interview from shoutweb:

Everyone knows you can’t send a boy in to do a man’s job. Enter the refreshing sound of Factory 81. Although they may look like they’ve only just started shaving, these four boyish Detroit natives deliver "Mankind" and a thankful great leap it is. After working the local scene, landing a record deal, and joining the touring circuit, Factory 81 is not taking anything for granted. Shoutweb caught up with lead singer, Nate Wallace, the day after the band’s video shoot for their single "Nanu" filmed on location in their hometown.

Nate Wallace - vocals Kevin Lewis - guitars Bill Schultz - bass Andy Cyrulnick - drums

Shoutweb: How are you? How was the video shoot last night?

Nate: It was excellent. It was a lot of work but cool though. We filmed it at a place near us called The Wired Frog. It’s actually where we got our start here. It’s an all ages club and they don’t serve alcohol. It’s like a coffeehouse but they sell other things besides coffee. It’s a really cool place for kids to hang out and see shows. It helped us out a lot when we were trying to build a fan base here in Detroit. Especially drawing in the all ages crowd, that’s what did it for us. It was cool. They set up all the cameras and all the lighting and everything. There were people waiting out there all day.

Shoutweb: I heard the doors were opening at four?

Nate: Yeah, but they didn’t let people in until five. People were also under the assumption that we were going to let some people in at one point, and that was the plan but you know how things like that go.

Shoutweb: Right.

Nate: It didn’t work out exactly like we had expected. Everyone was really patient. I went out and took the pizzas that they had bought for the crew and I started giving it away to the fans waiting outside.

Shoutweb: You have to put that in the video!

Nate: The director was out there filming so I don’t know if he got that for the video or just for his own sake. I just thought it was really cool how everyone was waiting so patiently. I can see how you could get frustrated waiting out there for hours. We were getting frustrated just sitting there for hours shooting all of our own stuff. It was cool though because after we got done filming the video we ran through some songs for everybody and jammed out for a while. There’s a local radio station called 89X in Detroit. We’ve been on "people’s choice" the last few nights in a row.

Shoutweb: I saw that on the messageboard. All the fans are saying, "You have to keep voting on 89X! Make sure they stay number one!"

Nate: That’s so cool because we were all there last night and they were playing it through the speakers at the club. People were in there and we were all listening to it. Somebody called in from the club. I was going to do it myself but somebody beat me to it. They’ll take more than one vote when you call in. The night before they took eighteen votes from some kid calling in with his soccer team. So we voted 263 votes!

Shoutweb: That is too funny!

Nate: Yeah, we’re the champions now. I’m sure we’ll get knocked out some time soon. We had a lot of fun yesterday. It was a lot of work and really tiring too though.

Shoutweb: I was about to ask - how is your voice doing?

Nate: It’s not too bad. Most of it was lip-synching.

Shoutweb: Can you do that to that song? Don’t you need the veins popping out of your neck?

Nate: Yeah, you can’t really lip synch. They wouldn’t shoot all of us the whole time. Sometimes they would shoot mainly Kevin or mainly Bill or whoever they needed and during those times I would just stand there and look at our drummer and goof around but still keep moving around so they could get me in the shot. It was fun but a lot of work. I’m glad it’s over.

Shoutweb: It amazes me with these things that they shoot all day but I guess they need the material to choose from when they’re editing it down.

Nate: They figure if we shoot twelve hours of video for a three minute song then chances are that we’re going to capture some really cool moments. The day before we were out on location doing stuff in the Detroit area in the warehouse district and the downtown area. A lot of the ideas for the video, the director and I worked hand in hand on. I came up with a lot of ideas and he came back with a lot of ideas. We just kind of fed off each other. We didn’t have a huge budget for it but it was cool that we got to do it. I’ve been bugging the guy from our marketing team for a while saying, "I want to do a video. Please let us do a low budget video. Please! Please! Please!"

Shoutweb: You got your wish.

Nate: I did. That was really cool of them to let us do that. They didn’t want to do anything like this for a while. They wanted to hold off until after the new year to start making plans for something like that. I kept saying, "Come on, man. We gotta do it! We gotta hit the ground running!" I don’t know if it will end up being played on MTV or anything but hopefully it will. I would like to see it on MTV just for all the people who put the work into it. I can’t wait to see it when it’s fully done.

Shoutweb: If they have the same voting rules as 89X does then it shouldn’t be a problem!

Nate: It’s not the most marketable song on our album but it’s definitely one of the most intense. We wanted to do something we could pride ourselves on. We have a bunch of songs that are heavy but they’re more radio friendly. They’re not so much the full force aggression.

Shoutweb: This is "Nanu" as in "nanu, nanu"?

Nate: Yeah! It’s so funny because I was really about nanu technology. They have really tiny, microscopic robots they put in people’s bloodstream. I was watching a TV program about it one day a long time ago. It’s not even related to the song. I just thought it was really neat. It just reminded me of "Mork and Mindy" and "nanu, nanu".

Shoutweb: You guys have a lot of stuff going on in your songs.

Nate: It’s one of the things about our music. We all like different styles of music. I, myself, like many, many different styles of music. I could tell you all day about all the different stuff I like to listen to. We see this style that is kind of new. It’s still developing. Nobody’s really taken it and made it really dynamic and made hooks and made it something people could identify with and attach themselves to.

Shoutweb: I know that as an artist, you have a vision. I’m not a musician so I can appreciate only as a listener.

Nate: There are songs we can make really, really simple. We could go verse/chorus, verse/chorus, verse/chorus. That’s pretty much the most simple song structure you can come up with. But we like to add more dynamics to it. Maybe we’ll change the second verse a little bit to give something new and maybe add a build vocally or with the drums. Adding little flares and things here and there make it develop into the song. It’s something a musician can appreciate but at the same time it’s not so complicated that an average listener can still appreciate it too. I’ve heard bands that were so crazy and so dynamic that I appreciated them but people that aren’t really musicians don’t really understand or appreciate it.

Shoutweb: I think I’m in that second half! I like the way the guitar starts off at the start of the record. When "Nanu" starts out it really hits you as the first track and you know you’re in for something more.

Nate: I was kind of arguing a little bit with the idea first came out about pushing that song to radio and pushing that song for the sake of video or whatever. It’s the first track on the album so when it first starts out it begins kind of mellow but you can kind of tell that it’s going to move itself into something. The riffs are so heavy and it’s just a perfect introduction that carries you through the rest of the album.

Shoutweb: Even within that one song, the range of things that you guys get into are so varied that you know that the rest of the album is going to have more good stuff. When I first heard it I could tell that the rest of the album was going to be great because I kept thinking, "you can tell they’re not done!"

Nate: I didn’t want to give that song away right away. I wanted to hold off because I’d rather people not hear that song and then they put it in their CD player and they just hear how it starts off and it carries that energy for the rest of the album. Then I started thinking, "You know what? I’m confident in all our music." So I’m not thinking that that one song is going to make the whole album. I would hope that people listen to it and like it all. We had a really unique opportunity with this album because it’s already been out for like a year around here because it was local. It’s almost like Detroit is our guinea pig. We got to see how things work and what songs people really like. We haven’t heard anybody say, "we don’t like this song" to anything. I notice that a lot of girl’s like "3 O’Clock Love Letter" a lot.

Shoutweb: Yup! I have that one marked down here along with "14 Left", "Belligerence", and "Peace Officer".

Nate: You know what’s weird is sometimes I change my mind about what songs I like. I don’t listen to our music like I would listen to someone else’s. Last night my girlfriend asked me to sing something from one of our songs and I was like, "uh… no". I always like to sing. I like to sing when I drive and anywhere. I just love singing. Lately, I’ve been getting into gospel.

Shoutweb: Really? Why gospel?

Nate: I’ve always kind of been into gospel. Over the last year I’ve gotten more into it. Before I always had the control – you know how they sing (imitates a gospel singer "nah, nah" sound) – how they bend the notes and stuff like that? Kind of like Fiona Apple or Lauryn Hill – the way they carry the control that they have. I’ve always been able to do that and had that control vocally because when I started out I was doing blues but I always sounded like a white guy. I’ve been getting more gritty and dirty with it over the last year singing. I hope to record some of that on the next album because I think it would be really unique. A lot of our newer material has a little bit of that.

Shoutweb: Weren’t you going to add some of the newer stuff to this record?

Nate: We had an option of taking one of the new songs and putting it on the record but we decided against it. The body of work fits together so well. We like the feel of the album. We didn’t want to throw something new in there. We’d rather save what we have. The new stuff we’ve written is like a new chapter in our lives and we’d rather save that for the next book or however you want to put it. We did put the remix version of "Peace Officer" on there though. Do you have the record?

Shoutweb: That remix is awesome! I have the advance copy without the artwork. Tell me about that a little. I checked it out on the new web site that rocks by the way! Is that album cover Chinese? I see the Rat, the Dog, and everything. I saw that one shot of you where you apparently painted yourself all over with Chinese symbols and other things.

Nate: Yeah, I like to change my look a lot. I always mess with my hair too.

Shoutweb: I noticed that. When I first met you guys I was like, "okay, so where is the lead singer?" Then I realized you were standing right next to me.

Nate: It’s so funny because I’ll see kids talking to our guitar player or our bass player and they’ll say to them, "Oh my God! You guys are so great! If you get a chance, can you tell your lead singer…" and I’m standing right there in front of them. Then they go, "Oh… oh… OH! Hey! What’s up?!" One day I was at the movie theater near my house and there was this kid wearing my T-shirt. Usually I don’t make it a point to do this but this time I said to the kid, "Hey, nice shirt, man!" He turned around and he looked at me like he wanted to kick my butt. He stopped and I said, "Yeah, that’s my band." Then he was cool about it but at first he thought I was making fun of his shirt.

Shoutweb: I saw a lot of kids with "Factory 81" T-shirts. I went into the girls’ bathroom and there were all these girls with red "Factory 81" T-shirts on. Taproot was playing that night.

Nate: Taproot are good friends of ours.

Shoutweb: I noticed on their CD that they have a video of them playing a live show and there is a "Factory 81" banner in the back.

Nate: There was some confusion about that show. They didn’t know that film was going to be used for that. They called us up and we’re like, "Man, we’re so sorry. If we would have known we would have done it in our hometown and not in front of your fans. We don’t want people to get the impression that all these people were there for us. We could have drawn like that in our hometown." We were cool with it. It doesn’t matter. A lot of their fans are our fans too. That’s what’s cool about them. We’ve played showed with them in Ann Arbor opening for them and they come out to Detroit and they open up for us. It’s just the nature of the draw. We really want to get a chance to tour with those guys. We’ve been good friends for a while.

Shoutweb: So you have an in-store today and then what?

Nate: Yeah, it’s about a ten-minute walk from my house. Then we’re starting a tour right before the CD comes out. Glassjaw is opening up for us. I was really excited to hear that. Before we even got the tour they were asking us, "How do you guys feel about Glassjaw?" We were like, "WHAT? Are they headlining?" They were saying, "No, you’re the headliner." Then we said, "WHAT? Are you sure about this?" We are so excited. Kevin has their CD so we had been listening to it. They’re cool. They’re all straightedge too so they can keep us in line.

Shoutweb: I know Relative Ash are huge fans of Factory 81 too.

Nate: We’re huge fans of theirs too. We had a lot of fun touring with those guys. They’re really good guys.

Shoutweb: I was doing a photo shoot with them and they all had Factory 81 jackets on!

Nate: It was funny because the drummer, John, came up to me and said, "You gotta give me one of those jackets before Marcus gets one." Marcus wears his on stage and his is all ripped up so I planned on replacing his jacket.

Shoutweb: So I have to ask about the symbol in the middle of the CD artwork. Is that Chinese as well?

Nate: No, that’s Japanese actually. I found it at a Chinese restaurant though. This was after we had a bunch of different concepts that we couldn’t all agree on. I had seen this symbol when I was fifteen years old and I had always been partial to it. I had saved it and brought it in to show the guys. I had thought about it for years of maybe getting a tattoo. I have it tattooed on me now.

Shoutweb: Dare I ask where?

Nate: On my chest. The original name of the album was "Man King" but the printer sent it back with a mistake and printed it as "Mankind". We ended up liking that title more. It fits the theme because that symbol encompasses everyone. A lot of my causes are social and political. I don’t get too political but political on a level where I myself can understand.

Shoutweb: Like "Peace Officer"?

Nate: It’s not like Rage Against The Machine where I’m reading lots of books or educating myself on politics. I just comment on the things I see just from living in America and living in a suburban city or urban area. I understand that and I know other kids can identify with that. I don’t want to get too crazy with politics because I don’t want to speak on a level where people can’t understand. I don’t want to preach either. Sometimes people who get into politics become a little bit preachy. I’d rather just express myself and get my ideas across without saying "you have to follow this way." Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Those are just my opinions.

Shoutweb: So why is that symbol in the middle Japanese if the zodiac thing is Chinese?

Nate: The Japanese symbol translate to "chaos". It means something different than what we think of as chaos. We think of it in the form of destruction. But what they refer to with the symbol is that you have this chaos of ideas and energy and matter throughout the universe and they all come together to form something genius. I just really like that. I think it’s a beautiful way of looking at how we’re living.

Shoutweb: And explain to me why you paint yourself.

Nate: A few years ago I used to do that a lot for shows. I’ve always been a little into performance art too. I like to mix a little bit of that in there. I’ve always been into art myself. I worked at a commercial art place for a while. I liked painting myself up and getting into a little bit of a different character on stage. As time went on I felt like it was more of a truer version of myself instead of trying to be a character.

Shoutweb: The web site is official launched. Did you get involved with the artwork on there?

Nate: Actually, there’s a guy who took care of all of that stuff for us from Universal. We chose the photos and the artwork and approved it all. Up until now, our guitar player Bill did the web site we had originally. He’s been doing that stuff for years and he’s gotten really good at it. We’ve all had ideas but he’s the one that’s done a lot of really good things for us. The guy who did the new web site at .com (http://www.factory81.com) was really impressed with Bill’s work too (http://www.factory81.net).

Shoutweb: The "Peace Officer (Black & Blue Remix)" is going to be part of a video game?

Nate: Yeah, that’s going to be on the "Winter X Games" for Playstation II. That’s really exciting.

Shoutweb: I put the CD in when I first got it and it showed up as "81" on the CD player. I thought that was wicked! Then I found out that there are physically 81 tracks on there!

Nate: Yeah, track 81 is the hidden track.

Shoutweb: It’s this hip-hop thing.

Nate: It’s pretty much improv'd. We improved it n the studio. Me, Andy and Kevin have always had the beat and the bass line. When we were practicing we would always start with a bass line and Andy would start with a beat and I would just freestyle something over it. We were in the studio and we started jamming it and Bill picked up and just started jamming some stuff over it and I just started laying down some freestyle. We pretty much liked the idea of putting it down as a hidden track. We had Butterfingers come in and did some scratch on "Cheese Wheel". We were playing it for him and he liked the song. He was saying, "I could totally rip something off of this." So we let him at it. That one turned out really good. I was really happy with that. It’s kind of funny too because we get requests for that when we play shows. When we first started getting requests for it we didn’t know what to do. Everyone was like, "What are you going to sing?" I told them, "I do the same thing I always do and freestyle something over it." I just have to explain to people before we do it that the original was all improv. I like it because I have freedom there. I’ve always kind of been an improv artist myself. Originally, when I first started playing I was doing folk and blues and grunge. I’ve always just kind of improv’d it.

Shoutweb: You come across as more of an artist type personality.

Nate: I don’t try to fight anything. I just do whatever feels natural. You get stuck into a groove sometimes or you get writer’s block if you want to call it that. I just play it through. If that’s the only thing I can think of singing I’ll just keep singing it until something else hits me.

Shoutweb: So tell me about Factory 81’s contribution to the "Take a Bite Outta Rhyme: A Rock Tribute to Rap." You did a cover of Cypress Hill's, "Insane in the Brain", right?

Nate: The president of Universal - Universal works with Republic Records – said that they were doing this compilation type thing and he liked our CD. He called our A&R guy and said, "Hey, we have this compilation that is going to be like a tribute to old school hip hop and we think your guys would be perfect for it." We had a few other ideas on songs that we wanted to do. All of them got shot down. We wanted to do some Beastie Boys originally. Andy is a huge Cypress Hill fan. I was surprised when they approved that because it wasn’t exactly old school. We would have asked to do it sooner if we thought they would approve it! We basically had a week to put the song together. The original version isn’t too complex. That’s how hip-hop is, relatively simple. You got the beat and then you got the rhymes and then whatever samples they throw in. I ripped it out. We changed the chorus a little bit because I wanted to make it more intense I guess. I think for having a week to do it and a day in the studio we did a fairly decent job. I wouldn’t say it’s our best work but I definitely think it worked out pretty well. If you listen to it the first verse isn’t really strong. My rapping isn’t really strong. I’ll be honest. I never really knew the lyrics to it and it kind of sound like I’m reading off a lyric sheet. We’re excited about that coming out.

Shoutweb: When does that come out?

Nate: I don’t know when that is exactly because I’m terrible with dates. People asking me when we’re on the road "where are you playing next?" I never know the answer! The only date I knew was when we were playing in New York because I love New York.

Shoutweb: Have you been here before?

Nate: I’ve been there three times. I went there for New Year’s Eve. A friend of mine and I just drove out there and then we slept in the car. I just love New York although I don’t think I could live there for long because I’m a nature boy. I like to get out in the woods. I live fifteen minutes outside of Detroit and even though it’s not the city it’s getting to be like I feel even I’m too close to the city. I love going into downtown Detroit and hanging out because there’s so many cool clubs but as far as living I personally would like to get farther North.

Shoutweb: New York seemed to love you. I was at the CBGB’s show and they ate you guys up there.

Nate: That was fun. That’s my new favorite place to play! I love it. It’s so dirty and grimy there. Isn’t it great?

Shoutweb: Of course I had seen you in Worcester, Massachusetts at the Palladium a few nights before I saw you at CBGB’s and what a difference a few nights make!

Nate: It was funny because we were the only ones on the tour who were looking forward to playing there. Everyone was like, "Oh, I hate CBGB’s. You guys are going to hate it so much!" I feel in love as soon as I walked in there. I was like, "Man, this is the dirty shithole I’ve ever been to – I love it!"

Shoutweb: The Worcester show was a rough one for you.

Nate: I was really frustrated. I was having a really bad show for some reason. I would normally just play it out. When the monitors suck for me then I have so much trouble. I need to hear what the guitar is doing so I can follow it. I’m not formally educated in music. The only music I’ve ever studied is the CDs that I’ve had. I can’t even tell you what true "E" sounds like. I don’t even know what the notes are. I need to follow the guitar and it’s really confusing when I can’t hear that and I can’t hear myself either. You can ask anybody on that tour. The best way to blow out your voice is to not have good monitors. You try to push harder to hear yourself and it really throws you off.

Shoutweb: You sing louder so you can hear yourself louder through the monitor.

Nate: I was frustrating because I kept saying to the sound guy "I need to hear more vocals" and "I need to hear more guitar". I was getting tons and tons of feedback and I had to stand in this one spot but in that one spot all I could hear were the vocals. That taught me a lesson though because I acted a little unprofessional. I should have acted a little more professional about it. That’s not something I really pride myself on. We had been doing 20-minute sets that whole tour. We had a chance to play a longer set and I just forfeited our last ten minutes. I got a lot of hell from the other guys in my band.

Shoutweb: You’re also in a van on tour. How is that?

Nate: I’m used to it now. It’s kind of cool in some ways. Sometimes I think it would be sweet to have a bus. At the level we’re at I’d rather have the van because we get a hotel room every night. If you have a bus you usually don’t get the hotel room. I wouldn’t say I’m the most hygienic person. I mean, I sometimes where the same clothes a few days in a row and I neglect to take a shower on occasion. It’s nice to have a hotel room and have the option of taking a shower.

Shoutweb: I was glad that you played "14 Left" at CBGB’s because it’s my favorite song.

Nate: It’s our favorite song to end with actually. It’s very bouncy.

Shoutweb: It’s very melodic.

Nate: A lot of our songs are dark and heavy. This one kind of has a bounce to it. It’s a little different from everything else we do. It feels good to play. Not that our other stuff isn’t but this one makes me a little happy.

Shoutweb: I almost feel like you’re Tigger about to pounce. It’s kind of like the action sequence at the start of a movie when you’re anticipating something.

Nate: I never thought of that.

Shoutweb: What does the title "14 Left" mean?

Nate: The song itself is about tribal genocide – not only the Native Americans but also the Celts. The title has to do with the last 14 feathers left in the circle.

Shoutweb: The CD is multimedia as well?

Nate: Yes, it’s got the "Nanu" on it and live footage from the last two years.

Shoutweb: Who is "Diary of a Serial Killer" about?

Nate: It’s about myself. It’s two different sides of me I guess and I refer to that. The first verse if spoken word. The second verse is me addressing my audience more or less. I say, "If I stood before you with my face deformed you would turn and laugh now. It wouldn’t matter that I am alive." "I can see how fake you all are. I dare you to turn back now and see me for what I have locked inside." To me it seems like – and this isn’t true of everybody and I’m not referring to all of our audience but to a degree there are people out there that will listen to something because other people are saying, "this is good". They should listen to it because they feel it’s good. If I looked hideous then I don’t think people would be listening to our music but because I’m a normal looking person they will. That’s what I’m talking about. You need to be able to appreciate the art that I have to give and not necessarily judge the face that goes with the art. It’s about the expression and not necessarily the image.

Shoutweb: I get that a lot because many bands who are pushing the idea that they are accepting of everyone and you can’t judge people then turn around and judge me because I don’t have tattoos or piercing or I look like a middle class white bread girl. It’s sort of reverse discrimination.

Nate: I know what you mean. You try to fight to have people accept you for who you are and yet you will turn around and reject others for how they are. It does go both ways. I grew up pretty much my whole life poor and it helps when you make friends with people who you might consider rich. I will admit that I did have a prejudice towards rich people because I was young and stupid. The one neat thing about this line of work is that you gain an awareness of different people. You think of yourself as such a different person and you say to yourself "look at me, I’m so different". It’s totally wrong and I see my level of ignorance now. I’ve learned a lot just being able to experience being around these people. When you’re forced to be with these people then you learn a lot.

Shoutweb: You also learn about having to compromise yourself and figuring out what things you are not willing to compromise and where those lines in your character are drawn, if at all. Fans peg certain artists saying, "oh, they sold out" and I think it’s all about staying true to yourself – not how much money you make or how big a draw you have.

Nate: No matter what I always remind myself that I’m just a human being and I’m just as weak and fragile as anybody else. What I do doesn’t make me any better than anybody else. That would make me exactly what I thought of the whole time. These things that I wrote about and things I believed in so strongly for so long. I’m equal to everybody. Everybody in this world has been given different attributes and whether you’re better at math or excel in one thing doesn’t matter. Some people are more intellectual than other people are and that doesn’t mean that they’re better than anybody else is by any means. I meet people that I don’t feel are as strong mentally as me but I know that they have things about them that are just as beautiful as the things I’m capable of.

Shoutweb: Where did you get that?

Nate: I don’t consider myself Christian but I was raised in a Christian family. My parents have always taught me to be against racism and other things. I’ve always learned to help other people that need help. I guess that comes from how much crap I got in school. I got treated really poorly in school. People were really mean to me. I got made fun of a lot because I didn’t have money. I always believed in myself and knew I was capable of something better than what I was doing. I never really got good grades in school. I was always hearing stuff about how stupid I was. I started believing that for a while. A few people opened up my eyes and made me realize that I was as dumb as I thought I was. I would never put someone in a situation where they’re someone that they’re not and lower themselves and break them down. It’s not right. People need to find where they are and where they’re centered and what makes them happy. Usually that’s when people excel, when they find something that they love. When people are truly happy, they find the motivation to great things. I feel strongly that if you believe in yourself then you can accomplish a lot. As far as conceitedness, there’s no place for that for what I do. There are bands that I have seen that mistreat their fans. The kind of person that I am just can’t identify with that. I’m humbled by the fact that people come out to see us play. It feels overwhelming to me that some people turn that over into something to make themselves feel better. I am just amazed that people like what I’m doing.

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