INTERVIEWS

Interview with Human Waste Project
Date: 07/11/97
By: Ravi Kahlon

Human Waste Project is:
Aimee Echo: Vocals
Jeff Shartoff: Bass
Scott Ellis: Drums
Mike Tempesta: Guitar(not present during this interview

How did you guys meet each other?
Aimee: We all grew up together.
Jeff: Then We met Mike who's from New York.

Did you guys have any other guitar players before Mike?
Aimee: So many (laugh)! Three guys named John.

Why did you guys get rid of them?
Aimee: We didn't really get rid of them, they just kinda faded away. It had nothing to do with the music influences or the music itself, It had more to do with our personal relationships with them. Our last guitar player left for another band a while back, so were talking a couple of years ago.

How did you guys find Mike?
Aimee: Through our second guitar player John Montie (i think that's how you spell it) . Like I said he's from N.Y. , and he was a friend of mine. John started to bug out, from being in L.A. and stuff, and not being signed or having enough money.
Jeff: Its frustrating.

How long have you been a band?
Aimee: It'll be 4 years in December.
Jeff: We started in '93.

When did you actually get signed to Hollywood Records?
Aimee: June 6, 1996. There are three 6's in there (laughs)

When was the album finished?
Aimee: October 31st is when we finished mastering I think.
Jeff: We started on Friday the 13th.
Aimee: (huge laugh) that's why we're having trouble!

I heard it was suppose to be out in March, then May, the June 10th. Now I hear its set for September 30th. Is that a set date?
Aimee: (laugh) so did I. But Anyway, as far as I know, the date is pretty much set.

What's taking so long for the album to come out? I heard about the trouble I.C.P. was having, and how the label is under scrutiny.
Aimee: Our label is having a lot of political problems within the label.
Jeff: The whole I.C.P. thing didn't effect us really. They had some changes in their management. They're changing Presidents, so we got caught in this political thing, and we're not the only one's. I.C.P. waited a year.
Aimee: Everybody is like having problems.

Does that make you guys uncomfortable?
Aimee: Well to tell you the truth, it was kinda like a blessing because the guy who was handling our records wasn't really up to the task, and he wasn't doing that great of a job to begin with. Hopefully the new guys working with us will work in our favor.
Jeff: It will work in our favor. The thing is, the only thing we want them to do is put the album out and act like a label, and just do what any average label would do. That's all we want. We're probably 6 months behind schedule, which in the bigger scheme of things isn't that much, but its just frustrating right now. We were gonna play on the B-stage at Lollapalooza, but that didn't happen cuz our President got fired.

Why'd you guys sign to Hollywood, and did you ever think of signing with an indie label?
Aimee: Actually Spackelle(their A&R man) followed us around for three years. It was just a whole family vibe going on, they gave us the best offer and there was no way we could break Spackelle's heart. Also, we got offers from indie labels, but basically we knew what we wanted to accompish on our first record, and who we wanted to work with as a producer. We had a vision, and we knew an indie label couldn't do it.
Scott: They put us on tour before they even drew up a contract.
Aimee: ....And we needed to be on tour.

How'd you guys hook up with the Deftones?
Aimee: Its all basically through our mutual producer Ross Robinson.
Jeff: I'd seen 'em at the Dragonfly.
Scott: We did some great shows with them . We'd go to Sacto, and they'd come here and sleep on our couches and take showers in our house.

What was touring with them like?
Jeff: It was us, them, and Man Will Surrender.
Aimee: Scott was doing double duty, playing drums with us and MWS, and it was just this huge family vibe through the whole tour.

What was the whole recording process like at Indigo Ranch studios?
Aimee: It was so, so, weird. We started on Friday the 13th, we tracked 13 songs, got out on Halloween, lived through Malibu fire storms, we had a lunar eclipse, a meteor crash which I witnessed, and Jeff cracked his head on a rock. The whole place is like rock and roll summer camp with total wilderness. It's so beautiful
Jeff: Its like a big cabin/house type of thing and its really far up into the hills. There're orchards in the front yard, its overlooking the ocean, there's a river nearby. Its so incredible.

How did Ross help you guys out?
Aimee: Ross has been my close personal friend for years. He's from the desert.
Jeff: He's a shaman from the desert.
Scott: He's our spiritual leader
Aimee: We all met through this big circle of bands, like Korn, etc. . One of the guys I went to high school with was the tour manager then for Korn, and he introduced me. Actually, Jeff knew L.A.P.D. . Reggie played Jeff's gear on the second L.A.P.D. record. Anyway, we knew those guys for a while, and when Ross got involved with Korn, he got involved with us, and Ross got invloved with the Deftones, and then we got involved with the 'tones. Then we got involved with everyone. Its a big huge family whether its Limp Bizkit, or Grundig(Cold), it doesn't matter, its a huge family.

Jeff, I heard you use to sing in a punk band years ago?
Jeff: How'd you hear about that!?
Aimee: Somebodies leaking my information cuz I gave that little tidbit out.
Jeff: Well, me and Scott were hangin out, and we couldn't play any any instruments so we hooked up with these guys. It wasn't singing by any stretch, it was more like screaming.

When did you get into bass?
Jeff: I was trying to learn instruments even back then. I couldn't do the singing for shit so I just kinda got into guitar. Then I moved into bass and just stuck with it. ( Jeff now has a Ernie Ball 5-string bass as well as an old Fender Precision 4 string bass).

What kinda stuff do you listen to?
Jeff: The stuff that I really love to death is like the Cure, Tricky, Tool, Portishead, Siouxie and the Banchies, Public Enemy, The Clash, Tom Waits, Sepultura, Slayer, Soul Coughing. All knids of stuff really.
Aimee: We all pretty much go from one end to the other as far as what we like.

How do you guys write?
Scott: We all write together.
Aimee: I write everything in a journal that I have. I do all the lyrics too. When I hear the music, I'll either write on the spot or take a piece from my journal and use that.

Aimee, how'd you come up with your vocal style?
Aimee: I came into this band trying to get away from any female singers as much as possible. I started out heavy because I kinda had to prove myself too because Scott didn't want a girl singer, so you could just imagine what I was thinking. Then I sorta evolved to where what comes outta me is just really me.
Jeff: I knew from the beginning that she was good, and I knew everything would work itself out.

How'd you come up with the idea of singing?
Aimee: I'm not sure really. I was doing background vocals for bands when I was younger but I never thought of it as a viable career option for me. I think it started when my mom overheard me singing and she said to me, "I didn't know you could sing," and I said I can't but then I met this guy and started this thing with him. Then I lied to Jeff and told him I could sing, and he believed me. It was that whole story of how we were driving to Lollapolooza, and Jeff asked me if I could scream, and I said yes.
Jeff: I was looking to start this really experimental band, cuz we use to do a lot of sequencing and sampling when we started. I wanted something in like the flavor of Tricky and Portishead with like Skinny Puppy type heaviness (goth hop), with a tribalized rhythum and a Jane's Addiction type feel. I never thought of Aimee as a female though, I was just looking for someone who could do the job.

Are a lot of the songs on the album old?
Jeff: 40% old, 60% new.
Aimee: There are 7 brand new songs on the record, maybe 8. We had a lot of old songs, but when you start a band you don't really know what to do, and as time progresses, you start to write stuff that is true to yourself. When I started off, I use to cop a lot of the styles of male vocalists cuz I hated the girls. The girl vocalists I loved were the one's that didn't do that thing, that girlie thing. I use to love Siouxie Sioux, and PJ Harvey. (I'm not gonna tell you the names of the girl vocalists she hates. I promised her).

Where did you guys come up with the idea for "Graverobbers from Mars"?
Jeff: That was so spur of the moment.
Aimee: We were just kickin it. What happened was one person was playing an instrument, and Ross walks in and says lets do something with that. So we set up the drums, our tech was playing keyboards, our A&R guy was playing the castanettes, I started singing through a fan on a karaoke mic (she starts screaming). People think its a keyboard but its me singing.
Jeff: I kept bugging Ross about doing little segways and stuff. Ross likes to do things spontaneuosly so we were all in one room, with one mic, and we did one take.
Aimee: It seems like a scary song to you, but if you would have been there, you'd have seen that it was just the funniest thing in the world.

What's your favorite song on the record?
Aimee: I love the last song, "Get With It" , beacuse I came up with it so quick. Lyrically, I love "Spain", its real personal. Everything I write is personal though.

What are the meanings of the songs?
--All answered by Aimee
"Hold Me Down"--- its not about rough sex or anything, its about a guy who was really jealous. I let people think its sexual, but its totally mental. The relationship sucked so bad, and I just couldn't get out of it.
"Disease"--- too personal
"Electra"--- I sarted getting into alien information type stuff, and I was reading a lot of books on aliens, like "Alien Agenda", reforming your DNA and stuff, and weird things were happening. The song pretty much wrote itself. After I had written the song and titled it electra, I found out that this star (pointing to a tattoo on her wrist) was called Electra. The song was about being human and being not human, and being in a different place all together. It didn't make sense at all, so when I found out, I freaked out and starting calling all my freinds. I was into the alien stuff I thought I was gonna be committed. The album title Electralux means "star-light", electra-lux. Actually, its not gonna be called electralux anymore because of copyright infringment. Its gonna be called E-Lux.
"Shine"---(I know what its about, but I can't tell you guys. I promised Aimee. Sorry.)

Also, H.W.P said they'll, probably go on tour with the Deftones closer to the album is gonna be released, late September. They said the Deftones are gonna take them out for revenge after the chicken incident. You gotta ask them about it. I think it involves live chickens and a prediction about a cow at a show. Aimee said she gets chills thinking of the new Deftones record, and she also loves Far and Alien Ant Farm. I wanna say thanks to Human Waste Project, Spackelle, Zack, and the people at the barn for not letting me sit with the adults in the beer drinking section. Thanks you anal retentive bastards....
THE END

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