Machine Head

Interview - Adam Duce

10/23/97

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The day after seeing what was to be the last Machine Head show for me in awhile, I was bored and these 2 guys dropped by my house..."Hey Machine Head is playing in Rochester, NY tonight"...lets go!.."It's 7 hours away"...so? I grabbed my tape recorder and we were off to see Machine Head

Sam: What was the first gig you ever played?
Adam: "It was at our friend in NY, Mike's house...He just fuckin' walked past...the big guy with no shirt...He was getting kicked out of his house 'cause he'd been squatting for like 6 months WAS, and not paying rent and shit..fuckin', so we came in and fucked the house up...that was our first show"
Adrian: I've been hearing alot of rumors about your old drummer, and why he left the band, the situations with him leaving the band...
Adam: "You mean you didn't read all about it in every magazine there is?" (LAUGHTER)
Adrian: We did, but there are still some contradictory things, like somebody is saying that you just kicked him out for no apparent reason..th way I hear it is that he wanted to leave on his own..He didn't want to tour..
Adam: "Well, basically...he didn't want to tour..."
Sam: Wasn't he like complaining n'shit?
Adam: "And so, we threw him to the curb...But he was hard to deal with, and fuckin' he didn't want to fuckin' fullfill comitments that we already had to tour..so...We'd given him an ultimatum...we told him, fuckin' he had one last chance....and fuckin' pulling out of Donington was that chance, and fuckin'...so I mean..we gave him a fair warning and he basically chose not to go, so there you have it, yeah...they're both right."
Sam: How long did you know Robb, like how did the band form?
Adam: "How did the band form..well, we'd been around..."
Sam: Did you guys know eachother before or anything?
Adam: "Yeah, we always fuckin' hung out, actually lived in the same apartment."
Sam: 'Cause I know hewas in Vio-lence and Forbidden...
Adam: "Yeah, well towards the ass end of the Violence thing...uh..We were, well i just fuckin lost my apartment, so he fuckin' let me stay on the floor in his apartment...and uhh..we started writing songs, fuckin' for...Ww wrote "Death Church" and "Blood For Blood"in that apartment...sittin on the floor and jammin' without amps."
Sam: so, those were the 2 first songs you ever wrote?
Adam: "Death Chruch" was the first one..."
Sam: I was wonderin' why you guys hadn't played that live in a little while...
Adam: "Well, because the fuckin' crowd dies like a motherfucker when we play it...alot of people lik that song, but if they don't react to it, they're not gonna hear it, because we don't wanna sit there and look at people just standing there looking at us."
Sam: I don't know why they don't do anything during "Bay Of Pigs" 'cause I wish you guys would play that one...
Adam: "Yeah, I wish we would too, I wish the crowd would respond to it"
Sam: How long have you been playing bass?
Adam: (Beavis impression) "Uh, like huh 12 years or somethin' huh"
Adrian: How do you guys go about writing your songs..what is the writing process you guys go through?
Adam: "And you wanna learn how to write songs? Age old question to a musician 'Dude, how do you write songs'"
Adrian: I've actually written songs, just trying to get it to come together kind of a deal..
Adam: "Just fuckin' hang out and jam...It comes out"
Joe: What kind of drugs are you guys into?
Sam: I was gonna ask that...I had it written down..haha
Adam: "Drugs on the overall are evil...But I like 'um anyway (laughter) ...Ever drug that I've ever done, I've done...I've ended up doing so much of it, that I can't do it anymore..."
Sam: Oh that sucks...
Adam: "Except for fuckin' pot..."
Sam: Like alcohol and shit?
Adam: "Well, alcohol, I'm totally through with alcohol"
Joe: Like heroin?
Adam: "Heroin, I tried it, I didn't even like it..."
Joe: Ah, the first time...
Sam: I ain't touching that shit...
Adam: "I tried it a bunch of times just to give it a chance...bro, but I just don't like it.... Extasy is fun, But it has a brutal fuckin' downside..."
Sam: What, You like crash the next day?
Adam: "I...I get into this depression hella hard..."
Joe: What about special K
Adam: "Special K? Yeah, That's fuckin'.."
Sam: Cat tranqs...
Adam: "...That's a fun drug to do, but it's a dangerous one too...I mean it's just dangerous..I don't know...speed...can't do that... can't handle the come down off of it...and it tweaks my mind, it makes me want to punch holes in myself..."
Sam: What do you guys do for fun on tour when you're bored? (Laughter)
Adam: "Whack off" (Laughter)
Joe: Whoa, good call man! (Laughter)
Adrian: Could hang out the windows with a BB gun and try to pick off fords ..
Adam: "Actually, fuckin' ...We have shot the spud gun out the top while we're rollin'..."
Sam: You launch the potatos out while you're rollin'?
Adam: "Uh huh...One night we we're fuckin'...we had this window like, so you could see out..we were waitin'..we had the potato launcher aimed out that way...and we were watchin' to see what was goin' by... and then fuckin' all of a sudden this huge car lot was out there... and we were like WWWFUMP! (makes potato launching sound) couldn't see where the potato went..but there were so many cars out there, it had to have hit one of them" (laughter)
Sam: I gotta build one of those things, would be so fun...
Adrian: There were rumors about bands' other road activities like.. throwing a bag out a window...
Sam: Oh yeah, like something about Robb shitting in a bag and throwing it out a window..
Adam: "Well, it's not just us..that's a fuckin' tour thing...you're not allowed to shit on the bus, and usually the shitter in the venue has piss all over the seat..who wants to go in there?..If we get here... ya know we get here early, we go in there and use the women's bathroom...always"
Sam: Yeah, last night I saw you walkin' into the women's bathroom, and I'm like 'does he know he's walkin' in there?'
Adam: "Yes he does" (Laughter)
Adrian: The women's bathroom's are always cleaner...
Adam: "Yeah, so we always use the women's bathroom...f you have to take a shit and the club is packed, you can't just walk into the women's bathroom so..you gotta fuckin' line the toilet in here with a bag..and then fuckin' take a shit in the bag...and throw it out in the parking lot"
Joe: Ok, we're getting all the important topics here...
Sam: Hey, this is good shit...what are you talking about?
Joe: It's some shitty shit man..
Sam:...How many interviews in Metal Hammer do you see where they ask shit like this?...(Laughter)
Sam: Hummm..(Pulls out notes..)
Adam: "Yeah, notes..pull 'um out, feel free, it'll fuckin' help the interview..I don't mind if you're reading something while you're asking me questions...(Laughter)"
Sam: How/d you have trouble getting over the Canadian border last time?..you were gonna play up there...
Adam: "We were gonna play up there, and the way we remedied that was, we didn't play up there..."
Sam: Didn't Robb not get over the border for some reason?
Adam: "Well, a long, long, long, long, long time ago, so long ago that the united states doesn't have any records of it..but the Canadian border does..fuckin' Robb had a drunk driving..and fuckin' we have to pay a discretionary entrance fee to get in there..and then it goes from a discretionary entrance fee...to like, a pardon from the Prime Minister and then to, to like a pardon from the the Queen of England.. so, we were up to the pardon to the Queen of England part, and there's like huge fees that go with all that shit..so we were like fuckin' it costs to much to play in Canada"
Sam: Like thousands of dollars?
Adam: "I ain't got enough money to fuckin' just..to pay to play in CA, when I go home I'll be fuckin' scrapin'..I'd be kicking myself if I payed to play in Canada, so would everybody else"
Sam: What country do you guys like playing in best?
Adam: "Outside the United States? I like Australia alot..."
Sam: Yeah, don't you guys get a bigger response?
Adam: "All throughout Europe and France fuckin' we get a huge response, a huge turnout to the shows and fuckin' killer response from the crowd ya know...like Argertina was killer and uh...Australia is the shit... I love Australia, Australia is the most like California than anywhere else in the world, besides California"
Adrian: Not like L.A.
Sam:Ugh...L.A.
Adam: "I mean northern California.."
Sam: Yeah, Oakland..
Adam: "Southern California and northern California should be 2 different states"
Sam: Yeah, were you really happy when the Raiders moved back up to Oakland?
Adam: "Oh, fuck yeah"