Interview Noah Carpenter Skinless

Deicide Immolation SKINLESS With Passion 6/5/2005 Joe's on Weed Street Interviewer: Sharita Lumpkin Photos: Karma Omowale

Lineup Noah Carpenter - Guitar Jason Keyser - Vocals Bob Beaulac - Drums Joe Keyser - Bass

"The image has changed but it's still aggressive and extreme music.”

Noah Carpenter may be part of the old school of death metal, but his band is not forgotten. Skinless are back after lead singer Sherwood Webber decided to depart for a new career and a more stable lifestyle. For the last ten years, Skinless has put out some of the heaviest stuff out there, and are cited by some to be a huge influence on all metal music. Their last album, From Sacrifice To Survival was a different album from their previous two releases; and as Noah points out, the fans are ready for them to do their best album ever and prove that new vocalist Jason Keyser, can take on the task of replacing a legend in death metal. Read on as Noah talks about the aforementioned Sherwood, Jason’s new role, and the crazy antics that are included on the Skinflick DVD.

Sharita: First of all, thanks for taking time to talk to us.

Noah: Not a problem at all.

Sharita: What was the reason for Sherwood Webber's Departure?

Noah: I think Sherwood wanted a little change of pace.  He'd been with the band ten years and being in a band like this is a full time commitment. You're always on tour so it's hard to maintain a good and steady job being in a band like this. I think he wanted to go to school and just try a different path and it was getting kind of old for him. How he was livin', [had] gotten kind of stale. He moved to Denver to take a new path and see what would happen. He put some good hard work in this band and we owe a lot of our success to his work and effort. We wish him the best.

Sharita: So do you still keep in touch with him?

Noah: Yeah, I just talked to him a couple of days ago. He's wondering how we're doing, checks in on us, I give him a call every now and then. So we're good friends and we parted as friends, there was no arguments or crap like that.

Sharita: Being a band that has been around since the mid nineties how do you feel about the newer artists in death metal?

Noah: You always have to have the fresh, new bands coming out. What I like about this tour is there's a mixture of the old school like Deicide and Immolation, we're somewhere in between; then you have two new bands like Despised Icon and With Passion coming out. So, it's a good mixture, people get to see the bands they've loved for so many years, plus they get to discover a couple of new bands. So, I think you need the young kids to keep the scene going; I think it's important.

Sharita: I agree, do you think that the quality of this genre has improved?

Noah: The image is a little bit different. A lot of the guys have shorter hair now and wearing skintight shirts, [whereas] before, it would be long hair. [Laughs] The image has changed but it's still aggressive and extreme music.   

Sharita: Great. I read that the band is planning to release a follow-up to the 2003 release of From Sacrifice to Survival, what's in store for traditional Skinless fans and will it be a lot more different than your last albums?

Noah: I think the Sacrifice album was a little bit different than our first two; it was a little bit more experimental. With this new one we want to go back to the old, straight up heavy stuff. The last one, we tried to get a little more technical and tried a few new things; there was some clean vocal parts and acoustic things. Now we want to get back to straight up heavy stuff, no messin around, and I think that's what the fans want and that's what we're ready to do with this album. When we all talk about what this album is gonna be we, all say it's gonna be heavy, it's gonna be heavy, that's our main goal. We're not trying to impress anybody by how many notes we can play in seconds or whatever, it's all about being as heavy as we can be.

This album has been a real challenge for us too because we all have to prove that we can kick ass without Sherwood. I think a lot of people think that Sherwood is the band and we want to prove that we can still rock too.

Sharita: Alright, is there are name for it yet?

Noah: Not yet, a possible release date is April of next year. We'd like to be in the studio by December and in four months, the album should be recorded.

Sharita: Looking forward to it. Last year you released the Skinflick DVD. In the bio it tells of how it combines great life performances with some hilarious off stage antics, can you give elaborate on that for anyone that hasn't seen it?

Noah: Well, if you know our bass player, he's a pretty goofy guy. He likes to stir people up, wrestle random people that he finds, and harass people on the street. (Laughs) There's definitely some drunken backstage antics; you name it, it's in there. There's also some crazy Japanese kids doing death metal karaoke; we got them singing along to songs. When people talk about the DVD, that's the first thing they mention, " Oh those crazy Japanese kids...” so [it's funny].

Sharita: Sounds like it, I'll have to check that out. I read that you listen to such Non-metal acts as Porcupine Tree, Tonic, and Hoobastank. Are they any other non-metal bands that you are a fan of?

Noah: Oh, I like a lot of classic rock. I like Led Zeppelin, old Black Sabbath, Bad Company; good seventies rock and roll. Mostly, I listen to classic metal like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, stuff that I grew up on and got me into this sort of music. So, mostly metal and couple of other bands here and there. I went through a Tonic and Hoobastank phase, they're not my favorites but it's good to pop it in every now and then.

Sharita: Good answer. Your debut on Relapse Foreshadowing Our Demise was released in 2001. What other labels worked on your demos before signing with them?

Noah: There's a label out of Albany New York called Step Up Productions and they helped us put out our first CD called Progression Towards Evil and really helped us springboard our home scene. We built a following there and we were able to use that as a jumping point for other places. Through that labels [assistance], we released our first CD and it got us a lot of attention and we were able to just step up from there. You know, step up... (Chuckles)

Sharita: (Laughs) I got ya! Who has been responsible for the bands cover art before Mike Suffrin on the last album?

Noah: The first one was a photo we found in an old Wild West gunfighter book. (Laughs) We wanted a hanging scene so I just went to a library, looked through some books and found that. (Laughs) Sherwood did the layout using that picture. The second was a friend of ours named Ira Marx, he did that sculpture on the front and if you open up the inlay, you can see a whole scene of the sculpture that he did, it's pretty neat.

Sharita: Cool. So, how have the fans of Skinless have changed over the years?

Noah: I think they keep getting younger. (Laughs) They stay the same age and I keep getting older. Actually, tonight is twenty-one and up night isn't it? I'm surprised at how many people are out here; imagine if it was an all-ages show. It's good to see the older people still coming out. The young kids...(Laughs) are always the ones with the energy, that are up front, gettin' in the pit, and buying all the t-shirts. I think the twenty-one and up crowd is always more concerned about their beer money. (Laughs) So, it's good to have a mixture.

Sharita: Good observation, since Jason Keyser has taken over duties as lead singer, does he write a majority of the lyrics or is it a band effort?

Noah: We're still in that writing process but so far he's done all the lyrics. I give him some ideas and concepts for songs but I was never much of a lyrical kind of guy, I just have ideas, give them to him, and he's able to work with those. Yeah he'll be doing most of the lyrics and some of the stuff I've seen so far is almost a continuation of what Sherwood was doing from the last album, so Jason has been doing a really good job.   

Sharita: Hardcore is obviously very popular right now, do you feel the gross names, songs and covers of some of the death metal bands has detracted from their chance at commercial success?

Noah: Well, everything about death metal...I think that's the whole point of it of is to gross out and offend people...

Sharita: To be the most offensive and gross as humanly possible?

Noah: Exactly. (Chuckles) We used to write some of the most stupidest lyrics ever but we kind of grew out of it. There are only so many songs you can write about bodily functions, I think. (Laughs)

Sharita: (Laughs) You also used to put movie sound bites in your songs, why did you stop?

Noah: Well, we didn't want the album to be like the first two. We wanted an album that set us apart from those two and it would be too predictable to do another album with song samples and song movie clips so, we only did that for one album, we'll probably bring it back for this one, but that album was all about catching people by surprise I think and doing a few different things. 

Sharita: Alright, did you play in any other bands before Skinless?

Noah: I played in a band called Hate Guts in high school and we played one show in the auditorium and that was it. I've always played with friends growing up but Skinless is the first band that's really gone anywhere. That started in high school and just kept it goin'.

Sharita: Ok, what are your thoughts on the situation in Iraq since the last album was mostly based around the war?

Noah: Thoughts on Iraq...that's something I try to avoid these days because people are definitely on one side or the other and I definitely have my opinion. I support the war, but I don't want to get in to it right now. (Chuckles) I'm sick of discussing this with people and that's nothing against you.

Sharita: No, that's alright.

Noah: I've had a lot of frustrating conversations with people, on this subject. When the war started, we were in Europe playing in Holland, in Rotterdam. All I kept hearing throughout the tour was, "Oh you're an American, what do you think about the war in Iraq?"  In every city we'd go to and get dirty looks wherever we went in Europe because people knew we were Americans. So, I kind of try not to get into it with people anymore because they'll never convince me otherwise and I'll never convince them.

Karma: Are you a republican?

Noah: Yes.

Sharita: Ok, that would've led me to my next question, which now doesn't need to be asked.

Noah: I try to keep politics separate from music as much as I can actually. I don't want to preach to people, I definitely want to keep it separate.

Sharita: Fair enough, lets talk about the tour. How has the response been on the tour with Deicide so far?

Noah: So far it has been amazing, especially the Canadian shows. Before tonight, we did a stretch in Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto and they're absolutely going crazy up there. Merchandise sales were through the roof and it reminds me when I was sixteen or seventeen going to an old Cannibal Corpse show. The energy was through the roof up there and I don't know what's going on up there in Canada but they're definitely into the metal up there. We do have a bunch of west coast Canada shows we're looking forward to because we've never been. Definitely, we're real excited about this tour and it's been really great so far.

Sharita: Great, I know you said that the new album won't be out till next April so, are there any more tours planned after this one?

Noah: Well, after this tour we're gonna focus on finishing up the writing for this album, we still have some work to do as far as that. We wanna make sure it's gonna be done and ready to hit the studio by November, so all of our attention is gonna go on that. We might do some scattered weekend shows but I don't think we'll have any full-scale tour plans. We've had other offers; we discussed it, and said the album was priority number one. The last album came out in 2003, we're due and people are ready for it.

Sharita: Sounds like a plan. Are you self-taught or did you have lessons?

Noah: I took guitar lessons for two years and that really helped me out a lot, I don't think I ever could've taught myself. Before I took them, I'd picked up a guitar and messed around with it but I had no idea and didn't really know what I was doing so I needed the lessons. I'm glad my parents gave took me. They could see that I was really getting into music and one day I was like, "Oh I wish I could play that." The next thing you know my uncle gets me a guitar and my parents got me the lessons so, I'm really happy they did that for me.

Sharita: Great, Karma did you have any questions?

Karma: Yes, you were speaking of the Canadian shows, what kind of shows were these, were they seventeen and over or twenty-one and over, or was it a mix?

Noah: It's been all-ages shows; there have definitely been a lot of younger kids there so it must've been all-ages. I think those three shows had about six hundred people there and the places were packed. A lot of the smaller kids were trying to get up front..

Karma: Were they small venues or large venues?

Noah: One was like an old opera house that we played in Toronto last night and they're big sized venues. I think the capacity of this one is like six seventy or something, probably bigger than this place.

Karma: And, whom do you listen to in the metal genre right now?

Noah: I really like Shadows Fall. I like the way they combine the newer extreme metal and they do some melodic stuff as well and Obituary, they're what got me into metal. They have an album coming out in about a week or so I’m looking forward to that.

Sharita: Alright great, Thanks for doing the interview, Noah.

Noah: Thank you.


Thanks to Noah and to Betsey from Relapse for setting it up.

Click here for photos of tonight's show