Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Invitro

Guitarist for Snot, Soulfly and now Invitro; producer; Gridiron Records co-founder. Mikey Doling has built an impressive resume during his decade and a half in the music business. Talk to him or watch Invitro on stage and it’s easy to see the secret to his staying power (aside from his obvious musical talent). It’s all about having fun for him and his bandmates, whose debut album, When I Was a Planet, is wonderfully wacky as it hops from genre to genre, rocking all the way. Invitro’s touring schedule has included a stint opening for Doling’s old friends Sevendust, a slot on the 2007 edition of the Family Values tour and they just finished a spring run with DevilDriver and Napalm Death. A few days after the tour rolled through Jaxx in Springfield, Va., Doling checked in with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki.

Live-Metal.net: Well, first, I really enjoyed the show the other night.

Mikey Doling: Oh, right on. Thanks, Greg.

Usually, I’m doing interviews before the show, so I don’t get to ask, like, how was that show for you guys in the band? Was that a good show for you?

That was at Jaxx, right?

Well, you know what? I loved it. I like that stage because it’s so low to the floor that the people are right in your fuckin’ face. I always like that. They’re right there, eyeball to eyeball while you’re playing your fuckin’ shit. Your music is rockin’ their faces off. Really good energy that way.

Oh, he just had a baby. He had a little baby named Zeke and he had to stay home from the tour to be a new father and get acquainted with his little dude. We decided to go out and kick it in a four-piece. We did have a replacement guitar player named Angelo from a band called Corrupt Defile. He came out for a few weeks, but he had some family illness and he had to go home, as well. So we just decided to keep it a four-piece.

Well, it sounds like it’s working. In general, how is this tour going for you?

This tour’s been really, really good for us. First of all, [DevilDriver vocalist] Dez [Fafara] and I have been friends since the old Snot days and Coal Chamber days back in Los Angeles in ’94 or ’95. Here are we 14 years later still rocking. It’s good to hang out every day. It’s really cool, man. The bands are awesome. Touring with Napalm Death is pretty cool, too. So it’s a good time.

I’m sure you get this question a lot, but I have to ask. Who came up with the tin foil masks and the lab coats?

You know, for the first year we were a band we never did that shit. And I know it comes off really stupid sometimes. People are like, “What the hell are they doing?” We’re just having a good time. We just like to freak people out a little bit and have a good time. But to answer your question, how we came up with that was Brad, my bass player, Brad Dujmovic, and I record music back home with younger bands and stuff and we produce demos. Well, one day we decided to wrap tin foil on our heads to freak out the band that was coming in. They couldn’t stop laughing. Next thing you know, we tried it on stage. We got some weird reactions and decided to kind of roll with it. We’re probably not gonna do all the tin foil shit after this record. If you look through our debut record, it’s kind of science fiction themed through the record and this kind of ties it all together.

Well, it’s not really science fiction as it is post-Earth. The record title is When I Was a Planet, right? So we decided to go with the whole, like, there once was an Earth and the Earth is kind of singing the songs, and that’s our record. I know that sounds retarded, but that’s kind of what we’re doing.

But we’re just having a good time. If you look at the album cover, it’s Earth, in space obviously, getting shot with fireballs and all kinds of shit flying off the planet. I guess the science fiction part of it is we’re just acting like maybe the humans survived and went into space. [laughs]

Going back a little bit, how did the band get together? Were you looking to start a new band or did you meet these guys and it just happened?

I had another band in L.A. after I left Soulfly. Brad, my bass player now, was actually producing our demo. We became really good friends and started writing songs together and it just worked out his roommate is Jeff Weber, who’s our singer in the band. Brad sent me a demo from him and his roommate Jeff and it blew my mind. So I was like, “Hey, let’s start a band.” And then we got the other guys from a band called The Wizards. The Wizards were one of my favorite bands and they were breaking up. So I got Mike and [drummer] Benny [Cancino] from The Wizards, Jeff and Brad in the studio, and we had a band.

The first time I saw Invitro live was about a year ago on the tour with Sevendust. I know when you were in Snot you guys toured together a lot and were really close. What was it like being out on the road with them again after so many years?

Oh, bro, it was fantastic. Sonny [Mayo] was in Snot, so it was great to be hanging out with him every day. And also the guys in Sevendust were like brothers to us back in like ’97. Just getting to hang with those guys every day, it was awesome. That’s the thing about touring I love the most. You make choice friends, they hang, jam tunes and over the years and years you kind of develop the brother thing. When you tour with ‘em later on life, you can’t explain it. It’s great.

I thought it was really cool the other night to hear the Snot song [“Stoopid”] in the set. How does it feel to be playing that with a new group of people?

We don’t do it unless the crowd is completely deserving of it. If they’re into the fucking band and having a good time, we’ll bust out a Snot song for ‘em. A lot of the people that are coming to the shows are almost too young to even know who Snot is. They may have heard of it, but they don’t really know it. The people in the back at the bar rock with it. [laughs]

You’ve already been out on the road a long time. How long are you gonna stay out to support this album?

We’ve got another, I’d say, nine to 10 months of solid touring, if not a year, and then we’re gonna lock down and we’re gonna write songs for a kickass record.

The album came out through Gridiron Records, the label that you’re a part of. How did that label get started?

It’s a long story, but I’ll break it down as quick as I can. Kyle Turley, he’s a professional football player. He’s one of the most feared offensive tackles in history. I’m a huge fan. He plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. At the time I met him, he played for the Saints. He came up to see Soulfly play with Pantera. He comes up and he’s like, “Who is the guy from Snot?” I was like, “Holy shit,” because he’s huge. He’s 350 pounds, all muscle, 6 foot 6. So I was like, “Oh crap,” and I’m like, “I am.” He’s like, “I’m a huge fan!” I recognized him right away when he said that because I’m a huge fan of pro football. It was pretty cool. We became friends instantly. He moved out to L.A. with his wife to pursue a movie career and I live in L.A. So he called me up and he’d come by the studio and just hang with me and watch me and Brad record bands. Then he was like, “Let’s do a label, man.” And I’m like, “I’m really not familiar with how to run a label.” I kind of held it off for like a year. Then when this band started really kicking ass, I hit Kyle back up. I’m like, “Are you serious about that label?” He’s like, “Yeah.” So we started it and we’re working asses off.

I produced every record from ‘em. I was very involved. Some of these bands are a little different than you would think I would work with, but it’s really cool to keep into different styles of music.

You’ve been in this business for a while and have been in a few bands. What types of things have you learned during that time that you can use to help other bands that you work with?

Well, you know what, not just who I work with but other bands that are starting out, just have a good time. Just have a good time and enjoy what you’re doing. Work hard and try not to drink as much whiskey as I do.

No, not really. Just get out there and check out our record, Invitro When I Was a Planet.