UN: Let’s start from the beginning. How did Beaten Back to Pure come together? Have you gone through many line-up changes over the years?

Ben: Shit man, me and Vince had been jamming for a few years, and finally buckled down and got serious around 1998. Me and him lost 3 other dudes and replaced them all over the next 2 years, now this lineup has been stable for about 3 years. Seems cool as it is. Typical bullshit really I guess.

UN: You guys now have three albums out , do you think that you guys have progressed from the early days to what you guys are doing on The Burning South? Is this a more realized vision of how you want the band to sound?

Ben: Sure man, I hope we've progressed, otherwise the last 4 years would've been bullshit. I hope to continue progressing. We have no "target sound" or anything like that, but I think we are where we want to be, but who fuckin knows where we go from here? We've painted ourselves out of a corner. We could do a sludged up jaw busting record or a fuckin acoustic album and neither one would be that out of line with where we are currently. It'd raise eyebrows, but I don't think anybody'd lose their shit over either account. Really it's the perfect position/direction to be poised/pointed in. Just worked out that way.

UN: How did the deal with This Dark Reign come about? They are a somewhat newer label, but already have a great roster and release some sick, heavy music. Do you think you guys fit perfectly on the label?

Ben: I don't think I've thought about that either way. I think we fit in with Cable, Mugwart, Totimoshi. Everybody has their own thing going on but if he only catered to goregrind, for example, his customer base would be one group of folks. With a broader brush (albeit limited genres, fanbase wise) you can attract from various corners and HOPEFULLY get fans of one band to try out some of the others. I think that's how it'd work out in a perfect world. The dude (John Von Devildoll) has been working at labels forever. Since SST in the 80's, to doing his own shit today. He's money. Good dude. The deal came about when Retribute didn't seem all that jacked about doing album #3. We were label-less for about 2 weeks, and our bro's in Mugwart, turned us onto this dude. Voila.

UN: What exactly prompted you guys to leave Retribute? Was it a matter of him being in the UK and you guys being from the US? There are no hard feelings though right? You guys must appreciate what he’s done for you after all.

Ben: Yeah man, Chris was a king among men. Our time together was over as he probably got sick of sitting on mountains of our product while other more proven sellers (the death metal bands) were flying out of the stores. That's just the facts. That style of metal appeals to more 15-25 year old dudes who just want to mosh and blow their brains out. It's a built in audience. People tend to take a "wait and see" attitude with bands like us, we'll need to come to their town, let them hear us and then get them to buy a cd while they're delirious and high. No sticker stating "a must for any Dying Fetus fan", for any of our sales. Hence the term "Grassroots Piss Metal". It's a labor of love. Emphasis on "labor".

UN: At first one might think that rock based music might not work with guttural vocals but it seems to be a perfect fit. Do you think a lot of people are surprised by the vocals at first? For those familiar with bands like Eyehategod, Acid Bath and tons more, a vicious vocal approach isn’t anything new, but the death metal growl does stand out as being unique.

Ben: Yeah, but really since the Wolverine Blues album some level of that has been alive. We do appeal alot of people outside of the normal Stoner Rock cliques(from death to even grind and black metal), because of that harsh, acridic (sic?) approach and we turn off just as many inside the Stoner Rock "scene". We're a band on an island, we're just doing something different, you know. Gotta be done. I can't sing like John Garcia and I refuse to be on stage with a bunch of rehashed Kyuss riffs. And honestly I'm not as gutteral as the Skinless' or Aborted's of the world, so I don't think I'd work in a standard USDM band. You ever hear Kaptain Sun? They have the gutteral vox thing going. I don't know who did it first. Just for clarification, the boys behind me don't play regular 3 chord "rock". Balls are a must. Big ones.

UN: Would you say that there is a special meaning behind the album name? The cover art definitely stands out! Can’t beat skulls and the confederate flag, would imagine it would look killer on a t-shirt.

Ben: Yeah, to get all that color on a shirt would cost a fucking nut. We may have to look into it though. The album name comes from 3 or 4 directions. Sherman burned the south in the civil war. That's where it started but you can go a bunch of different ways. Feel free to read whatever you like into it.

UN: Does recording in your own studio take a lot of weight off of your shoulders? It seems like it would be an ideal recording environment. You wouldn’t bring in any outsiders, and you know exactly what you want to sound like.

Ben: You nailed it man. Those are the reasons and the elements that make it work well. You said it best, I'll just agree with you.

UN: That said though, you guys did record with Steve Austin for your debut album. Would he be someone you would ever want to work with again? He definitely knows this genre of music and produces some pretty savage sounding records.

Ben: Well, working with Steve was eye opening and it bought us some street cred early on. That was cool. But as long as Vince and I are working together, I can't imagine using or going anywhere different. If for no other reason, financially it's beneficial (fuckin free), and time isn't an issue. Luckily Vince is quite good at this shit too. He ain't fuckin around. Yeah, the last 2 TITD records were fucking scorchers. "Savage" is putting it mildly.

UN: Are there any side-projects happening within the band? Are any of the members involved in anything else? Being a band that doesn’t tour much must leave a lot of time for other projects.

Ben: Yeah, you'd think, but that goddamn 40-60 hour work week we all pull doesn't leave as much free time as you'd think. Vince plays drums every once in a blue moon with a couple of ex-Mugwart dudes in a project called "Lunch"(named after a facial cumshot, as in "Here comes lunch"). They play out once a year or so. I got the invite to do vox on some dudes demo. Probably going to do that.

UN: I read that you guys used to tour quite a bit more frequently. Do you guys have to slow things down because of jobs and families? Your music definitely isn’t the flavor of the month, so I really couldn’t see it even coming close to paying the bills. I honestly think it’s better that way. You still keep the fire and the drive and you do it for all of the right reasons. Not to pay your rent.

Ben: Maybe you're right. The pretentious rock fan in me agrees with you(not calling you a pretentious rock fan...I'm going somewhere with this, stay with me). The dude who wishes he could parlay this thing into something borderline livable vehemently disagrees. You're right, we make no money at all and lose our asses as much as not. We all have different levels of responsibility(ie: RIchie and Slam, are single fathers, Vince bought a house and is building a $20-30,000 studio, to me and Chuck making our bills/child support), none of us have any rich folks with titties we can suck, we're all self made blue collar knuckle draggers. But we love to rock and write and play. We can play on our half of the country. Not all the time or all at once but we work hard for a band who doesn't do a ton. BUT we will be doing more (as much as humanly possible) beginning of 2005. If we come to your town, come out, because who knows when or if we'll be back. That's just reality.

UN: What can you tell us about the split with Cable that is coming in 2005? Will the Beaten Back to Pure tracks be all new material? Who is releasing it?

Ben: That's still up in the air. Cable say they're still down and I've no reason to disbelieve them. The plan is a split ep, 2 songs each and one 9 man combo jam. The schematics are still being worked out. Interested labels get in touch. Before that we'll probably be doing 2 split 7" records, one with Parabellum on Church of Doom Recordings and the other with Gideon Smith and the Dixie Damned. No label for that yet. Interested labels get in touch on both counts. We're hunting, otherwise us and GSatDD will fuckin split it. Them dudes are cool and just getting back on their feet after their drummers death, looking forward to that.

UN: Looking back, did you ever expect the band to be together for six years? Six years, three albums and you are still going strong. Do you foresee the band staying together for a long time yet?

Ben: I guess so. I'm as surprised as anybody really. We never had goals so everything since day one has been gravy. It's been a good run and I look forward to doing it as long as we got it in us. Take it easy man.