TODAYISTHEDAY
Words and Photo
by Morgan Walker
teve Austin is the Unabomber
of rock 'n' roll, and his latest
manifesto is Temple Of The
Morning Star, Today Is The Day's
fourth album, conceived when
Austin and his accomplices-key-
boardist and sample technician
Chris Reeser, and drum god Mike
Hyde-were holed up in Austin's
recording studio last summer.
CIRCUIT
WHEELS
The album is an incredibly dense, super-
connected, intricate piece of work.
Austin We wanted to go the other way from the
current trend of bands who go bare bones all the
time because they're afraid of being called dis-
honest or something. So we said, "Why not use
the mastedon method? Why not use six guitar
tracks or vocal tracks with some that are higher
or lower in tone or different textures? If you look
at it like a painting, it's like choosing what colors
to use and how many people to be in the pic-
ture. This album is more akin to Pink Floyd's The
Wall or King Crimson's Red. I wanted to create a
really dense painting. I wanted to have a team of
eight demons flying at me, crushing me with their
voices. I wanted six centaurs shooting arrows at
me instead of just one or two.
I see you've utilized the latest in digital
recording hardware.
Austin: Digital is really psychedelic, people
don't realize. I feel like we're boldly going where
no band has gone before, because most heavy
bands go for analog. When we built the studio, we
thought, "Hey, here's this brand new technology,
it's so exact, why not try to make the album the
most huge and extreme as we can make it?"
Besides that, it also has a lot of small
details hidden in its layers.
Hyde: I used a shotgun cocking sound on
"Kill Yourself"; it's a percussive thing going on
in the background. On "The Man Who Loves
to Hurt Himself," that thing that sounds like a
little bell or a triangle, that's a piece of chrome
steel from the Oklahoma City bombing. On
"Crutch" we used the sound of a bowl being
tapped on the side of an ashtray.
That should make the potheads' ears
prick up.
Austin: The point is, the album is about real
people; real life.
And death. It seems to explore that theme
from many angles.
Austin: Every movie you see glamorizes death;
it's like killing isn't even understood anymore.
Our songs are about real situations. And using
different points of view is like playing with death,
like looking over the side of a pier knowing you
could fall in and drown, but you look because
you're afraid, and you don't want to be afraid.
Reeser: It's kind of a way to get over
death, by approaching it head on.
Somehow you feel you can get beyond the
fear if you stare it down.
Your music seems at times to pass a
threshold where it absorbs so much
density, it implodes.
Austin: A good way to describe our music is: "It
hurts so bad that it feels good."
On a different note, what are you using to
get around on tour?
Austin: A former church bus. On the side of it, it
says: "Cedar Grove Primitive Baptist Church,"
and on the back it says: "Elder Ronnie Russel,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee."
And Temple Of The Morning Star was
named after a satanic cult.
Austin: Satanic cults have their place, just as a
church is a place for Baptists.
88 THRASHER
Daewon
Song
The Circuit Wheel
Company