METAL HELL: First off, Red White & Screwed is a great record. Did you see this album as a continuation of the original hardcore version of M.O.D.?

BILLY MILANO: First of all; thank-you, obviously that means you like the record. It’s interesting, it’s really comes down to this; when it comes to the record & how I compare it to other things that I’ve done, MOD has had so many incarnations that at this point it’s just another incarnation of it, to the point where it’s almost like Blue Man Group in a way. I feel like painting everybody the same color, so that when I switch a guy out it doesn’t matter, that had some consequences to the outcome of the record as a result of how the record was written & how it was played. It seemed to be a culmination of many things & new fresh attitudes, & some older cynical attitudes that made this record come to life. It’s really odd, I’ve been doing it so long that I’m so disassociated from the good or the bad press that I get. For me it’s just going through the motions.  I like making records & writing records & as soon as I’m done with that record it’s like whatever. It’s not even a question to me of whether I sit around & listen to the record because I haven’t ever been like that. It’s interesting that at this point in my career as an entertainer, & that’s what I consider myself to be, at this point in my life that I would be getting praised again for my music. It’s almost to the point where I keep saying to myself is this really happening, this is too funny. It’s ridiculous. Every-one wants to say we’re starting new & we’re gonna take over the world, that’s not me. This is just another record for MOD.  It happens to be the right record for MOD at this point in time, there’s nothing like it out there. It reeks of genuine old school hardcore & thrash in a way. It wasn’t planned. It just came out that way. I’m really pleased with it. It’s hard to put it into perspective because of the time frame. The owner of Century Media said to me this is the best record you’ve done since Speak English Or Die. I’m talking to bands that have heard some of the stuff that I’ve not been a huge fan of; a couple of death metal musicians have said to me this is a great record. It’s mind boggling to me & yet it’s so flattering that it’s hysterical. I’m very happy that people like this record & it makes me say that this is the way to end it.

MH: Was it intentional to have political lyrics?

BM: You have to be political. Anyone who says they’re not political is not realistic. We’re at the point in our lives where we are a political thinking & politically motivated society & if it doesn’t affect you then obviously there is something that you need to come to terms with somewhere because the world is political. Everything you do is politically motivated. You just don’t realize it. It’s important to understand that everything in life affects us at some point politically & to not recognize it is a big faux pas in my opinion. I’ll be honest with you, I am a little bit more politically aware than others.

MH: It seems bands have become political mainly over their dislike for Bush.

BM: Well, for me to write anything bad about a president, there’s got to be a good reason because I never really go there. I never have said that I think George Bush is a bad president. I’ve just said that at the end of the day he’s let me down, personally with certain things.

This is my problem, I understand how the world is being run. America is being dismantled to be a North American union with Canada & Mexico, by virtue of knowing that I understand a lot of the political motivations of what’s going on with this president. It’s interesting to understand that. It’s a dawning of a new consciousness in society. In one way, we wanna be good Americans & defend our constitution & in another way our constitution has been dismantled (from) FDR on. Everyone’s going George Bush is dismantling the constitution, well wait a minute, Bill Clinton did it, Richard Nixon did it, Jimmy Carter did it, Harry Truman did it. Everyone’s done it since FDR, since they first implemented the social security act.  This has been America’s dismantling by design. It’s the agenda of our government to open up & gain more taxable citizens.  They’re not concerned about (an) Americans right to sovereignty & that alone is a treasonous offense. I think that every president, including FDR, & every cabinet & every congress & every senate has been guilty of treason for that alone, & that’s the reality of it & that’s where my political views lie. There are a lot of things that George Bush has done that I agree with. He dismantled Libya’s nuclear weaponry. He’s gonna wind up dismantling North Korea’s nuclear facilities, (cause) Bill Clinton sold them nuclear fucking technology to build nuclear energy. I mean what did you think they were gonna do with it? It could be that they’re playing good cop-bad cop with certain things & right now it’s George Bush & America’s time to be bad cop. As far as the political overview of the world & the people who orchestrate world events, is concerned & I’m more than aware of that scenario, so people who think I’m ignorant because I believe in my president are ignorant themselves because I don’t believe in totality of what he’s done, & I didn’t believe in totality against Bill Clinton, so it’s never as simple as black & white.

MH: How did you go about assembling this line-up? I remember S.O.D. toured with Scott Sargeant & Skinlab back in ’99.

BM:  Actually Scott goes back even further than that. I was friends’ with Scott from like 1988 when his band Wrecking Machine opened up for MOD at The Stone in San Francisco. It was a long time coming, to jam with him. He’s been my friend for quite some time & he just happened to wanna play on this record. He lives here in Austin. He came out in 2001 to play bass for me cause he wasn’t doing anything after he quit Skinlab. He came out & played bass for MOD when MOD was just starting to play during the Rebel You Love To Hate record & unfortunately I had big problems with Nuclear Blast because they kept telling me they weren’t gonna do ads for me if I didn’t do another SOD record. And I was like I’m not doing SOD ever again, which seemed to be the end of my relationship with them, which mind you I don’t give a fuck, but it was what it was & I dealt with it accordingly. It is what it is. I had put it in perspective that that was that moment in time. But (with) these guys I met, basically I had been playing bass my whole life. I started as a bass player & I’ve played bass on almost every record I’ve done. I’ve ghosted a lot of the people I’ve jammed with & I think at the end of the day my true calling is bass, & not as much singing. I certainly don’t think I can sing, I just entertain really well. I got together with Scott & I said there’s an opportunity for me to do an MOD record & I thought about asking him to do it & he said of course.  He said he wanted to do it just to do it. I said there’s no guarantees that anything huge is gonna come of it & we’ll just go from there. I had talked to a few drummers when I moved down here. Believe it or not, I met them on MySpace! I had talked to a bunch of people about doing this new band that I was gonna do with Scott & it seemed to be that the guys that were name musicians were guys for hire. I talked to Chris Contos. He thought about doing it; we’re talking about a new band, not MOD. I talked to Tony Laureano. I talked to Paul Bostaph. I’m like if you guys wanna do something new, this is the time in our career that we should do something new instead of constantly being guns for hire. There’s got to be some point of wanting to express a new side of yourself as a musician. They all basically said they would do it & they all just flaked the fuck out, that’s typical of drummers to begin with. Charlie Benante quit the SOD tour in Europe on the first day of the tour. I wanted to do something new & then I had a chance to try out a drummer who emailed me on MySpace.  I was basically like ah I don’t know-it’s MySpace–they’re like check me out & you check them out & it’s like drumming mistakes 101 & I just can’t go back & do 101 drumming again, not because I think I’m better than that, I just don’t have the patience to teach another drummer my style.  It’s a specific feel that’s unique to itself; I said at the end of the day let me give this fuckin’ guy a call, what do I got to lose. I said if you’re serious get your ass down here & bring your A game. I told him about my new band & what we were gonna do. I said I’m doing stuff like Sepultura.  He winded up playing like 3 Sepultura songs with nobody else but himself on a drum set & he fuckin’ ripped. I said I like the Slayer Reign In Blood stuff & he played ‘Raining Blood’ faster than Lombardo & I was like wow, this kid’s got it going on. I wrote with him for a while & told Scott to come check out the stuff. He flew out from California & basically he liked the drummer.  As we were writing for the new band an opportunity came up to do an MOD record.  Scott said he wanted to do it, so I drove out to California & picked him up in my van & moved him to his mom’s house in Austin, so we went full speed into writing the record. It took me 6 weeks to write everything & then it took us 6 weeks to rehearse everything & then we recorded it in 4 weeks & it just worked out the way it did. Everyone started to throw their’ own identity into it at the end of the day & it was unbelievably fortuitous for us. It felt good. It just didn’t feel like another record. To me it wasn’t even a question of whether or not it’s a comeback record or not because I didn’t care at that point. It was like if we hear that it’s a solid record & everyone we play it for thinks it’s a solid record I think 9 times out 10 people are gonna say this is a really solid record.

BM: (cont.) Everyone has been saying to me, this is the best record you’ve done since Speak English Or Die, so that’s a big compliment, cause my first real band of recording was with Scott Ian, Charlie Benante & Danny Lilker.  It was like having the best musicians you could find at the time in the whole music scene, & its like how do you beat that? How do I live that down?

MH: How much of USA For M.O.D. was intended for a 2nd S.O.D. album?

BM: What’s funny is we had written a second SOD record when the guys in Anthrax started freaking out. Basically it was Frank Bello, Danny Spitz & Joey Belladonna crying that SOD was successful & Anthrax wasn’t. At that point we were selling 3 times the records as Anthrax & we had only been together 3 days as a band. Those guys had been working & working & working & the next thing they know they’re fucked, but such is life. I didn’t plan it that way. People just recognized it.

MH: What would you attribute to the lasting impact of that album? (Speak English Or Die)

BM: It was just very genuine & I think that’s what’s sparking all of this positive energy from this record. It’s just positive. It’s spontaneous.  It wasn’t something so thought out that it became contrived. More importantly I think it harkens to innocent times. (With) these (new) bands today, it’s unbelievable how they try to make themselves be perceived. Even some of the hardcore bands, it’s like I understand this whole thug mentality of hardcore; that they’re New York Hardcore & they’re all tattooed up  (but saying) yo, this is the streets, I mean these fuckin’ guys are full of shit.  It’s funny that the only real guys that represent anything that they believe in, is the posers, cause they honestly believe it. They honestly believe that they’re supposed to be up there with nice hair & look good & sell it. That’s what they believe & they go out & do it & then we bust their balls because we don’t think it’s real, but then when you look at these hardcore bands & they’re all talking about keeping it real and they’re all full of shit! And they’re the bigger hypocrites as a result.

When you read interviews with these bands you say to yourself what the fuck are these people talking about? The streets? Shut the fuck up. They have no right to talk about the streets, why, because they walked on ‘em? What are they talking about? Then you see these bands live, I don’t mean to single out a band but I watched a Sick Of It All live video that was just posted on Blabbermouth & they were like c’mon let’s mosh, let’s see you circle & I’m like dude, what the fuck are you talking about? This is like the ‘keep it real’ champions of hardcore & their stuff sounded like junior 101 metal, it was weird. It was like their music was heavy metal.

MH: The punk bands don’t sound punk anymore.

BM: The punk bands today are pop & the hardcore bands today are metal & the metal bands today just suck. They moved into the suck category. There are a few bands that come out of the blue & you say to yourself that’s a really good band.

BM: (cont.) It’s like whatever, give me something a little different. When it comes to metal I like that band Gojira.  I think they’re fucking great. It has a totally different identity than anything I’ve ever heard. There’s a thrash band on Napalm Records called Hurtlocker who I really am starting to like. Believe it or not there’s one band on Nuclear Ass that I like, that band Dew Scented. It sounds like old-school thrash. It’s really what thrash was in the 80’s but yet it’s new & it’s not nu-metal. It’s like my stuff. I thought I could write a record like that & then I realized I don’t wanna write a record like that. It’s not what I do. That’s why this record is such simple hardcore. I don’t wanna say; it’s thrash. It’s like hardcore in a way & it’s kind of like thrash but the drumming makes it thrash, not the riffing.

MH: How did the King Diamond vocal imitation come about on “The Greatest Lie Ever Told”?

BM: It’s actually Scott Sargeant doing the high voice. I did all the other voices. My voice was so fried by the time it came up to do it, I’m like Scott, I can’t do it. Can you do it? He went & hit the notes & I spent half the time he was doing it laughing, but he did legitimately sing all those high notes & it was fucking metal man.  I milk the King. I know him & he’s a really nice guy.  I had this story to tell, which is actually a true story & it comes across great. I’m really proud of that song. I’m proud of this record. I think it’s evident in the reviews that people are liking the record & I feel like I’m vindicated somehow. I don’t feel like saying now everyone can kiss my ass, I feel like saying cool man, now let’s have some fun. Music today is so serious & it’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be entertaining & I think that there’s a nice balance of musicianship, good riffs, good lyrics & the right attitude at this point for this record to come out, so it’s a culmination of many things.

MH: Are you planning any touring?

BM: I intend to tour. I intend to go out & do as much as I can within reason & I want to go out there & give this record some attention & meet some people & I think it’s the right time to do this. I wanna support it. I wanna play small clubs, which is really all I can play at this point, but I don’t have a problem with that. I like playing the 100-seaters. I manage a bar in Austin, Texas called Headhunters that’s a 100-seat bar & we throw some great shows in there.MOD plays there once in a while. We did 250 people at our last show. What it comes down to is I’m looking forward to going out & playing the smaller clubs where the club owners treat you with respect, The opening bands are the local bands from the local scene that never get on any of the national shows. I’m not looking to re-invent myself because the record is doing well in reviews & it seems to be having a life of its own. I’m gonna do what I do best & that’s service the underground music scene. I wanna go out & live up to the standard that I set for myself on everything, which is to help the underdog. Management wise, production-wise, consulting, I’ve done as much as I can to help every musician that’s ever asked me. I’m overwhelmed at points with it, but in a way that’s good because it comes back to me in buckets. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve helped a lot of people. My friend came in from Canada from the band Mastery & I’m helping him work on some of his stuff. He doesn’t have a singer & I’m gonna probably sing on his record. He brings in a magazine, I think it was Metal Hammer & it had all these famous musicians on the cover, like a collage & its got a new Testament article in it. In the article the guy talks about how they originally were called Legacy & that the name Testament came from me. I gave them the name Testament, in like 1986-87, but here they are 21 years later & they’re talking about it & here’s the guy from Mastery going I never knew that, that to me is the reward of helping everybody. It’s the little credibility. It’s the ‘thank you’.  It’s the acknowledgement. It’s not always about money & it’s not always about this industry, which is a ball-breaking cocksucker. Sometimes you have to understand that your only real recompense in music is the fans cheers, the applause of the crowd & a pat on the back & a thank you & I’m totally fine with that at this point in my life.

MH: It’s more about integrity than the fake Platinum rainbow.

BM: Yeah exactly. I have a platinum record, you know what it means, It means that I’ve still got to go out and work my job to pay my rent. There’s no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, the whole rainbow is an illusion.

MH: So it’s all about the journey.

BM: Exactly, & unfortunately that’s not what’s being told to musicians as they come into the music scene. That’s something that I like to impart to them, I say to them flat out if you think you’re gonna go out & conquer the world, then don’t. If you wanna go out & have a good time & (get) experience in the world then please feel free to do it.

MH: Did you have any input on the S.O.D. Rise Of The Infidels CD?

BM: Of course I did. Everything that comes out on Megaforce that’s S.O.D. related I’ve done. The S.O.D. stuff related to Nuclear Blast ScottIan has done. The only reason I do it & I’m involved it is simply because I cherish so much what it is & where it’s been & what it was that it’s important to recognize that it needs to be approached with kid gloves &I don’t want to at any point let someone take over the reigns of it & go with it. I don’t think that’s wise & as a result it always winds up coming back & biting us in the ass, so it is what it is. I do it for the sake of the fans. I do it for the sake of the integrity of the product. It’s never about money because it’s never been about money. As long as I have enough money to make a record & make it sound good I’ll do it & that’s really what it comes down to. It was hard getting started with M.O.D. this time around because there were so many start up costs affiliated with it that if I was gonna do it there had to be money behind the deal. Thank god the guy that did the record, from Index Entertainment, who was basically the GM of Napalm (Records) in America & the old owner of Olympic (Records) heard the stuff that I had demoed. He was like I wanna do it, let’s make it happen & because of him it turned out to be a good record. It doesn’t sound like fuckin’ Machine Head, but I don’t think it needed to at that point. The other thing to recognize is that I wasn’t limited as far as ingenuity or equipment. I’ve had to go in with small budgets into small studios & you’re like oh my god look at this place, I’m fucked, but in this case I walked into a great studio down here with a local engineer. A place called Music Lab in, Austin, Texas that was able to accommodate me, & my budget; it was more than enough to do the right job. Once you get back into the groove of recording & getting that whole mentality of crossing your T’s & dotting your I’s you realize that you become better & better at it as time rolls on, so you become more efficient.

MH:  Do you go for first takes in the studio?

BM: Actually, what I try to do, which is what everyone used to do, before the studios became really adaptive with shitty bands, what I did was I rehearsed a song & I rehearsed it & rehearsed it & rehearsed it. If you go into a 3- hour rehearsal with me you’re playing for 3 hours. You maybe stop for 25-30 minutes for a cigarette, shit & pissing, but that’s it. I have a way of working with people that affects their productivity, I don’t fuck around & say let’s do that part differently & then you’ve got to  play the whole song again. I break the song down to sections. I’ll play a section of a song 50-60 times ‘til I get it the way I like it. Then we’ll play the song with it in place. My methodology is like a task- master. I’m like a drill sergeant, but it works & that’s why I’m so effective when it comes to small budget recordings.  I go into the studio prepared. I don’t wanna use the tools of the studio to be a performing aspect of the band, which that is with everybody these days. These bands can’t play their shit!  Listen, I gotta tell you something right now, I did more pro-tooling on Charlie Benante’s drums on Bigger Than The Devil than I did on any of the things on my record.

* See full interview in issue #21.