Exclusive Interview With Black Tide
Metal band plays at disgraced author’s book signing!
 By Jeremy Azevedo |
Do you remember the author, James Frey, who wrote “A Million Little Pieces”, a memoir that became an Oprah book club selection? And then it turns out that a lot of the stuff in the book was made up? Well it turns out that Frey is still working, despite being shamed on live television, has a new book out, and loves metal! |
But this isn’t really about James Frey, really, although it was maybe supposed to be. See, Frey had it in his mind that having a rock band play at his book reading would make the whole show more entertaining, and perhaps even endear him to a younger crowd. As such, he hired heavy metal band “Black Tide” to play at his show, which was a free, all ages event… at Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood of all places.
Now I’m not trying to make broad generalizations here, but in my own personal experience, metal heads are not known to be the most literate of people. Especially teenage metal heads that live in or near Hollywood. It became apparent fairly early on that the majority of the “guests” in attendance were only there for a free metal show. Words cannot describe how awkward the question and answer period after Frey’s reading was, but I can tell you that his frustration with the crowd was clearly obvious. And the guy that went before him? He looked like he was going to jump out of the window, if there even was one.
Anyway, the moral of the story was that I had an interview with the band afterward, the results of which I have taken some minor liberties with in order to punch things up (In the style of James Frey, of course). Following is my account of that interview with Black Tide bassist Zakk Sandler, and guitarist Lexx Nunez.
CraveOnline: Give me a beer.
Zakk Sandler: There’s no beer.
(Editor’s note: He isn’t lying, there really isn’t any!)
CraveOnline: Why, is your dad here or something?
Zakk Sandler: No, no it’s because of my manager.
CraveOnline: Your manager doesn’t let you have beers back here?
Zakk Sandler: No… if he doesn’t see it, it’s not a problem, but…
CraveOnline: What about groupie hos?
Zakk Sandler: They’re great.
CraveOnline: Yeah? So that’s allowed?
Zakk Sandler: What do you mean allowed? That’s like… part of the show. That’s like saying “So you nail chicks after the show, oh you play on stage?” It’s like, one and the same.
CraveOnline: It goes hand in hand…
Zakk Sandler: You have to.
(Editor’s note: As far as I can tell, there are about as many groupie hos backstage as there are beers. Which is to say that there are none, sadly.)
CraveOnline: So, what’s the story with all this James Frey business? You ever even read a James Frey book? How’d this happen?
Zakk Sandler: Uh, I started reading “A Million Little Pieces” because they sent me a copy about ten days ago. I’m about halfway through it. And a few weeks ago they were like hey, you know, nobody’s ever really done a rock band for a book signing. And James Frey really wanted to do something different, he was like, “I don’t wanna just go, answer questions, read passages, I want it to be fun, like a rock concert”. So, he likes us a lot.
CraveOnline: So he just calls you out of the blue?
Zakk Sandler: Kind of, yeah!
CraveOnline: I still think it’s weird.
Zakk Sandler: If you say so…
CraveOnline: So you guys are doing kind of the old school 80s metal thing…
Zakk Sandler: Yes.
CraveOnline: Why do you suppose it is that mainstream audiences are flocking back to rock and metal all of the sudden? There were a few years there in which metal was not considered “cool”.
Zakk Sandler: It was always cool.
CraveOnline: In the mainstream? Not selling a lot of records.
Zakk Sandler: Well no, there are bands that are still selling records. Motley Crue is still selling records. If Guns & Roses hadn’t broken up they’d still be at the top of the charts. I’ll bet that if that album ever does come out, it’ll be number one forever. People always want to hear metal.
CraveOnline: You honestly think that album is coming out?
Zakk Sandler: Yeah, I do.
CraveOnline: I hope you’re right!
Zakk Sandler: I have a lot of faith in Axl.
CraveOnline: So you guys don’t go in for all that nu-metal shit then?
Zakk Sandler: Well I like it, I mean everyone knows Korn, everyone knows Disturbed, System of a Down. Some of them actually stuck around for a few years…
CraveOnline: You guys have been touring with some of those bands all over the world, correct?
Zakk Sandler: Yeah.
CraveOnline: I’ve often wondered, when you’re a young dude, and you haven’t been to a lot of places, and you’re on tour in a foreign country… what the fuck do you eat?
Zakk Sandler: You don’t.
CraveOnline: Is that how you stay so thin?
CraveOnline: Well the first time we went over there, we were there for like two or three weeks and I maybe ate six times. Mainly because it’s like three in the morning and all there is are these little crappy pre-made sandwiches. Or you’re too drunk and you pass out before you get to eat. Which sucks.
CraveOnline: This next question has absolutely nothing at all to do with food.
Zakk Sandler: Okay.
CraveOnline: Suicide Girls: Hot or busted?
Zakk Sandler: Oh I love the Suicide Girls. My screensaver on my laptop is a mixture of Jessica Biel, Brianna Banks, a porn star, Petra Nemcova, a model, and Suicide Girls. And I go to their site frequently.
CraveOnline: I assume most of the metal chicks adopt that look, right? With the tattoos and the piercings…
Zakk Sandler: Some of them. You know, I mean I’ve met a couple of those real metal chicks and they’re all like “I just have piercings, I wouldn’t get a tattoo, blah bla blah, my skin’s pure”. It’s crap.
CraveOnline: Hell yeah it’s crap. Speaking of metal fans, do you think yours would be pissed if you guys cut your hair?
Zakk Sandler: I have cut my hair.
(Editor’s note: the subject’s hair is clearly past his shoulders)
CraveOnline: Dude… I mean like short though, like off.
Zakk Sandler: Um, no, at least I hope they wouldn’t. I mean, it didn’t really work for Metallica, but then again it didn’t really affect their album sales either.
CraveOnline: What do you think it is about having long hair that is so goddamn “metal” anyway?
Zakk Sandler: Dirtiness. They want dirty, wild… everybody’s kinda raised like, clean-cut guys with short hair, they’re the good looking ones. It’s those kids with the long hair that do bad things.
CraveOnline: Like an automatic judgement?
Zakk Sandler: Yeah, like, I mean what was the last big metal band that had all members with short hair?
CraveOnline: Well, you know, there was a time back in my day when all the metal dudes were horrible looking, like Phil Anselmo types, lots of bald dudes, fat guys… Not everybody was doing the long haired Swedish metal thing. It lended sort of a “tough guy” aesthetic to the overall look.
Zakk Sandler: Okay…
CraveOnline: Have you guys ever thought of kicking out one of your more handsome band members and replacing him with like a cyclops-looking motherfucker? To give you guys a little bit of credibility?
Zakk Sandler: Well the thing is, if we try to do that, then that means I have to leave.
CraveOnline: Listen to this asshole!
Zakk Sandler: I’m sorry man, I look pretty damn good, I know it!
CraveOnline: Do you guys play Rock Band, or Guitar Hero at all?
Zakk Sandler: Yeah we play Rock Band, and Guitar Hero. Preferably Rock Band.
CraveOnline: Does being a real musician translate in any way to being good at music video games? Because I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t work the other way around.
Zakk Sandler: Yeah, I was gonna say, I’m actually quite bad at it… I mean we even have our own song in Rock Band, and I’m bad at it.
CraveOnline: Which song is on there?
Zakk Sandler: Shockwave. I suck. Can’t play it. Only drummers can really do it.
CraveOnline: Have you ever all played it together?
Zakk Sandler: Yeah, at South By Southwest
CraveOnline: Really? Was that awkward? What with you guys sucking and all?
Zakk Sandler: Well, it was funny, because we had actually played at the venue, and then later we’re all playing the game and people are all like “Hey, isn’t that Black Tide playing their own song?” And we totally failed it. Steve even broke the drum sticks, it was retarded.
CraveOnline: I heard Guitar Hero 4 is gonna have a six piece drum kit.
Zakk Sandler: That’s a bit of one-upmanship right there.
CraveOnline:Yeah great, now we can have even more plastic shit in our house!
Zakk Sandler: Well we live off of plastic nowadays. It’s good shit.
CraveOnline: Have you been smoking plastic?
Zakk Sandler: What?
CraveOnline: Never mind. Do you think you guys will ever be as bitchen’ as fictional the metal band, Dethklok?
Zakk Sandler: No.
CraveOnline: Is that too high to set the bar?
Zakk Sandler: Someone once asked me if we aspire to be like Dethklok, and me response was, “Why would I aspire to be a cartoon character?” I don’t even think they’re that great.
CraveOnline: Motley Crue are kinda like cartoons, man. Speaking of, I noticed you guys made liberal use of smoke machines during your set.
Zakk Sandler: Oh yeah.
CraveOnline: Is it still cool to use pyro in a small club like this? Or did those human marshmallows that burned to a crisp at the Great White show in Rhode Island ruin the future of pyrotechnics for everyone?
Zakk Sandler: Everyone remembers Great White, and not because they were a great band. Everyone’s like “Oh that was that band that burned the club down”! So no pyro in confined spaces. Even sparklers, that’s too dangerous.
CraveOnline: Off limits? Not allowed to do it anymore?
Zakk Sandler: I don’t think you were allowed to do it before, honestly.
CraveOnline: If you had your way, would you bring it back?
Zakk Sandler: Fuck no.
CraveOnline: Man, where’s your sense of spectacle?
(Guitarist Lexx enters the room and I try to get him and Zakk to talk shit on Trivum, but they deftly skate around the issue. Lexx is jacking around on his guitar right next to me and all I can think about is the fact that both these dudes spell their name with an unnecessary extra letter. I strongly consider suggesting that they ro-sham-bo for the use of this spelling aberration, as there really shouldn’t be more than one dude in any band that spells their name like that.)
CraveOnline: I think we all miss the awesome days of animals being killed on stage at metal shows… Can we look to Black Tide to bring back this tradition? If you guys are PETA members or something I’m just joking.
Zakk Sandler: Oh you just wait until the Mayhem Tour!
CraveOnline: Are you gonna bite the heads off of some animals? It worked for Ozzy…
Zakk Sandler: Only if they’re endangered.
CraveOnline: Like a spotted owl? Or a polar bear?
Zakk Sandler: Hell yeah.
CraveOnline: I don’t think you could bite the heads off of either of those two creatures, by the way.
Lexx Nunez: Even better, we should bring dangerous animals on stage, like tigers and shit, and set them loose on the crowd.
CraveOnline: Are you sure you guys aren’t Metapocalypse fans?
Zakk Sandler: Man that’d be crazy, tigers in the mosh pit.
CraveOnline: Maybe a tiger would’ve stopped those security guards from beating that guy up at the show earlier.
Lexx Nunez: That was fucked up.
Zakk Sandler: Yeah that was really fucked up.
(Editor’s note: A minor fracas broke out during Black Tide’s cover of Metallica’s “Hit the Lights”, which, if you read the article about it in the newspapers, was nothing at all like it was reported. I believe the New York Times referred to the offending party as “six hooligans” and the scuffle as a “riot that spilled out onto the street”, both of which are gross exaggerations. It was more like one or two rowdy dudes putting up a good fight against half a dozen security guards that were bullying them in order to enforce the strict “no moshing” rule in effect for the evening.)
Lexx Nunez: We should have one chained, like next to my amp, and if something happens we let ‘em loose on the security guard. Like, “Go get em tiger”.
Zakk Sandler: Yeah definitely.
CraveOnline: I could dig that. That sounds pretty metal. So, listen, of all the songs in the world that you guys could have covered on your album, why did you choose “Hit the Lights”? Is their some sort of special significance?
Zakk Sandler: Did you not see that show?
CraveOnline: I saw it! It was bitchen. But did you guys just sit there and go like “What’s the most badass song ever?” And then you were all unanimously like “Hit the Lights”?
Zakk Sandler: Someone pitched us the idea and we were like “Yeah, okay, we’ll do it”. And now when we play it live, it usually gets one of the better reactions. I mean everyone wants to hear fuckin’ Metallica songs. Everybody wants to hear one of their favorite bands when they’re playing another of their favorite band’s songs. It’s kind of like when Trivium did “Master of Puppets”.
CraveOnline: What song of yours do you think people are going to cover one day?
Zakk Sandler: Oh shit, I hope nobody does! That’d be weird.
CraveOnline: You wouldn’t want to hear another band covering Black Tide?
Zakk Sandler: No.
Lexx Nunez: Nooooo…
Zakk Sandler: Somebody did that just as a joke to us one time when we were at this show a long time ago back in Miami. And every band on the bill agreed to play one song of ours…
CraveOnline: Did they butcher it or did they shred it?
Zakk Sandler: It was ridiculous.
CraveOnline: So are you saying you don’t have to worry about another band out-shredding you on your own song?
Zakk Sandler:No, not at all.
CraveOnline: Unless it’s on Rock band.
Zakk Sandler: Right. Which happens all too much.
CraveOnline: Switching gears… of all the places that you’ve been to, which has the best groupies?
Zakk Sandler: Um… Atlanta Georgia.
CraveOnline: Atlanta Georgia? What is it about Atlanta Georgia hos that sets them apart?
Zakk Sandler: Mom and daughter.
(This dude hanging out backstage can no longer contain himself and will henceforth become a part of the conversation.)
Some Dude Backstage: Oh my god!
CraveOnline: Bullshit!
Some Dude Backstage: Mom and daughter? Is that like a joke? Because it sounds like one hell of a PR story…
Lexx Nunez: Wait what’d he ask you?
Zakk Sandler: He asked which town or country has the best groupies.
Lexx Nunez: It’s more like father and son.
Zakk Sandler: No, it’s true, it’s true.
CraveOnline: Just you or like the whole band?
Zakk Sandler:Just me.
CraveOnline: You’re doing a great job.
Some Dude Backstage: How old’s the mother?
Zakk Sandler: Thirty-eight? Thirty-seven?
Lexx Nunez: She was hotter than the daughter.
Zakk Sandler: Way hotter.
Some Dude Backstage: Oh wow.
CraveOnline: That’s a fuckin’ creepy story, bro. What about you? Which town or city has the best groupies?
Lexx Nunez: Camden, New Jersey?
CraveOnline: What?!
Zakk Sandler: Actually, Nottingham, England has some pretty awesome ones.
Lexx Nunez: But she didn’t even know we were in a band.
Zakk Sandler: Yeah, so that doesn’t technically count as a groupie does it?
CraveOnline: Is it harder to score like in Germany or somewhere that not as many people speak English or is it easier?
Zakk Sandler: You know I’ve done less work over there and gotten laid…
Lexx Nunez: Yeah ‘cause they only know “yes” and “no”. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.
CraveOnline: One last thing before I go: What’s the most common question you guys get asked?
Lexx Nunez: So what happened on Ozzfest?
Zakk Sandler: Yeah or “Hey, you know, you guys are so young… Where did that come from?”
CraveOnline: That’s a pretty stupid question.
Zakk Sandler: Yeah.
