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Interview with InVitro
By: J Sherrod
 At 5:30pm I arrive at the venue
and walk over to what has to be one of the coolest painted
tour buses I've seen in a very long time to do an interview
with InVitro guitarist Mikey Doling.
Unlike most artists who like to stay low-key while traveling,
this bus was painted like a rusty diamond-plated chrome
toolbox with the band's logo on all sides.
I arrive early, yet after a phone call I understand that my
interview target had just awakened. I'm standing there
thinkin' 'great, I'm about to go on this dude's tour bus and
ask him a bunch of questions - and he has been awake
about ten minutes. Fuck me!'
The tour manager comes
back, checks the bus and tells me to come on in. Mikey
greets me still slightly groggy, but politely, and we walk to
the back of the bus for what turned out to be a great
interview.
First off, I gotta admit, I knew nothin' of InVitro
until I was offered this interview. I know your past musical
endeavors, but tell me and the readers what your band is all
about and what we can expect from y'all live.
Mikey: This band is pretty much just about doin' shows and
playin' music...which is pretty much all I know. I was doin'
Soulfly for the last six years or somethin' like that and it
really just wasn't my thing.
I was just playin' for Max [Cavalera] ya know? Back when
he asked me to join the band I was like "fuck yeah!" I did
that for years and it started to become too much like a job,
so before I got too old I wanted to go back, do my own thing
with my friends and make my own kind of music.
Soulfly was more of playin' Max's music for him and his fans
and that was cool, but now I wanna play music that I like to
play. Plus the guys I'm playin' with are fuckin' awesome
guys.
There are some pictures online of y'all wearin' what
looks like helmets made out of aluminum foil and uniforms.
Is that somethin' y'all do regularly or just for special
occasions?
They are aluminum foil and we actually do that everyday,
for the first two songs, just for now and just for fun. Ya
know,
we're a new band and we just like to freak people out a little
bit.
Have ya ever made a hat that was so cool you just
couldn't throw it away that night and saved it for the next
show?
[Chuckles] Nope. They're all new hats every night. We toss
them in the crowd when we take 'em off.
I've noticed there are two other
bands with the same name, one in York, UK and one in
Montreal, QC. Does that cause a problem of any sort, or how
does that work exactly?
[Shakes head as he's been asked this question too many
times.]
Not one bit. We do own the name and could easily send
them a 'cease and desist' but
fuck it man! It's a waste of time. They can keep using it and
have a good time ya know. We'll get together, jam and have
a fuckin' InVitro festival man I don't care. [Laughs]
That would be somethin' right there. Do you know
anything about the other bands?
Yeah, I've checked them out online and said hello but that's
about it.
From what little I heard of your songs online, your
sound reminds me of putting GWAR, Nine Inch Nails, Mr.
Bungle, and whatever else in a blender, and we both know
those bands are out there! How would you describe InVitro's
sound and what elements are all your own?
Well, we never really went...looked for a sound. We just got
five dudes together and just threw down. Never tried to
sound like anything. What we honestly try to do is make
music that doesn't sound like anything out there. It's hard to
do, but if we start writing riffs and find out it sounds too
much like something else [moves hands like balling up paper
and makes a crinkling sound] we scrap it.
You've missed the democratic team of brothers
who write everything and make every decision together -
Max never gave you much, if any, say in Soulfly. How
do songs get started for InVitro? How much of whose
madness is involved and who usually bounces what off of
who first and so on?
It's equally all parts madness. Usually somebody will show
up with a CD of a riff and we'll just tweak on it for a while
until we come up with a song. It's totally five guys, one
hundred fucking percent. It's all straight-up even-Steven,
man.
Well how do you go about what not to
use then?
It's majority rules. If three of us like it and it two dislike it
then
it's out. [Laughs] We really all just think so much alike that
we will usually all say "yeah that sucks" or if it's really good
we'll go 'Fuck Yeah High Five!' We're a really
strange
band because we get along together so well. We don't argue
or nothin', we just don't do it. We're like five of the same
people. It's weird.
If you don't mind, I have to ask you a couple of
questions about your past? Your first serious band, Snot,
was incredible. I remember the album came out when I was
16 years old and I happened to see the cassette for a
special sale price since y'all were a new artist. It think
brand-new it was only $7.99 or somethin'.
Cool, I like that.
I knew nothin' of the band but somethin' told me to
buy it. I was floored, and remember introducing all my
friends to it and they all bought copies. Now that I've told my
little childhood story to you, the songs I remember most
from that record are "My Balls" and my favorite "Snooze
Button." That song was just so goddamn heavy! What are
some of your favorite Snot songs and do you ever sit around
and jam on them from time-to-time?
I never really have done that a lot, but now that I'm on tour
with Sonny [Mayo who was the other Snot guitarist] from
Sevendust, ya know - we've always been friends with those
guys and did Strait Up together for James
[Lynn Strait - Snot singer who died in a car accident] - we've
been playin' around with them some. I like every song on
that Snot record.
If there's one I didn't like and wished didn't make the
record, it was "Unplugged." I never really liked that one
even though I wrote it. The song "I Just Lie" was really
fuckin' cool man. I like the more punk rock ones I guess.
I also consider myself fortunate enough to have
seen
Snot on the side-stage of 1998's Ozzfest in Raleigh, NC.
Since then you've gone on to play the main stage and
countless other large venues with Soulfly. Now, with InVitro
you're starting fresh and new. Does the journey ahead seem
as exciting the second time around and what things will you
do differently now that you're over a decade into doing this?
I'm just as excited! Honestly, I don't think I'll do anything
differently. Just do it exactly the same.
There's nothing you'd do differently?
Not that I'll admit! [Laughs] I was 25 years old on that tour.
I still live pretty much the same way. Maybe just a little
slower but pretty much the same way.
I mentioned earlier about how curiosity alone
inspired me to buy the Snot record. I, to this very day am a
music consumer in the sense that I collect albums and like to
have the artwork, lyrics and the whole nine yards. It was
your album cover alone that possessed me to buy the
record. Sadly, CD sales are in the crapper and getting worse
'cause people just don't care to own the whole record
anymore. How do you feel about the age of downloading and
do you prefer to do that or buy the actual record?
I'm just like you man; I still love buyin' records, too. I love
pickin' up the CD or the record, fuckin' break out the
artwork, readin' all the liners and everything. I'll roll a big
joint, poppin' it in the player and jammin' while I'm readin'
all the stuff and thinkin' "What was it like to make this
record?"
I don't wanna sound like a bitch or anything, but as far as
the downloading, I hate it. I fuckin' hate it because it takes
away from the whole experience of getting in your car and
sayin' "I'm gonna go buy a CD," driving there, picking it up,
unwrapping it, getting in your car and rocking out knowing
what you just spent your money on. I don't even own an
iPod man.
You helped produce the band's debut record
When I Was A Planet, and you say the sound
and everything about it seems very "natural." What do you
feel are the pros and cons of working with a producer and
doing all yourself as a band?
[Instantly answers] I like doin' it all ourselves! Our bass
player Brad [Dujmovic] really produced this record and I
just co-produced it. He knows what's up and he's a fuckin'
incredible engineer. If I had to pick an actual producer to do
one of my records it would have to be a really good friend of
mine.
I would only work with somebody that knew exactly what I
wanted. Fuck that shit when I was working with Soulfly and
there was a producer who would just look right through you.
I would ask a question for him or have an idea and you
could just tell on his face before you finish, the answer was
gonna be 'No!' He would try to control everything; and fuck
that! It was bogus, so no; I don't use producers 'cause I
don't need to.
In your past you've started from the bottom with
Snot and worked your way up the ladder with time. How
much mainstream success if any do you seek with InVitro or
would you prefer things stay more on the underground level
this time around?
Of course I would like to sell a gazillion records and play
huge venues and concerts for the rest of my life, are you
kidding? This "I'm keepin' it real," and "I never want money"
and all this fake bullshit - they're all lyin'. They're all fuckin'
lyin'! Face it, I'm a musician and I like to make music for
people, and unless I make money I can't. I don't wanna be a
greedy bastard or nothing. As long as I can pay my bills and
stuff that's it.
Snot, Soulfly and InVitro are all different animals
with different sounds. How would you say your personal
guitar style has evolved over the years?
Snot, that's where I played guitar, and I was never really
meant to be in Soulfly. The guy who took my place in
Soulfly, Marc Rizzo, I take my hat off to him 'cause he is
fuckin' awesome. He is the guitarist for that band. I don't
think I ever really was. This band. I definitely am, and this is
my style. Soulfly was metal but I'm punk rock at heart.
What's one of your worst experiences on stage?
Japan 2002, and Motorhead was opening up for us [Soulfly]
for thousands of screaming fans in an arena. They flew in
my gear, didn't check my rig, and my guitar tech at the time
was really well known for fartin'-off. I had just watched
Motorhead play, I've got my guitar on and walk out on the
stage, the crowd is roarin', and outta my guitar comes
nothing!
My wife's parents are from Japan, so they're yelling for the
band and me, and there I am with nothing. Fuckin' Soulfly is
rockin' with Max, Marcello and Roy and I'm soundless. I start
yelling to get me some sound, and when they do it's clean
channel, so there I am playin' "Eye For An Eye" with this
tinkering sound that's almost worse than none at all. I get
pissed and smash my $3,000 guitar on the ground and throw
it at my tech - not so much to hurt him - but I was freakin'
out.
Finally, he gets me goin' with another guitar - that is out of
tune - so it takes me until the third song to get things like
they should be. It was just terrible, there I was with
Motorhead opening for us, in front of all these people, and I
ended up with no sound and a smashed up expensive guitar.
Now what's one of the most memorable?
Well, not on stage, but one of the most memorable times
I've had was just hangin' out with Ozzy at his house and
watching TV. That's it, just hanging out and watching TV
while he's goin' [mimics Ozzy] "Man, what the fuck's the
world coming to?" and I'm like "I don't know Ozzy." [Laughs]
Favorite late night place to eat and what do you
order?
This Brazilian place called Chara Scario. [Bein' the
non-professional journalist that I am, I didn't think to
get him to write it down so I could spell it correctly. My
apologies to this fine restaurant he speaks so highly of.]
They have this awesome Brazilian barbeque, and they give
you a card with a green side and a red side. If you've got
the green side up they will, non-stop, continue you to cut
you up steaks, sausages, chicken...and just keep serving
you until you flip it to the red side.
[This place must be really killer because he was excited to
talk about it and when I listened to the tape to transcribe the
interview his enthusiasm over it made me hungry enough to
stop and make a grilled cheese sandwich.]
Finally, you know where you've been and you know
where you are, where do you see yourself in the next five
years and how long do you plan to ride this heavy metal
crazy train?
I've been around the world twenty times and I'm about to go
around the world twenty more. Never stoppin' man. Just look
at Joe Perry.
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