Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 860 - Billy Graziadei (Biohazard) on New Album Divided We Fall — Out Now

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 860 - Billy Graziadei (Biohazard) on New Album Divided We Fall — Out Now · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  So there's a lot of things that brought me back to that era, but
• 0:03
  having that say to me, listen, just forget everything that you
• 0:06
  learned Be the dude back then. And it's kind of like you're you
• 0:10
  are the root. But a lot of bands get covered
• 0:12
  up with all this on top of it. You just got to figure out how
• 0:15
  to get rid of that and just strip back to who you really
• 0:18
  are. And I think we divided, we fall,
• 0:19
  we did it. What's up,
• 0:27
  everybodyitskefi@ghostcoltman.com Good morning to you, Billy Bio.
• 0:32
  We're here to talk about the new biohazard record, the comeback
• 0:35
  of the classic lineup. How are you doing today?
• 0:37
  I'm doing Goodman, thanks for having me.
• 0:38
  Brother yeah, man, always, always a pleasure this I feel
• 0:41
  like we've been on this journey together.
• 0:43
  You hit me up that the this was happening and we were, you know,
• 0:46
  hopefully as supportive, as positive, you know as possible
• 0:49
  of all your other projects leading back to this and
• 0:51
  hopefully there will be more in the future.
• 0:54
  The only record this year that I pre-ordered the day it went live
• 0:58
  was this record Divided We Fall. I did not pre.
• 1:02
  I, you know, records get sent to me.
• 1:04
  I'm appreciative, I'm grateful. I've been doing this a long
• 1:06
  time. But I was like, Nope, I'm buying
• 1:09
  this one, let's do it. Let's go, let's fucking go.
• 1:12
  This has been so good. I can't go, Yeah.
• 1:15
  Let's fucking go. I can't wait for everybody to
• 1:17
  hear this record, man. Yeah, me too.
• 1:19
  It's been a while in the making. For real.
• 1:22
  For real. And yeah, man, so much to
• 1:25
  unpack, but here's a place I wanted to start as a as a band
• 1:29
  kind of coming back together and, you know, new label, a lot
• 1:33
  of new things pushing forward. I love that you guys work with
• 1:37
  Matt Hyde. I don't recall if you worked
• 1:40
  with him before, but knowing knowing that you guys have all
• 1:43
  made other records. You are, you know, well known
• 1:45
  and respected producer. Was it important for you to kind
• 1:49
  of turn the keys over to someone else so you don't have to handle
• 1:52
  that? You know, what was that like for
• 1:53
  you and the rest of the the guys who you know how to make a
• 1:56
  biohazard record and you know what biohazard sound is supposed
• 1:59
  to sound like? So Matt, who's a legend, right?
• 2:01
  And his, you know, Slayer, like that's all you got to say for
• 2:04
  Matt Hyde. But his resume is miles long.
• 2:06
  What was it like for you to kind of like seed that you know
• 2:09
  responsibility to him? We're with Matt Hyde.
• 2:12
  It was it was not just an Otter. It was great.
• 2:14
  He we sat down with him. You always talk about the
• 2:17
  records that you like that he did.
• 2:18
  But the common thing I saw was that he helped bring the band
• 2:21
  back to certain moments where they were more, where they made
• 2:27
  records that resonated more with their audience.
• 2:29
  And I love that about him obviously being what he did with
• 2:34
  Bio, as was he said to me, listen, I love power flow.
• 2:37
  He Matt Hyde actually did the first demos of Cypress Hill.
• 2:42
  He told me he has he recorded the first demos, which I was
• 2:46
  weird because I thought Mugs was the guy, but he said, I love
• 2:49
  what you do with power flow. I love what you do with Billy
• 2:51
  Bio and it's great. I would love to work with you as
• 2:54
  a solo artist, but we're doing Biohazard and I don't need you.
• 2:58
  I don't want you to be Billy Biohazard in 2023.
• 3:01
  I need you to be take yourself back to 1993 when you guys made
• 3:06
  music that fucking resonated. That was the era of Biohazard
• 3:09
  and it was an awesome time for us.
• 3:12
  But I looked at him, I'm like, and I'm like, but why?
• 3:14
  I, I, I became so much better. I grew a lot as a songwriter, as
• 3:19
  a singer, as a player. And he said, yeah, but you learn
• 3:22
  so much stuff. And.
• 3:23
  And for me as an artist, I always tried to write you kind
• 3:27
  of like, I'll do what you did yesterday.
• 3:29
  That's my goal in life. I always want to be a better
• 3:31
  version of myself, better songwriter, better singer,
• 3:34
  better lyricist, all these things.
• 3:37
  And he's kind of looked at me and he said, yeah, that's cool.
• 3:40
  And that's what I like what you do now, but we're trying to make
• 3:43
  a fucking classic biology record and we are still, we're still
• 3:46
  writing. He goes, that's what you guys
• 3:48
  did best. Then he goes, you, that's your
• 3:51
  roots. That's what you're all about.
• 3:53
  Just go back to that. And I, bro, I threw away keeping
• 3:57
  my vocal warmups, my guitar warmups, I everything that I
• 4:00
  learned since then that to make me a better version of myself, I
• 4:04
  think I got rid of, I stopped worrying about it.
• 4:07
  I didn't let that bother me and I just went in, sang cold,
• 4:11
  walked off the street saying in a fucking small little look like
• 4:14
  a closet like we did back in, you know, even urban discipline.
• 4:17
  We recorded warm tears. It was Lower East Side in in a
• 4:22
  in his basement and his vocal booth was in the corner.
• 4:25
  Same thing with Matt. So there's a lot of things that
• 4:27
  brought me back to that era. But having Matt say to me,
• 4:31
  listen, just forget everything that you learned be the dude
• 4:34
  back then. And it's kind of like you're you
• 4:36
  are the root. A lot of bands get covered up
• 4:39
  with all this shit on top of it. You just got to figure out how
• 4:41
  to get rid of that and just strip back to who you really
• 4:44
  are. And I think with Divided We
• 4:46
  Fall. We did it.
• 4:47
  That's amazing. I'm so thank you for unpacking
• 4:49
  all that. And yeah, like I said, Matt, I
• 4:51
  knew Matt was going when I saw Matt's name, I was like, Oh my
• 4:53
  goodness, this is this is going to be epic.
• 4:55
  And you know, congratulations. I've been very impressed so far
• 4:59
  with black to black. I think most people don't
• 5:02
  recognize that it's a, it's a new label, but run by
• 5:06
  experienced people. It's a sub label of Frontiers.
• 5:09
  SRL is a label we do a lot of work with.
• 5:11
  Progressive rock, heavy metal, some huge names, some small
• 5:14
  names. But between Biohazard and
• 5:17
  Megadeth, no, no small feat to be putting out two, you know,
• 5:21
  huge albums by two of the biggest bands ever in metal.
• 5:24
  So not too bad, not too shabby. And you know, what's that like?
• 5:29
  Bit, you know, I tell people all the time, like changing record
• 5:31
  labels, it's like the same thing as going to a new job.
• 5:33
  The only way you really ever get a raise in the music industry is
• 5:36
  to get a new job, and that's going to a new label mostly.
• 5:39
  So, you know, what is that experience been like for the
• 5:41
  band? I think.
• 5:42
  I think Black Black is similar to Roadrunner records.
• 5:47
  They back then when we did, we did a couple records on
• 5:49
  Roadrunner. The record label had people who
• 5:53
  were more interested in that fact that they got free tickets
• 5:55
  to the concert on Friday night with the band that's on the
• 5:58
  label than they were about making money.
• 6:00
  So their heart was in it. And that's that was an awesome
• 6:03
  experience. Met a lot of great people along
• 6:05
  the way. Different labels, Black to Black
• 6:08
  has that similar energy. So that was important to us.
• 6:11
  It's great to be on working with people that kind of feel what
• 6:14
  you do and on the same page. It's very rare actually, the
• 6:18
  different bands that I talked to that feel like aliens sometimes
• 6:23
  in that, you know, like the green beam down to Earth to do
• 6:25
  our record and then nobody know, you know, nobody.
• 6:28
  They don't get it. So like, I'm so glad to hear
• 6:30
  that. Yeah, Lucky.
• 6:32
  And then again, you know, obviously, like we've talked a
• 6:34
  bit before about this coming and I've seen you guys live a bunch
• 6:38
  of Times Now since you've been back.
• 6:39
  You know, I just I totally feel that old school vibe.
• 6:42
  The old school buyer has a vibe. Not that, you know, again, I
• 6:45
  love things like means to an end and uncivilization just had an
• 6:49
  anniversary and I love those records and they're brutal and
• 6:52
  killer and there's a lot of good, you know, songwriting
• 6:55
  there and and performances. But like, this does feel like,
• 6:58
  you know, with Evan coming back, was it like, you know, old hat
• 7:01
  for you guys to just kind of, you know, get back in a room and
• 7:04
  write together and bring in songs?
• 7:05
  How was that? I think the important element of
• 7:08
  Divide We Fall, besides the fact Matt kind of helped bring us
• 7:11
  back to the 90s just with our focus and and help strip away
• 7:16
  some of the things that we learned over the years.
• 7:18
  Being on tour with the guys and playing all those classic
• 7:20
  Byrider songs, Shades of Grey, Urban Discipline, Punishment.
• 7:23
  Every night on tour for a couple years, That live energy in that
• 7:27
  era of the band was flowing through our veins.
• 7:29
  So everything just seemed to come together at once and that
• 7:32
  brought out some great moments. One of our proudest records.
• 7:36
  And it's great to be able to look at records like Urban
• 7:39
  Discipline or Standard Weather, Dress and Divide, We Fall.
• 7:41
  It feels like it fits right there.
• 7:43
  I'd love Mata Layout, I love everything that we've created
• 7:46
  and released. But there's certain records that
• 7:48
  seemed that we were on the top of our game, that we're all in
• 7:52
  the same spot, making, you know, this, this great collection of
• 7:55
  songs and pulling them together to make a record that stands out
• 7:59
  and divided before we nailed it. Right on I love Mata layout.
• 8:02
  It just hit I think it just hit 30 right.
• 8:05
  Like it's wild to think about these things.
• 8:08
  And the I went to Bleaker Bobs to buy that record and like when
• 8:12
  I worked in the West Village and Bagels on the Square, Farther
• 8:16
  Demo Square and Carmine St. And like I went after work to
• 8:19
  get that record and I was so excited to bring it home and
• 8:22
  ride the train up to the Boogie Down man and go get it.
• 8:25
  And we're here now talking about a new Biohazard record. 3537
• 8:30
  years after you started a band, 38 years since you were kids.
• 8:34
  It's just my head explodes thinking about it.
• 8:38
  Yeah, when you put numbers down like that, bro, it feels like
• 8:40
  it's gone so fast. Feels like we just put the band
• 8:43
  together, you know, a couple weeks ago.
• 8:45
  That's what it feels like. I think the minute that it
• 8:47
  becomes old and dragged out and boring, that's when you throw
• 8:51
  the towel in. Right on.
• 8:52
  That's that's words to live by, man.
• 8:54
  You, you look like a kid out there, man.
• 8:56
  You are jumping into the crowd still, and I know you're, you
• 8:59
  know, you know, such a such a warrior when it comes to your
• 9:04
  routines for martial arts and, and just fitness and health.
• 9:07
  And both you and Evan, you guys look like you're carved out of
• 9:10
  granite, man. It's like, I'm so jealous.
• 9:12
  We're almost the same age. I'm like, I'm trying to get my
• 9:15
  fitness and health together. But you know, it's a battle.
• 9:17
  It's a slow process even though my body remembers how to.
• 9:21
  I'm trying to like get those positive, you know, daily, you
• 9:25
  know, consistencies going. It's hard for me, but you guys
• 9:27
  look amazing. Thank you dude.
• 9:29
  I don't take compliments well. That's weird.
• 9:31
  That's cool. Yeah, I know.
• 9:32
  I'm so I appreciate. I'm just like a lot of dude,
• 9:34
  like also a lot of dudes are breaking down.
• 9:37
  We've lost a lot of people. I just watched the Aussie
• 9:40
  documentary. It depressed me.
• 9:41
  I had to lay down for a while after watching and I was like,
• 9:44
  oh man, I can't. It's so sad to see him frail.
• 9:47
  So that's just I'm just wrestling with my own
• 9:50
  existential shit every day, sorry.
• 9:53
  Everything TV, you know that everything you know, from the
• 9:56
  day we, we were born, we're we're slowly dying, you know,
• 10:00
  and you're growing. Instead of saying growing old,
• 10:02
  you just look at it like it's a number of experiences.
• 10:05
  Like, yeah, how long have you been on the job?
• 10:07
  15 years. Oh yeah, I've been here for
• 10:09
  fucking 30, dude. I know this shit backwards and
• 10:12
  forwards, you know, we just played Furnace Fest and it was
• 10:15
  awesome seeing these haywire, seeing these so many great bands
• 10:19
  play and it's fucking killer. And but what I noticed there's
• 10:24
  more energy on stage of BIOS and then a lot of bands and most
• 10:27
  bands in their 20s. So it's it shows that the OG
• 10:30
  guys love what they do. You know, it's not that we're
• 10:34
  just, it's not, we're not doing it for a paycheck.
• 10:37
  We're doing it because we love to do it.
• 10:38
  We all have other things going on in our lives.
• 10:40
  And it's, it's, it's great to be able to do play with bands that
• 10:43
  you love and look up to and, and appreciate.
• 10:46
  And, and it's always a new band that I'm like, holy shit, great
• 10:48
  new band Burnish fest. I saw so many great bands that
• 10:51
  just, I was like, wow, these guys are fucking killer.
• 10:53
  Never heard of them. So great festival, great time.
• 10:56
  Yeah, there you go. Right on.
• 10:57
  Yeah, there there's a new wave of like younger hardcore bands
• 11:01
  inspired by the bands we were inspired by and your band of
• 11:04
  course, too. So like, it's super cool.
• 11:06
  Shout out to Furnace Fest. They did, they do a great job.
• 11:08
  I heard they're coming back for next year, so that's really
• 11:10
  exciting. I'm glad they're keeping it
• 11:12
  going after they had the, you know, the Early Days hiatus
• 11:16
  back. Like that's them.
• 11:17
  That's the vibe for 25 man. We're still alive and kicking.
• 11:21
  That's that's the main thing. But divided we fall meant very,
• 11:24
  like I said, just very old school biohazard record and very
• 11:28
  much of like the moment. Uh, you know, there's always
• 11:30
  going to be dissent and there's always going to be unrest.
• 11:33
  And it is a plea for unity overall.
• 11:35
  Like, OK, there's there's you and there's me.
• 11:37
  And sometimes we can't get along and agree, but we got to find a
• 11:40
  way forward. And I think that's the strength
• 11:42
  of hardcore and that's the always the positive, you know,
• 11:45
  vibe that I always took the brotherhood angle from hardcore
• 11:49
  that I liked much more than metal, even as a kid, as much as
• 11:52
  a metal head as I always was, all the metal guys were like,
• 11:56
  and like, the hardcore was always a fit trying, at least on
• 11:59
  paper, in theory, to be a family, you know, in most cases
• 12:03
  the most, you know, especially past a certain point.
• 12:06
  But yeah, there's a lot of positive but powerful messages
• 12:10
  on this record that I think people need to hear today.
• 12:12
  I agree dude. Divided we fall this.
• 12:14
  Obviously it's disappointing for the today's time, but that
• 12:17
  record could have been called Divided We Fall back in the 90s.
• 12:20
  There's also A twist on the band.
• 12:23
  I, you know, individually we all do what we do, but collectively
• 12:27
  as a band, we're biological. You know, the stuff that I write
• 12:31
  is when I'm not with the guys is Billy Bio or, or it's, you know,
• 12:34
  with, with Christian Scent and Send Dog, it's power flow.
• 12:37
  So I love doing this, getting this opportunity to make a new
• 12:40
  record with Biohazard. If you, if you would have said,
• 12:43
  and we've talked several times, but if you would have said to me
• 12:45
  like 3 years ago, four years ago, yeah, you're going to
• 12:48
  eventually, one day you're going to put the band back together.
• 12:51
  And I'm sure in our talkings I said, yeah, not going to happen.
• 12:55
  Maybe it will happen, I don't know.
• 12:56
  Never say no. I've gone through so many
• 12:58
  different thoughts about us getting back together over the
• 13:01
  years. But I never in, in the world
• 13:04
  would have thought that we would have made a record that would
• 13:07
  that stands up to the classic biological records.
• 13:09
  And here we are talking about it.
• 13:11
  So that's such a great thing. It's it's an honor for me to be
• 13:15
  able to have that experience, not just once, twice, 3 or 4
• 13:18
  times, but here we are with another record.
• 13:21
  I mean, know how many records we have?
• 13:25
  It's a number. It shows my yeah, it's a number.
• 13:28
  It's like a stripe on your black belt.
• 13:30
  It's kind of like that's my, it's not my focus.
• 13:32
  Like the business part of it. It's not, you know, I pay
• 13:35
  attention to everything, but I don't walk around, you know,
• 13:38
  crunching numbers in my head. I don't walk around, you know,
• 13:41
  thinking, Oh yeah, OK, there's there's capacity.
• 13:44
  Is this there's how many people here, how much mercy we sell is
• 13:47
  that shit is clogging, it's draining and it's it's noise and
• 13:52
  that kind of clouds up your focus and what really is the
• 13:56
  essence of what you do. You know, I love going on stage
• 13:59
  and all those, all that shit, everything that's going on in my
• 14:02
  life, all the outside noise kind of disappears and I'm in the
• 14:05
  moment. I live that moment like it's the
• 14:07
  last thing I'm going to do on earth for an hour or for an hour
• 14:10
  and 15 or 45 minutes, whatever, however long we're on stage for.
• 14:14
  And sometimes I get because of that.
• 14:17
  It's almost like it's so special and and precious to me that I
• 14:22
  get really fucking frustrated and stressed out when it's not
• 14:26
  right. It's like, prepare the fucking
• 14:28
  Dojo, get it, move the furniture, put the mats down and
• 14:32
  I'm ready to fucking fight. But if you, if you throw oil on
• 14:35
  the mat, you fuck up that vibe and you fuck up that experience
• 14:39
  for me. So I guess it's just a
• 14:41
  realization just now that I realized why when things go
• 14:44
  wrong before we get on stage, why it freaks me out so much
• 14:47
  anyways. Oh, good going.
• 14:48
  You know, we all moments of clarity come when you least
• 14:52
  expect it. I often say like even Metallica
• 14:55
  are to a level now as an organization, like when they
• 14:58
  don't, it's not their thing. It's not their tour, it's not
• 15:01
  their gear, it's not their environment.
• 15:03
  They struggle, but when it's their bubble, they rule because
• 15:07
  they can control every element. And you know, life is usually
• 15:10
  not that simple, especially in the music industry, right?
• 15:14
  I'm reminded of something that Flea said back in the 90s when
• 15:17
  he talked about being a teenager and coming into fear as a
• 15:20
  bassist in like before he had the Chili's.
• 15:23
  And he was like, you know what? The thing I loved about punk
• 15:25
  rock that attracted me to it is that every note mattered, every
• 15:29
  second mattered, every show mattered, every fan mattered.
• 15:32
  And we knew that. And unlike like 70's rock and
• 15:35
  stuff that was a little too self important, he was like, I never
• 15:37
  wanted to be so self important that I lost that punk rock vibe.
• 15:41
  And I do. I feel like you guys are
• 15:44
  essentially carrying that forward in your music the same
• 15:47
  way. Yeah, we, we, you know, when you
• 15:50
  start something and there's first show is 4 people and the
• 15:53
  those four people are your four girlfriends and they're there
• 15:56
  because they have to be, not because they want to be.
• 15:58
  And then it turns into eight people and then 16 and then you
• 16:02
  know, and so forth and so forth and exponentially grew and grew
• 16:05
  and got crazy and crazier. But knowing that those first
• 16:08
  four people and then those next 4 people and then the next eight
• 16:12
  people and shaking their hands and meeting them.
• 16:14
  We were in Indianapolis the other night and we had a friend
• 16:18
  that his name is Wayne Brain. And he was at our first show in,
• 16:22
  in Lower East Side in, in Manhattan back in the 1990 or
• 16:26
  19, no, maybe 198889, I can't remember.
• 16:29
  And he, he had followed us for a long time and then went on, did
• 16:33
  his own thing, came to the show and it was like, Bam, right
• 16:37
  away. I'm like, dude, Wayne Brown, I
• 16:39
  haven't seen you in so many years.
• 16:40
  So I, I remember people it's in clearly and the experiences.
• 16:45
  I think it's, it's all about that relationship.
• 16:49
  And for me, I've met some people who I looked up to as, as
• 16:53
  artists and that I didn't enjoy meeting.
• 16:56
  And they say you should never meet you're idol.
• 16:57
  So what I did was stop looking at people as idols because then
• 17:01
  if they disappointed me, it didn't ruin my experience with
• 17:03
  the music. But getting to meet a lot of
• 17:05
  people. It's important that when you
• 17:08
  walk away, you enjoyed meeting Billy from Biohazard.
• 17:12
  And that's always been important to me.
• 17:14
  Maybe to a fault, but you know, maybe I'm more concerned with
• 17:17
  how many people show up at my funeral than anything else.
• 17:20
  I hear you man, you guys had girlfriends?
• 17:22
  Holy shit. I had a band for 20 years.
• 17:24
  Only had one girlfriend that I was at the end.
• 17:27
  Oh my God, you had girlfriends. You were doing it.
• 17:28
  Right. I was they the only one who
• 17:31
  stuck around was my Denny's. Denny's girl, Jess.
• 17:34
  The rest the rest of you know. Right, Yeah, as you do, as you
• 17:38
  do. But yeah, man, I really, I can't
• 17:41
  say enough good things. This record is so killer, and I
• 17:44
  think it's kind of the music we need right now.
• 17:46
  I know there's a lot of discourse about politics in the
• 17:50
  world, but I think at the end of the day, it comes down to
• 17:53
  people. And I think we are our own worst
• 17:56
  enemies. And you know, this has been a
• 17:58
  topic of heavy music for since the beginning, since the the
• 18:02
  bell tolled on Black Sabbath, we've been killing ourselves and
• 18:05
  we have a job to do that is not killing ourselves and trying to
• 18:08
  find a way forward. So I love that this record is
• 18:10
  like, hey, shit sucks. But instead of a complaint list,
• 18:13
  here's a list of things you you can do to be strong and, and,
• 18:16
  you know, build walls, you know, breakdown walls and build up
• 18:20
  bridges instead. You know, like it seems.
• 18:22
  It seems obvious, but not to everybody.
• 18:25
  Yep, Yep. Amen, dude.
• 18:27
  Yeah. I always look at things and this
• 18:29
  has helped me a lot. I don't look at things as a
• 18:31
  problems, I look at them as a challenge.
• 18:32
  And when you have that challenge, it's it's easier to
• 18:35
  face a challenge than to find a solution to a problem.
• 18:38
  So it's just a mindset and that's helped me a lot.
• 18:41
  Hell yeah, man, hell yeah. As we as we wind this down, I
• 18:43
  want to give you back the rest of your day.
• 18:45
  You know, so much to cover. But I I'm always super excited
• 18:50
  to see you guys touring and I know that the stuff is booked in
• 18:54
  Infinity probably at this point, you know, forever at this point.
• 18:58
  So, you know, keep it going, keep it moving and we'll catch
• 19:02
  you somewhere on the road soon. I'm super excited about Divided
• 19:05
  We Fall coming out October 17th on Black to Black Billy Bio.
• 19:09
  Great to see you again, man. Thank you so much for making the
• 19:11
  time. I feel like this is a nice
• 19:13
  bookend to you texting me and telling me about the reunion and
• 19:17
  let's do a quick interview from the car.
• 19:19
  And I was really appreciative of that heads up.
• 19:21
  And I'm just really proud of all you guys have done to come back
• 19:24
  together and do this for yourselves and for the fans.
• 19:26
  Thank you. You too.
• 19:28
  I appreciate it brother. Thank you man all.
• 19:29
  Right, have a great day, see you soon.
• 19:31
  Peace you brother, peace.