Tim Williams - Vision Of Disorder (08/02/2013)
Returning to Australia for Soundwave Festival 2013 and a series of sidewaves with Sick of It All and Madball, we chat with Tim Williams from Vision of Disorder.
Hey, Tim.
Hey, how are ya?
I'm good thanks. You must be pretty excited to be coming down for Soundwave?
Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Definitely. It's cool.
Who are you looking forward to playing alongside?
Definitely Sick Of It All, Madball, This Is Hell and Tomahawk.
Have you been to Australia before?
Yeah, yeah I've been there a couple of times actually. I came down with Vision of Disorder back in the late 90's and then I was there with my other band Bloodsimple is 2008 I think. I'm looking forward to the weather differences, that's the main thing. It's been a cold winter here in New York.
It's gonna be a big change for you then!
Yeah I heard it's real hot down there.
So, how did Vision of Disorder form?
Way back in the early 90's me, Matt (Baumback, guitars) and Mike (Kennedy, guitars) formed straight out of high school and then we got Brendon (Cohen, drums) around '93. We actually played without a bass player until about '94 and then we got the complete unit that you will see on stage this year at Soundwave. We just started in the New York hardcore scene, got a following going and broke into the city and got bigger in popularity and then the biggest thing that happened to us we got invited to Ozzfest in around '97 and from there it got pretty busy.
What would you say is the reason you've managed to last 20 years with the same members? Most bands struggle to do that.
The number one reason is that we took 8 years off (laughs) I was in another band, like I said, called Bloodsimple with Mike Kennedy and everybody else did their own thing for a while and then I dunno, things kinda lined up and we did a couple of little shows here and there and they were good so we ended up recording another record so here we are.
Yeah you released the new album The Cursed Remain Cursed. What was the recording process like for that one?
Well the writing process took quite a while coz we didn't have any pressure to do anything and we weren't signed and we weren't looking to be signed and we had shows here and there so we just took our time writing the record. It took almost 2 years to write, we almost got lazy with it. Once we got into the recording process it was kinda effortless and easy and we and the producer knew where we wanted to go with this album, where we should be in our career and how we should sound and we're really happy with it. He did an excellent job. We're not only happy to be coming down to Australia but also to have new material to play.
Yeah I bet there have been a lot of fans down here waiting for new material.
Yeah I think we came down for our second record so it's been a while. I think the Soundwave crowd is gonna be amped and ready and we're gonna hit 'em hard and they are gonna have fun.
What would you say is your favourite song to play live?
I'd say Set To Sail from the new album and from the older stuff Viola coz I just get laid back and can enjoy the singing parts and don't have to scream my fucking face off. The crowds are loving a lot of the new stuff. Whenever we play the song Adelaide, which I did name after the Australian city, people go bananas, they really like that song.
It's great to hear that you've written a song about one of our cities.
Yeah it was a long time ago, it was about 1998. It was a pretty extensive tour and I just remember Adelaide being my favourite city and I was in a good headspace so when I got home I wrote this song loosely based on the town and named it Adelaide and it was really cool.
Just on your writing, what influences you?
A lot of stuff really. A lot of stuff going on in the world. Things I'm going through personally, like this last record was very personal so it's a lot of real life stuff but I also attempt to get into some personal stuff too.
What about when you were growing up? Who inspired you to get into music?
Going back to the early days definitely Motely Crue, The Doors, Pantera and Alice in Chains were the big four that got me going. I mean there are obviously millions of influences after that but they are the big ones.
Are there any new bands you are loving right now?
I liked a couple of songs off the new Deftones record. I've been listening to a lot of Gojira and Whitechapel. I just got into Whitechapel actually and I was listening to Slayer today it really just depends on my mood. Sometimes I will listen to country music. Is that weird that I like heavy metal and I like country music? I think that's pretty weird, don't you?
Yeah that's pretty weird but it's good to have some variety.
Sure, absolutely it is.
Are you into any Australian bands?
I loved Grinspoon back in the day. Do you remember them?
Yep, I'm a huge fan of theirs.
We actually toured with them back in the late 90's. It was VOD, Anthrax, Life of Agony and Grinspoon which was very strange, very strange. I remember it being a very long tour, about seven weeks across the US and we hung with those guys every single day. It was a lot of fun.
What sort of reaction did Grinspoon get with those sort of heavier bands on the lineup?
They were opening up so it was a little tough for them but I remember them doing ok. I just remembered we also toured back in the day with an Aussie band called Mindsnare.
Have you had any crazy moment involving fans?
Oh tons! There are always crazy moments involving fans. Couple of days ago in LA a woman told me and Mike that she had made a blanket from old VOD shirts and I thought that was pretty weird.
That is pretty weird.
This same woman was molesting me while I was playing, she kept grabbing my legs and stuff.
How do you deal with people when they do that?
It depends what sort of mood I'm in and how the show is going and such. Sometimes I don't even know it's going on until someone tells me after the show. I get pretty involved with the crowd, I jump over barriers and stuff like that and some people will grab me and try and pull me in and I don't really like that. I like getting close to the kids faces and getting them to sing the words but I don't wanna get pulled in there. If I'm gonna go in there I'll jump on there heads, just don't pull me.
That's completely understandable.
I also heard a weird thing that in England for Download or one of the big festivals they had bands sign waivers saying that you can't tell people to dance or to jump or circle pit or or mosh or do a wall of death or anything which is weird because it's for heavy bands it's a huge part. I was shocked to hear that, heavy music isn't supposed to be that controlled but it seems now they can't risk people getting hurt because they are a liability.
Things like that are coming in here too, unfortunately. It seems the long term plan is everyone just stands there and stares and the band because you won't be allowed to move.
It's terrible. I don't like it when people just stand there.
The band definitely want to see some movement from the crowd.
It's a big part of the show. I really hope it won't spread.
Me too. What would you say is the best and worst thing about being in Vision of Disorder?
The best thing would be the recognition we get. People really seem to look up to me, up to us which is one of the best things. One of the worst things is for a long time we were really horrible businessmen and we made a lot of mistakes. This band really should have been a lot bigger than what it is, I mean we've done pretty well but we had a tendency to burn a lot of bridges and tell people to fuck off and just to not care. We were very young when we started but sometimes that reputation follows us, even to today.
That's a shame, but as long as you've learnt from it.
Yeah we've learnt pretty well it's just unfortunate because when we were starting out we got really big really fast and we had no clue on what to do. Things were a lot different back then but whatever, we're still going and things are going good and we've learnt from the experience.
One last question for you, what do you like to get up to in your time off?
I like to hang out with my daughter. I like to take long hikes in the mountains and go to the beach. Basically just to get outdoors. I live in the city so when I have time off I like to just get the hell out of here and chill out at a lake or the ocean or something.
Cool, well we'll wrap it up there, thanks very much for your time.
Hey thank you, buddy. We'll see you down there.
Matt Barton
Hey, Tim.
Hey, how are ya?
I'm good thanks. You must be pretty excited to be coming down for Soundwave?
Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Definitely. It's cool.
Who are you looking forward to playing alongside?
Definitely Sick Of It All, Madball, This Is Hell and Tomahawk.
Have you been to Australia before?
Yeah, yeah I've been there a couple of times actually. I came down with Vision of Disorder back in the late 90's and then I was there with my other band Bloodsimple is 2008 I think. I'm looking forward to the weather differences, that's the main thing. It's been a cold winter here in New York.
It's gonna be a big change for you then!
Yeah I heard it's real hot down there.
So, how did Vision of Disorder form?
Way back in the early 90's me, Matt (Baumback, guitars) and Mike (Kennedy, guitars) formed straight out of high school and then we got Brendon (Cohen, drums) around '93. We actually played without a bass player until about '94 and then we got the complete unit that you will see on stage this year at Soundwave. We just started in the New York hardcore scene, got a following going and broke into the city and got bigger in popularity and then the biggest thing that happened to us we got invited to Ozzfest in around '97 and from there it got pretty busy.
What would you say is the reason you've managed to last 20 years with the same members? Most bands struggle to do that.
The number one reason is that we took 8 years off (laughs) I was in another band, like I said, called Bloodsimple with Mike Kennedy and everybody else did their own thing for a while and then I dunno, things kinda lined up and we did a couple of little shows here and there and they were good so we ended up recording another record so here we are.
Yeah you released the new album The Cursed Remain Cursed. What was the recording process like for that one?
Well the writing process took quite a while coz we didn't have any pressure to do anything and we weren't signed and we weren't looking to be signed and we had shows here and there so we just took our time writing the record. It took almost 2 years to write, we almost got lazy with it. Once we got into the recording process it was kinda effortless and easy and we and the producer knew where we wanted to go with this album, where we should be in our career and how we should sound and we're really happy with it. He did an excellent job. We're not only happy to be coming down to Australia but also to have new material to play.
Yeah I bet there have been a lot of fans down here waiting for new material.
Yeah I think we came down for our second record so it's been a while. I think the Soundwave crowd is gonna be amped and ready and we're gonna hit 'em hard and they are gonna have fun.
What would you say is your favourite song to play live?
I'd say Set To Sail from the new album and from the older stuff Viola coz I just get laid back and can enjoy the singing parts and don't have to scream my fucking face off. The crowds are loving a lot of the new stuff. Whenever we play the song Adelaide, which I did name after the Australian city, people go bananas, they really like that song.
It's great to hear that you've written a song about one of our cities.
Yeah it was a long time ago, it was about 1998. It was a pretty extensive tour and I just remember Adelaide being my favourite city and I was in a good headspace so when I got home I wrote this song loosely based on the town and named it Adelaide and it was really cool.
Just on your writing, what influences you?
A lot of stuff really. A lot of stuff going on in the world. Things I'm going through personally, like this last record was very personal so it's a lot of real life stuff but I also attempt to get into some personal stuff too.
What about when you were growing up? Who inspired you to get into music?
Going back to the early days definitely Motely Crue, The Doors, Pantera and Alice in Chains were the big four that got me going. I mean there are obviously millions of influences after that but they are the big ones.
Are there any new bands you are loving right now?
I liked a couple of songs off the new Deftones record. I've been listening to a lot of Gojira and Whitechapel. I just got into Whitechapel actually and I was listening to Slayer today it really just depends on my mood. Sometimes I will listen to country music. Is that weird that I like heavy metal and I like country music? I think that's pretty weird, don't you?
Yeah that's pretty weird but it's good to have some variety.
Sure, absolutely it is.
Are you into any Australian bands?
I loved Grinspoon back in the day. Do you remember them?
Yep, I'm a huge fan of theirs.
We actually toured with them back in the late 90's. It was VOD, Anthrax, Life of Agony and Grinspoon which was very strange, very strange. I remember it being a very long tour, about seven weeks across the US and we hung with those guys every single day. It was a lot of fun.
What sort of reaction did Grinspoon get with those sort of heavier bands on the lineup?
They were opening up so it was a little tough for them but I remember them doing ok. I just remembered we also toured back in the day with an Aussie band called Mindsnare.
Have you had any crazy moment involving fans?
Oh tons! There are always crazy moments involving fans. Couple of days ago in LA a woman told me and Mike that she had made a blanket from old VOD shirts and I thought that was pretty weird.
That is pretty weird.
This same woman was molesting me while I was playing, she kept grabbing my legs and stuff.
How do you deal with people when they do that?
It depends what sort of mood I'm in and how the show is going and such. Sometimes I don't even know it's going on until someone tells me after the show. I get pretty involved with the crowd, I jump over barriers and stuff like that and some people will grab me and try and pull me in and I don't really like that. I like getting close to the kids faces and getting them to sing the words but I don't wanna get pulled in there. If I'm gonna go in there I'll jump on there heads, just don't pull me.
That's completely understandable.
I also heard a weird thing that in England for Download or one of the big festivals they had bands sign waivers saying that you can't tell people to dance or to jump or circle pit or or mosh or do a wall of death or anything which is weird because it's for heavy bands it's a huge part. I was shocked to hear that, heavy music isn't supposed to be that controlled but it seems now they can't risk people getting hurt because they are a liability.
Things like that are coming in here too, unfortunately. It seems the long term plan is everyone just stands there and stares and the band because you won't be allowed to move.
It's terrible. I don't like it when people just stand there.
The band definitely want to see some movement from the crowd.
It's a big part of the show. I really hope it won't spread.
Me too. What would you say is the best and worst thing about being in Vision of Disorder?
The best thing would be the recognition we get. People really seem to look up to me, up to us which is one of the best things. One of the worst things is for a long time we were really horrible businessmen and we made a lot of mistakes. This band really should have been a lot bigger than what it is, I mean we've done pretty well but we had a tendency to burn a lot of bridges and tell people to fuck off and just to not care. We were very young when we started but sometimes that reputation follows us, even to today.
That's a shame, but as long as you've learnt from it.
Yeah we've learnt pretty well it's just unfortunate because when we were starting out we got really big really fast and we had no clue on what to do. Things were a lot different back then but whatever, we're still going and things are going good and we've learnt from the experience.
One last question for you, what do you like to get up to in your time off?
I like to hang out with my daughter. I like to take long hikes in the mountains and go to the beach. Basically just to get outdoors. I live in the city so when I have time off I like to just get the hell out of here and chill out at a lake or the ocean or something.
Cool, well we'll wrap it up there, thanks very much for your time.
Hey thank you, buddy. We'll see you down there.
Matt Barton