When I was really young, I was really into Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and those kinds of bands.

Now since I've gotten back into it, I've been listening to a lot more of the 1990s death metal type stuff.

When I was younger and bands were formed that way, out of friendships rather than anything else. It wasn't like we put up want ads.

There are so many things that kept forcing metal back down to the underground. It survives everywhere on the planet.

When I was really young, I was really into Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and those kinds of bands.

There are five of us. We've all played in various bands together, in different combinations. I know that Todd [Cook] and Tony [Bailey] are my favorite rhythm section - they're just like a unit. I guess we've all just played together in various capacities, so when the band was coming together, it was sort of like we just chose members because they had similar sensibilities and also because they're just cool. We all got along real well.

I was into Metallica when they first started, like when Kill Em All came out.