Interview by Rachel Jablonski
The Spore by Opiate for the Masses is thus far one of the best albums of the year. And when I said as much to the band’s very passionate, very smart, very cool musical mastermind Jim Kaufman I seemed to catch him slightly off guard. From there we were able to chat about the amazing release, a brief rundown of his composition techniques, and his not so trendy haircut. Wrapping up a tour with Drowning Pool, soon to be on this summer’s Warped Tour and a radio single hitting airwaves soon, be looking for The Spore to quickly spread.
Rachel: How does it feel to have, in my opinion, the best album out so far this year?
Jim: Wow, thank you. We’re happy with the record, we’re really excited. It took a long time for us to get to a place where we were able to make that record. It was kind of a painful and a long process giving birth to it, but now that it’s done and it’s out we’re the happiest band in the world. I really appreciate that.
Rachel: What was the process like making the album? Especially given the fact that it was self produced?
Jim: We were on tour all last year and we wrote while we were on the road. I would do demos, write demos on my computer. When it came time we realized we had the songs put together. The Spore is just kinda like a story, you know. We started realizing that we were writing pieces of our lives down in these songs. We had a big whiteboard in the studio and I took it with us on the road. As I wrote down songs, I started writing them as I saw them and in what order. Then we started writing to fill the holes of the story that weren’t being told. So we did some concept writing at the end there. Then we tidied up the material, getting everyone to know the parts. Even some of the lyrics weren’t done when we went in to record the music. We went into El Dorado studios in Burbank and tracked the music for six days starting like June 12th of last year. There was like six days of basic tracking and then I did editing for about a week and a half at my house. Then we did vocals and another three weeks of mixing. But we also went on tour as well during this time. We’d go on the Warped Tour, then we’d come back and work, then we’d go out so it was a long process, but it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. So it’s great.
Rachel: How does the album tell your story? I mean is it mainly your story or a collective story or what story is it telling?
Jim: I think it’s just really the story of any living thing; it’s the story of life. Like at the beginning of the album in “Introduction,” the slightest breeze will spread disease you breathe it in it takes you to your knees, and then the last part of the album is “The End” and it says you can’t always count on another day – you fall to the ground and blow away, we’ve come to the end. So it’s just really about the natural part of how death equals life and life equals death, the circle of life. There are some parts of the story that are personal, things that have happened to me or things that have happened to Ron, but some of it is just what happens to people, what happens to living things. I take it very personally and Ron takes it very personally as well, but I guess anybody could take it personally, ya know?
Rachel: Then in the middle of the life and death you get a woman with thirty-two teeth and a daughter and a picket fence… [laugh]
Jim: Right. The beginning of the story is about being born and realizing, for us, realizing that we’re musicians. We’re artists and we don’t really fit into the regular culture, but society is still telling you to do something while you’re growing up and you have to realize in the middle of your life which way you’re going to go. That’s where “Step Up” fits in. You kind of already realize you’re fucked up [laugh] and you’re an artist, but you could still pull the 9 to 5. You realize that you can’t, for me I would die if I had to do that. I have to be an artist you know?
Rachel: Tell me about it. 9 to 5 sucks man. Well cool. So you’re just following your dream, sticking down that path, but you can still see the other side.
Jim: Exactly.
Rachel: I was going to ask you what means most to you about this album, but I guess that pretty much sums it up, huh?
Jim: Yeah, it captures everything that I have lived and that the band’s been through as a project, as human beings. I’m proud of the album.
Rachel: It’s awesome. How long have you guys been together?
Jim: Opiate for the Masses has been together for six years.
Rachel: Ok and you have a previous EP called Goodbye?
Jim: We have a full length record that we did when we were eighteen called New Machines and the Wasted Life that we put out just in Phoenix. And then we have two EPs, one was called Seven and then the last one we did was called Goodbye, which Charlie Clouser produced. And then we did The Spore which is our first national release.
Rachel: Can people find those previous albums somewhere?
Jim: If they dig, yeah. Ebay, you can usually get copies of that on ebay. Goodbye we did 20,000 copies of, same with New Machine. Seven I can only find occasionally.
Rachel: I’m going to have to look. What’s the significance of the title "The Spore?"
Jim: Well it’s about the life process. We pretty much died giving birth to this album, ya know? And then a new thing was born, that new thing is the album. It’s just like when mold takes over an entity. It kills it and then it dries it out and then poof, like in the wind, a single spore carries on the mold to a different entity. You know what I mean? So the spore is like us dying and giving birth to this record which is either it’s going to blow into the right field and spread or it’s not.
Rachel: That’s cool. I didn’t think of it like that. You have a lot of audio samples and electronics and stuff throughout the album. Where did you pull most of the vocal samples from?
Jim: Uh, it depends. I’m a sampling dork. I mean I could sit there all night and play with them. I go to the library and get old speeches and old movies and all kinds of stuff, old records. I’m a huge fan of electronics and techno so my sample library is pretty big.
Rachel: You just keep your eyes open and then if it fits you use it?
Jim: Yeah, pretty much. I just hear it, ya know. When I hear a piece of audio, even just sound... One time I was in San Francisco and they were doing construction right? They were using this huge, huge hammer, it wasn’t really a hammer, but that was what it was doing – a big crane fuckin thing. They would shoot it 30 feet in the air and then it would slam down on this huge steel pipe. You could hear the initial attack and then it would reverberate off of all the different buildings that were spaced out. So it was a cool audio sample. I came back the next day when they were doing construction and I set up a stereo mic. I got out of a taxi and I heard that sound and I thought woah I need that. I could just hear it in a song already. I mean that’s how it is with audio for me. When I’m watching a movie or listening to a record, even if I hear just a half of a second that I can stretch out or manipulate, I hear it already placed. It’s crazy.
Rachel: Did you ever use that sample of the construction?
Jim: Not on The Spore, but yeah I’ve used it a couple times in some of the electronic stuff I do.
Rachel: Cool. Since your album is so involved with the intricate drumming, electronics, and vocals and stuff how do you guys recreate it live?
Jim: Well we play to a sequencer that’s doing the electronic beats and stuff and we have a great drummer and a great vocalist.
Rachel: Well and guitar player!
Jim: Yeah, I mean we practice. [laugh] We have the ability to play the tapes so all those beats and all that shit that I can’t pull off… that no one can it’s a drum machine ya know? So it has to all be sequenced.
Rachel: I’m just interested, I’m an Electrical Engineer, and how do you use the sequencer?
Jim: Well what I do is after I’m done making the record, I go into the rehearsal space and then I basically have the band come in and play the parts. I mute out the parts as they’re playing to figure out what we can play and what we can’t. Ok, so let’s say I’m playing guitar while there’s a keyboard part going. I can’t do that, I don’t have a third arm, ya know what I mean? So whatever I can’t mute out stays on the sequence. And then I automate it and I queue it to the band in a live situation. Then I take the stereo feed of that and I send it to a, right now we’re using a VS880 which was made by Roland six years ago. It’s an old piece of gear, but it works. It’s just got markers. Then I take a third channel which is a click and I send that to it as well so my drummer hears a click in his headphones and he’s right on with the sequence.
Rachel: That’s awesome. That stuff is interesting to me, but anyway… Ok someone really needs to update your website. I was just looking at the dates on the site and then right before you called me I looked on Pollstar and I’m like oh my god they’re going to be in Davenport like next Saturday. I would have missed it!
Jim: I know, I know. Yeah, we’ll get on that right now.
Rachel: So now I can see you on the 21st. I didn’t think I was going to get to see you guys play anytime soon.
Jim: Awesome. Well I can’t wait to meet you then. That’s cool.
Rachel: So you’re on tour with Drowning Pool, Dry Kill Logic, and 10 Years, but before that you were on the Taste of Chaos tour with Killswitch Engage among others. This tour was prior to the release of your latest disc. How was the response given most people had not yet heard your new material?
Jim: The response was great. Being on the road with those bands was awesome for us. The My Chemical Romance guys and us go way back and everyone was really, really cool. It was good. We were playing on the acoustic stage so the response was good. The kids got a pretty good idea of what the band is about I hope and it was all right. It’s definitely different being the road when your album is out you know. It blows my mind to be in some town we’ve never played before and kids bring the disc that they bought at Best Buy or whatever for us to sign. It’s so great seeing kids sing the lyrics. It’s amazing.
Rachel: Good. Do you play strictly from The Spore now or do you pull anything else out?
Jim: Our set that we’re playing right now are songs just from The Spore. When we do Pheonix shows, headlining shows in our hometown, we’ll bust out some older stuff, but we’re probably sticking to The Spore material as of now. We’ve been writing a lot of new stuff so if we were going to play anything I’d like to try out some of the newer material that we have been working on.
Rachel: So you’re already anticipating your next album?
Jim: Yeah, we’ve been working on remixes as well for The Spore. We have a studio on the bus that we travel on so we’re writing every day and I don’t want to stop. As soon as we’re done touring which I don’t anticipate being any time soon, but when we are I think we will go right into the studio and record the next one.
Rachel: How did your new drummer, Seven, get into the band?
Jim: Ryan Head, our bass player, and Ron Underwood, our singer, and I are original members of the band, but Seven recently joined the project. He was a long time friend of the band. We had our drummer Elias that we were with since we started, but he was getting cold feet every time we’d go out to tour. He’d almost quit. He just really wasn’t into touring with this project. So we got Seven about nine months ago and he’s just unbelievable. Elias recorded on the album, our old drummer, and Seven came in shortly there after.
Rachel: How did you meet Seven?
Jim: We’ve known him for awhile. We live in Los Angeles now and he was in Los Angeles trying out for a bunch of different bands. I went out and I saw him play at The Roxy, he was playing with some band, and the second I saw him I thought dude I want to play with that guy. About a year later I finally got him to join the band.
Rachel: You’re anticipating the Warped Tour. How do you think it’ll be different than last year? What are you expecting? Are you doing every date?
Jim: Yeah, we’re playing the entire Warped Tour. Last year we hadn’t played in a lot of those markets and since then we’ve played most of the cities that we’ll be playing. We’ve really tried to develop a fan base and I’m really just expecting this to be a good tour for us this summer. I’m happy to be a part of it. It’s a good family of people and we love it so we’re just looking to have a good time just like we did last year.
Rachel: Besides religion, what do you see as a societal opiate that maybe a good majority of people do not realize to be so?
Jim: It could be anything you know what I mean? Anything people just follow. Even music can be… it is an opiate for the masses. The whole point is to try to get people to think for themselves and not listen to what society is telling them to do, you know? It’s like I get pissed off about bands that… if you have the right haircut and the right name right now you can be one of the bigger bands in the world, you know what I mean? We’re not like that. Anything could be an opiate and unfortunately music is. It’s a good question. People are pressured into thinking that they have to do what everyone else does. I mean it’s bullshit.
Rachel: Are you saying you don’t have a good haircut? [laugh]
Jim: No, I like my haircut.
Rachel: [laugh] Ok, just checking.
Jim: Yeah, I don’t have like the bangs in my face, I have long dreadlocks. That was just an example.
Rachel: Is there anything else you want to add? That’s all I have.
Jim: Ya know, just check out the website. We’ll be updating it and check out the MySpace page. And the radio should be playing one of our songs here soon so keep your ears open.
Rachel: What’s your first single?
Jim: Um, I don’t know right now. It’s either “Up to Me” or “Drown.” We’ve kind of been going with “Up to Me,” but “Drown” seems to be taking off as well so I don’t know. We will see. What do you think?
Rachel: I don’t know. I always say at the end of my reviews what tracks I would most highly recommend and I couldn’t separate any songs from the entire album in your case. I think it is best listened to in full.
Jim: Thank you so much, that’s what we were going for. Well I look forward to seeing you in Iowa and thank you very much for the interview, it’s great.
Rachel: Thank you! Congrats on a great album. I’m pure pumped to see your live show. See ya soon!