Submitted by Chris Milos, guitarist and vocalist of Mass Punishment. This metal/thrash band is based in NJ and can be seen at venues around the state. To check out music from Mass Punishment, please visit myspace.com/absolutemasspunishment.
1. What was the first record/cassette/CD that you owned and how did it change you? I grew up listening to what my parents listened to back in the early-mid 80's. In 1988 I was in 6th grade and bought my 1st cassette tape without the help from mom and dad. It was actually in the lunch room during school, off of this dork Bob, but anyway he sold me 2 tapes Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" and "Master Of Puppets". Until then the heaviest stuff I heard was "Where Not Gonna Take It" from Twisted Sister. I must say Master Of Puppets blew me away. Instantly I was a Die Hard Metallica fan and a metalhead for life.
2. If you could pick any musician's brain over a beer, who would it be? I don't really know if you'd want to replace beer with anyones brain (haha). But I do find Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe to be very intelectual (not to exclude the rest of his camp) and I would also go with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, another politically aware mastermind.
3. What would the name of your band's biography be? MASS PUNISHMENT: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!
4. Which musician would you be most comfortable dating your mom? Yeah right! I don't think so! My mother knew better. (haha)
5. Name your dream tour: up to 5 bands, dead or alive. In order from opener to headliner MASS PUNISHMENT, DEVIL DRIVER, LAMB OF GOD, SLIPKNOT, SLAYER! HOSTILE TAKEOVER TOUR! On second thought make us the headliner, that'll happen. (hahaha)
6. How would it feel to play with your favorite band? It would be like a dream yet on the other hand, a long time coming so lets conquer and kill the show everynight!
7. What's the funniest moment your band has ever experienced? Funny or sad? I guess we could laugh about it but we played this benefit show for a Navy Fleetclub. They were not as prepared as they thought as there was no drum riser and no carpet either. So about 45 seconds into our 1st song the drums fall apart as the whole kit slid away from Eric our drummer knocking over cymbal stands. It looked like a bomb went off. So I walk up to the mic and said to my wife who was in the audience "Honey, can you pull the car around." Everyone laughed but I am not even sure if I was joking at the time.
8. … the craziest/most bizarre? Well nothing outrageous to date but there have been instances where 1 of the 4 of us show late to a show, never delaying the show but making it there with just enough time to set up and soundcheck. But the 1st time we played DON HILLS in NYC was a horrible as our drummer was the 1st one there and 3 of us who made wrong turns here and there showed up @ the same time in front of the venue 15 min. after we were supposed to be on. The promoter was not happy and we rushed our equip through the door and 10 min. later the show started. Not our best show with minimal time to prepare. We have alot of stage equip and props so it was not easy.
9. Who are you musically influenced by that no one would ever guess by listening to your music? Some things are better just left unsaid. (hahaha)
10. Tell us about the most unique member of your band and why he/she has earned this title. Each of the 4 of us I think have a great amount of uniqueness to them. But my drummer definitely is a little more disconnected than the rest of us. All can be right with the world but he will still have an issue.. One issue that sticks out is in MASS PUN. have a uniform and its a problem for him, he wheres it anyway (half assed) but he will complain and complain until your ears bleed. So we said fine don't wear the uniform but now your gonna have to wear a helmet. So the joke is...."WHERES YOUR HELMET?!?" Or I'll just call him helmet.
11. If someone invested a million dollars into your band, how would you use the money? Well that would be friggn awesome. Wisely, I would say we would definitely take the world by storm. With that much invested in us, sky is the limit.
12. How do you feel being on stage when the audience is having an amazing time? I have many reasons not to be in a serious band. I'm a family man, so it takes time away from them and not to mention the price of good equipment and the gas and practice and more gas, you know at this point in the game its a money pit and you need to really fight to hold on to your sanity. But when the equipment is turned on and the lights come on and you soundcheck and you go into the songs that you put heart and soul into. To see people recieve you well and return that energy to you, in that moment it becomes all worth the effort.
13. Which 5 songs would you cover if you had a cover band? Well I would never do a cover band but we do throw a cover into our set list to give our audience something familiar. Right now we do Territory from Seplultura and in the future I see something from Pantera, Megadeth, maybe a Metallica song and my Bass player Matt has this idea to do a Cranberries song "Zombie" but that'll take some creativiy and effort as its not even a metal tune.
14. If you swapped ipods with other members of your band, what's the most surprising music you'd find? Well we don't have Ipods but I did just say that our bass player wants to do a Cranberries tune. (hahaha)
15. Name the place you'd most like to play a show, anywhere in the world. Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Korea and just about anywhere our troops are deployed. We are looking to get on the USO tour to do shows for our troops. I am ex-Army myself and was sent to Kuwait for 6 months desert training when in March of '03 we crossed the border to Iraq and fought to Baghdad. Its one of the main focuses of MASS PUNISHMENT.
16. What's the most memorable musicial moment of your life? I've had a few of em. But as far as metal goes Slipknot put some crazy amount of effort into their live shows.
17. If you got a band tattoo, which band would it be? MASS PUNISHMENT!!! other than my own probably Slayer!
18. Tell us a situation where another band really helped you out. Warcrime/Anticosm helped us by lending their bass player Chris to us for a show that Matt was not gonna be able to play. He's really cool, he's not even into us but he's just a cool guy who wanted to help us out. Thanks Chris!
19. What moment has made all of the hard work being a musician worth it? My daughters came to see 1 of our shows and they had the time of their life and to see how much fun they had while their father was kickn butt on stage was a great moment for me to tell myself, if I wasn't doing this they would've missed out so for them to have my legacy when I am gone, that makes it worth while.
20. If your band was a comic, what would each member's super power be? Matt my bass player would be called CAPTAIN OBVIOUS, clearly able to state the obvious no matter what the situation is. Erick our singer would be like Vanity Smurf, all braun no brain so I would call him Mr. MUSCLEHEAD able to break your neck but not before checking himself in the mirror 1st. My drummer Eric or HELMET as we'll call him able to complain at a rate that'll make the ordinary human wanna stick and icepick into their earholes. I guess I could be CAPTAIN AMERICA, the terrorist hunter!
2. If you could pick any musician's brain over a beer, who would it be? I don't really know if you'd want to replace beer with anyones brain (haha). But I do find Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe to be very intelectual (not to exclude the rest of his camp) and I would also go with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, another politically aware mastermind.
3. What would the name of your band's biography be? MASS PUNISHMENT: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!
4. Which musician would you be most comfortable dating your mom? Yeah right! I don't think so! My mother knew better. (haha)
5. Name your dream tour: up to 5 bands, dead or alive. In order from opener to headliner MASS PUNISHMENT, DEVIL DRIVER, LAMB OF GOD, SLIPKNOT, SLAYER! HOSTILE TAKEOVER TOUR! On second thought make us the headliner, that'll happen. (hahaha)
6. How would it feel to play with your favorite band? It would be like a dream yet on the other hand, a long time coming so lets conquer and kill the show everynight!
7. What's the funniest moment your band has ever experienced? Funny or sad? I guess we could laugh about it but we played this benefit show for a Navy Fleetclub. They were not as prepared as they thought as there was no drum riser and no carpet either. So about 45 seconds into our 1st song the drums fall apart as the whole kit slid away from Eric our drummer knocking over cymbal stands. It looked like a bomb went off. So I walk up to the mic and said to my wife who was in the audience "Honey, can you pull the car around." Everyone laughed but I am not even sure if I was joking at the time.
8. … the craziest/most bizarre? Well nothing outrageous to date but there have been instances where 1 of the 4 of us show late to a show, never delaying the show but making it there with just enough time to set up and soundcheck. But the 1st time we played DON HILLS in NYC was a horrible as our drummer was the 1st one there and 3 of us who made wrong turns here and there showed up @ the same time in front of the venue 15 min. after we were supposed to be on. The promoter was not happy and we rushed our equip through the door and 10 min. later the show started. Not our best show with minimal time to prepare. We have alot of stage equip and props so it was not easy.
9. Who are you musically influenced by that no one would ever guess by listening to your music? Some things are better just left unsaid. (hahaha)
10. Tell us about the most unique member of your band and why he/she has earned this title. Each of the 4 of us I think have a great amount of uniqueness to them. But my drummer definitely is a little more disconnected than the rest of us. All can be right with the world but he will still have an issue.. One issue that sticks out is in MASS PUN. have a uniform and its a problem for him, he wheres it anyway (half assed) but he will complain and complain until your ears bleed. So we said fine don't wear the uniform but now your gonna have to wear a helmet. So the joke is...."WHERES YOUR HELMET?!?" Or I'll just call him helmet.
11. If someone invested a million dollars into your band, how would you use the money? Well that would be friggn awesome. Wisely, I would say we would definitely take the world by storm. With that much invested in us, sky is the limit.
12. How do you feel being on stage when the audience is having an amazing time? I have many reasons not to be in a serious band. I'm a family man, so it takes time away from them and not to mention the price of good equipment and the gas and practice and more gas, you know at this point in the game its a money pit and you need to really fight to hold on to your sanity. But when the equipment is turned on and the lights come on and you soundcheck and you go into the songs that you put heart and soul into. To see people recieve you well and return that energy to you, in that moment it becomes all worth the effort.
13. Which 5 songs would you cover if you had a cover band? Well I would never do a cover band but we do throw a cover into our set list to give our audience something familiar. Right now we do Territory from Seplultura and in the future I see something from Pantera, Megadeth, maybe a Metallica song and my Bass player Matt has this idea to do a Cranberries song "Zombie" but that'll take some creativiy and effort as its not even a metal tune.
14. If you swapped ipods with other members of your band, what's the most surprising music you'd find? Well we don't have Ipods but I did just say that our bass player wants to do a Cranberries tune. (hahaha)
15. Name the place you'd most like to play a show, anywhere in the world. Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Korea and just about anywhere our troops are deployed. We are looking to get on the USO tour to do shows for our troops. I am ex-Army myself and was sent to Kuwait for 6 months desert training when in March of '03 we crossed the border to Iraq and fought to Baghdad. Its one of the main focuses of MASS PUNISHMENT.
16. What's the most memorable musicial moment of your life? I've had a few of em. But as far as metal goes Slipknot put some crazy amount of effort into their live shows.
17. If you got a band tattoo, which band would it be? MASS PUNISHMENT!!! other than my own probably Slayer!
18. Tell us a situation where another band really helped you out. Warcrime/Anticosm helped us by lending their bass player Chris to us for a show that Matt was not gonna be able to play. He's really cool, he's not even into us but he's just a cool guy who wanted to help us out. Thanks Chris!
19. What moment has made all of the hard work being a musician worth it? My daughters came to see 1 of our shows and they had the time of their life and to see how much fun they had while their father was kickn butt on stage was a great moment for me to tell myself, if I wasn't doing this they would've missed out so for them to have my legacy when I am gone, that makes it worth while.
20. If your band was a comic, what would each member's super power be? Matt my bass player would be called CAPTAIN OBVIOUS, clearly able to state the obvious no matter what the situation is. Erick our singer would be like Vanity Smurf, all braun no brain so I would call him Mr. MUSCLEHEAD able to break your neck but not before checking himself in the mirror 1st. My drummer Eric or HELMET as we'll call him able to complain at a rate that'll make the ordinary human wanna stick and icepick into their earholes. I guess I could be CAPTAIN AMERICA, the terrorist hunter!
