By Jess Redmon

The rap/rock band Crazy Town redefine common definitions on their tight debut "The Gift of Game." The band has been recently receiving play with their first single "Toxic" and look to take things over with their refined hip hop groove on the classic track "Butterfly." Get to know Brian "Epic" Mazur, one of the main masterminds behind Crazy Town.

Epic: Hold on a sec, Let me turn down the TV......
.....Okay, all right.

Shoutweb: Start with a fan question. One of the kids wants to know, What does the perfect Crazy Town day include?

Epic: The right girl.. The right music..

Shoutweb: What is the right music?

Epic: Depends, could be The Refused, it could be Method Man, could be Bjork, could be Mos Def.

Shoutweb: Does it depend on the girl?

Epic: It probably would, and what kind of mood she would be in. Cuz some girls they're like one of the guys but they're fine as fuck! And you listen to like hip-hop or heavy music. And some girls they just fuckin get you all whooped and you wanna just go off and be alone and listen to Sade or somthin. Cuz (on the perfect day) if we're playing we like it when kids get there nice'n early and we'll like go hang out or something. So if kids get there like mad early they probably have a good chance to go hang out, cuz we get really bored. And (we'd have) great sound. At this point it's like hit or miss you know. When you first start out you're lucky if you're playing in a place that has good sound, and you can afford a soundman. And now we're getting to the point where we have more control over that.

Shoutweb: So how's the European tour goin?

Epic: It's great. I'll be like takin a piss somewhere in like Germany and people just walk up to me.

Shoutweb: You guys looking forward to getting back to the US?

Epic: It's been kinna long since we played in America. So, not to mention playin with methods of mayhem.

Shoutweb: So what do you think about Tommy and his little project there?

Epic: I think whoever questions it, they do so for whatever reason. But if you take it for what it is, it's dope shit. I get asked that question by so many people and I understand what they're trying to do.

Shoutweb: It's easy to make fun of, but the music is still pretty dope.

Epic: Yeah, you can't deny that. It's like if it were anybody else it wouldn't be that way.

Shoutweb: What's the story behind Butterfly?

Epic: (let me put it this way) We spent so much time with the darker side of life, we're talking about how many women we can bang. And those are points made basically on a song like revolving door. I have a four-year-old son and I always had the girlfriend, and now shifty has a girlfriend, and it 's cool to do a song like revolving door, but (with butterfly) we need to say, hey lets give that dedication to that one girl. And that's my son's mom and no matter what she's the one.

Shoutweb: We heard it in Cheetahs on Hollywood blvd; it's a strip club.

Epic: Yeah! We get a lot of play in strip clubs.

Shoutweb: What is your guys writing process, what do you guys start with to build songs?

Epic: Either a track idea like a grove, or a lyrical hook, or a concept like for butterfly Shifty came to me and he said he wanted to do a song called butterfly and I was like "Yo I got this track that I think was butterfly." And it is, cuz we're on the same page. Like that on came from the song title and the subject matter. But then other songs like lollipop porn, that came from a track, even though we had little lyrical things that we keep locked up and sometimes it just fits. Like putting the pieces together.

Shoutweb: A lot of people want you to classify your music? How is it different to see rock music through hip-hop eyes? I guess that's kind of a stupid question.

Epic: No no. That's probably the question of the day.

Shoutweb: Well to a lot of people that we're introducing to you guys, they' re like "Well what do they sound like? Are you guys crossover there?

Epic: They call it crossover and to explain it they say limp bizkit, coal chamber, orgy, korn. I don't know how the Orgy fits in, but it's cool. I love jay and all, he's been my best friend forever. Jay used to play bass for us.

Shoutweb: Oh, really, so he was just a friend that you guys got on the record?

Epic: Well no, he also co-produced b-boy 2000 with me. Actually me and Jay did that one and that was the first Crazy Town song that we did. Then Only When I'm Drunk.

Shoutweb: How did Josh Abraham (producer Coal Chamber and Orgy) get thrown in the mix?

Epic: He's one of our oldest friends too. We always wanted Josh but Josh was busy. I'm a producer but I didn't wanna trust myself on the rock side. So I wanted some one who was like me who was a friend of mine who could do the rock thing, so it was either Jay or Josh. I mean Jay. Jay lived at my house for a while, I lived at his house for a while. We were always broke. He always seemed to have a box of quarters that me and Shifty would always raid. We would party over there for like three days at a time. We've gone through ups and downs. So that's how that worked out. If Josh wasn't gonna be able to do it then Jay was gonna try to make some time to do it. Actually we were about to go into the studio with Toby Wright.(korn, sevendust producer) Josh ended up saying he didn't know what he could do. But we needed him for the guitar tones and what not.

Shoutweb: Jay did a lot of great work with the new Danzig record.

Epic: Yeah, he also did the first Coal Chamber album.

Shoutweb: What's the story behind the toxic video, how's that goin?

Epic: We had a pretty low budget video. Like $2000 we didn't wanna spend much more than that anyways. We just wanted to give people something to look at, we wanted to do a lot of treatments. We wanted to really give people somthin to look at and like some really fuckin out there story, like a fuckin helicopter and all this crazy shit. And the director was like, "I can do it, I can make it happen!" But then we got this one that was on paper and it was like Crazy Town walking through what seems like this like mile long tunnel. And we're trying to get to this red room where there's like this party and in the treatment there's this ripple and the lens flares and all this cool stuff.

Shoutweb: That's pretty straight foreword. I was like flipping through the channels and I saw this thin on WWF and they mixed in wrestling footage with it.

Epic: What was up with that!!?? But I bet you it worked.

Shoutweb: Yeah, it was fucked up. But it looked good, they must have some pretty good people working on it.

Epic: Those kids that watch wrestling, those are our knuckleheads.

Shoutweb: Where did the girl on the cover (of the album) come from?

Epic: She came from a bunch of different girls that we've known and a bunch of different personalities that we've known. And she's really appealing and attractive and you want her really bad accept that she might be the worst thing for you. And shifty got together with the art director and came up with her.

Shoutweb: Do you see that kind of girl backstage at shows a lot?

Epic: Yeah. But those are girls we knew already in LA. You meet crazy girls.

Shoutweb: Where did the title The Gift of Game come from?

Epic: The Gift of Game is one of the old pieces that we had lying around to one of our songs. It's simple, it states, All this reflection comes from having the gift of game, and it's on a real simple straight ahead street level, and after that who knows where we're gonna go.

Shoutweb: Are you superstitious?

Epic: Yeah, but not obsessively. I'll probably walk under a ladder just to prove it wrong, but you still get that kinna "bring it on" feeling. I'm not superstitious as far as any known superstitions, but I have my own little stupid rituals, ya know?

Shoutweb: What are you guys listening to on the bus?

Epic: Well, I just picked up the new Cure album but I haven't had a chance to listen to it. Ummm.. System of a Down, Method Man and Redman's album is on. Slipknot, definitely Slipknot, and Sugar Ray!, no I'm jokin'. But I love Mark.

Shoutweb: What's the craziest thing you guys have put on your writer? (request list for dressing room)

Epic: Well you know what it's not as easy. When you expect to get it. So right now I guess as crazy as it gets would be socks. I mean the alcohol is there but that's not crazy. You gotta have Jack Daniels and beer.

Shoutweb: A couple of the girls wanted to know what kind of girls you guys like?

Epic: Ummm.. I can tell you what kind of girls I don't like. Obnoxious, and not like immature. I don't like girls that hang out and won't leave. I hate having to kick em out. It's like either it's on or it's not.

Shoutweb: Any hip-hop producers your into?

Epic: Oh yeah, I've gotta give it up for my boy Mud Foot. (Who?) You know (DJ) Premier, and Dre. But then again there's like this whole other group, like DJ Crush.

Shoutweb: What do you think is going on with kids today?

Epic: Same shit that was going on with kids 30 years ago. Everything's wrapped up in a new package. I don't know. I don't know what the fucks going on. All I know is kids are always going thru some shit. Same shit, different year.

Shoutweb: What do you want people to know about Crazy Town?

Epic: I want them to know.. That we're gonna fight for them! Hahahaha Put that down, leave it at that.

Shoutweb: Okay. Superheroes?

Epic: Yeah!

Shoutweb: What do you want to say to people who are thinking about checking out your show?

Epic: Please come see us play, cuz we like a lot of people, and we don't have fun when you don't show up. WE NEED TO PACK THESE SHOWS! WE NEED A LINE ARROUND THE CORNER!

Shoutweb: That's it.

Epic: All right, I'm goin to sleep.