The band c.1997

Hail Magnum Carnage and thank you again for agreeing to do an interview with us. How's things in Hawaii?
Things here are great at the moment, and thanks for asking us, indeed, the pleasure is all ours.

As you've recently made your first appearance on our site, perhaps you could give our readers a bit of a history of the band?
The band started in 1996 as a solo project. To make a long story short, a few live gigs were played utilizing some friends and a sequencer. This meme grew into what it is today, which ironically is not that far removed. After playing with a live drummer for over 50 shows, our last gig was me and Dan with a sequencer. Dan Fernandez, by the way, has been on the Magnum Carnage merry-go-round for 5 years now.

I had the pleasure of reviewing "Digital Wolves" the other day, but you've released "Evil Never Dies" since then. What's that album all about and are you getting some good reactions about it?
Actually, "Evil Never Dies" was recorded in 2005 and released about 9 months prior to "Digital Wolves" (Good research is the cornerstone of music journalism- Ellen). "Digital Wolves" from what I've seen has been getting a better response. This is probably due to the fact that DW was me trying to make up for the fact that END wasn't a very good album. It has its moments, but it was recorded during an extremely chaotic period of my life. I know my capabilities, and I know I'm much better than that, so I felt a 20 minute EP was in order to supplement things.

Are you taking a break right now or working on new stuff? You've been quite prolific since 2000.
Right now I'm at work on a lot of new material, and Dan is scheduled to attend the Guitar Institute in Los Angeles this Fall. I'm also in a new band called Majestic Tyranny, which just played its first show over the weekend. My new band is probably the most talented bunch of guys I've played with, which pretty much makes them the most talented guys on the island (Oahu, Hawaii). Although live Magnum Carnage is on hiatus at the moment, there wil definitely be some more recorded material in the near future. Be on the lookout for Majestic Tyranny. We've got 4 songs recorded with more written and ready to go. Seriously, these guys can bring it.

How do you go about writing your music; is it a bunch of ideas that gradually sort themselves out into different songs, or do you start with a solid black metal song base and then get all creative?
Whenever I 'write a song', I'm usually just trying to express an idea in its purest form, even if the purest form is like a machine with 10,000 tiny moving parts. More often than not, these ideas just appear in my head, with the rest flowing out almost effortlessly. I don't pay much attention to whether it's 'black metal' or not, just to the accuracy of what I'm trying to articulate. I was actually half-asleep when I recorded most of "Digital Wolves", and I'd have to go to bed and wake up just to hear what I did the night before, and over time I was really, really surprised. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really channelling spirits or something, lol! When Dan contributes to  a song, however, the process is much more earth-bound. He usually comes up with 85% of a riff, then I'll rework that into something. If anything, black metal is the putty we use to patch holes and fix leaks in the songs. As they say though, hindsight is 20/20. Looking back on "Digital Wolves", I think I was trying to fuse BM with world music, or something like that.

What is black metal, anyway?
Good question! I recently heard someone say "true black metal" when referring to Mercyful Fate and Venom, and he's right! Compared to other genres of metal, BM has evolved rather quickly over the last 20 years or so, and along with that comes a lot of different expectations of what BM 'is'. To me, BM is the sound of hate, destruction and violence. It's the sound of an unseen dark force. There's also something of a spiritual/romantic element in BM. Even if you look back to King Diamond or even Bathory, you'll see that emphasis on lust and desire. I'd assume that's the appeal behind the layered keyboard parts in modern BM.

Where do your inspirations come from?
My girlfriend is a very inspiring person, not to mention a cheeky fucker (luv ya!). I'll get inspired watching a movie, or the news, whatever really. This might sound completely gay, but I usually just look around, realize I'm alive, and find that pretty inspiring all by itself.

I'm sure it gets a bit boring for you seeing how everyone thinks it's miraculous that you come from Hawaii, but how does your geographical location affect your music, if it does at all? And what's your local scene like?
Interesting you should ask, because the local scene here is kinda weak, to be honest. There are too few good bands, a few good people, too many haters, not enough venues. There are people here in Hawaii who try to make it happen, and as a result we do have local shows here, and a few bands will play here while in transit to Japan. In general Hawaii is a pretty nice place. More interestingly though, is its geography in relation to the rest of the Earth. Hawaii is located about 19.5 degrees N. latitude, which due to its location on Earth's sphere, has some pretty interesting geophysical properties. To give you a hint, Olympus Mons on Mars is located at 19.5 degrees, along with the red spot on Jupiter.

How about other people's music- I wouldn't even want to guess what your influences are. What are your favourite bands, past and present?
Favourite metal bands of all time would have to be Mercyful Fate, Emperor, and Megadeth. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface though, I listen to so much crap! Everything from 80's and 90's pop, to shit recorded in rainforests, TV themes, Euro-Goth, whatever. I'll tell you what I'm NOT influenced by- shit that just plainly sucks. There IS a lot of that floating around it seems.

Some of your work features art by Jim Agpalza, which is really interesting stuff- how did that collaboration come about and what made you choose your own distinctive brand of imagery over the more traditional metal fare?
Me and Jim have been friends since High School, so going on 13 years now. Back then we were in a band, called Transvestatron, which dissolved after school ended, but all of us keep in touch and still hang out to this day. He's always been a mind-blowing artist, a total sick fuck, and you can imagine how we can collaborate pretty easy. So for me, he's the obvious choice. I gave a copy of "Evil Never Dies" to Kirk Hammett from Metallica, and the dude was completely intrigued by the artwork. Haha, I wonder if he ever listened to it.

You describe Magnum Carnage's line-up as having been the 'revolving door of Hawaiian metal'; do you have an extended line-up at the moment or is it just the two of you? Is it a problem or doesn't it really matter anyway, with you doing all the writing?
That really stems from the lack of quality musicians in Hawaii. What sucks is right when you have someone who seems solid, they inevitably move or quit. That's one drawback to having nice weather year-round, is that the environment seems to attract a lot of flakes. But as you say, it really doesn't matter with me doing most or all of the writing. In fact, I'm pretty much ready to make it a one, maybe two man show again. In fact, I've already coined the term 'Guitareoke', haha!

You're certainly known locally as a live band; what's been your best live experience?
Ironically, as many times as Magnum Carnage has played here in Honolulu, the weirdest things happen when I perform in other capacities. For instance, about five years ago, there was this bar here in Waikiki called King's Crab that hosted killer metal shows every Saturday. One weekend I showed up to do some guest vocals for a song with my buddy Doug Bell's band, Replica, and lo and behold, Clutch J. Himwari (then drummer for Sex Machineguns), and some other dude from SM were just sitting right there by the bar. These guys sell out arenas in Tokyo, and here they are just smoking away at this makeshift local show. I chatted with them about epic guitar solos, Ritchie Blackmore, the usual bullshit, but they were totally down-to-earth guys.

And of course the less fun question; tell us about the worst?
Conversely, you could say that lots of Magnum Carnage shows were bad shows. Playing to five people in a crappy bar with no monitors and blown mains- that REALLY sucks. Once I had my guitar swing go wrong, my 10kg Les Paul went flying nearly 10 metres, and hit some guy in the foot.

Tell me about comic books. Yours, or just generally if you like...
As you have read, I'm currently collaborating with Jim on a comic book titled "Crusader of Sin". It's a sort of 'speculative religious horror action sci-fi' bit of pulp artwork. I'm really honoured to be writing it, as well as working on the story boards, and generally directing the art. So far, issue #1 is just about complete, and the illlustrations I've seen are completely insane. Jim has topped anything else he's done, and once we have issues 2 and 3 done, we'll have a trilogy that, I truly believe, will give the world something very unique and controversial. Let's just say we put the entire religious paradigm in some new, never-before-imagined scenarios. Gee, that sounded kinda homo, but it's nothing like that. It's really more 'contemporary ultra-violence'.

Alright, well we always feel it courteous to let the bands have the last word, so if you've any final messages, knock yourself out!
I'd just like to say, thanks again! We appreciate the support from overseas, and I really hope to be able to play some show in Europe at some point soon. Real soon, because remember, according to the ancient Mayans the world is going to 'end' in 2012, so enjoy your electricty and coastal property now while you still have it! Aloha!