Note: the interview was done in 2015.
Along with Vio-Lence, Forbidden Legacy/Testament and some others Epidemic were part of the so called second wave of Bay Area thrash metal. The band managed to record three awesome albums, play dozens and dozens of gigs but remained relatively obscure, the band for die-hard fans of thrash so to say. But who cares when it comes to the quality of music? These guys delivered severe blend of thrash and death metal, and that's all that matters. Epidemic's bass player Mike Bodine remembers his path with Epidemic.
It’s a common knowledge that Epidemic started as a school band when you decided to go with this talent competition and played “Creeping Death”. So what is it a joke or did you and other guys have any experience in playing music? What can you say about the song “No man’s Land” which (according to some sources) you played during that competition? By the way, what was the reaction of your school mates to that performance? Did you win in that competition?
We opened our performance with “The March of the SOD” and into “Creeping Death” and ended with “No Man’s Land”, a song which Erik wrote. I have completely forgotten about “No Man’s Land” until you brought it up and I have been going through all my old tapes looking for a copy of it. From what I remember the audience was not very impressed with our performance. The crowd was mostly family members of our classmates and probably didn’t share the same love of metal as we did.
Who came up with the name Epidemic? Was it taken from the Slayer’s song? Did you have this name while playing at school or did you pick this title a little later?
The name Epidemic came after our school performance. We used the name Death for the talent competition. Erik and Guy came up with the name Epidemic while listening to Slayer’s “Reign in Blood”, probably over and over like we all did back then.
The next thing was your appearance in the Battle Of The Bands and you won an opening slot for Death Angel. How was that show? Did their fans treat you well?
Opening for Death Angel was great. I had seen them play a few times in San Francisco and in Berkley and considered myself to be a fan. Getting a chance to open up for a band that you follow so early on in our musical career was amazing. The show when well and we got a chance to play in front of a lot more people than usual.
Though the band was from SF Bay Area, you never sounded like Exodus, Heathen, Forbidden and so on, and you were a lot younger. Were they arrogant to you when you shared the stage? Did you ever work with Paul Baloff who bookend different bands in Bay Area at that time?
Those bands were a few years older than us, not many, but they always treated us we respect. We played with Exodus only a couple of times, but never with Paul Baloff, only with Zetro, and we never got a chance to play with Piranha, but Baloff was always around, we would see him at shows and parties. He was an important figure in the Bay Area metal scene.
Tell me please about your live shows. Who was your “booking agent” before you signed a deal with Metal Blade Records? Was it easy to get a gig in Bay Area clubs at the time? I guess those days were a peak of flyers and posters. So who painted you all those amazing posters? Was it legal to stick posters in the streets? Would you say that the club scene in SF suffered from an age restriction when it was set by local authorities?
Flyers or posters were everything in those days. We all made them, passed them out at shows, put them up on light poles. I’m sure it was not legal to put them up on the poles, but I’ve never heard of any one getting in trouble for doing it. You could see light poles with thousands of flyers covering them. I tried to save as many as I could, I have a few boxes full of them, and I still will make a copy of one to pass along to a friend, or share them online with others. Back then a flyer was all a band had to promote their band or an upcoming show, nothing like what is available today.
I guess Bay Area thrash metal bands never made any impact on you, but what about Sepultura, bands from Florida (Morbid Angel, Death, Deicide etc.) or such European act like Sodom?
Most of Epidemic had already been listening to Sepultura by the time I heard of them. We played a show with them on the Beneath the Remains tour. I became a fan of theirs that night, I was blown away. Bands such as Discharge, Celtic Frost and VoiVoid made the biggest impact on me, but of course I also listened a lot to Keator, Sodom, and Destruction.
Why did Ted Kamp leave the band? Did you consider Geoff Bruce as a temporary replacement before you can find somebody who could really play drums or did Geoff quit due to some personal reasons?
Ted Kamp was our drummer for the High School competition; we were not an official band yet. We were not an official band until Geoff and Carl came on board. In fact, I was with Ted when I meet Geoff at a party in a cemetery. At the time, Geoff worked out great as our drummer, but his style was more punk influenced and we were going toward a more metal sound. We needed a drummer that could play double bass. That just wasn’t Geoff’s style.
Before you signed a deal with Metal Blade Records, you released 4 demos and all of them sound nice which means you invested a lot of money in them. In the same time, these demos were sold in viable quantities. Was it a kind of plan to forge big fan base and sign a deal on your terms or was it just a coincidence and there was no interest from labels until Metal Blade came into the picture?
We did 3 demos before signing with Metal Blade. We invested our own money in making those demos. Guy was friends with the guys at studio and they gave us a good quality sounding demo each time. We didn’t really have any plan in regards to selling our demos. We just wanted our music to get out there. The more demos that we got out there, the more shows we could play and hoped that record deal was to come our way.
What are your best memories about the very first demo “Immortal Minority”? Was it your way to say that true metal heads will never die? Why did such songs like “Immortal Minority” or “Time Kills” never make it into your albums? And what was your idea with the track “Peter’s Gun”? Is it a kind of allusion on “Peer Gynt” theme by E. Grieg (also performed by ELP)?
You know, probably the best memory I have from recording the “Immortal Minority” demo was when Guy and Erik were recording their solos. It seemed like it took days for them to be happy with their tracks, they did them over and over again, and to me, a bass player they all sounded the same. It was like torture. I learned never to be present while they recorded their solo tracks again. As far as the songs go, “Six Seconds” was the only song to make it off “Immortal Minority”. We re-recorded it for the “Demo 89” demo, but none of the songs seemed to fit in with the new material that we were writing. “Peter Gunn” was a TV show in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. It was our version of the theme song.
How do you view the “Demo ‘89” / “The Truth Of What Will Be” nowadays? It supposed to be a demo but Metalcore Records released it both on CD and vinyl. Would you say that it’s more a full-length album? And what can you say about your relationships with Metalcore Records? I heard they ripped you off but they also helped to spread your name in Europe. So did you forgive them?
I'm glad that “Demo 89” got released as “The Truth of What Will Be”. We might have gotten ripped off by Metalcore Records, I really don’t know. We got copies of the vinyl and some CDs, but never got any money from them. Who knows, I have no idea how many records Metalcore sold, and if they made anything from it. It’s a rare record, and sought after from fans of Epidemic.
The song “Three Witches” deals with LSD trip which Carl Fulli had, so was this topic OK for you? Didn’t you mind about quoting The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix in the lyrics?
LSD was pretty popular while we were in high school; I think we all had some sort of experience with it. Everyone is familiar with those Beatles and Hendrix quotes about LSD, and they seemed to fit right in to our song “Three Witches”. Still that song remains one of our more popular songs, and I still here it on the radio from time to time.
You still refuse to print lyrics for “Thigh Rubbage”, “Finer Things In Life” and “D. C. S.”. Are you ashamed by them now? I guess you won’t tell me about lyrical content of these songs anyway, but can you give me at least a hint?
A lot of the Lyrics for those songs were made up by Carl, as he went. I don’t think we had ever written any of them down. All I could say from what I remember about them is, they are not pretty.
The demo “Extremities” shows us a huge step forward in evolution of Epidemic. Do you remember anything special about the period when these songs were written and recorded?
I think, by the time “Extremities” was written and recorded we had been exposed to faster and heavier bands, and showed up in our writing. We got a lot more aggressive. We had been playing as a band for a couple of years and we were now playing bigger shows with a lot of bigger bands. Our live shows had a lot of energy to them and it showed up in “Extremities”.
You worked with the manager Marco Barbiero who helped you to get a deal with Metal Blade Records. Did he try to approach other labels like RoadRunner? Wasn’t there a conflict of interests so to say as Marco was both your manager and Metal Blade agent?
There was never any conflict of interest with Marco and us or Metal Blade. Marco had been our manager for a while before he went to Metal Blade. At that time we signed with Metal Blade there wasn’t any serious interest from any other label beside Metal Blade.
Before the album “Decameron” you contributed a song to the compilation “Metal Massacre XI”. This compilation definitely helped to many bands in the early 80’s but was it still influential in 1991? And how much the scene of Bay Area changed in 1991?
By 1991, the “Metal Massacre” compilations seemed to have lost its influence in the scene. It was still great to have a song of ours on any compilation, but it wasn’t as influential as it once was. The scene in the Bay Area in 1991 was strong. Not only did the Bay Area have its own bands like Vio-lence, Forbidden, doing well, but it also was a stop on the tour for many other bands from the rest of the States and Europe. There seemed to be a good show to go to, or to play all the time.
What are your best memories about recording sessions for the album “Decameron”? Why did you decide to produce it your-selves? Was it all up to youth’s stubbornness or did you have a clear vision of the album and didn’t want to follow advices from somebody else?
Recording “Decameron” was a great experience. It was longest time we had ever spent in the studio. The reason we produced it ourselves was that, we had a good relationship with the studio; they have recorded everything we had ever done, so why change now. We’ve had great results each time we have been there and always produced the recordings ourselves. This time maybe the results were not as good as our previous visits.
As far as I understand, some musicians didn’t want to include the song “In Fear We Kill” in “Decameron”. What was wrong with the song?
“In Fear we kill” was a “Demo 89” song that I don’t think any of us thought would fit in with the songs on “Decameron”. The only songs to have made it from “Demo 89” were “Live Your Death” and “Three Witches”. I gained new appreciation for the song “In Fear we Kill” when I heard the band Exhumed cover it on their “Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated” album. They fucking killed it. I love that track. I love that band.
Could you explain your idea with the song “Blown Doors”? Is it only about cars, high speed etc., or does this song have a second meaning? By the way, there is an address “5930 Lake Shore Cypress” – can you comment on this detail?
The song “Blown Doors” is about running nitrous oxide in your car. The term “Blown Doors” refers to a phrase that we would use when you would win a race with another car, you would say that you “blew his doors off”. The address in the song was the address of the Nitrous Oxide Systems Co, the only supplier of parts and accessories for adding nitrous to your car. I don’t think that they are still at that location; they have been bought up and merged with other companies over the years.
You toured with Suffocation/Malevolent Creation and Cannibal Corpse/Unleashed. Which of these tours was better arranged and brought you a lot of new fans? Why wasn’t there any shows in Europe at the time?
The Cannibal Corpse/Unleashed tour was a little bit of a larger tour. The shows were larger. It gave us more exposure to new fans. I can’t say if it translated to us gaining any new fans, we were still considered more of a thrash band than a death metal band. Making it over to Europe was definitely the next step, but it never happened. I’m sure it was a money issue with Metal Blade, and we were a low priority with them.
After “Decameron” Guy Higbey was fired. What was the reason for that? I heard there was some bad blood between him and the band. Do you think that the band became stronger with Erik as the only one guitarist?
Guy and the band parted ways for a number of reasons. Looking back I think we should have handled it in a better way, but it was a band decision at the time. Yeah, I’m sure Guy had bad blood towards us, and he had every right to feel that way. Guy was a friend then and friend today, we have all moved on since that time. Epidemic as a band got stronger writing our new material, but we only played a few shows without Guy.
You started collaboration with Scott Sergeant on the EP “Lament”. How was it to work with Scott? Why did you decide to record covers of Ozzy and D.B.C.? Just to be original and not follow others?
Working with Scott Sergeant on “Exit Paradise” and on the “Lament” 7 inch was great. He had been a friend of ours for years. He knew exactly how to achieve what we looking for when it came to overall tone, and sound, and how to incorporate his own ideas into the production. I have a lot of respect for Scott, as a musician, a song writer, and as a producer. I’m sure if Epidemic was to have continued, Scott would have been a part of anything we recorded. The cover of “Power and Corruption” from “D.B.C”that we did on the “Lament”7 inch turned out good. A few of us were big “D.B.C” fans, and that song was a great song to cover. I think both songs D.B.C’s “Power and Corruption” and Ozzy’s “Over the Mountain” came out well, it was a fun thing for us to do, and I’m glad we did it. I think “Lament” is a cool little 7 inch that is a rare find today.
How do you view the album “Exit Paradise” today? Would you agree with Erik who said once that Epidemic found its sound only on this album?
“Exit Paradise” to me has held up pretty well over the years. I listen to a lot of slower and heavier metal than I use to, and “Exit Paradise” seems to have a lot of the same ingredients. I agree with Erik, when he said that “Epidemic has found its sound on this album”. Carl sounded great; our songs were slower, and much heavier. I would have loved to have been a part of a follow up to this album. I think it would have done very well.
Can you recall your idea with this album? It sounds like the band was dissatisfied with show business or with the whole world in general. And was it your original intention to make songs slower and heavier and almost without solos?
I don’t recall an overall idea for the album, but Erik had lost a good friend around the time of writing and recording the album, and that seemed to have brought in a darker tone to some of the lyrics. I think it all worked well with the slower songs.
What happened to the band after the album “Exit Paradise”? Did you try to record another album or did you just dissolved?
After “Exit Paradise”, Epidemic just split up. We didn’t tour to support the album; I think we only played a few shows. The scene in the Bay Area was on a down turn, and all the clubs that we had played at were closed. I felt like it was the end.
In 2003 you and Carl tried to play music together, so why didn’t it last long? Did you ever try to bring Epidemic back? It seems that only Erik remained active as a musician, so why did you quit playing instrument? Do you still stay in touch and talk to each other?
Back in 2001, Epidemic got together to talk about the possibility of play a show or two. It was good to see everyone together again, including Guy. It just wasn’t going to happen, no one could really commit to practicing since none of us lived near each other. After that, Carl and I got together a few times and shared some ideas, and wrote a song or two. Carl still sounded as good as he did on “Exit Paradise”. The songs were good, Carl and I could still write well together. We picked up right where we left off several years before. Due to family and career commitments we just weren’t able to give it enough time and energy, so it got put on hold. I stopped playing for number of years, but I’m currently writing for a new project of mine. A doom/sludge band called “End of Light”. We are looking to have a few songs done by the end of spring. And we will see what that can lead to. Erik continues his “Aerial Ruin” solo project, which seems to be going very well.
Divebomd Records re-released your demo stuff in 2012 but what about albums? Will they ever be re-issued?
The Divebomb Records re-release of the early demo material was cool, and it’s led to more interest in the band. Our first Metal Blade release “Decameron” will be re-issued by The Crypt, on vinyl and CD sometime this year. I hope that “Exit Paradise” will see the light of day sometime soon as well.
Tell me please about your project with Nathan Williams. What kind of music is it? Who is in the band beside you and Nathan? Will you play anything from Epidemic during live shows?
Nathan and I talked many times about starting a project, but only had a chance to get together once. He is a tremendous guitar player. Maybe we will get together again in the future, but we don’t have any current plans to do so.
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