Jeff: You like London? Why?

Jared: Well, of course its only drawback is that it isn't filled with New Yorkers instead of Brits.

Meg: Actually, I would say the same about America. It would be great if it was filled with Londoners. It's just the economy [in London] that sucks. It's the people's attitude. People aren't as ambitious in London. Americans are really driven. Success is everything. And you really don't notice until you leave this country. You get somewhere else and you can [exhales loudly] relax. Finally. In this country, you're always pumped. And you don't notice it until you're away. I've been gone ten years and, when I came back, I was like: "Fuckin' hell! These Americans are uptight." Americans are so driven. Even when they're relaxed, they're not really relaxed. They've always got some kind of goal in mind.

Jeff: Exactly. And that's why we've got road rage and kids shooting up the schools. And everybody's pregnant, no matter what age you are.

Meg: Also, the other big problem with this family--sorry, this country--is it is very extremist. There wouldn't be so many people reacting so radically to the Left if there weren't so many people going so far to the Right. You get the super-duper really strict Fundamentalist Christian and you get the really, really left wing psychos and not a whole lot in the middle.

Meg: I've always found the Left in America to be a false Left anyway.

Jared: Well, in our generation definitely. In the 1940s and '50s, Gus Hall from the Communist Party was running for President. There was a definite radical intellectual Left and they were perceived as being so powerful that Hoover had them all blacklisted. That's the reason for the McCarthy witch hunts. They were very aggressive and outspoken. It's not something that you see in this country anymore. There's not a whole lot of effective response to the decisions and policies and actions of the Right. It's sad. We're going to have enforced prayer in school soon. We won't be able to smoke anywhere! Because people aren't vocal about it, they've become ghetto-ized.

Meg: I feel that the tobacco industry has the license to kill people basically. You're a tobacco company owner and you've got a pen and a piece of paper in front of you. And by that act, by signing that piece of paper, a thousand more people will die this year. If you don't sign that advertising budget, those thousand people won't die. As far as I'm concerned, there's a direct correlation between the act of your pen and the death of a person. [Laughs] But Jared and I differ on this point. He's sitting there, smoking.

Jeff: But you do think that advertising has anything to do with people smoking?

Meg: [Vehemently] Fuck yeah.

Jared: Absolutely. To a certain extent, it does, but it isn't the only factor. I think people are just as affected by pressure at school.

Meg: Well, if advertising didn't work, would the tobacco companies spend $25 million on advertising? Obviously it does something.

Mark: Everything we do is driven by advertising.

Meg: If we go out on tour and promote this album, our album will probably sell better. It works. Things like that work.

Mark: Slipknot sold 200,000 albums in three months, remember? [Click here to read eP's exclusive interview with Slipknot. --ed.]

Mark: Hang on. Are you going to buy the new Skinny Puppy Singles album? Even though you have every other album they've put out?

Jeff: Sure.

Mark: That's just a learned response to every other Skinny Puppy album. It's the same thing with cigarettes.

Jared: You're a junkie. You're hooked.

Meg: Move to a country where the advertising isn't as prolific as America. America overproduces and over-fucking-sells everything. Advertising is the main thing in this country. Selling is America. And you know why they have to sell so much? Because they produce so much. And consume so much.

Jeff: Most of the transaction is probably wasted in this country.

Meg: There's a lot of fucking energy wasted in this country. So much consumption.

Jared: We produce so many tons and tons and tons of garbage everyday. That's because there are so many god-damned people in this country, too. And it's all programmed obsolescence. We love to waste. It's completely coded into our DNA, into the way we function. It's very destructive. And we're also the reigning global empire at the moment. Look at the International Monetary Fund; they're using the American financial model to rebuild Korea and Thailand. They're trying to get the Chinese to wake up. The globe has been colonized by McDonald's. The globe. It's very scary. McDonald's...and Coca-Cola.

Mark: Speaking of stuff, what was it like to move from New York to London? How did you accomplish that?

Jared: I didn't. I've got all my stuff in storage up in East Harlem. I've got a full library--couple thousand books. Full CD library, couple thousand records, a bed, two t-shirts and a pair of pants.

Mark: That's all you need.

Jared: Hey, I've got my priorities straight. Moving for me--period--is a nightmare because I've got this carapace of culture that I carry around with me. It's extremely frustrating. I haven't brought it all with me to London. I'm going to have to get a container to bring it all over.

Mark: Do you miss it? Have you realized you don't need it?

Jared: It's very dance-oriented. Very boring.

Meg: I think there's a big difference in approach to music between the two right now. The English are very cerebral while the Americans are physical. Comes from the pioneering spirit. The English have to have a cup of tea and sit down and talk about everything and discuss everything. The English are more polite, more cooperative. The Americans...when they approach a project everybody sort of bangs heads together. The English are much more like, "You first. No, you first." But I kind of like the way the English work out music. Very sort of polite with each other. "What's your idea?" Whereas American bands, whoever is the loudest--the biggest bully--takes over. The English are more proper, more polite. But, on the other hand, it is more fun to be in an American band because it is more fun to be selfish in a sort of way, to go "Rrrrrarr!" and get in a fight. [Laughs]

Jared: DJ culture is interesting.

Meg: [Still laughing]

Jared: I don't hear as broad a spectrum in music in London as I do from a lot of American DJs. There's not a lot of variation.

Meg: The English don't have as of good equipment. They don't have cars. They don't have the money.

Jeff: They don't have Macintoshes.

Meg: They don't have...well, no actually, they have Ataris. They all do music on computers. Rehearsal space is real fucking expensive. And try to get a band together? Forget it. So that's why people tend to do more machine music in London. It's from necessity. It's so much harder to get a band together. Jared, you know that. You've got to book rehearsal time and no one's got any money so you've got to pay for it yourself.

Jared: That's because everyone is on the god-damned dole! It's so damned easy.

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