Dead Rhetoric: Going back to Trampled Sun. The songs live translated much better than on record. Was that something you were aware of for the new album?
Veliz: I can clarify that. The guy who recorded that record sucked ass. [laughs] That first record was paid out of pocket by us. We were just trying to look for the best deal. It came down to the “You get what you pay for” crap. Truth is, we had a falling out and the guy took forever to get his shit together. We recorded that album in less than two weeks. It took him about a year to get it all put together. So when it was finished, it was very bittersweet. We didn’t like the way it sounds. It was bullshit. But now with a product – we love the songs – the quality of the songs was okay at best. It was a funny thing then, so when you saw us live, there were so many comments, like, “Hey, you guys sound better live than you do on record.” We were put out there as a live band to come see. That being said, Burn the Serum, is 800 times better in sound quality than Trampled Sun. That’s because of the wizards Andrew Alekal and James A. Rota. They just knew how to capture our sound.
Dead Rhetoric: Those two are from such diverse backgrounds. Andrew has done Queens of the Stone Age and No Doubt. And James did Fireball Ministry. What was the experience working with them like?
Veliz: It was great. One of the best things of it was that Jim was in one of my favorite bands – I used to listen to Fireball Ministry all the time. When I was younger, I’d tell everyone to listen to them. [laughs] So when his name came up, I was like, “Yeah, I want to work with that guy!” The guy has the know-how and Andrew was the fucking wizard who put it all together. He can pick out the tones in any rock record from like, 1960 to 2015. He can see the future, I’m telling you.
Dead Rhetoric: The albums sounds so lively, too. Do you think you’re an easy band to record, then?
Veliz: That was one of the things. We wanted to do a song prior to doing the record just to see if we could work with them and they could work with us. They were pretty stoked. It was fairly easy for them, and fairly easy for us. And top of that, they’re just great guys. We fell in love working with them. It was like, “Hell yeah, these are our bros.” Jim and Andrew are like my best friends now. I can call them at any moment, not to just talk business, which is a plus.
Dead Rhetoric: “Lost One” was one of the first songs that resonated with me. What’s the story behind it?
Veliz: It’s funny you say that. We go out on the road with many people and many a band. We see many different girls, and this is about different girls hitting the backstage area trying to get with any member of the band. They’re like the [Price is Right] plinko ball that bounces from side-to-side…they just want anybody inside [of] them who’s in the band, then they get ditched and tossed to the side. It’s about girls hitting the backstage, bouncing from dude-to-dude, and not getting what they want, and everyone’s like “You’re a fucking whore, get out of here.”
Dead Rhetoric: We don’t think of things like that happening anymore. I’m guessing it still does based on what you described.
Veliz: It’s not all the time, but there’s certain tours where you’d see the same faces and they’re just driving from state-to-state, trying to get backstage. You’re just like, “Why? It’s not even that cool back here.” It’s a different world. A whole different kind of life. If you’re not super high up in the chain, you’re working your balls off every fucking day, every night. Us, particularly, we drive, we move our own gear, we set up our own gear, we sell our own shit. It’s just us. There’s three guys in the band, and there’s just three guys on the road.
Dead Rhetoric: You always break down your own gear? Some bands would rather pay someone to do it.
Veliz: We do it ourselves not because we want to, but because we have to. We’re a working band before all this touring. We all had jobs. It’s not hard, it’s just tiring. We get help sometimes because they feel bad for us. We pulled up on the Megadeth tour which was great – it’s fucking Megadeth. They watched us come in with shitty road cases with cardboard and duct tape. You could see their road crew thinking, “Holy fuck. What did we get ourselves into with this band?” We’re pretty efficient. We do our thing, get in, get out, and you can ask anyone in the Megadeth camp and they’ll tell you we were easy to work with, you got in, and got out. We’re little army ants. We destroy, then leave.
Dead Rhetoric: Surely you’re going to get a lot of questions regarding the cover art, but in as short of a response as you can, what does it entail?
Veliz: The cover art is a depiction of “Burn the Serum,” the song. It’s about someone trying to hold onto lies and it falling apart. That shit is getting crumbled. It’s a metaphor of the actual person. Without getting too sentimental and emotional, it’s about a fallout I had with my brother who was heavily addicted to alcohol. Sadly, he passed away a few months ago from it. That whole thing that happened between him and I and our family, I turned it into a song. But, if you open up the cover of the CD, there’s a whole other picture of the art where the boat is fully intact, floating away on calm waters, and that’s the memory of my brother. Although he was an asshole, he was my brother, and I loved him to death.