Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Consequence, Buzz Osborne (Melvins) and Duane Denison (Tomahawk, The Jesus Lizard) discussed the influence they had on other artists. Humorously, Osborne also revealed that he used to tease Mike Patton (Faith No More) about the influence his work had on nü-metal.

Denison said the following:

“I think that the word influence is misused. I think maybe we inspire them to play, but I don’t think we influence their music. I think that, you know, people, they tend to name-drop when they use the word influence. And they, ‘Oh I’m influenced by Stockhausen and Miles Davis.’ And then you go to their house and it’s all Mott The Hoople and you know Bob Seger, or whatever.

I think an influence is maybe the guy at the record store, when you were a kid, who said, ‘Hey, listen to this.’ Or the guy’s house you’d go over to when you were who always… This guy who worked at the gas station, but he always had the latest records for some reason, and you’d hear stuff that you wouldn’t have heard if you hadn’t gone to his house.

Those are the people that to me truly influence you. Or maybe you took a lesson at the local guitar shop and you look on the floor and there’s the Eric Clapton with the Blues Breakers album, and he goes, ‘You should listen to that. It’s better than Cream.’ And then you listen to it like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So to me, those are people who are truly influential.”

Osborne continued:

“I used to have a joke with [Mike] Patton, ’cause he’s called influential as well. And I would go, ‘I’ll take Nirvana and Soundgarden and you can have Limp Bizkit and Korn.’ He’s like, ‘Fuck you.’ [laughter] That was always funny. But I mean the whole nü-metal thing to me it all sounded like Helmet ultimately. It just all sounded like Helmet. That’s what I thought, anyway.”

He also added:

“The first thing I always want to say when somebody says it is don’t blame me. [laughter] I didn’t make you make this music… This is the seeds of what I’ve sown and it’s far worse than what I could have ever imagined. [laughter] But, you know, you can’t help that kind of stuff. It’s whatever. I mean, I’m glad. I guess you could call it, you know, happy accidents.

I’m certainly not thinking of that when I’m writing music; ‘This is going to be so influential’ — I don’t think about that at all, but I think about all the stuff that influenced me. Sure. I can name a thousand bands that I’ve taken something from or got inspired by.”

[via The PRP]