Chris Kosnik
(Black Nasa / The Atomic Bitchwax)
06/05/2004
Guitar madness über alles. Yesterday
night at the Sojo was again one of those nights that just couldn’t
go wrong. The Atomic Bitchwax had made quite an impression in July of
2003 and now they were back, with the same rhythm section (Chris Kosnik
– bass/vocals, Keith Ackerman – drums), but without
guitar wizard Ed Mundell, whose busy schedule with Monster Magnet resulted
in him being replaced by Finn Ryan (ex-Core). Even though the guy had
only been part of the band for two months, he’d prove to be a
first-class replacement. On top of that, Kosnik’s other band Black
Nasa toured to support its new album (Deuce – released
on Meteor City), so it should be an interesting night. After the shows,
I got to talk to Chief Kosnik, who proved to be an extremely mellow
guy, willing to share his thoughts on the new Bitchwax, housepainting
and future goals. Here’s the transcription:
… OK, I’m talking to Mr. Kosnik of Bitchwax and Black Nasa…
lemme see… well, the first question I was going to ask you is
about you playing 28 gigs in a month. How the hell can you do it, isn’t
it insanely intense?
Well, since Christmas I’ve been rehearsing with
both bands every night of the week, so I kinda like built up a stamina
I guess, you know, so technically I’ve been already doing it with
both bands for at least four or five months already. This was the real
test, though, to see if I could do it back to back every night…
How many gigs did you do with both bands?
Uh, I think we did… Black Nasa came halfway through the Bitchwax
tour, so I did fifteen shows with Black Nasa and Bitchwax.
That’s 30 gigs in two weeks!
Yeah, yeah it’s crazy, but you know, it helps
that in Bitchwax the new guitar player – Finn – sings half
of the songs and then I sing the other half and everything that’s
left over is instrumentals. So, I end up really only singing four songs
with Bitchwax, you know what I mean? And he sings four and we do four
instrumentals…
Yeah you played twelve songs with Bitchwax tonight.
Yeah and that’s pretty much how it gets done.
Playing that long isn’t that hard, it’s singing that long
that’s the hard part, you know.
I had been wondering who the hell you were
going to find to replace Mundell and somebody actually told me that
the new player seemed much more at ease than four weeks ago in Holland.
Was that his first gig with Bitchwax?
Actually his very first show we played in CBGB’s,
opening for Orange Goblin a week before this tour started… and
that was Finn’s first show. The funny thing is, that during the
set Ed showed up with all the guys from Monster Magnet, they came to
see us. But we didn’t know that he was there and, you know, it
didn’t matter to me, but I was worried about Finn. Him and Ed
have been friends for a long time but they hadn’t talked since
Finn’s been in the band. So, after we got playing, we were in
the backstage and someone came back there and said “Hey, Ed’s
out in the front” and it was like “Wow, that’s
so weird” because they were just on tour here and had gotten
home that night that we were playing CBGB’s and, you know, went
up to the city and came to see the show. That was a weird night.
What made you decide to hire Finn in the first place? Was it
Mundell’s busy schedule?
 Well,
yeah, that’s what it really came down to… Our booking agent
here in Europe already cancelled... the tour that we just finished just
now, already got cancelled twice. Like, it was supposed to happen last
October and Ed had to cancel it for Magnet, and then he rebooked it
for January and cancelled it for Magnet again. Then the booking agent
was just like “Look, I’m gonna book it one more time
and if you guys cancel it, that’s it, you’re done”,
you know, and Keith and I were just like “Look Ed, we wanna
go do this thing and you being in Magnet that’s great for you,
but you’re killing us at the same time”. So we asked
Finn, he’s from the same area, he lives down the street and he’s
made a name for himself too. He has two records out, one’s on
Atlantic…
Solo albums?
No, he had a band called Core and uh, one of those
albums came out on Atlantic and the other one on Teepee Records, the
same label as Bitchwax. So, he was already known and very accomplished
and so I said to Ed “We’re gonna do it and if you wanna
come, you can come and if you can’t come, we’re going without
you.” That’s all there is to it.
And how does he think about it now?
It’s kind of a weird thing, because we’re such good friends…
[interruption]
So, Core broke up a couple of years ago, and we live
in an area where there’s like… there’s Bitchwax and
Solace and Halfway to Gone, Solarized, Monster Magnet, … we all
live like within ten miles of each other.
All in Jersey?
No, no, it’s a really small area, and we’ve
all known each other for ten, fifteen years and everybody’s been
in each other’s bands, you know what I mean? And so, it just made
sense, you know, if Ed couldn’t do it and Finn was a local guy
who’s really good and he learned a couple of songs and came to
practise with Keith and I. We were like “Wow, this looks like
it could work”, so we worked up a set and I called up Henk,
our booking agent up here in Holland and I said “Look, Ed’s
not gonna be on the tour, but we got something here, so if you wanna
do it, we’ll come and do it as well” and he was all
for it, so we came… Right at that time, I also had my own band,
Black Nasa, and Meteor City just put out a record [Deuce]… so
it was like “How about having Black Nasa to open for Bitchwax?”
They were all like “Yeah man, let’s go, let’s
make a big thing!” We’re all friends, so everybody
packed up for this big trip to Europe to do this big thing and it’s
been a blast…
I can imagine that.
I’m bummed out now, I gotta go back to work, you know.
Do you have a regular day job?
Yeah, I’m a housepainter
 Really?
Yeah, I’ve been doing it for fifteen years, painting
houses and everything. It’s good work, it’s honest work,
you know, and the money’s good. And you look at it like, you can
stop and you can go on tour for a while and come back, but the houses
aren’t going anywhere, so there’s always gonna be work…
I thought that tonight, Finn really did a great job. And I
was kinda surprised as well, because on the Atomic
Bitchwax website, there’s a quote from you from when the band
split-up for a while in 2002: “it just wouldn’t be the same
[without Ed Mundell].”
Yeah, I did say that, but at that time, I hadn’t played with
Finn yet…
It’s cool that you found someone who
fills up the gap really well and he did a great job tonight. Now, about
the early days… you started Bitchwax at the end of ’92 or
’93… Did you already play music like this back then, because
in the early 90’s, there weren’t that many bands like you
around, and if you look at it now, the whole style and approach have
become popular again…
Absolutely, when we were playing back then, we were
on our way to developing this.  We
started off playing just like this, just trying to play as crazy as
possible. At the time, grunge was so huge, you know what I mean, and
none of us wanted to play it and we were like “Wait, what
happened to all the riffs and stuff… anyone remember Judas Priest?
Did everybody forget?” you know, and at the time, Ed wasn’t
even in Monster Magnet, that was the whole thing.
Right after Spine of God?
We were playing together before Ed got into Monster
Magnet. So that’s the whole thing that was bothering me. Bitchwax
was called “Ed’s side band”, but hey, WE
were his band before he joined Magnet. If anything, Magnet was his side
band, but they just got big. So, it is what it is.
It’s an obvious question I guess, but
what were the main influences back then? Classic power trios like Cream
or stuff like AC/DC or…
Well, it wouldn’t be fair to pick just one thing,
it’s a mix of a lot of things. Like you say, it’s an obvious
question and I think the best answer is the obvious one as well. So
yeah, it is those things and we just try to update it a little bit,
modernize it a little bit, without, like, deviating from what is was
intended to be in the first place. It’s kinda funny, we sorta
made a joke about it, we purposely overplay, you know what
I mean.
Yeah… Bitchwax is very much a jamming
thing, while Black Nasa almost seems like the opposite of that. It’s
not that there’s no room for jamming, but the songs sound way
more concise and structured…
Yeah, and that was the idea behind it. Every time that
Ed went away, Bitchwax had to stop… and I was like “Man,
I don’t wanna stop playing every fucking time,” like
he’d go away for like six months at a shot and I’d be sitting
around, you know…
Doin’ nothing…
Doin’ nothing, indeed, so I started another band.
I immediately said “I can’t make another Bitchwax,”
that wouldn’t be right and everybody would accuse me of a making
a watered-down version of it or something, so I was just like…
“You know, I’m still gonna play rock, but instead I’m
gonna do it real straightforward. I’m not gonna go into the pop
realm, but I guess I try to touch upon it a little bit…”
 Yeah,
several of the Black Nasa-songs are really catchy with big-ass choruses!
Well, another part of it is… I know you’re
gonna laugh, but, you know, like 80% of our crowd is guys. You know,
Bitchwax. Maybe even 90%. And so I went like “I wanna make
a band that everybody can get into, so that girls wanna come and guys
wanna come,” and uh…
… not as “offensive” maybe?
Yeah, just like “Oh, wow, this is groovy,”
because a lot of girls who come to Bitchwax are like “What
the fuck is this?,” and [imitates hammering technique]
and all the busy stuff. I know guys appreciate it for what it is,
but a lot of chicks don’t get it. Oh some do, I guess that wasn’t
fair to say they all do, so yeah, I wanted a band that plays rock and
throw in a couple of choruses in there, or make it about heartbreak,
that’s the best thing to do. Actually, all the Bitchwax-songs
are about that too. Every single song in Bitchwax or Black Nasa is about
“the girl that dumped me.” You gotta write about what you
know! [laughs]
Yeah, maybe the main difference is that Bitchwax
is heartbreak-stuff seen through the eyes of AC/DC.
Yeah!
Haven’t you ever felt the need to play in a quartet instead
of a trio?
Well, we tried doin’ a…. before this tour,
we had another guitar player in Black Nasa, this guy Shane Green, he
used to be in a band called Nudeswirl, they were on Mega Force. He did
really good for himself years ago, he had two videos on MTV and he’s
another guy that lives in the neighborhood. So he learned our set and
wanted to play a couple shows up in the city and in Boston and Philly
and try something out, but it just wasn’t workin’. I think
the trio format is, you know, it’s so much easier. But there’s
still this other guy, Jim LaPointe, he plays in a band called Shovelhead
in Jersey. He really liked Black Nasa’s new record, so he plays
the lead on two of the songs on the record and I gave him a writing
credit. So, when we get back, we’re gonna start rehearsing with
another guitar player for Black Nasa again and then we have an American
tour for September and we’ll have an American tour for Bitchwax
in August, so it’s gonna be like jumping from one to the other…
and then, Nebula asked me to play bass in Japan for them in December,
so I might go do that. There’s so much goin’ on, and we’re
gonna record a new Bitchwax record and I gotta get around to write some
more…
Yeah it’s been a while since Spit Blood…
Yeah and that wasn’t even really a record, that was more like
a, uh…
Only seven songs…
Yeah, but it had covers and demo-stuff on it.
And some cool video footage.
One song was a thing I wrote on my computer. Like I
went to practise and I sampled Keith playing drums and Ed playing guitar
and went home and wrote a song without anybody writing it, you know,
like one of those dance music programs. I figured, they can write all
this dance music, so I wanted to see what you could do with riffs and
drum beats and make a rock song. It’s the song “Spit Blood,”
it’s all done on the computer and none of us ever played it together.
Are there any definite plans to record a new album, this year
or…
Yeah. We played two of the new songs tonight and then we have another
three that are halfway done and then we’re gonna record in November,
so between now and November, every time we demo something, I’m
gonna put it on the website, so by the time November rolls around, you
can have the new record in demo-form, and we’re gonna record it
and let it come out in, say, February or something like that.
You don’t think that people will just download the songs
and not buy the album?
Nah, you know, what I’ll do is, I’ll put
up another two and take off the previous ones, you know what I mean?
Yeah. You just released a new Black Nasa album…
I haven’t heard it yet, is it any different from the debut album?
 Yeah,
it’s definitely different in the sense that there’s almost
no jamming. Now it’s just straight-up rock, real tight, real short,
kinda like late 70’s FM radio, you know.
That’s already a bit the case on the first album.
Yeah, but now it’s really like that, but I think
it’s really good and everybody that’s heard it tells me
it’s ten times better than the first record.
Yeah, I read some reviews on the internet and
most of ‘em also confirm that it tops the debut, so…
Well that’s good, so we’re heading forward.
I also read that you did something with RUN DMC-material…
uh Chris, what the fuck?
No, no, no! On the American version of Deuce,
the very last song, it was supposed to be a hidden track too, it wasn’t
even supposed to be like on the record, but Corey [Stubblefield]
our drummer, whenever we play a show and someone breaks a string or
something goes wrong, Corey starts playing drums and he’ll be
yelling a RUN D.M.C.-rap, like “You Be Illin’,” you
know, while you’re fixing whatever, so we figured “let’s
put it on the record.” So we recorded it and it’s at
the very end of the record and it’s only like a minute long. It
was supposed to be a joke and the European label – Alone - didn’t
wanna put it on there, so the European version doesn’t have it.
Oh shit.
Yeah.
Is it also him who yells the “Holy crap!”
at the beginning of the first album?
Yeah that’s Corey.
That always cracks me up… OK, a few more
short questions… Is there a difference between a European and
an American audience? 
I think they’re very, very similar, but it’s
really weird, because hip hop and techno are really huge right now and
the Europeans seem to be able to break it up a little more. Like, many
people in the States, if they like techno, they hate rock, while many
people who like dance music here, still like rock, they like everything.
People are a bit more close-minded in the States, I think, it’s
a bit more segregated, you either like rock or you don’t.
Lots of American bands seem amazed by the diversity
that festivals around here offer, with pop and metal bands, dance acts,
etc… Isn’t that common in the States as well?
In like New York and stuff, I guess it is, but where
I’m from, not really, no… and that’s only fifty miles
away from New York. But it’s almost like four or five cultures
away from New York. It’s so weird, the way it works. I live in
south Jersey on the beach, it’s a little beach town, it’s
real quiet, it’s only about eight blocks, I know the police, I
open up the door and there’s the ocean. The city’s crazy
and I like it, but I couldn’t live there.
If you had the chance to choose between playing
ten gigs a year and earn a lot of money or play one hundred gigs a year
and just make a living, what would it be?
Well, I’m already doing the other one, so…[laughs]
I could’ve anticipated that!
It’s kinda working out, though. I get by, I sell
some T-shirts, I sell some CD’s, I got a couple of bucks in my
pocket when I go home and I can pay the rent. Plus I’m a housepainter,
so I save up my money for the next tour and that’s how it goes.
I would like things to get bigger, but I’m not gonna kill myself
if it doesn’t.
 OK,
I’m through my questions… unless you wanna add anything?
Everybody always asks me to add something, but I have nothing! [laughs]
Do you remember what happened on July 17th, 2003?
[2 seconds of silence] Did I play here?
Yeah you did.
Oh, okay.
That gig has already become a local legend
and I guess this night’s probably coming pretty close.
Cool man.
[At this point the photographer – Nancy Puyn
- adds that the gig was by far the best of the three she’d seen
the past month, the first one being at the Effenaar in Holland.]
That show sucked! It was the very first show…
and all the gear we’re playing on, it’s all rented, so it
was the first time any of use played on those amps or drums. It’s
like going on a stage and playing on somebody else’s amps. We
played OK, but it was still kinda messy and we really got it together
now. As soon as we get home, we have a show there, so now I can’t
wait to play again. Everybody’s playing real good, so we’re
looking forward to the hometown show, it’s gonna be great.
If the sound’s gonna be as good as tonight,
it can’t go wrong, because it really adds a little extra…
Yeah, and there are good people here running it. Everything
is so mellow… Benny and Sara [organizers and main players
of the Orange Factory gang]
are fucking awesome. Benny’s even letting us crash at his house
tonight.
I guess this was the last date of the tour… when are
you going back to the US? 
We’re leaving in the morning and then go to Den
Helder [the Netherlands] tomorrow and we’re gonna have
a party there and then, you know, whatever is left of me, the tour manager
is gotta get me to the airport in Amsterdam and then we’re going
home. I’m gonna sleep for a week.
And paint houses.
Yeah, but first I’m gonna take a couple of days off.
Right on! That’s about it, thanks for your time man!
Thanks, bro.
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