{"id":9155,"date":"2014-02-27T06:12:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T06:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.modernfix.com.php72-4.lan3-1.websitetestlink.com\/uncategorized\/feature-12\/"},"modified":"2014-02-27T06:12:55","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T06:12:55","slug":"feature-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/interviews-2\/feature-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: The Murder City Devils"},"content":{"rendered":"

(this interview originally appeared as the cover feature in issue #5 of Modern Fix Magazine in 2001)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n– interview by bushman<\/b><\/p>\n

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\nRock.<\/b><\/h2>\n

The word has evolved to represent as many forms as the nameless groups who’ve embraced it’s reckless spirit. Many like to put adjectives preceding the word ‘rock’ like ‘punk’ or ‘classic’ or ‘indie’. But it’s all for the sake of rock. For the passion of turning up a guitar stack until it hums with anticipation of a dirty bar chord struck repeatedly until the dissonance shakes the foundation of belief. The Murder City Devils are a rare crew of dirty rockers that can just take the word, stamp it on their foreheads, and dare you to fuck with it. The Murder City Devils are rock. You can taste it in the attitude in which they hold themselves on stage and can feel it in the music they live. Touring relentlessly and chasing it down with a steady supply of alcohol, the band breathes new life into the sounds that have defined rock for a couple of generations. With their second full length, “In Name and Blood” and a supporting tour behind them, we find the Devils on some much deserved down time in their hometown of Seattle. They are gearing up and writing the soundtrack to their next adventure on the road. It’s a hard road being being a Murder City Devil.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Words with vocalist Spencer Moody and guitarist Nate Manny.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What’s the current mental state of Murder City Devils?<\/b>
\nSpencer: We’re just about to take a long break from touring and write and record, so everyone feels really good about that.
\nNate: I’d say tired in general. But we are getting ready to be home for a while and everyone is excited to start writing again.<\/p>\n

Your group really does seem just that, “a group”, sharing a like-mindedness that translates well into the music. What kind of person does it take to be a Murder City Devil?<\/b>
\nSpencer: I don’t know. We’re all friends and everything and we’ve been together for so long now that we’re all…I don’t know.
\nNate: You have to be willing to be gone for a long time. Willing to put up with everybody else and be uncomfortable a lot.<\/p>\n

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“In Name and Blood” has a lot of tie-ins both musically and visually with brutality. Is this a common theme in the lives of MCD?<\/b>
\nSpencer: No, I think it comes more from us. It probably comes a lot from the books that I read and the aesthetics that Nate’s into, because he does all of the artwork and stuff.
\nNate: I wouldn’t say literally, no. We don’t go around beating people up or getting beat up or doing anything like that.<\/p>\n

How did the ultra-violent concept of the bands members being displayed through their Homicide scene police photos? As well as the press kits going out looking like a filed police report?<\/b>
\nSpencer: There’s a New York photographer from the 30’s and 40’s called “Wegee” that was kind of like an ambulance chaser, that took a lot of death photos and I think that was of influence, and also the Norwegian Black Metal was also an influence for that stuff aesthetically.
\nNate: I did all the design for the album. I’ve always been interested in crime and crime scenes. Like the photographs and stuff like that. I like the aesthetic of it. Yeah, this guy Wegee went around taking photos of crime scenes and he had a book out called, “New York Crime” or something like that. But its all from the 30’s and 40’s gangsters and stuff like that. We were doing a photo shoot, it was kind of going bad, and there was a big dumpster and I thought the idea of what we were doing was stupid, and I wished the photo was of us all piled up dead in this dumpster. So I started thinking about it more and had that kind of elaborate into the final project.<\/p>\n

And I noticed the press kits went out also, playing on the police file report.<\/b>
\nSpencer: Yeah, we were just trying to think of something fun, different.<\/p>\n

I heard someone was selling one of those on Ebay for like $50.<\/b>
\nSpencer: I’ve heard crazy stuff about Ebay and our promo stuff.
\nNate: Really?<\/p>\n

How does that make you feel to find out that people are putting such high value on some photocopies and a bio?<\/b>
\nSpencer: I guess it’s sort of a compliment in a way, but I can’t really relate to it.
\nNate: I think its cool. I wanted them to be something would want to have. So if people were willing to pay that much money for them, I guess it makes it seem like it works. I’ve seen old Blondie press packs and its just a picture and some photocopies, its really boring. We wanted to make it interesting for anyone to see.<\/p>\n

Did you each choose how you got ‘done’?<\/b>
\nSpencer: We just got the fake blood and stuff and then everyone just came up with an idea, then we went out and took the pictures.
\nNate: Yeah.<\/p>\n