On September 4, 2009 I had the privilege of interviewing Tommy Victor, founder and front man of the heavy metal band Prong. Over the course
of twenty minutes we discussed the band’s upcoming tour with Soulfly,
Cattle Decapitation and Mutiny Within, his current stint in Danzig and Prong’s dealings with the music industry over the past 20 years.
Jerel Johnson:
Just recently, I found out that you are doing the tour with Mutiny Within, Soulfly, and Cattle Decapitation. How did that come about?
Tommy Victor:
We just approached them. We heard Soulfly was going on tour and they were approached and they said, “yeah we’ll take Prong out,” so it was simple as
that; really we were trying get on a tour like this for a while where we could get some more exposure, people could realize that the band is out there
doin’ things and…still alive ya know?
JJ: Right right. Of course this also a very diverse lineup, I mean Soulfly along with you guys have more of a groove metal appeal. Whereas a band
like Cattle Decapitation is just pure grind-death metal.
TV: Right!
JJ: (laughs) so was the point of this tour really to just expand the audience for the people that are in attendance so that they could get a
glimpse of your type of metal?
TV: I was thinking that the other day ya know? How it all would work essentially because it’s so divided these days so… I have to see what happens.
I think the attraction of going out with Soulfly is because, ya know, it’s old school and related to the first era of thrash or hardcore so, I mean,
crossover so that’s sorta like a couple of years ago we were excited to go out with Overkill because we thought it was like that and I think that was a
successful tour so it sort of recollects that a bit.
JJ: Ok. So, in terms of the response of Power of the Damager as well as Power of the Damn Mixxxer, and, of course, the recent tours
that you guys have done over the past couple of years, would you say that you’ve had a greater response over here Stateside or over in Europe?
TV: It’s hard to say, man I really don’t know; it depends what time of year you go. I'm really not up on what’s written online. All I can tell you is
that there is room for improvement in the whole of people and awareness in the group. There is room for improvement when records are released.
The whole thing needs to be sort of revamped in a way.
In other words, there are certain things I can’t do and certain things I can so… I’m willing to certain consequences and the limitations so with demands
or is expecting or doesn’t know is totally beyond our control and I don’t know what it is. (Laughs) I occasionally go on Myspace; I give feedback to
some people, but for the most part I’m too concerned with other things in my life.
JJ: I understand. Now, I know that Prong was one of those bands in the early 90s that was really kind of ahead of their time in terms of the groove
metal and, in some cases, industrial metal, and you guys had a peak of popularity in 1994, but due to certain circumstances and factors your group had
the split. Do you feel, now, 15 years later with how the music industry has changed that Prong may have an ability or chance to reach the success that
they achieved in the mid 90s?
TV: No. There is no way. There would have to be a miracle, and I don’t believe in miracles anymore. So it’s completely different. We were on a major
label back then, there was the ability to do more things… that’s a good question because based on what I was just saying maybe I’m just in that frame
of mind where you can’t do it. When you’re on a major label you’re spending their money or eventual money and fly in to do shows or this, that or the
other thing. It was a widespread campaign in order to support you or promote you and then now it’s fighting all those other baby bands now… it’s records
sells are completely miniscule.
JJ: So for I guess a metal band now you would say it would be harder to achieve a wider audience as opposed to 15, 20, 25 years ago due really to
the major label support?
TV: It depends, it all depends. There are bands that can get on the radio easier and that definitely helps once you get that exposure and everyone knows
who you are because of one song. And the fans, ya know… what Prong had to do initially for four years… just constantly touring in a van even though we
were on Epic and it didn’t seem like there was anything at the end of the tunnel we just kept trudging along. Even back then on a major label we were
playing in front of 40 or 50 people and then suddenly you get a song on Headbanger’s Ball or Beavis and Butthead and everyone knows who
you are. Ya know you never know, but if weren’t on Epic Records I don’t think that would’ve happened. At that time they had a lot of power to
manipulate or get people to play your stuff; they had a very big augment of people working a record. But in order for them to do that back in the day
you had to show that you were willing to suffer a bit and whether they could take to you and where you’re spending your future royalty money and then
tour support which inevitably the band has to recoup that ya know?
JJ: Right. So that now that you’re on Al Jourgensen of Ministry’s label, 13th Planet, how has that been going so far? Working with a legend such as him?
TV: It’s been pretty cool. I mean it’s been a blast, we’ve been having fun. It’s been a cool thing. Doin' the Ministry records we’ve had a lot of fun in doing it.
I think that’s the most part I know he’s taken chances with labels so yeah it’s been good.
JJ: Ok. Because when I listen to Power of the Damager I remember I bought it maybe a month or so after it came out and one of the things I noticed about it was the production was very, very good
so, how were you guys able to get that crunch or that high production because it’s probably one of the heaviest records I’ve heard in past few years.
TV: Ok, that’s all subjective because we were laughing about that the other day like one of our “dear friends” quote, unquote of the group was bashing
the production (laughs) so clearly it’s subjective. No, I feel if we had added to the record, the more wider it gets I think and the more distance
there is between the sounds in your ears, when there is too much going on it just sounds slow. So the whole thing was really limited to one bass track;
it’s almost like a 16 track recording. It was like one bass track, two guitar tracks and then the solos track. And then the vocals and the drums are
sampled… we completely went away from that because, when Al was there, one track that I think came out the best was “The Banishment” and he did use
samples of drums, but other than that it’s all just live ya know? And it was all a no brainer; we just had the idea of how to get it done in the
fastest time possible without too many headaches ya know? So for the most part we really didn’t use that much digital technology at all. When you get
crazy with that there is an end to what you can do in the box so to speak when your bands have to mix their Pro-Tools these days which we didn’t do.
We didn’t mix the record on SSL which is ya know you have compression and gains on each channel ya know and really decent EQ for each of those
channels so you minimalize and therefore I think it it affects the whole thing I mean ya know there are some guys that can do a lot of stuff and they
do it brilliantly, no I think the more complicated we would’ve made it the less effective it would have been.
