Interviews: Sugar Virus
1. SUGAR VIRUS originally began in 1992 as The Fiends. When you look back at that first incarnation of the band, what part of that young band's attitude is still alive in SUGAR VIRUS today?
Jason Virus: It's a question I get a lot. I've written 100s of songs since 1990, and it's more or less just an evolution of the sound and music itself. We started out as a basic punk band; all we really knew how to do was play basic punk rock and hope for the best. Self-taught high school kids who enjoyed the scene and loved being involved in something that was ours. The music is still the same energy, but I get bored easily, so we pushed ourselves to do better...be better. We are pushing our ideas and tones into new areas with our recent albums. My voice has grown over the years, and our musical taste evolves over time.
2. Three decades is an extraordinary amount of time for an underground band. What has kept you coming back to SUGAR VIRUS when you could have easily walked away from it?
Jason Virus: When you have that passion, and you know you can still do what makes you happy, you just don't give up or give in. We have a large underground fan base, and we have fans from all over the world that keep me fired up and motivated. It's therapy without the bill.
3. How did The Fiends eventually become SUGAR VIRUS, and was that change simply a new name or the beginning of a completely different artistic identity?
Jason Virus: We had no intention of ever changing the band name from "THE FIENDS" to something else, but we didn't own the copyright to the band name and could not acquire the name legally. We struggled with an identity around 1997 and since one of our popular songs, "SUGAR VIRUS" was unique and a few people liked the song, my brother who was playing bass for me at the time just kind of said it out loud, Why don't we just call the band "SUGAR VIRUS", and get back to writing songs? We almost named the band "SKULL CANDY".
4. Your music sits somewhere between horror punk, doom, Southern metal and raw rock'n'roll. Did you ever feel pressure to choose one scene or genre, or was refusing to fit neatly into one category always part of the band's identity?
Jason Virus: It's a very thin line to walk sometimes. We can hold our own against damn near any band out there. Horror Punk is easy; it's just a simple finger snap groove, a bit of horror with a light hardcore vibe. Doom and Southern Metal are sludgy; just drop everything and find a steady groove. Putting everything together and not playing the same songs over and over again, that's the real challenge. We have an advantage over most bands because we can cater to multiple audiences all at once. A mixed crowd with multiple music tastes will find songs they love from us. We have no problem playing different styles of music all in one show and still sounding like one individual band.
5. There is something very Southern about the atmosphere of SUGAR VIRUS, but also something deeply influenced by classic horror and underground punk. How much does Georgia itself find its way into your music?
Jason Virus: I grew up in Macon, GA, just up the road from where the Allman Brothers lived. I never went the Southern rock route growing up. I was a metalhead and hung around the very "few" metalheads and punk kids in our town back in the late 80s. But somewhere while we were evolving this sound, we were tapping into our surroundings, and things would sometimes just start bleeding into the music. We cut our first demo tapes at Phenix Sound Studios where Capricorn Records recorded the Allman Brothers. I was just a kid in a studio with all this history around me and really had no idea where I was at that time. Later in life, you start embracing it, and if it feels right, that sound starts becoming part of your sound.
6. Your voice has been compared to figures as different as Elvis Presley, Glenn Danzig and Billy Milano. Which vocal influences actually shaped you, and how did you eventually turn those influences into something unmistakably your own?
Jason Virus: Listening to a shit ton of tapes as a kid and screaming the songs to the top of my lungs. Lots of SAMHAIN, Minor Threat, M.O.D., The Doors, Elvis, and of course DANZIG. We had fun playing Misfits covers when we were in high school and eventually just started writing our own stuff.
7. You've released 11 independent records over the years. Has your definition of what makes a “good song” changed as much as your sound has?
Jason Virus: I'm still waiting for that "good song", we have tons of "cool songs", maybe a good song somewhere in the mix. I have a few "killer tracks" that will be on the next album. My only goal now is to make sure every album moving forward is better than the last album.
8. SUGAR VIRUS has always operated outside the mainstream music machine. After more than 30 years, do you still see independence as a necessity, or has it become an artistic choice you wouldn't give up?
Jason Virus: I couldn't imagine giving up our creative freedom for money. We only struggle with our visual appearance. We can stay underground and write killer tunes until we are dead, but our image can be confusing to mainstream consumers. We book shows in venues that we have been playing since the 90s and still have to prove ourselves because there is always a new 20-year-old kid booking shows who has zero music background or history of the art and doesn't listen to real music. We live in a sea of untalented "Hardcore" bands and mediocre metal acts that all sound the same.
9. You wrote, produced, engineered, mixed and mastered Kill the Messenger yourself. What have you learned about your own music by having complete control over every stage of the recording process?
Jason Virus: I just needed the freedom to work at my own pace. I made mistakes working on this album, but I kind of like the mistakes that were made. This is a learning experience, and everything after this album is going to be epic. To sit alone in a room after everything is finished, with just your thoughts, to learn how to "master" an album in real time and question everything you are doing was thrilling and scary as hell. I loved it.
10. Is there also a danger in having nobody in the room to tell you that an idea isn't working? How do you know when a song is finished?
Jason Virus: I love this question...you lay everything down then walk away. Come back from time to time and see if what you wrote yesterday is as good after listening to it for the second or third or fourth time. If you come back to a song and it's not good, you will self-correct 2nd or third time out. The danger is taking advice from others who don't feel what you are feeling in that moment. It is easy to push someone "out" of a creative moment.
11. The band's horror imagery is deliberately dark, but there is also a twisted sense of fun in what SUGAR VIRUS does. How important is humor or absurdity when you're dealing with horror?
Jason Virus: We are not here to change the world. I enjoy old horror films and love a good laugh. Our music is fun and sometimes dark. There is no wheel being reinvented here; we just want to get out there and have fun while entertaining our friends.
12. Has the meaning of “horror” changed for you over the course of your career? What frightened or disturbed you at the beginning of SUGAR VIRUS that no longer has the same impact today?
Jason Virus: I could go on and on about the classics that we were raised on, from Evil Dead to Dead Alive...Fulci films. Horror films are more thriller films today. The old slasher films we grew up on, everything seems to have been done now. Now it's just more shock with over-the-top gore and blood. I lean more towards the horror comedies.
13. You've survived several generations of music trends without abandoning the band's basic identity. What changes in the music industry have been hardest for an underground band to adapt to—and which ones have actually helped you?
Jason Virus: This new "HARDCORE" trend is horrendous. Thousands of grown men and young men playing the same stuff, How many bands on the same stage tonight will be playing the exact same breakdown? I'm smiling as I type this because these are also the bands that will help bands like us once the trend dies out and the world is ready for real music again.
14. With a new lineup around you, how much of SUGAR VIRUS is still built around your original vision, and how much has become something collectively owned by the current members?
Jason Virus: I'd like to think everyone contributes and helps the music progress to the next level. I lay down the blueprint and structure of these songs, and everyone else chimes in with ideas. If it's not crummy, we write the song together. I play everything except drums and leads, so it's always a group effort no matter who the current lineup is.
15. After more than 30 years, what would still have to happen for you to feel that SUGAR VIRUS has reached a completely new chapter rather than simply releasing another record?
Jason Virus: It all comes down to how much fun I'm having. If this starts feeling more like a job instead of a passion project, I'd probably walk away.
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