Klayton
Klayton, born Scott Albert, is an industrial rock musician, who has performed under a variety of stage names over his career, and is best known as being the frontman for his latest project, Celldweller.
"Spinal Tap got lost underground in Ohio, but at least they eventually surfaced and were lucky enough to be in a stadium. Last time we played Ohio we played a f*cking laundromat." (note: the word 'f*cking' appears in the Wormwood Chronicles version of the interview, but not in the Music Street Journal version)
"Bill Gates. Isn’t it obvious why?" (When asked who he would sucker punch if he could)
"I’ve never come out of the box saying I'm an 'industrial artist' or a 'drum and bass artist' or a 'nu-metal artist.' These are all tags that people have put on me."
"The live show incorporates a live band, video projections, performance art and instruments designed specifically for the show. The 3 of us up front (myself, Kem and Dale) play multiple instruments depending on the requirements of the piece. Mike holds down the drums and electronic percussion."
"One thing I considered for a while after I put Circle (of Dust) to rest was to write music and get various female vocalists to sing. I was graced with the voices of Victoria Faiella, Fluffy Starr and Jennifer Neal, and the drumming talents of Jarrod Montague (Taproot), Kenny James and Ken Capton. Grant Mohrman played an acoustic for Stay With Me (Unlikely) but it was never used. I ended up creating a new piece from sections of that song that didn't end up being showcased in the original mix and put it on the disc - Unlikely (Stay With Me.)"
"Actually you don’t need to exercise to obtain my chin. Pretty sure a hacksaw could obtain you my chin..."
"What I would do when all my friends were hanging out and getting wasted - I would have my nose in a manual reading stuff that would probably bore the average human to death, for me that was so exciting just learning about a piece of gear and how to make it work."
"As far as building songs, there is only one rule I adhere to - no rules. Could be a vocal idea, a guitar part. More generally it's a beat and a synth. I hate rock. I love electronic."
"The most flattering moments (when Celldweller performs live) are when there’s a group of people slamming into each other over here, and there’s a group of people dancing over there."
"Touring for me historically, from Circle of Dust, which was one of my first projects, to date, I have not really had any great experiences... If I had one of these cushy situations where I had a label fronting all this money and I was getting wined and dined every night, maybe I would love touring. I have no idea. But that's not the case. As far as performance, I do what i have to do. If I'm going to tour and I'm going to get up on stage, I'm not going to do it half-a**ed."
"Even when I wasn’t creating music, I was kind of a loner. I was the kid that got beat up, which is why I think I came back later on in life and kind of flipped that around. Instead of being a follower, I’ve always been independent, and am not going to wait for someone to hold my hand or do something for me. I used to get my a** kicked after school every day. I think that ultimately has affected the way I was."
"I don't get caught up in the whole game of being different for the hell of it. I've always done my own thing - to hell with chasing trends. "
"I have met many A&R people and there are some that are truly cool people. But these same people have told me that if only I would imitate certain bands on the radio, 'just one song is all we need', they would give me the deal of my dreams. Ummm, let me clean an area on my a** for you so you can kindly kiss it."
"Instead of making people wait two years while I work on an album, then release the whole thing at once, I’m releasing two songs at a time. The next step after that is actually releasing the full disc. As of now there are eight songs towards the new album that have already been released over the last few years. Then, in a few months, the actual full-length CD will be pressed and it will include another four or five songs people haven’t heard yet. We’ve had a lot of success with that and that’s what my fanbase wants."
"...primarily when I write, I use guitars and organic instruments because that's easier to write to but at the end of the day, the electronic side of things, that's my true passion."
"When you go to a show you should see more than four or five dudes on the stage basically playing the CD back to you. You're going to see a show, do something entertaining. The Celldweller live show involves performance art elements, a lot of percussive elements, and video synchronization to the music- as well as the energy of a total live band. Hopefully it's something different than people are accustomed to seeing. I've never been afraid of being different and a lot of times when you do that you're not accepted immediately. That's okay. I've been doing this long enough, if they get it they get it, if they don't, they don't. I don't really care."
"I’d absolutely rather be in the studio, no question about it. Touring is not my gig. Performing is OK, and when you’re in the performance it’s great. It’s just the whole traveling thing."
"Rock bands are boring as shit and I couldn’t care less about playing stinky dive bars where the only challenge is which lead singer of which band could scream the loudest."
"Essentially what happens is that when I have finished a track and have new tracks to hand out, they get circulated to the people that we know. So they’re getting these new tracks and if they feel that it fits they will go with it. Like the queue that was used in Iron Man is 'Birthright' from the new record. It’s not even the final version; I haven’t even finished it yet. But, they got the song and heard certain parts of it and said yeah we want to use this."
"I'm glad for (the ability for people to buy a song without needing to buy the whole album), where an artist can't write a bad record. You can't write one hit song and nine bad ones and pawn a record off to people. Now they can download or buy one track at a time. Every song you write has to count. For me artistically, that's the way I always approach it. I don't put anything out on a record or release it to the public if I think it's crap."