P.O.D. Breaks Out
Success is still strange for this high-cred, hard-rockin' outfit.
by Steve Baltin
September 19, 2000
Payable On Death (L to R): guitarist Marcos, bassist Traa, drummer Wuv, singer Sonny |
When Sonny Sandoval, lead singer for Payable On Death (P.O.D.), says, "We're not rock stars," he is as sincere as anyone who has spent the summer barbequing with Ozzy Osbourne can be. The San Diego band's climb to gold album status for The Fundamental Elements of Southtown represents a deviation from an eight-year routine that has involved recording quickly in funky studios with little money and worn equipment, traveling in a van, and otherwise living the rock prole's life.
The band has had to make some adjustments. Where it once would spend hours at a time after a show meeting with its fans, that's less likely to happen now -- not because they're trying to dis anybody, but because they don't want to cause a commotion when their touring mates are onstage. P.O.D. is learning how difficult it is to please everybody when you're a star.
Harmony Central caught up with Sonny and guitarist Marcos (all of the band members go by one name) during a stopover in New York.
'We never took the elevator to the top. It's always been the staircase.'
On the Road
Do you enjoy being on the road with other bands on these package tours?
P.O.D.'s singer, Sonny
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Sonny: It's great, man, because we're music lovers. We hook up with Korn and with Stain, and we're fans. So it's not like we go out there like, "Make way for P.O.D., we're rock stars." We watch shows every night and just want to get a chance to meet people and stuff. With Ozzfest you got legendary bands, so it's an opportunity for us just to go out and meet people and see the real them. It's really exciting.
It must be cool to know that these guys appreciate your music.
Sonny: It's a good feeling. You see a band come up this year and last year, and all of the sudden they're on the biggest tours of the year, and it can be frustrating. Here we are, struggling for eight years trying to get on these tours, and it just ain't happening. We've never jumped straight to the top and took the elevator to the top. It's always been the staircase, it's always been a learning process, and when someone like Les Claypool says "I wanna take P.O.D. out because I dig this album," how respectful is that? It's respectful on both sides. We're honored, but I don't want to weasel my way on anybody's ride. Because if you're down and you wanna take us out, cool.
We have nothing but respect to those bands that have taken that chance and they didn't care what the audience thought or what radio or whoever thought; they just said, "I like this band, I'm taking them out." Period.When we start doing our headlining things we're probably going to take bands out that nobody even knows, because we like them and we respect their music rather than taking out the most popular, the hippest, or whoever media or magazines say is the coolest. We're going to be taking out who we like because we're going to have to be hearing them every night too.
Next Page: Jamming & Creativity; Looking Back & Forward....
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