Down Guitarist Kirk Windstein: “Down is a Completely Different Beast”
October 26, 2011
Like his bandmates — vocalist Philip Anselmo, drummer Jimmy Bower, bassist Pat Bruders and guitarist Pepper Keenan, guitarist Kirk Windstein has never been one to mince words. Whether it’s discussing the band’s musical partnership, his working relationship with Keenan as a guitar team, or his overview of the state of the music industry, Windstein pulls no punches. Shooting straight with uncensored honesty is part of Down’s credo: in their music, their band ethics and their interviews.
Windstein, also recognized for his work with Kingdom of Sorrow and Crowbar, is still taken aback — and humbled — by the impact Down’s music has on their fans. “The style of music we play gets a bad rap as far as the image of what we do,” he says. “The lyrics are dark subject matter, but the lyrics themselves are positive and about finding strength and getting through the tough times in life. It’s amazing; I’ve gotten handwritten letters from people all over the world that say, ‘Can you please sign this picture?’ and they write a deep letter about how the music affects them in a positive way. It’s a great feeling to be able to do that for somebody. I know what music did for me when I was growing up. I fell in love with KISS when I was 10 years old in 1975, and I can’t say that they have deep lyrics or anything, but it really pulled me through my adolescence and into the teen years, which are really tough. Then I discovered Van Halen in the late ’70s, and all heavy metal music, and I would literally run home from the school bus, put on music and practice guitar. So it’s very important to a lot of people.”
Why the longevity?
If it weren’t for taking breaks, sometimes long sabbaticals and doing other things … we toured ourselves silly in the past at times. We now know how long of a tour we can do without wanting to kill one another and how long we can go until we need a break. It’s difficult because we’ve got five very strong personalities, very talented guys that have all been successful in other bands, and it can get to be a bit much. I will say that we’ve mellowed with age. It’s helped a lot, not only as in partying and stuff like that, but our whole attitude. We realize that we’re blessed to be able to do what we’re doing, which is make a living playing the music we create, and we have a great diehard fan base and we’re grateful for that. As we get older, we realize how fortunate we really are to still be doing this and at some level of success. We all appreciate the band, and ourselves in general, more than we did ten years ago.
This band has outlasted most marriages.
You’re right. It’s absolutely a relationship. Everyone’s got a different personality, everyone’s got different quirks and different moody things, and you really have to learn to put up with each other and cut someone a little slack when they’re having a bad day. We’ve talked about it quite a bit. Like in any band, there are ups and downs, you get burned out on each other. Sometimes we tour for months and months with very little time off, and we’d joke but we’d be serious — we’d literally get to the airport and be like, “Yeah, I’ll call you,” and we’d get home and not talk to each other for a month because you need to get back to your life and your own thing and just break from one another. When the creative juices start flowing, you get ready to jam again. We all consider ourselves brothers and great friends, but we’ve tried to remedy what happened in the past, which was being burned out from over-touring. Now we pick and choose the touring, and the way we want to do our music, and it seems to be working out great.
What do your other projects bring to Down when you come back to this band?
Nothing, and that’s the beauty of it. Crowbar — I’ve been doing that for over twenty years. That’s my baby. I’m the lyricist, the chief songwriter, the singer, all of that. Kingdom of Sorrow is a partnership between me and Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed, and I just got off of a tour with that project this summer. I like all styles of music, so I’m thinking about starting a fourth band for my own pleasure that would be different in style from the other three. I don’t think I bring anything to Down from Crowbar and Kingdom. Down is a completely different beast. It really doesn’t have anything in common with the other two and that’s the way I like it. You can get burned out on one. Look at Phil — he’s got so many things going on: his independent label, his solo record that’s coming out, his punk band, he’s done black metal. He just loves music, and when you’re an artist and a musician, and you really do create and your life is creating music, it’s healthy to branch out and do things that are completely different. Down is my main band, it’s my breadwinner, always has been and always will be, but I enjoy doing other things when we’re taking breaks.
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