A Conversation with Diecast

RADIOTAKEOVER TOUR E.Town Concrete DIECAST Twelve Tribes DevilInside 11/18/04 Bottom Lounge

Lineup: Paul Stoddard - Vocals Jeremy Wooden - Bass Jon Kita - Guitars Kirk Kolatis - Guitars Jason Costa - Drums

Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

Diecast are the authors to their destiny: overcoming the dreaded fable of the tale of the 17 guitarists, bursting back into the scene after a long 3-year nap like Sleeping Beauty, etc. The reigning kings of metalcore have arisen from the ashes like a phoenix with their October 16^th release entitled Tearing Down Blue Skies. Make sure you go and see these guys as they are currently on the Radiotakeover Tour and will be heading out with Hatebreed and Agnostic Front in latter December early January.

One the hardest working acts in the business, it is not hard to see why the men of Diecast are a little riled up as they came close to not getting paid for a gig they just played. Picture this: 1. brothers razzing one another; 2. frustrated musicians performing 110% to a poorly promoted desolate venue to the slim but pumped crowd; 3. freshly coming off the heels of a fender bender…one can understand why a couple of the guys did shots of Jäger prior to the interview and how quickly the interview disintegrated. Here is the hysterical result…

Karma: First off guys thanks for sitting down with us and doing this interview!

Jeremy Wooden: No problem.

Karma: Please introduce yourselves and tell us what you do.

Jason Costa: I’m Jason and I play drums.

Jeremy: I’m Jeremy and I play bass.

Paul Stoddard: [Puffs chest out and smiles widely] My name is Paul, I sing.

Jon Kita: I’m Jon, I play guitar.

Paul: My name is Paul and I’m a bandaholic [Hysterical laughter follows]

Jeremy: [Mimicking Paul in a girlie voice] My name is Paul, and I sing! [Laughter ensues from all]

Jon: I’m the mean guy in the band! 

Karma: So how is the tour going so far? 

Jeremy: Pretty good! The bands are all awesome, attendance has been a little up and down, but the people who are there enjoy it thoroughly so that’s what matters.

Karma: What has been the most interesting thing that's happened to you since the tour began?

Jeremy: Tonight, I almost threw the guy [club employee] on the floor and killed him because he didn’t want to pay us.

Karma: [And all that energy’s] fresh too!! [We all laugh] So what are your immediate plans after the tour?

Jason: Ah man, my girlfriend’s gonna be hurting! We’re coming home for 3 weeks and after that we go on tour with Hatebreed and Agnostic Front in January.

Jeremy: But the immediate plan after the tour is to see family, friends, and girlfriends! 

Jon: Maybe you should call and warn her that she is going to be hurting! Since those are your immediate plans after the tour.

Paul: And since you will be playing a lot of chess…SWEET!

Jeremy: We’re all going to actually walk in with loin cloths [Makes gestures of pointing at his crotch] [At this point we all lose it] We’re going to bring it back to cave man days!

Karma: Perhaps they will be warned before you make it home.

Jon: I don’t have a girlfriend, but I’ll go home and give my mom a hug.

Group: Ahh!!

Paul: Yeah, Jon doesn’t have a girlfriend.

Jason: He’s a lonely guy!

Karma & Erika: OHH!!

Paul: But he’s been advertising! That’s okay Jon, I’ll give you a hug!! [At this point Kirk joins us] And this is Kirk. Kirk, tell the thing what you do!  [As he points to the recorder]

Kirk Kolatis: I’m Kirk and I ram cars while I’m driving! [In his thickest Boston accent]

Jeremy: Oh, he took care of that one today!

Kirk: Anybody that gets in my way is getting hit! I play guitar too! [He cracks open a can of Monster energy drink]

Jon: We got 10 cases of that...can I have a sip?

Kirk: It’s the best thing I ever had! [Holding the can up and posing doing his best spot for advertising]

Jeremy: Oh, that’s our new sponsor! [Laughs]

Kirk: Monster Energy Drinks. MMMM, I love them!!

Jason: We should mix it up with raspberry vodka.

Jeremy: Raspberry vodka & Monster.

Karma: As long as you make it Absolut Rasperberri.

Jeremy: Is that right?

Karma: Yes, it’s the best out of all of them.

Paul: We can’t afford that [We all die laughing]

Jason: [Raises eyebrows and rubs face]

Jeremy: We drink Steel Reserves 40’s and…

Jason: Mr. Boston’s Vodka.

Jeremy: We pay 4 dollars for a jug this big [As he pantomimes a monstrous bottle]

Jason: We find local Russians and we squeeze the vodka out of them.

Paul: We’ll find the local wino…

Jeremy: We rob from the homeless! [Voice becomes gruff] “We’re on tour! We need that more than you do!”

Jon: We’ll drink their urine too!

Jason: Give me your blanket!  [We all lose it]

Karma: You played over 150+ shows in 2001, have any plans in the future of trying to tie or break your all time touring record? 

Jason: Yeah!!

Jeremy: Yeah, we’ll break it because I think we are on the road solid until about May and they keep adding on. So we’ll keep going.

Karma: What’s the exact count of shows you performed during that stretch?

Jeremy: We must have performed well over a thousand to this point.

Jon: A gazillion! I’m just kidding!!

Jeremy: We’ve done two in one day before and two in someone's house in a basement.

Karma: I was talking to Jason earlier about how solid the lineup is now, which is a beautiful thing I am sure it must be nice to be on the same page but how did you go through 17 guitarists? 

Jeremy: A lot of them were atrocious: one showed up for one day - left, one didn’t show up to a show - they got thrown out [of the band]

Jason: One guy we had was amazing but he freaked out in front of people. One night right before we were going to go on he grabbed me and said [giving frenzied, panicked look], “Are you afraid to go on? I’m afraid to go on!”

Paul: It was basically the amalgamation of all of guitarists that ever tried out…

Jeremy: He’s number 14 and was the final [referring to Kirk]

Kirk: Then they finally said, “Well Kirk’s not so bad, I guess we’ll take him!”

Jon: I didn’t quit and I got a .25¢ raise.

Karma: Which song is your favorite off Tearing Down Blue Skies?

Jason: “Fire Damage”

Jeremy: “Traitor” and “Torn From Within” are tied.

Paul: I’m feeling like “Sacrifice” “Seize The Day”.

Kirk: I love “Seize the Day”! “These Days” and “Savior”; I like the radio songs.

Jon: I’d say “Seize The Day” or “Rebirth” or the hidden track! Tell everybody to listen at the end of the CD…there isn’t one so they’ll be waiting for a really long time! [We all share a hearty guffaw]

Karma: Are there any songs in your arsenal you dislike playing and why?

Kirk: All of them! [Laughs]

Jason: “Desensitized”.

Jeremy: “Desensitized”! That song sucks!!

Paul: I wished we cover Menudo and that’s it!

Jeremy: It was on our last record and I hate it!

Jason: Yup!

Jon: Somebody made us…

Jeremy: …it sounds like shit that’s just whipped all over the place

Jon: We basically recorded that [song] with a gun to our heads…

Jason: But if you like it, that’s cool!!

Jeremy: You could probably come yell through the whole set, and you won’t hear it!!

Jason: Yeah!  Colin liked it and that’s why he’s out of the band now! [We all laugh]

Jeremy: No, Paul beat him up and ate him!

Paul: That’s it man!

Jason: He said, “Geeerrrrr” and ate him

Paul: I was actually 130 pounds…

Karma: Before you ate him right?

Paul: Till that happened! I mean I’m still digesting…

Jason: He’s like a boa constrictor; he just sits in there swollen for awhile. 

Jon: Exactly!!

Paul: I’m still waiting for the bones to come out!

Jon: Passing those through would be amazing!!

Kirk: He can unhinge his lower jaw!

Paul: [Imitates him being fastened with arms in the air and squats] I’m going to tie myself to two trees and, ‘here we go!’

Jeremy: You can tie him to a pony and have him pull it out!

Paul: It’s going to be like my dog; one time my dog ate a balloon and the balloon was starting to come and [smiles] it wasn’t coming out so we had to go and get the rubber gloves.

Jeremy: That’s dangerous to do because you have to wait. You can’t just pull them [side conversation begins with Jeremy & Paul]

Jon: Yeah, my cat shat string and we had to cut it off and wait for it.

Karma & Erika: Ohhh!!

Jon: Yeah!! We had to snip it and wait for it to come out.

Jason: So you had a cat running around with a piece of poo bouncing… [Due to level of boisterous laughter, Jason’s end commentary was inaudible]

Kirk: Because Diecast cares!! [Said in his best commercial voice]

Jason: So what do you do, open up the door and say, “Run, kitty run!”

Jon: Exactly!! You feed it a lot more so it will shit more than usual. [Every one stares at Jon in sheer horror]

Paul: Okay! Next question!! [We all laugh]

Jason: Where did that come from?

Jeremy: Exactly!!

Jon: I’m thinking out load again!

Karma: What do you think needs to change in the Industry?

Jeremy: They should pay the bands!

Jason: [Nods furiously]

Kirk: The bands should start making money!

Jason: The bands should not be the lowest common denominator anymore! When you make less than minimum wage, you know there’s an issue.

Kirk: Minimum wage? What’s that? [Rolls eyes]

Paul: I know! Minimum wage would be awesome!!

Kirk: Wouldn’t that be great!

Karma: [repeating previous statement] Minimum wage would be awesome? WOW!!! 

Erika: I know!!

Karma: So if you could commission a band to do a cover of one of your songs, who would it be and which song would it be?

Jon: Pantera!

Kirk: Whitesnake!

Jon: Yeah, Pantera based that it was the original lineup, they toured, we went on tour with them, and they did all of their other songs too! That would be me and if they covered one of our songs too!

Kirk: If Whitesnake could do "Singled Out", that would be sick! David Coverdale would be up there spinning the fuckin' mic stand…

Paul: I'd love to mention a band but I would hate to see anyone do it better than us but I would say Pantera.

Jeremy: Any of tonight's shows bands! [Smiles]

Jason: If Kenny G. could do "Rise and Oppose" that would make my day!

Jon: Maybe we could get Yanni to record one of our songs; he could do a Peruvian version…

Jeremy: Maybe a Yanni/Kenny G. collaboration 

Jon: The Peruvian pan flute…

Kirk: Now you're just getting silly!! [We all lose it]

[Side conversations ensue]

Paul: I don't know what's going on around here… [another band was preparing to go on stage and their saxophone player was practicing quite loudly for the good part of 5 minutes but had gotten progressively louder at this point] …but I would just like to say that there are half naked people about and that they have on coconut shells and grass skirts. [We all laugh hysterically] [Turning around in the direction of the other group] The shells look GREAT!! [The entire room fills with laughter as the saxophone player ceases to play]

Kirk: Ya got a nice set of shells, Toots!

Karma: Who do you want to see blow up?

Jon: US!

Jeremy: Definitely all of the bands on this tour [Radiotakeover]

Jason: DevilInside, Twelve Tribes, and E.Town Concrete. 

Karma: Where do you see the band 5 years from now?

Kirk: Sitting around in jacuzzis.

Jason: a little older, a little more bitter with houses and homes and still playing shows.

Kirk: Being able to afford an apartment.

Jeremy: The guy who tried to stiff us tonight crawling on his knees across the floor, in a loincloth and fruit basket on his back!

Jason: He’d be a living seat.

Jeremy: Exactly!

Paul: We could treat him like an ottoman!

Jon: You could put your feet on him! Kick him in ass as he goes by!!

Paul: [Simulating the act] “Hurry up, bring me back some more fresh fruit!”

Jon: Don’t tell them which show!

Paul: Exactly! This could be any random show, at any given time…

Karma: …in any random city!

Group: Yes!

Paul: Rats, city…I didn’t think of that! [We all laugh]

Jon: [Shouting at the coconut girls] You guys look great!

Paul: [Shouts] WHOOWW!!!

Karma: I know you had to set up your “perfect bill” in your heads, have you played with any of these acts yet?

Jeremy: Pantera, Killswitch Engage, 36 Crazyfists, Diecast

Jason: I like that!

Paul: I like that too but I would insert between Killswitch and us Sevendust

Jason: Hmmm… now I’m rethinking my answer!

Kirk: I’m going to pick Killswitch Engage (definitely all of my favorites) and the original Life of Agony!

Group: YEAH!!!!!!

Jon: I’ll take that tour and Testament, Metallica (circa 1985).

Paul: These tickets are gonna sell for $3000 a piece

Jon: And well play for strictly cash

Paul: Then 3 months later, we’ll be playing across the street with Joey Circus

Jon: I wish you had a video camera because it would be so much fun for the audience to see this!

Karma: True, because no one would ever believe these people were running around like this! [We all laugh]

 The hilarity doesn't stop here,

click here for Part II –

Diecast in the Speed Round

Are you ready for this?

Click here for pix from tonight's show

I'd like to thank the band for being so open and candid, George from Century Media and the band's tour manager, Suzanna Paradise.