1
John Moyer Interview (during his union underground days ) Tue 11 Aug 2009, 21:34
Bowers
Immortalized
An Interview with John Moyer from Union Underground
I had the opportunity to catch the Union Underground on February 11, 2001 at the 9:30 Club on the Sno Core Tour, & I also got to hang out with the band throughout the night & I got to have a sit down interview with John Moyer, bassist for the band. John is one of those guys who is such a nice person..there's no rock star attitude, no ego's, just a really decent person, as is the entire band. I had conversations with the entire band & Union Underground is a great band that deserves all of the success in the world because they have killer work ethic, are very driven, & look at the business of rock n roll as another boulder in their way that they have to conquer to obtain world domination...or atleast that's how I perceived them. They also let me hear a brand new song that they just recorded & it ROCKS! The band will also be on this years OZZFEST 2001, so you can bet your life that you will see another feature on them in a few month right here when they come through town with the Ozzfest. Here's some of the things John had to say:
Rock N Roll Experience: How's the Tour been so far?
John: The Sno Core Tour has been awesome, the bands are heavy, the fans are eager to rock, the fact that they stand out in freezing cold weather hours before the door opens, & then stand out in the freezing cold weather hours after the concert just to get autographs shows just how intensethe sno core tour fans have been & it's awesome
Rock N Roll Experience: How was the Marilyn Manson tour?
John: Manson was cool, it was too short for us. Up until then, we had never played on that level..we had done our own headlining shows, accept for some radio shows here & there, but we'd never done a tour where we were supporting another act so it was weird...we had to get used to it at first. Manson was very gracious in letting us do alot of what we do which is the lights, & the video production & we had alot of little stuff that we brought out too, it was actually alot of fun. We got in good with Godhead too, James, the drummer from Godhead wil be showing up tonight to hang out with us, but it was alot of fun, it was a tour with catering, it was on a real large scale..catering was fun...it was awesome with Manson, he was totally polite & intelligent about everything he did. From the very first day of the tour, right after we got off of stage, him & Twiggy came down & met us, real formal, just so like there's no second guessing like, I wonder if I'm gonna get to meet him because he's a fuckin icon, & he came down right away & met us. We started touring with them when the tour first started, our first day with them was their first day in like a year, or maybe even longer than that..I don't know, but they were still getting their feet wet with their stuff but in about 2 weeks they got their game down as a crew & the band & then everybody started working together which was real cool. I think they missed us, they played a little prank on us on our last night of the tour..they hung our banner upside down, ha ha, nothing major...Manson kept saying, "I Hate Pranks, there will be no end of tour pranks." he kept saying that & I thought I was getting set up...he's great though, he's a nice guy, we partied with him a couple of times.
Rock N Roll Experience: Was there any hijinx from the Manson tour?
John: Everything is out of the ordinary so I'll let your imagination go. What we actually did for the Manson tour was we brought out our own additional bus that was a meet & greet bus & we were doing the same thing. Manson did the same thng every night too, he had meet & greets inside the venue & we were doing the same things as him, but we had it outside the venue & we had contest winners come on before & after & we met alot of cool fans. Manson would never walk off the bus to the venue, the bus would always drive right to the doors & sometimes the bus would drive inside the venue before he would get out...I mean the guys had death threats & stuff like that so he's gotta be careful
Rock N Roll Experience: Do you wear white contacts on stage, because your eyes look funny on stage?
John: No, it must be the drugs,ha, ha, I don't know, um, I might have taken a weird picture, but I don't wear contacts, Patrick our guitar player does for vision but their not goofy. (I showed John a photo from the show & he told me that it's just the make-up that he wears around his eyes)
Rock N Roll Experience: Who is the kid on the cover of the CD?
John: Here name is Anna Belise, she's a New York child model & we found here in a model search in a magazine..she had this real unique look of defiance & we did the shoot...the actual picture that made it to the record was her in total rebelion of what was going on & I can show you some video of her just setting their in the freezing cold, it was in New York, she was in a short sleeve shirt, wearing practically nothing & doing a 3 hour photo shoot & it was really intense & she lloks blue on the cover...some people think that's makeup, she's freezing cold. In addition to that the writing that's on the cover is actually her writing, that wasn't done on a computer or anything like that, that was her writing it on a chalkboard & we took it right off the chalkboard & used it on the from of the record.
Rock N Roll Experience: What is it about Texas that makes such great, gritty rock bands?
John: I don't know..do you think that Texas has alot?
Rock N Roll Experience: You've got Yourself, Pantera, ZZ Top
John: But that's kinda it, I mean ZZ Top is from Houston, Pantera is from Fort Worth, any place that's gonna be an aggressive town like Forth Worth, Houston or San Antonion for that matter..you're gonna have heavy bands. Not necessarily good heavy bands, but lots of heavy bands. Every once in a while sombody pops out, Pantera popped out, ZZ Top popped out, & hopefully we'll be following in their footsteps & have that same type of career, but there's something true about Texas...I don't know what it is. It has alot of beauty & alot of character & alot of culture but it also has alot of crap, alot of rednecks, alot of predjudice & alot of oppression actually so we take all of that into consideration. You can find people there who know there are a better way to do things knowing that this can't be the end all be all & that's where you get the aggressive metal & us.
Rock N Roll Experience: I notice that you have a pentagram on your bass..it there any significance or is it just imagery?
John: It's kind of a Wiccan thing, I don't know if I'm full on Wiccan but at the same time I've got 5 strings on my bass, the stars got 5 points, the points on the star are..let's see if I can remember what they are, fire, earth, air, water & spirit...I kinds believe in that, kinda like a karma thing to me personally..it's not like a band thing, it's just sorta me & I believe in what comes around goes around but not necesarilly, but I like to live that way & I try not to fuck toomany people over because you never know when you're gonna get screwed & I try to be real good & nice to people, not because I'm expecting a payback but that's just the way I live my life. It's not like a Satanic thing, some people misinterpret it that way & maybe I don't know enough about it but I like it & the symbol does mean something to me personally but at the same time I'm not a poster boy for anybodies religion or thoughts, I have my own.
Rock N Roll Experience: How has the Sno Core Tour been different than the Marilyn Manson tour?
John: For one thing (sno core has) 5 bands so it's a bit more of a cluster-fuck, also we are playing smaller venues, so it adds more to the cluster-fuck, the compromise is that the expectations of the bands are much greater on this tour than the Manson tour, the Manson tour was larger venues & there was only 2 other bands so we didn't have issues of space & time & all that weren't that big of deals. Manson is so high profiled too that you never knew who you were going to see at the show, like one night I was talking to Chyna from the WWF & the chic from the Genitorterers & I see Rose McGowen the next night & when we were in New Orleans there was Trent Reznor & it was kinda like you never knew..it was more of a circus aspect with Manson..you never knew who was going to pop in...now on the opposite side with Sno Core there is the cluster-fuck aspect but it's more metal, the crowds more metal & less goth, maybe the crowds on Sno Core have been a little easier to us..it was a little up hill swimming with Manson because he's got a devoted following so everytime we hit the stage there was always arms crossed, people starring at the floor & we really had to win them over every night & that's been less of a challenge on this tour because alot of people coming to this Sno Core tour are actually coming to see us & we're actually getting a bigger following & I think that has to do with the Manson, because we toured with Manson we're getting a spill over because we're hitting alot of the same places & like this is a good example, because we played in Virginia which is right down the road & especially in this North Eastern area we played alot of Manson gigs & I can see the effect because I see kids wearing our shirts when they're coming to the Sno Core tour...so those are the big differences.
Rock N Roll Experience: What's your favorite song to play live?
John: I like them all, they're all good, it's hard to pick one
Rock N Roll Experience: I like "Friends Song" alot
John: I do too, because it's the end of the set & it's a release, it's at a point where the show doesn't matter anymore, it doesn't matter if we were good, it doesn't matter if we were bad because it's over & you play that last song with all of your heart & your soul, or you don't, & that song is just the total freedom that you...we can perform this bad, we can perform that good, it doesn't fuckin matter, it's done. Whatever aggression & anger & energy you have left from the set or maybe wsa created from the set or like if someone throws a boot at you or something, it gets unleashed in the "Friend Song", it's like out whipping boy song...that's the one that we like to kick around at any expense...you neve see us leave the stage & say, "Who fucked up "Friend Song"?", that's not the point, the point of that song is the fuck it up as bad as possible & slam it & for that reason i do like "Friend Song", but then there's the musician side to me that likes when a song comes together & maybe it's harder to play & we have alot going on like a song like "Natural High" every night is like the hardest song for me to play live..that's why I like it because at first it was like my albatross because I fuckin hated playing it but then after a while it bcame my favorite because you start to master the other ones, but that one still holds an interest, you still have to think about what you're doing so I can't pick, I mean they all have meaning, like every time we do "Mr. Deadman" & I hear people screaming & singing the lyrics that turns me on..it's just as good as workin my ass off on "Natural High" or getting my aggression out on "Friend Song"...we start the show with "Drivel" & it gets my mind set right & for that reasaon I love "Drivel". "South Texas Death Ride" is probably our heaviest tune & that song is once again about aggression, but it's real controlled & real powerful & there's a controlled anger in that song that's a beautiful thing to me.
Rock N Roll Experience: Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans?
John: Obviously, the support has been fucking phenominal, I love the emails, please check out our web site at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
& we've got alot of good things in store this year, we're gonna be on Ozzfest on the 2nd stage & we've got the Union Underground fan club in the works.
The Union Underground has a very promising career ahead of them & I'd advise you all to check out this band live, & get their CD which rocks! I had a great time talking to the entire band & got to see their sense of humor which is very funny & we talked about alot of other things from Guns N Roses to Elton John & Eminem. On a really funny side note, the band did covers of Alice In Chains "We Die Young" & GnR's "It's So Easy", but they told me that those covers didn't go too well. I'd like to thank everyone who made this possible & Thank John & the Union Underground for being great guys...Thanks!
I had the opportunity to catch the Union Underground on February 11, 2001 at the 9:30 Club on the Sno Core Tour, & I also got to hang out with the band throughout the night & I got to have a sit down interview with John Moyer, bassist for the band. John is one of those guys who is such a nice person..there's no rock star attitude, no ego's, just a really decent person, as is the entire band. I had conversations with the entire band & Union Underground is a great band that deserves all of the success in the world because they have killer work ethic, are very driven, & look at the business of rock n roll as another boulder in their way that they have to conquer to obtain world domination...or atleast that's how I perceived them. They also let me hear a brand new song that they just recorded & it ROCKS! The band will also be on this years OZZFEST 2001, so you can bet your life that you will see another feature on them in a few month right here when they come through town with the Ozzfest. Here's some of the things John had to say:
Rock N Roll Experience: How's the Tour been so far?
John: The Sno Core Tour has been awesome, the bands are heavy, the fans are eager to rock, the fact that they stand out in freezing cold weather hours before the door opens, & then stand out in the freezing cold weather hours after the concert just to get autographs shows just how intensethe sno core tour fans have been & it's awesome
Rock N Roll Experience: How was the Marilyn Manson tour?
John: Manson was cool, it was too short for us. Up until then, we had never played on that level..we had done our own headlining shows, accept for some radio shows here & there, but we'd never done a tour where we were supporting another act so it was weird...we had to get used to it at first. Manson was very gracious in letting us do alot of what we do which is the lights, & the video production & we had alot of little stuff that we brought out too, it was actually alot of fun. We got in good with Godhead too, James, the drummer from Godhead wil be showing up tonight to hang out with us, but it was alot of fun, it was a tour with catering, it was on a real large scale..catering was fun...it was awesome with Manson, he was totally polite & intelligent about everything he did. From the very first day of the tour, right after we got off of stage, him & Twiggy came down & met us, real formal, just so like there's no second guessing like, I wonder if I'm gonna get to meet him because he's a fuckin icon, & he came down right away & met us. We started touring with them when the tour first started, our first day with them was their first day in like a year, or maybe even longer than that..I don't know, but they were still getting their feet wet with their stuff but in about 2 weeks they got their game down as a crew & the band & then everybody started working together which was real cool. I think they missed us, they played a little prank on us on our last night of the tour..they hung our banner upside down, ha ha, nothing major...Manson kept saying, "I Hate Pranks, there will be no end of tour pranks." he kept saying that & I thought I was getting set up...he's great though, he's a nice guy, we partied with him a couple of times.
Rock N Roll Experience: Was there any hijinx from the Manson tour?
John: Everything is out of the ordinary so I'll let your imagination go. What we actually did for the Manson tour was we brought out our own additional bus that was a meet & greet bus & we were doing the same thing. Manson did the same thng every night too, he had meet & greets inside the venue & we were doing the same things as him, but we had it outside the venue & we had contest winners come on before & after & we met alot of cool fans. Manson would never walk off the bus to the venue, the bus would always drive right to the doors & sometimes the bus would drive inside the venue before he would get out...I mean the guys had death threats & stuff like that so he's gotta be careful
Rock N Roll Experience: Do you wear white contacts on stage, because your eyes look funny on stage?
John: No, it must be the drugs,ha, ha, I don't know, um, I might have taken a weird picture, but I don't wear contacts, Patrick our guitar player does for vision but their not goofy. (I showed John a photo from the show & he told me that it's just the make-up that he wears around his eyes)
Rock N Roll Experience: Who is the kid on the cover of the CD?
John: Here name is Anna Belise, she's a New York child model & we found here in a model search in a magazine..she had this real unique look of defiance & we did the shoot...the actual picture that made it to the record was her in total rebelion of what was going on & I can show you some video of her just setting their in the freezing cold, it was in New York, she was in a short sleeve shirt, wearing practically nothing & doing a 3 hour photo shoot & it was really intense & she lloks blue on the cover...some people think that's makeup, she's freezing cold. In addition to that the writing that's on the cover is actually her writing, that wasn't done on a computer or anything like that, that was her writing it on a chalkboard & we took it right off the chalkboard & used it on the from of the record.
Rock N Roll Experience: What is it about Texas that makes such great, gritty rock bands?
John: I don't know..do you think that Texas has alot?
Rock N Roll Experience: You've got Yourself, Pantera, ZZ Top
John: But that's kinda it, I mean ZZ Top is from Houston, Pantera is from Fort Worth, any place that's gonna be an aggressive town like Forth Worth, Houston or San Antonion for that matter..you're gonna have heavy bands. Not necessarily good heavy bands, but lots of heavy bands. Every once in a while sombody pops out, Pantera popped out, ZZ Top popped out, & hopefully we'll be following in their footsteps & have that same type of career, but there's something true about Texas...I don't know what it is. It has alot of beauty & alot of character & alot of culture but it also has alot of crap, alot of rednecks, alot of predjudice & alot of oppression actually so we take all of that into consideration. You can find people there who know there are a better way to do things knowing that this can't be the end all be all & that's where you get the aggressive metal & us.
Rock N Roll Experience: I notice that you have a pentagram on your bass..it there any significance or is it just imagery?
John: It's kind of a Wiccan thing, I don't know if I'm full on Wiccan but at the same time I've got 5 strings on my bass, the stars got 5 points, the points on the star are..let's see if I can remember what they are, fire, earth, air, water & spirit...I kinds believe in that, kinda like a karma thing to me personally..it's not like a band thing, it's just sorta me & I believe in what comes around goes around but not necesarilly, but I like to live that way & I try not to fuck toomany people over because you never know when you're gonna get screwed & I try to be real good & nice to people, not because I'm expecting a payback but that's just the way I live my life. It's not like a Satanic thing, some people misinterpret it that way & maybe I don't know enough about it but I like it & the symbol does mean something to me personally but at the same time I'm not a poster boy for anybodies religion or thoughts, I have my own.
Rock N Roll Experience: How has the Sno Core Tour been different than the Marilyn Manson tour?
John: For one thing (sno core has) 5 bands so it's a bit more of a cluster-fuck, also we are playing smaller venues, so it adds more to the cluster-fuck, the compromise is that the expectations of the bands are much greater on this tour than the Manson tour, the Manson tour was larger venues & there was only 2 other bands so we didn't have issues of space & time & all that weren't that big of deals. Manson is so high profiled too that you never knew who you were going to see at the show, like one night I was talking to Chyna from the WWF & the chic from the Genitorterers & I see Rose McGowen the next night & when we were in New Orleans there was Trent Reznor & it was kinda like you never knew..it was more of a circus aspect with Manson..you never knew who was going to pop in...now on the opposite side with Sno Core there is the cluster-fuck aspect but it's more metal, the crowds more metal & less goth, maybe the crowds on Sno Core have been a little easier to us..it was a little up hill swimming with Manson because he's got a devoted following so everytime we hit the stage there was always arms crossed, people starring at the floor & we really had to win them over every night & that's been less of a challenge on this tour because alot of people coming to this Sno Core tour are actually coming to see us & we're actually getting a bigger following & I think that has to do with the Manson, because we toured with Manson we're getting a spill over because we're hitting alot of the same places & like this is a good example, because we played in Virginia which is right down the road & especially in this North Eastern area we played alot of Manson gigs & I can see the effect because I see kids wearing our shirts when they're coming to the Sno Core tour...so those are the big differences.
Rock N Roll Experience: What's your favorite song to play live?
John: I like them all, they're all good, it's hard to pick one
Rock N Roll Experience: I like "Friends Song" alot
John: I do too, because it's the end of the set & it's a release, it's at a point where the show doesn't matter anymore, it doesn't matter if we were good, it doesn't matter if we were bad because it's over & you play that last song with all of your heart & your soul, or you don't, & that song is just the total freedom that you...we can perform this bad, we can perform that good, it doesn't fuckin matter, it's done. Whatever aggression & anger & energy you have left from the set or maybe wsa created from the set or like if someone throws a boot at you or something, it gets unleashed in the "Friend Song", it's like out whipping boy song...that's the one that we like to kick around at any expense...you neve see us leave the stage & say, "Who fucked up "Friend Song"?", that's not the point, the point of that song is the fuck it up as bad as possible & slam it & for that reason i do like "Friend Song", but then there's the musician side to me that likes when a song comes together & maybe it's harder to play & we have alot going on like a song like "Natural High" every night is like the hardest song for me to play live..that's why I like it because at first it was like my albatross because I fuckin hated playing it but then after a while it bcame my favorite because you start to master the other ones, but that one still holds an interest, you still have to think about what you're doing so I can't pick, I mean they all have meaning, like every time we do "Mr. Deadman" & I hear people screaming & singing the lyrics that turns me on..it's just as good as workin my ass off on "Natural High" or getting my aggression out on "Friend Song"...we start the show with "Drivel" & it gets my mind set right & for that reasaon I love "Drivel". "South Texas Death Ride" is probably our heaviest tune & that song is once again about aggression, but it's real controlled & real powerful & there's a controlled anger in that song that's a beautiful thing to me.
Rock N Roll Experience: Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans?
John: Obviously, the support has been fucking phenominal, I love the emails, please check out our web site at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
& we've got alot of good things in store this year, we're gonna be on Ozzfest on the 2nd stage & we've got the Union Underground fan club in the works.
The Union Underground has a very promising career ahead of them & I'd advise you all to check out this band live, & get their CD which rocks! I had a great time talking to the entire band & got to see their sense of humor which is very funny & we talked about alot of other things from Guns N Roses to Elton John & Eminem. On a really funny side note, the band did covers of Alice In Chains "We Die Young" & GnR's "It's So Easy", but they told me that those covers didn't go too well. I'd like to thank everyone who made this possible & Thank John & the Union Underground for being great guys...Thanks!
