME?

I was alot younger then of course and really hopeful and driven to do whatever it took and as I said before I just decided that I was in the minority as far as being willing to be homeless or to get in the van and starve or whatever and to play anywhere... I knew thats what it would take. Looking back I am happy we never got a proper record deal like so many around us... I think the labels were just signing anyone and then not really giving it the push and truthfully it was all begining to sound alike down here with a few exceptions. I always thought Monstrosity were a great band. I think in those days my head was a bit clouded with the idea of `making it` or whatever you would call it... Now I just don`t give a shit. I strictly write what I want to hear. If everyone or anyone else likes it cool, Thank you and I appreciate it... As for the expectations... I expect to write cool songs and jam with my friends and put it out and hope some people dig it but ultimatly I write it and play it for me....

ALSO DID YOU HAVE THE FEELING OF BEING IN THE CENTRE OF DEATH METAL MAELSTORM, AS OF POSITION OF FLORIDA IN DEATH METAL SCENE?

I was of course aware of it all. But I`m not the kind of person who really focuses on how the people looking in are seeing it. I was in Tampa where I lived playing in a band. Enjoying hanging out with alot of other great bands. I knew it was over saturated, I knew my band were out of our minds, I knew that there were stupid local politics going on just like in any other thing and I knew that we were supposedly a hot spot. However I liked alot of music that didn`t have anything to do with Florida: Immolation, early Incantation, Entombed, Carcass, At the Gates to name a few, so the fact that we were here was kind of just whatever. Of course now I hear years later about what other parts of the country were like and I feel lucky that we had the scene we had but at the time I was not really thinking along those lines.

LAST WORD FROM YOU TO READERS AND A FEW WORDS ON BANDS PLANS FOR NEXT MONTHS?

Well like I said I am hoping to getting around to mixing the demo and I am going on tour with 1349, Skeleton Witch and Lecherous Nocturne running sound supporting Cannibal Corpse in April. Hopefully we will make some decisions and a plan for the band this summer. I would like to complete the album and have it released with some decent distribution and to tour. Last words... If you`re interested or you ever listened to it or like it I thank you that means we have something in common because that means that you connected or got or undertoood something I was expressing at a moment in time. That means that what I felt writing it you felt by hearing it. If your coming to any of the shows look for me behind FOH and say hey whats up or whatever and thanx for reading!!!!