Just when this whole flaccid business of "Nu-Metal" and "Rap-Rock" seems to be winding down here comes a new crop of bands looking to sponge up what gravy still slops over that musical plate's edge. Unjustly lumped in with this last round of boardroom bred bands is PRESSURE 4-5 who have already begun to set themselves far apart from the pack.

Though they will carry the "Nu-Metal" tag for a while PRESSURE 4-5 dive fathoms deeper on each track of their "BURNING THE PROCESS," disc than any of these "Yo-Dog" clowns ruining Hard-Rock music could on an entire release. Not only can P4-5 take your mind deep they manage some soul doctoring and ass kicking as well, this being best evidenced by their radio/MTV infiltration via the single "Beat the World." No, not Metal but you won't hear a DJ scratching or a rapper rapping which makes P 4-5 infinitely harder than the competition and a welcome alternative to LINKIN PARK.

Having caught the California quintet set up, knock down and wipe out an initially skeptical Ozz-Fest audience this past summer I jumped at the chance to sit and speak with vocalist Adam Rich about where P 4-5 are coming from and where it is they hope to go.

DAVID LEE: You guys have been kickin' around on tour for a while now, through Ozz-Fest and more but it is only now that you seem to be getting some wider attention?
ADAM RICH: "Yeah, Ozz-Fest was such a great experience for us. Being a new band, I just can't think of a better way to get your name out to all of the Hard-Rock crowd than playing with twenty of the biggest Hard-Rock bands in the world.(laughs) We are just huge fans of all of these bands to start with, like PAPA ROACH and TAPROOT and all of those bands. We never thought that we would get to be on that level but to be on tour with them is just something else. We got to be friends with them and sort of learn a lot from all of these bands just by watching them every day. It was really a big deal for us as musicians and performers. That was our first major tour and we got a chance to play in front of like 5000 people every day so it was like a Rock and Roll boot camp for us really, we learned a lot and made a lot of good friends."

Its like paid schooling then?
"Well, not paid but. . ."

Yeah, but the benefits would seems to be worth the investment?
"Oh, yeah. I hope we get a chance to do it next year."

Where you not signed at the time you got booked to do Ozz-Fest?
"Actually, we got signed in November of 2000 with Dreamworks which is the most amazing label. We have friends on other labels and though we are not selling millions of records, yet, they treat us with tons of respect and give us some very good guidance. The y are really artist friendly and they ask us what we want to do and then they gives us tips on how to do it right so it is a really unique experience and they don't sign a million bands a year and see which one hits and then dump all the other ones, they sign fifteen or twenty bands a year and then really work on developing them. The classic example of this is a band called THE EELS, I mean, they haven't had a hit since their first album but they have done three more because Dreamworks supports them and believes in what they do and I don't think that they have ever dropped a band."

ROLLINS.
"Yeah, but that was their (ROLLINS) decision. That was another cool thing actually, they gave ROLLINS that choice. They could have been like, "Nope, you are staying with us" or "Nope, you are leaving" but Dreamworks is just a really cool label that seems to do things differently."

That is definitely cool that you have found a happy home with those guys, I do know that there were others on Ozz-Fest that kind of dug what you guys are doing, in fact it was at the insistence of Elias Soriano of NONPOINT that I made it a point to see your set. It must be encouraging to have other bands turning people your way?
"That is so cool! He is a really good friend of mine but it is so cool that he would do that. Those guys were one of the bands that we really hung with a lot on Ozz-Fest."

Well, after all of that you did manage to actually put out a record, do you want to talk about that a little?
"Absolutely! It is called "BURNING THE PROCESS" and it came out October 2nd of last year. It is, we wanted to make a record that reflected our love of Hard-Rock music and it is sort of Metal though we don't really describe ourselves as Metal. I think that we are a bit more Hard-Core than Metal really, like New York style Hard-Core that is. We have a lot of people say that they hear a lot of things like HELMUT and QUICKSAND so we are not so much Metal as we are a Heavy Rock band. Lyrically we tried to just not be the same as a lot of the other crap that is out there right now. There are so many Hard-Rock bands and so many of these "Nu-Metal" bands out there that lyrically are just screaming or chanting these Rap catch phrases that have no meaning to them. I wanted to write some lyrics that had some meaning to them, lyrics that were meaningful to me and hopefully people can take something from that. Also, we wanted to distance ourselves from the almost dead Rap-Metal scene. Personally, I think that stuff is all fading out but we wanted to definitely distance ourselves from that and there is no Rapping going on here. We are all about writing new Heavy-Rock music and trying to do our own thing with that."

I would certainly agree with the assertion, hell I rejoice, that the whole Rap/Rock thing is tapering off. Kid Rock's record is a relative dud and LIMP BIZKIT is kaput so maybe it is time for some real Rock music again? Should we hope?
"That kind of says it all for the Rap/Metal thing, doesn't it? I think it is headed down and that is a good thing because I think that there is a side of Rap that is just not very creative and it is that side where it is like, "Who can come up with the next hip catch phrase" and there is nothing meaningful there, no lyrical content. Bands like INCUBUS and HOOBASTANK and STAIND who actually have something to say, I guess I hope that the music kind of goes in that direction."

With all of that said you have been on some tours with those kinds of bands, sadly the Ozz-Fest had a lot of that on it.
"Yeah, in fact, we just finished a tour with ALIEN ANT FARM and that was sort of that scene and they were playing larger halls, 2000 seats, and ALIEN ANT FARM are a really cool bunch of guys and they were open to whatever it was that we wanted to do. It was like, they don't have a huge stage production and we were not like over in the corner having to play our set and we did what we needed to do but I think that it is really important that you make friends with different bands because you never know who is going to be huge and if you make friends with as many bands as you can then you never know, one of them might take you out on a great tour with them. That is kind of what happened with HOOBASTANK actually. We did our first tour, after we finished our record, with them in June, right before Ozz-Fest and we were out with them for about three weeks and it was a really shitty tour. They were the first band, we were the second band and this band called CKY was the third band and we just played to nobody for three weeks and we just totally made really good friends with them and shared some good experiences and fun times and now they are selling twenty thousand records a week and they can say, "We want PRESSURE 4-5 to come out and tour with us" and they can get it done so being able to make those relationships with other bands really can pay off."

Have you noticed a lot of bands coming in and out of you general orbit? I mean, bands seem to come and go incredibly quickly these days, in months or less sometimes.
"I have not seen a lot of bands doing that because the scene that we are really in right now have a lot of the more established bands in it. As far as the Rap/Rock thing and us it is kind of like I think that LINKIN PARK is kind of like the last band that made it in there, you know? I really like LINKIN PARK and I think that they are a really great band but I think that they are the last vestiges of Rap/Metal. I think that they do stuff that is really cool with the music and there are not a lot of new bands that are coming out and doing that now. That genre has just kind of been tapped out and I think that what we might see is a lot of those bands just coming out with some straight forward Rock records and not trying to cross up the styles so much. It is a whole different thing to create something new than to borrow from a bunch of different styles and I know that is kind of a weird thing to say for us because it is not like we were the first band to ever pick up guitars but we just try to go in a slightly different direction."

Have you noticed more friends calling you to help their band out, friends that may have been in competing bands in your hometown?
"We have pretty much made friends with everyone that we have been out with unless someone is really rude or something. Nothing out of the ordinary really, I mean, we have always been cool to other bands and most have been cool to us. Whether you like another band's music or not you never know who is going to take you out on tour or who you are going to be friends with and that is just something that is important to us. I don't know that I have noticed anything really unusual like that. It is really cool that bands are talking good about us because it makes us feel like we are doing something special it is like, when TRL thinks that you are cool that is one thing but when actual musicians speak well of you that is a whole different thing. Musicians don't respect a lot of the stuff that is on TRL and a lot of musicians think that stuff on the radio is not good musically so when musicians say that they like us it obviously feels good."

When you finally got to the point of tracking this album did it all go down the way you wanted it and does the final product sound as you expected it would?
"We went in with Jay Baumgardner who is just a really great producer. I don't know if we will ever get a chance to work with him again because he is so busy but he does really know his stuff and his whole thing was that he would give us suggestions and if we liked 'em we could take 'em and if we didn't we didn't have to and he was not the kind of guy who would say, "It is my way or the highway." He knows how to get really good sounds and was a really great guy to work with and making this record with him really wasn't that difficult. We went in and we had like four weeks when we did the pre-production and we actually wrote like four songs in that period of time. He actually helped us cut the fat off of them here and there and we were able to just go in and make our record, which is another great thing about our record label, they allowed us to go and do that. People from the label would just come down and hang out with us and just listen to the songs and it was just like they wanted us to see that they were there for support."

Do they get you free passes to Disney?(laughs)
"(Laughing) we actually were to go through the Universal back lot and drive on those golf carts but it was raining the day we were supposed to go so we couldn't actually do it. ALIEN ANT FARM got to do it though and they told us all about it. I think we might be planning a secret trip back there someday just to do that! ALIEN ANT FARM would go around and mess with the people who were riding on the trams, you know, the tour trams, they are nuts!"

There was actually a PRESSURE 4-5 disc out before this one, wasn't there?
"Before this album we put out one six song EP and then we had two more EPs before that and we just sort of sold those on our own and did the whole indi thing. We had a shitty van and would play shows all over California and Arizona and we pretty much had a steady run on the club circuit in California for like two years. We built up a decent fan base there and eventually those demos got into the hands of the right people. Our whole school of thought from like about six months after we started the band when we sat down and had a really serious discussion was that everyone wanted this to be a serious effort and to make it happen for us and do this for a living and so we never looked back from that point on. We just worked hard and sacrificed and eventually got a record deal."

Did many of the songs that you had on those early demos get re-used for this record?
"The first EP that we put out, none of the songs from that one got put on this record but a few of the songs from the other demos and EPs made it on. We felt like our style had evolved so much from the point when we had made that first one that those songs really didn't belong on this new album. It was like, we had all of these new songs and we were just like, "Let's just use the new songs." We were trying to develop our sound and that is what we managed to do with the songs on this album, basically. I think that every band tries to mature their sound through their existence, you know? We didn't want to make the same record again and I think that maybe we will try and do the same thing on the next one too. That is a big goal for us, to never make the same record twice because you just get pidgin holed."

Nearly every new band that gives and interview likes to mention how they "are all brothers" and "we are all equal in this" but it rarely ever works out that way. Here is your chance to say the same but maybe explain why you think you are different from these other upstarts.
"It is pretty interesting the way that you ask that.(laughs) As far as a band, I think that we get along better than any band that I know. I know that I may be jinxing myself by saying that but we do just get along so well. There are no big personality disorders with us or anything. We have a thing where if anybody has anything to say you HAVE to talk about it. Everything is completely democratic in this band so far and that is the way that we would like to keep it. The songwriting process is reflective of that as well, it is all democratic and we all have a say. I think that in bands where there is one person that is writing all the music, well then roles and boundaries start to be drawn between band members. It is like, "Oh he is the songwriter and he gets all of the publishing money so. . ." and it just becomes like a battle and that is when other bad things happen. It is all when bands start to create boundaries but we have survived the last six months of touring in a van so we have been closer than any band that you could imagine and there have been no fights and everyone is still doing good but we do have our "down" times but then again we have our "up" times, all bands do. As far as I can see there are no problems with people in our band as far as the relationships go anyway."

So if somebody uses your toothbrush you will be able to deal, right?(laughs)
"(Laughing) Oh Man! "Don't touch my socks!""

Or underwear!(laughs)
"No way man, that stuff is sanctified on the road."

What about relationships outside of the band? Girlfriends and such?
"Yeah, some of the guys have girlfriends and it is tough to be away from the people who you are close to but the people who are family members and girlfriends, they really seem to support us one hundred percent and they understand that we are trying to accomplish something with this band. I mean, this is a unique experience for everybody and they are such a big part of your life that they are all having fun too so we get nothing but support. It is taxing on a relationship to be gone all of the time so sometimes you just have to fly them out and be with them for a few weeks to keep it all together."

Now, especially with all of this Internet technology, it is hard to enjoy, lets call them "distractions," on the road because within two hours of leaving some chick you met in Dallas she has a full report posted on a dozen websites letting everyone know how long it is, (laughs), or not! So, that has to be a killer for road testing relationships?
"Man, the message boards have been like death for us!(laughs) The message board is the worst because people that you just meet while you are hanging out or signing stuff will go on the web site and say, "Oh, so and so is so sexy" and things like that and the girlfriends are like "What is this!" and we are like, "What? I just talked to this person!"(laughs)"