Interview: Prophet (St. Madness)

What you see above are four guys from Arizona who don’t take themselves too seriously and sure as hell know how to rock. When you look at the picture and think “Juggalo!” then you’re damn wrong, if you think “Black Metal!” then you’re damn wrong aswell. These guys, St. Madness, play Metal the way it should be played: loud, heavy, rocking and they’re having lots of fun doing it.

Prophet, singer and lyricist of St. Madness, turned to us via our ‘Your Band’ campaign, in hopes for us to review their latest album ‘Saintanic’. The review of said album will be available next Monday, as part of the Spotlight category. But I also interviewed Prophet and you can read the interview after the jump.

Dose of Metal: First off, tell us a bit about yourself and St. Madness.

PROPHET: I personally have been in music since 1979 and METAL since 1982. Music for me is life, it’s what I live and breath. I love the creative process in writing, recording and performing music. I write the lyrics for St. Madness, and have from day one, so if there’s anything twisted in there lyrically, it’s my fault.

St. Madness (as far as the music goes), has always been a band that respects many different styles of music. Metal is our spine and our backbone, but in that itself, there’s many different kinds of metal, so we don’t want to be put in any little box. We are not any certain type of metal because we mix it all up. You will find that our records have a variety of music on them, 90% Metal of course but we write lots of different kinds of songs. We started as a band in 1993 under the band name of “CROWN OF THORNS”. We put out two albums under the “CROWN OF THORNS” name. “Loneliness Is Black” 1994 and “The Spiritual Visions Of St. Madness” 1997.

In the summer of 1997 we found out that there was a Christian band in New Jersey that had actually trade marked the name “CROWN OF THORNS” back in 1991 which was 2 years before we even started using it. We knew that there was no way that we would win the battle for the name “Crown Of Thorns” since they had already established “first usage” of the name way before we started using it. The album we had out at the time was entitled, “The Spiritual Visions Of St. Madness”. I liked the name “ST. MADNESS”, so after a search with an attorney we found out that nobody owned the trade mark on that name so I convinced the guys to change our name to “ST. MADNESS” and we now own the trade mark. In 1999 we re-issued “The Spiritual Visions Of St. Madness” album under the new name of “Spiritual Visions” re-mastered it and added a bonus track called, “When The Terror Comes”.

DoM: You’ve been around since 1993 and released five albums since, which album of these would you say features your personal favorite work?

PROPHET: We have actually released 7 full length albums since 1993 and I released my first “Solo” album in 2010.

1. “LONELINESS IS BLACK” in 1994
2. “SPIRITUAL VISIONS” in 1997 re-issued in 1999
3. “GOD BLESS AMERICA” in 1998
4. “SCARE THE WORLD” in 2000
5. “WE MAKE EVIL FUN” in 2003
6. “VAMPIRES IN THE CHURCH” in 2006
7. “SAINTANIC” in 2009

Then my solo album “THE EDGE” in 2010 by “PROPHET & THE COWBOYS OF APOCALYPSE”. “THE EDGE” is mostly acoustic and I call the music, “South Western/Country/Rock for lack of a better description of the music. I have always loved Johnny Cash – Waylon Jennings – Willie Nelson, etc so I wanted to make my own record along those lines. I think it came out better than I had hoped for. It won “Record Of The Year” by “The Phoenix Music Awards” for 2010. ST. MADNESS actually won, “Rock Artist Of The Year” as well. The award ceremony was held on Nov 18th 2010 in Hollywood, Ca at “The Paramount Theater”. It was a real honor to pick up two awards.

I am hard pressed to state a favorite album of ours because I really love them all. To me my music is from my soul and it’s how I will communicate with my friends, family and fans after I leave this world. We all have put our hearts and souls into each record.

DoM: When I first listened to ‘Saintanic,’ the first thing that came to mind was the crisp and nearly perfect production. Was it hard for you to get the sound you wanted and are you satisfied with it?

PROPHET: I am very happy with it. I co-produced most of our albums with a man named “Larry Elyea” at “Minds Eye Digital Studios” in Glendale, Arizona. Larry is a good friend and a guy I have huge amounts of respect for. He always seems to be able to achieve the sound we are looking for. Our goal always is to have a studio produced album that has a live edge to it, which we get with Larry. He knows our music and sound very well, we have been working with him since 1996.

DoM: The album features two cover songs, ‘Crazy Train’ by Ozzy Osbourne and ‘Cocaine,’ which was famously done by Eric Clapton. Why did you choose these two particular songs?

PROPHET: We like to put at least one cover song on each of our albums. It’s our way of giving tribute to our hero’s. I actually got to meet Ozzy for a brief moment and give him a copy of “SAINTANIC”. Not sure if he even listened to it but I did give him one. I bought his book and went to a book signing and he signed my book. There is a photo of it out there somewhere online. I have loved Ozzy and his music since I heard the first Sabbath record. It is awesome how our version of “Crazy Train” turned out!!!

We did the song “Cocaine” kind of our own way. To me the “Clapton” version sounds like what it is like to come down on cocaine and our version is like what it’s like to be “on” cocaine. Ha Ha We sped up the song to like 2 minutes flat. It has an aggressive, punk feel to it which I love. Again both these songs are just our way of showing love and respect to artists and songs that we admire. We are planning on putting two other covers on our next record which we plan to have out in early 2012.

DoM: For people who are not familiar with St. Madness, try to sum up your sound in 5 words.

PROPHET: METAL FOR THE NOW GENERATION.

DoM: Do guys who look like a cross of Kiss and King Diamond get groupies? You should!

PROPHET: The answer to that is YES. We do love the ladies!!! Although I am really glad that we have a mixed audience. If we ever came out onstage and there were mostly women in the audience like a”Bon Jovi” concert or something we would be seriously bummed. The guys at our concerts bring the aggression!!! Although I have seen some crazy bitches in some brutal Mosh Pits!!!

Left to Right: Heinous James (Guitar) - Prophet (Lyrics and Vocals) - SirCyko (Drums) - Devlin Lucius (Bass Guitar)

DoM: You’re playing with an image similar to that of Black Metal musicians in your artworks and appearances but obviously not meant serious. Do you do that because you like Black Metal theatrics or do you do that to make fun of it?

PROPHET: We started wearing “Face Paint” in 1995, it was our way of attacking the “Alternative” music movement that was popular in Arizona at the time. It really had nothing to do with “Black Metal” at all. In the early and mid 1990’s Arizona was filled with these “Nirvana” wanna be bands and it just made me sick. I am a fan of Nirvana’s music but many of their fans were putting down Metal music so we went even more Metal and more theatrical as a result of it. One day everyone was like “LONG LIVE METAL” and the next day it was like “Metal sucks”!!! Then when Metallica thinned out their sound and turned into posers I just wanted to vomit!!!

In the 1980’s Phoenix and the surrounding areas were like a METAL MECCA in the sense that metal bands from all over the country came here cause the scene was so good.

also to answer your question, we have total respect for DEATH and BLACK METAL. I guess the major difference between us and them though is that after all these years in music I have learned to not take myself so seriously. After all, we are entertainer’s in the entertainment business. We won’t be burning churches anytime soon. It’s important to me to keep my life in perspective and to be humble and keep my feet on the ground.

DoM: Who are your biggest influences?

PROPHET: That is a really hard question cause I personally am influenced by so many artists. OZZY – SLAYER – JUDAS PRIEST – MOTORHEAD – OLD METALLICA – JOHNNY CASH – ELVIS – AC/DC – PANTERA – BLACK LABEL SOCIETY – VENOM – DIO – THE MISFITS – EXODUS – AGNOSTIC FRONT – WILLIE NELSON – MEGADETH – IRON MAIDEN – PINK FLOYD – GUNS N ROSES – SEPULTURA – SIX FEET UNDER – DEATH – MERCIFUL FATE – DOWN – HATE BREED – WAYLON JENNINGS – DAVID ALLAN COE – DRI – JIMI HENDRIX – OLD VAN HALEN – METAL CHURCH – Just to name a few.

DoM: Who doesn’t influence you at all?

PROPHET: Justin Bieber Ha ha – I think that boy has a long hard road in front of him.

DoM: What do you have planned for the future of St. Madness?

PROPHET: In March 2011 we will begin recording our new record entitled, “CANONIZING CARNAGE”. I am very excited about the music that’s going on the new record!!! It’s some pretty killer shit!!!

Also in later March we are direct support for “Flotsam & Jetsam” on March 25th 2011 at “The Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff Arizona and then the next night we are opening for them at a place called “DV8′ in Tucson Arizona on Sat March 26th.

DoM: Have you visited doseofmetal.com and, if so, what do you think of our site? We kick major ass, don’t we?

PROPHET: Yes of course I have been there and I like how you mix up all the styles of Metal. It shows particularly the young people just how many different Metal styles there are out there. To me “All Metal is good Metal”. I really do enjoy all the different styles. Metal to me is my life blood!!!

DoM: Any last words for your readers at doseofmetal.com?

PROPHET: First of all I would like to say THANK YOU to Guido for asking me to do this interview and allowing me to talk a bit about ST. MADNESS. To all the fans of Metal Music out there I salute you!!! Keep the faith!!! “MDB” – METAL to the DEATH and BEYOND!!!