Interview with Chris Barnes

Six Feet Under have recently released their second full length CD entitled "Warpath". I had the chance to talk with vocalist
Chris Barnes about the current album and a lot of other things...

Before starting off, I want to apologize for missing our last appointment for the interview...

Oh, never mind that... I skipped out of a couple of them last week myself, so that was my payback...

How do you feel about the album as a whole?

I think it is the best thing I have ever written lyric wise and I am really happy with everything on that album. It's the type of
music I want to listen to myself. I think it is almost the only record that I have done that I can listen to myself...

What caused the changes from the first album to the new one? I feel like that there are a lot more melodies (ieks!)
on this album than on the first one...

I can't give you any specific reason... It's just emotional difference from year to year... Personally I feel a lot different today than
I did six or three years ago... I more reflected on my own personal thoughts and life and stuff... And as for the music, I think
that Allen [West] wrote the stuff that made him happy too...

And the vocals?

I think it's a natural thing... I felt more comfortable with it and the lyrics are complemented by it, and trying to make it more
interesting for me as a vocalist. Also I am singing some quite different rhythms on this album, so I had to kind of complement
those...

And, happy with the results?

Oh yeah! I am really happy with how everything worked out and I was really comfortable in the studio and it was really a good
experience for me.

The lyrics on this album seem a bit more personal than on the first album.

Yeah, a bit less fiction and a bit more reality. Basically the reality of the hypocrisy that we're all living in nowadays. Why certain
things are legal and certain thing aren't legal. And how certain ways of life are looked against in their societies and other ways
are accepted. And it's due to propaganda that we've been fed during decades and centuries... And I just look at the more basic
things in live, the more natural ways and giving back to the earth and such... Natural solutions to things that could have been
solved decades ago and are basically let go on because the people in power are just ruled by money and big business and it's
time for us to wake up before it's too late. But that's not usually how things happen... It's usually too late before people wake
up and realise that they've fucked things up, like they did in Mexico city where they wrecked the environment there... There had
to be children aged 4 or 5 who were dying because of the pollution before they limited automobile-use... That all fine and
dandy but they had a fricking combustion engine that could run on water for the last thirty or forty years now and that hasn't
been used up to now because of the power of the petrolium-industries and stuff. And money basically dictates our lives, and it's
more important than people's lives really...

But what are the reasons for those changes in the ideas behind your lyrics? I mean, the lyrics you wrote in the past
are quite different from the ones you are writing on this new album.

Yeah, in a way I guess they are more different, but at that point in my life, a lot of that Cannibal Corpse stuff was how I was
feeling at the time. I wanted to write fiction. I was on a quest for the ultimate horror and disgust and stuff. That really interested
me, not to say that that doesn't interest me anymore, but there's a lot more on my mind nowadays and if I am in such a position
where a lot of people are picking up my stuff, then the stuff I write, I want it to have some kind of meaning. For myself first of
all, and maybe some people out there feel the same way, and maybe it will bring us a bit more together.
I can't critizise people for wanting modern conveniences in their lives and people can't citizise me for wanting to smoke a joint
instead of drinking a beer...



How did Six Feet Under get founded a couple of years ago?

It was just like Allen West called me up, this was in 1993 and I was just finishing up on writing lyrics for "The Bleeding", and he
gave me a call and said he had written a couple of songs and he had put them down on four-tracks and he wanted to put a
project together for a while and he asked me if I was interested. So I asked him to send over the tapes and I would check it
out... So he send me a couple of songs and one of them was "Lycanthropy" and I thought it was really cool... So I called him
and said "Yes, let's do something together". So we demoed a couple of songs on 4-track, and we used a drum machine to put
it together. And when I came back after a tour with Cannibal Corpse Allen had a full band sitting there with Terry and Greg, so
we entered the garage and started jamming with these boys and it sounded really good, and we just went into the studio three
months later.

The first album was written mostly in jamming, as you just told, but has that changed for the new album?

Well, the first album was written without a band and only two or three songs were actually written with a full band, and the rest
was demoed on 4-track with a drum machine. And we still work that way. Allen still writes most of the riffs and sets them
down and sets the beats to it, but some songs were done differently. Like I was driving home from practise one night and I had
a whole shitload of lyrics coming into my mind and I was actually writing while I was driving... It was just a short riff that Allen
slightly played at practise that night, and I basically structured a whole song around that riff. And the night after I said "I wrote a
fucking song on that riff you played yesterday!" And since I can't play guitar I had to try to explain what part I meant, and they
thought I was nuts for a while, but eventually that song turned into "A Journey Into Darkness"...

On the first album the band was promoted with "Ex-Death, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary members!", do you think
this has changed and you are seen as a real band now?

Slightly, but people still label us by what we have done. And that's cool by me because I am proud of what I have done in the
past and I would be more upset if people didn't remember who the fuck I was, you know...

What was the reason behind the release of the "Live and Death" EP?

Yeah, we really did get a lot of questions from people asking why would we release a live album after we only did one album,
but part of the reason for it was that there were a lot of bootlegs of liveshows we did out, and they all sounded like shit... So it
was basically to document that whole set of tours we did to support the first album.

What are the plans for the upcoming tours?

There is a tour being planned for the middle of October in Europe that will last until the middle of November. We're going to
set up a US tour for after the new year, and I'm sure we'll be back in Europe during the Easter period for the festivals
hopefully...

Any last thoughts?

Well, thanks for the interview man, and thanks for the support from everybody, and we'll see you on the Warpath!


Interviewer: Mjollnir