While out in Arizona at the Stoner Hands of Doom Festival, I had a chance to talk to singer/guitarist Steve Janiak from Devil to Pay. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was two naturally odd dudes talking shit together. Whatever it was, our conversation turned weird. Keep reading to find out if fine cuisine and personal hygiene have anything to do with Devil to Pay.

- John Pegoraro

Interview By: Arzgarth Date: 10/31/2006 11:58:28 AM

John: So what happened with you guys not playing? Your new guitarist got in a bad situation?

Steve: He got arrested on a five month old warrant for something he basically didn`t do. And there was nothing really that he could do about it. He got out of jail, and his bond was $60,000. I thought that just seems ridiculous, especially considering the situation that it was. I`m sure it`ll be dropped.

John: Now does he play on the new album (Cash Is King)?

Steve: Yeah.

John: How long did it take you guys to record it?

Steve: Probably too long. I think we went in in August and we didn`t finish up recording the vocals until September/October. You normally go in and do all the tracking first, and then all the drums and bass in that first weekend. Then you go in a week later so you don`t wind up using a lot of studio time. My buddy Ryan owns a studio; he went to high school with two of the guys in the band, so it makes it real nice for us. And the vocals we take our time on, to save the voice, so you`re not singing for two days straight, because I did that before. Y`know, we did 70 minutes or whatever it was. So it was like, “Are you available Tuesday?” “No.” “Ok, Thursday?” “No.” “Ok, next week?” So it just took a little longer.

John: Now did you have to win any battle of the bands to record this one, or was that just for the first one?

Steve: That`s funny, because we already had Thirty Pieces of Silver recorded by the time that battle of the bands thing happened. So we were pretty much done with the record. The battle of the bands was just so fucked up for us. We really weren`t supposed to win. Just didn`t expect it at all.

John: Now how would you describe Devil to Pay`s sound?

Steve: Well, I can tell you what other people say, which is that COC-influenced rock. Late period COC. We get that a lot more than anything else nowadays.

John: Not even Kyuss references? You are sort of John Garcia-esque.

Steve: We do get Kyuss references and I get a lot of that too. But it`s weird; everyone has a different take on it. We were compared to Failure once. That was a little strange, but I`ll take it.

John: People reacting well to the new album?

Steve: Yeah, but we don`t have the resources now, since everything`s our own DIY thing. We don`t have the resources to push it, so we just take the time to slowly push it over the internet. It just slows things down a little bit, but every week it seems like there`s somebody on MySpace or StonerRock.com that stumbles across the band that digs it.

John: Has MySpace helped you guys out a lot?

Steve: Yeah. More than we probably realized, yet not really in a totally noticeable way. You know what I mean? It`s really subtle. It`s the 53rd guy that says in the comments page, “I totally dig it!” and then they order a CD online. We started that with the new record, so we can see where people are ordering them from. I don`t really know what goes through the StonerRock.com store; I don`t know where those are going. They`re going, because we keep sending Dan some here and there.

There are people that are digging it, and that`s all we can really ask for is to find people that want to hear it. There`s an audience out there for us somewhere. A lot more these days people are going with the way more sludgier thing. Maybe I`m just imagining it, but there seems to be more of it. We`re not that sludgey.

John: Yeah, but you played the first Templars of Doom, right?

Steve: That was more because we knew Gates of Slumber. They were buds of ours, hometown guys. And they asked us to play, which was cool.

John: That was the second time I heard of you in a heavier, sludgier, grindier show. Like the one in Boston a couple of years ago.

Steve: That was a strange bill. That was, “We want to play in Boston, can we get on a show?” So Joe from NotCommon set it up.

(Looking around) I don`t think they`ve had this many black t-shirts since the last ShoD.

I`m trying not to sound like a total douchebag when doing an interview. Those interviews that you read where people are drunk, sitting in the back of van, are always pretty entertaining. I don`t know if I can compensate for that. Plus, I just got here and only had one beer.

John: So you won`t talk shit? I can`t goad you?

Steve: Man, I saw that Rock Star: Supernova where that one bitch got in trouble for talking shit. If Dave Navarro`s not down, I`m not down.

I hope you don`t watch that because I`m embarrassed to say that I do.

John: We`re more of a Hell`s Kitchen sort of family. We like Chef Ramsey calling people “donkeys.”

Steve: In the kitchen?

John: Yeah.

Steve: That normally helps people`s motivation. Whatever it takes to make that fancy food, I guess.

What kills me about those shows is that they`re fucking screaming at people about making food and when they get done with the dish, it`s two little sticks of fish...

John: With a risotto glaze...

Steve: And there`s an asparagus spear balanced precociously and some greens on the side and that`s your entire meal. You can`t stay fat and American on that shit. Nobody wants to eat that. I don`t want to eat it. I`m certainly not going to be feeling good if I spent $30 on two little pieces of fish and know someone got berated for it.

John: So you`re saying the biggest hurdle for Devil to Pay`s success is the size of the meals. You`re not really a French Laundry type of band.

Steve: I would say we`re fat friendly. If people come to a show, they`re welcome to eat all they want. Definitely drink.

John: You want your audience to be well fed.

Steve: I think that as long as I know who`s coming, we can get the correct size of shirts. You hate to have a bunch of smalls, a bunch of ringers from Goodwill, with the white belt crowd, and they don`t dig the Devil to Pay. At least I don`t think they do. I don`t know what kids dig these days.

John: I think it involves girl jeans and mascara.

Steve: I keep hearing that, but I don`t know. I`m out of the kid scene. I`m out of the loop.

John: You think you`ll write a mournful song about clouds?

Steve: (laughs) That`s not out of the realm of possibility. Now I`m going to go in there and think about it the rest of the day. By the time the last band`s on, I`ll have the lyrics all figured out.

John: The third Devil to Pay album you can call The Pony I Never Got.

Steve: The Pony I Never Got. That`s not bad. You thought about starting a band?

John: I`m more of an idea man. Plus, I`m missing that key ingredient called talent.

Steve: You should be a label guy.

John: Get a pork pie hat and do shady business deals?

Steve: You could totally do that.

John: So what sort of touring plans do you have lined up?

Steve: Well, we`re doing it ourselves, which makes things a lot more hit or miss. Which is the way we like it. We`re going to tour with Eldemur Krimm, and that should happen late October/early November. We not going to stay out long, but we are going to go to the West coast.

John: The last tour you basically went up and down the East coast.

Steve: Everyone`s got mortgages and jobs and obligations, so we want to play music, but we`re not prepared to stay in a van for the next 17 years and do it. We want to be able to do it on our own terms, which is fine and dandy. So we go to Boston and hang with our friends and hit Portland and come back home. And that means we can end up doing a longer tour later on. I think we`d like to go to Europe some day. That seems to be a goal.

John: Now you`ve got some health problems (involving his abdominal wall). Is that tough being on the road?

Steve: It doesn`t really effect my day-to-day stuff. I can`t get into bar fights, but it doesn`t really effect sitting in a van and playing rock. To make a long story short, it`s uncomfortable; I have to keep the brace on, and I won`t know probably for another six to eight months – at least - if I`ll be able to have surgery to repair the abdominal wall. I guess, when it all first happened, and I was really fighting for it, “I need to get this done right away.” But now that`s it`s been a couple of years, I`m just like, I don`t know how long I`m going to live anyway, so if I have to be like this, I`m kinda used to it. I can`t go to Cedar Point, which is a bummer. And I can`t play flag football, but I`m not sure if I would anyway. But I can still drink.

John: You can still rock.

Steve: I can still rock. I can still waddle up on the stage. It`s not so bad. I think it fits the whole stoner rock scene, to have a healthy beer belly-ish appearance. They know that I`m one of them.

That sounded really bad, didn`t it?

John: There`s a lot of long hairs and beards. Some skinny, some fat.

Steve: Yeah, it`s not like a general fatness. I guess it`s tattoos, black shirts, and facial hair. That seems to be key.

John: The thing I like about the facial hair is that it hides the double chin.

Steve: That`s why I`m sporting it. And my beard won`t grow any longer than this, so I don`t know if that`s holding us back as a band, musically.

John: So you think that maybe if your beard was a bit longer...

Steve: Yeah, if it was longer, we`d definitely have a deal by now. We`d be on some medium sized label.

John: But you`ve got a fly in your beard right now, so that`s kind of ghetto.

Steve: That`s fucked up.

John: If you grow it longer, you can put a bird in it.

Steve: I`m not saying a bird hasn`t been in there. I try to trim the shit, but it keeps coming back to the same length.

But then I`ve got my buddy who plays in a band called Redhorse, a really good band. Check them out. That dude had a beard about the size of mine. I don`t know what he did, but he came back – I hadn`t seen him in a year – and it was about down to here (motions to waist). So I was like, “You can`t come into my town with a bigger beard than me. You`re totally fucking my scene up.” And he laughed, and his beard flapped in the wind, and that was it. I conceded beard superiority.

But if you`re playing heavy riffs and have a beard, someone`s gonna notice.