Ibanez: Who were some of your early music influences?
Glen: I¡Çm old school, man. I grew up listening to Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and stuff like that when I was a real little kid. Then, I progressed into the heavier stuff as I got a little bit older. I was into Judas Priest and KISS. Back in ¡Ç78, I was in KISS Army.
Back in the day, I was a huge John Entwistle fan. I was into the Who and all that kind of shit, you know. I used to play with my fingers. I switched to using a pick back in 1995 or something like that. Geezer Butler was another big influence.
Ibanez: Did you take lessons or are you primarily self-taught?
Glen: I took a couple of lessons here and there when I was a kid. For the most part, I got my lessons sitting alone in my room and playing along to other people¡Çs music.
Ibanez: When did you start playing Ibanez basses?
Glen: Back in the day, I used to have a 6-string Ibanez Roadster. I used to love that guitar; the neck on it was amazing. Then, I went through the whole BC Rich phase that everyone was indulging in. I realized that playing those body styles really hinders a musician, man. Playing those things live, you¡Çre fighting the guitar every minute.
Then, I made the mistake of going out and buying a Rickenbacker. I hated that thing. I got to thinking about it. As far as playability and the necks, there¡Çs really never been anything comparable to the Ibanez basses I had. So I love my Ibanez basses, man.
Ibanez: Was there anything other than the neck and body style that drew you to the SR series?
Glen: Pickup technology has come a long way. Now they¡Çve got the EMGs and Bartolini pickups loaded in them, and that makes a whole world of difference. We used the newest bass that I got from you guys on the record, and nothing we tried could even come close to the sound of that bass. It¡Çs a bolt-on neck, and I¡Çm used to playing neck thru basses. To me, there¡Çs really not that much difference. You¡Çre spending a lot of money for a neck thru instrument, and I don¡Çt see where the quality of the sound is that much better. They¡Çre hard to keep adjusted, too. You bring it from outside into the club, and it¡Çs already out. You have let it sit there and acclimate. It¡Çs a pain in the neck. The bolt-ons could come in from a blizzard, and you could immediately go to the stage and start playing.
Ibanez: What was the recording process like for the new Deicide album, ¡ÈTill Death Do Us Part¡É?
Glen: Steve writes all the music, and I write all the lyrics. Ralph and Jack come in and do their leads and stuff. It was pretty much the same process as before.
Ibanez: Did you guys have any specific goals or things you wanted to do differently with this album?
Glen: Steve wrote all the music, because I was tied up with some other things. He told me that he wrote it with a concept in mind, so I tried to approach it the same way. So it¡Çs more of a concept-style record. I kind of laid off on the whole ¡ÈSatan! Satan! Satan!¡É every song, because that kind of gets old after a while. I just let my soul write the songs, man.
I basically approached it as a whole reverse of the wedding vows. It goes into the whole God, wedding vow line of BS. I just put a negative spin to that whole line of crap. It came out well.
I was looking for a title for the album to get started on the writing concept, and I found the artwork. Once that happened, the title for the album came almost immediately.
Ibanez: Yeah, the artwork is awesome.
Glen: Not only is it awesome, it was cheap! I¡Çm used to spending two or three thousand dollars to get some jack-off to paint me a picture. This was already at museums. All I had to do was contact the museum and pay them a couple hundred bucks to use it. I¡Çm not used to that.
Basically, I just punched in the word ¡Èdeath¡É and ¡Èartwork¡É. That¡Çs what came up. It was one of those classic art/museum type websites where they have all that stuff on there. It has a lot to do with ¡Èthe black death¡É and that whole period. It has a special meaning for me though [laughs].
Ibanez: How has your approach to singing and playing bass changed over the past 20 years?
Glen: Not really much, man. It¡Çs still just get a pair of balls out and go at it. There¡Çs really no control over what I do. I separate the highs and lows and work on phrasing, but other than that it¡Çs like running from the cops. The way I approach it, don¡Çt stop running. If you do, you¡Çre going to get caught. So I just get up there and pretend like I¡Çm running from the cops.
