Who hooked you up on horror movies and stuff like that? What did these movies give you when you were a kid?
I was always into dark material even as a small child. I loved the horror, sci fi and Godzilla movies and would stay up late to watch anything that came on. The mysticism and power of the characters intrigued me beyond the typical cartoons etc.
How did your family, classmates, teachers etc. feel about your passion for horror movies and horror art?
My parents found it normal I guess, but no one in the household would stay up until 1:30 am to watch them with me. I also built glow in the dark monster models and would set them up in scenes in my room with black lights.
Could you tell me about your band Distortion Course? Was it just a bunch of guys rehearsing in a living room, or did you play gigs, write songs etc.?
Distortion Course was a band with Dave Bjorklund RIP (Dave Death of Hyperthermia, Anger Management) that was pretty much a party band. We played all originals and had cartoon themes turned into metal pieces (Munsters, Wally Gator etc.) They were jamming together already when I joined them. I brought in the song “Water Burial” with me that we primitively played. The drummer knew Roger Decarlo (Cruella) and roadied for them, which was how I met Roger. The band died when Dave did a stint in jail and Roger and I decided to put the Arachnid lineup together.
What influenced you to name the band Arachnid? Did you have spiders as pets?
I originally wanted to name the band Widow Maker and had logos and album concepts drawn along that line. I found out through a buddy that the name was taken and had a drummer with my name Paul Nicholls! Weird! I thought of Arachnid as an alternative name. No spider pets, but I’ve never had a fear of anything creepy crawly.
I had a few songs with lyrics written when I was 18 or so (“Water Burial”, “Near Dark”, “The Phantom”) and came up with the band name. I had a tough time finding guys to jam with on my level until I hooked up with the Brewer brothers (Bad Habbit) and they started giving the tunes some life. I always wrote everything from start to finish, completed songs, woodshed style. So, it was just dictating my vision to these guys who were all over it. Roger heard some rehearsals and thought he could add to the mix as a lead player and was ready to take on heavier material. Drummer Todd Brewer dropped out and Roger brought Charlie Nelson in and then the band was complete.
The solos on “Arachnid” are simply superb! To me they are in the same league with the solos of Chuck Schuldiner or Andy LaRoque, especially your work in “Webs of Doom”. So how did you work with Roger on them?
He was always the stronger lead player and I was the rhythm guy but we rubbed off on each other. He became a better rhythm player and I became a better lead player. We both didn’t have an ego as far as that went. We would just figure where and who on the fly to fit the song. He pushed me to play more solos and pretty much split the lead duties down the middle. We both grew up with dual guitar bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest trading solos and we copied that approach to an extent.
How come that you became the only songwriter in Arachnid? Why weren’t Roger Decarlo and Bill Brewer interested in bringing their ideas?
Bill had his own band Bad Habbit and Roger had Cruella that were different styles and I had a catalog of songs that were complete from start to finish done. I even had another album of songs that were never recorded. I lost the rough tapes years ago of those extra songs, so they were lost with time. I just had a hyper-focused vision as was intent on getting the back log of song out and recorded. They ate it up and gave the songs the life that that only pro players can bring.
“Water Burial” was originally called “The Wreckage” and was tweaked over time, but not at rehearsals. I always wood-shedded ideas in a spare bedroom on a boom box recording riffs etc. Then I would bring the songs to rehearsal and show the guys. They always joked that they were spoon-fed players, but it was a formula that was working so we rolled with it.
In “Water Burial” you mentioned Davie Johns, who now associates with “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Where did you take that legend at that time? (My guess is “Treasure Island” by Robert Stevenson.)
I read the book at some point in my teens and it just seemed to fit the narrative.
Writing a 6 minute instrumental piece like “Phantom” is not an easy task. How did you come up with this track? Was it pretty natural for you or was it an attempt to show off a bit and demonstrate your abilities?
I was just free form jamming and it was a track that I just didn’t have a vocal pattern that I liked. The band liked the jam though and thought we could use it as an instrumental.
Portland’s music scene had so many thrash bands then who never made it big: Dead Conspiracy, Demise, Godspeed/Rude Awakening, Savior etc. Obviously, you were friends with Chemical annihilation, but whom else?
We were friends with all of those bands, especially V.O.I.D., Savior, Demise, Desmodus and Body Bag. It was a family, we were all friends and hung out together and went to shows.We all booked parties and gigs together since there were only a handful of us not playing glam metal. We were sometimes booked with these glam bands at the Starry Night and there was a lot of fun poked at them, even throwing toilet paper rolls at them while they were on stage! We rented music halls, acting venues, grange halls etc., bought kegs and made our own shows most of the time.
Portland is relatively close to Tacoma, Olympia and Seattle, so did you feel that something was happening there in the late 80’s and that people's tastes were changing? Was it easy for a thrash metal band to book a gig in Portland? Did you share the stage with some grunge bands?
My first exposure to the grunge scene was through Drew Canulette really, since he was doing some recording for them. We were focused on the metal scene and friends so it kind of came out of the blue somewhat. Like I said we made a lot of our own shows from scratch because Pine Street, Satyricon and Starry Night were the only venues that would book us.
What’s your opinion about grunge? Metalheads tended to hate this music back then and blamed it for the decay of Metal in the 90’s. Would you say that Arachnid suffered from grunge?
I loved the 90’s grunge scene and still am a huge fan of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Chris Cornell was amazing. I don’t think we suffered from any of that scene, it was the glam bands that died. Thrash and death metal persevered!
You supported Annihilator and Defiance. Were they and their roadies cool to you? Were there something about these bands and their attitudes that raised your eyebrows?
The Defiance dudes were the best, really cool dudes, and we kept in touch over the years somewhat. Jeff Waters is a really nice guy too that I looked up to as a player. We have corresponded a bit over the years as well. The only guy we ran across with a rock star attitude was Brad Hull from Forced Entry, but they were on MTV etc. and we were mud on their shoe lol. The other guys were cool though.
Just a bit up and down the West Coast cities, but gigs were hard to come by and networking was limited then. Mainly Seattle with bands like Coven, Infester and California bands Phobia, Immortal Fate etc.
Did you have any demos prior to the one you recorded in 1992?
No, no demos recorded before that.
By the way, is it correct to call “Arachnid” a demo? it sounds very professional with almost 40 minutes of original music, so to me it’s more like a self-released full-length album…
Yeah, it was intended to be a full-length album and somewhere along the line it got dubbed a demo.
How many copies of “Arachnid” did you press?
Two runs of 500 tapes. They are very hard to find these days. I only have 1 original copy myself.
Did you shop “Arachnid” to labels like Roadracer/Roadrunner, Metal Blade, Megaforce, Music for Nation etc.? How come that Arachnid weren’t signed by any of these labels?
I mailed tons of tapes to anyone I knew about, but they were on the grindcore/death metal train by then and only showed mild interest. I remember US Metal Records wanting to sign us and was planning a european tour for us but they got in hot water with a Sepultura bootleg and disolved shortly after. A Japanese label was also interested but we never got a deal done.
Drew Canulette who engineered your album also worked with Soundgarden and Black Flag among others. Did he understand your music well, or did you have to supply him with some thrash/death metal albums to explain what type of sound you wanted to achieve?
Drew is the man and recorded our friends Body Bag and Victims of Internal Decay (V.O.I.D) so he was tapped into the scene somewhat. The album sounded much better than what all the subsequent releases presented because everything has been duped from a cassette. The original ADAT tape was damaged and couldn’t be used for the Stormspell, Alone and Headsplit releases. Drew is responsible for capturing the dark haunting atmosphere of the album and that just goes to show his true talent as an engineer.
Was Dogfish an expensive studio back then? How many days did you spend there recording and mixing “Arachnid”?
I think four total days were spent on the album and cost somewhere in the $1500 range to record. Great studio in a remote location with a view of a valley below. Drews remote recording truck was used wired into the house to get the job done. That truck was an amazing setup!
He was Roger’s friend. He airbrushed a couple guitars for us too, including a graveyard scene on a USA BC Rich Mockingbird for me. That guitar was a neck through and got broken on stage when it got knocked off a guitar stand.
In 2012 “Arachnid” was reissued by Stormspell Records with a different cover. What was the reason? I think the original artwork is so awesome that you can’t top it!
It was a label decision since they wanted to do it under their “Red, White and Heavy” series. My understanding was the original artwork was going to be black and white with red accents, not a completely redone piece. I was disappointed when I saw the final product to be honest. Headsplit and Alone did justice to the original art and intent though!
Since then “Arachnid” was reissued on CD, vinyl and cassette tape. What is your favorite format? Do you still listen to tapes or vinyls?
Vinyl all the way! Alone did such an awesome job on the vinyl release with the photo collage and lyric sheet etc.
The band reunited some years ago and started writing new songs. What happened along the way? Did you use those songs in Chemical Annihilation’s latest album?
I had a tough time keeping players engaged and moving forward so there was some turnover. Bill Brewer was the only constant dedicated member that stayed aboard. I had two completed songs “Virgin Blood” and “Bastion of Evil” and Bill and I brought those songs into Chemical Annihilation and are on the current “Resurrection” release. I’m sure you can tell my writing style and lyric content present in those tracks. They fit into the album nicely though I think.
What is the current status of Arachnid?
Dead but not buried. We were approached recently to do the Maryland Deathfest but we weren’t obviously ready to take that on since it was just Bill and I remaining. I could pull it off with the Chemical guys but we were focused on the album release.
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