“I’m not a Christian or a Satanist. In the Bible, the Book Of Lambs is when a person accepts Jesus Christ as the son of God, their name will be written in the blood of Christ in the Book Of Lambs where it can never be removed, you know, ‘supposedly’.”
Jared Anderson, bass player/vocalist for Death Metal supergroup Hate Eternal and who plays everything-except-drums for his band Internecine’s new record ‘Book Of Lambs’, called me up a few days ago. We talked about everything from his new CDs coming out, to the World Trade Center, to his favorite Harry Potter book. Currently he is finishing up touring with Hate Eternal, promoting their new album ‘King Of All Kings’ and also promoting ‘Book Of Lambs’.
Jared Anderson: So what’s going on bro?
Vile, docweasel.com: Nothing much, what have you been doing so far today?
Jared Anderson: Oh I haven’t done shit today man, I just fuckin woke up.
Yeah?
Jared Anderson: Yeah, I’m going to get some fuckin burgers and some fuckin mayonaisse and shit…[laughs]*
I just had some Jack In The Box, it was pretty good. [we both laugh] So, how do you pronounce your band, is it “In-turn-eh-sign”?
Jared Anderson: No, it’s actually…it can be pronounced three different ways. There are three different pronunciations for it; it can be “Inter-nee-sin”, it can be “In-ter-neh-seen”, or it can be “In-ter-neh-sin”. I always called it Internecine [he pronounces it using the last version].
Why did you choose Internecine as the name for the band?
Jared Anderson: Because of the meaning of the name. Ive had the name for a long time. Actually, my friend said the name back in…’93? Then I put together a good solid band in, like, ’95-96, that’s when I decided to use the name Internecine.
The album is called ‘Book Of Lambs’, is there any central message behind the album that you wanted people to realize while they’re listening?
Jared Anderson: Yeah, it’s a real deep subject. I’m not a Christian or a Satanist. In the Bible, the Book Of Lambs is….. when a person accepts Jesus Christ as the son of God, their name will be written in the blood of Christ in the Book Of Lambs where it can never be removed, you know, “supposedly”…
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: You know, I’ve read that part, that piece myself so…it kind of fit the album perfect, actually. It’s kind of a dark subject.
How did the idea of doing this, basically, one-man-band come to you?
Jared Anderson: It wasn’t originally, it wasn’t supposed to be a one-man-band. From late ’95-96 to late ’98 we were a solid band, practicing like 4 to 5 times a week.
Really?
Jared Anderson: Oh yeah, I had Internecine way before, way before, Hate Eternal. It was my first real serious band, I wrote all the material. I had a real good drummer, and we jammed together for about 3 years. Then we ended up breaking up because…I had some problems with the drummer and shit, we were pretty good friends, we went way back, but we started having problems so we couldn’t play together anymore. Shortly after that, that’s when I joined Hate Eternal, so it all kinda got put on the back burner.
Well you chose two of some of the best drummers out there right now to do the drumming for the album, Tony Laureano* from Nile and Derek from Hate Eternal. What was it like working with and bossing around these guys?
Jared Anderson: [laughs] Oh it was awesome, man. It was originally just supposed to be Tony to play on the whole record. I mean, I wasn’t going to use Derek cause he plays in Hate Eternal with me, it was just going to be me and Tony, but we got into the studio late. We got a late start, we started running over studio time and he had a plane to get, to get back to South Carolina cause he had some stuff to do with Nile.
Right.
Jared Anderson: So we ran over and we got put in a position where I would have had to wait for weeks…and I couldn’t cause I had to go on tour with Morbid Angel. So either I was going to have to wait for weeks or something, so Tony actually called Derek. He asked him if he would finish the other two tracks, and I asked him, and Derek came down the next day, and I showed him the tracks, and we worked on the songs for about 6 to 7 hours. And he learned them and he fuckin just layed them down in a couple of hours for me.
Damn!
Jared Anderson: Yeah. But yeah, it was great working with them.
How long did it take to record the album?
Jared Anderson: Well, the actual recording part, the tracking, that part only took a couple of weeks.
But how long have you been writing songs for the album?
Jared Anderson: Um…well, half the record was already written, it was written back in ’96-97.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: So half the record was already written, it was old material. The other half, I still had alot of stuff we were working on when we split up, I had alot of stuff going on, so I kind of resurrected that stuff and we wrote the rest of the record. So it actually, I had half the record written and I wrote the other half with alot of the riffs I already had in about…2 months.
Did you know of another band out there called Internecine? I think they’re a Hardcore band…
Jared Anderson: Somebody had said something about it, but I’ve had the name for so long, I’ve even got a huge backdrop with the name on it [we both laugh]. I mean, I’ve been using that name since…fuck…for 8 years. When somebody did say that to me I was just like, “Fuck it. I don’t give a fuck.” [I laugh] You know? I’m Internecine. That’s pretty much the attitude I have about it.
Yeah, some dumbass Hardcore band stealing from you.
Jared Anderson: Yeah! I was like, “Fuck, they don’t mean shit obviously.” [I laugh] You know, cause I had never fuckin heard of them. My manager said something to me and I was like, “Fuck, is there any way I can get in trouble or anything?” [I laugh] And he was like, “No, fuck ’em.” I mean, I don’t even know if they’re a signed band or not. So they obviously don’t mean too much.
They don’t mean shit.
Jared Anderson: Fuck it. I’m not going to drop the name because some “hardcore band” [says sarcastically] has it. [we both laugh]
If I only had enough money, lets say I only had $14. Which album should I pick up : the Internecine or the Hate Eternal?
Jared Anderson: Oh…I can’t really say that! [we laugh] I mean, fuckin both the records, they’re so much different, but they’re both fuckin brutal, I dunno, it depends on your flavor man. I wouldn’t know what to tell people in that situation. Either way it’s fine for me! [I laugh] Buy the Internecine, it works for me. Buy the Hate Eternal, it works for me. So it’s kind of a no-lose situation for both of us.
How has Hammerheart Records been to you?
Jared Anderson: They gave me a great deal. I licensed them the masters so I’m not really signed to a deal, I actually signed to the publishing. I licensed them the masters for 5 years, so I got a really good deal, so if after 5 years I don’t like what they’re doing with the record, if I don’t like what they’ve done with the record, then I can take the masters back and sell them to another label and have it re-released there. But so far, they’ve treated me good, they gave me a really good deal. I mean, the money was there…I mean, they were alittle late with the money, but other than that… That’s why I got forced to play guitar on the record, originally I was supposed to record in February, and my original guitar player/second vocalist, he was going to do the record. But he’s in college, he’s in graduate school. But I didn’t get in, I didn’t record the record ’till October. So, it kinda got put back, and he was just fresh back in school and he couldn’t do the record. That’s why I played guitars on the record, cause he couldn’t do it and I didn’t have time to find anybody to do it. I had the whole month of September to rehearse, so I had to pretty much pick up a guitar and just…
Learn it.
Jared Anderson: Yeah, just start going for it. Trying to remember all the old shit, all the demos, trying to figure out the old riffs… Most of it was drilled in my head so much that I remembered it pretty well anyways, except for a few things, I had to remember what the fuck I was doing. I even had to practice on-my-job [I laugh] cause I hadn’t played fuckin guitar seriously in a couple of years, you know, not trying to play through whole songs and shit, so it was, it was a bitch.
So that was the hardest aspect of making the record for you.
Jared Anderson: Oh yeah, fuck yeah, I mean, I had to prepare to play the guitar on the record in, like, weeks.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: I mean, it was ridiculous. Plus, I was practicing with Tony…it was pretty out-of-control. But I got my chops back to do the record, luckily, but it was chaos.
What’s your favorite Harry Potter book?
Jared Anderson: [he laughs] I dunno man…
What’s your favorite drink?
Jared Anderson: As far as alcoholic?
Yeah, sure.
Jared Anderson: I dunno…I’m mostly a beer person, but as far as like a mixed drink I like vodka and cranberries. Other than that it’s just fuckin Heinekin*.
What’s your favorite movie?
Jared Anderson: Scarface for sure.
I’ve got a friend who listens to alot of Pop music, Top 10 bullshit. How would you convince her to listen to your music and buy your CDs?
Jared Anderson: It would be hard to convince somebody cause it’s not meant for everybody. Most people don’t get it, and its not meant for everyone to get. Alot of it is so deep, alot of people dont have that depth in them. So for them to connect to the music would be literally impossible. So, to convince somebody to buy something…the only thing I try to do, I mean, even the people that don’t like it, atleast recognize the fucking talent.
EXACTLY.
Jared Anderson: I mean, if you don’t like it, that’s fine, it’s not meant for you to fuckin like, it’s not for you to put in your fuckin CD player, you know, put it fuckin….fuckin TLC [I explode in laughter] or whatever you’re listening to. Go ahead and put in your fuckin Eminem CDs, whatever, that’s cool, I have no problem with that. But atleast recognize the talent. That’s all I fuckin ask.
Exactly.
Jared Anderson: I don’t give a fuck if they like it or not, they need to recognize where some real talent lies. And that is in this kind of music and the bands that I play in are very talented. I mean, some of them are so talented that alot of people, they just don’t even get it anymore.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: Like, in the 80’s, that’s what I love about the 80’s so much, cause to be a guitarist in a band, you had to be a fuckin SHREDDER. You know, I mean, all these fuckin bands that had these guitars, were just fuckin outta control! You had to be good. Nowadays, you dont even have to be good to make fuckin- you dont have to be SHIT to play guitar for two fuckin years and write a KoRn song [I laugh] and make some cash, that’s not the way it used to be and that bothers me. That really bothers me.
I’m a drummer, and I think from my relatives and friends watching me play, watching me practice relentlessly, they’ve realized that this music takes talent to play.
Jared Anderson: Oh yeah.
But, then again, there are just some people that are like, “You’re just screaming, you’re just playing notes as fast as you can”…
Jared Anderson: They don’t get it, they don’t understand it. I mean, the way I do my vocals, I think they’re pretty understandable, I mean, I’m not real gutteral, I try to make them very understandable. But to the average listener, they’re not going to understand them. They don’t realize that the vocals in Death Metal are just like another instrument.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: With the power of the music, you have to have a powerful vocal. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work, it would sound like shit, you know? I mean, a person singing on it you would be going “What the fuck are they doing?” It would sound awful. So, alot of people don’t realize that the vocals are another instrument, used to create more power. You know, instead of “just screaming” or “yelling” whatever the fuck they call it, it’s really just another instrument. Just listen to it as a whole if you don’t like the vocals. Don’t try to fuckin sing along if you don’t understand what’s going on, just recognize it as another instrument.
Yesterday was 1 year after September 11th, after the attacks. Do you have any thoughts on this…
Jared Anderson: Well, I think it fuckin sucks it happened, it’s fucking awful it happened. But we didn’t fuckin retaliate, we didn’t fuckin do nothing about it. We shot a few missles at a couple of fuckin mountains… Maybe everyone should fuckin think about it a bit and do something instead of just havin fuckin memorials and shit…
Sitting on our asses right now…
Jared Anderson: We should fuckin do something about it. I mean, they just fuckin slapped us in the face and walked away so… Im sympathetic towards the people that died and the people’s families, I’m sympathetic towards them ofcourse. But as far as the actual thing of what it was, I mean, fuck it! I mean, we let it happen. They slipped through, they used our fuckin planes, they fuckin hit our fuckin buildings, and we did nothing about it, so I’m pretty much, “Fuck it.” I mean, if we’re that fuckin stupid, and we’re not going to do anything about it and retaliate then fuck it, that’s what we get.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: It’s stupid, I don’t understand. To me, I mean, we knew they fuckin did it, the whole fuckin country should have been fuckin destroyed, period.
[laughing] Yeah.
Jared Anderson: You know? I mean, when they did it with Pearl Harbor- to me, 9-11 is getting more fuckin attention that Pearl Harbor. People, they rarely fuckin talk about Pearl Harbor anymore.
Yeah, they make fucking romance movies out of it.
Jared Anderson: Yeah, there’s no “Pearl Harbor Day”. You know, 9-11 is going to turn into a fuckin national fuckin holiday. You could tell, yesterday all that was on TV was “One year anniversary” so you can tell it’s going to be a thing that’s going on every fuckin year. I mean, nobody talks about major wars and shit like Pearl Harbor.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: They talk about a couple of towers getting knocked down that we didn’t do shit about. We didn’t do shit about it. We sat there and fuckin watched George Bush send over a couple of planes, shoot a few missles, and fuckin didn’t do shit! IN MY EYES, you know? I mean, if he would’ve gone over there and fucked them, destroyed the whole fuckin country like he fuckin should have, then I would totally have different feelings about it. But when somebody fuckin smacks you in the face you walk away, how can you feel sorry for them?
Yeah, alot of people say shit like, “Well, you can’t destroy the entire country, there are innocent people over there…” and shit like that.
Jared Anderson: Well what about the innocent people over here?
Exactly.
Jared Anderson: You know what I mean? So fuck them. You took 3,000 of our people, we’ll take 3,000 of yours no problem. “Innocent people”? Those people were innocent. You know, you gotta play the game how they play the game. Otherwise, if you try to play the game as a good guy, you’re never going to get fuckin anywhere. “Oh, those people are innocent, we can’t do anything to them.” What about our fuckin people? I think we worry about other people too much instead of our own fuckin country.
Right.
Jared Anderson: We’ve got our troops fuckin helping other countries, while we’re sending money to other fuckin countries, while there are people over here that can’t even fuckin live. So maybe we should protect our own fuckin people and our own fuckin country and say, “Fuck everybody” and put them second and us first.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: And THEN, help out how we can. But atleast put our own fuckin people and our own fuckin country first, and if we cant fuckin do that then fuck ’em. [laughs] I mean, that’s pretty much my thoughts on it, “Fuck them, they’re all stupid.” Actually, I’m pretty disgusted about all that. “Oh, we’re at war!” Yeah, we’re at fuckin war, dude. Yeah, you really did something about it too, let me tell you. Fucking assholes…
[almost immediately] What’s your favorite color?
Jared Anderson: Green. [We both laugh a bit]
Thanks for answering that question. [we laugh] What’s the worst show you’ve ever played?
Jared Anderson: Oh man! Let me think about that one… [short pause] As far as just…the whole vibe and the crowd?
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: Okay…shit… Well, the most miserable show I’ve played was a fuckin…fest…in Germany…in the, uh…2000 No Mercy Festivals. It was like, 130 fuckin degrees inside the club…
Damn…
Jared Anderson: And there was this curtain, like where the dressing room was, and when you walked through that curtain it was like walkin through a wall of fuckin water. [laughs] I mean, it was fuckin…it was so fuckin hot you couldn’t even breathe. And I remember being on stage, and after the third song, I lost my fuckin vision…
[laughs] Damn!
Jared Anderson: I was fuckin holding on to my amp just to fuckin keep myself up, I fell down to one knee, I was so fuckin hot I thought I was going to have a heat stroke and pass the fuck out… That was fuckin miserable, that was so fuckin miserable at that show. I’ll never forget that motherfucker, that place, that fuckin sucked.
[laughs]
Jared Anderson: It was mad, man. We had to get through 6 more songs so I was like, “FUUUCK!” [laughs harder] “You gotta be fuckin kidding me!” I mean, I couldn’t breathe to do vocals, it was just rough man, yeah, definately that Fest in Germany.
So, what was your best show then?
Jared Anderson: I’ve had alot of good ones…the best- I mean…fuck! [laughs] Oh man…[laughs] Oh fuck… Alright, probably…
That San Antonio show!
Jared Anderson: Yeah, that was a good show. [laughs] Probably the most memorable show was when I played, the first time I played Chicago with Morbid Angel. That’s the area I’m from. So, we’re going up there and it’s packed…and it just went fuckin sick. You know, I had been to a big theater, I saw Slayer and saw alot of bands when I was young, so to be able to play in a big theater in a packed house, it was fuckin ballistic. It was fuckin great. That was probably the most memorable, cause it was my home town. And it was just a fuckin sick show…people on stage going sick, it was just fuckin…it was killer.
So, what are you going to be doing in the near future?
Jared Anderson: Im going to be off October, then I gotta get back in “tour mode” for November and December. I’ve been doing so much fuckin touring, after the Morbid Angel thing, we toured for a fuckin year straight, pretty much. Then directly after that jumping on this Hate Eternal thing, so I’ve been on the road for quite awhile now, so it’s been tough.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: So I get home and started to relaxe and just…whatever…
Have you been listening to anything lately that you’ve liked? Whats the last record you picked up?
Jared Anderson: Well, I got the new Nile, I got that on tour with them before it was released, that’s a fuckin great record. The new Origin, I’ve been listening to that, that’s fuckin out of control. Other than that…I heard the new Immolation…
Oh, you did?!
Jared Anderson: When we played New York, fuckin Ross brought it out to this dude who was selling Merch for Arch Enemy, I heard it the next day. The new Immolation is fuckin sick.
I can’t wait to hear that.
Jared Anderson: Yeah, the production is fuckin- they finally got that killer fuckin production. I mean, I love Immolation, they’re one of my favorite bands, but I’ve always thought they’ve lacked in production. Like the kick drums, I mean, it always kinda sounded…ugh… [laughs] Yeah. You know what I mean? The music is fuckin killer, but the fuckin production is awesome, it sounds fuckin sick. I can’t wait to sit down and actually listen to it. But other than that…I mean, I’m into older shit. I listen to Deicide – Legion, “Altars Of Madness” “blessed” , fuckin old Malevolent, you know?
Yeah, definately.
Jared Anderson: I listen to alot of old shit, I mean, I like some newer bands, but I’m more into the old shit, Gorguts, Suffocation. They’ve had some impact on me, when I was young, and nothing’s had that ever since. I mean, Vader – De Profundis, that record got me. I love that fuckin record. There are few records that came out in, I dont know, last 5-7 years that actually just hammered me, like, “Wow.” Just totally fuckin blew me away.
What do you think of Suffocation reforming?
Jared Anderson: I think its great! I mean, I’m interested in fuckin hearing it. I had a period of time, for like 2 years, where Suffocation were my favorite fuckin band. ‘Pierced From Within’ was just so fuckin heavy…
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: That record’s so fuckin heavy man. It’s definately not the fastest, it’s definately not this, it’s definately not that… But, man. As far as just being brutally fuckin heavy, that album just takes the cake. So I think it’s fucking awesome Suffocation getting back together. I mean, I want to see it.
Yeah, definatly want to catch them on tour.
Jared Anderson: Fuck yeah man. I used to drive like 3-4 hours to Metalfests, to see Suffocation, like back when I was doing the Internecine thing before Hate Eternal, I would drive hours to see Suffocation, I just think they’re fuckin sick.
Are there any questions that you hate? Any questions you are tired of being asked?
Jared Anderson: Yeah, there’s definately a few. Alot of the interviews have alot of the same questions. Actually, you haven’t asked alot of those questions.
Yeah, I tried to avoid that shit.
Jared Anderson: Yeah, you’ve been avoiding alot of the questions I get asked all the fuckin time. You know, the questions I get all the time are shit like, “So, what’s your priority : Internecine or Hate Eternal?” “Why did you leave Morbid Angel?” I get that one alot. Im sick of fuckin… I mean, I have to answer the question because alot of people don’t know the answers. So I understand them asking, but goddamn, Ive been asked that question so many fuckin times. You know, I actually put out a press release explaining the Morbid Angel thing.
[laughs] You did?
Jared Anderson: Yeah, just explaining that I didn’t want to do Morbid Angel. I mean, I wanted to do the new record, but I didn’t know if I was going to be able to fuckin devote 100% of my time to Morbid Angel. I’ve got alot of respect for Trey and Pete*, and for me to do the record and get 6 months down the road and decide it’s not what I want to do, it would be unfair for them.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: Then they’d be in a fucked situation, going, “What the fuck? Another guy’s gone.” So I just avoided the whole thing and said, “Fuck it.” I mean, maybe alot of people would want to do a Morbid Angel record just to put their fuckin face on a Morbid Angel record, but I wasn’t about that, I don’t give a fuck about that. I just want to fuckin play what I want to play, I gotta be able to have input. With Internecine, I write everything, I’ve had that since I fuckin started, that’s my fuckin baby. With Hate Eternal, I get alot of input, I wrote 20-25% of the new record. With Morbid Angel, I’m not really going to be able to have too much input, and I can’t be a puppet on strings, so I just said, “Fuck it.”
Thanks for answering that question. So, on a 1 to 10 scale, how would you rate this interview?
Jared Anderson: Oh, it was fuckin killer! It was really good, you avoided alot of the fuckin questions I get asked all the time and I’m sure with these other interviews I do I’ll be asked some of them. You’ve actually asked some different questions that are actually kinda cool! [laughs]
Thanks!
Jared Anderson: Everybody else is just fuckin…hitting the same things, you know…just…eh…
Yeah. So, is there anything you want to say or mention before we go?
Jared Anderson: I just hope people enjoy the record…
Definately.
Jared Anderson: You know, for what it is. Realize what it is, realize that Hate Eternal isn’t the only thing I can do, Morbid Angel isn’t the only thing I can do, as far as musically inclined. I have a very fuckin wide fuckin range of music, and I think this record has proven that. I can write fuckin songs, I dont have to sound like anybody. I don’t have to rip-off Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal. I don’t have to sound like Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal.
Yeah.
Jared Anderson: So I just hope people enjoy the record for what it is, we’re done doing the Hate Eternal, I’ll be piecing together a band and hopefully get out there and do some shows. I mean, this wasnt just a one time thing, is what I’m trying to say. It’s not just a record I did just to fuckin do. This wasn’t a solo project and then thats it. It’s not like that. It’s not a solo record, it wasn’t meant to be like that, it’s not going to be like that. So I hope people enjoy the record and I’ll be seeing them out on the road, we’re going on tour with Cannibal Corpse in November/December, so I’ll see you all then!
Huge, HUGE thanks to Jared for the interview, this was really great. Internecine currently don’t have a website, but you can buy their CD and cool shit from their label, Hammerheart Records.
http://www.hammerheart.com
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