Shortly after our interview with Paul from Cradle of Filth it was time for yet another interview, this time with Deron Miller, frontman of CKY. We conducted the interview in the back room of the tour bus with j., Deron and Adam, along with our video camera mounted on a tripod all squeezed into that tiny little space.

Interview written, conducted and transcribed by j. ward

[COMA] While you guys were on Island Records you kept control over the music, your appearance and pretty much everything else. When you look at other bands on major labels that have lost that control, it must feel pretty good that you didn't fall into that.

[Deron Miller] Exactly, all those bands that sign with major labels lose control immediately. It's not down the line you find out your going to lose control, it's right then and there you've go to settle it right then and there before you sign. We wouldn't sigh a major label deal unless we were going to have all control of our music and everything that we do and in a way that was good because it helped in the fact that we put out the music that we wanted to do but at the same time it wasn't necessarily the kind of music that was going to be supported by a label like Island Records. We kind of fell by the wayside but we had a good run on that label, we did the five years that we signed for and when it came time to do the forth record they wanted us to go straight to the studio and do another record and it was a bad feeling because it was like, "Why?" What's the point in making a fourth CKY record for Island records because it wasn't going to get promoted it was just gonna get put out there. We want progress we want to climb the stairs not stand on the third step. So, we asked them if we could just go somewhere else and at the time Island was part of RoadRunner and I wanted to work with RoadRunner so they pretty much gave us over to RoadRunner and right after that they said, "Well we'll still have ties with you guys." but right after we signed with RoadRunner, Warner Brothers bought them (Island) out. We finally separated ourselves cause the label was falling apart and alot of their acts that they had that were big at the time when we were there are gone now or dying or struggling or whatever. The label was dying and struggling and it just wasn't a good time so we said, "Let's get out of here." and RoadRunner allows us to do whatever we want. It's just always going to have to be that way, we can't do it any other way. We just have to do things on our own.

[COMA] It seems like CKY talks alot of shit about other bands; what are some bands that you guys actually like listening to.

[Deron Miller] A lot of '70s stuff. Jess (Margera) likes alot of stoner rock bands, indie bands that I've never heard of, he likes Clutch and stuff like that. I listen to alot of '70s rock like Sparks and Kiss and Blue Oyster Cult and then there's like some bands that are no longer together that I like from the early '90s, metal bands like Pestilence and Gore Guts, Annihilator, Atrocity, I like anything from Sparks to Abba to Metallica's first couple records, Megadeth, metal mostly, if it's done well. There's alot of metal out there and you gotta sift through the bad shit to get to the good stuff. Metal is a double edged sword you gotta sit trough bad metal that you don't like; either that or you're watching a great band that you always wanted to see. Metal bands that are good. Malevolent Creation I think is underrated, everyone knows that. (laughs) I guess that's kind of an oxymoron, "Everybody knows Malevolent Creation they just don't know them."

[COMA] How do you feel about the other bands on this tour?

[Deron Miller] As people they're great. When you tour as much as we have with different bands it becomes more about who the people are than what their music is. I've always been a fan of GWAR their theatrics and their music's cool too. I'm not into joke music unless it's-- I mean there music's not joke stuff but I mean it's just not something gels with me very well but they're great guys and they've been really nice to us and they do their thing and they're very successful. Cradle, I've never even heard at all. I've heard of them a long, long time ago and I might have checked something out at the time but I don't think it stuck with me. Again, a victim of it was more of how it looked than how it sounded and Kiss is the only band that could do that for me cause I was so young and the theatrics got me interested in the music but now I want to see a good band without makeup or...bombs or whatever theatrics.

[COMA] Do you guys have any plans to make any more of the CKY skate/prank videos?

[Deron Miller] We don't have any plans but I'm sure there will be one. Right now we're just trying to finish this new record, get back out on tour and whatever happens, happens. Probably, but when? I have no idea. If I say when people are like, "You said you were going to put out CKY 5 in April or 2010 or whenever. I don't know, there's no plans but we're definitely not saying never again are we going to do one of those. It's not like that, at one point it was but now, you change your mind and things change and times change and it might not be such a bad idea sometime sooner or later to do that. So, yes or no I guess would be the only answer. Maybe.

[COMA] Hows the new album progressing?

[Deron Miller] It's going great. It's probably the quickest we ever worked on a record. Having our own studio and being able to work at our own leisure and not having to worry about being on the clock and running out or money or whatever. It's going good; the songs are good, the musics good and it's coming along amazing. I don't like to tell people what I think of each record anymore because fans and people that don't like us get this idea in their heads of what it's going to sound like then when they finally hear it they say, "That's not what it sounds like." So I don't give out my opinions and the band tries not to tell anybody about the album or how it sounds or anything like that because they all get the wrong interpretation in their minds and then they preconceive what it's going to sound like and if it doesn't sound like how they preconceived it, then they're either happy that it's not what they thought or unhappy and we'd just rather let them think for themselves.

[COMA] Are these all new songs or did you have some of them written from your last sessions?

[Deron Miller] Well, we didn't have any last sessions. I just sat at home and wrote for the long amount of time that we took off. It took so long after the last record to get off the label and get onto a new one and we did touring over in Europe finally. When we finally had a chance to sit down and not worry about shows or any tours coming up it was the time that I had to sit down and write. I was really inspired about being on a new record label and being signed to RoadRunner, I've always wanted to work with them and that inspired me to write some really cool stuff. With the last record, it was the third one for Island and it hurts to know that you are doing a record for a label that doesn't care whether you hand one in or not. It should be about writing good songs for the fans but all that stuff, no matter how hard you try, gets in the way. The business side of it gets in the way no matter what. If you want to make a great record for your fans, and I think we did make a great record for our fans. I think we have yet to made a bad record or record that we're dissatisfied with. The sound of our last album reflects how we felt at the time and whether or not you think that's good or bad is up to you. I think it's good cause I can hear the frustration in the last record. If I listen to a certain song off of any of those records I kind of remember how I felt at the time and what was going on. So that's what each song is good for.

[COMA] What the latest news on your death metal side project, World Under Blood?

[Deron Miller] I'm still writing for that. I'm in the middle of securing a deal, trying to get a worldwide deal for that band to put out a record worldwide. I've got 9 or 10 songs, got six left to record and whether it be through label or through myself or whatever, it's something that I've always wanted to do. Metal is my main choice, passion. I like the aggressive fast stuff. I've always wanted to do that and I think now is the right time because I don't want to be 40 and trying to start a death metal band. I'm 31 now so I might as well just get it the fuck over with and get it going and see what happens. And I love doing it so it's like, having that (World Under Blood) and having this (CKY), they compliment each other. Having the one makes me feel good about having the other. I'm just working on it and writing for it. I have tons of ideas and no shortage of material and everybody in the band I hand picked; probably the best musicians I've ever heard in my life. I'm psyched about it and it'll come out by definitely late '08.

[COMA] Whose idea was it to do the video album for Infiltrate, Destroy, Rebuild?

[Deron Miller] I think the whole band had the idea. Somebody brought it up but it's been a long time since then but for that idea I think that somebody might have just said it. I might have been me or Chad (Ginsburg) or somebody and then we figured we would be the first band to ever do that, to have a video for every song on the record, because we felt every song on that album deserved a video and when it came time to pick a single, the record company said, "We don't know. You pick a single." So we said, "All of them." So we made a video for all of them and none of them got airplay on MTV that much. One of the songs was used for the Jackass soundtrack for the first movie and it got a little bit of play only because alot of clips from the movie were thrown in there. Other than that I think every song and every video that was on that DVD could have gotten played somewhere and could have been a hit. Any song, but the label didn't want it, I didn't understand that. You don't work outside the box when you're a corporation like that, that's that big, they say,"Make sure the chorus kicks in by a minute, make sure you don't get too much going on.." Not too much going on. You lose those people cause they're older and they work a certain way. It's part of their agenda to hear a song a certain way to go, "Are the stupid people going to buy this?" and when you listen to our songs it's like, stupid people aren't going to listen to this. Not that many stupid people anyway so we end up with the smartest fans out there cause the dumb people are like, "What the hell kinda record is that? What the hell's going on there? I don't hear no rock and roll all day or anything like that." It's hard for the labels to pick what song everyone's going to like. Unless you get a producer in there and pay him $100,000 to help you with one song and then they have to push it to get that money back.

[COMA] Is Chad still producing all your albums?

[Deron Miller] Yeah, we produced them all ourselves.

[COMA] Is that just another way for you guys to keep control?

[Deron Miller] Anyone in the studio who's not part of the band is a nuisance whether it be someone who just wants to come up and say, "Hi" or whatever. You don't want that extra guy in the studio who you're going to make fun of the whole time anyway, he's probably too old to be there and has dorky dumb ideas. Producers are for bands that don't know how to make their own music and we're not like that at all. It's like having somebody tie your shoes when you know how to tie 'em and then paying them for it. Just doesn't make much sense. If you know how to tie your shoes why the fuck would you hire someone to do it and pay way too much money for it? You wouldn't. We know how to do everything, I know when my guitar is out of tune, I know when the bass doesn't sound right, Chad knows when my last vocal take wasn't that good. We don't need some old guy who did a Metallica record 15, 20 years ago saying, "I don't know if thats the best you can do." Cause that guy would be sent running down the hallway and out the door so quickly.

[COMA] You've appeared in a couple horror movies lately and some of your lyrics as well as the video for "Escape from Hellview" have a horror feel to them; is horror a big inspiration to you?

[Deron Miller] Absolutely, I'm a huge slasher fan but that's not news to anybody. Basically the old stuff, I'm not into the remakes, I'm not. I think that's the way to kill a great idea is to remake it. It's like going back into the studio and re-recording "96 Quite Bitter Beings", doesn't make any sense. I don't know why you should touch something that's already been made and done well, and can still be enjoyed and watched, and make it worse.

[COMA] So what are some of your favorite horror films?

[Deron Miller] "Sleep-away Camp", "Halloween", "Black Christmas", "Don't go in the Woods", "Mutilator" is one of the sickest ones, we watched "Slugs" last night. "Slugs" is sick, you cannot eat and watch that movie at the same time, you'll fucking throw up. "Criminally Insane", I like alot of old '70 John Waters films that aren't horror movies, all kinds of movies push the envelope or are out there, "Terror Train" and "Prom Night" with Jamie Lee Curtis, I like all the horror stuff she's done, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" I think is under rated. Alot of people don't like that movie, I don't know why, I think it's great, it's a great slasher film. "The Burning" I'm looking for on DVD, it's out (but) I can't find it anywhere, Best Buy doesn't carry the old titles anymore so you really have to look and search for those. All those, all the good ones, even the ones that are poorly made like "Don't go in the Woods", that happens to be my favorite one, they're just great. Anyone that's running around getting stalked and slashed for no reason is something I like to watch, I don't know why, but it is and it has always been. I think it's because I started out being horrified by them, the only kind of movie that has any effect on you after you leave is horror movies. You can go to comedies and laugh there but once you leave they're done, if you're afraid of horror movies and you go see one, you might be up for a week and when I used to see them on TV, they used to run "Friday the 13th" on TV and I'd be turning it on and looking away. Anything that freaked me out I was interested in and those were the only things that freaked me out. I think I never grew out of it, I never grew up and the lyrics and the music just have that kind of feel to it.

[COMA] What's up with the video for "Familiar Realm"? It seems like it's almost happy.

[Deron Miller] It's not happy, it's--

(Chad comes in)

[Deron Miller] Chad, do you want to comment on the "Familiar Realm" video?

[Chad] It's terrible.

[Deron Miller] That was my opinion for a long time, that it was terrible and awful. We played ball on that one, we played with the label and the label said, "Let us hire somebody to do a video for you guys." and it ended up costing more than all the videos on the IDR album for just that one video. And the general consensus is, that is our worst video. Is it happy? Well if you look, I don't want to give any artistic credit the the director at the time, it's not too deep but, if you do watch it, you'll see that it's pretty twisted in a way. It's happy but the family's pretending to kill each other. I think that that was what was supposed to be the idea behind that. I hated it when I first saw it, I thought it was stupid, I thought nobody would get it and obviously it didn't get played anywhere but it is one of the most seen things of CKY on YouTube, alot of people go to watch that video, it's pretty much the only place you can go to watch it. I like it now, looking back, when I first saw it I was like, "This is the reason we don't play ball. This is what happens when you give the label a chance." now, looking back on it, it's funny. It's a good video, it's not bad. I don't think it has anything to do with the song really, it has more to do with the band, it's a happy kind of upbeat song with a dark side, so I guess that's what the director saw.

[COMA] You said the video cost more than all the videos off of IDR, didn't Bam do all those videos for you?
(seems like this answer starts out being about the videos from IDR then turns into a conversation about the "Familiar Realm" video)

[Deron Miller] Yeah, we all chipped in and in the end we got a little bit of money to make them and a little bit more money from this person, some of threw some in and some of it was free, some people worked for nothing and it ended up costing more than the 12 videos on-- Where'd all the money go is what I'd like to know. I mean it's just outside. It's a $150,000 video and all we were doing was playing outside. I think it's hiring someone then asking them to give the money back and then the band has to pay for it later.

[COMA] Any final words you'd like to share?

[Deron Miller] Thanks for your support if you're an old or new fan and look for the new record early next year.

CKY's newest album "An Answer Can Be Found"is out now.
Visit CKY's official website at ckyalliance.com as well as the MySpace page for Deron's other project, World Under Blood at myspace.com/worldunderblood.

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