OPM – Interview

Finding out if heaven really is a halfpipe with opm frontman John e. Necro

How is being signed to a national label?

Its definitely a trip. Its been a lot of fun. It feels like everything is going in a real positive direction.

Did it blow your mind when “Heaven Is A Halfpipe” started getting radio play?

Yeah. When we were recording it and had written it, everyone was saying it was going to be a hit, but you never knew. Now its finally starting to settle. Its cool when we play a show, we can tell what city is giving it play if the crowd is singing along. When everyone in the crowd is singing along, its pretty rewarding.

Listening to the album and all the different flavors, I was wondering what you grew up listening to? I heard some D.R.I. in there, but all sorts of other things as well.

D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies. I was into all kinds of punk when I was this little skater punk, and then I was into the metal thing like, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, and that stuff really stuck with me because it wasnt what I got from my parents. It was like becoming free. That led me into the punk rock stuff. We started skating to school so I really got into it. We lived on this hill so wed just skate down the hill to school. There was this really cool record shop by my house and the guy who worked there had this mohawk and he loved turning kids on to crazy punk rock stuff. My brother was a dj and he turned me onto hip-hop like N.W.A. and Ice-T, then that was the shit to me. It was like a rebellion thing for me. My mom could handle Iron Maiden, but all that gangsta rap, man, she just couldnt understand it.

Its cool talking about this because I had the exact same progression in music.

I know, its pretty cool.

I dont even own any punk records. I have like all these punk mix tapes from the Exploited and Black Flag.

I know. Thats why they never made any money. (laughs)

I know, and everyone is complaining about Napster?

The whole scene was like that. If you were lucky, you were buying seven inches. I dont even think I had a record player.

I have one punk record and that was Dag Nasty. Its weird that I loved music so much and was exposed to so much, yet I have nothing to show for it.

I know.

Was Anthrax part of your conversion? They brought a lot of metal people into rap with “Im The Man”.

I think that was an East Coast thing. We knew who they were, but never really got into them. There wasnt any one thing that got me into hip-hop because I liked it before that. The first N.W.A. album was it. My stepbrother used to go to swap meets down in Gateway, which is right outside Compton, so he used to buy Dr. Dre mix tapes. He had a bunch of records, like Ice-Ts first record.

N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton and Eazys solo record were my first hip-hop records. That Eazy album might be the greatest album of all time.

It is. That album is amazing.

The funniest thing Id bet that if you asked any kid today that is heavily into punk, theyd never believe so many punk bands are hip-hop fans, especially the old school hip-hop.

Exactly. N.W.A. is probably my all time favorite, but also Tupac and Goodie Mob. That is what I listen to. The only rock band I think is genius is Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins.

I always felt that the reason these hip-hop bands were so appealing is because they rebelled just like the Sex Pistols. So they were the Sex Pistols of the late 80s.

It was punk as fuck. It was about the attitude. I mean, look at the name Niggas Wit Attitude.

They just did it with a whole new style.

Right. I dont think it has settled in yet, but Dr. Dre is a genius.

Youre preaching to the converted. (we both laugh)

Its like when he is gone, theyll look back and hell be the Jimi Hendrix of our time.

Hes not even held up in that regard amongst the musical masses.

Totally. He is one of the largest stars in the world, but people dont get him. No one took N.W.A. seriously or anything in his discography seriously, but there is just so much shit hes done that is so on point like with Tupac, Snoop.

He made Snoop larger than life, and even more bizarre is Snoop by name is bigger, but its Dre who made him.

Listen to the Snoop shit without Dre.

Its terrible.

And the best Tupac songs are the ones he did with Dre.

Eminem is proof positive to me. I mean, Dre is insane.

Totally. Hes the man.

Now, I should probably talk about your group and the album. (laughs) When did you start recording it?

A year ago. Matt and me hooked up in 98 and put together demos. We spent a month straight on the demos and shopped them around. We got a good manager, good lawyer, and all that stuff. We spent about a year working on the record. That was cool because we could focus on little things. My favorite records are the ones with all the little final touches. That is the difference between Radiohead and every other band that wants to sound like them.

As soon as you started talking about that, Radiohead was first in my mind.

Exactly. Those little things are amazing.

They could have done that album acoustically and it would still be amazing.

Yeah, because their songs are just amazing. They were in there doing too many drugs, spending too much time.

Kind of like the Beach Boys Pet Sounds.

Or any Pink Floyd record.

Yep. And that little thing you are talking about is what is missing with albums today.

Right.

People go in and record in a few weeks, whacking out songs, and send it off to get paid.

We definitely did the whole doing too many drugs as we could and spending as much time on stupid things that we could. It was cool because we started working with Michael Patterson who normally mixes stuff. He mixed for Puffy and it was freeing for him to be the producer. He was stoked. We did it in our studio back in LA. We wanted to work with a hip-hop guy so the record would bump. Every time we worked with a rock guy, they were so concerned with dumb things. All I cared about was if the record bumped. Im concerned with musical elements, but I wanted a beat and a guy flowing. If Im listening to punk rock, its usually just one chord if you are lucky. (laughs) It was cool that we got to do all that other stuff. I want to hear some kid driving down my street with my album bumping. It was cool working with him. It just worked out right and was a good balance. The other great thing about this record is that we got so many guests, like Eric Avery from Janes Addiction, Angelo Moore from Fishbone, and Ozomatli.

Did you have the songs done before entering the studio?

They just developed, like for “Heaven” Matt had his verses and the hook and I wrote the rap and left it like that. That is how we left the demo. It was kind of punk rock. One day we are going to put that demo out so people can see the true punk rock version of it, but when we got into the studio, they said Youve got to bring the hook out, and seeing how radio is playing it only because they like hooks. When we originally recorded the songs, we had only six tracks, but when you go into the studio with Pro Tools there is endless amounts of tracks and they develop massively.

At the end of the record you have a pretty wild transition from “Unda” to “Interlude: 15 Minutes” to “Fish Out Of Water”. The diversity is insane. Did you set out to make an album that didnt have track after track of the same thing?

Yeah, exactly. We wanted to be like, Fuck being one thing. We didnt want to worry that if we put a ska song on the record that everyone was going to call us a ska band. Changing things is great because its cool when someone asks What kind of band are you? and we dont even have an answer. Its like just check out the record. Its a lot of different stuff.

We make music.

Exactly.

Like you have groups you love. Like if you love the Bosstones, the problem is you really have to love ska immensely to listen to the whole album because that is what you get track after track. Personally, that kills me. I cant handle it for very long.

I like records where people want to listen to the whole record. Like if you look into peoples record collection youll see records of bands they like, but theyll have just as many soundtracks, so people like to hear different flavors on a record. Thats a given. Some of my favorite albums are soundtracks. People tried to tell us we should define our sound, but I dont know about that.

People do say that, and then if you do the same songs over and over you get criticized. There arent many bands that can do their signature sound over and over and still get away with it today. Maybe Radiohead. But then again, they do mix it up some.

The Pumpkins is a good example, but then they do a record that is different and people get pissed.

They get super pissed. They say, Oh, they sold out, or They just want to cash in on what is hot now. Its stupid because Adore wasnt made to fit the masses.

To me, Adore is probably the greatest record ever recorded.

Then the last record they go back to their roots and everyone gives them shit for going back to their roots. Now they cant win. Its stupid.

Its pretty sad really.

Like Pearl Jam. They continue to be Pearl Jam yet it comes off as a parody of themselves.

And the thing with Pearl Jam is their situation was that Kurt Cobain impacted rock n roll unbelievably. The reason he was who he was is because he didnt care to be a rock star. He didnt give a fuck. That is so rare. Most people, like Aerosmith, like the fact that they are fucking huge. They just live on the top of the world. That is Kid Rocks flavor.

They are at awards ceremonies, every big premiere. You see them waving to the crowd.

Theyre just looking pimp, but what happened with Pearl Jam is they wanted to be rock stars, but they had to follow on Kurts coattails, so they had to be like, We dont care about being rock stars or the money.

And then they stopped making videos. Worse yet for me, they havent made a good record since the first one. They really tailed off. I just cant get past how they sound like a cover band of early Pearl Jam.

Yeah, theyre trying to emulate what they were then.

Speaking of bands and their futures, what are your plans from here on out?

Were just pretty much touring the rest of the year. If I get some time off, I want to get into my studio and work on some songs.

+ charlie craine