MYE: How are you doing today?

JEX: Pretty good. It's kind of a dreary day out here in Los Angeles. Overcast.

MYE: It's totally perfect out here in New York but there's a weird energy in the air. Maybe it is from Dio dying. Everyone is like, "Woah".

J: I know! I know.

MYE: It kinda leads into the theme of Restored To One in a roundabout way. I was thinking a lot last night about heaven and hell, for obvious reasons. I knew I had this interview with you coming up, also. I love how the song "Judge Of Mankind", that song, where you are listing the sort of principle deities or personifications of Jehovah and Lucifer, etc. When you're singing you don't necessarily place a value judgement in your vocal inflection. You don't say "Lucifer" or "Jesus Christ" with one as more positive or negative sounding than the other.

J: Yeah.

MYE: It's kind of matter of fact, which I thought was really cool with the whole concept.

J: Thanks. I think that kinda goes in line with the ideas. Rather than creating some kind of mythology around their deities, um, they are more exploring what each deity represented inside a human being and being able to recognize those qualities within oneself.

MYE: As characteristics?

J: Yeah. As characteristics. Being able to embrace all these parts of yourself rather than creating some mythology around the different deities that might create a shame around the Luciferian or Satanic parts of oneself. Instead it is more an acknowledgement that they all exist.

MYE: Absolutely. It's like a dialogue. I definitely agree with that. It's really interesting. I often talk about how my grandfather was a Protestant minister and his father, Morris Owen Evans, wrote a book called The Healing Of The Nations around the start of the 20th Century that examined religion via the poems of Lord Tennyson. Somehow I ended up into heavy metal...

J: [laughing]

MYE: [laughing] But I feel really well rounded now, you know what I mean?

J: Mhhm. Yeah. Well that's really interesting. So were you close to that growing up?

MYE: Um, here and there. You know, I never met either of them, plus I also grew up in Woodstock, New York, so it's a weird mish-mash like this where you have ‘60s influences moving into modern times with people trying to take from or let go of things from the past. It's like a tug of war.

J: Sure.

MYE: Jex, what can you tell me about the original sheet music of the hymns?

J: The sheet music is just a melody line with the lyrics, which are really heavy hitting. The instructions at the top of the songs are not written like normal music! They say things like "challenging" and "rousing and thoughtful". [chuckling]

MYE: That's awesome. I love it...and thus your vocal performances! There's so much versatility, and not even just the techniques. I've been a singer for seventeen years in bands and love to pay attention to people stretching themselves. Particularly in "Glory Hallelujah" you have the light heartedness and the open ended-ness of the attachment of emphasis in "Judge Of Mankind", like we were talking about before. There's this feeling that it is of a certain time and yet you can't pin it down. It sort of invites people to come in and hear it but it still recalls some essence of the past. You left your fingerprints on it but didn't crush it under your thumb.

J: Oh, that's so great to hear.

MYE: I've been listening to this a lot the past few weeks. It's rather amazing. Definitely one of the most intriguing things I've heard all year. Inspiring. I get so much shit that is exactly the same so this was like, "Cool"!

J: [laughing] Well, thanks, man. That's really great to hear. The real struggle in creating this was. The groundwork was laid thirty years ago when the songs were written. Clearly, whoever wrote these songs, although we don't know...we tried to track down the original composers of the music, but nobody wants to attach their names to it.

MYE: Aren't there sixty hymns, some huge amount like that?

J: Yeah, I think there's, like, sixty two. So this is just nine. [laughing] We chose these nine based on sitting down with the sixty two and saying, “Ok, this one I can't even begin to wrap my head around. This one speaks to me a little more," but also, we were in contact with Timothy and another original Process member and others. We just, via email, asked if there were any tunes they remembered more strongly than others, or that they really wanted the world to hear. We sent them a list that we complied, so between those folks and the musicians we worked with we ended up with these nine. That leaves...a lot left to be discovered. We're kind of carrying on those now.

MYE: It's going to have some essence of who played on it, but also, like you said you are being reverential to the sort of essence or ethos of it. In a way that might be a good exercise in a, not so much mechanical sense, because there is an organic participation, but...once you've gone through this and go to write some of your own stuff again, it might be interesting since you've done this from a different headspace and will have almost reserved energy waiting for your own original material with Jex Thoth.

J: Absolutely. This is just such an incredibly different experience than when I sit down and write a record. In that case, most often you go in with a really strong plan. At least I do. I go into the studio with a really clear vision and then I'm trying to keep that vision as closely as possible to what I hear in my brain. In this case, y'know, we brought our own influences because you can't shed those. And they come with you to whatever you are approaching, but there was a willingness by everyone involved to not execute their vision but to let the vision reveal itself as we went along and to stay true and keep ourselves in check--not be uncompromising when something started to lend itself to one direction or another. Each person involved did bring an authentic piece of themselves to it, and each time that happened the song changed.

MYE: It's really heavy, not in a "metal" sense, but there are so many layers to it. The performances feel relaxed. Some of it has like, a Jefferson Airplane vibe or that time period, but, what blew my mind was...I was imagining you guys doing "Hymn Of Consecration". That song I think has that really cool guitar break in it?

J: Yeah, Yeah.

MYE: I was imagining you all kinda building these textures and even though they are loose in feel, there's a lot of control in the playing that shows restraint as well.

J: We made certain not to crush all of the space. Y'know, that was something we really tried to focus on.

MYE: It's really hard to do.

J: Leave room in those spots so the feelings can swim rather than direct the feelings one way or another. That was really the essence of why I wanted to do this project. The songs moved me. I didn't fell like they told me or instructed me to feel one way or the other. I don't feel like, so far, the people from The Process Church got that experience either if you talk to them. They all had different reasons for joining the cult. They all took a lot of different things away from the experience. No two cult members had the same experience. A lot of that has to do with the content of theology which is in the songs. It's not so preachy. It's more like, "Here it is." Here's the structure and now it is up to you to move within and feel out which areas you want to move into. What can you take into your own life, within yourself rather than focusing out onto the world. Obviously they were reacting to everything that was going on around them, but I don't think it was about building a utopia in the world outside as much as within.

MYE: Even if you look at something like AA or NA a lot of people can do well with structure. Some people might have a great spiritual life or interior life through something that is more structured or orthodox, but for a lot of people it crashes them on the rocks and the discourse stops. Not to mention all the contradictions in the Bible. I dunno, I was just reading An Instance Of The Fingerpost by Iain Pears and there was so much superstition. If someone was raped and they got pregnant in the 1660's they would throw out the charges and it wouldn't stand because the pregnancy means they must've enjoyed it. There's a character charged with murder who said she was raped and defending herself and because she got pregnant they don't believe her and she is killed.

J: Right.

MYE: Of course, that is ridiculously extreme and hundreds of years ago, but look at what's going on in society now. There are so many religious factions and extremists, and it is a shame because instead of discussing that passion they are just crashing into each other.

J: Yeah. Uh-huh.

MYE: There's that famous Hunter S. Thompson quote where he is talking about the wave of the ‘60s positive hopes cresting and crashing and then the darker Manson thing. For me, growing up in Woodstock, we'd have idealists holding on and sort of burnouts too, and I got into punk and metal 'cuz there was more nihilism, but it was coming to terms with the life AND the death around you and coming to terms with it, know what I mean?

J: Yeah, and take on personal responsibility rather than just dealing with things how they are on the outside. Just really examine that you have as much control as each of us have within ourselves.

MYE: Yeah. I loved reading about the role of Lucifer as sort of a judge to a certain degree in the Process Church. It's almost like a common sense check instead of a doomsayer ala Catholicism.

J: Yeah. The God of light, y'know? Seeing things how they are, even the dark sides.

MYE: What was the hardest part of this? There's a lot of emotion in these songs. I can only imagine...I mean, wow!

J: Actually, it was very easy. The recording and writing process was very organic and effortless. The hardest part was finding the authenticity because we are not members of the cult. Y'know, we aren't starting up a new chapter now. Although we agree with a lot of the real strong opinions and conviction we're not supportive of any kind of pyramid structure where there is some guru at the top telling people how to live. Finding that authenticity within ourselves, and also that might've been there from the beginning, for the people that wrote the songs, even though we've spoken to some members of the cult who were less into the theology side and more into the communal living. The scientology side of things existed for some but clearly the people who wrote the hymns wrote them with very pure intentions to spread what they had understood that other people around them weren't understanding.

MYE: That's well put.

J: Thanks.

MYE: That dialogue, again. Well, you say you aren't into the guru thing now, but I'm gonna get a lot of people to join your chapter and you're gonna say, "You know what...I'm gonna have you guys mow my lawn and give me pedicures." [laughing]

J: [laughing] I'm certainly not looking to lead any group of people, but I am into leading by example if anyone wants to take a note from my book. That's fine.

MYE: How did Randall Dunn get to be involved? He worked with my friend's band, Kayo Dot.

J: Both Xtian and I were big fans of his work, so we contacted him to see if he had any free dates. He did and was also extremely excited about the project 'cuz he knew about The Process Church and was intrigued. We headed up to the studio and brought our book and all our cult...friends. [laughing]

MYE: Pals. [laughing]

J: We had a pow wow with Randall and he was a key player in the final sound of the record. We didn't instruct him that, "we think it may have sounded like this". Instead we have things about music we bring to all of our projects. Things we like that...make our ears smile. Then we worked within that but really allowed the songs to shape shift. Even once we were in the studio, I love to talk to people about how we had already performed these songs live ten to twelve times and they sounded different. They sounded different the very last performance before going into the studio. It was really the culmination of all of that that got us to the place where we arrived.

MYE: Yeah, I was watching one clip of "Glory To The Gods In The Highest" on YouTube and there was a totally different feel to it. Randall is great with different textures and stuff and different time periods of music. You seem like you had a great team of people.

J: It was great, and he has such a different style from any other engineer I've ever worked with. He mixes so loudly. I'm used to mixing the most quiet you can stand and still hear everything. This was such a good experience for me. God, what a huge sound he was able to get, huh?

MYE: Let's talk about the box set. You have Genesis P-Orridge and Lydia Lunch reading sacred Process literature and it is like a different liturgy format?

J: Yeah. We have a lot of good stuff. We are kind of editing all together and figuring out what the best way to release it will be. We're talking of other stuff we might include in the box set as well. I don't wanna say too much, but we have some great ideas.

MYE: You should put candy and bribes. Subscriptions for more propaganda. [laughing]

J: Maaaybe. There's some talk of that, but more along the lines of, "Let's include a pattern so people can make their own cloak." [laughing]

MYE: That's awesome.

J: We'll see what direction that goes.

MYE: What about the documentary William Morris is doing that is mentioned in the press release? I remember Skinny Puppy had that song "Cult", which I used to love to play. That was one of the only other times I heard of The Process Church, and of course Skinny Puppy's music is much more industrial and this is way different.

J: He's still working on a documentary about the church, as far as I know. That'll be coming out soon. We've also kind of been working on a theater piece around Timothy's story and his whole journey through all this, using some of the hymns as the music to the story rather than in the context of a mass.

MYE: You made such a crucial point before about how different people, of course, had different reactions or experiences with the cult. You can take the same set of ingredients and throw it to a different group of people and some may take a blissful experience away from it while others might bug out and go down a more negative road. It's not really based around "why is there pain" or "woe is me" as much as it really is about...processing.

J: Right. It really is about that. Having all the tools to do the internal work and explore possibilities. I love that.

MYE: I always think about how science is part of the Universe or... sex or other things that we are supposed to shun. To me, it's there, so don't run away. Learn from it. People get so hung up on it and condemn, but it's really like ingredients. Take what you need for your recipe but don't deny that say, scientific fact exists or that some people can be inspired through focusing on the self. Discard what you don't need.

J: Absolutely. That's the way everyone should approach all of the knowledge we collect in your lives. You don't take any of it as one-hundred percent truth, because none of us really know absolute truths about anything. I'm a very scientific person, but of course I realize that I didn't go out and perform all of these experiments on my own. I'm taking it on faith that the people who did are telling the truth. Everyday we find out things that disprove old facts because we were only using what was at our disposal at that time. So, there is a certain amount of faith in all aspects of life if you look at it that way.

MYE: Even in oral traditions, I talk to lots of Christian metal bands as well as black metal and other bands. I mean, I'm not condemning any one thing. I'm friends with some of Bad Brains and they are Rastas.

J: [laughing]

MYE: But, it's like, some people think the Dead Sea Scrolls are one-hundred percent legit, but I think even they are pieced from different oral traditions and have a lot of pagan elements. Shit, I found this thing recently where Idunn in Norse Mythology guards the Tree Of Knowledge. Her name sounds just like Eden and is so much older, y'know?

J: Mhmmm. Yeah. These are the things we learn the longer we exist and relate. Everything builds on everything else. The coolest part for me about the theology side of things is the Process Church all believe in the Golden Rule."Do unto others as you want them to do unto you." They are more specific and say, “if you wanna receive something, first you must give it because we create our own realities”. We can create effects on ourselves by our own choice, but in order to have those effects come to fruition, first we have to create effects on others.

MYE: Yeah, yeah. I understand. It's like karma in a way. My sister Stephanie is really into Reiki and gave me all these sorta new age books on the law of attraction, as it is called. I was also thinking about the big oil spill down South and personal responsibility for people in the world and sustenance and the environment. I think the Earth could sustain us all but we have fucked up distribution, or politics and people feeling limited in bringing things to themselves, or just not talking with others or having greedy motivations. Back to my Grandpa being a minister, I take the Golden Rule to heart and kinda discard the so-and-so begot so-and-so shit of the Bible and the violent parts. But that's part of why I wanted to talk to you about this Process stuff, 'cuz it is so interesting and I'm also...well, I'm a big fan. [laughing]

J: [laughing] Very cool.

MYE: So best of luck with this. My new main band I sing for, Antidote 8, actually is...well, that band Sub Rosa who are on I Hate Records like your Jex Thoth stuff, RKV Sub Rosa is gonna be one of the guests on the album we are making. I told her I was interviewing you and she thought that was cool. Great to talk to ya and it's really inspiring.

J: Thanks, man! Likewise.