I recently caught up with the guys of Primer 55 before their show with Fear Factory, Puya, & Dry Kill Logic on August 3rd @ the House of Blues. Bobby Burns and Jason were kind enough to take some time off between other interviews and photo shoots for Metal Edge Magazine to sit down with me for a couple of minutes. To any one who knows them and fans across the U.S., they keep it real and bring it on stage. Here's what they had to say.

Noize Pollution: First of all, let's talk about the new members of Primer 55. Ex-Dope drummer Preston Nash and bassist Kobie Jackson. How did they become part of the group?
Bobby Burns: We met Preston last year at some point when we were touring with Dope. We spent a couple months with those guys and they are really cool friends of ours. You know, the situation arose where Preston and Tripp decided to leave the group for whatever reasons and we were in the middle of making a new record, and we called up Preston. He was the first and only guy we called basically. Asked him if he wanted to jam on our music so we sent him some rough mixes with no vocals or anything like that. Totally raw. And he totally dug it and the next thing you know he's in the band. We got Kobie in the band due to his friendship with Preston. They were good friends and this is the best the band's ever felt man, feel's more like a band now than ever.

NP: What band was Kobie in prior to joining up with you guys?
BB: He just played in a lot of local stuff, nothing major.

NP: Just out of curiosity, what ever happened to ex-band mates Jr. and Josh? I know back in the day when I hung out with you guys for the first time at the 93X fest in Somerset, WI. I had overheard you guys talking about Josh.
BB:Josh developed some personal issues and substance abuse issues that he had to deal with and it's not easy to be on tour with somebody who's going through that and struggling with those kind of demons. So that was like the oust of that. And instead of going home and trying to find the right guy to play drums for the band, we basically started calling our friends and stuff likethat. We tried a couple of times to get an official member in the band and we just said, "Fuck it!" We don't have time; we're on the road you know what I mean?

So we just called up our friends and then right at the end of last year we were coming off the Soulfly tour and Jr. had gotten married some point, met a girl, and ended up expecting a child so that came to a manly situation in his life that he had to choose which way to go. He wasn't fired, he didn't quit it was like 'I need to go take care of my family and we were like cool.'

NP: Let's talk about the old album "Introduction to Mayhem" real quick. I know that you wrote the majority of the album. You did the bass, the guitar, some of the vocals.
BB: Right
NP: That kind of thing, and for "(The) New Release" how was it written this time?
BB: The same
NP: The same?
BB: The same way, I played the guitars and the bass and we brought in John Stanier from Helmet to play drums who is one of my best friends. And me and Jay write the same way all the time you know what I mean, fucking come over to my house, turn my kitchen into a studio and just started writing

NP: Is it true that you guys never listened to MTV or the radio when writing the new album?
BB: Once we came off tour we stopped listening to all that stuff.
NP: Is there any reason for that?
Jason: We just didn't want any outside influences other than the music that still made us feel to this day you know what I'm saying. We didn't want any chance of sounding like anybody else that's out right now.
BB:Besides all that shit that's out there is bullshit right now. It's not appeasing to my ears.
NP: Exactly, I hear that, only a few bands have kept it real over the past few years and I consider you guys to be one of those bands.
Jason: Thanks man!

NP: Let's talk about "(The) New Release" a bit. It hits stores August 14th, how stoked are you guys?
BB:Real excited
NP: about this album compared to the last one?
BB:Fuck I can't stand it dude! I've never been more proud than anything in my life.
Jason: Seems like it was a year ago.
BB:Yeah, we worked really hard on this record you know and we totally pulled the blinds, turned off the lights, and sat there and stared at each other and went over stories and stuff that happened to us over the past 18 months of touring and wrote about it. It's the most honest thing we could have written to this date and like I said, I've never been more proud of anything in my entire life. Just the way we approached the record was pretty special for me. We cut everything off and listened to Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd records. We're from the South man and we are proud of it, you can't take it out of us, it's going to be there forever and it's more predominant in this record with the Southern influences. We are stoked man!

NP: I noticed that you guys changed up your style in a way and took a step in a new direction, experimenting with songs like "Texas," "Lou Evil"��
BB: "Hesitations"
Jason: The issues are more mature and more us with personal issues. The first album was more or less an instrument to vent teenage angst and this one is more personal about our lives and a lot of songs off the last album got us into a little bit of trouble.
BB: You grow up, you know what I mean. The first record was about being a kid and growing up and not being able to skateboard or not being able to hang out here. It was this attitude of look at us, we are so mad, fucking look at us and we'll fucking kick your ass or whatever. And this one is about a lot of our relationships and this has damn near 100% to do of our personal lives. We are on the road for 18 months. Jay is married and I have a fianc�e and stuff like that. Times get trying. So it's basically what we had to deal with.

NP: Right on, every Monday for the past few weeks, you have been releasing snippets of new songs off the new record on your website of Primer55.com What kind of response have you been getting so far from it?
BB: Fucking great! You know, the first 50,000 records are going to have free song on it. Stick it into your computer and there will be a free song on it. As a gift you know, we don't have a million dollars and don't plan on getting a million dollars anytime soon. So we had an extra song that was really cool, so we are giving away 50,000 of them. I'm so fucking excited this year I can't stand it.

NP: I know that some of my favorites so far off the new album include "This Life" which is my favorite by far.
BB: Awsome, Thank you.
NP: "Pills," "My girl," and "Ricochet" are also killer. What are a couple of these songs about?
Jason: Each one is about something different. "My Girl" is about being on the road and being accused of stuff. You know, I've gone through that in the relationship. "Ricochet" to the point of where you have enough of being accused and lashing out about it. "This Life" is about spousal abuse, which is something that we can't stand. Men that want to put their hands on women. Any man that wants to abuse a woman is a piece of shit in my eyes.
BB:"Pills" is about being frustrated with yourself and was written from being on the road for such a long time with a bunch of guys everyday. After awhile, everyone gets on everyone's nerves and eventually you find your own way to escape here and there. Some people have different ways to go about that.

NP: Bobby, you did the vocals on "Pills" correct?
BB: Yeah, I did the versus and Jay did the choruses.
NP: How did that come about? Did you just want to try something new?
BB: When we made the record, this was the one we wanted to make. No holds barred. It doesn't matter who does what and in "My girl" Jay sings the versus and I sing the choruses. So it's like, a little more artistic.

NP: What is "Texas" about? I know some of the lyrics where it says, take me back to Texas(Bobby and Jason both laugh) Is that where you guys are originally from?
BB: No, it's just where we like to go.
Jason: Texas is world known for their strip clubs.
NP: I got ya.
Jason: I guess they put something in the water down there because it doesn't get any better than Texas.

NP: Right on, I just got a couple more quick questions. How is the Fear Factory tour been going so far?
BB: Fucking killer! The tour is winding down now and we have about 3 shows left and then we are done and moving onto bigger and better things.

NP: Speaking of that, do you guys have plans after this?
BB: We are going to headline a couple weeks and we are going to take Dry Kill Logic out with us.
NP: Anybody else?
BB: We are thinking about adding "40 Below Summer" for a couple of shows and maybe "No One." Just bands that are really cool.

NP: All right, very cool indeed. Last question that I have to ask about is your tour bus blowing up/catching fire?
BB: Thank God!!!!
NP: Reading in your daily journal, i could tell you guys weren't very fond of that bus.
BB: It wasn't our favorite thing, but we were ready to throw a party the night it blew up and caught fire. Oh we were happy! Everyone was jumping up and down and screaming and we were like let the fucking thing burn dude, don't put it out. Just let it go, just let it go.
Jason: If they put it out, they might be able to save it.
BB:I'll buy more shit tomorrow, I don't care, you know what I mean. Nobody was hurt.

NP: Any last words or anything I didn't talk about?
BB:Check out the website. Fucking buy the new record when it comes out, be one of the first ones so you get the free song that is on the first 50,000 copies. Check it out, I hope you dig it and come out and support us at the shows.

Interview by: T-Bone