SLAYER Drummer Discusses PHILM Project In New Interview

Pandie Suicide of Press Pass LA recently conducted an interview with SLAYER/PHILM drummer Dave Lombardo. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Press Pass LA: Can you tell me a bit about the [debut PHILM] album? What was involved with the process for recording "Harmonic"?

Dave: Well, we were doing a bunch of demos, and you know, trying to shop it, to shop the band. But we really didn't get anywhere or get something that we were happy with, so I got tired of running into these brick walls. I said, "You know what, guys?! Let's just record the freaking record ourselves." So I asked this girl if we could use her house. It was a room in the center of her house and she liked to play music in there, to play guitar and sing. I said, "Wow, this room is really cool." It had a tile floor, stucco walls, and a wood ceiling. It was kind of reminiscent of the room in Hagen, Germany at this place called the Woodhouse where I recorded all the GRIP INC. records in the mid-'90s. So it was reminiscent of that room, and I knew our drums would sound really good in that room. So she said, "Go ahead," and we set everything up and just started recording all the songs that we had. This is what we got.

Press Pass LA: And how would you describe the album exactly?

Dave: It's like… it's punk, it's like extreme rock, it's not extreme metal or thrash metal or anything like that... it's just extreme rock. It stops at a certain place and it doesn't go any further. So it's that extreme rock, kind of punk, ambient, psychedelic, jazz funk, funkadelic kind of funkadelic punk...there it is, that's it!

Press Pass LA: Are you recording with SLAYER right now or were you recently?

Dave: I was. I recorded some songs for them and something is going to come out, sooner or later.

Press Pass LA: Can you tell us more about what to expect or when we can expect that?

Dave: I don't know anything, all I know is that Kerry [King, guitar] and Tom [Araya, bass/vocals] are doing vocals this week. Because I'm working with PHILM, they're going to do vocals this week.

Press Pass LA: You mentioned before that you were shopping demos and ended up going with Mike Patton's label Ipecac Recordings. Was that an obvious choice considering your history (playing with him in FANTÔMAS)?

Dave: Well, I exhausted all other companies that I was interested in, that were also interested in the band. I exhausted all those avenues and then I said, "Okay, I'm going to give it to Patton." Because I didn't know if Patton was going to like it or not, I just didn't know. I said, "You know what?! Let me give it to Patton and see what he says." And he loved it and you know what? It was the best decision that we made as a band, is taking it to him because his record company definitely caters to musicians like us. Musicians that are a little different, so it's good.

Read the entire interview from Press Pass LA.

Video footage of PHILM performing on May 29, 2011 at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California can be viewed below (courtesy of Metal Assault).

"Area" audio stream:

Photo credit: Cammy Kinney