Human Waste Project

Human Waste Project is one of those bands lost in a sea of mediocrity and hype. They signed to Hollywood Records hoping for some support due to some major label muscle, advertising dollars and the power of the Disney Corporation. The release of e-lux, their debut, was delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed. The band was noncommittal about the problems and they blamed problems on politics and the ICP (Insane Clown Posse) controversy. I state bullshit. Human Waste Project didn’t, and hasn’t, received the slightest bit of support from their label. At this point in time, two months after the interview took place, I view them as suckers for a tax writeoff. Their publicist could barely manage to fax a brief biography, let alone a copy of the CD and in spite of the support at the local level for their tours, label support is completely missing.

I talked to the entire group one afternoon just after they completed a soundcheck at Liquid Joe’s. Jeff Schartoff (bass) answers the delay question: “I gotta be careful when I answer that one. They had some business, some political stuff that they were shifting around and we got caught up in a waiting game. They wanted to release it about three or four months after we recorded it, but all kinds of… without going into detail… just got in the way. We had to come up with a date that made sense then also, when ICP got dropped – or getting pulled, they didn’t get dropped, they got pulled. It didn’t set us back, but we got set back because they were already set back.” Believe it or not e-lux, originally titled electrolux, was recorded during September and October of 1996. The situation is not uncommon when the band is signed to a major label. 

Scott Ellis (drums) answers the name question: “What it means — this is from my perspective, when I came up with that quite a few years ago — it means, it’s like an observation, kind of the way I’m seeing the negative side of the world work. It’s also something that can creep into yourself, creating like a black hole. The name is kind of vague and it’s kind of like the end of the line.” Aimee Echo (vocals) adds, “Basically it’s the end of the world. Watch out baby, here it comes.” Aimee Ech is her given name.

Sugar Ray are friends of Human Waste Project. As I later learned, so is Korn. Now I know some readers are going to hold it against them, but don’t. How does Human Waste Project know Sugar Ray? 

Aimee: “Just from living in the same neighborhood and playing around. We all became really good friends and kept sticking together. There were a bunch of us who stuck together from those earlier days.” 

What does Aimee think of “Fly?” “I think it’s great,” she says. “More power to them. They’re the best part-rock band in the whole world.”

I asked Aimee why the label is taking so long to release the album? I believe I’ve had a copy of the advance for nearly five months and it was finally released last month. Aimee gave the same answer as Jedd, but she said the label was waiting to get the team together to promote the album. Team? Promotion? Gee, I haven’t encountered anyone working on the album. Well, there is one person, and thank God for her, but one person can’t do much.

How about the album’s name change? 

Aimee fields the question: “We hit a copyright infringement with the Hoover people. They said we couldn’t use their name. So we shortened it to e-lux. E lux in latin means ‘from out on the lake.’ It still holds the original meaning for us. Lux is Latin for light and electra is green star.” Aimee is highly intelligent. She reads constantly and she earned straight A’s in college. Theater and film were her majors and minor.

The time arrived for the band to explain the songs. 

“Disease” was first. “That’s basically about the music. How hard I had to fight for a lot of things. There was a lot of catty jealousy going on.” “Shine?” “Shine is relating to, I don’t know if you’d call it classical mythology, but it’s a Virgin Mary/Jesus Song. It’s that other take on it. The Last Temptation Of Christ is a take where he actually did have sex with Mary. Heavy stuff. It’s a Madonna-whore complex kind of thing.” Simply put it’s about a man who can’t deal with women on any level. The virgin shines a light too bright for him and the whore he turns to does exactly the same thing.

“Holy Me Down” was the final song I asked about. Jeff, Aimee, Mike Tempesta (guitar) and Scott jumped in. “I knew he’d ask that one.” “Sex and anger.” “Are you bitter?” “Do you have issues? Bring them to the group.” Here is a brief portion of the lyrics. “I crawl into wet pools of you / it’s home comfort — I could drown there — numb and quiet this urge to break down / I stay for you to hold me down / hold me down / I think I’m ready to give in / nearly broken / but it feels good.” “‘Hold Me Down’ is a little different than what it seems to be. It’s about a fucked up relationship. The person was saying, ‘you have to be with me, you have to be my girlfriend.’ It’s a commitment story. My fear of commitment to a T.” And I thought it was some sort of rape/sadomasochism song.

Last question. This question brings the entire thing together. The first song on the CD is “Graverobbers From Mars.” There are B-movie references in the biography. Were the Misfits an influence? 

“Oh yeah!” Aimee steps in. “Mike and Jess used to work for Danzig at his comic shop.” The band was very pleased that I had picked up on this. Congratulations were offered all around. Jeff talks about the job: “Our boss Ruthie was the coolest person. She ran the whole thing and then Glen would come in and do his Glen stuff, whatever in the hell he was doing. I got the job there and then I brought Mike in so we could get some extra money. Warehousing, shipping, making sure shit went where it was supposed to go. It was a cool job. All comic books. I love comic books. I used to collect them when I was a kid. Plus working with someone who was a big influence was kind of surreal.” 

Here’s Jedd commenting on the new Misfits: “I don’t want to talk shit on the band or anything like that, but without Glen, who is the Misfits, it doesn’t make any sense.” Maybe someday Human Waste Project will run into the new Misfits and the opinion will change because Jerry Only is sincere about what he’s doing and he works awfully hard doing it. I believe he was and still is an original Misfit.

Now for the record. As already mentioned “Graverobbers From Mars” begins the affair. Spooky organ and Echo’s screams are the perfect introduction to what follows. As “Disease” begins, Echo’s description of “catty jealousy” is ripped from her throat. She is a woman fronting what is essentially a heavy metal band. Go figure because Coal Chamber is another group of friends from the neighborhood. Echo writes the lyrics and she sings them as part vixen, part little vulnerable girl and mostly pissed off grown up woman. Sensuality and anger compete for the attention and all eyes are focused on the frontperson as the band rips through one tune after another. The music is devastating, but Echo’s vocals make the record. Sorry Jeff, Mike and Scott, but your star is Echo. “Shine” is the obvious hook-laden pick for an MTV video and airplay on whatever station is daring enough to play hard, melodic music. Echo has revealed that “Hold Me Down” is an anti-commitment song, but the way she sings it…well…no wonder the boyfriend wanted to own her. Except people aren’t possessions. “Electra” has Echo wishing upon a green star. She’s bleeding again and her use of little girl vulnerability makes me wonder why I didn’t ask about the song. I believe domestic violence is present, but not in Utah.

Call e-lux an album waiting for attention. It could become like that Drill thing I spent some time on, forgotten, relegated to obscurity and all of that. Women fronting the heavy rock bands appear to intimidate the mostly male governors of that side of the industry. If America doesn’t catch up, then Human Waste Project needs to take the tour to Europe where patriarchy isn’t so much of a factor. —Ervil “The Baron”

Read more interviews from the archives:
God Street Wine
Faith No More

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