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Interview with LIVID By Caren Spitler June 29, 1999 - Arriving in Anaheim a little past 9:30 I pulled up to your typical building that rents out rehearsal spaces. A non-descript, industrial-looking bungalow with heavy doors. There were people hanging around (other musicians). Outside you could hear a bastard amalgamation of the various bands blending together. I asked someone to point out where Livid might be. I found the room, and although the door was tightly shut, the sonic force that is Livid was pounding it’s way out. Inside, the band was rehearsing with their "signature" candles to help the mood. After finishing their song, sharing a break, and a little "BS", we started the interview. |
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Hey guys, I guess we’ll start by having you all introduce yourselves. SMOKIE: My name is Smokie, I play the bass. JIM: Jim, on drums. VAYPER: Vayper, on guitar. SIZZO: I’m Sizzo, I sing. How did the four of you meet? SIZZO: I knew Jim from work. I was never into music. I always wanted to be in a band, but never took the initiative. I didn’t have the self-esteem or whatever it took to say, ‘ hey I think I can sing and let everybody hear me, and feel okay about it’. I played with a couple of guys before-friends-but that fell through. I called Jim and he said ‘Yeah, come down and see what I’m doing’. We played together for a while, then Rob (Smokie), came into the picture. SMOKIE: I got hooked up with these two guys (Sizzo, and Jim) through a friend of mine form a band I was in before. And I knew the guitar player, the previous guitar player. We had another project before the one we are in now. We had two guitar players, we ended up wanting to be just a one guitar band. When he left the project, that’s when we really became what we are now. SIZZO: The four of us grew as a family and he just grew in a different direction. VAYPER: The guy who got Smokie in the band was the same guy who got me hooked up. SIZZO: And now he’s not with us anymore. JIM: It was just four guys going one direction and on guy going the other. SMOKIE: We’re all still totally cool with him, we all get along and everything How long have the four of you been together as Livid? EVERYONE: One year! SIZZO: Oh my God we are playing on The Warped tour on our one year anniversary! How do you prepare for you shows? What gets you amped? VAYPER: Normally we drink Jack and Coke. SIZZO: The day of the show , like before we go on. JIM: See, they can do that. SMOKIE: He doesn’t, our drummer doesn’t drink anything. JIM: Nada ! VAYPER: He keeps us in check! We smoke a couple of joints, drink some Jack & Coke, that’s it. Maybe I’ll do jumping jacks a couple of times. SIZZO: I will go out to my truck and sing to warm up. I just started doing that, I used to just go right out. And we’ll hang out with the kids a lot. Before shows we’re always out there hanging out with the people. Meeting new people. JIM: I prefer before a show not to go anywhere near the stage. I don’t wanna watch anything being set up. I don’t wanna watch it all come to a head. I wanna stay calm, stay in the back, warm up and relax, and then just go out. SIZZO: I wish I could do that, I’m like "Candle Boy", I guess. I get to light ‘em all up move ‘em around and then knock ‘em all down. SMOKIE: We usually get five to ten minutes before we play, we know everything’s working, everything’s set up everything’s go,and …then we all meet up , without words. We just meet up and then boom, the vibe is on! VAYPER: What gets me pumped up is when we go on stage and all the kids go crazy! SMOKIE: I try not to get too nerved out before we play, ‘cause I need all the energy I can possibly get my hands on when we play. We play pretty damn physical ! SIZZO: I get too adrenal-ized. My parents were at a show at the Glass House, and I came out an I said ‘fuck’ like five times in a row. When I got off the stage I saw my mom. I gave her a big hug and said I was sorry. I can’t help it, you know, it just comes out. I hate it because I sound so stupid when I’m up there just cussing, but that’s just what comes out. It’s weird, I’m so pumped up, and everybody staring at me gets me nervous. What got each of you into music? SIZZO: (Looking for any one to go first) I need time to think, go ahead VAYPER: I don’t, know Kiss, all the old school guys you know, Kiss, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick. As well as old school punk, like Circle Jerks, listening to stuff like that, I wanted to be like them. JIM: I heard heavy distorted guitars, on "Revolution" by the Beatles. I was probably about four years old, and that was it. Bring it on…the heavier the better!! SIZZO: Cool, that’s totally cool! SMOKIE: There was all kinds of music in my family when I was a little kid, because my parents and grandparents were all involved with music and playing instruments. Then I just started listening to what they were listening to. Then I started getting into other stuff like Black Sabbath, and real heavy gothic stuff , and then speed metal came along and that pretty much started it right there, at least for me. SIZZO: I really don’t know. My mom played piano and I had to sing in church choir. Choir !?! SIZZO: Yeah, but I was like, not good! (laughter), But I would listen to music that they would let me listen to. I had to grow up listening to like Musical Youth, and Devo, and stuff like that. Nothing heavy was allowed at all. And now here I am! Then as soon as I got old enough, I started listening to heavy stuff. They brought me up to know that all that stuff like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, and all that stuff was bad. The covers were bad enough. (to Sizzo) So do you come form a real heavy religious background? SIZZO: Yeah ! My family is pretty religious. Still? So what do your parents think of what you do? SIZZO: Yeah, I’ve had hours and hours and hours of debates and conversations with my parents. They understand (to a point) what we’re about, but they don’t totally understand it. They know it’s a positive thing, but they don’t understand how it could be positive because of the stuff that I say. So what is Livid about? SMOKIE: Musically or spiritually or what !?! All the above, just tell me about your band. SIZZO: Musically, I think wha ever comes out of us, just comes out of us. We don’t plan on anything. Spiritually, religion has created way too much diversity among people. It separates people into teams, and they argue among each other. The Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t like the Christians, the Christians don’t like the Jews. JIM: People have wars and kill each other over religion. VAYPER: Yeah, and everyone’s fighting and arguing over the same book. "The way I explain it is better than the way you explain it!" SIZZO: It’s just about coming together and looking past all that. But then again not all of our songs are about religion either. It’s just one of the things we feel very strongly about. SMOKIE: We touch on a lot of stuff, everything from racism , people being assholes. People who, instead of trying to be cool with everybody, just have a closed mind. It shouldn’t matter where you come from, because we all come from a lot of different backgrounds, different religions, a lot of different aspects of what they think is right and wrong. When everybody starts to nit pick what they think is right and wrong, it gets real ugly. I think we have all experienced that. People have to pay attention to what we’re doing to understand what we’re really about anyway. SIZZO: Half the time when we play live people don’t know. They see the candles, they see the statues and they just kinda interpret their own thing. They hear "religion is the sin of mankind", "religion is the sin of mankind", but they don’t really know. Until the album comes out, until they sit down and read the lyrics. VAYPER: They’re just digging’ on the vibe. SIZZO: They just like the feel, and they like the music, and that’s cool, too. Hopefully, when it gets put down on paper, hopefully, people will read it, and at least acknowledge what we’re talking about, you know? Not everybody is gonna dig or whatever. VAYPER: But everything is positive. SIZZO: We talk about sex, and it’s not like " oh God we’re getting laid, and fucking everybody, just having a great time" It’s looking at sex in a more mature light. When you hear the lyrics you can interpret what you want ‘cause I say "pussy", and "fuck this" and "do this" SMOKIE: We want people actually thinking about it, instead of just going ‘Oh, this is a song about driving my car, drinking beer and getting laid’. Yeah, there’s a lot of that out there and I think people have heard enough of that. (laugher) If you had to pick one song that sums up the Livid philosophy, which song would it be and why? JIM: Can we? I don’t think we can! SMOKIE: I think all our music sums it up as we go along, it’s building what we are, we’re growing along with it. We’re making it happen as we go and heading in a direction that’s right for us. If any one wants to check it out, that’s cool. Sorry, Can’t see my next question. (Struggling to read my notes, by the dim candle light) SIZZO: You want a candle over there? SMOKIE: We like candles! (he says with a small laugh) I definitely figured that one out! JIM: It’s just our vibe, how we write our music, with the candles and incense , it’s just our little vibe so we bring it to the shows with us. That’s the whole concept behind that. SIZZO: Playing The Warped tour will be weird ‘cause it’s a daytime show and we’re not gonna have anything with us, but we’ll still pound on the stage until it falls apart. Describe your songwriting process. VAYPER: It’s insane, is how it happens JIM: It’s just different. SIZZO: Like, noises will pop up and someone will say , ‘hey do that’. JIM: We’ll just start jammin’. Who write the lyrics? VAYPER: It’s all Sizzo! SIZZO: I write all the lyrics. VAYPER: My lyrics would be dumb if I wrote ‘em. SIZZO: Sometimes I write lyrics and they ask, ‘Hey what do you say there?’. When I tell ‘em they say ‘it sounds like you say this’. Then later on I’ll end up saying that. If I had to sing somebody else’s lyrics, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as passionate as it is. That’s my contribution to our music. Is there anything you would like to add, any thing you think people need to know about Livid? SIZZO: Come and meet us. VAYPER: If you see us, come up to us. SIZZO: Yeah, just come talk to us, but not when we’re trying to get our shit off stage. Give us 20 minutes. VAYPER: Talk to us. Sign the mailing list. SMOKIE: Come talk to us, or grab one of us. We wanna meet these people, we wanna hang out with everybody, we’re not just here to grab everybody’s attention and grab their dough. We wanna meet people and talk to ‘em and get to know them, and get our own little movement going. We got some things we wanna do in the future that are gonna involve a lot of people. That’s for us to know right now, but we got some big plans. It has to do with music and some of the things that we believe in. We got some business to take care of. |
