Michael Knight Interview

MICHAEL KNIGHT INTERVIEW

1. WHO ARE MICHAEL KNIGHT?

A. Shawn Grzyb, Matt Adams, John Henderson

2. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BAND¡Ä

A. We¡Çve all been playing together for years. It started out as the three of us getting together and making up songs just to record on a 4 track for the sake of amusing ourselves. After a few years we were talked into playing live by some friends. We had our good shows and bad shows. Then this guy Tony liked us enough to put out our records. Shawn and John are also in a melodic garage band called Grayling.

3. WHAT HAS THE REACTION BEEN TO YOUR BAND? HAVE YOU HAD ANY NEGATIVE REACTIONS BECAUSE YOU DON¡ÇT SOUND THE WAY A HARDCORE/PUNK BAND ¡ÆSHOULD¡Ç?

A. Mostly people like the fact that we are different. Some people think that punk/hardcore should be the same shit over & over & never deviate. These are people who we don¡Çt want to appeal to anyway.

4. WHY IS ¡ÆKNIGHT RIDER¡Ç COOL? WHAT¡ÇS YOUR FAVORITE EPISODE?

A. We¡Çre really not that into the show. We just chose the name because it was so ridiculous.

5. ARE YOU AWARE OF DAVID HASSELHOFF¡ÇS EXTENSIVE MUSICAL CAREER AND THE FACT THAT HE IS INCREASINGLY POPULAR WITH GERMAN HOUSEWIVES?

A. We are aware of his musical popularity in Germany. But so far, we¡Çve been lucky enough to avoid actually hearing any of it ourselves.

6. WHAT SORT OF STUFF DO YOU LISTEN TO? IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU MIGHT LISTEN TO LOTS OF STUFF LIKE THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS/MELVINS, ETC?

A. We like the Butthole Surfers and the Melvins, but they aren¡Çt really influential to us. We like more bands and styles than I could mention. We all have large, eclectic record collections.

7. DO YOU GET TO PLAY LIVE MUCH? YOU SOUND LIKE THE KIND OF BAND WHO¡ÇD HAVE A PRETTY CRAZY LIVE SHOW. ANY GOOD LIKE STORIES?

A. No. We enjoy recording more than playing live. I¡Çm involved in several different recording projects and spend much time being a studio rat. John & Shawn do play live all the time with Grayling, but not so much with Michael Knight. Besides, the hardcore ¡Æscene¡Ç around here is VERY young and straight-edge. There¡Çs not a lot of places to play, and the audience usually just wants to hear the same old shit cranked out in the same old way.

8. WHY DIDN¡ÇT YOU INCLUDE A LYRIC SHEET? ARE THE LYRICS IMPORTANT? WHAT IS THE SUBJECT MATTER OF YOUR SONGS?

A. We are concerned with the songs in their entirety. The lyrics are abstract, personal, mildly political or whatever happens to be on our minds when one of us writes them.

9. IS ¡ÆNEVER FUCKIN LIKED YOU¡Ç DIRECTED AT ANYONE IN PARTICULAR? FROM WHAT I CAN MAKE OUT OF THE LYRICS IT¡ÇS PRETTY HARSH.

A. No, not anyone in particular. It¡Çs more about venting anger at everyone who¡Çs ever pissed you off.

10. I NOTICED THAT YOU SAMPLED A CUBAN BOYS SONG. WAS THAT SONG AS RIDICULOUSLY POPULAR IN THE US AS IT WAS OVER HERE? WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON DANCE MUSIC? DO YOU RECKON IT WILL TAKE OFF IN AMERICA?

A. I¡Çve never even heard of the ¡ÆCuban Boys¡Ç. As to whether dance music will take off here, we already have our own brand of shitty dance music that is unfortunately very popular.

11. YOU¡ÇVE WRITTEN ¡ÈFREE IRON BRIAN HOGAN¡É ON THE 7¡É INSERT. WHO IS HE AND WHY SHOULD HE BE FREED?

A. Iron Brian is a suburban legend (in Shelby anyway). He¡Çs this nomadic, hippie, bottle collecting guy who¡Çs been riding his bike or walking around the hood for years. Everyone knows who he is because he¡Çs been buying beer for underage kids to get by for years. Since at least ¡Ç85 or earlier. People have grown up with him. An entire mythology has developed about him, but most of it is false. He¡Çs a harmless guy who just likes to hand out in the woods and play guitar and listen to Black Sabbath. The cops hate him and he took the blame for a crime he didn¡Çt commit. He actually did jail time just so the cops could feel like they were tidying up the town for a while.

12. ANY PARTICULAR VIEWPOINTS?

A. Don¡Çt take yourself too seriously.

13. HOW GREAT WERE THE 80¡ÇS?

A. There was some cool shit going on.

14. HOW METAL ARE YOU?

A. We like some metal bands but were very selective. It¡Çs not really our thing.

15. ANYTHING ELSE TO ADD?

A. Thanks for liking the band. We should be recording our first MK full length soon.
Thanks,
Matt


* ATOMSMASHER * BOGDAN RACZYNSKI * CREATION IS CRUCIFIXION * DREAM THEATER * KNUT

* LAWNMOWER DETH * MICHAEL KNIGHT * OUR OWN * PERE UBU * SOEZA * SPY VERSUS SPY


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