There’s always an awful lot to talk about with bands from other countries. Regardless of the globalization notion, there are extreme differences between people, art and especially music when it all boils down. Those key disparities are often what keeps genre inventions alive, and maintain the cyclical nature of music to be a constant one.
So why then do we always resort to asking questions about Rihanna and our shitty government? Freedom of press, mostly, and maybe partly because we’re lazy. Still, it doesn’t detract from the fantastic talent we always have rolling through town. The weather right now may be akin to our motivational levels, but there’s always the weekend to look forward to, and this weekend Australia has given us a gift of rock.
We had an opportunity to correspond with Twelve Foot Ninja guitarist Steve "Stevic" Mackay this week before its November 2nd appearance at the Summit Music Hall in Denver, CO. He manages to avoid too much rhetoric about our political debacle, thinks being kidnapped by elves is a respectable excuse for being late, and needs to find more room in his luggage to fit the Death Star cookie jar he plans on buying while he’s here.
Is this tour a direct result of your overseas fans making such a demand?
Yeah, we hear from a lot of North American supporters so it will be great to finally play for them – but I'd also say it's a direct result of our good relationship with Periphery. Those guys told a lot of people about Twelve Foot Ninja and things kind of snowballed from there.
What are you most excited for in the states while on this tour?
1.) Finally getting to play for all the U.S. based supporters of our band and having the opportunity to build our following in person.
2.) Eating TV pizza with Wolfgang Van Halen.
3.) Maybe buying a death star cookie jar from think geek and not having to pay crazy freight prices.
There’s a lot of genre bending in your approach to music, why is this important to everyone when you write?
I'm not sure really? It just kind of comes out that way to be honest!
Is there the same kind of celebrity sensationalism over in Australia as we have here in America?
There might be? I don't really pay much attention to shit like that. I think Australia probably has a lame version of most fad-like things from the U.S.
We heard Rihanna pissed off some folk out there in AU by showing up to her show 3 hours late with no apologies or excuses. How does that kind of disrespect make you feel as an artist?
Irrespective of being an artist or not, rocking up 3 hours late to anything is shit in my book. Least she could do is tell everyone she had violent diarrhea or got kidnapped by elves or something. Just a bit of effort goes a long way.
Heavy music doesn’t see as much media attention here in the states as, say, pop music or indie music. Why do you think that is?
Maybe heavy music artists aren't doing enough cameos on Sesame Street?
Do you think the style of heavier rock will carry on through some of the newer generations of kids?
Sure, I can't see why not. Things go round in the washing machine.
In three words describe the current state of the American government:
Not really my business to say – you know, stay away from religion and politics and all that…BUT the three words I'd use might be: troubling, ominous, bureaucratic.
What does Twelve Foot Ninja set out to accomplish with every show?
Technical proficiency, maximum energy and good vibe with the crowd.
What can fans expect out of Twelve Foot Ninja in the future?
In the foreseeable future: our crowd funded music video about fucking up an Internet troll, another album and more touring.
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