IT STARTED WITH A PACT. Three young punk rockers named Scott Kelly, Dave Edwardson, and Jason Roeder were talking in the ramshackle Bay Area warehouse where they lived. They wrote the names of the bands they emulated on a wall, and pledged to keep their band together until a death in their make- shift family. While this might sound like the antics of any teenage musician, the trio kept their promise and went much further. The pledge marked the beginning of the band Neurosis. Neurosis started with the rudimentary Pain of Mind and quickly outgrew the hardcore scene. By the mid-’90s, they incorporated samples, keyboards, and stunning visuals with mammoth riffs. They only play special shows now but still record, most recently releasing Given to the Rising (2007). It’s been a sometimes-tough two-plus decade ride marked by enormous creativity and musical growth, as well as poverty, addiction, and touring that pushed the band to the breaking point. Throughout it all, the pact and a spirit of brotherhood kept the band going. Guitarist/vocalists Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till tell us the winding road of one of the most influential metal bands of the past two decades. 2 NEUROSIS2011 MARYLAND DEATH FEST 2011 MARYLAND DEATH FEST 3 passed through, like Fang and Crucifix, before we were there. We shared a room with Christ on Parade, Noah’s [Landis, keyboardist] first band. There were labels there, members of Short Dogs Grow… all of these mid-’80s punk bands who have gone on to do all kinds of things. We got to see how a label was run, and there were gigs there. Corrosion of Conformity’s Animosity lineup played there. The Melvins’ first Bay Area gig was there. The first time I heard Joy Division was there. Our whole world was there. We had or made everything we wanted there. The only thing we would leave to do is go to the liquor store or work at a silk screening shop. When I left, there was mold two feet up the walls and rats the size of your WE WANTED THE foot running around. Was there ever an actual meeting where you, Jason. and KEYBOARDS, AND WE Dave charted out what you wanted the band to do? SET OUT TO DISCOVER SK: Yes. We were sitting on the couch in December of 1985, before we played any music besides our previous bands. We were having a brain- storm. We already knew what we didn’t what to do. We sat there with a WHAT WAS NEXT. marker and wrote the names of the bands we wanted to emulate on the wall of my room. There was Black Flag, Joy Division, early Pink Floyd. At some point the same day, Jason looked at me, and Dave and said, “The only thing I want out of this is I want to do it until we’re dead. I want this to be our family. I never want to look back.” We made the commitment right BREAKTHROUGHS there. Anybody that came into the band needed to make that commitment. Souls at Zero (1992) was where Steve started to make a big Steve, Noah and Josh [Graham, visual artist] got that right away. Simon contribution. [McIlroy] and Adam [Kendall] were transitory guys in our history, but they were a part and contributed. There are just certain aspects of a band that BY JUSTIN M. NORTON SK: There was a real solidifying feeling that happened. Steve and I just aren’t cut out for everyone. We didn’t hand out a manual about what this totally clicked, and it created such a strong dynamic, and the twin guitar life demands. attack was so strong. It immediately jumped us to the point where we could start talking about keyboards and visuals, which we had considered since Your time in the warehouse was winding down around the time the beginning of the band. We thought about those things before the first your second album The Word As Law (1990) came out... note but had no concept of how to do it and no frame of reference. After we BEGINNINGS finished The Word as Law, the final three songs felt and sounded so limited. I was on my own from the time I was 15 until now. I really wanted a family SK: Actually, we were only there a few years. It was about the end of 1984 We wanted other things in there. We considered a third guitar but then and wanted to feel a part of something. That was the same for everybody in to 1987. My son was born in 1987. The situation with the landlord was hairy, How did you get interested in music? thought it would be a cop out. We wanted the keyboards, and we set out to Neurosis. I know that Jason [Roeder, drummer] and I connected that way and we thought we’d get burned out. So my first wife and I moved to a hor- discover what was next. and still do. We both came from disjointed backgrounds where we never felt rendous neighboood in West Oakland. Scott Kelly: Every three or four years, my family would move. I was born a connection. in Chicago, but I lived in Detroit and Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, and When I listen to that record, the main thing I think about is how young SVT: I went to the shows. I was friends with them. We talked a lot about San Diego before I was 12. I’ve always been pretty used to moving, and it’s we were. But I remember we were excited, that what we were doing was Steve Von Till: The first four Black Sabbath records, those changed my life. music. It seemed like we were in the same spot. I really dug what they were continued my whole life. I remember discovering music and having it start making us happy. We were finally getting stuff out through music. It was a doing. I thought the stuff I was carrying in my head and where their music to affect me on a deep level when I was young. I was nine and heard Deep complete, mind-releasing catharsis. When you formed Neurosis, did you have an inkling of what was pointing could work. But I never lived in the East Bay. The band started Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”. It was the first heavy thing I heard on the the band would become, or were you just happy to be part of when a few members of the band were spending a lot of time together in a radio. I tuned my ear to that. It was just a matter of getting big enough to SVT: I definitely felt more a part of the mix. I’d been following the guys, and the Bay Area punk scene? warehouse in Emeryville. That was the foundation of the group. It started in start playing, growing into your hands. My father had a guitar around, and we were friends. When I joined the band, most of The Word as Law was a real alternative living situation. But there was never any mythic commune he never played it. It was somewhat inspiring to me that he bought it but written. I added a little to it, a piece here and there. But I think our collec- SK: There was no inkling of where things were headed. We didn’t have an (laughs). never played it. I wanted to play it. tive vision started to come as we played new material together. We knew idea of where we’d be 10 years ago compared to now. But our commitment there was something outside of our grasp. We weren’t sure what it was or was there from the beginning… to do this band eternally. There was never By The Word As Law, were you feeling a desire to change I discovered primitive, visceral music when I was 13… hardcore and punk how to get there. any doubt. We were teenagers. I was 18, Jason was 15, Dave was 16. We musically? rock. It was so open and doable. You didn’t have to be a trained musician. were living in a squatter warehouse and working day jobs and playing music You just had to feel it and not give a shit. That was pretty easy for me and The Word as Law started the quest for Souls at Zero. We knew it was some- at night and pushing our boundaries and throwing ourselves into music and SK: For sure, although from the start the stated intention of the band was fit right into my personality (laughs). I played bass for a while in the first thing bigger than us. We knew it could be something as big as life itself. We the sounds we were creating. to grow. It just took us a long time to develop the skills to do it. That’s three bands I was in. I ended up in the Bay Area in 1984 and met Dave started the sonic quest together and branched out together with new ideas. what it came down to. It was matter of learning how to play better. After we [Edwardson, bassist]. We were just friends at first, and he had a band. It could have only been achieved by our fearlessness and our quest for the The place we lived was called the New Method Warehouse in Emeryville; it recorded Pain of Mind, we had a second guitarist, Chad Salter.