VOID OF TOLERANCE - (Before I started the recorder Klank mentioned about preparing for a tour...so more than likely you can figure on your own what questioned I asked ). 
KLANK - Well, every thing is a bit up in the air right now. We’re looking about mid March to mid April, then taking a week off, then go back out. It depends on who the agent can hook us up with. We’ve been trying to get a decent tour, but if your label doesn’t have forty thousand dollars to buy you onto a tour, then you don’t get a good spot. We’re trying to work it out, if we don’t get nothing big, we are going to be doing smaller tours ourselves. I don’t care where I play as long as I play. 

VOT - So you have a full ‘live’ band! 
KLANK - Yes, four members. Actually, the other three members are from the West Coast. It worked out kind of weird, I couldn’t find anybody here in New York. 

VOT - Let’s get to your latest release, “Still Suffering”, how did that album come about, like with the lyrics. I saw that a lot of them were real personal and that I saw a lot in them that I could relate to. That’s what really interested me about the lyrics, especially the song “Deceived”, which is one of my favorite songs. 
KLANK - Cool. That was one of the most personal ones on there. I can’t just sit down and say that I’m going to write about one certain subject. I just sit down and go with my emotions. If I’m happy I write about something happy, but there isn’t too much happy stuff on the album. I wrote this at a time when I was thinking of a lot of things, getting over stuff that was going on in my life, and crap in my life. Like my last band, CIRCLE OF DUST, had broken up and our old record label had rail-roaded us into like eight thousand dollars worth of debt. There was so much going on and I was flipping out. I would then slowly put down stuff on paper. I don’t know, it all was kind of wacky thing, I sent a tape with rough versions of two songs, “Leave” and “Down Side” to Brandon at Tooth & Nail Records, cus I’ve known him for a couple of years. I went to California and when I first met him he said he heard that I was doing something and he wanted to check it out. I showed him a little bit of what I had then, which was more Heavy Metalish. He said he was more of a Punk label and that he didn’t have too much room for metal stuff. He told me when I got something new to let him know. I went on and later he kept coming around asking if I had anything new. Especially when CIRCLE OF DUST was at it’s peak and then which eventually fell off the face of the earth, he got in contact with me and I told him I had something that was really rough. He said he didn’t care and told me to send it to him so I sent him a tape. Then I happened to be in Nashville producing a Punk Rock band in a studio and Brandon tracked me down at the studio on the phone and said he wanted to sign me. 

VOT - You mentioned about your previous band, CIRCLE OF DUST, the first time I heard of that band was on a R.E.X. compilation CD, at that time I wanted to get something with the band, then the next thing I hear is that C.O.D. was no more...... 
KLANK - Yeah, the label basically went under, and all kind of stuff went on.

VOT - .......so, what happened from CIRCLE OF DUST to getting your own thing going? KLANK -CIRCLE OF DUST ended about a year ago. It was pretty rough, I was like thinking ‘Aw man, where I’m I going to work now, Burger King?’ Some friends of mine in a Hardcore band out of Cleveland called SIX FEET DEEP had a tour coming up and their guitar player quit and asked if I was interested in going. I took a week and a half listening to their CD over and over and learned the stuff. We went out there and basically it was a good form of therapy for me. Going out there and playing in front of people and talking to fans that had heard that I might be doing my own thing just assured me that I needed to get off my ass and get going. And now the end result is the CD. It's been out for only a few weeks and from what I know KLANK in C.O.D. it’s been doing pretty well. 

VOT - Yeah, I was just about to ask you about that, the response to the CD. 
KLANK - It’s been only out for six weeks but it’s been really, really good. I get a lot of e-mail from people telling me that they like it. 

VOT - You mentioned earlier about producing some band earlier. So is that something else that you do, produce other bands material? 
KLANK - At times when it's something I feel I can do with out it being too hard. It's not that I don't like a good challenge but there's some stuff that I don't wanna bite off more than I can chew. What do I got to lose.
 
VOT - During the recording process of Still Suffering, how did every thing go for that and are you satisfied with it.
KLANK - It was good. It was weird, it was a studio but it wasn't like you were paying seven hundred dollars for a studio. It was my friend Scott, that was the singer from CIRCLE OF DUST, that ws his house, his studio. I'm glad I did it their first because I was more relaxed, wasn't like being there with someone I didn't know, and I'm totally happy with the end results. We both agree, Scott and me, that it's his best programming that's up to date

VOT - On the programming and the music for the album, did you do everything or did you have help, like with Scott?
KLANK - Well, Scott did the programming cus I'm not that great with it yet. I had the ideas with the way I wanted it to sound like when we went in, and there were certain things he did that he worked on that I wanted more of a certain feel to go with it. But I'm really happy with the way it came out. Really pleased with it, for a change!

VOT - Why is that, previous releases or ......
KLANK - Well, there was so much garbage with the label and every time we made plans for something they agreed to it then changed their mind. So much garbage. TOOTH & NAIL are really cool so far, I'm really happy about it.

VOT - You mentioned earlier about being on the computer and checking your e-mail. Could you mention what the address is and do you have your own site?
KLANK - Yeah. My e-mail address is klanksta@aol.com or klanksta@juno.com. My web site is http://geocities.datacellar.net/sunsetstrip/9433. It's done by a really cool fan in Florida.

VOT - I was looking at the cd and the first page of it with the writings from you, your views, your feelings. When I first read it I felt there was an understanding in it, with you, in life.....
KLANK - The label calls it my disclaimer but I told them I don't have anything to disclaim. Some people get stuff and some people don't. With me, I just wanted to tell people what I felt. With anything in life there is stuff you see and there is stuff you don't understand. But just because you don't understand it don't cross it out, don't write it off. Look deeper into it, try and see the stuff that is there. I'm not telling anyone what the songs are about, that's the whole purpose of looking deep and getting our own meaning. Even the label doesn't know what there about. It is more personal to who ever is reading, hearing it. Why should I kill your meaning of what you got out of it if I tell you it wasn't what you thought. If you got something out of it then good, it doesn't have to be what I originally thought.

VOT - There was a lot that I was that I could pertain in my life. i told someone about one of the songs, Betrayed, he read the lyrics and heard the song and he felt it meant something else in his life.
KLANK - That's cool, I appreciate the fact that you can see it. Some people have a hard time with it. Some people think it is too dark, too depressive, too hate filled. i don't see it as hate filled. What's wrong with someone being honest, telling you exactly what they think.

VOT - I remember reading the bio that you signed the contract in blood, you actually do that?
KLANK - Yeah. Sliced my hand and did it. Too prove a point to them that I'm no joke. I know people that 'Oh it's cool to get a record deal.' yeah, it's cool but record deals just don't grow on trees, it's all about being sincere and being real, and I'm not a joke. It's not like they were going to treat me like one but I wanted them to know I was serious. I wanted them to know I wasn't happy go lucky, where nothing matters. To me music is everything. I want people to see how serious I was and am..

VOT - Any new material that is being thought about?
KLANK - Well, I can tell you that there is a remix CD out with the original version of "Downside", two remixes of it and two remixes of "Animosity" by Scott.

VOT - Is there anything else that hasn't been said that needs to?
KLANK - Just that if you haven't heard the CD, check it out, listen to it and hopefully you will dig it. I've gotten back from a lot of people that normally don't listen to this style of music that say they dig it. That's very complimentary to me. Also, my P.O. Box, for merchandise is 223, Farmingdale, NY., 11735, USA.

VOT - Well, I appreciate this little talk, thank you.
KLANK - Yeah mark, i totally appreciate it. have a good day.
 
 

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