I had the pleasure of sitting down with the one and only Joe Bruce "Lee" to ask him a few questions about the latest Insane Clown Posse project, BANG POW BOOM! which drops Tomorrow, September 1st ! Here's what he had to say:
What was it like working full time with Mike E. Clark again?
VJ: I have a lot to say about this question. First off it was mad, crazy fuckin' fun. Imagine laughin' all day long. Laughin' is a good thing and when we're workin' with Mike E Clark and we laughed all damn day. We clown on each other and everything else. I think the real reason we laugh so hard is because we know the session is going so damn good, that we're extra happy. It's that extra happy, extra geeked laugh we got going on. This time we worked together the way we always should have. This time around there was none of that "send me the track and we'll drop our raps and send it back" none of that shit at all. This time we worked together from scratch. From dead silence all the way up to a finished album of extra fresh proportions, we did it all together. It felt like the old days were still here. I have a feeling one day we will look back at the Bang! Pow! Boom! sessions the same way we look back on the Riddle Box sessions. Mike is a imagination that will never run out of tricks. He still amazes the fuck outta' us like he did when we first met him. The sessions were just that magical and fun. We really wanted that old school original Dark Carnival tone to happen again. So we set out for it. Mike even dusted off some of the very same old equipment. It felt so good every day. It was one of the best albums we ever recorded. And we took the whole process mad seriously too. No smoking. hot tea. lemon juice. rehearse and learn the raps before we spit them. Everything was taken as serious as possible. Even mixing the album, Mike took us to another studio known for it's great mixing room. We brought in a team of ninjas to help. Ninjas known for having a super ear in the studio. We mixed each song spending up to 3 days working on each. The overall goal was to make Juggalos mad happy with Bang! Pow! Boom!. We wanted to hit this one outta' the park and make another classic. We've never set out to sound old school before, we've always just looked ahead, but on this one we wanted it new and old. We wanted new song subjects and ideas but we wanted that familiar Dark Carnival, ominous tone. I think we fuckin' freaked it to the 10th degree.
Do you have a favorite track on the album?
VJ: It's really strange because a lot of these songs have been in my head for years. For example I've always wanted to make a song called "In Yo Face". Also there was a place called "Fonz Pond" that we used to go to when we were kids and we always thought that would make a cool song. And I've always wanted to make a song about killing pedophiles too. I guess the time for those songs just was never right until now. But as for my personal favorite, I'd have to say "Miracles" is probably my favorite song on the album. I like Miracles because of what it's saying. You know when you live around magic all the time, it's easy to forget and over look how truly magical some shit is on this planet. The song just kind of points out some of the things about life that are actually miracles but we see them all the time so we might over look them instead of recognizing how fresh they actually are.
What are the differences between the 3 versions of Bang! Pow! Boom!?
VJ: Each version basically has the same body of work as far as music but there are some interesting differences as well. They each have there own intro song. The green and yellow version has a opening song called "The Clowns Are Back". The blue and yellow version has a opener called "Beautiful Doom" and the red and yellow version has a opening track called "Creepy Freak Show". Also they each have there own different hidden track as well. And inside the CD booklets, they each have different photos. We worked really really hard taking as many fresh ass photos as possible and worked hard on the CD booklet. For the ninjas who still like to own a CD and hold the actual product in your hands, we hooked it up for y'all. We enlisted the help of Gary Arnett. He is the same mastermind that did the artwork and packaging for The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, The Great Milenko, The Riddle Box, and also Shangri La. He's the master at what he does. We gave him our visions and he made them a reality. Also for those who have a Sampler, remember to save your special ninja decoder tool because within the booklet of Bang! Pow! Boom! there are some pretty important hidden messages and information. We are mad happy with how the art work and booklet came out. We're very proud of Gary and ourselves for that bad boy.
You really went back to your roots for this release, what inspired the change?
VJ: I guess doing the Tempest free of the Dark Carnival just had to happen. Doing that record made us miss the whole idea of the Dark Carnival. the Joker's Cards... having something to say. having a underlined message throughout the album. We would never disrespect the 6 Joker's Cards by making Bang! Pow! Boom! the 7th Jokers Card, or any other album for that matter. But who's to say this isn't the first of 6 more Joker's Cards? Why not give the message again 6 more times? There is plenty of time left on this earth. We could tell the whole story again with new characters and original ideas that basically deliver the same heartfelt message. Maybe we will do 6 more after the new 6 and then there will be three sets of 6? We'll take the devil's number and flip it on his ass. Who knows? The real inspiration of this record was the Juggalos. Hearing what they wanted made us want it. Hearing them miss that old sound made us miss it as well. This is for the Juggalos as is everything we do. We just wanna take care of them the way they've takin' care of us all these years. It's all about the ninjas and ninjettes when it comes to ICP. Making them happy is all we want to do.
This album claims to mark the return to the Dark Carnival, now that it's done, do you think it lived up to it's expectations?
VJ: I think it does. It's got a solid message. It's got a great theme. There's plenty of funny skits. Lots of solid songs that say something and kind of make an impact. Bang! Pow! Boom! is a character. He's a entity of the Dark Carnival. There were many people involved in the creative aspects of the original works of the Dark Carnival. I think all of them were involved in the creation of Bang! Pow! Boom! People like my brother Jumpsteady who brainstormed with us on who and what Bang! Pow! Boom! is and how he fits into the Dark Carnival's saga. Mike E. Clark was there musically from top to bottom. Rich "Legs Diamond" Murrel was there in the background, providing background singing and voices on skits, like he has been on every Joker's Card from Ringmaster up. Gary Arnette was there with Shaggy 2 Dope in creating the image and the face of Bang! Pow! Boom! which is exactly how we've always done it. I don't think we half stepped or took any short cuts in any kind of way. We wanted this to be every bit as special as a Joker's Card and we looked at it like it was the beginning of something big and brand new. I think we not only succeeded in doing so but we exceeded our own expectations! Bang! Pow! Boom! is alive and we are now all living within it's era!
Some are predicting Platinum for Bang! Pow! Boom! any predictions?
VJ: I'm pretty positive when it comes to all things Bang! Pow! Boom! but these are different times were living in. I don't see anything like that happening right away. Maybe down the line in a few years or something fresh like that. These days the whole music industry is crazy and the internet is both a blessing and a bone. CD stores can't even stay in business anymore. To go platinum today is like actually selling 5 million! What I can guarantee is a bomb ass album that long time Juggalos will appreciate. We hope it earns a place among some of the classic ICP albums of the past. That's our only goal here. We don't sweat the sales like that, were just happy as fuck to still be kickin' ass in 2009. We just wanna fuckin' get out and rock some shows with the Juggalos. We wanna rip these new joints and do what we do on stage!
So what's the next step in your career as a group?
VJ: Of couse the massive Bang! Pow! Boom! tour. But let me say this, I'm not talking any kind of shit I don't truly believe we can back up. This tour is going to be the biggest stage set we've ever done. The only thing that sucks is that some of the venues, a lot of them, I should say, do not have big enough stages to fit all of our set. That's why it's always fresh to catch us on a bigger stage like Hallowicked, or any big place on tour. All the shows
are going to be explosive, but it just sucks to not be able to show off all of our stage set. That's only half of what's going to make this tour the biggest and best. The rest is that we're bringing more clowns and extra surprises on stage with us than ever before. This tour will feature the return of the Faygo breaks, as well as a whole slew of new material from Bang! Pow! Boom! and tons and tons of Faygo of all flavors and colors. I love it that there are so many dope ass, bomb ass acts out there these days because it just makes us work harder and show the world that we're the fuckin' greatest show on earth! We bring the fuckin' circus to town bitch! This tour is 64 citys long and each and every one of those cities gets special treatment. Cause were gonna rock that bitch to death. Also joining us is Hed PE and you know they are gonna bring the pain! Our only concern is to make this our best and biggest show ever. Even if you've seen us 10 times in the past, we want you to walk away from this show like, "Holy shit I just got my wig primped! That was the best ICP show I've ever seen by far" Get ready cause here we come in big ways!
