Interviews

Casey Chaos - Les Vegas Weekly

Life sure is a lot sweeter these days for Amen. About this time last fall, the LA metal/punk hybrid crew was about to embark on some tough times. Originally signed to Roadrunner Records, Amen was on tour with Coal Chamber and Slipknot. That tour had some bad blood, to say the least, and Amen was kicked off in Slipknot's hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, for questionable reasons. The night was tragic for the guys, as they prepared to head back to LA on their tour bus, just trying to figure out what the hell happened. A few months later, the band's relationship with Roadrunner ended.

This might look like the end for most bands, but Amen has an ace in its pocket: Ross Robinson. The legendary producer who's helped launch Korn and Slipknot to stardom wasn't about to let Amen go. When Robinson took his I Am label from Roadrunner to Virgin, Amen went with it.

Now Amen is at a pinnacle point in its career. The hardcore, thrashed-out album We Have Come For Your Parents is the sophomore release and, true to Amen's form, it's unlike most everything else out there. Amen's been on a whirlwind lately, doing Tattoo the Earth and the Reading/Leeds Festival--where it played to 10,000 people chanting "Amen!"--even garnering comparisons to The Sex Pistols, a statement frontman Casey Chaos says, "is kind of, um, dumb." But ask him to "justify his band," and he couldn't care less if you buy the record. After all, Amen is not for everyone.

Chaos: If you do that (self-promotion) it's kinda like sucking your own dick. ... If I could say anything, I'd say buy more rap-metal and refuse Amen.

This CD is for the kids at Columbine--that type of person, the outcast, the people that don't fit any group mentality. The jocks, the popular kids, they'd hate us. Amen is more of a thought process, it's not a get-together party, hey-let's-get-some-nookie kinda album. It's more cathartic. ... It's for kids that can see through the bullshit, certain bands' agendas, selling out, getting on MTV, making the commercial pop tunes.

Noise: So how do you deal with the bullshit? In a lot of ways, the music business is as bad as Hollywood.

C: It's worse. It's definitely something that makes you want to quit lots of times. ... I'm not into the business side of music, but people say, 'But you're on Virgin Records.' It's not hypocritical. We get to do whatever we want. We have creative freedom. ... As long as we can create what we do, and believe in it, they can totally take it and sell it as they see fit.

N: So, has MTV come calling yet?

C: No, we had listening parties in New York, and they came and I think I offended them. They asked, 'So, what's gonna be the video?' And I was like, 'Like you care. Like you'd ever play it.' They play the same f--king garbage over and over. ... it's like teen pornography.

by Molly Brown