Rockezine.com interview with El Shit on Jan 24, 2003

with Ron Velthuis, David Peel & Bas van Velzen on Jan 24, 2003

For those of you who haven’t heard of the band El Shit before: Ron Velthuis, David Peek and Bas van Velzen are a young band from the Netherlands who are inspired by bands like Meshuggah and Deftones. As a result of their self-titled debut, magazines like Aardschok and LiveXS already called them THE Dutch nu metal pioneers of the moment.
		You chose an anything but normal band name. Why did you choose this name in particular? Our name already raised a lot of dust, so in this respect it’s a great name! The name was chosen coincidentally. We practice in the house of our manager and he shows us videotapes of Flamenco until we’re bored. In Flamenco all kinds of strange names like El Pele, El Paco etc. are used. We used to tease him by saying that all that stuff was just El Shit.
		Deftones and especially Meshuggah seem a big influence. What are the other bands that influenced you musically besides these two bands? We listen a lot to bands like Korn, Tool and Fear Factory, but we definitely try to widen our horizon by listening to a diverse group of bands. That keeps you sharp. Besides that we try to see as many gigs as possible from both Dutch and foreign bands.
		Your debut album is produced by yourselves. Taking in consideration that this was the first time you produced an album, I must say I’m quite impressed. Why did you choose to produce the album yourselves? We had won a little recording time at a talent show and we weren’t happy with the result. By that time our guitarist had already built a studio in his parent’s house, so we decided to record it ourselves. We called it El Shit studio.
		The only problem was that we couldn’t record the drums, so we recorded the drums at the Cats On Tracks studio and Peter Cats did the mixing. Another problem occurred, because from that moment on we weren’t able to change anything about that sound. But we took that for granted and recorded the vocals, guitars and bass whenever we felt like recording. Before we knew it our debut album was completed.
		How does it feel to release your first album? We felt a bit insecure especially in the beginning. Besides that we are very critical, so we weren’t completely satisfied with the result. After we started receiving more and more positive reactions and reviews our self-confidence grew and we began to believe in ourselves.
		You earned yourselves a distribution deal with Suburban. Is this a one time offer or is it a long term deal? The deal is a bit different. We were being watched by a new record label (New Blood Productions) who wanted to set up a new label for nu metal. They really wanted us to be their first band. During these conversations the possibility of a wide distribution area came across. Besides that LiveXS magazine tries really hard to get our video on the national music channels. So the album was eventually released by New Cold Productions (who had a distribution deal with Suburban) which brings along a lot of good possibilities!
		Could you tell something more about the songs, both lyrically as musically? Until now all our songs have been written by our singer/guitarist David Peek, but sometimes we jam and as a result some new compositions come out. We write the music first and when the music’s finished we write the lyrics. The lyrics are about the daily things in life, but also about the vision we have on other people and things.
		You’ve just won a video clip as a result of a competition of LiveXS magazine. This video clip “Chase” will be broadcasted on the Box soon. Could you tell us something more about the recording sessions and what we can expect from this video? To record this video clip we went to Amsterdam to the “Stichting Nieuw Millennium” (The New Millennium Organization). The video clip was recorded in just one day by so-called Blue Screen (animated world). “Chase” is about the pursuit we had during a trip from the city of Groningen to the city of Winschoten. The video is ment to introduce us to the audience, how we look like and of course the music we play.
		Could you tell us something more about the performances you’ve done so far and share some of your experiences? We’ve already done a lot of performances: from small pubs to bigger venues. We played in venues like the Oosterpoort, Bolwerk, Hedon, Stairway To Heaven, Vera, but also on a festival like Noordschok. Our most memorable experiences are probably our bassist falling on the drum kit during a gig, winning a contest while nobody knew we were participating, our albums floating on beer and a drunken fan who bought our album twice, because he couldn’t remember that he already bought one earlier that evening!
		If the opportunity is there, which bands you’d really like to tour with? Deftones, Tool and Strapping Young Lad (Devin Townsend).
		Do you already have plans for a new album? We certainly do! We are working on a lot of new stuff and some of those songs we already play live. If everything goes the way we planned it we will record a new album somewhere this summer and try to release it this fall/winter.
		If you’d met the genie from the bottle (Aladdin) and you could make three wishes, which three wishes would that be? 1. That he teaches me that trick! 2. A happy and successful living; 3. A performance on Ozzfest; 4. One day long NO sister; 5. A fierljeppen course; 6. To be a dictator of the whole world / to rule the world; 7. Love and peace; 8. Freedom and happiness; 9. To rule the world; 10. Meet aliens. (The band has problems counting to three…)
		(Dennis van den Berg)