S I X   F E E T   U N D E R

SS: No problem bro, gimme a minute I’ll skin one up too! <1 minute later> Say, you guys blew us away at last years BYH festival man - were you aware that the guys in Company of Snakes were in total awe of you - I mean, the vocalist even asked me how you trained your voice!

CB: oh wow , thats totally unreal man, cos I was sitting by our tour bus watching those guys thinking ‘man, they’re the dudes that wrote all those fuckin killer songs - how’d they do that?!’ That’s killer man, totally baddass ha ha! As for my vocals I don’t use any effects, its natural but I just try to stay in practice and keep it well rehearsed. I just think it and feel it and then sing and thats how it sounds man! Its difficult to analyse but I guess I get angry and then out comes the voice ha ha!

SS: Tell me about the collaboration between yourself and veteran rapper Ice-T

CB: I just felt that Ice has been saying a lotta cool things over the years and I just sorta tuned into what he had to say. I’d met him a few times in the past so he’s gotten to hear what I have to say and I guess we’re pretty much on the same wavelength. He too has had his music banned and people have come after him and tried to censor him and take him to court. In Cannibal our music was shut down and taken off the shelves cos of the lyrics - none of CC’s new albums are banned, just the ones I wrote on. They took out my lyrics and issued some different album covers and it really pissed me off. I couldn’t understand it - why can’t people have their freedom of choice?! Politicians must know that they can’t stop everybody’s freedom of speech but they use it as a trick to get money and win votes. I figure Ice and I have been doing the same thing except in different styles coming from different upbringings. I’ve always respected him and I knew he would get this and by putting people like us together who are coming from the same angle it would be like.....totally violent heh heh!

SS: would you say you (both) have a sociopathic nature?

CB: we don’t hate society but we - and I’m sure too - recognise that things are totally fucked up in society. There’s a lot of hypocrisy that we question and yeah, in our own ways hopefully we’re one step toward bringing that down by encouraging people to do what they wanna do and live their lives freely. Look at Columbine (high school massacre), society takes the easy way out and blames people for being different and then makes up a reason why people committ certain actions. Instead they should be looking at themselves asking if they or that persons parents may have caused that alienation. Society doesn’t wanna look at the difficult questions and deal with its fuck ups, instead it looks for a scapegoat. 

SS: so would you say its ok for people who are feeling a little down to massacre a load’ve innocent people? 

CB: I don’t condone anything like that but if it happens, it happens. That’s just the way life is and we write about the realities of life no matter how dark and grim they are. People should be still allowed to listen and judge for themselves. Look, I don’t think music influences people to go and kill but they get entertained by it. Its just like when they go for a white knuckle ride and risk their lives doing that - they like the feeling that they could die at any minute!! I mean, they’re probably not in any real danger but they wanna get close to it. Its the same with SFU, they wanna be close to that feeling of death and mayhem but they don’t wanna be in it. 

SS: why did you choose SFU as a name for the band?

CB: well, for English speakers like us its a well known expression and it kinda sums up where we were coming from as a band. But in Europe (being metric) they got kinda confused saying things like ‘2.8 metres under’ - I guess it took a while for them to understand ha ha! 

SS: what about your dreads man? Are you Charlie M(anson)’s hillbilly cousin?! Don’t get me wrong, they’re real cool but are you really a rasta ha ha?! 

CB: No ha ha, there’s nothing in it. I guess I just like to look a certain way and I feel good looking that way and anyway, I think my stage manager Big Daddy looks more like Charlie M ha ha ha! Actually I had dreads before I had dreads, they were just on the inside and weren’t showing. 

SS: how has the band developed over the years? Allen (West - ex Obituary) started it with you right?

CB: right, Allen helped me get the band started and he did a good job. He’s a good songwriter but gradually he became distant and I needed someone more committed so I got Steve Swanson who’s ex Massacre. As for Terry (bass - ex Death), I’d met him a few times and Allen had mentioned him when we were putting the band together in late ‘94 so we got him and as you know he’s got that real strong low tone so he fitted right on in. As for the writing I’ve done a few songs but for the most its Terry, Steve and Greg who handle that. 

SS: so what do you do when you’re not working SFU?

 CB: kicking back smoking a lotta weed I guess ha ha but we also rehearse and write. I’m also really into movies. I really enjoyed Planet of the Apes. A lotta people hate it but maybe they’re trying to compare it to the original whereas I saw it as a new film in itself. Tim Roth is one of my favourite actors man, every role that he’s played he’s totally absorbed himself into the role. He’s the focus of the whole film for me, totally amazing...I really respect people who are commited to what they do whether they’re actors or rappers like Ice T, they’re different from people that are just going thru the motions and I guess thats whats sets apart SFU death metal from the rest. We want people to react to the rythmns of our songs and not how fast we’re playing. To me death metal is at its most evil with those slamming parts where people could hear it and feel it in their chest. I like the fast stuff too and that definitely has its place but what SFU is into is that tribal rythmn that you describe. Death started it off and then went all technical trying to impress other musicians but thats not what we’re about - music should be about being fun. I want everyone in the crowd to have a good time and we make it so heavy that people are like “oh man, I got no choice but to move!” ha ha!!! 

SS: I can’t wait for the next time you guys hit Europe! Just keep smokin baby!

CB: hey man, thank you for a very exciting interview. You tagged this in a whole different way than I’m normally used to and that made it exciting for me as well. Skin up ha ha!