[kj] Raven interview (Ministry)

[nicholas fitzpatrick]

An interview in which Raven elaborates on a current hot topic: his politics!

>>>>Edmonton Sun (Alberta)
June 2, 2006 Friday
HEADLINE: BUSH A-MUSING;
INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH POLITICS AND MUSIC;
BASSIST PAUL RAVEN RELISHES CHANCE TO BE PART OF MINISTRY


Paul Raven calls from El Paso with a thick, Alan Moore-ish accent that 
almost masks his enthusiasm for his current dream gig: playing with Al 
Jourgensen's Ministry. Now 45, Raven has been around heavy and industrial 
music since its embryonic hours, playing bass for the legendary Killing Joke 
and thrash-metal messiahs Prong. Thanks to Dave Grohl's involvement with 
Ministry, you can connect Raven to almost anyone who's ever picked up a 
microphone with the intention of hurting it.

The band plays tonight at Red's and though it's impossible to escape talking 
politics, we map out where he stands in this world of music as well.

FISH: When was the first time you heard Ministry?

RAVEN: That would have been in the '80s, in London. Our careers are 
parallel. We always referred to Killing Joke and Ministry as the "big two.'' 
Al's a few years older than me, an old, crusty bastard. I was in Chicago 
when I moved to the United States in the mid-80s. Al sort of took care of 
me, when I didn't know anyone, he'd pop by with all these f---ing lunatics. 
We've been talking about working together for a long time, it was just a 
matter of when and what.''

FISH: Why did you leave Prong?

RAVEN: I got kicked out! I had a ruptured disc in my back, which led to 
recurring problems. So I wasn't able to fulfil my commitments with Prong and 
we parted ways. I love Tom (Victor), he's like a brother and it's great to 
have him back here in this situation with Ministry, and J.B. (Bechdel), who 
was our keyboard player in Killing Joke and he was in Prong and now he's 
touring with Ministry. So it's a whole gang of us crusty f---ers!

FISH: Can you compare that atmosphere to where you are right now?

RAVEN: The focus within Ministry's confines is very, very much the music. 
The focus within Killing Joke is the lifestyle. The product speaks for 
itself. In the time we made one Killing Joke album, Al's made three.

I may talk funny, but I consider myself an American. This is my home. When I 
was asked to be in Ministry, it gives me an opportunity to re-evaluate and 
refocus my political aspirations. I left Britain because of Maggie Thatcher 
and her band of Nazis, so any chance to stand up and give a giant finger to 
George Bush and all those corporate a--holes, I'm there.

My politics over the years have swung from about as far right as it can get, 
back to the left. But now that I'm a bit older I've fled somewhere in 
between. It's difficult to be totally direct about it, but I believe in 
truth, justice and the American way, and what I believe that really means.

So I hate to see these corporate bastards just sort of stealing those values 
that I considered dear and dressing them up as something else.

FISH: There's something called scandal burnout. Bush and the boys do 
something so preposterous and evil a couple times a month that it takes 
everyone's energy to even keep up. By the time you do your proper research, 
it's already buried by some new nonsense.

RAVEN: It's Hegelian dialectic. It's the same s--- the imperials have always 
done, back to Rome. It's pitting the one side against the other with a known 
outcome, jumping in to become the heroes.

FISH: After Katrina hit, even right-wing country singers came out swinging 
because they come from down there.

RAVEN: There's no right wing, left wing, really. Just these corporate 
(types) that manipulate everybody. I was really taken aback by that little 
experiment down in New Orleans. There it was, laid out on CNN right in front 
of you. It took Kanye West to actually go off script and say, "If it's white 
people, they're out looking for food; if it's black people they're 
looters.''