Interview with Randy from Motokops2000 by Jen

Give us some Motokops2000 history.
Well, Motokops2000 (MK2k) started as an idea for a side project between me and one of my best friends Dave Novin in 1998. I had been in the same band for 6 years or so and Dave was in three at the time, and it just seemed like a fun thing to talk about eating nachos at Chili's. But, when I abruptly left my band and still had a gig to play in less than two weeks that I had put together the lineup for, we decided to green light the project and go for it. We had 10 days to write the music and lyrics for 10 songs, practice them, and program them. It was a challenge, but we did it, thanks to Dave's MIDI and musical prowess, and my ability to write lyrics that fit or rhyme into a song in less than a minute!! LOL!! Anyway, the gig went well enough that we have continued it as a full time project.
You have 2 members, How does that work? How does it work when you play live?
I do the vocals, Dave plays guitar. The bass, drums and samples are all programmed on a computer and recorded to mini-disc. Dave has a mini-disc player on stage that goes right into the PA system. His guitar amp is a Line-6 POD that is about the size of a dinner plate and weighs about 3 lbs. It takes the place of a big heavy amp and also goes directly through the sound board live. There are pros and cons to the way we have things set up, but I think the pros FAR out weigh the cons. The tough part is filling a whole stage with only two people. That might be alright for the Indigo Girls, but we are playing loud ass fucking metal!! Half of the show is visual, and we don't even have any EQUIPMENT on stage!! Just me and Dave.....luckily we are characters and never stop moving and grooving. The other slam we take is when people see us or hear about our set up and say, "Oh, so you guys do Karaoke". It doesn't bother me that they think that, it bothers me that people are stupid. I get bothered quite a lot.... My usual answer to them is to point out bands like NIN or Ministry and ask if they are karaoke....that usually shuts them up. The good points about it are that Dave and I work like a well oiled machine and I feel we work really good together....we are both deranged. We don't have other members to fight with or gang up on or piss off. We considered getting a full band, but this is working too well. We have almost *NO* equipment to load or carry!! A guitar case and a duffle bag. We usually have more funny hats to carry than gear. No drums to put together, no cabinets to lift. We don't have to rent a practice space, we just use Dave's studio in his apartment. That's also where we record. We don't have to rent out studios time for $50 and hour!! So, as you can see, we love the way we do things.
Describe your sound to someone who has never heard you.
Musically, we are all over the place in the metal spectrum. We have thrashy songs; punk/metal songs; Hardcore songs......it really depends on what we are inspired by at the moment of writing. We just like to call ourselves METAL!!! My vocals have been compared to Max Cavelera and the dude from the hardcore band Strife. I can do Death metal, metal or hardcore, whatever fits the song style. Dave's sound is very late 80's early 90's metal influenced. But he's been taking a lot influence from bands like At the Gates and Soilwork at the same time. Not too mention one of his all time favs, Megadeth. He also a HUGE Industrial head, so that sound finds it's way into the mix on a subtle level too. He's a bass player by trade and people are amazed that at what he's learned on guitar in a few short years.
Who are some of the bands you have played with in the past?
In the time we've been together we have usually tried to play with bands we know and are friends with. I get clubs to give me a night and I'll book all the other bands. Most your readers probably wouldn't recognize, but recently we played with the Dave Brockie Experience. Which is the three main members of GWAR. That went......weird.... Anyway, we've played out with our friends in Ratchaburi, Skindevice, Breedinground, In Error, Austin's Dead,Thunderstud, and about a million others.
Where do you play, what states, clubs, etc.
We mostly stick to MA. But we have played NH and plan on doing RI soon. We've played at the big Boston club The Middle East Downstairs about 4 times over the past two years, and those gigs went insanely well. Some of the best I've ever played. We've done the Linwood, Good Times, O'Briens, The Lucky Dog to name a few in the Boston/Worcester area.
How is the crowd reaction to your band?
Depends on who we play with. We opened for a Disco Band the other night and last New Years Eve, and they didn't know WHAAAAAT to think of us. They weren't expecting us to be belting out Ricky Martin and Culture Club songs death metal style.....which we did. At metal shows we get a pretty hearty reception usually, but there are always stinkbomb nights of course. Sometimes people just don't get our humor.
How big is your following right now?
Our following isn't bad for a local nobody band. A disadvantage for us is that I don't drink or hang out in bars, and Dave almost never does either. So we've never really shmoozed ourselves into the local scene. We network ourselves and give away a lot of CDs and singles to promote ourselves, so it's safe to say that quite a lot of people have at least heard our name.
Do you have any releases right now, or anything coming out soon?
We have released two CDs, both out of print. The first was "MotoKops Vs. The Universe" (1998), and was a full length disc that captured the first 10 songs we wrote in 10 days. We partially used a recording studio for that one. The next disc was a three song demo called "Under Attack!!!" (2000) which was totally recorded and mixed in Dave's home studio. It came our pretty killer for two guys in a spare bedroom and a PC. We used it as an experiment to test the new equipment he got at the time. We've given out about 200 of the first disc and about 100 of the second. The third thing we did was a single for a comp album that probably never saw the light of day. It was the song Placenta and it's on our web site to download and was given out at only two shows to the crowd. Next up is a cover song EP with funny songs like It's Raining Men and Karma Chameleon called "Covered in Black". It will have our logo (MK2k) looking like AC/DC and stuff. Should be funny. Then, we will start our next full length. We have all the songs ready for it and can't wait to hear them recorded.
Who did your web site (I like it!)?
That was Dave. He did that design all on his own on a whim one night and never mentioned it to me till I saw the new graphics. I can take no credit for this new version......dammit.
What bands are you listening to these days?
I've been going back and listening to a lot of old bands I haven't heard in a long time. It stems from me going out and rebuying old albums on CD that I haven't listened to since I had them on cassette. Stuff like the mighty TESTAMENT, Slayer, Kreator, Bob Marley, Elvis, Queen, The Cure, System of a Down, At the Gates, Dying Fetus, and so on.
If you could sign to any label, who would it be and why.
I'd sign to Metal Blade probably. They have a good history of supporting bands and they are known by anyone who knows anything about metal.
Last question, being from the Boston area, do you say "Wicked" a lot? =)
I actually DO say that all the time. Everything is "wicked". Dude, that show was wicked awesome. That Pats game was wicked cool. I have a wicked bad headache. *BUT*!!!! I don't have a typical Boston accent, luckily. I listen to local people interviewed on the local 6pm News, and cringe at how awful Bostonians sound....I'm embarrassed. But hey, it gives us some chahhhm, right?
Anything else you would like to add?
All I'd like to say is thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to do this, and I wish I had funnier and shorter answers for you.....feel free to cut stuff out. =) Seriously, you have a great web page and I love to see people supporting metal and bands. Thank you Jen. Oh ya, and one who wants a Cd in future, e-mail us from the web site!!!
http://www.motokops.com