Panache Magazine

Chris Colland: Ok, introduce yourselves...
Chris: I'm Chris the drummer of the Sabians.
Justin: I'm Justin, the singer/guitar player.
Chris: And we're missing Patrick, he's watching Totimoshi and Rachel whose selling shirts.
Chris C: Well basically I'm going to base this off of what I was talking to you (Chris) about earlier. We were just talking at the time, but I thought, "Shit, we should make this an interview." I mean I was in a band that played with your former band, Sleep along time ago, which was a pretty understimated band of the time. The thing is nowadays there are a lot of people that are actually influenced by Sleep and really into them now. (a brief pause) I'm losing myself because I'm pretty drunk here. (laughter) Obviously you're in a different band now, but a lot of people were and still are influenced by Sleep, do you think that's pretty weird? (Turns to Justin) I understand that you were in Sleep also?
Justin: Yeah, for a period.
Chris: He's an original member. When we formed Sleep, we started off as "Best of Death." When he joined the band it was right when we changed the name to Sleep. I think Justin actually is the one that thought of it. Then we went and hid in the country, and played music and made Volume 1. He left right after that to become a monk.
Chris C: Does it trip you out now because your popularity has actually grown? Have you noticed that?
Chris: No:
Chris C: But, now everyone I know is like, "Sleep's the best." You guys were a big influence on them.
Chris: That's weird. It's flattering. It's an honor.
Justin: I don't know what to say. It's cool.
Chris C: I'm going to get off the whole Sleep thing in a bit, don't get me wrong. (laughter) I'm going to move on to a couple weird things. At one point I was reading Rolling Stone Magazine, and Billy Corgan was talking about his favorite records of the year and out of nowhere he mentioned, "Sleep."
Chris: Yeah, that was years ago, '95 or something.
Chris C: Yeah, so did you find that strange because you guys were fairly underground?
Chris: I think its cool. Like I was telling you before I think it was Hollywood that we were playing with Neurosis as a matter of fact. It was strange because we had heard of them, but never seen them and they weren't on TV yet. They introduced themselves like any other band and we were talking to them just like we are here with you guys right now. And then six months later, they were on MTV and huge immediately. I just thought that was strange for whatever thats worth. They were really talented.
Chris C: There was this big rumor in Humboldt County that was going around about a guy in a commune living up in the hills of Humboldt who was an old member of Sleep. What I hear now is that it was supposedly you Justin. So explain or dismiss this myth.
Justin: Well, its not a myth, well not really. After I left Sleep in '91, I went to a Russian Orthodox Monastery near Redding. It's not in the hills of Humboldt, but its near Redding. I lived in the monastery for seven years and went to Alaska and lived in a monastery there for quite awhile. Just two and half or three years ago, I came out of the monastery and joined up with Chris again to play music. So it wasn't a commune, it was a monastery.
Chris C: So you never grew a long beard?
Justin: I had a huge beard, black robes, and long black hair.
Chris C: Because I think several times people said they saw you, and they were like, "Yeah, that's the guy from Sleep."
Justin: I lived in Eureka for a few months.
Chris C: So what brought you back out of that?
Justin: Well, I graduated. Seven years, and I got my diploma. Seven years of the most amazing experience of my life encountering my own soul. I wanted to go out into the world and apply it to life opposed to being isolated in a monastery.
Chris C: So are you still down with that whole thing?
Justin: Totally, I still practice.
Chris C: So what brought you guys back together to form this band? Because there's High On Fire (Matt Pike from Sleep's other band now) , so explain what basically brought the break up of Sleep until where you are now?
Chris: Well, we recorded "Holy Mountain" and toured on it. Then we went and recorded "Jerusalem" Album. Justin was only on Volume 1 though because then he went to the monastery. So after "Jerusalem" we called it quits as sleep. Then I quit for about two years. Then Justin called me up and said he wanted to do a project like we're doing now.
Patrick: You were in retirement.
Chris: Yeah, I was in retirement from playing drums. I just drive a big rig, and I play drums again now. Then Matt hooked us up with studio space because its really hard to find a place to practice in the Bay Area. So we shared a studio with High On Fire. That's at the point where we met Patrick who became our lead guitar player. And our latest and final bass player is Rachel. She's really talented. This is our second show with her.
Patrick: We've been through five or six bass players.
Chris C: In how short of a time?
Patrick: Two years. We finally settled on Rachel a month ago.
Chris C: Wow. What do you think the problem with bass players was?
Patrick: We were really picky.
Chris C: Really picky.. (fake drum roll) (laughs) Ok, that was a bad joke.
Justin: No I liked it. Those are the good kind of jokes, all Jackie Gleason style.
Chris C: Ok, let's just get the current thing, a general assessment of what's happening right now for you?
Chris: Right now, we're touring N. California, Oregon and Washington.
Chris C: And you have a record out now?
Chris: We only have a demo to offer right now and a T-shirt.
Chris C: Are you trying to get someone to release it?
Chris: No, not neccessarily. We're just pushing it so people can hear the music and the lyrics. So if they like what they see, they can buy it and take a little piece home. We're funding the whole thing ourselves.
We're planning on putting out an album under our own power, our own funding. Maybe the end of the summer.
Patrick: It's going to be called "Beauty for Ashes. 10 tracks. It's analog catharsis.
Chris C: Any last words that you would like to state here? I know its a general question, but sometimes these are interesting. Sometimes they're not.
Justin: I have one, and it's philosophical. You must die before you die so that when you die you will not die.
Chris: Cheers.
Patrick: Here ye, here ye.
Chris: Thank you very much.