Steve Austin is the best kind of metal institution: someone who’s stuck it out for over two decades through multiple musical climates in a unflagging pursuit of one very specific muse. His long-standing musical concern, Today Is The Day (of which he’s the founder, chief visionary, and only original member) is at once artistically fixed and constantly evolving. Their bilious mystical tirades thrash about in the murk that sits at the base of spiritual enlightenment, occasionally managing to wipe the dreck away long enough for glimpses of holy light. For all their diversity, I can’t say that their artistic trajectory is the most logical one. Why, for example, does the angry, crusty immediacy of Axis Of Eden come a full five years after the sprawling neo-classical and prog-y excursions of 2002’s Sadness Will Prevail (aka, extreme metal’s Physical Graffiti)?
I had a chance to speak with Austin recently and though I didn’t ask him this specific question, I kinda already know the answer. As unhinged and raw as the man can get, he’s a very simple person. When asked about anything regarding his artistic intentions with Today Is The Day, he lets loose with a barely condensed biography of his musical career. That’s because Today Is The Day is perhaps the most personal metal band ever; he’s plumbing his depths from every conceivable angle, taking all the shit and joy that makes up existence and forming it into a new long player.
Their new release Pain Is A Warning is their best-sounding record in forever. That’s partly thanks to a clean and burly production by Kurt Ballou but also attributable to a general aesthetic of Steve Austin learning to lighten his burden during the recording process. “I used to do everything myself,” says Austin from his secluded home in rural Maine, “I’d write all the music and all the lyrics, I’d engineer it myself, I’d release it myself. But this time I let some of that go and had people help me with that stuff”. What results is an album that is unmistakably Today Is The Day–bleak, morbid, excoriating–yet perforated by some straightforward, fist-pumping rock that nods to the primitive chordal slashes of Pete Townshend and Malcolm Young.
The title is a “kids say the darndest things” moment from Austin’s 10-year-old son, Hank, who observed that “pain is a warning” to the human mind after watching Martin Scorsese’s psychological nightmare Shutter Island. Austin is as kind and generous of an interviewee as I could have hoped for, and in spite of occasional Skype dropouts, we covered a lot of ground in our hour long conversation. Below is most of the audio of our conversation in three parts. (Photos by James Robinson, Karen Novak, Patrick Kennedy and Fred Pessaro.)
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Steve Austin Interview: Part 1
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Steve Austin Interview: Part 2
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Steve Austin Interview: Part 3
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what, you couldn’t transcribe it?
what, you can’t listen to it?!
IMO, I think it made a better listen than a read. If you listen, I’m confident you’ll agree.
It is a refreshing change, and it is hard to argue that, especially from a guy like Steve, an audio interview is not more engaging and insightful.
HAIL TITD!!!!!
steve austin inspires me
I’d rather listen to an interview than read it. I love his word and the new TITD is the best since Temple of the Morning Star hands down.
I’ll have to wait to listen to this but I agree. I talked to Steve Austin outside a show last year for like 20 minutes, super nice guy. When he told me he was going to record their new alum with Kurt Ballou I started to nerd out a bit, didnt mind having to wait a whole year before the album finally came out. It’s great.
Thank you so much for this interview. It’s always fascinating to venture into Mr. Austin’s mind.
Awesome. Thanks!
Interested in hearing this. Sadly, reading is a lot easier at work. So be it.
Wholehearted agreement.
This is my favorite post cosmo thing. More au!dio interviews!
I was hoping his voice would sound like it does on the record.
I saw TITD with the original line up. Steve hit me over the head with his headstock accidentally. It was funny because the performance was so intense and then for the briefest moment after he struck me he looked at me with a look of deep concern as if he couldn’t believe he’d hit me. It was no big deal really. The juxtaposition of rage and then concern stuck with me over the years.
He was in another band before TITD called Alien in the Land of Our Birth. There are still a few demos floating around.
great interview. i do like pain is a warning, except the cover art. it’s uninspiring and conveys nothing about what the album sounds like. they should have gone with the band shot from the inside.
HAHA IT’S AWESOME THAT AUSTIN LET’S HIS 10 YEAR OLD SON WATCH SHUTTER ISLAND -THAT’S A PRETTY DEPRESSING FILM EVEN FOR AN ESTEEMED EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST LIKE MYSELF TO WATCH NEVER MIND A TEN YEAR OLD KID!
WHAT A MANIAC BASTARD!!!!
nice interview – it´s also nice to hear mr. austin gently talking about life – from the music(which on the last albums i found too “”hard”" not developing/blastbeatly repeating-although i think Steve has the ability to write fucking everything interesting from (dark)ambient to every kind of rock song etc.)and lyrics one might get the impression he´s quite insane……well, like we all are….Dankeschön – Peace- Oliver