Hi and thanks for this interview… please give an opening this interview with your words…
Bzzntzzaert. Psphxocraepfszitiy. Ouehuejueguettnnn. These are just a few of the words that I, Jason Kocol, can claim as my own.
Is this the first interwiev from Turkiye?
Yes it is! Thank you for the opportunity.
What do you want to say about your music and beginning of Impaled?
I want to say that our music and albums, in my opinion, have only gotten better and better with each passing year. Impaled is very much like a fine wine or aged cheese. Except we taste worse that both of those things.
What do you think when you write lyrics and playing them? Where do these feelings come from?
Ross and Sean write all of the lyrics, so what I end up thinking when playing and singing them is “DEAR LORD THIS IS REALLY REALLY DIFFICULT PLEASE SOMEONE HELP.” But I am not complaining, as their lyrics really have a lot to say about our daily experiences as a brute force to be reckoned with.
In ’97 you started this bloody journey and how has it been? How did you gather this band?
Sean and Raul started the band on a shoe string, from what I heard. But it was a very death metal shoe string, rest assured. A few scant members joined until they found a good fit with Ross and Leon del Muerte. That lineup existed for quite awhile, and it was with those four guys that I actually started going to local Impaled shows, long before I joined the band.
You have 2 demos in ’97 and ’98 what do you say about this demos? Did > it provide to benefit for you and developing a name in the underground?
It definitely did. We still get requests from time to time to release these demos to people who haven’t heard them yet. I am not even sure if anyone in the band has any copies of them left, so they could be lost forever in the sands of time.
In ’99 you signed a 7″ split with ultra lunatic Cephalic Carnage. Let’s talk about this split and record process…
I can’t really speak on the recording process for the split since I was not in the band then but I imagine it was very amicable, for to this day we’re still pals with a few of the guys in Cephalic Carnage.
And the first full lenght came after the split with Engoreged. In ’00 how did you pass this year tell us somthing about this split and your first bang The Dead Shall Dead Remain What did you do in album process, release process and how is the reacts and > feedbacks from listeners’, music authorities’ and your friend circles’?
That split did form a good relationship between us and Engorged. They’re like our sister band from the Northwest, if you will. Wait, now that Sean has been the official singer for over a year now, maybe they should be called our Siamese twin band instead?
According to the other guys, “The Dead Shall Dead Remain” recording process was pretty simple: be extremely drunk, make the bass be nearly a half step out of tune, and master the record in such a way that you can’t actually hear one riff for the life of you. Even with these
factors, it still is many people’s “favorite Impaled album,” which is quite surprising to us after all we’ve done since then.
In ’01 the band had a Complation which named “Choice Cuts” and this 7″ complation has 2 covers from Impetigo and Carcass and in the same year the band had a member replacemant. Leon del Muerte replaced by guitarist/vocalist Andrew LaBarre. Can you tell something about this process? Why did Leon leave from band?
Leon left because he was beginning his career as an underground rave DJ, and needed time to focus on his phat beatz. Oh, and there were apparently some other reasons, too, but that one sounds the best to me. Andrew, from what I gathered, raised the Barre — heheh — once he
joined the band. He also raised the stakes — ha! — but you didn’t hear it from me. Okay, you did.
Ok man 😉 I didn’t heard 😛 By the way! When the calenders show us the year ’02, Impaled recorded their the bloodiest album Mondo Medicale and this album banned in 84 countries. Let’s talk about this album, released process, listeners’ reacts and feedbacks?
And What do you think about this censored situations? (By the way mondo medicale is my favourite Impaled album ;-))
At first, “Mondo Medicale” wasn’t very well-received. I think it’s because “The Dead Shall Dead Remain” was perceived as a grind record due to its unclear production, but it really wasn’t. So when “Mondo Medicale” came out and people could actually hear the songs being written, they thought the band had changed its style. Nothing could have been further from the truth. At this point, though, people realized that this album was going to cause serious mental defects after
repeated listens, so we were instantly banned in 84 countries. After that, people clamored for it more and more.Believe me, the censoring is for everyone’s own good. You don’t want to have your eyes and ears bleed, do you? Oh wait, look who I am talking to. Go nuts, people!
The year ’03 had been a different year for Impaled. You lived a lot of thing in this year. Composed a tale too horrible for one band to tell, so Spain’s Haemorrhage rose to the occasion and conspired in the 2003 split-CD released from Razorback Records, “Dementia Rex.” and Andrew LaBarre would not survive the experience, and was replaced by guitarist/vocalist, Jason Kocol. How did you pass this year? It must be very difficult…
The “Dementia Rex” split was a great opportunity to work with friends in Haemorrhage. It was indeed Andrew’s last album, as he felt compelled to pursue his career as a high-profile restauranteur. But no worries, as it gave me an opportunity to step in and help alleviate some of the frustration the band was going through by his departure.
The year ’04 was very good for you and you signed a deal with Century Media Records and you entered to big bands league. How was this deal with CM? Can you tell us something about this situation?
CM contacted us out of the blue, and it seemed like a great chance for us to reach an even broader audience. The good experience through this label was we had more financial backing, giving us a chance to work with bay area legends Billy Anderson and Trey Spruance. Recording that album was quick and a lot of fun.
The bad experience was we felt we didn’t get enough attention from the label. We weren’t put on any tours through them; everything we did surrounding that album we did ourselves through our own contacts. So it turned out to not be as beneficial as we originally thought, but we made
the best of it at the time.
In March 2005 your third Full-Lenght “Death After Life” recorded with 3 additional musicians and released by CM. Whose idea was that… for using in album, chello, violin and keyboards? And how is the reacts about this album. I think it is very different and unbeliveable ideas. Can you say somuthing about this this album, record process and released process?
“Death After Life” was a very complicated recording for how quickly we did it. Trey has an excellent ear for orchestration, so it was his idea to add the live string players and keyboard parts. I had written out some of the parts to facilitate ease-of-reading for the players in the
studio. The interlude tracks were engineered mainly at Hhhhey Studios — which is my studio — and some at Trey’s.We tracked all of the drums, bass and rhythm guitars with Billy and Trey
at a larger studio, and did lead guitars, vocals and auxiliary instruments at Trey’s place. All in all, the recording took about 10 days. The mixing was what took longer, as we had anywhere between 40-50 tracks of music per song — quite daunting for a death metal record!
In next two year the band entered some tours and made a lot of concerts. Especially Aborted and Napalm Death. What do you want to say about these bands. How did you feel when played especially with Napalm Death?
We had a great time touring with Aborted. We only did three shows on the East Coast of the U.S. surrounding the Maryland Death Fest, but it was still a fun experience nonetheless.Touring with Napalm Death was amazing, being able to listen to them turn out a powerful set night after night. It’s no wonder they’re legendary. They deserve the title. I only wish that tour could have been for longer, as we only did a week of it with them. Hopefully we can do something else in the future if they’ll have us.
And let’s talk about your European Tour With Deeds of Flesh and Japanease Tour with General Surgery. How is the ambiances in these Tours and How did you feel when you playin different culters outside from America?
he 2006 European tour was the first full-length tour for the band outside of America, and we were really excited for it. I found that playing in a different country almost every day was an incredible experience. We also learned that European tours are much more hospitable than U.S. tours; we greatly appreciated all of the home-cooked meals every night! We met a lot of friendly and decent people in each place, and some shows had quite a lot of people in attendance.
The Japanese tour with General Surgery was excellent. I only wish it could have been more than three shows. Japanese crowds are energetic and really appreciative of our music. We had an excellent time touring with General Surgery and Butcher ABC, and made good friendships with the guys in both of those bands.
And the year 2007 You finished your deal with CM and started to working Wilowtip Records. How did it be? And what happend between yours with CM?
We left CM due to the aforementioned lack of support. Willowtip was ready and willing to have us, and after talking with them we realized that they would be an excellent home for Impaled. And we were correct; they’ve been on the level and have done countless promotion for us since
the beginning. I’m glad we made the switch.
And the year ’07 was the return of Impaled after 2 year and new album and new journey in Morgue 😛 . And I think it’s a differnt album than the your other albums. Let’s talk about Last Gasp. How did you record it and how is the release process?
“The Last Gasp” was recorded a few different ways. We tracked the drums at our friend Brad Kobylczak’s Head Change Studios and recorded everything else — bass, guitar, vocals, auxiliary instruments — at Hhhhey Studios. We spent a lot of time recording since we weren’t paying by the hour to record everything but drums. This proved to be a great method for us because we didn’t have to rush through things and could get the exact sound we wanted. After all the tracking was done, we went back to Head Change and spent about a month mixing it. Then it was mastered by our friend Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound Mastering. One might say we kept this entire operation in-house by only working with close friends.
And I’m coming to Carcass:) What meaning does Carcass has for you? And What is Carcass effect on you?
Carcass is a great band recognized by many, but they have zero influence over the music I write. Impaled had originally been inspired by their lyrical imagery and songwriting style but through many years and many passing albums, Impaled developed our own sound, replete with influences by many metal genres. At this point, any Carcass comparisons are merely
imagined by the listener.
From ’97 to ’07 10th anniversary. What do you say about this. You released a full-lenght too but did you do something about this?
We all took each other out to dinner and gave each other silver gifts. It was quite romantic. Wait, isn’t that how you’re supposed to spend your 10 year anniversary?
What kind of things will wait to Impaled in future? Whats your plan and ideas? Are you working for new releases? Or do you think about new Tours?
We have just recently secured a European tour with Origin from May to June 2008 to support the release of “The Last Gasp.” We’re going to be setting up something throughout the U.S. as soon as we can after that. At this point we have a few festivals and weekend tours planned but are looking for something longer. Our goal is to tour as much of the rest of the world as possible.
Maybe after all of that touring we can start working on the next album. We have quite a few leftover songs from “The Last Gasp” recording sessions, plus some new songs a few of us have written that we never learned, so we might be able to put something together from that material.
Do you think some changes and new things in your sound should we expect for new record and songs?
I would not expect any drastic changes from us with regards to the music we create, but in my opinion we’re only going to improve ourselves with each album.
And the Last question. What do you want tell Turkish music fans about you? And Do you know something about Turkiye and Turkish Metal music?
Well, if you haven’t heard of us and don’t have any of our albums, please pick up “The Last Gasp” soon! We would appreciate it.I don’t really know much at all about Turkish metal so perhaps you could educate me on some bands worth checking out!
OK. Finally it finished and I say thank you for this interview and your enjoyfull answers. Good luck and hope to see you around Turkiye…
You’re welcome! Here’s a friendly reminder to visit http://impaled.info and for all of humanity, stay fuck!
