In Part II of our interview with Mike Scheidt of YOB, we talked about the popularity of the band and the wider acceptance of Doom Metal as whole the last few years. Although he refused to take credit for it, YOB’s killer albums have certainly been part of the equation. At the same time Mike remains grounded and remembers where he came from when the band played to empty clubs and heard crickets. Check out the piece below and make sure to catch the band on tour with Enslaved this spring.
“We are equal parts stoked, perplexed and surprised, so that is good. Part of it for us is longevity. We’ve been around and been around long enough to have seen it go from 50 people at a show to 500. The climate has changed and we have played big shows and things we certainly never set out to do. It has grown as we have grown. And we have also tried to focus and keep our heads down too, and focus on the music and why it is we love music, and love to play the music we love. I think metal in general has come more on the worldwide radar as art, as opposed to just deviant, meat-headed music as it did 20 years ago. Now it is being taken seriously much more so than before. We’ve worked hard to become a better, stronger band. I also think some of it has nothing to do with us. We’ve never tried to be an ambitions band, trying to get out there. We play Doom Metal. For a large part of our history, nobody really cared. Now that people do, we can’t really take credit for that. There are so many bands putting records out there.”
“When a bunch of critics and writers agree that they like our record, it’s totally an honor and humbling. It’s an interesting change. It’s taken a little running and getting used to. Those things come and go too. We acknowledge it. We are grateful for it. We keep working on, work on the music, the live performance. We just keep on keeping on.”
“We had no expectations to begin with. We are honored to share the stage with some of our heroes. The thing about a Doom metal show in the year 2000 was nobody was there by accident. Everybody knew what they were getting into. Those 50 people that we were there knew what they were getting into. Whether it’s a trend or not, time will tell how that will unfold. We’ve been doing it for so long now. I don’t see us deviating from that anytime soon.”
As a closing point, Mike made a profound comparison to the biggest bands of yesterday, and the line between critical praise and the commercialism of the mainstream today:
“Even 25 years ago, the metal bands that were big were fantastic. Really big. Iron Maiden. Judas Priest. Slayer. Motorhead. These bands are incredibly wealthy and they are all still good. And the fans haven’t abandoned them. Getting mainstream success today doesn’t mean the same thing today as it did for those bands. It’s a completely different world and completely different musical climate.”
WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES