Stoneman – 26-11-2010

Interview with: Mikki Chixx
By: Sabine van Gameren

While the headliner of the evening is soundchecking, Mikki Chixx of the band Stoneman joins me at the table to chat up about their album “Human Hater” that actually releases the very same day.

Mikki is a man that seems very direct in his response. Could have been a journalist, clearly aware of the most general ways of making people talk, he answers the questions as far as he feels like. This, obviously, comes with plenty of stories about the album.
People who have not heard about the band should probably known that they always seemed quite solid in the statements about themselves and their music, so it seems sensible to figure out how this band gets to this. It is mandatory to have a group of people together that have the same thoughts to justify this, otherwise things could end up in strong conflicts. Though, the band doesn’t really live close to each other. “We are not the common band that meets on Wednesday and Friday for rehearsals” Mikki starts. Clear, but how does the band work, when they don’t meet up and start jamming as plenty bands do? “We start with electronic stuff. We try to do FIRST an atmosphere an electronic atmosphere and after that we start to play guitar and bass. At last, vocals come” says Mikki. Of course with modern technology it is easier to work with a band even though members seem to live at larger distances, but he states that it is still a teamwork result when it comes to Stoneman “We can fix everything together or throw it in the garbage”.

Between their previous release and ‘Human Hater’ stands a period of about three years. The band have been working on a lot of songs of which eleven made it to the album. It is releasing at the day of this interview and the vocalist seems very content with it. “I think we found our type of music”, Mikki tells. It is definitely harder, more aggressive and Mikki continues telling: “It is a little more Black Metal influenced, but still this Britney Spears stuff, very commercial ”. Whenever someone brings up miss Spears in confrontation with a metal band you can be quite sure people joke around, but the man is not laughing about it, the metaphor used covers up the extremes that the band knows in their sound. Whatever the world might have to find of that is for the future to find out, but at least Mikki seems satisfied with the new sound of Stoneman as he states “I would say, this is how Stoneman has to sound”. The sound is not the only difference with whatever the band has done before. The first two releases of the band were mainly about drugs. The band have stepped away from that, saying it has not been an influence for ‘Human Hater’ anymore. Inspiration wise they seemed to find their inspiration in anger. That, while the claim to have a nice life in Switzerland as they are quite free to do whatever they want. The band is getting angry for the fact that not everyone can have this freedom “80% or 90% of the people are not able to do what they want. They have to do what politics say or what religion says. They are not free to live their own life. They may have to go to war and die for religion or politics. That is also why this album is called ‘Human Hater’. Religion is the biggest human hater in the world” explains the man.

After this we discussed some of the songs on ‘Human Hater’. One of them is the song ‘Zombie Zoo’ which has a featuring with Wednesday13. Stoneman has been on a short tour with him and that is how they got to know each other. Wednesday13 seemed to have made an impression by these guys, Mikki speaks very positive about him: “We were smashed of this man. He is such a big artist” The song ‘Zombie Zoo’ is created after the tour and they found it sounding like Wednesday13. Mikki continues: “I said, if we keep it, I need him on this track otherwise it is not manageable to keep it”.
During his tour with Murderdolls he recorded the song in a studio in Hollywood for the guys. There is also a video out from this song. The idea for this video came from bassplayer Iron Cris and Mikki hurries to comment “It is really for people over 18 years”. Also he reveals that more video’s for this album are planned although he does not know for which songs yet. “We have favorites. Like ‘Suicide Is A Suicide’, ‘Hope You All Die Soon’ or maybe the radio ballad ‘No Sweet November’” Mikki continues about this subject. About that last one there is more to tell. The front man claims it is their attitude of doing what they want. “Other bands wouldn’t have it, because they are frightened to have such a song on their album. The metal heads could say you are gay” he says. Of course it is the last track, the bonus track, so even though it is a different song, it is not breaking the album, but we can only agree with him when he tells: “I think it is important to make the album interesting. I don’t like albums in which every song sounds the same.”

Links:
Stoneman MySpace