Biohazard
Mata Leao (Warner Bros.)
An interview with Danny Schuler and Rob Echeverria
by Rebekah Sue Harris
Biohazard‘s back on the road, supporting their new album, Mata Leao (Mah’ tah Lay oh’). It means “whatever you want it to mean,” according to Danny. Mata Leao is the first album that Biohazard has made as a three-piece (Evan, Billy, and Danny; Rob “Das” Echeverria, formerly of Helmet, didn’t join the band until after Mata Leao‘s completion). They feel that it’s probably the most focused and unified album Biohazard’s ever made. Every album for them is a progression; as years go by, they’re growing.
But growing has a price. Bobby Hambel is no longer with Biohazard due to “musical differences, personality differences,” and so on. Evan, Billy, Bobby, and Danny never expected such a thing while growing up together, even as they watched other bands go through changes in lineup, not one of them ever dreamed Biohazard wouldn’t always have its original four members. There is no doubt that Bobby contributed artistically to the band for many years, and the remaining members and Rob will continue to play material in which Bobby collaborated (for example, the lyrics to “Five Blocks to the Subway” are based on a poem by Bobby’s father). While the remaining members of Biohazard aren’t currently on friendly terms with Bobby, they wish him well, and are pleased with the success of his new band, White Devil (consisting of Bobby and former Cro-Mags). “We just don’t relate on a human basis any more,” Danny said, but he has nothing but praise for White Devil.
As far as drinking and drugs go, the band is known to indulge, but they don’t overindulge. And they don’t preach. They’d rather plant a seed, perhaps to make someone stay straight, perhaps to make listeners become more introspective. Danny commented on kids who are so hardcore anti-Fascist that they’re actually Fascists. “How right is that?”
Biohazard continues to progress with their music. There is no “award” that they want to win, no pinnacle to reach (though Danny jokes that Rob will have reached his goal when he is “sitting in the Blue Note every night, playing jazz”). As artists, they’re constantly creating something out of nothing; their work will “never be done.” They gauge their success by their shows, not by sales or industry standards.
Danny closed the interview by saying, “We just try to be good people and just drift along and have a healthy life and have fun… and occupy our time by doing positive shit, you know, instead of destroying ourselves and others in the process.”