http://www.nuvo.net/January 26th, 2005 Nuvo Newsweekly
Speakeasy with Steve Janiak
by Danica Johnson
Q: Since having a couple feet of your intestines removed a couple of years ago, how has having your guts fall out changed how you feel about rock and roll?
A:Life is short. You've got to embrace each riff as if it was your last.
Q: What is the difference between stoner rock fans and doom rock fans?
A:Stoner rock fans are usually high and mellow. Doom fans are very serious. Especially about metal.
Q: Why does hard rock seem to have a black T-shirt uniform?
A: Must be the slimming effect.
Q: After going to the finals with two of your bands one year and winning the next year's competition with Devil to Pay, will you be forming another band to play in this year's Benchmark Battle of the Bands?
A:It's always possible. The more bands you start and enter, the more the odds are in your favor.
Q: What exactly is 10,000 Janiaks?
A:10,000 Janiaks was supposed to be a side project where we did punk rock versions of '80s power ballads. Then we realized no one cared, so we switched it to black metal versions of emo songs. Bleemo.
Q: Have you ever considered shaving and getting a haircut to front a cheesy pop boy band to cash in?
A:No, but I've considered managing one. That's where all the money is anyways.
Q: In what variety of freelance graphic design work do you specialize?
A:All kinds. Any kind. Call me, I'm cheap.
Q: Devil to Pay spent a lot of 2004 touring. Anything interesting happen on the road?
A:On our last tour, one half hour out of town, our left rear rim cracked, and we pulled over to put on the spare. The engine overheated, then the tire iron cracked and broke. We called AAA, and waited. Saw a shooting star. Two hours later, we stopped to get gas in Le Roy, Ill., and the van refused to start for 45 minutes. As soon as we had made our mind up to go home and get more work done the van started right up. Got back to my hometown at 5:30 a.m. We left the next afternoon to drive straight through to Scottsdale, Ariz. Something flew into the engine driving across Oklahoma and shredded part of the serpentine belt. We didn't even notice until New Mexico at which point it was already half gone.
As soon as we had gotten off the interstate in Scottsdale, we were merely four blocks from our friends, we were pulled over by a cop who asked lots of questions. I finally asked him, "Could you tell me why you pulled us over?" "I ran your plates without the 'L' and it came up as stolen, and I ran it with the 'L' and it didn't come up." Great, so now we've been sitting in the van for 28 hours and we have 40 more minutes to wait while you run our IDs and see if we're smugglers or renegade chiefs or aliens. Finally we learned we could leave, that Indiana doesn't do their plates right in the eyes of Arizona, and that we couldn't get the van to start.