Greetings children of technology,

  Well here is the interview I promised last week.

  Enjoy (Or is it End Your
Life?)

P.
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"PANTERA ARE LIKE THE BROTHERS I NEVER HAD,"

Pete Steele might be said to be a man who prides himself on his hnoesty and 
forthrightnes. Last time I interviewed him was two years ago, in Brooklyn,
just
at the time the album `Bloody Kisses' was released. Seated on the hood of a
huge
, military style car - a Pontiac, I think - in a nice residential street,
Steele
was articulate and, so it seemed to me, honest. He even told me how much money
he earned from his band's activities - roughly $3,000 after tax.

Two years on and things have changed. Type O Negative have now sold somewhere 
between 3 and 4 hundred thousand copies of `Bloody Kisses' in the US alone, 
placing them behind only Offspring in the list of the world's most prominent 
independent bands. They hope to have a Gold album - 500,000 units - there by
Christmas. In the UK the album steadily, with figures in the region of 25,000
(SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE I BOUGHT ALL OF `EM). This, in anyones book, is
money. 
Recently, at the Dynamo festival, I put the same question of earnings to
Steele,
just to see how far this honesty would stretch.

"The more money I earn, the more money I spend," he says. "What I can tell
you
is that right now I have $20,000 in the bank; but I've just been hit for a 
$13,000 tax bill, so you can figure the rest out from that. You know, I still 
owe people money from when we started out, and we have a huge crew now, lots
of
equipment, so it's vey difficult to tell just how much we earn. It's true that
we do get cheques for a hundred thousand dollars, but then we sit down with it
and figure out who needs paying, and before you know it there's $2,000 left.
That's $500 each way; that's not even enough to cover my phone bill."

Nobody could really have predicted the way Type O Negative would take off. Who
would have thought that "four knuckleheads from Brooklyn" on a small label
(Roadrunner) would be in the position, two years after the release of their 
third album, of having toured with the likes of Motley Crue, NIN, Pantera and,
at the moment, Queensryche? Or that they would have been on their way to a
Gold
disc in that most major-label friendly of markets, the US? Not Pete Steele.
He'll
tell you that much right now.

"No, we were not ready for what happened to us. Two years ago I was employed
as
a maintenance worker for the city of New York. But then the city ran out of
money and I was offered a severance package: I could either quit and take the 
money or I could stay, but if I stayed and was laid off later then there
would be no money. So in the band we made a collective decision, almost
communistic decision to put all our energies into Type O Negative. We would
divide the money equally four ways(even publishing royalties, despite the fact
that Steele is the bands songwriter), with the understanding that if anyone 
quit or walked away then that was it - goodbye, no more money. Also, when the
band is through then all the money comes to me. But until then, you know, we
all
work as hard at this, we all miss our families just as much, we all miss
sleeping
in our own beds.... I'm trying to build a strong foundation, a framework
here."

But it hasn't always been this easy. Three years ago Steele was hounded out of
Germany by protesters claiming that he was a nazi. the charge was grossly
unfair,
 but mud like that tends to stick. Many people pull a face should you mention
Type O Negative (HAPPENED TO ME LAST WEEK), saying something to the effect
that whilst they like the music, the band's politics leave much to be desired.

"I'm an isolationist," explains Steele. "There's a saying that no man is an 
island, which I comletely disagree with. I believe that a man should be self-
sufficent. What I propose is almost socialistic, almost communistic: Each
person
should have his own plot of land and grow their food. They should each have a
civil service job and contribute equally. If you don't  contribute then you
don't
eat and you die. Don't be a burden on those people that are breaking their 
backs to work."

(I might have been a little slow on the uptake here, but I am not sure that
this
system would allow a band like Type O Negative to even exist, let alone tour
the
world and sell records.)

Many of Steele's proclamations have a libertarian ring to them. The militias
who planted the Oklahoma bomb also had a libertarian ring to them. I tell
Steele
that I thought of him when I heard the news of the bombing.

"You mean that I did it?" he laughs.

No, but that a lot of sentiments expressed by the culprits echoed ideas of
your
own.

"I must say something: As a publicity stunt we were going to claim
responsibility for that incident. But when we found out all those people were
killed, all those women and children, and suddenly it was an entirely
different
thing. When it was just a building, who cares? But then we found out about the
dead and it became murder.

"You know, I can't agree with violence. If you don't like the way something's
done, then go out and vote to change it. We have the right to vote, that's 
what it is for. What these people did was definitely wrong. And you know what
should be done about this punishment stuff? We should lock these people away
and let them rot in jail, we should give them to the families of the people
they murdered. The government shouldjust turn its back. If they're tortured
to death, or ripped apart by dogs, who cares? Let the punishment fit the
crime.
Whether left or right, when views get that extreme then they become warped 
and open to the sickness of the person holding them."

It is this unequivocal nature that put Steele in dispute with his record label
last year. Type O Negative were touring the states and turning a good profit.
The fall out was simple: the band wanted to tour Europe, where they might
lose money, whilst the label wanted them to remain at home, where they
wouldn't
. The result: Type O Negative toured Europe but funded the jaunt themselves.

Steele recounts: "We put $27,000 of our own money up to do that tour, to bring
over our own gear and production. It was the company in Holland that made the 
decision for us to stay at home, and then they had the balls to say: `Oh,
since
you're over here you might as well do press, make us some money.' And I'm
like, Excuse me? Could you place your lips around the mouth of my penis?....
We
wanted to talk to the press, but it was just a point of screwing the label in
the same way they were screwing us."


Type O Negative also toured the US as support to Danzig. There were all sorts
of ludicrous stories coming out aat the time: stories such as Danzig becoming 
enraged when found Type O eating fish, another stated that none of the band
were even allowed to look at the Dark One. And know what? They're true!

"I believe that Danzig - Mr Danzig - has it written into his contract(that no
one is allowed to look at him)," reckons Steele. "But I've had no
conversations
with him about this. You know, if I can't look somebody in the eye when I talk
to them then I wont't talk to them. It's pretty much just propaganda, just
more
shit."


(Type O Negative were on the Danzig tour for the first leg. They were also 
promised the second leg, but this option was removed. That Type O were selling
as much merchandise as Danzig on the tour is the suspected reason for
removal).

A far more boisterous time was had when Steele and the crew opened up for
Pantera on the second leg of that band's US tour.

"Pantera was the best experience we've had on the road." is Steele's line.
"You
know I'm no party guy, but they just forced you to be out every single night.
They were pouring liquor down your throat, there were women, laughs... They
were incredibly supportive, gave us everything we asked for. Pantera are like
the brothers I never had."

Perhaps it was in this spirit of party frivolity that Steele has agreed to
appear
in an issue of Playgirl magazine. Pete has already graced the organ (pun 
intended) on the occasion of the publication's annual `rocker' issue, but that
was just a topless shot. Next time it's full frontal.

"Apparently the editor was so impressed with what she saw that she asked for
nudes," comes the story. "So I said: `Well what's it worth?' They said they'd
give $2,000. I thought that would certainly buy groceries for a week. But I 
said I would only do it if it was an erect penis; who wants to see a flaccid 
penis? It's like a cop walking with an unloaded gun; it looks like a fuckin' 
mushroom. And they're like, `Do youthink you can do it?', I'm like, `Are you
trying to intimidate me? Look, you take care of your end and I'll take care
ofmine.'
So in August you'll see if it can be done. I have eight pages and the
centrefold."

Pete Steele's erect penis will be on public display in Playgirl this month.
The follow up to `Bloody Kisses', as yet unrecorded and untitled, is set for
release on Valentine's Day 1996.

THE
END.
*****************************************************************************8*

SHOW REVIEW FROM SAME MAG.
RATING : 5/5

AWESOME. Type O Negative are gods. By the time they arrive on stage, the sun's
gone down and the lighting and dry ice create the perfect atmosphere for a
band
that feeds on shadows. Pete Steele is the last person you want to meet in a
dark
alley. On stage, he's just as terrifying, possessing a prescence akin to pure
evil. Glen Benton could never be this scary....

`Black #1', `Summer Breeze', `Unsuccesfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of
Infildelity'.... They're all here, balancing huge melodies with headbanging
riffs.
 It's amazing to see a band go from playing gigs to a handful of people a few
years ago to playing in front of 100,000 people who all know every word,
every
chord and every beat. This in itself is quite spooky. A hundred thousand
people
shouting `I know you're fuvking someone else~' is totally weird.

Come on everybody: "He knows you're fucking somebody else."


THE END
END
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