** Impiety are Singapore’s longest standing black metal act. Once reviled by just about everyone in their home country, Impiety have, in fact, won over many, their impassioned live performances, dedication, and purveyance of the dark arts proving to be an unstoppable force. To celebrate Impiety’s upward climb from the bowels of Southeast Asia’s cleanest (and smallest country) and the impending release of two critical pieces of music—Vengeance Hell Immemorial and upcoming MCD/MLP The Impious Crusade—we’ve queried head demon Shyaithan to learn more about Impiety’s next infernal steps. Also, enjoy a brutal selection of tracks from rarities collection, Vengeance Hell Immemorial. Your Monday morning just got a lot better (and nastier).

20th Anniversary? Where in the hell did time go?
Shyaithan: Indeed, well more or less 23 years now since our first commencement in 1990. It only gets bigger, badder and uglier each time you hear about us!

What keeps Impiety alive at this point? Beer, blood, and bitches?
Shyaithan: Passion to kill and conquer, that’s always a first. Perseverance and hard work throughout the years not to mention plenty sacrifice just to keep the band on top of the chaos. Just glad the past three years with a stable lineup has been less of a stress factor than it was in the past with lots of lineup shuffles due to not being able to find or sustain the right team for long. So, it has been a tremendous journey—but one with much success and trophies adorned in blood.

How’d you decide which tracks to include on Vengeance Hell Immemorial?
Shyaithan: It was a tough decision but since many fans have been asking for an official CD version of the demo, plus other singles they missed out over the years. Singles which were released via 7” EP only were prioritized. Anyways, I think it’s cool that we have the past demo and singles all in one package.

What do you think of Impiety’s sound over the course of time? It’s changed a bit, right?
Shyaithan: Progression is imminent, challenges faced when putting into gear new ideas always keeps us going. Every time we compose, record and put out something new, there’s always going to be some thing fresh, pretty much taking many by surprise.

I remember metal shows in Singapore were policed. Are shows still getting shut down and bands punished for blasphemous behavior?
Shyaithan: That still prevails but [it’s] more lax once gig organizers are able to obtain licenses from the media authority. Better these days compared to the past, but gigs/concerts held without license still face possible shut down. So far, the past years all has been smooth and I guess the public in general are pretty much open to extreme black and death metal.

Do you still keep in touch with the bands with which you shared wax? I was in touch with Whathayakorn from Surrender of Divinity for a long while but then he dropped off the face of the planet. Or maybe I did.
Shyaithan: Yes, definitely I do. All except the split 7” with Profanatica, I don’t really know where Paul Ledney is right now. But speaking about Whathayakorn, he’s still very much in touch, a close friend and brother, and still hard at work with Surrender of Divinity not to mention busy with his label InCoffin Productions, which also handles not only distribution but organizing international concerts for Thailand, etc.

What’s Impiety up to now?
Shyaithan: We are just about to release a new five-song mini album The Impious Crusade via Hells Headbangers Records, which we just signed earlier this year. August 6th is official street date worldwide. Plug and destroy when you get the chance—it’s plenty vicious and worth the kill!

** Impiety’s collection, Vengeance Hell Immemorial, is out June 28th on Hells Headbangers on wicked fucking wax. It’s available HERE for the blackened and degenerative.

** Impiety’s new MCD/MLP, The Impious Crusade, it August 6th on Hells Headbangers. That, too, is available HERE or face the (s)executioner.

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors…

Reading the work of Raw Dog Screaming Press founding editor/bizarro author extraordinaire John Lawson might be best described as taking a very scenic shortcut into an Altered States-esque surrealist landscape without having to invest in a sensory deprivation tank. Metalnomicon, naturally, is more than a little pleased to have the heavy metal loving boundary pusher here today to give us a peek at the soundtrack to his escape…

The path I took to becoming an author was somewhat crooked. I started out as a child excelling in visual art, and learned to use music to block out the world and concentrate on my craft. Later, as a teenager entering adulthood, I shifted focus to making music and even became a certified audio engineer at Omega Studios. Between sessions in the studio I indulged my side passion, writing, and received much more notice for it than I ever did in music. Over a dozen years later I’m a full time author and member of the editorial staff at Raw Dog Screaming Press, where I’m lucky enough to work with such author musicians as S. Craig Zahler of Charnel Valley and Realmbuilder, Donna Lynch and Steve Archer of Ego Likeness, Michael Arnzen and Jason Jack Miller who collaborated on the Audiovile project, and Eckhard Gerdes of Scuff Mudd.

As you can see there’s an enclave of creators who are successfully working with both sound and the written word.

The moment where it all clicked for me was 1990 during a trip to England, where I heard Napalm Death after years of struggling to find music that spoke to me. Ever since then I’ve listened to brutal music while working. In general it’s stuff like Six Feet Under’s Undead album — listening as I write this! — or Killed the Fixtion. Especially their song “Pulse.” But I like to mix the old with the new, and include such as Sepultura’s Arise, …And Justice For All, Earth AD by the Misfits. They’re still in regular rotation as I put words on the page.

My next book being released is an artbook called Verminomicon, A Field Guide to the Vermin of Yuggoth: Abominations of a Haunted World. You’d think for a project like Verminomicon I wouldn’t need any more inspiration beyond the incredible — and horrific — sculptures created by artist Tony Debartolis for the book. However, I mixed lethal doses of death metal and dark drum ‘n bass to keep me charging through crafting all the Lovecraftian-style purple prose. The playlist included Mantis, Substep Infrabass, The Relic, Hypocrisy, Arch Enemy, and Carcass. I anticipated needing something more atmospheric and moody, but creative forces can be counterintuitive.

Holy hell! I’m FIRED the peck up about this band from Baltimore. NOISEM release Agony Defined on A389, and man, is this a ripper! Part old-school Kreator, part old Pestilence at times, these kids — and I do mean kids — get this deathy thrash thing down pat. This thing moves and breathes, and has a stellar production from Kevin Bernsten of Triac fame. Recently opening the Maryland Death Fest, and soon one of the Scion Fests, one should be on the lookout for this monster of a CD/12-inch. There’s enough variance here to not make it samey and boring like a lot of the newer thrash bands. This has one foot FIRMLY in the death vein, and the other in amped-up thrash. Do yourself a favor and check this out. My favorite release of the year so far. 9 Fucking Pecks

Well, I’m on a tear with things I like this time. Seventh Rule release the industrial sludge of AUTHOR & PUNISHER’s Women and Children, and your fine feathered friend has been looking forward to this since the latest release of Ursus Americanus. This is hard to peck down, really, at times sounding like Godflesh or Swans, at times kinda veering off into uncharted sludge territory. This thing is pecking PUMMELING. A one-man band from California who performs with servos and moving machinery that he engineered, the live show is nothing to squawk at either. Industrial, sludge, doom, noise terror. 8 Fucking Pecks.

BLACK DAHLIA MURDER‘s Everblack. Well, one should know what to expect from this melodeath band, this being their sixth release and all. And, well, there’s not much to say about it except that it’s a BDM record. That being said, it’s not derivative or boring. This thing is pretty mean, and melodic at times. The production here is a little dry, but not too dry; everything can be heard clearly and it does have feeling. There’s something in the production I don’t really like that I can’t really put my beak on; maybe it’s a little midrange? It’s hard to really peg down, but it could be my avian ears are a little blown out. This is a fine release, and one the band should be proud of. How many death metal bands can say that their sixth record is great, or even good? Not many, but BDM can certainly fly that flag. Go on with your bad self. 7 Fucking pecks.

Man, I feel almost too positive here. Until we meet again. Waldo out!

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors…

Douglas Wynne understands we’re living in a post-Clive Davis/Oh God! You Devil world. He knows you can’t just go out to the crossroads howling your rendition of “Me and the Devil Blues” and expect to knock all of us jaded motherfuckers on our asses. So when Wynne invites us out to an isolated recording studio to observe industrial goth metaller Billy Moon cut a (perhaps final) album for the producer/manager he is beginning to believe may be a malevolent supernatural force, it isn’t to subject us to slow walk us toward a Ralph-Macchio-vs.-Steve-Vai climax.

Instead, The Devil of Echo Lake throws the infernal kitchen sink at us — sex, drugs, stalker groupies, witches, a chapel ghost, corporeal manifestations of ancient pagan gods, gunplay, samurai swords, fire, demonic possession, autoerotic asphyxiation, rock n’ roll excess to the nth degree, etcetera. (Wynne also pulls a clever All the King’s Men-esque narrative trick by letting us see a good deal of the action through the outsider perspective of a low-paid studio engineer trying to make his bones with this surrealist nightmare unfolding around him.) It’s an impressive, crackling, no-holds-barred debut from an author who can actually write about rock music without it devolving into No seriously I’m cool! preening clunkiness.

Check out an audio excerpt from The Devil of Echo Lake below. The book trailer is posted after the jump. Billy Moon’s Souncloud page lives here. The Metalnomicon previously noted Wynne’s short story “The Last Chord” in the entry on Dark Discoveries rock n’ roll issue.

A couple of weeks ago we told you that UK writer Dayal Patterson had finished off a 600-page history of black metal, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, a book that aimed to peel the corpsepaint off black metal’s sensationalist public image and look at how it started and how it got to where it is today. Evolution of the Cult is now available for pre-order here at a discounted price. Well here’s author Dayal on what it’s like trying to piece together the scene’s chaotic history without sexing up the controversy and focusing on the music.

Firstly, here’s something to set the mood . . .

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors…

Blood Bound Books first came to the Metalnomicon’s attention via Rock ‘N’ Roll is Dead: Dark Tales Inspired by Music — an exquisitely depraved, cleverly devised anthology which is not only dedicated to the immortal Ronnie James Dio, but also opens with a story based on one of the man’s greatest anthems, “The Last in Line” (!) Turns out the collection isn’t the only thing the gore-festooned underground publishing house has done right, either: Fans of hyper-charged, boundary-pushing extreme literature will find much to sate their fiendish appetites in releases such as American Guignol, Scarecrow, D.O.A. Extreme Horror, Blood Rites, and the Night Terrors series.

We asked Blood Bound Books owner/stalwart Metal Militiaman Marc Ciccarone to provide us a little insight into how he came to interweave his dual passions so impressively, a request he graciously obliges below alongside a list of five origin stories for chapters from Rock ‘N’ Roll is Dead. So crank some Dio and read on…

Lying, dying, screaming in pain,
Begging, pleading, bullets drop like rain.
Minds explode, pain sheers through your brain,
Radical amputation, this is insane…

We got semi-retired punk/metal atavist Stevo do Caixão, currently of Tombstones and formerly of the legendary Impetigo, as well as Axeslasher guitarist/vocalist Professor Pizza, and metal scribe Andy O’Connor — sadly, that’s his real name — currently of Pitchfork, Metalsucks, and Noisey, among other publications, to break down the upcoming Maryland Deathfest, debunk old myths and create new ones…

Stevo do Caixão: So this is eleven years of Maryland Deathfest, how does that make you feel? Old? Sick? Like you need more sleep and more money?

Professor Pizza: It makes me feel like it should be in a nicer place than Sonar.

Andy O’Connor: Well, this is actually my first ever Deathfest. So, it doesn’t really make me feel old.

Professor Pizza: Although there’s hella titty bars around Sonar, so that’s awesome.

Andy O’Connor: Isn’t there one where you can bring in fried chicken? This is VERY important.

Professor Pizza: There’s one next to a chicken place where you can indeed bring the chicken inside. If you’re smooth enough you can feed the strippers.

Andy O’Connor: RIP Andy, that’s my Vallhalla.

Stevo do Caixão: I tend to agree, fried chicken is kind of important not only to metal, but to the festival atmosphere in general.

Andy O’Connor: Austin does not bang when it comes to fried chicken. I hope Baltimore has the goods. You know your city got the fried chicken game fucked up when the main alt-weekly devotes a cover story to that very issue.

Professor Pizza: I know it sounds ridiculous, but there’s a tasty fucking barbecue place in Baltimore near the harbor.

Andy O’Connor: Barbecue? That far north? Hella sus.

Stevo do Caixão: So Thursday night is “Just the Tip” night.

Andy O’Connor: My flight gets in around 4:15, may miss the first band. Stoked on Deiphago and their brand of PCP black metal. And Bolt Thrower, obviously.

Professor Pizza: “Just the Tip” night last year was rad. Autopsy had the police pull the plug on them.

Andy O’Connor: Autopsy gets it turnt up. When I saw them at Chaos it was ratchet for a death metal show.

Professor Pizza: I’m pretty much only going for Cobalt and Bolt Thrower on Thursday. Pretty interested to see those Colorado boys considering I’m from there and have never seen them.

Stevo do Caixão: Well, that’s my point. For Abigail and Bolt Thrower night, you could do a lot worse with “just the tip.” And yes, things got crazy last year.

Andy O’Connor: Cobalt will be interesting. Man’s Gin were awesome two SXSWs ago.

Stevo do Caixão: So what are the chances of there being trouble with the law during Bolt Thrower’s set? And with Cobalt being sandwiched between Abigail and Bolt Thrower?

First thing you need to know is that what you’re reading is being written in mid-April. Don’t ask why, unless you come out to the Fear Factory/Hate Eternal tour, MDF or Chaos in Tejas; then you can ask me why. Anyhoo, if all goes the way I’ve planned, I will still be coming off the high of finally seeing one of my favourite bands in the history of forever live and in the flesh after almost 30 years of waiting, hoping, dreaming…I speak of the mighty Italian hardcore band, Raw Power. I’ve been a fan since before I can remember being a fan and crystal balls being operational, stars aligning and whatnot, you’re reading this a few days after my seeing them last weekend.

It would appear that old-school hardcore is making a comeback of sorts – but what genre of music isn’t? Hell, there are more nu-metal bands kicking around at this point than any time outside of the 90s. The usual suspects are alive and kicking; some never went away and some are back doing reunion shows and tours, if you don’t like Satanic Threat you’re not my friend and new bands like Haraball and AC4 are kicking the living shit out of those four and five chord riffs.

AC4 hail from Umea and feature members of Refused, the Vectors and Straight Forward. Their latest album Burn the World (which, as you may have figured out, has been out almost two months) is an awesome slice of old-school harcore with a slightly modern touch and a boundless energy that can’t hide which Raw Power, Minor Threat and Uniform Choice they’re *ahem* borrowing. So, for the next three Thursday afternoons, this space will feature the old members of AC4 spilling their old guts about old music.

The first question we posed to guitarist Karl Backman and bassist Christoffer “138″ Jonsson was:

DISCUSS THE RAW POWER DISCOGRAPHY FROM BEST TO STILL AWESOME BUT NOT-SO-BEST

Karl: The first 12″ You Are The Victim and the Raw Power cassette from 1983 are my favorite albums. The bass on “Fuck Authority” always blows me away. I’m not a big fan of 80′s metal guitar solos but I like the Wop Hour 7″ because they still sound very raw. The version of “Army” on the v/a album Raptus vol.2 Negazione & Superamento is their best song. Some songs on Reptile House are really good too. It wasn’t released on vinyl, was it? I’m not gonna pretend I’ve heard everything they ever recorded, but my least favourite LP is Mine To Kill. I also think the rerecordings of some songs on the Screams From The Gutter album lacked the original punch. Raw Power rules, ok?

Christoffer 138: #1: You are the Victim (1983) and Screams from the Gutter (1984). #2: all their other releases. And yes, I do own them all. They are not all that great, but it’s still Raw fucking Power. Indeed: it’s a tie for the #1 spot. I worship the total harsh lack of production of the debut, and I live and die by the frenzied hacking of the high-heeled guitar solos of the second lp. Raw, uncompromising, to the death speedy hardcore. Eternal! So – I can’t decide. I consider Raw Power to be the utter most epitome of European hardcorepunk. The best of the best. A band that pens the line ”Don’t listen Donna Summer/We go for D.O.A.” deserves your respect. C’mon son!

Twitter: @crj138
Instagram: crj138

Check out AC4 here and here

Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult is a 600-page book by UK author Dayal Patterson that delves deep into the history and development of black metal as an art form and a culture. It is released on November 13th, but is now available to pre-order from Amazon at a discounted price.

Published via Feral House, . . . Evolution of the Cult is as comprehensive a take on the black metal scene as you will find. There are already some superlative books published on black metal—Lords of Chaos, immediately springs to mind (hey, whatever became of that LoC movie?), but also Black Metal: Beyond the Darkness, the highfaluting Hideous Gnosis . . ., and True Norwegian Black Metal, a showcase for Pete Beste’s photography. But none have documented the genre so comprehensively, with such detail.

As the official Facebook page says, “It captures the progress of the genre, from its infancy in the early eighties through to its resurrection in the nineties and onwards to the fascinating scene we see today. Combining interviews with the key individuals involved with editorial insight and iconic photography this epic tome examines the artistic, musical, spiritual development of the genre and the creative work, ideologies and often colourful lives of some of its most significant bands.”

The interview list is exhaustive [see bottom for a sample], and the crypt has been raided for a number of unpublished images, including some of Deathcrush-era Mayhem.

Anyone who has picked up any UK metal mags over the past few years would recognise Dayal’s writing. And anyone who has ran into him at a gig over the past few years will recognise the burden of putting together a phone-book sized history of a metal subgenre that has thrived on half-truths, legend and scandal. Said burden could have—should have turned Dayal all shades of Senator Palpatine, but it looks like it has gone to press just in time.

Pre-order it here for 16 bucks.

**Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult on Facebook
**Feral House publishing

**One long interview list . . . Alan ‘AA Nemtheanga’ Averill (Primordial)
Attila Csihar (Mayhem / Tormentor)
Benny ‘Cerastes’ (Mysticum)
Christophe Szpajdel (Designer for Emperor, Graveland etc)
Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant (Venom)
Dani Filth (Cradle Of Filth)
Edmond ‘Hupogrammos’ Karban (Negura Bunget)
Eirik ‘Pytten’ Hundvin (Producer for Emperor, Gorgoroth, Mayhem)
Fabban ‘Malfeitor’ (Aborym)
Frank ‘The Watcher’ Allain (Fen)
František Štorm (Master’s Hammer)
George ‘Magus Daoloth’ Zacharopoulos (Rotting Christ / Necromantia)
Gerald ‘Black Winds’ (Blasphemy)
Greg ‘Damien’ Moffit (Cradle Of Filth)
Gylve ‘Fenriz’ Nagell (Darkthrone / Dødheimsgard / Isengard / Storm)
Hans ‘Mortuus’ Rostén (Marduk / Funeral Mist)
Håvard ‘Mortiis’ Ellefsen(Emperor)
Ian ‘Tjodalv’ Åkesson (Dimmu Borgir)
Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved)
Jarle ‘Hvall’ Kvåle (Windir / Vreid)
Jason ‘Venien’ Ventura (VON)
Jon ‘Metallion’ Kristiansen (Slayer Mag / Head Not Found Records)
Jonas ‘B’ Bergqvist (Lifelover)
Jonas Åkerlund (Bathory)
Jørn ‘Necrobutcher’ Stubberud (Mayhem / Kvikksølvguttene)
Jorn Tunsberg (Old Funeral / Immortal / Hades)
Kai ‘Trym’ Mosaker (Emperor / Enslaved)
Kim ‘( )’ Carlsson(Lifelover)
Kim ‘King Diamond’ Petersen (Mercyful Fate)
Kjetil ‘Manheim’ (Mayhem)
Kjetil Grutle (Enslaved)
Kristian ‘Gaahl’ Espedal (Trelldom / Gorgoroth / Gaahlskag)
Kristoffer ‘Garm’ Rygg (Arcturus / Ulver)
Lee Barrett (Candlelight Records)
Marko ‘Holocausto’ Laiho (Beherit)
Michael ‘Vorph’ Locher (Samael)
Mikko Aspa (Clandestine Blaze)
Mirai Kawashima (Sigh)
Morgan ‘Evil’ Hakkansson (Marduk / Abruptum)
Niklas Kvarforth (Shining)
Ole ‘Apollyon’ Moe (Aura Noir / Dødheimsgard / Immortal)
Paul Ryan (Cradle Of Filth)
Peter Tagtgren (Producer for Dimmu Borgir, Marduk)
Preben ‘Prime Evil’ (Mysticum, Aborym)
Rob ‘Darken’ Fudali (Graveland / Infernum)
Robin ‘Graves’ Eaglestone (Cradle Of Filth)
Robin ‘Mean’ Malmberg (Mysticum)
Roger ‘Infernus’ Tiegs (Gorgoroth / Borknagar)
Rune ‘Blasphemer’ Eriksen (Mayhem / Aura Noir)
Saint Vincent (Blacklodge)
Sakis Tolis (Rotting Christ)
Shawn ‘Goat’ Calizo (VON)
Simen ‘ICS Vortex’ Hestnæs (Arcturus / Dimmu Borgir)
Snorre Ruch (Stigma Diabolicum / Thorns / Mayhem)
Steffen ‘Dolgar’ Simestad (Gehenna)
Svein Egil Hatlevik (Fleurety / Dødheimsgard)
Sven ‘Silenoz’ Kopperud (Dimmu Borgir)
Sven-Erik ‘Maniac’ Kristiansen (Mayhem)
Terje ‘Tchort’ Vik Schei (Emperor / Carpathian Forest)
Thomas ‘Pest’ Kronenes (Gorgoroth)
Tom ‘King’ Visnes (Gorgoroth / Ov Hell)
Tom ‘Warrior’ Fischer (Hellhammer / Celtic Frost)
Tomas ‘Samoth’ Haugen (Thou Shalt Suffer / Emperor)
Tor-Helge ‘Cernunnus’ Skei (Manes)
Vegard ‘Ihsahn’ Tveiten (Emperor / Thou Shalt Suffer)
Ville ‘Shatraug’ Pystynen (Horna / Behexen)
Willy ‘Meyhna’ch’ Rousell (Mutiilation)
Yusaf ‘Vicotnik’ Parvez (Dødheimsgard)
Zhema Rodero (Vulcano)

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors…

No fences, no borders. Free movement for all…It’s about fucking time to treat people with respect.

So railed Propagandhi on the incendiary Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes track “Fuck the Border,” but as those who delve into the compulsively readable, endlessly fascinating new book Do You Have Anything to Declare? will quickly learn, whatever conceptual merits that song may or may not possess, those lines are no closer to becoming a reality today than they were back in ’01 — and may very well be considerably further away. Within its pages veteran music journalist/Decibel mainstay Kevin Stewart-Panko and “Vitriol Records head honcho/rent-a-guitarist” Justin Smith glean the best, baddest, and ugliest border crossing stories from more than seventy-five touring bands and musicians, including the Dillinger Escape Plan, Fear Factory, Atheist, Zoroaster, Tomas Lindberg, and Rich Hoak.

It’s an eye-opening, engrossing, funny, scary, gritty, perspective-shifting reading experience — essential, really, for any connoisseur of underground music, gut-level geopolitics, or, more generally, sacrificial tribulation.

Last week Stewart-Panko and Smith were gracious enough to submit to the following short Metalnomicon grilling…

How long was this idea of exploring band border war stories percolating before you realized it might have the makings of a full-blown book?

KEVIN STEWART-PANKO: I actually tell the story of what finally cemented the idea of doing this as a book. It’s in the first chapter and involves myself, fellow metal hack Jay Gorania and Cephalic Carnage’s John Merryman shooting the shit about the band’s border experiences while driving through Texas. That was 2010. But I guess this sort of thing has been something in the back of my mind most of my life. I’m mulatto — my father is a lily-white Canadian farm boy and my mom is dark-like-night, straight outta da Caribbean — and growing up I experienced a lot of fucked up, ignorant shit while crossing the border into the U.S. with my parents. We’d get a shit-ton of attitude from border guards about the whole mixed marriage thing and their racially mixed offspring on a far-too regular basis. Sure, a mixed marriage may have been a lot rarer in the late 70s and 80s, but you can’t tell me you’ve never watched the fucking Jeffersons! More than a handful of times while going from Canada to the U.S., my brother and I have been asked straight up if my parents were actually my parents. Chronicling something pertaining to border crossing was probably something that was bound to come out of me at some point and it’s probably no surprise that it came out in the context of music and touring.

JUSTIN SMITH: The idea [for me] began in the summer of 2010 while I was touring in Canada. Kevin and I spoke in Toronto about the mayhem and aggravation involved in crossing the border and some of the problems we had dealt with a few years prior…The conversation eventually turned into this project and, through a lot of seemingly fruitless activity, a book.

There are a ton of great/insane stories in here. Were you surprised by the eagerness of various musicians to participate?

KSP: I can’t say I was surprised at all. Talk to any touring musician or listen on the periphery to the conversation between a bunch of bands and that’s one topic that will generally come up. A lot of people were more than happy to share their stories and were pretty surprised no one had done something like this before.

Was there any particular story early on that made you think, “Yeah, we’re actually onto something here”?