Sixx: AM
In Los Angeles, the music industry is more than just a business. For some it's a game, a l'enfant terrible experiment of intoxicating proportions. For others, it's an asylum. It's a labyrinth of lunatics, all lost amongst themselves and all scrambling for something to protect them from the deafening roar of self-destruction. All too often drug addiction becomes the mute button. As Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx details in The Heroin Diaries, it's an industry that is mysterious and beautiful, as well as shattering, and one whose battles get waged right here, in our hearts, and often at the expense of our own artists.
After speaking with Nikki at length about his memoir, SuicideGirls dug deeper into the Heroin Diaries project to explore the music of Sixx:AM, a band that never intended to be a band, but wound up one nevertheless. Alongside the memoir's release, Sixx:AM made its debut with a companion soundtrack for Nikki's diaries -- a concept album of sorts with 13 tracks to each coincide with a chapter in the book.
SuicideGirls cozied up with a conference call to Sixx:AM's James Michael and DJ Ashba to chat more about what the band describes as its journey from the needle, to the pen, to the musical note...
Erin Broadley: Is everybody in?
DJ Ashba: God I love the iPhone.
James Michael: How are you doing Erin?
EB:
Im okay. Threesomes are more fun over the phone, arent they?
DJ:
Yeah. [Laughs]
EB:
So, though Sixx:AM doesnt really perform much as a band, you guys did play Halloween Havoc in Salt Lake City. How was that?
JM:
It was pretty cool.
DJ:
It was fun. Yeah. Shit.
EB:
Right. Last I spoke with Nikki [Sixx], he said that you didnt really have many plans to perform as a band but that was before the album had become as successful as it is now.
JM:
You know, everything about this [project] has really surprised us, even from the way the record turned out. Weve been so happy about that and we never did have any expectations about it so, for us at this stage to see how well its doing and kind of start feeling that momentum build, its exciting and certainly not something we counted on or planned on. Were having to kind of readjust our thought process to deal with it. But what a great problem to have!
EB:
I know, right?
JM:
Literally, as we were making the record we were like, You know this is so cool because were not a band. We dont have any rules. We can do anything we want. Were not a band. And then, next thing you know, we get a call saying
DJ:
Were going to be a 60-piece orchestra later. Were like, Right
JM:
Yeah, we get a call saying were shooting a video for Life Is Beautiful and Im like, Oh, okay. At that point were still saying, How cool, were making a video and were not a band. But then as it started kind of taking off, we started going, Oh, we are a band.
EB:
Especially once the fans started asking, When are you going to tour?!
JM:
Yeah, well its just been incredibly flattering and reassuring that we made the right decision to make this record and, you know, well see where it goes from here. Were certainly starting to talk about doing some shows, because it is an absolute blast to play with these guys. Everything since the completion of this record has been icing on the cake for us.
DJ:
I couldnt agree more.
EB:
Well, this album is described as a soundtrack to Nikkis book The Heroin Diaries and its very visual, as well. Its music thats very all encompassing of these different elements. Was it daunting to write music that was intended to mirror or capture the personal and intense subject matter in the book?
JM:
No, I wouldnt say anything about this was daunting.
DJ:
No.
JM:
The subject matter, obviously being very, very heavy and very, very serious was, I wouldnt say daunting but challenging. The challenge was to make sure we made a positive, hopeful record. And not one that was just so dreary and bogged down in the dark, murkiness. It was fun to do that. It was very rewarding to do that. For instance, when we started writing Life Is Beautiful it was originally called Funeral. At a certain point, we started thinking, You know, weve got to give the listeners a sense of hope in this. Weve got to make people feel like theyve gotten something positive out of this. And I think thats what makes people want to hear it again and again is that they feel that they can tap into that song and get something out of it and when theyre done listening to it they feel inspired.
EB:
Whats interesting to me is that people who havent even read the book are still really touched and affected by these songs.
DJ:
I think whats cool about the way we wrote the stuff is, you know, we wanted to be as true to the story as possible but yet make it universal. I think whats cool about Life Is Beautiful is it isnt so much about a drug problem; it could be a relationship problem. I think a lot of people relate to it and its hitting a lot of people. I think that was another challenge of, Okay, heres our storyline. Weve got to stay true to it. But, not everybody has done heroin.
EB:
Initially, how did Nikki approach you guys to get involved with the Sixx:AM project?
JM:
It wasnt really that Nikki approached us. I had been on the same label with Nikki five or six years ago and back then he and I were talking about the Heroin Diaries because he had just recently come across those journals again and he was telling me back then, You know, Im thinking about publishing these. At that point we said, Wouldnt it be cool to do a soundtrack to this, and to kind of write this not only as a book but as a movie and a score and a record? So, we had talked about that for quite some time and he went off and was doing the Motley stuff for several years and I was working on other bands and producing and writing and it wasnt until Nikki and DJ got together that it really started kind of coming into focus. As soon as DJ came into the picture they got together and started scoring stuff and writing all these just amazing orchestral things that were all originally going to be part of this soundtrack. DJ was really the missing link. As soon as he came into the picture we all go, Oh, we have what we need here to see this through and actually do this. So it took several years of just conceptualizing but the actual task of making the record went relatively quickly. Didnt it DJ?
DJ:
Yeah. Yeah.
EB:
Well, between the three of you -- with the amazing amount of skills each of you brings to the table -- James youre also a producer and DJ youre a visual artist as well.
DJ:
Yeah.
EB:
And Funny Farm Studios is as much for photography as for recording music
Between the three of you, youve got so many artistic outlets available.
JM:
It really is and I think thats why when people ask, Whats the future of Sixx:AM? Are you going to make another record? What are you going to do? We cant really answer that, other than to say it would really be crazy for us not to do something because we have such a great time doing it and we have chemistry that you spend your entire career trying to find.
EB:
For Nikki going through these old journals was a very emotional experience for him and it brought up a lot of old feelings. For you guys, writing these songs both lyrically and musically, what kinds of feelings did it evoke in you?
DJ:
There are a lot of things, you know; I can [take] lot of things in his life through this story and relate them to things Ive been through. In ways that made it a lot easier for me to sit down and kind of know where to start. [I had] a little troubled childhood [and got] into drugs. Not heroin for me, but definitely into drugs heavy at one point in my life. So it really was a cleansing probably for all of us, in a weird way. Right, James?
JM:
Well, yeah, I think that as songwriters thats what we do anyway. Our job is to get to the core of any one emotion and then be able to explore that emotion and express it in a way that is universal. I think what was challenging about this record was, especially when DJ and I got the journals and started reading those, it was literally being able to disconnect yourself from this guy who is our friend, you know. Thats what was so shocking about reading the diaries was that Ive known Nikki a long time and weve been friends for a long time and Ive known about his past but Ive never focused on that part of his life. Ive always focused on the friendship part. So it was really shocking to sit there and read these things and go, Oh my God, this is my pal thats going through this. You know, it definitely helped getting you into the emotion of it, but also I think the challenge of it was being able to disconnect yourself enough from that so youre not protecting Nikki as a person. Because he didnt want to be protected in this. He wanted to bare his soul.
EB:
Right, right, thats one thing he said to me. I asked him about what kind of boundaries were in place with this project and how much of an editing process there was after the fact.
JM:
There was none.
EB:
He was like, Absolutely none. He was like, Censorship does not exist in my world.
DJ:
Yeah. Absolutely. Thats what made it so great, though.
EB:
Another thing Nikki and I talked about was whether or not art and stability can coexist. For many artists and musicians, being unstable is what fuels a lot of their work, whatever medium it may be. What are your thoughts on that subject?
JM:
Well, its different for every person. There are some people that can only write their songs when theyre high. You know, you cant knock them for that. The thing about art thats so fascinating is that it comes from a different place for every single person. I think to compare, for instance, the old Motley records to this, the great story about this for Nikki is that you can hear the clarity and the stability in his current mind frame. I think it connects equally as well with people but has a different beauty to it.
DJ:
Yeah.
EB:
Right. Well, at one point in the diary he wrote, Ive been up to no good again but its given me a killer idea for a song. I thought that was hilarious because in the long run, it not only gave him an idea for a song, but for an entire whole album. [Laughs]
DJ and JM: [Laughs] Right. Yeah.
EB:
Were you guys afraid that the album might not be taken seriously because it was considered the soundtrack to a book?
DJ:
No.
JM:
We never thought anything like that. It was just a matter of making a record and having it turn out the way that we wanted it to. Honestly, it was something that we just all wanted to be proud to listen to and enjoy for years to come. We just had no rules. If there was anything that we were concerned about, it was just about focusing on the recovery and the success after recovery and the courage that it takes for somebody to get to that place. We wanted this record to be hopeful.
EB:
Right. Well, DJ, one thing I read on the Funny Farm Studios website was that you were interested in starting to score films. Is that right?
DJ:
Totally not true. No, Im just kidding. Its always been a passion of mine, for sure, and I know that Nikki has talked about how it would be great to do that. I think thats what was so much fun for me on this album; there were no boundaries. Nikki was so wide open to whatever and thats what made it so much fun to do. We really went way out. We had enough songs for a double album on this thing.
EB:
Oh, really?
DJ:
It actually was going to be a double album at first. The hardest part was going, Wow, okay, we have all this. We had so much music. We were just all so inspired by this project and it was just a lot of fun.
JM:
When we originally started it, we were visualizing it as a movie and literally had storyboards in our heads. And DJ had just written these amazing orchestral movements that would have been the music for a certain scene in the movie. That was real difficult for us when it came down to us saying, Okay, right now we have to look at this as a record.
DJ:
Right.
JM:
And there are these phenomenal pieces that DJ had created that arent on the record.
DJ:
What made it so much fun is, literally, Nikki has the whole movie in his head and he painted such a vivid picture. I can remember him calling me one day and [it was] like, Okay. If this were a movie, how would the intro start? Because that would be the intro to the album. This character we were writing about was Sikki. We kind of separated that [from our friend Nikki.]
EB:
One thing that interests me about Sixx:AM -- especially with so many people still freaking out about the collapse of the record industry -- is that this record shines as an example of music that offers fans and the industry something more; its not just twelve songs on a piece of plastic.
DJ and JM: Right.
EB:
Because that value is relatively non-existent now. Its so much about the artwork; its so much about the book. Its about going to the website. Its an interactive package and this is the first time Ive really seen it done so successfully.
DJ:
Well, I really dont think the record industry is collapsing; its just adjusting. To me, its very exciting when you look at things like MySpace, what thats doing for the exposure of young artists that dont have record deals.
JM:
Yeah.
EB:
Oh, totally.
DJ:
So, to me its a very healthy time in the industry. From the business side of it, we all are just learning how to adjust and figure it out.
EB:
Everybody gets to be a cowboy again.
DJ and JM: Yeah.
DJ:
Musically, its so cool that you can have an album like Heroin Diaries and there are so many different styles [available now]. For the first time, I really feel like everybody is really being true to the music
whatever they feel is right for them. Its just really a cool time.
EB:
Do you guys have plans to take this project on the road now that book is a huge success and Life is Beautiful hit number three on the rock charts. What next ?
JM:
Well, were in a really beautiful predicament of having to adjust what all of our plans were for it and its just exciting. Weve started talking about doing some shows and actually bringing the record to life on the stage. Something thats just in the talks. Its hard not to look at those possibilities when you see the reaction that were starting to get. Thats exciting for us. Its certainly not something we planned on. Again, we have to adjust, but what a great problem to have.
Check out the band's new music video for "Accident's Can Happen" here.
For more information go to www.sixxammusic.com or www.myspace.com/sixxam
Check out the band's new music video for "Accident's Can Happen" here.
For more information go to www.sixxammusic.com or www.myspace.com/sixxam
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