Burton Bell

The Gauntlet: The Ascension of the Watchers album is finally coming out in a couple weeks.

Burton: Yeah…it took some time. I was very patient with it and let it nurture and grow for a while.


The Gauntlet: I never got to hear the old EP’s or demos. How does the sound contrast from the old material to the new?

Burton: Well the EP was basically the demo, and that is what we shopped around for a while. After no success after a while I decided to release it on my own as an artistic release. As for the recording on the EP, the idea was there, but technically it is not where I wanted to be. With the full album coming out, it is where I want it to be technically and in ideas. 13th Planet picked it up.


The Gauntlet: How did you get picked up by Al Jourgensen’s label?

Burton: Well, John Bechdel for the last 2.5 years has been working with Ministry. Because of John, I finally got to meet Al and his wife Angie properly. When I spoke to them last January, I found out Al was working on Ministry’s last record and I wanted to be a part of it so I called them up. Being that they already met me, they said they’d love to have me participate on the album. During that time, I started pitching The Watchers to them. They listened to the EP and they liked it and they liked the imagery around it. We spoke in detail as what we wanted as a band and from a label and we really connected and saw eye to eye. To me they were the right one.


The Gauntlet: I have been the biggest Ministry fan since ‘Land of Rape and Honey’

Burton: Yeah, me too. ‘Land of Rape and Honey’ was the one that really sold me. I was like ‘fuck!’ this record smokes.


The Gauntlet: So all you had to do was pick up the phone and call Al and it was done?

Burton: Well, I have known [Paul] Raven for a while and [Tommy] Victor. It helped knowing them a little bit. But basically it was just a phone call. To me it was just a dream come true. It was another career notch. The fact I am associated with Al Jourgensen is just awesome.


The Gauntlet: You will be touring as part of Ministry on the final US tour.

Burton: I am touring as part of the group. I will be doing some guest vocals on 3 or 4 songs. Basically just on songs that I recorded. Depending on how Al feels, maybe even more. Hopefully more, I would love to sing on more songs.


The Gauntlet: Have you started tour rehearsals?

Burton: Not yet. John just flew down today for tour rehearsals. I fly down in March. I will be there for almost 2 weeks before the tour starts. They don’t need me just yet. They are really focusing on the band itself right now.


The Gauntlet: When I spoke with Al Jourgensen a couple months ago, he mentioned he had you doing backup vocals for Ministry, but said he’d have you in a dress and bee-hive hairdo.

Burton: [Laughs] He keeps threatening me with that. I might have to do it. I don’t take myself too seriously.


The Gauntlet: He had some great things to say about The Ascension album.

Burton: He was really happy with it. He was surprised in a pleasant way.


The Gauntlet: Musically, I only know you from your Fear Factory days, and a few guest appearances on a handful of metal albums. Where did you draw your influences from for the “Ascension of the Watchers” album?

Burton: I have never written music for Fear Factory. Let that be known. My only input was adding counter melodies with my voice to the music that they wrote. My inspiration for “The Watchers” is everything I listen to. It isn’t just one band, but an array of bands from my record collection and more. I wanted to do something different. When I sat down, this is what came out of my guitar. I just wrote the music and movements rather than a formula and template. The songs are just as long as they need to be.


The Gauntlet: If you wrote Fear Factory material, would it have been more ambient?

Burton: I only two things with Fear Factory. I wrote the chorus riff on “Self Bias Resistor” which Dino kind of interpreted his own way. I also wrote “Timelessness.” I do like rock music. I like some heavy music. When it comes to metal, metal is not really my thing. I really like industrial. I like Godflesh. Other than that, I have one Metallica record. That is the only metal record I have, Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning.” I have Danzig’s first record, but that is more rock than metal.


The Gauntlet: On your album “Numinosum,” there are so many elements and layers to the songs.

Burton: I think I know what you mean. There is a lot going on in the textures. The songs are like an orchestration. There is a lot of different types of instruments and rhythms and sounds going on that create a texture. When I play the guitar parts, I literally hear things going on other than the guitar parts and a different sound. John hears things himself and we put them together. It is really a creative process. We sit down and listen to the music and add parts to it. If it doesn’t work, we take it out.


The Gauntlet: Lyrically the album is personal.

Burton: Lyrically, it is very personal. I figure if I am going to do a record that is of my creation, it would be something that I am inspired by and am effected by. During the time of writing this record, a lot happened to me and it came out. It is very deep and emotional. It is also dark at times and that is how my writing is. When I write for fear Factory, it is more of a stretch. I have to write in the third person. It is more impersonal and more of a social thing which is fine for a while, but I prefer writing more on a personal level as I can get to the point.


The Gauntlet: Did you have to do anything different to prepare your voice for this album?

Burton: No, not really. This is my normal singing voice. Other than a basic warm-up before singing, I didn’t do anything different. People will suggest and talk highly of vocal coaches, but I just go with my original voice, the voice God gave me. I’ll just work with what I’ve got. Vocal coaches are expensive too. I am not Lamb of God or anything like that.


The Gauntlet: Thank God for that!

Burton: Oh! Yeah, thank God for that.


The Gauntlet: You don’t like them?

Burton: I made a joke when they were touring with us. I’ll leave it at that. It had a lot to do with Slayer.


The Gauntlet: Is there any religious significance to the title, “Numinosum?”

Burton: Not religious, but spiritual. I first heard the term from a friend a few years ago. She analyzed dreams and I was explaining the dream and described it in complete detail. She explained to me what I had was a numinosum. This dream really inspired a lot of the aspects on the album, from lyrics to imagery and the album cover. I really didn’t realize the album cover was part of the dream until it was all put together. The dream was I was in a really beautiful landscape with hills and stuff. I was moving forward in this landscape and this shadow was following me. I kept trying to evade this shadow but it kept following me. I was moving away from it and moving over all these different landscapes and flora and fauna. I came to this cliff and it looked like there was no way to escape it and I put my arms out and began flying through the landscape. I came to this clearing of trees. I came to this tree and as I turned around, this tree had a bright glow, very orange and almost blazing. I was just looking at it and I felt something behind me and when I turned around, I woke up. She described that as a numinosum. I remembered that for a long time. When I moved out here, to Pennsylvania, I started to get into photography and painting. I started to take pictures at night in the fog. I was on my way back from John Bechdel’s studio and I saw this tree. The tree looked cool, but what I liked about the tree was it looked like this bright tungsten lamp was behind it. I got out of my car and took the picture. I used a open shutter exposure of like 15 secs and that became the album cover. When I finally got the album back, I was like ‘woah, this is my dream.’ I think this was all supposed to happen.


The Gauntlet: Did your friend who analyses dreams say who that shadowy figure might represent?
Burton: It had a human form, but it was just a shadow. I don’t know if it was me or some spiritual entity.


The Gauntlet: I think it might have been Dino. He’s in my nightmares.

Burton: [laughs] No, when I have dreams about Dino, I know it’s Dino. I used to have nightmares of him. I still dream about him once in a while and I just look at him like ‘what’s your problem?’ I just blow him off now.


The Gauntlet: I heard there were some extra and unexpected vocals on the track “Mars Becoming”?
Burton: Oh that. We recorded the bass tracks at this old Abbey in Brooklyn, a place where nuns used to live. Paul Raven had a friend that owned this old Abbey and he turned it into a home. It was 5 stories and he had a studio. It was a beautiful place. I walked in and I could feel that it was haunted. I am sensitive to that kind of stuff so I respect whatever is already there. So we go in and record the bass tracks and did our thing. I went back a week later to get the tracks and we listened to we had at the studio and we were listening to the music really loud outside and I heard singing. I looked at Eddie and asked if he heard it. I heard vocals going on while the song was playing. It wasn’t like words, it was like a chorus. It was amazing and beautiful. That became the chorus to “Mars Becoming,” what they were singing. It was a few of them, a chorus.
Another story of a ghost-like experience was while recording the album in El Paso. I was having trouble sleeping for a week. I was staying at the Jourgensen’s house. The house is very goth-punk and very sheik. Lot’s of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and artwork all over the house. The room I was in was different. It was gold and had a ton of pictures of crucifix’s and Mary Magdalene on the wall. I didn’t think anything of it, but I was having trouble sleeping for about a week. One night, I was just really having trouble and I was just in and out of sleep. I was looking at the wall in the dark and all the sudden I had this feeling of terror. I was having problems breathing and was just in this state of terror. Something was there. For some reason in my head, I just started saying some girls’ name. I don’t remember the name I was saying. Then all of the sudden, it was loud and crystal clear like someone was shouting it in my ear, “No, I’m Gina.” I woke up. Someone was right there. I jumped up in bed and looked around trying to see in the darkness and there was nothing there. I laid awake for a few more moments and then went back to sleep. In the morning, I got up and Angie and AL Jourgensen were in the living room. I said to Angie, “So Angie, do you have any idea if my room is haunted or is this house haunted?” Right when I asked that, Al said “Hell no, this house isn’t haunted!” Angie said “Well, your room is.” I told her my story and she said that the previous owners had a daughter who was killed in a date rape. Her name was Angelic, but everyone called her Gina. I went back to the room and made peace and came to an understanding with her. I told her I just wanted to sleep there and I’d give her some space. That was the only thing that happened.


The Gauntlet: Paul Raven contributed some bass lines to the album.

Burton: He played bass on “Mars Becoming”. He was supposed to play bass on “Sounds of Silence” but never had the chance. It was very sad, very sad. His bass parts are the best on the record. The bass line he came up with was amazing. His Mob Research stuff is really good. They might put it out. He was a genius with the bass. He was in one of the most killer bands ever.


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Tags:  Burton Bell, Ministry, Ascension of the Watchers, Burton Bell, interviews

Jason Fisher    February 07, 2008