No One – Interview

While No One was heading for their first show on Ozzfest, we caught frontman Murk on his cell. They’re making their way to what could be their biggest show ever.

You’ve got to be a little freaked.

Yeah, we’re driving to Atlanta now from Chicago. We are almost there. We are so pumped, it’s like a dream come true.

It has to be an absolute highlight.

I feel like I’m in a signed band playing Ozzfest. (laughs) It really just dawned on me that all this is happening.

The album is relentless. How do you write those songs?

Every song is written different. I play guitar so I can write by myself, like on “Chemical”. I wrote a lot of that myself. I come into practice and I show it to B-larz and he tweaks it a little bit and puts the finishing touches on it. Then it’s introduced to the band and we work on it more and more and it evolves. A lot of the raw ideas come from me, but the finished product comes from the whole band.

Every night you have to put it all out there. When playing this intensity, it must take a lot out of you to do it live.

It does. We walk off the stage exhausted every night. I don’t know what we are going to do when we have to play an hour set every night. Now we’re only playing twenty minute sets and we are completely soaked and drained. We’re trying to put across an image as an intense band live. We do crazy stuff.

Are you going to try and pick up little things from the other bands on Ozzfest?

Totally, man. I’m going to be scope them all out. Anything you can do to your live show, you need to do.

It’s a good situation. You get all the exposure and you learn.

Absolutely. And if bands are doing, like what little electronic things and stuff they use on stage, these are the top bands in the world playing on the main stage and if you can bring your band up to that level live, you’re going to be alright.

Is there anyone that you really want to meet?

Black Sabbath. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to meet those guys. I don’t know if they come out. (laughs) We know Disturbed because they are from Chicago too. In my old band, we played with Mudvayne about six years ago, but I don’t know if they’ll remember us.

Well, you toured with them six years ago as another, when was No One formed?

Last year we formed No One, but B-larz and I were in a band six years ago. It was a mix of Sepultura and old Metallica. It was a long time ago and then we evolved into a little bit of a different band. I put down the guitar and started singing. I was still writing, but I wasn’t playing guitar on stage. We just wanted to do something new.

How long have you been singing?

I think after a while you develop your own sound naturally. I think it takes years. It happened naturally for me.

Who are the groups that growing up inspired you to be a musician?

My dad turned me on to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. As time went on I got into Metallica, Anthrax and all that. Pretty much the obvious bands like Korn, Sepultura, Pantera, Alice In Chains, who give it a different twist.

It’s always funny to see the Black Sabbath influence coming back around.

I know, it’s funny because my dad is actually going to one of these shows and he got me into it.

It’s so bizarre.

It is weird. If I meet those guys I don’t know what I’m going to say.

Ozzy’s not even real.

(laughs) I don’t know what I’ll say. Probably just, ‘Dude, it’s nice to meet you.’ I’m not worthy.

When you found out about Ozzfest, how did it hit you?

We were totally freaked out. I can’t believe we are on this tour.

How long before you were signed and had the record done before all this happened?

We got signed in November and started doing the record in December and we were done in the beginning of March. We actually changed managers at the time and that is when they started working on Ozzfest for us.

How much different was this time in the studio from days in the past?

Well, we knew this was the real deal this time. You can’t settle for anything less than great. If you sing out of key, you have to do it over again. And if the guitars are out of tune, you have to go back and do it again. We looked at everything really closely. It was exhausting. I was so happy to get out of that freaking studio. I mean, we were in there for fourteen hours a day, and when you go home all you think about is the album. You always want to make it better.

Did you have an idea when you finished the album that it was going to take a while to hit the streets?

Actually our first goal was to get it done and out there. As we talked to our new manager, he told us to wait a little bit because he had a different plan, and so far it’s working.

What about the video?

It was awesome. We filmed it in Portland, Oregon and they had a bunch of different sets out there. So me being the vocalist, they had me doing all kinds of crazy shit. We were already tired because we played a show with Fear Factory the night before and had to get on a plane at four in the morning. But they told us the first day we wouldn’t do anything. Bullshit. They had me running for like six hours (laughs) and by the time I got home I was exhausted. The next day was crazy, we had all these extra comes in, but we had to play the song like forty times.

Are you in a good place because rock is coming back?

Yeah, I think that it’s a good time for our band to come out. We even knew last summer that this summer was going to be a good time for us. We feel like we can make some noise if we can get our music out there.

+ charlie craine