UN: I know very little about the beginnings of Lords. You guys were involved with quite a few bands in the Kentucky scene over the years. How did Lords come together? Was it started out of a need to play noisy and harsh rock?

Chris: Stan and I were in a band called The Slow Suicide, the singer was going away to school so we decided that I would sing and play guitar and we would get another guitar player. Steve George and Billy Bisig both wanted to play guitar for that band, and basically the Slow Suicide turned in to LORDS with Steve and I playing guitar and Billy on Bass. LORDS is not too drastically removed from any of the bands I've played in before, most of the songs that are on The House That Lords Built were songs that Stan and I had written for The Slow Suicide...so LORDS is really just a continuation of our need to play noisy harsh rock.

UN: The House that Lords Built is one of the few releases to come along in sometime that takes rock music in a new direction. The scene is full of bands that all sound pretty much the same, but Lords are forging a unique sound. Do you think that you guys are an original band, or at least not derivitive of anything that is happening in the current scene?

Chris: I don't think of LORDS as having a totally unique sound...personally, I'm heavily influenced by other early-mid 90's louisville bands like Kinghorse and Evergreen and I also rip off a lot of Megadeth and early Rollins band. Louisville has always been sort of an island and there is a lot of musical inbreeding going on (it is Kentucky you know).

UN: The MCD has an incredibly cool art style. I like the fact that the buildings are made out of amps and the bass drums. How did the idea for the cover come about? It's definitely a unique cover concept.

Stan: I honestly have no idea where any of those ideas came from. Some of the "pieces" on there were probably weird prints in the making......something I was working on for another project perhaps. The buildings and amps part? Most likely a bad joke passed around..... Ya know? The joke gone too far. "Let's make a castle out of amps and drums!". But I suppose it didn't turn out so bad. The only concept we agreed on first was the usage of absolutely TOO many colors......and then two months later.....yeah.

UN:How did Initial come into contact with the band? I'm pretty sure you guys knew the people at the label from being involved with bands together in the past.

Stan: Well, for starters......Ryan Patterson from Initial and Stephen were in this band National Acrobat a few years back so the contact was kind of there from the beginning. And maybe a month or two after we had a demo, Ryan asked us out for a weekend with his band Black Cross. Our first show on tour (and our second show ever) Ryan was just like..."amazing". It wasn't a "you're signed!!!" kind of thing right away, but there was talk after that show. He really hadn't heard us except for maybe a song on the demo. He still talks about that show......very strange, but an incredible moment.

UN: Would you say that the Kentucky scene is fairly close knit and people do what they can to help each other out?

Chris: There is a lot of stuff going on in lousiville musically...there are a lot of different "scenes". For the most part everyone gets along but there is always some dumb soap opera bullshit going on...like "so and so said Ryan Pattersons beard suck dog dicks" or "Black Cross sucks cause they don't do drugs" or someone's always accusing somebody else of finger blasting their cousin...you know, just typical shit like that.

UN: Would you say that it's was a concious decision to keep the songs shorter? They definitely aren't simple, because you guys do quite a lot in a short amount of time, but the song lengths allow the songs to be short burts of energy.

Chris: We just have short attention spans. I prefer to think of our songs as efficient.

UN: I was a bit surprised to read that you guys covered a Marilyn Manson song for your split with Colesium. Is it safe to assume that it really sounds nothing like the original version? How did the idea to cover come about?

Chris: Like many other aspects of our lives the Manson cover was a joke gone too far. Recording a cover song is always kind of dumb anyway so we figured "why toe the line of absurdity when we can cross it all together". So far most people who aren't familiar with the Marilyn Manson song didn't even pick up that it was a cover on the first listen.

UN: You guys just spent most of June out of the road. Will the band be touring just as steadily for the remainder of the summer? Was this the bands first official tour, or have you guys been playing a lot since Lords was started.

Chris: We're actually on tour right now, we've been out since the 13th and will be back on August 2nd. Lords have been touring pretty regularly since we started, we did some stuff last fall with Black Cross, a couple of weeks in January with Breather resist..the stuff last month with Coliseum and we're out with Black Cross again right now.

UN: Do you think that rock music has become a bit too safe these days? Rock and punk used to be dangerous and stand for something, now it just serves as a soundtrack for teenage heartbreak and Mountain Dew commercials.

Chris: Oh fuck yeah. This has been the topic of many recent conversations I've had. Much of the modern "punk" movement is a very tame fashion obsessed illusion...similar to modern rap...where art once was a reflection of life now life has become a reflection of art...or some kind of bullshit like that.

UN: Is the deal with Initial a one off deal, or will you guys be releasing a full length with them? I know the MCD just came out a few months ago, but is there anything planned yet for the debut full length?

Chris: Currently the band and label are planning to continue working together, we're getting started on the full length as soon as we get back in town. We've been going back and forth on some contract negotiations, I think when we get home Andy Rich is going to take us out for Sparks and hash and we'll smooth over all the details before we cruise for tranny hookers in his Lexus.