JASON NEWSTED of VOIVOD

Here is an interview I’ve wanted to do for a very, very long time. I finally got a chance to interview former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted. Currently in VOIVOD, and using the monniker "Jasonic", Newsted is also one of the lucky few who has been asked to audition for the vacancy left by bassist Robert Trujillo in OZZY OSBOURNE's band. Voivod will also hit the second stage at OZZFEST 2003. Get ready for one of the longest interviews I've done. I tried to avoid talking about Metallica, because the bulk of what's circulating about that band is all based in rumor, and to waste time with it would be totally gay. Jason was a great interview.

The call comes in as I'm just thinking this interview wasn't going to happen. He asked me what I was doing. I said I was sitting here in the frickin' snow. I ask if its cool to put him on speakerphone and tape and away we go.

FoundryMusicHammer: First question.. How you do'in?

Jason Newsted Very good.

(I fill him in on my scribble I’ve done for my own stuff. I also do some writing for FoundryMusic the un-official Opie and Anthony who are no longer on the radio anymore.)

JN: Why is that?

I explain to him the whole Sex For Sam incident that got them removed from the airwaves.

JN: Oh Shit! (You hear a tiny laugh. He has been on WAAF and WNEW with O&A)

Basically the shit hit the fan I told him.

JN: Totally fucked!

FMH: They won't be calling you for awhile to come on. (Sorry I just had to make light of it people)

Right, and I named it after the song you wrote with Flots and Over Kill is the other reason. FMH: Are you in Arizona, did you move back after leaving Metallica?

JN: No, my home is San Francisco. I've been here for seventeen years. That's long enough and this is my place.

FMH: I'm noticing that with the stuff you are putting out, your heavier roots are coming back, any reason for that?

JN: They never left. It is like exposing them at different times. My metal stuff is always ongoing; it is a constant. Even before we built the Chophouse it was just a bedroom with amps in it. Our Exodus guys, Death Angel guys and whoever would go in there and play, that was the beginning. We would go and keep our metal going no matter what was happening with our signed bands. That is the stuff I kept forever and ever, it never went away. Even when Ecobrain was at it's most productive form or whatever, I still played metal on days I wasn't playing with Ecobrain. It's my forte it's what I've done more in my life than any other single thing. More than school more than whatever else. I played fast heavy bass with a pick-distorted style basically more so than anything else.

FMH: Are you going to release more stuff with the label other than your own bands stuff?

JN: So far no--- Depending on if something really special comes along. I found by just being a producer like on the Speedealer record. I can give a lot but as far as getting in and giving an opinion and feeling a part of, the whole participation thing. I like being a part of the band. I'm going to be doing that kind of producing too. That way I can go all the way in.

FMH: Are there any other bands we don't know about yet?

JN: Oh there are tons of bands! That you don't know about and there's some that people know about that I talk about. Alittle bit over the years. The IR8 and Sexoturica is available now all over the world and was the bands first release in 94 with Devin Townsend and Tom Hunting. And Sex was in 95 with Andreas from Sepultura. We can safely say that we have ten projects going since 95. That is with guys from Machine Head, Kyuss, Melvins, Death Angel, Sepultura and whatever like that. More stuff with Devin

FMH: That's one big family.

JN: We do three songs at a time, four songs at a time, five songs at a time. People would come from the corners of the country and come and hang out here for a week and do whatever we could. We'd write songs on the porch. We get loaded and record and overdubs. We have a bunch of stuff like that we have coming out. Hopefully with all new artwork and you can always keep up at the Chophouse website. They can also go there and stream some tunes from the other projects coming up like Quarteto De Pinga with Rob from Machine Head. You can hear one of those tunes on Chophouse radio. People can taste. It kinda proves your last question or whatever, that all that metal stuff is always being recorded no matter what Metallica was doing. I was recording the CCCCHHH stuff anyway, so.

FMH: I've been doing this zine like 15 years and.

JN: Awesome!

FMH: On paper and on the web and he says he knows of it. Who sent out the original IR8 tapes?

JN: Me.

FMH: How the hell did you get my address?

JN: You go from way back; I knew. I've seen these things and you sent me stuff before. Did we talk about Ecobrain?

FMH: No.

JN: It's as far back as the other stuff, IR8--- WOW!

FMH: I still have the finished tape.

JN: I don't even know how many were done, maybe 60?

FMH: That's funny.

JN: Fuckin' cool! That kinda artwork is the same artwork I've done with these other projects. You know the original tapes with exacto knife and glue-sticks. I know you're very familiar with that. That's what this stuff is. I'm gonna try and keep it chronological and as time permits we press a thousand or 2,500 or whatever and people are able to get them if they feel like getting them. Well it's the people that give a shit about it. It’s a real cool personal thing.

FMH: Is it at a special price or anything?

JN: Its always, always special. I don't think anything is more than ten bucks. Sometimes they are five sometime seven. We try and keep it that everybody can get them.

FMH: Can you tell me about the previous band that was called Tarrat with the other guys in Voi Vod?

JN: That was 94, 95, 96 a couple of projects different times of the week. We had always kinda kept touch. In 89 when those guys went through San Francisco. They came to the house I was renting and I was only in Metallica a few years at that point. The Chophouse was still a bedroom and they jammed with me then. Then we hung out for alittle while and then I didn't see Snake again until just last year. When I was in Montreal on tour with Metallica we would meet in a hotel room. And I'd have a tape machine and Michelle would have a drum machine that he programmed some shit on. We always would keep that Tarrat thing alive. So there's some pretty good tracks that exist of that as well. Maybe someday well let people taste that also. Maybe like b-sides of Voi Vod or something like that? This has been going on for awhile as has the making of the Voi Vod album as well.

FMH: Is that what prompted Snake come back; was the side project?

JN: I think it had a lot to do with him sticking with it. What happened, as I understand it is that last years in March or April they had a 20th anniversary of metal or something and Voi Vod were the guests of honor. I think they performed with Snake and a hired bassist. At that point he told Piggy that he wanted to be back in so they considered him back in then. Then they started to work on a few things. Then Michelle and I started talking seriously about reserving studio time and booking airplane flights and getting serious about it. There wasn't any use of talking about it. It was getting down and spending the money. On one of the songs he says if I'm in and I'm in, you know. Is this real again, yes? That's the saying In Again? Yes it is fucking real; we can now taste it. A lot of the lyrics deal with that being in a band and getting it back together again. That was real cool. That was his thing, if he knew I was gonna come in and do that there was something of a word I gave them way back in it was in my plans. I wanted to do it after leaving Metallica, being in Voi Vod was in there somewhere. The initial plan was to make a record with those four people. Call it Voi Vod and put it out there as a not a seasoned thing or what you want to call it. It's just out there and if anybody wants to taste it then cool. And if those guys get a few bucks from it, fine. It took three days of blasting really loud and amps in a circle and everybody looking at each other and that kind of shit.

FMH: Did Eric Forester get fired or leave?

JN: They were in a really bad bus accident in Europe and he broke his back. Fortunately they were near Mannheim Germany where they can build brains of spare parts. They were able to fabricate some vertebrae for him. They told him it would be two years to walk without a cane. Within ten months he was playing in a band again called E Force who are up in Canada and I'm not sure what they are doing. I know he's trying to rock. And these guys speak well of him. As a true Voi Vod fan and old Voi Vod fan I shied away from the new records alittle bit. The real voice wasn't there; Snake wasn't there. Snake is so very special as a frontman and as a poet. He weaves his shit. He's a musician with his voice. He is what a singer is supposed to be. Not just 1234, blurting it out. That matches this and that matches that. It's nothing like that. It's more like a trumpet player, Incredibly poetic. While I'm trying to learn the old songs cause the old ones are new to me and I'm rediscovering those songs now. Rediscovering lyrics and stuff and I'm pretty excited about it. I really am. I'm gonna be very proud to stand up and lay the backbone behind those lyrics. The old songs will be new again in a way. Snake is back and credit has to go to Piggy for keeping it alive. Trying to come in and give it a transfusion and Voi Vod lives again.

FMH: Til The Death!

JN: That's right, exactly. That may be, they almost hung it up. Piggy had been in legal things that came after that accident. It was really getting him down. How much shit do you have to go through when you finally say when? They just kept going for it. With mismanagement and mishandling and always been shat upon. They deserve a lot of recognition. If by me being in Metallica and getting some attention. They'll be able to make their living with their instruments and not having to listen to anybody other than ourselves and the band. That's what they always wanted to do after 20 years of starting their quest. Their determination is so there now. They have been through it all and they've come back from it all. They have a bright light standing there staring them in the face. Do you want one more chance? Do you want this? It's like they're pretty jazzed about it. I'm not having to do this for any monetary reason certainly. I'm paying money! It would be along time before I saw profit from Voi Vod because I have a lot invested in it. It's all about them being able to profit from it. They should be able to live off of their back catalog. If it is handled properly and get them attention they need. For this album, because then after this album people will rediscover Voi Vod. How the fuck did I miss this? These guys are so good. Maybe now that people are practiced listeners maybe this is the time for them to be appreciated. They were always ahead of their time and maybe now is their time?

FMH: That is always what it was.

JN: Even if a journalist only heard them once. That would always be in the phrasing, ahead of their time. Well now!

FMH: The band that couldn't play their instruments.

JN: Look at you now.

FMH: Did they actually let you write more for this Voi Vod record?

JN: Every song man!

FMH: Really?

JN: Yea! We wrote all of this together. This is just like Flotsam and Jetsam and stuff. We started trading ideas in July of 2002. The original ideas were with Michelle laying some drums and Piggy putting guitar over it. I and hearing Snakes voice come on through a Radio Shack microphone in Piggy's bathroom, on multi track. But its still Snakes voice man. You hear it and go Oh, man. I was jumping around the room going, FUCK! It's been along time since you heard his voice. It's like nothing happened. Eight years in the blink of an eye and here he is again. The first song you hear on the album is the first song I heard on the porch. When they sent me those first few songs. It was all thin. They said here are our parts now, where will your bass parts go? How can you help us with the arrangement? So that was my deal. They gave me these canvasses of fucking Voi Vod shit with all the dissidence, all the Piggy and busy drumming and Snake weaving and I get to glue it all together. That is basically what happened. That was my part in the songs and taking it to the production level is where it goes so it sounds like the level as if Piggy was playing in the room with you. Not all polished shit. That's nice man that’s nice, I guess I make fun of it because I don't know how to do it. I'm ignorant to it so that’s maybe why I make fun of it. I record raw shit! I know how to do things one way its like punk 101. You know? Just record that shit straight, everybody's in one room, jam and have the singer sing his shit over the top, the record and that’s it.

FMH: That’s more like the Papa Wheelie?

JN: Yea! It more like real. When plugged in music was first played by T-Bone Walker and those kinds of cats like Elmore James. That stuff was always alittle more scary to everybody. When Voi Vod play, like when you say they can't play their instruments starting to get alittle more scary.

FMH: Would you say the blower bass is back?

JN: Uh! I would say that all of the important elements that make up the Voi Vod identity are present. So the dissident chord shit, craziness and trying to remember fifteen different parts in one song and the double bass drumming in every song is musical. Then the bass thing has- I have to stayed true to Blacky's work out of respect. So I'll always make sure I do that justice. Cause I know how it's supposed to sound because I've heard the songs enough fucking times. I have to add my style alittle bit. I spent twenty plus years developing my style, you know? Voi Vod is a lot like Flotsam playing. A lot busier and the bass working, working with the drum. That thing is already a part of my little thing I created over the years of listening to Geddy Lee, Lemmy and Geezer all mixed together. It was like coming on in a really punk way. That's kinda how I figured it all out. I'm still trying to carry that on. The bass is very prominent in every song and it has a bottom that Voi Vod has never had. That because of the Metallica experience. A simple equation is if you're throwing it in the melting pot, the crucible to melt all the metal down. Three parts Voi Vod and one part Metallica and that's what it sounds like. I'm a new guy coming in again, right?

FMH: It's great to hear your fingers going really fast again!

JN: That's good. The challenge of it is what was wonderful. Getting back to that and remembering how to play like that. Also while being demanded to play with distortion on the songs. Like being asked to play with more distortion? (Voi Vod wanted that). Instead of a guitar solo play a bass solo? I was like hahaha, yea! I've been waiting for twenty years for someone to say something like that to me man. That kinda shit can make you forget about a lot of things, you know. A lot of bad things is what I mean.

FMH: Uh, yea. My questioning is going that way. I still pray to DOOMSDAY!

JN: Good!

FMH: Would you ever do a reunion with Flotsam?

JN: Absolutely! I think that would be cool. I saw them at Christmas time and I still feel like a good friend to all those guys. And I think they would say the same about me.

FMH: They have, I met them and interviewed them over the years.

JN: We had drinks hung out and listened to the new Voi Vod record, you know. So that was the whole thing. I went to Phoenix. Everybody still has their hair and everybody's still in shape so my answer is yes. I think someday absolutely do that kind of thing and I think they'd be jumping out of their skin to be able experience something like that. It would have to take my commitment. Can't just snap your fingers and we're in the same town with equipment and a road crew. It takes some time, takes money and some logistics. These people have families and that kind of shit. It's easily said and sounds fun. Putting it together would take something. You would never say never on something like that because it could be fucking great. We'd just play the stuff we wrote together. It would have to be the original shit. If you want a reunion tour play these songs and the older; it could be fucked up! Just long enough, fifteen songs together pull out the old ones and play a few Maiden songs and fuck everybody up! Tank songs.

FMH: DOOMSDAY simply ruled!

JN: If we got the guitars tuned alittle better it would have been really god. Listening back is classic for what it is. We were just kids knocking it out.

FMH: That’s what it is.

JN: Six days and the album was completed. Recorded, mixed and mastered for $5,000! Amazing

And I am one as many that thinks it was a classic underground record.

FMH: It was? What is the state of the other bands: Ecobrain, Papa Wheelie…?

JN: Ecobrain just completed their second album. They are still on Surfdog label, but now it's gonna be distributed by Warner Brothers. The singers brother is playing bass, Adam. We've been friends for a long time. It's nice and the vocals are incredible and that is why I invested so much money in them, because I feel he has an incredible gift. So someday he'll prove that to more people. Papa Wheelie is ongoing. We have many different offshoots of Papa Wheelie. It’s a family of band created projects like Uncle Puke, Anti Gravity, Brother Apanea and Cousin Seamore, who tunes in D which is weird. I'm always playing guitar and belching and whatever, screaming. Different drummers and bassists revolving in and out. We did Brother Seamore the other night tuned to C. It was ugly as fuck! And the other old projects we went over. Those are all kinda waiting in the wings. Maybe in the next three or four years we'll be able to release the Tree Of The Sun with Kyuss and Robs band. We have so many hours to sift through to make it worth printing a record.

FMH: So after all these years you stayed in touch with all these people?

JN: Pretty much, most of that kinda friendship. It's not like, What the fuck you didn't call me. Its more like nice to see you, what have you been up to? Lets rock! It's way more of a here and now thing. It's a lot healthier that way.

FMH: How was it touring with COC when you were out touring with Metallica?

JN: Very cool. That's good people you know. That's real people to. They mean it they, play with conviction, they continually seek out the feeling that everybody gets. How bout respect for Pepper and those guys. That is a good vibe. It is always great to have people to get along with on a tour. Other things can be really weird with bands you choose. That's probably the best band we've been out with as with getting along. The Danzig guys were OK in the early years. The coolest bunch for 60/80/90/120 dates we did? I don’t even know what they are doing? Pepper's in Down.

FMH: Yea! And other projects and Reed is gone. Where did the Jasonic name come from?

JN: My publishing company has been named that for along time, Jasonic Music.

FMH: You just made it up?

JN: Yes I did, along time ago. We had to get a trademark on it and all. The first couple of weeks that I was in this band (Voi Vod), I was hounding these guys to say my name, What's my name? Well we have to hang out with you a bit before we decide what well call you. I'm waiting, and waiting and still waiting and what am I gonna be here. Lumpy, Dorky, Screwy and what the fuck! Piggy and Away already knew me as Jasonic from Tarrat and Away thought that it was the most Voi Vodian at that. They couldn't come up with anything more Voi Vod like. The same way like its my identity after all the years coming into something that is established but I can still be a part of them so it works in a lot of different ways. It was a cool thing and it worked out just right.

FMH: Did that Jason Newkid thing drive you nuts after awhile?

JN: Never, Never man. Keeps me young you know?

FMH: I have to ask the stoopid questions now.

JN: You can't even phase me.

FMH: Lately there has been a lot of mudslinging, between you and your former band, What's up with that?

JN: What do you mean by that?

FMH: I saw something on a site and I don't remember the name, but basically said you went off on them touring with Limp and that kinda stuff? Did they twist it, or you don't want to talk about it?

JN: I don't know where, well I actually know where this shit comes from. Right now I'm in the middle of doing twenty or thirty interviews a week for the Voi Vod album. And if I talk to somebody that is unprofessional and they ask me a certain question about Metallica I talk to them honestly about it. Trusting their judgement or whatever? And if they, I heard the one thing you are speaking of in particular. This guy- I ask him about what he thought about the announcement that Metallica made? It was time for me to interview you and he said OK. I think it was for Rock Sound in Britain? He said for me since 19 whatever he said, that Metallica was a joke. Well its not for everybody now, they've done their thing and made their way. It would have been better for me if they made albums more often and all that kind of thing. It would be great if they could spearhead the new rising metal just like they did with the original metal movement and be at the front of that again. Wouldn't that beat friggin cool for them to take out Strapping Young Lad and Voi Vod and prominent metal bands, you know. It would be fantastic. And they didn't really see could actually change. Their gonna draw as many people where they are the radio darlings and the hugest American metal band there's ever been. Why wouldn't they draw people anyway? Just kinda diluting the purity of Metallica that we always tried to stay true to and it just seems kinda weird to me. To put rap rock bands with that just cause, for the obvious reason that you want to sell more tickets. Its strange and cool because they are in a commercial different market and I realize that's all good if I didn't know myself. That's exactly how it happened and they decide to put it on a website where I might have agreed with what they said. And that's how that all goes. I don't look at the computer. The only way I knew about what you were talking about is because somebody else in an interview told me about it. I do not look at the computer. I don’t fuck with it. I have people that do that for me that know it much better than me. I'm still very much an analog person. I write everything down with pen and paper. The notes I write to people I send today, as I did for you and IR8 in 1994, I do today and write alittle note. Be cool with this, respect and protect this music because I do remember whom I do send it to. If it ends up someplace I don’t want it; I'll come and kick your ass. I still have to keep that personal touch, right? That's very important to me. So however people misconstrue my shit, I know what I said and I speak the truth and the way, the thing that started this tiny little snowflake into a snowball was an MTV interview with Ian Robinson. Voi Vod was there with him and he was like HOLY SHIT! It was really cool.

FMH: He is young?

JN: He knows his shit. He was physically moved it was me and Voi Vod there, it's an aura. Kinda WHOOOO. There is. Like when you go to awards shows and you meet ZZ Top. There's an aura, you know, what the fuck, it just happens. So it was there. And he's asking me about Metallica. I'm feeling really good about Voi Vod; we'd just finished the album like twelve hours, Eleven hours prior to that interview. The night before we went home and laid down. We saw him in the morning and were all high as shit on the album, right? So I'm speaking my true heart and he asked me about them and I go, as a fan of Metallica, I wanna see them kick ass! But I think that Voi Vod can kick their ass! That's what I said and still feel it and still believe that to. Metallica has wonderful songs and hits and people are familiar with all these song, you know. So they are gonna sing along and there's gonna be that thing they fought hard and played hard and lots of places to build that following for people to do that. That was always true. Voi Vod hasn't had that chance to appeal to be played on the radio. They didn't create that kind of music. Ferocity level? I'm back to being a fan of Metallica now, ok, I'm the only person in the world that can speak this that has been in the band and is still standing here as a fan again. I'm 85% sure, not 100% sure that Metallica will go RAAAHHHH again you know? Like fucking Graahhahahha! Like they are supposed to. I'm not positive, but I am positive that Voi Vod would go Fraaaahhhhhghh! (The sound effects he's making are so funny!). I know that for sure is because I'm the only person in the world that's been in both bands. And I know what the deal is. I don't have to say anymore about that. I know what talent lies where. I known what ours is, hands on instruments, amplifiers turned on plugged in blasting. Hour for hour, who's taking care of business? That is what I'm talking about. This is only out of respect for them. I'm trying to light a fire under their ass. If they do anything other than stimulate, Metallica. I want them to still be at the top of the heap! They should be the ones leading the way.

FMH: Right. Is it safe to say it went off track alittle?

JN: There's things when they come into play, actions that come into your- the demand on your quality time. You know what I mean. When it gets that fucking huge! You have so many hours in the day that you can stay awake and coherent. Right? Start widling down and trying to be cool to people. You have to be an ambassador for this music for wherever you go. We took it to places that nobody ever took it before. Why System Of A Down can now go play someplace, Metallica took it there first! Or Mudvayne can go somewhere now or who you pick now can go everywhere because Metallica took it there first. That kind of clout and that thing you build demands a lot on your person and your hour, hour, hour per day. When you start widling down and have very little time for yourself and you have to remember who the fuck you are. And you got all these other things, oh do this, do that, oh you guys are great. No, you are greater. Here grab this, take that, and take this. Just FUCK man, tons of shit going on. You are still trying to remember, Oh yea! Right, The chug, chug, chug (as he plays more air drums with his mouth). Fuck, Fuck, yea that's right. Let's get back to that. Let's peel some of this other shit, I don't need that, I definitely don't need that. Fuck that, fuck that. Let's get back over to here with the chug, chug and that's where I'm at. I'm over here! I had to remember what really meant what to me. The purest feeling the best I could get is when its real like that and those guys are hitting, Snakes singing in my face with eight cups of coffee with cigarettes thrown in them, it's like, you know what I mean? (as he laughs on) I don't care man.

FMH: Then your gonna have the fans back in your face.

JN: Yea! All of that I'm really looking forward to. We'll play in front of 50 people, 500, 1,000, a million people. I don't give a shit! We are gonna take it wherever we can with the money that we have together as us guys. You know were completely on our own. There's not some big guy funding our shit. We are doing this with what we got, so we are battling all the motherfuckers that do have that backing. That stage stuff with Metallica that's not something that's real. We're playing down here at this level and will be happy to retain the crown of the underground as Voi Vod always has. If that's where it's gonna be and we're gonna ride and kick ass, then so be it. If we're gonna rise above there and somebody plays a few songs on the radio? Then these guys get some exposure that they've never seen before and maybe a couple of checks they never saw before? Then Fuck yea! That's gravy you know but I know we are gonna be successful with the album we made so far. The guys have looked me in the eye; one by one telling me it is the best album they made with Voi Vod.

FMH: YUP!

JN: That is worth every penny twice so far for me. People are gonna come already just to check it out, it's gonna be great! They are gonna be inquisitive. They are gonna wanna know, they're gonna be hungry. Its not gonna be a blasé show.

FMH: It never was.

JN: And it never will be.

FMH: I interviewed them and met them in Asbury Park. Snake came on the bus, What happened down here? They were cool. Basically you have no ill feelings towards your ex-band?

JN: No! Man, no. We already talked about those things and the obvious things that the reason I had to walk and all that. It was a fucking very hard thing to do. Like, cutting out your heart and stomping on it for awhile and giving it back to you alittle while later. It really is! I spent every moment for like fifteen years putting everything second. Everything and anything. That was really fucking hard to walk away from. There are more things that are more valuable than all the fame and the money and all that shit, you know? I think that those guys, I hope they have themselves back on track. That would be fantastic. I just wanna hear a record that's RAAAAHHHH!

FMH: I wann hear a record every two years at least.

JN: That would be nice.

FMH: I was watching a Priest DVD and still to this day Rob Halford said, you record, tour, record, tour and not take a vacation in the Bahamas.

JN: That's cool. April 10th the tour starts and then five weeks around the country first week in May in NJ!

FMH: Cool! Here is where we say our goodbye.

Check out The Official Chophouse Records website (That's Jason's label for anyone who missed it) at CHOPHOUSERECORDS.COM