Photo: Michael Hallahan
The combination of cyberpunk content into a sound that contains elements of stoner, doom, and industrial metal provides quite the musical cocktail on the latest album Skinformation from Maine three-piece Manic Abraxas. The aural swirl vibrates at multiple frequencies, allowing for a multi-sensory experience that’s hard to miss. We reached out to two of the three musicians behind the band in Dallas Seger and Justin Hamm to get deeper insight into the exploration of old/new songs for this record, special work with Qual, Steve, and Gage to produce the best results on this album, talk of Dallas’ guitar work as a luthier, favorite albums / shows, a bit of Maine scene talk, and what’s on the horizon for the group.
Dead Rhetoric: Skinformation is the fourth full-length album for Manic Abraxas. How did the songwriting and recording sessions go for this set of material – and how would you assess this work next to the previous discography of the group?
Dallas Seger: It’s a progression. I think it’s our strongest material, I think it’s our best material. It’s our strongest production, and I think it’s our best sounding album. Some of these (songs) are actually super deep cuts from like… there is some material that existed like ten years ago and it just never progressed or got completed. So, a little bit of this album is kind of catch up and stuff we were craving to record and document. We are all pretty creative, and I think we all haul ass when it comes to songwriting, it’s not really hard to do.
Justin Hamm: Not that we haven’t taken the time with prior records to let stuff gestate, but I think the amount of time we took to write these songs, constantly practice them, and the amount of time we took with Steve (Austin). The prior record we did in a couple of weeks. This one was over the course of a couple of months. I think it really helped it in making it a much more expansive and crazier album. Like Dallas was saying, some of these songs were well over a decade old. It’s cool to revisit them and sort of paint them in a new light.
Dead Rhetoric: Were there any particular songs that took on the greatest transformation from initial idea to what ends up appearing on the record?
Hamm: The one that went through the most changes, and Dallas might be able to answer this better, as he did a lot of the legwork on this, was “Winter’s Mute”, the industrial song that we did with Qual. What that started as compared to what it became, that was a total 360-degree transformation for sure.
Seger: That was a microcosm. It was a demo that I did for fun, and Justin was like that is really cool. We started approaching it as what if we put this crazy industrial song on the album. And then I was like, what if we can somehow convince Qual to be on this, who is an artist we really enjoy, I felt like that would be the ultimate. Somehow, he agreed to do it. It took on another light, he provided samples and beats along with his signature vocals. It probably went through six versions before what you heard on the album, and it’s one of the songs that I’m most stoked about. Justin and I don’t do any vocals on this, all the vocals are Qual and that’s cool. I’m very proud of it.
Dead Rhetoric: Where did you want to go specifically on the lyrical front this go around?
Hamm: We took huge influence from cyberpunk. The thing that really kicked things off for Dallas and I is I was reading Neuromancer. That really set the tone for the record. I read a lot of stuff by William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Philip K. Dick. Dallas and I were also big into hobby gaming with 40K and stuff, there is sort of that dystopian future thing in those games. We pulled from all of that, and it culminated into this ridiculous, cyberpunk world.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you guys enjoy most about the power trio format for the group?
Hamm: I think there’s nothing cooler. You listen to a record that sounds so dense and crazy, it must be four or five guys – and then you see the band and it’s just three dudes, there’s nothing cooler than that. To be able to come out with that much power. It’s sort of like ZZ Top – look at that band with just three dudes (laughs).
Seger: I share what Justin has to say about that. A lot of my favorite acts were trios. Obviously when we do an album, I’ll lay down a rhythm guitar underneath the solo to harmonize. Just because we are going to record it, why not flesh it out? There’s also for an audio standpoint for a power trio where as a guitarist I don’t have to tame my sound. I don’t have to have a cooperative sound with another guitar player. I can sound huge, Justin can sound huge, Tom can sound huge. Kind of a weird backwards way, you can almost sound bigger as a trio than as a four or five-piece. I love playing with Tom and Justin.
Dead Rhetoric: Gage Lindsten developed some mind-altering art for this record. How did the process go between yourselves and the artist, and what are your thoughts on the final product we see?
Seger: We hired Gage for Foreign Winds, and I pestered him. He’s like I can’t do any commission, so I thought why don’t we buy a piece of art and license it? So, he agreed to do that. I love the art on that one, I can’t imagine it as something else but that was something he created beforehand, and he did liner notes and everything. This time around, we handed him the playbook. He’s the only guy outside the band who we explicitly explained what was up. I gave him the lyrics, the demos, the music, the rough mix and a concept, the characters, the kind of stuff that Justin and I dreamt up. It was hands off from there, it was all him. I didn’t really give him any input. It’s a dream come true working with him. It’s an expansive piece of art. He did all the liner notes. If you buy one of our CD’s, the layout is 100% Gage. I’m every bit as excited about that as anything. It’s cool art. He does stuff for Magic: The Gathering, Nike, Korn and then somehow Manic Abraxas. We are huge fans of his.
Dead Rhetoric: When it comes to the live performances for Manic Abraxas, what do you hope to get across to the audience that maybe differs or accentuates what people experience from the recordings? What have been some of the most memorable performances to date for the group?
Hamm: Starting with Foreign Winds, we decided that we were just going to look like total crazy dudes on stage. A lot of other bands play into that. From a visual standpoint, when you go and see a band… imagine seeing Celtic Frost in their heyday. Those dudes didn’t just look like real human beings. That’s what we want to convey, especially with this whole cyberpunk thing going on. A weird, strange late 90s, bizarre look going. I think it fits the music and the record. We want to go all out visually, it’s the whole package.
Seger: It holds us accountable to other artists. Back during COVID when it legit looked like there wasn’t going to be music or shows for a long time, I remember a conversation we had where if we can get on the other side of this, we are going to be freaks and not take it for granted.
We played Quebec last year, and that was awesome. Super warm welcome, crazy audience that was super into it.
Hamm: The US show goers need to take a look at Canada. Those guys are nuts. I went up with no expectations. I have never played a show where we were welcomed so warmly, the crowd has a positive vibe the whole night. Sometimes you play shows down here and the vibe is like, why did you even come out to the show? People are miserable. It was a special show. We’ve played with a lot of cool bands – playing with Steve and his band Today Is the Day is a huge band for me and Dallas. When I was younger, I would go to the record store and buy anything with a Relapse logo. I had a few Today Is The Day records.
Seger: We got to work with three of our idols on this album. We have Steve, we have Qual, and we have Gage. I’m super grateful to get to work with people like that.
Dead Rhetoric: Tell us more about your work as a luthier through your Seger Guitars shop – what makes your line of guitars special and what specific qualities do you put into your craft that benefit the players of your guitars the most?
Seger: I’m known for a particular look and aesthetic to the guitars. I’m humungous on design, what is good versus not. Visually people think they are very appealing. I spend every bit as much effort on how they feel to the player. That can be a very challenging thing too, it’s a nuanced thing. To be able to deliver on both those fronts, the craftsmanship as well as the feel, the tone. To deliver that on a high level to a discerning player – man, I’m in the trenches with this every day. It’s so close to me, I’m not even sure how to talk about it. If that makes sense.
Dead Rhetoric: What are three albums that made the most impact on your outlook when it comes to heavy music – and what’s the best concert memory you have, personally attending a show as a member of the audience – plus what made that show so special to you?
Seger: Wow. I don’t know if I have a top three. The first two High On Fire albums – they have a special place for me. You can probably hear this in bits and pieces all over Manic Abraxas. Tragedy – humungous influence, especially on the new album. A third… Celtic Frost and Venom are neck and neck up there. Crazy shows – Justin and I saw Bolzer a couple of years ago. It was transcendental. We didn’t even move our feet; I think we stood there with our mouths open the whole time. It was very captivating.
Hamm: Three incredibly important records for me. When I started really getting into music when I was younger, Nine Inch Nails for sure. I remember seeing “The Perfect Drug” video back in 1997 or 1998, I started watching MTV. Shortly thereafter The Fragile came out. To this day, I’ll never tire of that record. Leaning more into industrial stuff, I think it’s just as heavy as metal and was as important to my exploration of heavy music would be Embryodead by Wumpscut. That was mind altering. And I remember the first time I listened to None So Vile by Cryptopsy, that melted my brain and reformed it. It’s so unrelenting, so crazy, and sounds like it’s going to go off the rails half the time. That’s why I love it so much.
Most important concert to me, when I was in high school, I saw Nine Inch Nails. It was very special to me, for sure. A life changing thing, to see a band like that, as a young kid from Maine.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your thoughts on the heavy music scene up in Maine? Do you believe there is healthy support not just for the national tours that come through, but also love and passion for the independent and local bands?
Hamm: Just recently, shout out to our buddy John Morris, he has a booking agency called Contemlight. He has booked some of the best shows I’ve seen in Maine. Prior to that, we have had others – metal and hardcore shows that are important to me. As far as the local scene, there are a lot of bands and special bands for sure. A lot of younger musicians are doing really cool things. Saprus we are both nuts about – the ages range from 17-20, they are playing insane US style black metal. It’s nuts, I never thought anyone around here would do this, let alone kids half my age, which is crazy. We have another thrash band in the Bangor area called Militia. There are cool bands in Portland, the biggest and most important one being Hessian. The craziest, coolest, old school heavy metal style that you’ll ever hear. I remember seeing Hessian the first time, Angus was the coolest guy I’d ever seen.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you assess the current career arc for Manic Abraxas? Do you have any specific goals or future bucket list items that you would like to achieve over the next year or two?
Seger: We want to gig out of state more. We’d love to do some weekends out of state, short tours a couple of times a year. Go to Europe, go to Japan, keep on making crazy music when we can. I have some ideas for another album to record this winter.
Hamm: We are all extremely busy in our lives, but we love this so much we want to go out and play shows. I don’t think we are able to do month-long tours, but wherever we can get, we want to go. We want more people to hear us. I mirror Dallas on the bucket list places to play – Japan would be crazy.
Dead Rhetoric: What worries or concerns weigh on you the most about the world that we are living through currently? If you had the opportunity to tackle one or two of these issues with unlimited time, energy, resources, and finances at your disposal – what needs to be worked on first?
Hamm: I’d erase the internet. (laughs) Sometimes I feel like we are living in a simulation. Everything seems to get absurd; the level grows every day. I have a family; I’m raising two kids, and I just can’t look at anything. Everything is designed to get you riled up. I can’t subscribe to it anymore. I go to work, I play music, I do the things I like to do, and I try to be genuinely a good person. I feel like (the internet) fucked us all up.
Seger: This might sound callous, but we are living in a pretty incredible time. I’m not a political person, I don’t watch the news or get involved in current affairs. It means less than nothing to me. I get a lot of entertainment looking around and think – wow, that’s kind of weird. I’m cool with it. People have been crazy, the world is always hectic, everything is just normal.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for Manic Abraxas and any other musical pursuits / endeavors over the next twelve months?
Hamm: More shows. As Dallas mentioned, we are starting to work on more material.
Seger: I want to make sure that Justin, Tom and I are all happy with it. We have a solid idea of what it’s going to sound like, what it’s going to look like with the subject matter. It’s conceptualized.