Interviews: Ignite (Part Two)

Here is part two of the interview I conducted with Zoli Teglas from Ignite.This part is made up of questions sent in by readers here at Punknews.org.You can click Read More for the interview.

We have a few questions from people who wrote in to punknews and I said that I would ask everything.

Ask em!

That's what I'm gonna do.. What is the writing process like for you? This comes from Mark Proof.

It usually starts with a guitar riff that we will go over. The guitarist will bring it in. I have written three or four guitar riffs, but usually the guitarist brings it in. Then, we work on it and I get a vocal idea and I make up some words for it. Then, say we have all the drums and bass and guitar down and I have all this mumbo jumbo that I'm singing over its not real words I'm just saying stuff.
Then, the hard part happens where I sit down and I try to write lyrics for it, it's all about syllables. Because the mumbo jumbo words will have some sort of syllables that it uses and then I will count how many syllables I am using. Then, I have to find an idea of what I am writing about, a topic to sing about. Its tough man, its so much work (laughs)! Then I have to put this idea to these syllables that I am using. Say I'm only using 11 syllables but I have to fill up a whole sentence with 11 syllables and then I have to write intelligent lyrics. It's hard man; it's really hard. It takes a long time.

Do you ever just get all these ideas and have everything work out on the fly?

Yeah, I wrote, "Aggression", that was one of our songs on, "Call On My Brothers" in one sitting, but on "Hands On Stance" it took me up to the very last minute of recording to do. It took me like 6 months to do. I wrote, "Fill In The Blanks" on the way to practice. They were like, "Do you have lyrics and melodies for it?" and I'm like, "yes I do" and I didn't! So I lied, but I had a really good night sleep the night before and I was right on my game and on the way there on the freeway I wrote the whole song, lyrics and everything.

This comes in from — I can't read this crap — something. Anyhow, the question is about the hidden track on the new album. What is this song about?

It is an old Hungarian song, they could not play during the Communist Regime because it was about our heritage and nationality. You would get thrown in jail for it and you would loss your job. They would take you away in the middle of the night. It was really; really strict about the things you could do and couldn't do. You know, this whole new Communist era of bands that don't know what the hell they are talking about because I lived in that. So that song is like a thumbing of my nose to the Communists. It's getting played on the radio right now in Hungary.
I lived through that. My grandma taught me those songs in the middle of the night real quiet so my neighbors wouldn't hear because we were afraid our neighbors were part of the Communist Regime. They could call the police and you were out of there. They are playing it all over the radio and it is like this big deal. An American band playing this old Hungarian song that was under the Communist Regime. That is why it is a hidden track, and what I wrote in English was about leaving my grandmother behind. It was really hard leaving my family behind in Hungary because they were all old, they were the ones who raised me and it is 1,000 miles away and 1,000 dollars away. With me touring all the time anything could happen, I'm not gonna be there and it is really tough. That is why it's called, "A Place Called Home".
That picture on the CD, is a friend of mine that was in Yugoslavia who was an I-4 that was protecting the Bosnian's over there. So, he is on his Hum-V with a 50 caliber machine gun, he was taking the picture in front of him and here (to picture) is a Bosnian farmer coming towards him and behind him is a truckload of Serbian police. If he weren't there, that Bosnian farmer would be a dead man. It is a pretty powerful picture, they cropped it down, and TVT wanted to crop it down because there were all these burnt down houses and dead animals in the back and stuff. It's horrible. We are trying to get on the USO to get us over there so we can play a whole tour just to Yugoslavia.
I want to play to those people. Bono and U2 went down during the war and played in the only club that was open in Sariavo and they played there right after the war was over and I still want to play in that club.

It looks like we went over the touring plans already. Bigwig asks..

It looks like The Misfits are getting Danzig back in their band.

Is that true??!

Yep.

Alright, this is good keep going.

Yep, that's the big talk. We are going to try to get on it. The Damned are opening up.

Are they going to get rid of Michael (Graves, new lead singer).

No, what they are going to do is like a 2-hour set. All of Glenn Danzig's songs, all of Michael's songs.

(excited) I broke this first! (laughs) The rumors going around and round my town because Jerry Only's cousin or something like that lives a town over from me in a real small area about an hour and a half from here and somehow it got out around there that Danzig is going to be back. But, I guess now we got you saying it..

We got Jerry saying it on stage.

On stage, so they are like publicly announcing this?

Looks like it. They are working it out right now. You know because they both need each other.

They do.

It would take them up to a bigger level. So right now, it looks like, I don't know if this is what is going to happen but it might be a three-deal package. Marilyn Manson, The Misfits, and then The Damned.

Oh my god.

Hopefully Ignite, if there is anyway we can get on it! (laughs) And it is going to be during Halloween time.

It will be all in arenas, right?

Yes, all arenas. Let me tell you man, I'm not kissing their ass just because they are The Misfits. They are the nicest band we have ever toured with. We are in their backstage room, they give us their food, they give us their drinks.
No other band has done that for us ever! I mean for except hardcore bands when we go on hardcore tours but I have been on some rock and roll tours where you have to have backstage passes to go the bathroom. These guys work out with us every day, they give us clothes. The coolest dudes man, the coolest guys. Always bugging us to go sleep on their RV and stuff.

What are you guys travelling in?

We came back from Europe, we had a week to get a RV. It was in the middle of summer, nothing was open. We had to buy that van; we couldn't even rent a van or RV. That's why we had to buy that thing. We have a van out there with a trailer, never again. We have a free RV coming for us for the next tour with Bad Religion because I have to sleep man. If you don't sleep enough on the tour it effects the shows, like tonight I was a little tired on stage, you could tell.

Here is a question from Bigwig. He asks, "Are you ever going to come to Ireland".

We have been to Scotland. We will hopefully do the Van's Warped Tour. I would love to go to Ireland. We are going to do this tour with Bad Religion, then come home. Go to South America, go to Australia, go to Japan, come home, and go to Europe. That is going to end up in like February, March. So hopefully, when the album comes out we will hit Ireland. The problem is, it is so cold over there in Europe.
It is kinda dangerous to tour there. We went sideways in our tour bus. I woke up and said, "wait a minute, the road is coming at me, it's not going sideways". I saw the yellow line come right underneath my bunk. We were completely sideways and the trailer started hitting the railing, and it was all ice so we started rolling. When you're rolling in a tour bus, it's tweaked. So that was the last European tour I have done. So we will try. Yes, yes we will but I just don't know when.

Looks like we are all out of questions. Is there anything you would like to… What is the question you wish you would be asked more than any other?

See, I had a really good interview in Yugoslavia. I know a lot about politics, I know a lot about that region so I had a really good interview and we started talking about abortion and everything. That was really, really, really cool. I just wish when people did interviews, I mean you did a good interview, but I wish people would go in deeper than just, "What were your influences?"
Stuff like that, usually you get the same type of questions. Some bands don't like to talk about things that are heavy. If someone would ask me, "Can you sing me one of your songs on acoustic guitar for my radio station". I would say YES! (laughs) We have done 3-4 acoustic interviews, where we do the songs acoustic, like "Blacklight" and stuff. We did it in France a couple of times; I did one today actually. I just want to thank everybody, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to do an interview with you, and I really appreciate it.

Thank you!