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Why did you guys choose the name Boiler?
Um, I just thought of it one day and I mentioned it to Mark, and he liked it, it's just... we liked the word, there is not big story behind it really. Just liked it, thought it would be a cool name for a band, so it kind of stuck.
Can you remember any of the other names you were thinking of?
No, not really. At one point we did come up with a list of names, but they all just really sucked compared to that one, so we just stuck to that.
What makes a group of guys from Ithaca decide to form such a band?
We knew each other and just wanted to get together and jam. We each had our own things going on, but we wanted to do it sort of as a side project to all of the other things we were doing and some of the first things we started jamming out, it really clicked, so [we] just stuck with it.
Was there any clear focus when you started, or were you to just see what happens?
No, we've never really had any direction that we've wanted to go in. We'll go wherever it takes us, wherever the music takes us. We play what we like, and if somebody comes up with something at a practice and it's not really liked, then we move on, but we don't actually discuss "we're going to go in this direction or that direction", it just kind of happens that way.
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I think it actually tried to think about it too much, we'd probably overthink it and screw it up.
We just go where it takes us.
Do you ever do any jamming on stage, come up with new stuff or anything?
No, we're not really a jammy type band on stage. We do a cover song [...] [from the show Hee-Haw] "Gloom Despair and Agony", we do a cover of that, and the only time we ever play it is live. It is usually a little different every time.
Is it a crowd pleaser?
Everybody really loves it, it's really fun, and people start slamming and it's really cool... Mark usually just makes up lyrics as we're going along, cow-tipping, and whatever else happens to come to his mind. People really dig it.
You guys really enjoy doing a live show?
Oh yeah, big time, we love to play live.
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You do get really good crowds showing up for shows?
I guess it depends on where we are playing, if the crowd is in the mood for that sort of thing, you know. Sometimes you get an early spot, and [even though] there is a decent amount of people there, they aren't quite settled into the place yet and haven't really loosened up, sometimes you really [have to] win them over, but I think we're able to do that most of the time.
Are you the type of band that encourages the moshing and stage-diving then?
I don't know that we encourage it, it's more of a: we hope it happens. We haven't had anyone stage-dive yet, but we did a video not too long ago during our CD release party, and we told them we were video taping it so they kind of got the idea and stepped it up a bit, we got some really good footage from it actually... I've grown up listening to bands, moshing and stage diving myself, so...
What do think about the clubs and venues that frown upon that type of [activity]?
I guess if they have a reason like, I just heard of a club in Rochester that wasn't going to allow it because they were having a couple of [lawsuits] brought against them, it really sucks, people's parents I guess get pissed off, I don't know how bad any of the kids were hurt or anything, it's just funny how one person is going to sue the club, then two more step up and are going to sue. I haven't heard about any kind of violence or injuries, through any kind of media, about it or anything. I guess the club owners [have to] protect themselves too. If it takes doing that, then that is what it takes. Oh well, can't help it.
Do you think the fans will really follow these types of rules, or do you think they'll just keeping doing what they do?
No, I don't think they'll follow the rule at all. At first they'll really kick a lot of people out, but I think that just like with any rule, people are going to break'em, sometimes they're going to be overlooked... No, I think the kids will keep doing it, maybe not as much, but they'll still do it.
Have you guys, the band, ever had a run-in with the management of the club, or anything, before?
You mean a negative kind of run-in?
Yeah.
Hmm, not that I can really remember, I know there's been... we've been a little bit pissed if we're getting paid a lot less than we're supposed to and we can't really cover our gas or aynthing. But we get along with most of the club owners we come in contact with. My drummer owns a club here in town, so we really get to look at it from both sides.
[We've had pretty good luck.]
You play that a club a lot?
You know what, we used to play it a lot more before he owned it. I don't know why we play it less know. I don't know if we don't want people to think "oh, they stepped up playing there just because the drummer owns the place". Yeah, but that is where we did our CD release, it's our hometown, it's the place where we started playing in town when we started, it just happens that a couple of years after [we'd been together] that he got an offer to buy it, and he took it.
Do you have quite a fanbase in your hometown still?
Uh yeah, and they've been coming out a lot more to the shows. We sold quite a few CDs here in town, and for our CD release it was packed, so we were quite pleased with that. It's a little harder around here sometimes for the heavy music, it's more of a hippy, reggae, kind of college town.
You find the release is actually doing fairly well around there though?
Yeah, we sold quite a few around here, and the sales in general across the US have been good, I guess there's been some sales up in Canada as well; you're in Calgary right?
Yes.
It's been pretty good, we're pretty happy, [we] just need to get on a tour, we're just going to wait for that.
You don't have a tour lined up at the moment?
Nothing lined up, nothing concrete yet, there is maybes right now, but, the record company's working really hard to help us out with that right now.
Can you tell us what some of the maybes are right now?
Well like I said, the Crowbar [EdNote: This comment stems from before the interview], and they're thinking about doing a Mayhem tour, with us and a few of the other bands from Mayhem, for like a two month tour [...] so we'll see what happens with that. We're going to be doing the Milwaukee Metal Festival in July. There are some things are going to be happening, it's just kind of a wait thing right now.
How'd you first get hooked up with Mayhem?
Our A&R guy there, he knew some of us, and he really believed in the band. He brought all the necessary tapes and everything to the record company, and they had an interest, so they came down to a few of our shows in New York and checked us out, and decided that they wanted to sign us, and they're really doing a good job for us. We're trying to do that same as well for them, and so far everybody [gets long] really good.
Are you pleased with the way this release turned out and everything then?
We're really happy, we've gotten really good responses from everybody, haven't heary anything negative yet, so that's always a plus. Yeah, we're quite happy.
Okay, what type of... do you guys get out to see a lot of shows?
When we can, King Diamond was supposed to come to town just last week, but they cancelled, but you know, we go everytime to something close, but not too much comes here that's close, when you live in Ithaca there's a joke that goes around: we're geographically isolated. There's no real highways coming into town, the closest thing is Syracuse, which is about an hour and a half away. [...]
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In general how do you see the heavy music scene doing lately?
I think in the past couple of years it's been horrible, everybody turns their back on heavy music. I think that with bands like Deftones and Korn, and all those bands that are really doing good, I think it's definitely starting to make a comeback, hopefully it will keep coming back, not drop off. Bands like Deftones, they're selling out every place they're playing, they're really good, regardless of whether you like them or not, they're a heavy band, and that's good for heavy music in general.
Do you see bands out there that are detrimental to the scene?
Not really, I mean, there are certain bands that rely more on an image than music, which, I guess I could say is bad because I don't do that, and Boiler doesn't do that, but on the same token, people like it. It's to each his own. If people like it, people are going to buy it, people are going to see it, and if all those things happen then people are going to want to make that thing. But no, I don't think so, everybody has their own thing. People can criticise me for what I do, but oh well. It's just life, it's just what I do?
[What about friends and family?]
I've always been like this, they don't know me as anything else, since me and my brother were listening to KISS in my room when I was five, it's all I've ever wanted to do, from way back then, I've never really wanted to do anything else, except for maybe brew beer and figure out this thing about aliens. They don't understand it sometimes, but now that we've got a record deal and everything it's nice to be able to tell them "hey, I finally did it, check it out." Hopefully I can make a living at it someday. [...]
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Anything you'd care to say?
Nope, that's about it, I guess uhh, nope, that's about it.
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