Interview with Bryan Metro (Jesus Chainsaw Massacre)
Love’em or hate’em, the Jesus Chainsaw Massacre may be one of the most interesting ”bands” in town to follow due in large part to their extrem off and onstage antics. Since MotorCityRocks.com has decided to officaly present the Jesus Chainsaw Massacre’s show this coming Saturday night (8/22) at the Pike Room in Pontiac, we decided to chat with JCM frontman Brian Metro. This chat ended up being a long drawn-out series of cryptic Twitter posts, Facebook comments and text messages – here’s what I found.
How has your life changed since winning a Detroit Music Award this past spring?
I am somewhat appreciative of what the DMA has brought us, especially the credibility among those who have zero clue about the music scene circa 2009. Plus, the trophy is really swank and you don’t have to pay cover at some lower end strip clubs. There’s a funny story I have. The moment after I found out that we won, I grabbed the trophy and ran out to the street outside of Cliff Bell’s in a moment of pure emotion. The first person that I saw was a homeless man so I took my picture with him. After the photo I held out a dollar for him and them quickly put it away and watched his eyes water. And the wheel in the sky keeps turning. Rock and roll.
You recently took some time off from the band to live in L.A. What were you doing out there?
It was because of some work stuff, and interesting time. Other than that, no comment.
How is Bryan Metro’s love life?
No comment, and I’m glad the comments here are disabled after that one. I guess I’ll take this time to address a pet peeve. I hate reading interviews with musicians like this. For all their creative output, 99% of them come across as banal and uninteresting. If I cared to know some narcisstic chatch’s influences, I would listen to their music and use my brain. Although you should break out this “love life” question all the time, i.e.: “Jason Von Bondie, how is your love life?”
What’s your relationship with bandmate -jr?
He’s actually the founder of JCM, along with Asian bass player, Foo. –jr records all the music and I attempt to write words that rhyme. I was the last to join The JCM. They invited me to a show of theirs at Paychecks and there were four people near the stage, not including myself and my girlfriend at the time. After the second song there was no one left except for the old timer skull crackers at the bar, who were up in arms. What a reaction! I was sold, and joined on the spot. That night, while having sex, I had my girl call me “rock star” the entire time. We broke up because I spent too much time dealing with band business. We practice once every four months.
Is –jr really the asshole some in the local music scene think he is?
The thing is, if you actually hang out with him, or us, he is upgraded from “asshole” to “prick”, and that’s a huge difference. The people who think that we’re assholes are the same as the comedians who hated Andy Kaufman because he didn’t tell traditional jokes, yet got more press than them. Although I don’t believe that Andy ever ruthlessly cut down other comedians on the internet. I will have to check Wikipedia.
FEATURED DOWNLOAD:
“Sonic Egyptian” – Jesus Chainsaw Massacre
What about your other band mates/collaborators? Do you get along with them?
Of course. They’re all good people. Our Asian bass player, Flim Flam, is a great tambourine player, and –jr is the musical anchor. We’ve recently added a second guitarist, Mitchell Allen from Maybe Texas, who has played one song with us so far. He’s been a supporter for quite a while. We’ve also used a third guitarist strictly for encores, Kentucky Pete, whose primary instrument is being batshit crazy.
Jesus Chainsaw Massacre is both a blog and a band, but if you had to choose to be only one, what would it be?
In my uneducated opinion, for –jr it would be a band for sure since he is the only one of us that regularly plays an instrument. For Asian bass player, Fong, I believe that it would be neither band nor blog, but rather, bar. For myself, I would lean towards the blog. There’s no future in music. Ask The Muggs. Add us all together and we’re like a Detroit Voltron zapping hipsters with sonic lasers so hot that their ironic mustaches singe. Deal with it. Rock and roll.
What’s in store for us at your show on Saturday night?
Well our shows follow this pattern: -jr comes up with the set list, and I come up with a theme or gimmick or ongoing satire. The catch is that I never tell -jr what I am going to do because A) He doesn’t care. B) Surprises are fun C) This way he can’t shoot it down. Now I know for a fact that -jr reads MotorCityRocks.com, so if I answer that I would be breaking my rule. However, I will say that Saturday’s show will be a throwback to one of our first shows ever, kind of a full circle thing, and more mainstream than some of my recent stunts and I never disappoint. Ask my ex-wife.
** Jesus Chainsaw Massacre will perform at the Pike Room in Pontiac this coming Saturday night (8/22) with Electric Lion Sound Wave Experiment (a.k.a. Electric Lions), Sex Ghost and local hip-hop rapper United States of Mind.
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