by Morgan Y. Evans
live color photos by Christine Natanael
LINKS:
Biohazard. It's one of those names in heavy music like Slayer or Pantera that needs no further explanation. Just say the word and you are likely to get back a shit-eating grin or a “hell yeah”, as every fan of the underground worth their salt has their own memory of the band. From stuffing L'amour to the gills to ruling Headbanger's Ball back in the day to reuniting and touring Australia in 2008 with Korn, Evan Seinfeld, Billy Graziadei and the rest of the gang have paid their dues in triplicate and become hard rock legends. 2008 saw Biohazard reaching their 20 year milestone (time flies, let's face it) and back in full swing.
It's a wonder how the band can balance it all, with Evan Seinfeld, Billy Graziadei, Danny Schuler and Bobby Hambel all very busy with families, recording or television obligations and even other bands like Seinfeld's gritty new classic rock group The Spyderz or Graziadei's glam-spaz punk outfit Suicide City (who just released their first DVD, documenting a killer CBGB's performance from a few years back). Evan, of course, has also acted on TV shows like HBO's OZ series and works hand in hand (and other parts sometimes) with wife Tera Patrick in the adult entertainment industry.
It comes down to being stubborn, and the Brooklyn boys may be scattered in different parts of the country these days, but they are still as headstrong and driven as ever to do things their way. 2009 finds Biohazard taking names once more, having just killed it at the Hollywood Palladium with Suicidal Tendencies with more at home and abroad in the works or written in stone. You can't deny the reality that even twenty years in Biohazard makes chumps out of many bands far younger. This is one reunion that makes sense, as the band never stopped making records that added to their powerful legacy. They have always kicked out the jams live harder and with more bounce and bang for your buck than many others, and are an integral influence for numerous artists and regular folks when it comes to developing their appreciation for heavy music.
Whether fighting for musician's rights in a song like “Business”, which perfectly summed up "Music's for you and me, not the fuckin' industry”, or just laying it down and calling it like they see it on “Wrong Side of the Tracks”, album after album they have stuck to their guns and entrenched themselves in popular and unpopular culture in numerous ways.
I talked to bassist and vocalist Evan Seinfeld about the bands' past, present and future, his own wild life and what makes rock’n'roll here to stay for him personally.
EVAN SEINFELD: Sometimes I feel like...It's funny. I
forgot what TV show it was, my wife knows it. There's this guy on TV and
he juggles a chainsaw, a bowling ball, and like, a double-sided sword
and she's always like, "There you are again. That's you." I've
gotta be honest with you. I have one of the world's worst cases of A.D.D.
My mind does 1,000 things at once. It makes it hard for me to focus on
details sometimes, so I have a team around me to help me manage the unmanageable.
For me, music comes naturally. Biohazard, I've been doing it since I was
a teenager. It doesn't require extra thought for me. If I need to write
new songs with the guys, we just do it.
If we need to play shows, we just show up and do it. The hardest thing for me, at the moment, is scheduling. Biohazard probably did 60 shows this past year and we're going to be, the next couple years. We're working on a new album for Biohazard. I'm also working on The Spyderz album and finalizing the line-up for The Spyderz, which is my other band. I'm managing Tera full time with Violator Management, who also manage 50 Cent and Diddy and a bunch of other artists. We've just joined forces with them recently and it's helping me with our infrastructure. We run Teravision, my wife's adult business and Iron Cross, which is my adult business. So yeah, we do a bunch of stuff. But I do try and find time to be a dad and have some hobbies. You can't do everything everyday and sometimes you just gotta let go and say, “Today I'm making music. Tomorrow I'm making deals. Wednesday I'm making money.” You've gotta balance. It's the challenge of life. I feel blessed that I have a lot of things to juggle rather than be sitting at a bus stop having to go find a place to live.
MYE: And you get to do what you care about.
ES: I'm passionate about music with Biohazard 'cuz it's where I come from. I'm really passionate about The Spyderz 'cuz it's like classic rock, really melodic. It's like what I grew up on. As a little kid my parents were playing The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Skynyrd in the house. Before I discovered heavy metal, that's what I was into, Led Zeppelin. I've kind of put my little punk rock twist on classic rock and that's the Spyders. It's really where my heart and mind is musically at the moment. I'm an angry guy. I always have some Biohazard in me, y'know? It's never a stretch. I also do what acting I can do and some reality TV. I'm not really chasing it around. When someone calls me up and says they have a great part for me or have a reality show and would love to have me and my wife on, we pick and choose. We probably turn down more stuff than we take, just because, once again, scheduling is my biggest hurdle these days. I really feel fortunate. We just signed a book deal with Gotham Publishing and my wife is writing a book about her life.
MYE: Awesome.
ES: It's kind of the precursor to me writing a book, but I need to have the time to do it right.
MYE: It's funny, it'll be cool to read and hear your stories. Some people would watch OZ when you were on that HBO show and because of how Biohazard sounded, it was easy to pretend your character Jaz was really you, like, electrocuting a guy. [laughing]
ES: You know what's funny, until you ever have a part on a TV show, you don't realize how people take things so literally. I remember people seeing me on the subway in New York and black people giving me an attitude like I was some kinda Nazi skinhead 'cuz I played one on TV.
MYE: Right, right.
ES: Some guy
gave me attitude and I was like, “Hey bro, check this out. I know
at least you have cable because you've seen the show and in case you haven't
noticed I'm an actor and that's the part I was playing on TV.”
MYE: You could ask him if he ever heard of Onyx.
ES: I don't have to prove who or what I am to anybody, but the fact is that some people really think the guy who plays Kramer on Seinfeld really acts like that all day. Some people think they are that person all day long. One of the guys on OZ, Harold Perrineau, who was a star on Lost, he was in a wheelchair for the entire show of OZ, and me and him were out to lunch one day and someone came over and said, “Oh my God! You can walk!” He told me it happened to him everyday. People would say, “It's a miracle! You're walking!” [laughing]
MYE: About
the Biohazard reunion, you just played The Palladium with Suicidal Tendencies
who are, like, West Coast Kings. Could you talk a bit about your relationship
with them? How did it feel? You must be proud having people respond so
strongly to all these reunion shows for Biohazard.
MYE: [laughing] Brutal!
ES: I'm 41 years old. I've never had a motorcycle licence and never even had any paperwork straight on any of my bikes. I had, like, a fake plate. I'm trying to get it legitimate and they are making it so fucking hard. They don't want you to have your paperwork straight in California. It's like a police state. Anyway, the shows have been young kids inspired by the heavy music and people from the scene who didn't get to see us the first time. I was really happy to see those types of people come out. I also got approached by people who say things like, “Hey man, I've seen Biohazard thirty times and I haven't been to a show in five to ten years and I came out to see you guys.” That's a compliment. As far as Suicidal goes, I'm really good friends with Mike Clark and Mike Muir. They're fucking awesome guys in that band who we have a lot of respect for. It's funny. That was always the band where Suicidal was the West Coast and Biohazard was the East Coast. We were the alter-egos. By the way, there's so many hot girls at DMV!
MYE: [laughing]
ES: In the Valley! I should be casting for my movies! I might have to jump off the phone, but if that happens I'll call you back. I think they're about to inspect my bike. Ok, what else you wanna know? Suicidal and us, we've talked about even doing some tour dates together, so who knows.
ANONYMOUS VOICE THROUGH PHONE: He won't remember.
ES: [to ANONYMOUS] Oh, he knows. [To MYE] Oh man, the guy who is gonna inspect my bike is the guy who failed me on my motorcycle driving test.
MYE: Oh no. [laughing]
ES: I've done motorcycle STUNTS in MOVIES
and I can't pass my driving test!
MYE: What can you tell us about the new Biohazard record you're writing compared to your past stuff?
ES: I don't know. I can tell you we're all writing riffs and melodies. It's gonna, I mean, we don't need to make another Urban Discipline,'cuz we did that. Getting me to agree to do it, we all want it to be heavy but... Ok, I gotta call you back.
[Note: Due to scheduling
madness of my own including a Prong interview and taking care of a small,
hyper dog, as well as Evan's busy schedule, we had to postpone the remainder
of the interview to the next day.
When I got back on the line, Evan was still gracious and funny but maybe
a bit more relaxed, understandably. DMV sucks, even with potential porn
girl recruits on line.]
MYE: [Next day] How'd it go at the DMV yesterday?
ES: One second, I'm bringing Tera her tea. Tera, here you go. Elegant. Black.
TERA PATRICK: Thanks.
ES: I'm on the phone with Crusher Magazine finishing my interview from yesterday.
TP: How about with my new shoes?
ES: [To Tera] I think if you wear that with your new Christian Louboutin shoes you'll be the belle of the ball. Here's your hot tea. [To MYE] I passed my motorcycle test with flying colors yesterday. My wife wished me luck and I wore my lucky red sneakers.
MYE: Good to hear, man. I thought you were gonna kill that guy.
ES: No, he was actually really cool this time.
MYE: Tommy Victor from Prong says, “Hi”.
ES: Where'd you see him?
MYE: I had an interview with Tommy after I got off the phone with you, but he said to say, “What's up”.
ES: Listen, to this day I credit Tommy Victor. He gave Biohazard our first gig.
MYE: Really?
ES: I don't
think he goes around telling a lot of people that, but the first ever
Biohazard gig was late 1988 opening for Prong at the Pyramid Club in New
York City.
MYE: No shit, I wish I saw that.
ES: The funny part, honestly, we weren't very good back then. We were all fucked up on drugs but we had a lot of people.
TP: I was seven.
ES: Yeah, Tera was like, eight.
MYE: [laughing]
ES: Tera was in nursery school for pre-groupies. Right? She's only a groupie for me now. Although she's been around a little bit.
TP: I have
not!
MYE: Yesterday when we got cut off we were talking about the direction of the new record and what you still want to accomplish with Biohazard.
ES: Well, what I was gonna say was with the Spyderz I am doing something totally melodic, trying to write anthemic sing-a-longs somewhere between Motown and rock and punk. With Biohazard, it's always been my dark side, so I'm trying to do something dreary. Biohazard has been very therapeutic also, but what I wanna do is stretch it melodically. With Biohazard I want to feel like I'm challenging myself musically, so I wanna explore my vocal range. I can hear in my mind something in between the melodies in the dark...Me and Bobby have been talking about these dark Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy meets early Alice In Chains kind of melodies, but hard. We wanna do something that will be remembered and at the same time is dark and dismal and really heavy. I don't think we need to make another State Of The World Address. I don't really have a desire to make a hardcore record. Biohazard will always be hardcore, and to me hardcore is a way of life, but I don't want to try to compete with 20 year old kids who are screaming their heads off. I think we set the bar for it pretty high and I don't wanna go backwards. I wanna go forward.
MYE: You don't have anything to prove. You guys are an institution.
ES: What they call hardcore nowadays, what a lot of kids call hardcore, to me sounds like death metal with poor musicianship. It's tuned down and everyone's going, “Ughhh” and growling. It's cookie-monster and doesn't do anything to me whatsoever. I'd rather listen to silence.
MYE: [laughing]
ES: You know what too, I've never been a fan of bands that can't play well, you know what I mean? I live in California and when people hear I never liked Black Flag they're like, “Aaah! Oh my God, that's blasphemy!”
MYE: Oh man, I love Black Flag.
ES: A band of guys that play like they have two left hands! When I was growing up and people were listening to bands like that who I thought sucked, I was listening to fucking Rush and Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and bands that could really play. When I got into heavier stuff I liked Motorhead 'cuz they could really play and Metallica 'cuz they could really play. I was in hardcore bands and I loved Suicidal Tendencies 'cuz they could play. Before we could play well we did our early, primitive stuff, not that Biohazard is complicated. I like it to be simple, but I like it to be something people can't duplicate easily.
MYE: You definitely had a signature style. There's no reason you can't build on it. You used your singing voice well on your Bad Religion cover of "We're Only Gonna Die".
ES: We still do that song. We did that the other night at the Palladium. People love it. It's funny, I get on stage and say, “Here's a song that was written by a band in 1981. We re-recorded it in 1991 and at this point it's ours. We stole it. They can't play it anymore or we'll kick their ass. It's by Bad Religion and it's now a Biohazard song.” Everybody gets a laugh out of that. I'm friends with all those guys in Bad Religion. I just flew to Vegas to see them play recently. Greg Hetson has a recording studio a couple blocks from my house and he actually wants to work with me on some Spyderz stuff. We'll see what happens.
MYE: What are some things, looking back, that you are proudest of or things you never could've imagined happening when you were younger, like Damnocracy with Ted Nugent?
ES: When I look back at my proudest moments, it's usually visually in my mind those big festivals we'd play in Europe where Biohazard would be the headliner. There'd be bands I grew up loving like Motorhead or Midnight Oil or Cypress Hill opening up for us or playing before us or us even being blessed to share the stage with them, like David Bowie or Bad Religion or Metallica or Ozzy or Megadeth. I think my proudest moment is whenever me or my name, the band as a whole was held in the same breath as... "Oh yeah, Biohazard, they'll be on the main stage right before Pantera and Aerosmith.” Ok, at least I'm in the big leagues. Ok, we're the least commercial band ever to make it this far and it was done our own way. It was our special little thing, but our special little thing. There were moments where it was not that little. My proudest moment might have been Dynamo Open Air 1995 with Biohazard headlining the three-day festival with every heavy band in the world playing on it. 140,000 people in an outdoor venue and every band was standing on the side of the stage to watch and see if we could do it, and us going out there and serving it up. Serving it up like you drove through fuckin' McDonald's. We brought it nice, hot, and on time.
MYE: You guys always had a great live show. It was crazy.
ES: I think we always had something live. I'll never say we made the best albums because there's a lot of bands who I always liked their albums better than ours, but there are really very few bands that can hold a candle to Biohazard live, the energy we brought in the heyday—probably a peak version of Slayer and Pantera, not a whole lot—great moments of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in their own way.
MYE: You could take one member of Biohazard and still have more energy than some bands.
ES: Even though we're getiing older we still look good. [laughing]
MYE: What's your favorite video you guys made that you think was the most representative?
ES: Without even thinking about it, "Punishment”, our first video. That just told the story. We did that video in 1991 or '92 and it was a defining moment in a lot of ways. It put us on the map and embodied the whole scene. I've been really fortunate since then to do things like, you mentioned the Supergroup show, and OZ, and play in bands. I just got a call this morning from the guys in Monster Circus in Las Vegas. Rudy Sarzo and Tony Montana and John Corabi wanted me to come sing with them. They just had Dee Snyder do a guest thing singing with them. The fact that my name comes up in conversation with these iconic rock guys...I don't think I sing as good as Dee Snyder for a second, but the fact that my name gets brought up, I'm flattered—by persistence of being there and just doing it. I love heavy metal. I love punk, hardcore, for real--reggae, hip hop—all kinds of music. I got up on stage for Metal School with Steel Panther a few weeks ago and sang “Man In The Box” and I got on stage with Gilby Clark last week and sang Iggy and The Stooges “Search and Destroy” and “Rock’n'Roll All Night” by KISS. I might go up and sing “Ace of Spades” with Chelsea Girls this weekend. Everyday I wanna go up and do something that makes me feel alive. I'll tell you what, a great place to be is when you feel like you really don't give a fuck what everyone thinks and you've got nothing to prove. That's where I started and it took me a little while to get back to it, 'cuz you get in the scene and the thing is… I think I'm in the best position I've ever been in, personally, to make a great Biohazard album because I don't give a fuck what anybody thinks. When you're coming from a place of true “I don't give a fuck-ness”, it frees you up, whatever you do. If you're a chef, a musician, a show maker, it frees you up to think outside of the box. It's not like we're coming off of a multi-platinum Biohazard album and need another radio hit. Biohazard has never been played on commercial radio even once, not even one single spin in twenty years. We're gonna make a record that gets us off as guys and hopefully that'll be something that translates to the fans. They'll go download it and steal it and then we can play some great concerts for them.
MYE: Hey man, we really appreciate it. Thanks for all the years in the trenches and still doing it.
ES: You got it. Crusher Magazine, thanks for supporting
Biohazard and underground hard music. Freedom of thought.
