UN: I was curious to start off by asking what exactly influenced you to name the album The Calculus of Evil? I could take a guess but I'd rather just ask the source then make an ass out of my self by assuming. Do you think it's a fairly unique album name for a death metal band? It's not sickening or gory, which is a nice change of pace.

Chris: I actually ripped it off a tv show I saw about the Zodiac killer. There was a book written about the Zodiac, and the author referred to the Zodiac's method of operation as "the calculus of evil." He called it that because the Zodiac used bizarre symbols/codes and complex mathematical equations whenever he wrote letters to the police. His crimes were not random acts of violence, but rather very specific and highly calculated crimes.

Also, with the current acts of terrorism, from Bin Laden to the DC Snipers, the title really seemed to fit. That, I assume, was probably gonna be your first guess, huh?

And as for gory album titles, we were aiming for something that was dark without being blatantly gory or satanic. Even since our days in Pessimist we realized that there is a difference between being "dark" and being "evil." One can be dark, depressing or aggressive without screaming SATAAAAN!!! As far as I'm concerned, there's no beating band like Waco Jesus or Lividity when it comes to the gore genre, and there's no beating Deicide or Immolation when it comes to the satanic and/or anti-christian theme, so we just try to be us and leave it at that.

UN: How has the response to the new album been? I'm assuming that the name Psychotogen will now be known by more people that you are on Crash. Are you guys getting a lot of good feedback from people? I personally think the album stands out quite a bit right now. There aren't many bands playing technical music and keeping it interesting these days.

Chris: The feedback so far has been fuckin' killer. I'm sure they'll be people who don't like this one, just as the last disc had a few people that disliked it - but that's fine by me. As far as I'm concerned, that just means that we've created something a little outside the norm. We've created something that the more close-minded, nothing but grunts and blastbeats portion of the death metal fan base just can't accept. That's fine, there is no wrong art, but I would rather have a left-of-center album that people enjoy listening to for years to come rather than play it safe and do by-the-numbers death/grind that may get a few spins and then get permanently shelved.

UN: Like I mentioned in the previous question, you guys are now on Crash Music. How did all of this come about? Are you guys happy with the work the label has done for you guys so far? Were any other labels interested in you guys?

Chris: Crash has done ok. They hook us up with some decent ads and their distribution is killer. As for how it came about, I think our management team (Greg & Brian Ferguson / Bring Out Your Dead Productions) sent out copies of our first CD to various labels and we got a call from Mark from Crash/Pavement. We really didn't consider any other labels, as none of us, especially our previous singer, were/are able to commit to a larger label. I'm sure when it comes to Century Media, Nuclear Blast or Relapse that bands are obligated to tour rather frequently - something we aren't able to do.

UN: I would say that you guys, while not the first to combine the two, combine brutal death metal with the more technical side of progressive music and make it listenable. Do you guys take a lot of time to make sure that the songs flow? Do you ever have to possibly leave out some flashy stuff because it's just too much?

Chris: To "combine brutal death metal with the more technical side of progressive music and make it listenable" is exactly what we do. We really have no set of rules or goals in mind when we write, except to avoid being too much of one or the other - too heavy all the time or too prog all the time. We take forever to write a song, what seems like a fucking eternity! That's because we'll create, then destroy, re-create, then again destroy a song until it ultimately "clicks" with us. It has to flow well. It's just gotta feel right, and sometimes it takes us months to get it there. I don't know how some bands manage to write a complete album in a mere two month's period, or even in some cases in mere weeks. I wish we had that ability, spontaneity works for some bands, but it doesn't really work for us too well. We've never had to eliminate a part (yet), but I think we do posses the ability to know when we've extended ourselves beyond our musical abilities, and we know when we've been too self-indulgent for the song to still be an enjoyable listening experience. With "The Gilded Slave" we had the first minute or so, which is fairly laid back and simple, and then we just go off the deep end with off-time stuff in weird time signatures and then the flamenco part. We knew that if we didn't return to the simplistic nature of the beginning of the song after that complex midsection, that our heads would explode! We knew we had to reel it back in or it would no longer be an enjoyable listening experience, nor any fun to play.

UN: This goes along with the last question. What bands would you say influenced you guys to take a more technical based approach to death metal? Do you think it might have had to do with outside influences that had nothing to do with death metal? Do you guys listen to a lot of different types of music?

Chris:ome of the more metal-oriented acts that have inspired us: Gorguts, Cynic, Believer, Atheist, Opeth, Dillinger Escape Plan, Sadus, Death, Nevermore, Helloween, Aghora and Anacrusis. Bands that definitely aren't afraid to try something different and color outside the lines. Some of the non-metal acts: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Living Colour, Dead Can Dance, Miles Davis and Gordian Knot. We listen to tons of music outside metal, everything from jazz, classical and Duke Elington-style big band music, to industrial, ambient and doom, to black metal. That's what makes the "Psychotogen sound." We tend to incorporate some non-metal influences into our music without really thinking too much about how the record buying public will receive it. I've always said that it's ok to steal from your influences, the trick is to steal a little from a ton of groups rather than a ton from a small amount of groups. Too many bands tend to pick up on the sounds and styles of Napalm Death, Carcass, Suffocation, and Cannibal Corpse and mimic those sounds completely.

UN: Now that you guys have your new full-length is out, are there any plans to tour extensivly? Do you guys get the chance to play as much as you'd like? Anything holding you back from touring full time?

Chris: We're basically in the situation where we just do as many one-offs as possible. That's basically what we've always done, even back in our days in Pessimist. We occasionally do a one or two week tour but 99% of our shows are one-offs. Jeremy, Tony and I all have jobs, wives, homes, kids, etc., stuff that prevent us from hitting the road for extended periods of time like Dying Fetus or Vader do. We realize that we can't be road warriors, but we try like hell to get out there as much as possible. It may limit our record sales, and it may limit the amount of money we make (and it usually ends up with us losing money), but it's the best we can do.

Our touring limitations may even benefit us in some ways. We don't make a living off of the road, so therefore we're not pressured into creating "The Calculus of Evil Part II" in order to ensure our continued financial success on the road. The lack of pressure allows us to take chances that a constantly touring band may not have the liberty of taking. Our artistic integrity nor our creative freedoms are limited in any way due to our dependency on record sales or touring income.

UN: I haven't had the chance to check out the album you guys released independently, is it along the same lines as Calculus...? Would you recommend anyone that dug the new cd to check out the old one?

Chris: Yes, I would recommend it. The sound quality is not quite as good as "TCoE" because we really hadn't zeroed in on what we needed to do in the studio to get the sound we needed. Somehow managing to get Tony's smooth Jaco Pastorius-like tones to cut through the mix when competing with distorted guitars, double bass and tortured screams and grunts is next to impossible and it took us a second try at it to figure out what we needed to do.

The songwriting is also more "old-school" towards the beginning of the CD. The songs on the first CD were basically arranged in the order we wrote them, so you can see the progression we made as a group as you get closer to the end of the disc. The last couple of songs on "PaUP" could easily have been on our second disc.

And for any Pessimist fans out there, Perverse and Unnatural Practices is the final release featuring the writing team of Kline/Pernia/Pernia. For "PaUP" it was Jeremy, Tony and myself writing the music with Rob handling all lyrics, melody lines, vocal arrangements, etc., and with "TCoE" Mike Harrison (ex-Misery Index) stepped in to handle Rob's role in the group.

UN: I was curious to ask what influenced you guys to cover All Guns Blazing? It's definitely one of my favorite Priest tracks, and it was definitely a cool listen to hear your take on it. Have you guys been playing this song for awhile, or did you decide to record it while putting together the record?

Chris: We had wanted to include a cover on the new disc for some time and had put together a list of songs we had wanted to do. We decided to go with All Guns... because we were all big fans of Priest's Painkiller album and we individually already knew the song. Basically we were looking for a song that we could put our mark on without having to spend several frustrating hours trying to learn and rehearse the song. Some people have made the connection that Death covered Painkiller on their final album, and we covered a Priest song coming from the same album, but that was purely unintentional, we never intended to cover a Priest song just because Death did - that's fuckin' retarded! We could just have well of covered a Watchtower song had we had the time or patience (or musical ability!). We just wanted something that people knew, something that we already knew how to play, something that we could "Psychotogen-ize," and most importantly something that was just fun to jam out - that song just happened to be "All Guns Blazing." To be honest, we never really expected the cover at the end of the album to get as much attention as it has, everyone seems to mention the cover!

UN: Is it hard to pull off the music in a live setting? There is a lot going on within the music. It must be tough playing at some of the festivals when you have minimal time for sound checking. I'm sure you guys need to be able to hear each other clearly on stage to play how you'd like to play.

Chris: Yes and No. In the studio I rarely (about 50/50) use a scratch track to record. To me music is math, and if you can count to four, then you can play a song. Although I prefer to hear the rest of the group in a live situation, I don't absolutely need to hear them in order to perform our songs. However, we do have problems from time to time in a live situation, especially festivals, because it is necessary for the rest of the band to hear me. I'm the time keeper, the group really needs to hear me if the song is to be as tight as possible. If we were a band like Jag Panzer, who play to a click track, then we could theoretically play in separate isolations booths without hearing each other and still begin the song and end it on the same note just by simply counting. Being the unschooled musician that I am, I prefer not to use a click track in the studio or in a live setting - so yes, we do have our share of difficulties live from time to time.

UN: I was curious to ask what influenced you guys to use a fretless bass. The fretless bass playing on the Cynic records and many of the Death records really made those records stand out and I think it does the same for you guys. It's totally adds a new dimension to death metal and opens up a lot of possibilities.

Chris: You basically just answered your own question! We used fretless because it adds a new dimension to the music, the same reason Tony used to use a 6-string bass on the Pessimist albums. On the first two Pessimist releases and on the first Psychotogen release the bass was recorded using two tracks - one for the Jaco Pastorius finger-style of playing, and one for the Flea/Trujillo slap style of playing - the reason being that the two styles were so drastically different when it comes to dynamics that it's nearly impossible to mix them when they're on one track. For "Calculus" we used three bass tracks, one for finger playing, one for hard slapping, and one for fretless runs. Tony just uses the same bass in a live setting and plays the fretless parts with a fretted bass.

UN: Is there an ideal place you'd like to see Psychotogen end up? Do you think it would be far fetched to one day want to make a living off of the band? With a style that goes against the current trends of the scene, it might seem hard, but it's always the band that do something different that end up surviving and becoming successful.

Chris: I'm quite confident that it would be absolutely impossible for Psychotogen to generate enough income to support it's members. Shit, I'll be happy when the day comes that Psychotogen becomes self-sufficient and we stop losing money! Due to our touring limitations, we realize that we'll never be as big as Nile, Morbid Angel, or Arch Enemy. I think we'll be content just to have moderate success. Our ultimate goal is probably to one day create an album that stands amongst the classics of the metal genre, such as Heartwork, Focus, or any Death album for that matter. I remember a few people shitting on Atheist and Believer back when they were around, and now ten years later those same bands/albums are considered hard-to-find classics.

I really don't care if a few people piss on "Calculus...", as long as there's some people that will still get some enjoyment out of it some years down the road. I've got albums from 1990 that I still listen to almost on a weekly basis, and I've got albums from as recent as 2002 that I'll likely never listen to again - hopefully "TCoE" won't be one of those albums that gets shelved and forgotten.

UN: It might be a bad question to end on, but I have to ask. Why did you guys decide on the name Psychotogen? I have to say that I have no idea what it means, were any other names thrown around before you decided on this one?

Chris: Psychotogen is defined as a chemical agent that induces a psychotic state. I think PCP could be defined as a psychotogen. Our former vocalist Rob is a forensic psychologist and he deals with the criminally insane on death row, so a good majority of his lyrics drew inspiration from his experiences within the walls of the prison. Although not all of Rob's lyrics involved the mentally insane, the word Psychotogen just seemed to fit the sound we were creating and the overall lyrical theme to the band.

We were formerly Excathedra, and actually put out one demo and performed at Milwaukee fest '99 under the name, but changed it to Psychotogen after discovering that there was already another group with the name. We never in a million years would have though there would be another group running around with the name Excathedra, the word itself doesn't appear in most dictionaries because it's such an uncommon word.

We also considered Absence of Light, which was the first "official" Pessimist demo, but decided against it. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier to pronounce than psychotogen though!