Originally printed in Spinal Jaundice #3 – 1987
Bob Seger knows that you sit and talk to him and imagine biting him (?) Interview with Matt X.
MJ: Who is in Lethal Gospel nowadays?
MX: Well currently we just got back from Europe, now there’s Fred – bass, Dan – Drums, and me, Maggot X on vocals.
MJ: Maggot X…Uh!
MX: (deep) 'Maggi Tex'…or something. We had been a 5-piece but recently we are down to 3. Our other guitar player quit and they got overcome by personal problems I guess.
MJ: So Lethal Gospel had an impact on their life.
MX: Yeah, we were figuring all of the players that we’ve had in this band including ourselves today, and there was 27. And from that half of them left due to problems. I mean one guy was real involved in heroin and like ripping off stuff and like he wouldn’t show up cause he was always sleepy. One guy was really into crack…Am I the one? Am I so bad to work with that everyone turns to shit? Some of them were like really into like ‘career’ and that. We’re a 3-piece now.
MJ: Do you have any employment outside of LG?
MX: I used to be on welfare a while back…I was living in the vats in the abandoned Hamms brewery. That got closed down. I’ve inspected government loan aid at this applied school and they give $5000 in loans over the period that you go to school. It’s working out so far, I’m still going to school. The teachers all know about the band and when we like tour, we just tell them and they’re like happy about it, and the LPs, etc.
MJ: Do people ever ask you about the “Martian Whores” LP concept?
MX: People ask us all the time. One guy at a zine in Toronto suggested that the “Martian Whores” album was a parable for AIDS. The whole concept with like martians was to write a movie into music on an LP. So…you have viruses and it was interesting and like a whole civilization of that.
MJ: Do you have a similar idea for the type of music that you play?
MX: Yeah, usually really hard edge. Even with songs that don’t fall into that category when I’m writing them, I like drag in other ideas. Never dreamy, or mellow or anything. Like a hardcore Roxy if possible. Currently we’ve been imagined like Savoy Brown but I have yet to hear that…also like AC/DC if they were more punk and socially conscious.
MJ: Yeah…suppose you wanted to add a few words.
MX: I could take this opportunity to say we got a new album in the works, due out at the beginning of the year. Lousy time…but it’s called “Equals Jihad.” It means an all-encompassing religious war and everyone thinks what they’re doing is right because god says so. It’s a commentary, but it also goes into some personal stuff. Yeah, and everyone says this, but this LP rips over last ones. But I’m really happy with this new album. We’ll be touring Canada in like, March, when everything’s thawing out. We’ll be playing a lot of shows. That’s what we live for really. But anyone who knows a good club…or a bad club…that we could play at should contact us. A lot of bands use booking agents for that, and that ties into their idealisms.
MJ: Do you guys like fruit?
MX: I like pears a lot.
MJ: Any alternates?
MX:…Cherries are good too. Yeah, a nice pear and cherries are always nice.