DO YOU WISH YOU'D DONE IT DIFFERENTLY, OR ARE YOU REALLY PROUD OF HAVING TOUGHED IT OUT?
Initially it was hard but we were really just trying to amuse ourselves and then hope other people would come around to it.
IT SEEMS LIKE YOUR MUSIC WAS OFTEN SUPER HEAVY — MAYBE TOO HEAVY FOR THE INDIE UNDERGROUND WORLD, BUT NOT NECESSARILY HEAVY ENOUGH FOR THE HARDCORE OR METAL WORLD, WHAT WITH YOUR MELODIC COUNTRY-ISH INFLUENCES.
Yeah, I mean, I guess we didn't want to settle for mediocrity, we wanted to try to do something good — or something we thought was good, even if it was harder or people wouldn't understand.
YOUR MUSIC CONFRONTED HARDCORE WITH THINGS LIKE EXTENDED GUITAR SOLOS, THINGS THAT BECAME THE NORM IN '90S ROCK. DO YOU NOTICE OR ACKNOWLEDGE THIS INFLUENCE?
I can't tell unless somebody tells me that I've influenced them. I can't figure out that kind of thing.
IT MUST HAVE BEEN HARD IN THE EARLY DAYS TO PRESENT THAT KIND OF MUSIC TO WHAT WAS AT TIMES A HARDCORE PUNK AUDIENCE.
Yeah, it didn't really work. We tried playing hardcore shows, and our old fans from Deep Wound didn't really go for it at all. We didn't have a crossover for that — we tried to play for those fans and they didn't really like it.
DID THINGS GET EASIER ONCE THE BAND STARTED GETTING BIGGER — AT LEAST IN UNDERGROUND OR INDIE CIRCLES — OR WHEN YOU GOT ON A MAJOR LABEL AT THE END OF THE '80S?
No, it got worse. We just kind of fell apart, internally. As we got more successful, we got more unhappy with each other and the whole scenario wasn't so . . . fun, I guess.
BUT AT THE SAME TIME, THE MUSIC WAS SO AWESOME.
A lot of people seem obsessed with fun, I've noticed. "What do you mean you're not having fun, why do you do it?" We were never about fun — I don't see why that has to be a part of the picture. I just never thought about it.