Chad Bowar: Before we get to the new CD, I wanted to ask about the DVD Centuries Of Torment: The First 20 Years that was released last year. What was it like to go all the way back to the beginning and revisit your entire career?
Paul Mazurkiewicz: It was pretty cool. It was weird to think we’ve been around for 20 years. Time goes by. It was fun going down memory lane and revisiting some of these old places in Buffalo. Denise (Korycki) did a great job putting it all together. She interviewed so many people and did an awesome job editing and compiling everything. It was a lot of fun to make, and she did a great job in the end and I think it turned out awesome.
It got great reviews. Have the fans been responding to it as well?
Yes, for the most part. We just get what we hear online. It will be interesting because we haven’t done any touring since its release. I think once we get on the road we’re going to be hearing a lot more feedback about it firsthand from the fans. We got great reviews in the press and everybody seemed to enjoy it.
Was your songwriting and recording process different on Evisceration Plague than on your previous albums?
For the most part it was the same as recent albums. The major exception was that we used a click track for the first time. That was the biggest difference.
How was that for you, adjusting to using a click track?
It was different at first. I was always a drummer who didn’t want to use a click. I was self-taught and it never came across as something I wanted to do. This time around we wanted to be as solid as we could be, and wanted to improve the band in any way possible. And I definitely wanted to improve my playing in any way possible at this point. When that was suggested, I was for it. I said I’d give it a chance. It was definitely difficult in the beginning, adjusting to it. But now I look back and wish I would have done it years ago. It really helped my playing and helped tighten up the screws a little bit more. It made for the tightest recording we could do. That was huge. We’re not going to use a click live, but in time I hope it will get a little bit easier. But what a great help it was.
Have the songwriting duties been spread out among the band members a little more over the years?
Everyone is a good songwriter. We know they have the capability to write Cannibal songs. Over the last few years it seems like Alex had a lot of ideas, and a lot of them came together very quickly. On Evisceration Plague Alex wrote seven of the songs and collaborated with Rob on one other one. Pat wrote two, Rob wrote one himself, and I wrote one song. But a couple albums back Pat had four songs. It just depends on the time frame and who’s come up with what at a given moment. Alex wrote most of this new one.
Does the person who writes the music for a song also write the lyrics?
It’s primarily Alex and I that write the lyrics. On Evisceration Plague Alex wrote all the lyrics to his songs, Rob wrote the lyrics for his song. I wrote the lyrics for the song I wrote, and I’ve always written lyrics for Pat. Every song that Pat has written for Cannibal Corpse I have written lyrics to. Pat’s just not a lyricist, and since Alex does so many lyrics with his songs I have no problem writing the lyrics to Pat’s songs. That’s how it’s been going these days lyrically.
When George gets his hands on the lyrics does he make many changes to them before recording?
It’s pretty much as written. Some things might change here and there. If we get into the studio and something isn’t working syllable wise or isn’t coming across clean enough, they might be changed. If anything is changed, it’s usually pretty subtle.
You worked with producer Erik Rutan again on this CD. What is it about his style that clicks with you guys?
He did a great job on Kill and we wanted to work with him again and see if we could do even better. The big thing is, he’s one of us. He’s a good friend of ours, and he plays guitar in a death metal band. What more do you need from a producer than a guy who’s in the thick of it like that? It’s key. He’s built his way up to be the producer that he is today. Being from that death metal background is such a big plus and hard to get from other producers.
As you get older it is difficult to maintain the brutality and extremity in your music?
More physically than anything. Just playing it. We’re not getting any younger, and the songs aren’t getting any easier. When it comes to the edge, I believe that we’ve been doing it long enough and we are set in our style of how we write and how we play. When we have to write, everyone gets busy and it starts flowing. It’s something internal at this point. But the older we get the harder it is going to be to maintain stamina and that kind of thing. Knock on wood we’ve been fortunate that everyone’s been relatively healthy. Nobody’s had major issues. Luckily none of that has happened. We’ve got to use our maturity and brain more and use that to your advantage. We have to be physical. It’s what we do and that’s the way we play. But you learn how to use your muscles properly, learn stamina. We’re playing better live than we ever have.
