Imagine if Mr. Bungle was weird. Or if Slayer played fast. Or that Prog was complicated. Assuming your head wasn't spinning from trying to crack that dizzy code, you'd probably have a pretty good idea what to expect from Bad Acid Trip¹s brand new CD, Lynch The Weirdo. Having been released this past April on Serjical Strike Records, the label co-venture between System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian and Columbia Records, Lynch The Weirdo is a triumph of harnessed insanity.

The Bad Acid Trip line-up, ­ vocalist Dirk Rogers, guitarist Keith Aazami, bassist Chris Mackie and drummer Jose Perez­ cemented in December 2002 after Perez left a voicemail for Aazami consisting solely of the kind of blast-beats necessary for a band that¹s been described as everything from thrash-core to eclectic-art-chaos.

Lynch The Weirdo was recorded in the band's hometown of Los Angeles with System of a Down co-producer/guitarist Daron Malakian behind the boards. Lynch The Weirdo represents the most fully realized album from a group that first began making music in 1990.

Knowing that this band only came together in late-2002, what industry lessons have already been learnt?! JOSE PEREZ - "Actually, the band has been around since 1989, but the current line-up has been in place since December 2002. I would have to say that realizing the music business is one of the toughest around has been my on-going learning experience so far. But nothing worth while is easy."

DIRK ROGERS - "Yeah, the band has been lurking around since the early nineties with Jose; the drummer, joining in 2002. This is the same time that we had begun to be pushed in a more, I guess, mainstream market. We had always been in the punk underground were you do everything for yourself, including artwork, fan relation, promotion, and final say. I'd say that the loss of total control and the acceptance of that is a lesson learnt. You still must do as much as you can and have your hands in as much as possible, but know when to trust your industry family. Other then that it's pretty much as I expected."

You've been quoted as saying the bands music is "circus grind jazz metal thrash punk," but does this view change depending on your alcohol intake?! JOSE - "Well, if I still drank I would probably think of it as something that makes me really thirsty. Or maybe Sirpisss, Grind, assmellow , trashfunk!"

DIRK - "We usually start adding more to the list, including the band of whatever shirt the person we're talking to is wearing!"

On your new album, Lynch The Weirdo you have songs such as 'Kill or Be Killed' and 'Zombie Nation', but is there a song or two out there that you would die to cover but know that you never will? JOSE - "I would love to do our own version of 'Africa' by Toto! Or a rendition of 'Blame it on the Rain' by Milli Vanilli would probably be fun too!"

DIRK - "I can think of a bunch I'd love to do 'interpretations' of, but for whatever reason will not. I think something from Oingo Boingo ... maybe 'No One Lives Forever' or 'Nasty Habits'. I'd also love to cover 'Lowlife' from Cryptic Slaughter and 'Burn Up' from Siouxsie and the Banshees."

OK, generic question time: Where does the album title originate and what other working titles did it have? JOSE "The title came from the feeling of not really fitting in our own scene. And when the band got signed we started to hear rumors of us being sell outs and some friends and fans turning against us because of our desire to move forward. We¹re still broke you fucking morons!! And I had to put my new Ferrari on hold until the next record. The only other working title was Let's Lynch The Weirdo. We just dropped the 'Let's'."

DIRK - "This was really the only title we had from the very beginning. We've always just done our own thing in relation to our music. Even in our own 'scene' we've never really seem to fit in. Everybody has become so serious that the person laughing out loud is deemed a weirdo. So 'lynch the weirdo' is a response to the persecution that we felt for being a little different. As well as the negative shit we got from the underground for signing with Serjical Strike and therefore Sony. The people on the cover are all our friends from the local hardcore scene and the horn face guy is really Keith. The label deemed the photo to violent so we had to switch it with the one you see now."

Tell me what was going through your head when you were writing these four songs:

'Jump Rope - Spray Water' - DIRK: "I was basing it mostly on my experience with 'selling out' to the industry as well as the stories of friends who have been down that road. Originally there was double the lyrics that there is today but they were trimmed to fit the final song."

'Beef Moo' - DIRK: "I was watching a 'Star Trek' episode with a planet that was densely overpopulated and later that night I found out that a friend of mine was pregnant. I think that when I was actually writing the piece, I was thinking of the videogame 'Spyhunter'."

'When You Go Madd' - DIRK: "I had been on a serious kick of horror movies with special attention to the 'Psycho' series."

'Beware of the Little People With Terrible Visions' - DIRK: "Sometimes you get overwhelmed by the ignorance and venom of the human race and you just want to tell people to not get so wrapped up in the obvious bullshit of being the number one ant."

JOSE - "And as far as the music goes we were just trying to challenge ourselves and also create something that still had some kind of groove to it."

Being that you, Dirk, are a Special-Effects Make-Up Artist by trade, what of that do you bring into the group on any given occasion - and external to the band, what have you worked on recently? DIRK - "I'm able to keep costs down when we decide to incorporate some kind of prop into our live show by making it myself. I haven't worked on much since we started touring in April. The last thing I think I did was help construct a fake chest for a 'CSI shot for the new Salem's Lot T.V. remake. Lots of black blood and burst organ type stuff."

What are some of the most collectible movie set discards that you own ... and which one shouldn't you really have at all and yet it found its way into your home?! DIRK - "I have the sewer creature from 'Big trouble in Little China', a piece from one of the 'Bladerunner' miniature sets, a Predator mask amd throwing ring (pt. 2), Freddy's skull and arm from 'Nightmare pt.4', Alien head from pt.4, chestburster from pt.2, barbed wire from the beaches of 'Saving Private Ryan, Arnolds head from 'T2', lots of music video stuff, and a bunch of other shit. The other stuff I can't exactly talk about, can I?!"

Describe yourselves in just three words JOSE - "Intelligent, Sexy, and Debonair."

DIRK - "Living Addams Family!"

What makes Bad Acid Trip stand out from the musical crowd? JOSE - "I think that our extreme brand of music, which still happens to be a little catchy, along with a FUN live show would be our greatest assets."

DIRK - "Our keen fashion sense and our ability to make fun of ourselves!"

Finally, if you were both locked into a studio and asked to create a song with three other musicians (and none of them could be your current band mates!), who would they be, which instruments would they play and what would the name of your songs be?! JOSE - "I would have to hook up with Les Claypool on bass, Jimi Hendrix on Guitar And Flea on trumpet. We would write a song called 'Gunt Hunt Across America'."

DIRK - "I think that would be Mick Harris (Napalm Death) on drums Olga (Toy Dolls) on guitar Les Claypool(since I couldn't get Cliff Burton) on bass with vocals handled by myself and Siouxsie Sioux. The song would be called 'Clown Cleaner' and should be produced by Danny Elfman or Mike Patton."