11 Questions with Leon from Nails, Terrorizer LA, Impaled, and Murder Construct (ex: Exhumed, Phobia, Intronaut, Nausea LA, DIS)
1. Where are you from?
The wastelands of Detroit, Michigan. I grew up there, moved to the Bay Area of California in 1990, just after the "big one," when housing was approaching affordability there. In 2004, I moved to Los Angeles and ended up staying for 11 years. Just over 3 years ago I moved up to the 'burbs of Portland, Oregon where I currently reside.
2. What do you think about chaos magic?
Does it have a card with a dragon on it or something?
3. When and why did you start playing music?
When I moved to California in 1990, I took in some of those dipshit California vibes and started playing around then.
We moved in the middle of the school year, and when I went to go join the school band class, my teacher, Ms. Whitney, asked what I played. I told her I played drums. She asked if I actually knew how to play drums and I said no. She said, "okay, go sit with the guitar players" who were a bunch of misfits in a corner who generally kept to themselves.
It actually made more sense, since almost everyone in my family plays guitar already and we had guitars all over the house.
4. What was your first show?
In 1993 at the Berkeley Square. My first band, Infanticide, opened for The Aborted, Necrology and Skitzo. The Aborted later on became Abscess, and if you haven't heard Abscess, then GTFO. Necrology probably fizzled out a few years later and Skitzo was one guy whose bandmates may or may not have died after this show. The main guy ended up on Jerry Springer, because he could projectile vomit like 15' across the room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H46D5tAUf0&feature=youtu.be&t=3m4s
5. How did you get into the genre(s)?
Like most people, I started out hearing stuff like Guns N' Roses on the radio. My sister actually bought the tape (I think I got Run DMC's Tougher Than Leather), but I eventually started commandeering it.
I moved into more glam-type stuff like Poison, Enuff Z' Nuff, Motley Crue, etc., after that. At some point I heard Metallica and Megadeth and swore no more glam shit.
After that I heard Slayer, but somewhere right after that I was hanging out with my mom at her work and I guess I was annoying her. She crammed $10 into my hand and pushed me out the door. This was in San Francisco, so I walked down to Noe Street and went into the first record store I saw. "Symphonies of Sickness" was in the cut-out bin, so I bought it. I hated it when I first heard it. I was like "Why is this dude hitting all the drums at the same time? This sucks." But I kept listening to it for some reason while playing Battletoads and at some point I had another epiphany and was like "okay, no more glam shit, and no more thrash shit, either...JUST death metal."
From there I just started buying everything with a fucked up cover and logo.
6. Three biggest influences?
As a guitar player, Bill Steer, David Blomqvist and Dave Mustaine.
As a person, not Dave Mustaine.
7. How do you feel about the current state of the community you’re apart of?
It's weird, insular and petty, but somehow manages to be enjoyable. I still get out to shows here and there, especially if someone I know is playing or it's an old favorite. But to be perfectly honest, it's more of a social event, than a musical one, about 75% of the time.
I've never been a total misanthrope that hates people; I still like meeting and hanging out with people, despite what my anxiety tells me. Sometimes it's too much, though, and I just stay backstage. I probably owe my reputation as a hard drinker to anxiety; I want to meet people, I just don't know how to.
8. What are some of your favorite new bands?
I've really been enjoying Yautja, Artificial Brain, Full of Hell, Gatecreeper and lately. Butcher ABC put out one of my favorite records of 2017. Been listening to Aosoth, Deathspell Omega, Dodecahedron, in addition to a LOOOOTTTTT of non-metal stuff. John Zorn just released The Book Beriah which is 11 discs of interesting stuff featuring my favorite band, Secret Chiefs 3.
9. What is a good memory you recall from being on tour?
Oh man, there's a lot. Almost every tour I've done has been chock full o' laughs and goofiness. Picking just one is proving difficult, but I think one of my favorites is when I went to England with Exhumed in 2003 or 2004. We took a ferry from Calais, France to Dover, England. They made us all get off the bus and one of the bands we were touring with, Inhume, basically made us and Cephalic Carnage drink our weight in booze. I got real nauseous and spent most of the time in a bathroom stall puking and shitting.
When we landed in Dover, it turned out our paperwork hadn't come through because there was a postal strike in England. The Inhume guys were Dutch, so they had no problems crossing, but they stayed with us to show some solidarity.
Their bassist Loek was completely 100% shitfaced and went up to the counter and started telling these proper-ass English women what a bunch of assholes we were and telling them not to let us into the country. We were all cracking up at his hard-ass Dutch accent saying shit like "Dohnt led deez mudderfuckers into your country!"
He was going on and on and started telling them that they could hook up with the guys in the band if they wanted to, pointing each one of us out and telling them something like "THIS ONE IS A REAL PIECE OF SHIT!" "THIS ONE IS A FUGGING ASSHOLE" etc, etc. and saying they could get some action if they wanted. To their credit, the English ladies were cracking up and were like "well, it's a bit early for that, innit?"
Finally he started demanding that they let us in before he fell down drunk and his guitar player picked him up by his belt and just dragged him across the border on his face.
10. Three Favorite places to eat in the US?
Katz Deli in NYC, mostly for the half-sour pickles. King Taco in Los Angeles for my most favorite tacos in America, bar none. Well, bar maybe El Taurino which is the same family. Lastly, Kayo's Ramen Bar here in Portland. They make a spicy ramen called MaLa that is my most favorite thing to eat right now.
11. If you had to write your own eulogy, what would it be?
It would just be a 10-minute long fart with a sad trombone at the end
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