News |

Guitar World Column |

Interviews |

Pictures |

Album Reviews |

Gig Reviews |

Release Dates |

History |

Articles |

Setlists |

Upcoming |

Contact

Phone interview with Marwan Hussein of Acrassicauda

March 5th 2010, Los Angeles CA

Andrew: How different has the last year been for you guys compared to your life before that?
Marwan: It has had the good stuff in it and also the down points. Living in New York is hard compared to other capitals and cities in the world. New York is all about business, work and work. Basically now we have part time jobs on the back of full time jobs. We also have personal lives and we're just trying to live in between all this stuff. On the other hand, we accomplished the EP, which is a big step for us, plus we went out and did three concerts, hopefully more in future. So there is great opportunity for the band. Musically its really been quite the start of an adventure.

Andrew: Your first metal show was in 2008 seeing Testament in Turkey and your debut EP has been produced by Alex Skolnick. Is there a connection?
Marwan: There wasn't that much talk when we first met him but through Vice Records we heard that Alex Skolnick from Testament was interested in helping the band back in 2008. He heard about our story and watched the movie through VBS. He got more interested about our band. We got to meet him in the Turkey show, talked about some stuff but couldn't determine anything for sure because we didn't even know if we would be coming to the States. There were a lot of steps ahead. Finally when we got to the States we met Alex. He offered to produce the album and help out in the musical process. It turned out well and we got a practise space and between his tours and projects, he liked to come over to our practise and just check what we're upto, put some advices, help us in the writing and then the studio. It was great. We learnt a lot from him. Plus he is a music legend metal wise and rock wise. Also, he has a lot of other projects on the side. He has wide range in his music, so it wasn't hard for us or for him for that matter, to communicate. We also play kind of a different style of rock music. It's good that he has an open mind for all music genre.

Andrew: Your debut EP 'Only The Dead See The End Of The War' is ready for release here next Tuesday. What's the music like and how does it feel to finally put out something in the market?
Marwan: We're definitely proud of it. We went through a lot of obstacles, heartaches and troubles over the years. To finally see what you planned long time ago out there, for people to reach, relate to and listen to, that was a proud step. We are really lucky and happy to have the debut out. It has four songs because the time was really limited for us. It's a major step in our lives. We didn't have any experience in recording 'singles' and EPs. So it wasn't much of an 'official' type of recording. The whole process was more analog. There was more sweating in it. There were ideas, everybody was participating and giving opinions. There are major influences and all kind of stuff in it. The songs represent the way our lives went, with lots of twists and turns. We're going to do the opening night for it on the release date [March 9th]. We'll play the songs from the EP. There are more songs to come and we're still in the writing process too.

Andrew: Who are the inspirations and influences behind your music? Although, judging from the song 'Garden Of Stones', your sound is quite unique.
Marwan: Basically, we listen to all kinds of stuff. We took different steps, starting from everybody like even Michael Jackson. I mean, that doesn't have any influence but definitely bands like Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Sepultura. All these bands from early 80s and 90s, the thrashers like Exodus and bands like Opeth, they had major influences. We had a wide range of listening so we listened to everything that sounds good to us despite the genre, style and language of the singing. That helped us a lot. A lot of people are like, yeah we don't want to listen to this type of metal, or black metal and stuff, but as musicians, in my opinion you got to listen to anything and everything, anytime and anywhere. You would even find jazz, funk and Arabic music and black metal on our ipods. Whatever we could lay our hands on, we just listen to it. It also relates to the background. Being from a middle-eastern country, it has a major effect on me. The Iraqi beats and the rhythmic way that goes with it. There is a lot of percussion with eccentric and different sounds. That's what we try to apply to our music. There are a lot of great metal bands out there. So the only way to be different is not to sound like them but to develop your own sound. That's what the aim was. For a while we struggled, as we couldn't decide what style we should play. We admire all styles of music so for the first three or four years each of our songs was totally different from the other. There was alternative, death, thrash and even rap in it sometimes. But by the time we went to the studio, we already knew what we wanted to do, having an idea of what the songs are going to sound like. It was just a matter of time and working on it, making it as close as possible to your imagination that you had in the first place. Combining all this, we came up with songs like 'Garden Of Stones'.

Andrew: Did you ever imagine that you would be backstage at a Metallica show on your second day in this country? How did it actually happen?
Marwan: I didn't even know it. When we got there, it was like, we are going to meet Metallica! I was really sick of the flight that day. My flight was 25 hours straight. But then it was such a treat. It was enough to make me get off the bed and get ready. It was such an overwhelming time. Going backstage was like going through a maze of elevators and security. By the time we got there, we were over the clouds after meeting the guys. They have had major influences on us. They are one of the most successful bands in the rock n roll history. We got to meet them, talk to them and they even took us to see their rehearsing room. Meeting them even for a short time when they had the concert to do in half an hour, talking about their influences and what they like, it was great and the show was awesome too. There was this thing going on over the years that Metallica got sold out. But seeing these guys at the show, I know why they are one of the most successful bands. These guys can really put on a show with great music, great sound and great presence of stage.

Andrew: Looking back at how things were in Iraq, can you share with the readers some of the restrictions that were imposed on you just because you were playing in a metal band?
Marwan: Everything that's different, was unacceptable. Everything like that was kind of 'evil' and kind of against tradition and culture. A lot of people misunderstood it and took it the wrong way. The tradition was something you had to have in order to belong to that country. There were restrictions beyond reason. People misunderstood and kept applying it over the years, to the point that you felt like being choked and you're unable to do anything. So from something that you had to have in the background [the band] and to be proud of, it became something so 'out there'. It put weights and weights of burden on you. You feel like your freedom was lost, with it compromising the kind of stuff that doesn't really matter. So that's what people were doing down there, not a lot of them but most did. We didn't realize that this would apply to the music that we play. We actually felt like the music is a getaway for us from all this restriction and so-called tradition and culture, but wasn't the case. We played and it just got even worse and worse. We suddenly became Satanic, weirdos and Americanized. They just wanted to stop us from doing our thing in any way they could. We didn't have anything to do with people out there. We were basically practising six feet under ground in a basement that was probably the only store down there. No one lived there. It was a really, really dark basement. It was impossible for us. We were being wound up by being called all these names. We didn't understand why. It didn't make any sense. I'm doing something for me, it has nothing to do with you. So why should I stop? The main thing about this band is, we feed on unfortunate events. We feed off the negativity of the people. The anger, the rage, the injustice in life, that's what gives birth to our music. Everything that hurt us the most, we use it to make a new song. So all of this process was needed to create this band. In my opinion that's what metal music is about. For romance and stuff like that, there's pop and funk music to fill that gap. Metal music is just a getaway from the other phase of the equation. That's what we did. The more you hurt us, the more creative we get. This is really the idea of any kind of artistic view in life. You need to have this getaway. I mean, looking at our time in history, we got kicked off a stage because people were head banging. People just got worried and we got stopped. Practise space got bombed and we got threatened. All this stuff that happened, happened for a reason, which was to come up with this EP. People were sad, but I was like no, there is no reason to be so. Probably if one of the events in this chain didn't happen, Acrassicauda wouldn't be here right now. So it was needed in my opinion.

Andrew: Now that you've moved past your life in Iraq and Syria, how determined are you toward being more than just the first Iraqi metal band and impressing people with your actual music?
Marwan: That was the goal from the first day. We didn't choose to be in that documentary. We didn't choose to be the Iraqi refugee band. We chose to be musicians from the start. That's what we wanted to be known for. That's what is happening now, starting from this EP, to wherever the world takes us. We still have to come up with music. We want to be known as a heavy metal band that twisted, went against state and obstacles, with good music, instead of being known as the band that didn't have choices. After all, no matter how great your story is, people will come over to buy tickets to buy your music. Whoever among us gets writing time during gaps in the day between work, we write individually and work on music. Writing process is still going on. We are trying to come up with newer ideas. There are a lot of misfortunes from our life to write about and we look to just give our straight frank opinions about it. We get to express our emotions while staying very honest and keeping integrity. Sometimes we can't say what we want in front of people so we use songs to say that. We're working on it to be the rock band from Iraq who against all the odds, play good music that people can relate to everywhere. It has to be about anything and everything, not only war. Hopefully soon it will be accomplished.

Andrew: If you had to pick one band to open for, what band would that be?
Marwan: Probably we have different opinions of the band. I myself am a big fan of Slayer. You've also got Metallica, Megadeth and Testament. Playing with any one of these would be a great honor. We're playing the Scion Rock with Cannibal Corpse which is a treat too. If I had to pick one band, it would be Slayer. I am looking forward to the American Carnage show. It would be great to open for one of them, because this is the least that we can do for these bands for all that they did to us over the years, the inspiration that they gave to us. It helped us through a lot of stuff going through everyday, through doing what they're doing best. It will be such a treat to play in front of people with these bands. Its always great to be on stage. That's the only time we loose all chains and restrictions of our lives and be like the anarchist you want to be. For the 40 or 60 minutes, we feel free and that dose is needed to pacify everything.