Back in the Summer of 2004, I had the distinct pleasure of conducting an interview with Keith Alexander who was Carnivore’s original guitarist. It was never my intention to publish that interview on it’s own, since the interview was really a part of my research for a book I was going to publish on Brooklyn’s Type O Negative.

RIP

Keith Alexander Bonanno

November 23, 1963 – July 11, 2005

Dean Mason: Just wanted to get a sense of the early days, the beginnings of Carnivore–you mention in your email that you saw Fallout open up for Twisted Sister is that right?

Keith Alexander: Yeah that’s right, at a club called 2001 Odyssey, the place where they filmed Saturday Night Fever.

How did you happen to get involved with Peter Steele and this new band Carnivore?

The best I can recall is that, I was working at a record store on Nassau Street in Manhattan, called the “Record Explosion” and, I knew Pete from, like…I knew him from Fallout that’s for sure…um…and I knew…I knew of the band and the sort of thing he was doing from….just like local shit, Red Hook… the part of Brooklyn they’re from isn’t that close to where I’m from, but the music scene at that point was small enough that, I definitely knew of him. Now I remember, I think I saw an add for the band in the “Aquarian”, um, I could totally be wrong about that, but I’m almost definite that I saw an add for them, and the name “Carnivore” was there and I really remember saying—knowing– that it was him for some reason. I distinctly remember knowing just from the text that I read that this has to be that guy. And I don’t really recall like auditioning or anything like that you know. I remember going down, and playing a little bit but I don’t really recall the circumstances…like… “how I got in to the band” per se.

When you guys first got together, how did you approach working together, I mean did Steele come up and say “here’s the kind of material I want” type thing? What?

Yeah well, I mean, it was his music right?! So I mean, there was never any doubt of how the song was written …….they were his songs. But at the time, from what I can remember, I mean this is a while ago now, he was open to other ideas, you know, so he definitely set the chord changes down and the lyrics, and 80 to 90 % of the structure and then we would just kind of go over it in his mom’s basement, and hash it out. We didn’t rehearse all that much from what I can remember, but he would definitely present the skeleton of the tune, if not completely done. He was very prolific. He writes allot.

One thing I really remember is, that I always really enjoyed his lyrics. His lyrics to me were the strongest…like the music…was anh…you know…it was what it was; some of it was better than others…all of it was interesting…but the lyrics were always um (pause… change of direction suddenly) one thing I really remember is that at first I kind of fought the whole shoulder pad bullshit…I was like… “oh…this is lame”…you know, because I really wanted to be seen as a legitimate musician and you know, as a guitar player, you know, my dad’s a guitar player…it’s in my blood…I mean I’ve just always been a guitar player….and I wanted to be seen as serious and do serious stuff you know….and so at first I fought it. I remember being like… “Ah, FUCK THIS!” Over time, I don’t even remember what it was……. but I got into it. All of the sudden, I went and I bought some shotgun shells, and I remember like taking out the buck shot…and, you know, I was like, “well o.k…. fuck it…if we’re going to do it, let’s really do it!” Everybody else is wearing bullet belts, “I’m gonna wear a shot gun belt”…and I remember making wrist bands with like you know…like steel shark fins or something and at one point I totally got right into it. I remember coming down with the costume that I had built and I remember Louie saying “ah…you’re into it, you got it, that’s exactly what we were going for.” So, you know, that was fun for a while.

I must admit, I didn’t think at first that Steele was someone that was into the “image” (my perception that is) but I have come to find out he is.

One thing you have to know about, well him (Peter) in particular and all musicians I think in general is that image is critical. Anybody that tells you that they don’t have an image is lying, because THAT’S the image. He was very much into the image, I mean the whole band was based, at least back then you know—that first album that I was a part of—was based on science-fiction/Mad Max. I remember watching “Quest For Fire” and “Mad Max” and looking at those films as inspiration for costuming. “Mad Max” and Quest For Fire” were big movies for us to watch.

I remember Gary Numan’s “Warriors” album, obviously influenced by Mad Max.

It influenced hundreds of bands—absolutely.

What sort of music, what bands influenced Carnivore. I remember “Agnostic Front” being mentioned somewhere along the line in my research.

Yeah, I remember distinctly when we started to get into, you know, what at the time was being called ‘thrash’. I remember me going out and buying a couple of Slayer albums, you know, the whole “Metal Blade” thing. The influences were pretty diverse, cuz like Pete…Agnostic Front was not an influence of ours. They were around before us that was for sure, but, they didn’t influence us until Pete got into his hard core thing and shaved his head, but prior to that, it was more like, Black Sabbath, St. Vitus, you know the sludgier type…. like Trouble–Trouble was a big one….you know, bands like that—for the band as a whole. Me…definitely Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer, you know. At that time it wasn’t main stream but, like what turned out to be more of a main stream thrash. Plus, being a guitar player, you know, and my dad being one as well I’ve been exposed to…you know one my favorite guitar player was David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and I brought that to it. At times, the greatest compliment I ever got, and this was post Carnivore, was some of the tones that I was getting on the Primal Scream record, was reminiscent of David Gilmour from Pink Floyd. So, I think I brought those kinds of influences.

Louie was certainly into…well I don’t want to speak for him…but you know he was into all these double bass guys…I remember we were totally into Accept, certainly Priest and Sabbath….I mean they were big Sabbath fans. I was never really a huge Sabbath fan but they were.

Mason: Sabbath and the Beatles seem to be major influences on Steele personally, but some other bands have surprisingly been mentioned as well….like Devo and Cocteau Twins.

Alexander: Yeah, well, you know I remember being in the rehearsal studio with Pete and him listening to stuff like GangGreen, The Mission, Sisters of Mercy or Cocteau Twins..they were certainly not influences on Carnivore, but Pete being, you know a musician first and anything else second, he’s always had his ears and eyes open to good music.

Do you think Steele was always searching for that “style”? When Type O Negative’s Bloody Kisses came out…that was certainly more towards a “gothy” “doomish” sound.

I think we’re all searching all the time. The best artists among us, and I don’t count myself in that league, but, I think for the best artists…it’s a constant search right? It’s a struggle with self. It’s a constant battle because you hear something you really like but you don’t want to copy it right off the bat, so, maybe you listen to the album over and over and you start to assimilate some influences. Like I hear some Cure in the things that Pete does, you know, like, was it an influence when he was fourteen? Probably not. But as we grow older, we get turned on to other bands that are doing cool shit, and you almost can’t help but assimilate some of it.

The events leading up to that famous signing of the contract with, Road Racer? It WAS Road Racer at the time right?

Right. Well, one thing that I really remember is that, I remember having dinner with Vinnie Stigma from Agnostic Front, Cees Wessels, I forget his last name, the head of Road Racer, um….who else was there? (Pause) I think…Billy Milano from SOD (Storm Troopers of Death) …I forget who else, but I remember having a dinner in a Chinese restaurant prior to us getting signed, and then I remember…. Now this is a while…and Pete will probably dispute this…but I believe it was me who like really made contact with Connie Barrett at first. I might not have maybe “made contact” per se…but I remember being the first one to really talk to her, and get her down and you know, pursue it a little bit.

It was interesting, because at the time, Pete wasn’t big on touring. We didn’t like, really leave Brooklyn for that matter, and that was always a disappointment to me cuz I loved to travel and I think, you know, it’s just critical…critical!

So, I remember Connie Barrett coming down, and she’s the one who signed the band.

So, the touring or lack there of was an issue back then with Carnivore?

Oh yeah, I mean, part of it might be that he (Peter) had a real job, I forget what he was doing at the time, but I was ready to just quit any job to do a show on a weekend, it didn’t matter to me.

Carnivore was described by Peter Steele as a sort of cross over between hardcore and metal, saying that he liked the “heaviness of metal and the violence and excitement at hardcore shows.” (Quote taken from “Sound of the Beast” The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal by Ian Christe)

Well, I think that he’s free to say what he wants about it, to me, that statement doesn’t ring true because…that’s discussing a genre…right?…I mean that’s like…that was just the time. Metallica, Motorhead…you know, Motorhead took punk and metal and put it together right? So…yeah, I mean it’s not a false statement, like yeah, we definitely had hardcore aggressiveness as well as metal geatrics. But yeah, I mean, Carnivore and a hundred other fucking bands, you know, at the time were a mixture of …you know…fucking Anthrax…and…you know…all those bands…we all mixed hardcore and metal, that was certainly no big deal.

You said in the short email interview… “I was a pawn in Peter’s game!” What did you mean by that?

That I was what? A pawn? Well you know, it’s his band. Simple as that. It’s like you can’t replace Pete…anyone of those other three guys can go. (obviously reference to present day Type O Negative) You know? I mean, it’s arguable, if Josh went, the band would definitely change, cuz I think Josh is a big part of that band, but you know…the guitar players and the drummers? Whatever! It could be anybody. I mean, Johnny could probably argue that…you know…and nobody likes to hear that…but the bottom line is Pete could throw any guitar player in there basically and it’d be the same band. It’s Pete’s bands. Bottom line.

You also said that you were thrown out by Connie in a Jewish deli and that you made “one mistake too many on stage”.

Yeah, I remember…that was really the big thing, cuz like I was really into moving around, putting on a show, and the perfection was less important to me. I think Pete’s definitely a perfectionist, and, I’m not, and the reason I think that’s why they asked me to leave. Part of it was just totally not into going hardcore. I was not into shaving my head, I was not into “Jack Daniels & Pizza” , “Angry Neurotic Catholics”. It took me long enough to get into it (original concept?) It took me long enough to dig the science-fiction shit, and I wanted to take that…you know….keep going on that. Pete had other ideas and that was part of it…we clashed a couple of…we clashed allot…I clash with everybody…that’s just….you know…that’s part of my nature too. So, you know, we clashed a bit, but the reason I think…the final throws was me fucking up onstage cuz I remember me reading in an interview right after I got kicked out and one of the comments about the new guitar player…that it was…Pete had said that it “was their best show ever because they didn’t make one mistake.” So that kind of like led me to believe that like mistakes were a part of it too and…whatever you know…it’s fuckin rock and roll…you should be a…. (change of thought) …if it’s perfect it’s lame.

Mason: It’s ironic that you find on one hand the “perfectionism” and yet on the other hand there’s that self deprecating stuff in Steele’s lyrics and even humor.

Alexander: Yeah well, Pete’s a….his mindset is a (searching for words) …he’s not easy to figure out. Pete’s got allot of problems you know? Most of his own making I think. But like you know…I don’t want to use the word genius you know…but he’s fuckin…he’s… he’s an artist you know…and the best artists among us are tortured, and Peter is a tortured mother fucker. And you know, it comes across in the music and it comes across in the stage show, it comes across in interviews and you know….half of it is shtick half of it is deeply held problems.

Well, allot of people wonder, how much of it is image, how much of it is for real. With Steele, even in the lyrics, that guy really speaks about himself it seems.

Well, I think that people who live interesting lives, people that lead…um….what’s that quote about the unexamined life isn’t worth living? You know…I think that people who live exciting lives and live it with a certain gusto…yeah….Pete’s definitely worthy of a book.

Well Keith, much thanks for this interview.

Good luck with the book Dean.

-mason