Star: So how do you hook-up with some of the bigger name vocalists, like when you worked with Sinead O'Connor?
Rhys Fulber: Well that was a little weird because, to be honest, I was kind of disconnected from the whole process. On the first record I had worked on a couple of songs with these guys who were pretty well-known songwriters and it was something I'd never done before. And at the time I was, you know, in LA and I'm like, I've got to get some vocals for these songs. I asked a few people and they said, 'well, why don't you
Star: t working with some songwriters, you know, and maybe they can help you.' So I got into a circle with these people in LA and they kind of made it all happen, they were like 'we've got this song, we think it would really work with what you're doing and we're going to get Sinead O'Connor to sing it,' and I'm like 'OK, great.' I didn't meet her or anything.
Star: During the whole process, you never met her?
Rhys Fulber: No, because she did it in Ireland. We did it with this- kind of outdated technology now, it's called Ednet, and I've actually used it twice before, and it's sort of like ISDN. It's like they'll be at the studio in Ireland and we can hear them, so you're kind of running the session from LA while they're in Ireland, so they'll do a vocal and then we'll hear it and then, you know, we can make comments after. So, I mean, I heard her speaking through speakers inbetween takes and that was a bizarre process. To some people it was supposed to be revolutionary for collaborative records and stuff but nobody really uses it anymore. But that's how we did the Sinead O'Connor thing, so I never met her or anything. It was strange.
Star: Yes, it is kind of. So what inspired you to
Star: t doing your own lyrics on this album and why.?
Rhys Fulber: I didn't really do my own lyrics, I just was more involved in some of the process, you know, like I would maybe go back with the people writing and sort of say 'maybe we should do this here and maybe this line could be better.' I just was more involved in that process than I was on the first record. The first record, I was just sort of going along with some of these other peoples' plans, whereas on this one I didn't really do that. Because there were things on the first record that I'm not crazy about that now, so I didn't want that to happen again, so I was involved in every little detail of the record.
Star: On "I Believe," how did you feel about stepping up and doing the vocals?
Rhys Fulber: Well it was kind of weird, I was really nervous about it. I'm a big fan of Buzzcocks, I still listen to it all the time, I love the band. And I was just in my studio and diddling around and listening to some of their songs, and I just
Star: ted playing the keyboards along to it and then I'm like 'oh, that sounds really good on a keyboard,' so maybe I can try doing a cover of this. And so I
Star: ted working on a cover of the song and I'm just going to throw some vocals down myself just so I hear what this is all going to sound like together. So I just, with a hand-held microphone threw down a rough vocal, and just said this is what it's going to sound like, basically to make a demo of the song. And then the record company and a few people I knew heard it, and they didn't know it was me singing it, and then they said 'that sounds really cool, you've got that guy singing on it, that's kind of different.' And I didn't really say anything at first, I'm like 'really, you think it sounds good?' And they go 'yeah, we think it sounds good.' And I'm like 'OK, well maybe I should just run with this.'
