>From Rock Central February 95

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FEAR: AN INTERVIEW WITH KENNY HICKEY

BY WILLIAM KOPECKY

  Listening to Type O Negative's latest CD, Bloody Kisses, is probably like
kissing the devil: dark sensual, and a hell of a lot of fun. The CD's 14
tracks are gothic and brooding, yet full of strangely catchy hooks. Guitarist
Kenny Hickey, along with bassist/vocalist Peter Steele, keyboardist Josh
Silver, and drummer Johnny Kelly have been bringing their saturnine sounds to
many a venue as of late in support of their Bloody Kisses CD. Before a recent
show in Jacksonville, FL Kenny found time to share his thoughts with Rock
Central. So, put on your blackest garments, turnoff the lights, and pucker
up... your fears await you.

  I sense quite a bit of different influences on Bloody Kisses. One
predominant influence seemed to be the lethargic darkness of Black Sabbath.
Did Sabbath influence yourself and Type O Negative?

That is the first influence of Type O Negative.

  Did Sabbath influence your guitar playing as well?

  Yes. Guitar playing, tone, all around. There's also the Beatles, and lots
of psychedelic stuff. Old heavy metal, just about anything, you know?
Anything we grew up on. But we're all pretty old, so there's a lot of decades
of music in us (laughs).

  How old are you guys?

  I'm 28, John's the youngest; he's 27. Pete is 32. Josh is 31.

  You recently covered the song "Black Sabbath" on Nativity In Black: A
Tribute To Black Sabbath. It's my favorite track due to its powerful,
brooding atmosphere. Why did you chose to record the song "Black Sabbath"?

  Well, at first we chose "Paranoid. " But I think Megadeth took it. We were
like the low guys on the totem pole. There were a lot of big names on there.
They gave us like ten choices that weren't being used, and "Black Sabbath"
was one of them. That's the one we ended up choosing.

  What did you think of the way it turned out?

  I love it. I think it's very good. I think most bands when they do a cover
they basically do a copy of a song. I think if you're gonna do a cover of a
song, you should change it. You should transform it some way into you, and I
think we accomplished that.

  The title track of your CD has a sort of tragic-romance theme similar to
Romeo And Juliet or some of Edgar Allan Poe's work. What's the story behind
the track?

  It's about losing somebody that you really love, and were really close to.
It's basically about that fear.


  Is it more factitious, or is it a real story?

  It's a real fear, but it's not a real story.

  The end of "I Can't Lose You" has a sort of Beatle-esque...

 It is the Beatles. It's a little tribute to the Beatles. It's the end of "I
Am The Walrus".

  That song contains the message "everyone smokes pot." Do you advocate
marijuana smoking?

  Yeah. Me and Josh are potheads. Peter drinks a bottle of wine a night; and
Johnny is basically a lush too.

  The Beatles were a big influence on you?

  Huge, yeah. I would say (they were) the greatest songwriters. I think that
Peter, Josh and Johnny would agree.

 I've found that dark humor finds its way into many of your songs. Do you
incorporate that on stage in any way?

  Yes, we do.

  So what can we expect from a Type O Negative show?

  Lots of confusion and chaos. Darkness. Basically you'll see four
silhouettes on stage. Clownish commentary in between songs- sarcastic.
Sometimes people take them the wrong way, sometimes they don't.

What songs have you been doing live?

 Right now we changed the set around a little. In fact, we're playing "Kill
All The White People" for the first time. We've been playing the States since
June. We've been doing basically the same set all through the summer, all
through the fall. So we added a few more: "Christian Woman", "Black No. 1".
We've taken one from Slow, Deep and Hard; we're doing "Gravity." Um... we're
doing "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity," from
Slow, Deep and Hard. We're doing "Summer Breeze," the remake on Bloody
Kisses.

  You've toured with such bands as Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails and Danzig.
Who are you currently touring with?

Pantera.

What band was your favorite to tour with and why?

  My favorite to tour with was Motley Crue because they're down-to-earth
guys. They're nice guys. They hung out with us every night, drank with us,
treated us like semi-human beings.

  When Type O Negative was touring in Germany 31/2 years ago, you received
some bomb threats. Can you talk about that situation?

Yeah. We had some problems with the Underground Left Wing Movement in
Germany. They were looking for a scapegoat. And, of course, they found Type O
Negative. We had some bomb threats; a lot of shows got canceled. In fact, one
bomb threat went on while we were on stage. A bomb squad came in and
evacuated the club-didn't find any bombs. They left. Everybody came back in.
Everybody was happy and we resumed the set. That was about the sum of all
that happened there. We played about four shows out of twenty. So we ended up
coming home pretty discouraged. But we just recently toured there in
September and it was completely a success. Totally. We had like fifteen shows
in Germany. Every one of them went on. Every one of them was a sellout. There
was no riots, not even a fight. Nothin'.

  Do you like to tour?

  I used to think I would love to tour, you know? Probably the first three
months of touring I loved it, had a great time. I got drunk every night.
Constant energy. But once it gets to about ten or eleven months, it crosses
over to hate. It's not so comfortable all the time. It's a lot of waiting.
Probably the favorite part of being on tour is the hour that I'm on stage.

  Do you hate touring now?

  No, I don't hate it. It's more like work now.

  Do you have a favorite song to play live?

  "Christian Women."

  How come you like that one so much?

  I like the mood of it. It's dark and sensual. I like the movement of the
whole song.

  Did you know the two girls on the CD cover?

  Not personally. One of them was the photographer's wife. The other was a
model that we paid fifty bucks for the day or somethin'.

  Did you get any flak about the CD cover?

  No, not at all. See that wasn't so offensive (laughs). The one we had a
problem with was Origin Of The Feces. We had to change that one.

  Bloody Kisses was released in 1993. What plans do you have for a new
release?

  We're going to keep touring on Bloody Kisses until it stops selling. Right
now, it's still selling very well, and we are... beating a dead horse. Once
it stops selling- when it ceases- we'll go back into the studio, looks like
probably August. Which means the album will come out around Christmastime.

  Do you have a working title for it?

  No. In this band, titles are like thrown up in the air. The songs will
constantly mutate. I mean, they're all written already. Except they'll be
totally different by August anyhow. I mean, I'll go into the studio the day
we're supposed to record, and Peter will throw five new parts at me, and I'll
s**t my pants.

  How does the album look thus far?

   I would say along the vein of "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1."

  Type O Negative seems to have a rather morbid and pessimistic philosophy.
Does the band approach life with a certain philosophy?

  I would call it "objective". Not pessimistic or morbid. We're more aware of
what you're afraid of... See, fear runs everything. Everything comes down to
fear when you break it down. What is love? The fear of being alone. I think
if you're aware of what you're afraid of, then you can meet it head on. Then
you can attack it- conquer  it. It's the only way to succeed in life. If you
deny your fears for the rest of your life, it devours you.

  Do you think that musicians get into music to get away from fears that they
might have?

  Sure. Everything comes down to fear in the end. Most musicians usually have
their beginning reasons for playing music. They want to meet girls, or
whatever. They feel under-confident, insecure. They want people to look at
them; they need attention. It crosses over, though. 'Cuz if you stay in music
for a long time, then you actually learn to play music just for the sake of
music. But I think the initial reasons for playing music are not simply for
music. It's to fill a hole somewhere inside of you.

 Were you looking to fill any holes?

  Sure. I'm a regular guy like anyone else. I was a junior high school
reject, you know? (laughs) Long, greasy hair, a dirt bag. I guess I have to
fit in somewhere, so I pursued music.