Twisted Method & jo post interview                                                                        Twisted Method

Date: August 7, 2003
Time: 3:00 p.m
Venue: Tweeter Center—Camden, NJ
Place: Tour Bus
Group: Twisted Method: Derrick “Tripp” Tribbett(vocals), Derek DeSantis (bass), Ben Goins (drums) & Andrew Howard (guitar)


I love this band! Not only are they talented as hell, but they are very level headed and fun to be around! We had a great time interviewing this band and I am very disappointed that I had to hear there set from outside the venue! I will definitely be catching up with them again! I really want to see them perform and would love to take concert pix of these guys in action. From what I heard from fans inside the venue, they totally kicked ass! Don’t miss out on this band…check out their website and buy their new CD, "Escape from Cape Coma".

jo: What does the name Twisted Method mean?
Andrew: There really is no one meaning…
Ben: Not necessarily, I mean it is kind of about like combining craziness with anarchy. The twisted with the method with like a…kind of like a….being like crazy but still having a motive. Like still maintaining order, but within a crazy…
Andrew: Crazy methodic order!
Ben: Yea, that sort of thing.
Andrew: An oxymoron, it is also a masturbation technique (group laughs) yea, it is also Indian leg wrestling thing, you can pin a guy with it!
jo: The press kit says you have been together since high school?
Derek: Yea
jo: How old are you? How long has it been?
Derek: 6 years, we were 15.
jo: Cool. How was the first studio experience?
Andrew: Oh, the first one? The first one that we paid for?
jo: No, the first one with the label.
Andrew: It was a lesson learned.
Derek: Um, I think every band that goes into the studio the first time, I think the lesson is…next time you go in, you are ready. You have a whole list and you know what you are going to do. When you go in the first time, you are not really certain what to expect. Then what happens is the producer has a lot of ideas, but if you are not sure of your own things. We had no idea, whatever it came out to be.
jo: How long did it take to complete?
Ben: A month, we had a couple weeks of pre-production and then we went into the studio and it was about a month of mixing…
Andrew: But we also recorded, not to save money, but we spent like a week and a half on drums and a week and a half on bass. We decided to do it like that.
Ben: Sometimes I would get a break.
Andrew: Then I would lay the bass down on what he had already done.
jo: What is your favorite track?
Derek: Personally I like Mannequin. I like playing it. He laid down the vocals in one take. I think that is cool, it has a real live feel to it. I think all of us did it on one or two takes.
jo: What were some of the influences on your songs?
Derek: There are a lot of influences, uh, crazy girls, all the emotional experiences you go through while growing up.
Andrew: Everything from having to go to school, to getting dumped to getting the shit beat out of you. Everybody has had hardships in a different ways in this band.
jo: How about musical influences?
Andrew: That is different for all of us.
Ben: For drums, um, Korn and Tool.
Derek: Bass, Mudvayne. Bass player is phenomenal.
Andrew: I would say Metallica. There guitars, metal.
jo: What cds are you currently listening to?
Tripp: (yells) 50 cent!
Ben: We like Snoop, we like Nothingface, Killswitch Engage
Derek: Motorgrater
Ben: Yea, we are like getting into all these second stage bands. Like, some of them we had heard of and listened to for awhile, some of them are new that we hadn’t heard of and we are getting into them. Mudvayne, SlipKnot are always in there. Um, Staind, is like a common band influence. Korn is like the original influence we had, kind of made us all, we owe a lot to Korn & Staind for paving the way for bands like us.
jo: How did it feel the first time you stepped on stage for this tour?
Andrew: It was unbelievable. My mind wrapped around itself actually. It did a pretzel thing. I was so worried that I was going to get stage fright. I was like, oh I can’t go out there in front of that many people, but as soon as you walk out there you are like oh hell yeah.
Tripp: It is such an awesome feeling. We did not know how people were going to react.
jo: How do you feel about Marilyn Manson being banned?
Derek: I think it is fucking awesome!
Andrew: I think if you are banned in a couple of different cities it kind of helps you. You gotta be pretty hard fucking core.
Ben: I think it is kind of stupid for the people that are trying to like keep him down and ban him, because all it does is boost his popularity.
jo: Right, he was much worse years ago anyway.
Ben: It just doesn’t make any sense. They say “he is bad”, but that is what he is going for…
Andrew: If a city council gets together and has a meeting about you, you know you are doing something right. They can’t ban him enough.
jo: Exactly, that is how I got into him. I heard someone complaining about him on TV saying Marilyn Manson is this and that…and thought “hey I gotta go check this out, so I ran out and bought his cd and book.
Derek: Exactly, it is the controversy that makes the paper.
Ben: If you create waves, people will surf on them.
jo: Hey, I like that!
Becky: Have you met Marilyn and all of them?
Tripp: I was out with him last night. Strip club.
jo: See, I knew it…I wanna meet him, the ungettable get…
Ben: Yea, he is pretty reclusive.
Tripp: He is not a real public person.
Becky: What about Ozzy?
Derek: No, not yet, but we did meet Sharon. She is real cool. She is really down to earth.
jo: What city on this tour has been the wildest?
Andrew: San Bernadino, CA.
jo: Most boring crowd?
Andrew: No comment!
Ben: No crowd is boring. I mean some crowds may not seem to be too into us, but it may also be 9:30 in the morning. If you play at noon or 2:00 or 3:00 people are more into it.
jo: We missed you, we were outside the venue cursing!
jo: Have you had an embarrassing moments on stage?
Derek: I had a booger hanging out of my nose about three shows ago for like the last song and a half. It was horrible, and then I had a couple of people come up to me saying “booger check” (group laughs).
Andrew: Where was I? PA I think? Halfway through the set, my guitar totally cut out. The rest of the show was completely fucked. So I started singing with him. The crowd was more into me screaming into the mic.
jo: Any advice to bands trying to break into the music industry?
Derek: Keep in their face, just get all up in there shit, even if they don’t want to look at you.
jo: If you were a cartoon character, who would you be and why?
Tripp: I would be Yosemite Sam with two guns in my hand.
Derek: Johnny Bravo (laughs)
Andrew: Dexter
jo: Dexter? Really? Why Dexter?
Ben: Freakazoid
Ben: the mad scientist
Andrew: I love the way he walks around the lab.
jo: How about the fake accent?
Andrew: Yea
jo: Looking into the future, what do you see happening for the band in the next 5 years?
Derek: I don’t know, hopefully something really good!
jo: For the female fans…boxers, briefs or commando?
Andrew: whooooaaaa, we are like Rambo commando! The bushiest of the bushiest.
Ben: We got our little leaf patches in the back.
Andrew: Guerilla commandos!
Ben: Come find out!
Andrew: We all sleep naked though.
Derek: We all sleep naked together, separately. You ready to go to bed man, yea bro, let’s go.
jo: On this tour, which groups are we most likely to catch you watching?
All group members at once: Killswitch, Chimaira, Nothingface, Korn…
Andrew: Manson, I think out of the whole Ozzfest, Manson has the best show. Have you seen it yet?
jo: I have seen him a couple of times, not this one yet.
Andrew: Oh, you will love it.
Ben: The only bad thing is it is during the day.
jo: I can see how during the day would take away from it.
Ben: It is cooler at night or in a club.
Derek & Ben: Come on! More questions!
jo: If you could meet any artist/star. Who would it be and why?
Andrew: Christopher Walken, I love that guy!
Ben: Bill Cosby
Derek: ohh, ohh, Robert DeNiro!
Andrew: Dude that kicks ass, I should have said that too! (group laughs)
Becky: Has anyone famous come to one of your shows?
Derek: Not that we know of.
Andrew: Dan from Disturbed comes down a lot to watch us.
Derek: That is how you can tell if someone is really cool. They come down to the second stage and watch. They appreciate you.
Andrew: Not saying that anyone that doesn’t, isn’t, but it is nice to know they appreciate you.
jo: If you could work with anyone, who would it be?
Ben: I would like to work with Snoop Dog.
Derek: Eminem, that would be cool.
Andrew: I would love to do a song with John Davis (group agrees). That would be awesome, that would be cool!
Ben: We would work with anybody!
Andrew: (yells) We will work with ANYONE!!
jo: So, Cape Coral, FL….a lot of old people there! You probably took a lot of shit there, huh?
Andrew: At first.
Derek: The worst thing is that they don’t support the kids there. They would call the cops on you.
Ben: They just passed an ordinance there that no one under the age of 21 is allowed in the clubs where they serve alcohol. Which are the only clubs that the bands can play at.
Ben: Newly wed and nearly dead.
jo: Do you have a message for your fans?
Andrew: For our fans? We fuckin’ love you all! We wanna have sex with you all!
jo: Just girls right?
Andrew: Hold on, hold on footnote, just girls.
Derek: We are the heavy metal boy band.
Ben: N-Sane
jo: Who has been the most supportive of your career? Your parents?
Andrew: Not really.
Derek: Our manager.
Andrew: I mean they are, but…
Ben: I mean here we are saying we want to be rock stars...
Derek: We were like we are not going to college, we are going to be in this band...
Ben: And I am an only child, so my parents were like “No, you are our only hope”. But now they are cool.

Like I said, I LOVE THESE GUYS and I wish them all the best. Check them out at their official website and stay on top of all things TWISTED!!

~jo~