Interviewed by Brian Rademacher
Date: March 26th, 2006

Hey Randy thanks for the interview. How is everything going today?
No problem man, it’s beautiful down here (in Florida) … fucking unbelievable!

You were telling me during our last interview, that you were getting a new guitar made. It was a 61’ Cadillac which has headlights on it and everything. Did that guitar ever get made?
No, it’s still not done. I took it in to BC Rich and they looked at it and they ended up giving me another new guitar. I will take it to someone who will do it eventually. I want fiber optics in the neck. I’m getting so damn old; it’s getting hard to see the neck. I have to do everything by feel (laughing)… I’m kidding.

Chris Laney told me the story about how you met… he ordered the CD “900lbs Steam” and he didn’t like the production on it, and you are one of his guitar heroes, so he wanted the CD to sound a lot better. He was willing to remix the CD for Free. Is that true?
Yeah!!! I read the interview on Rockeyez and that is exactly how it went down. He said over there in Sweden they are really big on production. The thing on “900lbs Steam” it was basically the raw tracks. It got fucked up when the masters got lost and we were going to put it in pro tools and fix the drum sounds. We knew it was a shitty production. We got together with Chris Holmes and we were going to redo it and that didn’t happen. I said let it go out the way it is and it is what it is. Look at Judas Priest’s “Rocka Rolla” album it has terrible production but it’s still Priest.

So how did you approach Chris Laney in joining Animal and working on the New CD “Violent New Breed”?
Well Chris is a great guy. He knows production and he is a bass player by trade, he is a really good guitar player too. He sent some of his ideas over on sound waves, over the internet and I said man you have a wicked sound on this track and you did this and that. I told him fuck this I want you to player guitar on the CD and we can get another bass player. Come join the band and that was it.

Tell me about Jackie Livengood the new bass player?
Jackie, I met through some friends in Akron, Ohio. He had a cover band and I would go up there and play some songs with him, and party, and have a good time. Give me a little bit of money and a lot of beer (laughing). Jack is a tattoo artist, so I met him and got some tattoos and we hit it off, he is an awesome bass player. He was the perfect guy for the job.

I don’t see anything about a drummer on the new CD?
I never met the drummer (laughing). I told you this is pretty bizarre dude. I love the job he did on the album. He is the drummer for Zan Clan, Johan Koleberg. I can go with him or I have a line on a couple other drummers. The ultimate drummer would be Vinny Appice he’s the bomb dude.

I see Stet Howland is out of WASP and he might be available.
Oh really. He is from Florida I think. That would kind of be strange, wouldn’t it, having Stet in the band. I know he is a good drummer. You never know what could happen, (laughing) this is a crazy world…

Back in 1993, Zinny Zan was the lead vocalist for Shotgun Messiah who had a CD called “Violent New Breed.” As it happens Zinny Zan and Chris Laney hooked up in Zan Clan, and now Chris is in Animal. So who named the new CD for AnimAL “Violent New Breed”? Plus there was a song called “Violent New Breed” on both CD’s.
I didn’t know that.

I did my research.
I guess you did. I am going to have to get Chris on the phone and ask him. Man your freaking me out (laughing).

So how did you come up with the title?
It was one of the songs we did and it fit well. So we made it the title of the new CD.

Tell me about the song “Violent New Breed”?
Dude it’s a good song. I want this to be in the next “Van Helsing’ movie. That was a great movie. This song is right up that alley.

“Morning After” is on your Myspace site. It smokes, tell me about that track?
It pertains to suicide. I hope know one goes out and does something stupid and we get nailed for it.

What about “Hey You”?
I will tell you about “Hey You”. Rich and I didn’t want to work that day (laughing) we started drinking and recording, we started writing these lyrics and we were like fuck working, we’re drinking and who gives a shit and it kind of popped out that way.

How about “Eye of the Storm”?
Hurricane… (laughing).

So how did you come up with the songs? Do you, Rich and Chris get together?
Chris would come up with an idea. I told you this was amazing dude. Before we even met we were three quarters done with the record as far as writing it. He would send us wave files; we would put down vocals and guitars. We would send them back to Chris in Sweden and this would go back and forth. It just came together and three quarters through the album we said man this album kicks ass, let’s finish it. Chris calls me up and said how about I come to Cincinnati where I lived. I said that’s cool; we were talking about down the road a bit. All of a sudden he calls me and said do you mind if I step it up a notch. I said sure when, he said how about next week. Ok!!! Come on down. He brought a laptop, external hard drives and a bunch of shit with him and we locked ourselves in my apartment for a week. Drank massive amounts of alcohol and recorded all these songs.

Tell me about “Turn & Walk Away”?
Once I heard it when Chris played it for me in Cinn. I said that’s a hit song dude. The next day when I got up from a drunken stupor we recorded it. That song he wrote with someone else over in Stockholm. It was equivalent to a song on Star Search or American Idol. It was real poppy. It needed some work and we did it and put it on the record.

“Animal in Me”?
It self-explanatory.

What about “Hell Child”?
I think that’s Chris Laney’s new baby. I asked him are his horns coming out yet. (Laughing) …hold on! There is a Pitbull attacking me; you gotta call your mommy.
Lucy. Hey there’s havoc going on here. Brian, can you hold a minute. There’s a Pitbull loose in the band room. The little kids are crying its pandemonium. Sorry about that dude the dog got loose.

“In The Mirror”?
Chris came up with the lion’s Share of that song. Chris is a really cool guy. Those fuckin’ Swedes have different interpretations of things, it’s kind of funny. So we took the basic song from Chris.  Rich and I put our touch on it and it ended up like it is.

So, which of the songs do you like the best?
Probably “Violent New Breed”, “B.O.O.M” I like a lot.

How about “Salt”?
Oh no “Salt” is my favorite. That song I hear on the fucking radio dude. It’s about a guy mistreating his old lady and she runs to another guy Me, It’s “Salt” in the wounds. When you listen to the album I think you’re really really going to dig it.

Tell me about Diesel & Glory records? I had a hard time finding information on that label.
The deal is we had to start our own label. It is a subsidiary of a label. Since we are not on a major label, but we are getting a lot of attention from major labels and hopefully this is the one that breaks the camels back.

Are you going to start the tour in the US?
I hope to start the tour overseas. You know metal is a lot bigger over there. If we can break it over there and it filters over here that will be cool. You know Tom Mathers at Perris records was really good to us. It’s that he did not have the distribution we needed. Tom is a great guy and if this one does well I would like to go in and re-master “900lbs Steam”.

So what song is your favorite track, where your guitar playing goes crazy?
I don’t know, I just turn it on ten and jump around (laughing). “Salt” is one of my favorites. But “B.O.O.M” is almost an industrial song which I thought may appeal to even more of an audience. “B.O.O.M” is about what a drug wants to do to you; It wants to make your heart blow up… wants to make you O. D.; it’s like dynamite. It’s the drug talking to you.

When is the release date?
The middle of April.

Is that you on the cover?
Ah No,

Who is that?
If I tell you, I will have to kill you (laughing). I can’t tell you.

Come on tell me.
(Randy just keeps on laughing.) I’m sorry Brian I can’t tell you. I not supposed to tell.

Why did you move from Ohio to Florida?
I did not want to go through another winter with snow. Hey if you have to struggle, you might as well struggle in paradise. Weather here is comparable to California where I grew up. I’m just on the other side of the coast now.

Would you have any special effect when you tour?
I am sure we will come up with some cool shit. I don’t know if we will get hobby horses like Blackie. You know Rob Zombie's last tour and movie and the synchronized stuff is pretty cool. Jack and I are huge Alice Cooper fans so I am sure we will come up with some goodies for the tour. Every song on the CD has a different theme it’s just not about rock and roll all night. Every song has a story to it, so I am sure we can have some cool effects. If everything goes good it’s going to be way cool.

Will you have new guitar picks for the upcoming tour?
Yes. We will most likely use a different pick in Europe then we use in the states. You will have to wait and see.

Would you like to say anything in conclusion?
Yeah man. Thanks to you and your site. Pick up our new CD “Violet New Breed” being released in April. Check out our official site and our Myspace site and can’t wait to meet everyone on tour, come say hi. Keep in touch.