How do you know?
Jason: Because 99.8 per cent of people like the older stuff better. If you're different, that's cool, but most of the reactions I get from all the people I've met is that they like Master Of Puppets more than Load. I mean, what the f.ck, so do I. But it doesn't mean it's bad. I think all METALLICA records captured that time and those moments. It really captured the feel of the band at that time. They're all so different from each other, as far as the production, the songwriting development and all that shit. There's no way to scuff that shit, don't do that.

Talking to you today compared to a few years ago, it's so obvious that there are no limits as to what you can say.
Jason: I know. Isn't it great? (laughs)

In METALLICA, did you ever feel ?I can't publicly say what I want to say??
Jason: Of course, in a big machine like that, everybody has to play for one cause. [You have to be] after one vision, [and] you have to try to make one thing work. When you're promoting the band and being a representative of the band you have to do certain things and say certain things to keep it rolling. METALLICA was always very good at, as you know, keeping people thinking everything is just cool as shit. That's a secret to show business. Actors, comedians, musicians... that's what you do, that's what promotion is about. You gotta keep everything looking real good on the outside. People wanna see the shiny side up and the music good and the glossy pictures and all that kinda shit. You gotta keep that shit floating. Just as managers would keep bad things hidden from me, I keep bad things hidden from the public. You can't wear everything out on your sleeve like that. Everyone would know everything and you wouldn't have much of a career.

All of a sudden the interview in Playboy magazine came out and the facade started crackling. What happened there?
Jason: What happened was that a media guy who's really good at sensationalism, which is what he's supposed to be doing and why he's hired by those people to do what he does, blew it all out of proportion, so that people would read in the things that they did. That's something that he? (sighs)? It got all blown out of shape. He used the quotes that were really not the best ones, but that suited his purpose. He tried to inflame something, he's a journalist working for the biggest f.cking magazine in the world, and that's what you do. You do stuff that people like to read, so that's what he was doing. Very understandable.

Wasn't it a case of him being at the right place at the right time when shit was hitting the fan?
Jason: Yeah (hesitating)? And also, something very interesting: he did the interview with everyone individually over three months time or something. Much can change in three months among people that live an accelerating lifestyle like that. So much can happen. He talks to one guy when everything's peachy, he talks to another guy when things are shit and he talks to another guy when things are in-between, and it comes out like that. It's easy to add that stuff up when you really look at it. Everything happens for a reason and it needed to happen to churn things up.

Do you think people will approach ECHOBRAIN with an open ear or as ?the METALLICA dude's new thing??
Jason: How I think it's gonna be is the first interviews and the first reviews are gonna be 'METALLICA's Jason's new project', that kinda thing. That's obvious, that's our big foot in the door, that's our advantage. As soon as they hear Dylan sing, the next reviews will talk about his voice, the music and stuff like that. It's so different from METALLICA, it's such its own thing and the voice is so f.cking incredible. That's just the way it is and that's the way it's gonna be. So I am hoping that people come at it with open minds and open ears. I know there's gonna be the guys that just like the heavy stuff that think I'm gonna be coming with a heavy record. They'll maybe not dig ECHOBRAIN and that's fine with me, there's room for everybody. That's just not what's important to me anymore, man. What's important is me sharing the music with whoever really wants to share it. There's always gonna be people who go [impersonates a loud metal head] ?C'mon man, [play something like] 'Master Of Puppets'!? Whatever, man. Been there, done that. This is a different thing. Listen to the SPEEDEALER album when it comes out in May and you can see that metal is still cool with me (laughs). I have [my collaboration with] VOIVOD [coming up] in awhile and Andreas (Kisser, lead guitarist with SEPULTURA) and I are gonna do a project with metal guys. There's a kinds of shit going on.

Tell me more about the project you're putting together with Andreas.
Jason: We've been doing projects for years. Since '93 or something we've been talking about our dream metal band. One day when we have the time, we're gonna do it and that's all there is to it. People have so much to offer and ECHOBRAIN just happens to be one of the things we're working on that we're putting out there. There's gonna be a lot of heavy stuff and a lot of different kinds of music coming out. There are some good guys out there that I want to get together that need to be together playing. I think I'll probably call up Tom Hunting from EXODUS to play drums [in the dream metal band]. You know, the regular thing, old-school metal. The real shit, none of this nu metal BULLshit! We all know we helped invent it (laughs, refers to nu metal). Do you know what I mean?

Totally. You're looking at releasing projects like IR8, QUARTETO DA PINGA and TREE OF THE SUN through your label Chophouse. What kind of projects do you have lined up?
Jason: There's tons of it. You named a few of the good ones. That's more of the heavy stuff. We've established Chophouse Records and the plan is to share that stuff with people eventually when we can get around to doing it. I want everybody to hear that noisy stuff. There are no limits, no limits, man. All that stuff you mentioned was done in 1995 or 1996, so there are hundreds of hours of music since that time. There's stuff [I did] with [STRAPPING YOUNG LAD's] Devin Townsend, we've always kept our thing going, with Gene Hoglan from DARK ANGEL [and STRAPPING YOUNG LAD] playing drums. That's pretty ugly and scary stuff. The VOIVOD record is on the backburner and I really wanna do that at some point.

What do you mean by backburner? Isn't the VOIVOD album happening this year?
Jason: It depends on what happens with the phase of ECHOBRAIN, 'cause we plan on touring the record and all that kinda shit. We'll just see if it's possible to get the VOIVOD thing done in the winter time or something like that. Maybe pull those guys away from the snow in the winter next year and make a record. Give them a break, you know. But I think there has to be a lot of developments for that anyway, 'cause we want it to be extra special. I know that [VOIVOD guitarist] Piggy's got a few songs, so I know that it will find its way. We have some good stuff on tape, 'cause they've been down here [at my studio] and we've done some projects before, Piggy, [VOIVOD drummer] Away and myself. We have two different demos that I don't think anybody's ever heard. There's some good shit, so we have a lot of stuff in existence.

Who are some of the dream musicians that you'd like to play with that aren't as obvious as some of the ones we've mentioned?
Jason: PJ Harvey, Thom Yorke (RADIOHEAD) and Chris Slade, the drummer from AC/DC.

That's surprising. Everyone was just raving about Phil Rudd returning to AC/DC to replace ?that bald guy?.
Jason: Oh man. Well, people got their head up their ass, 'cause that guy is a bad motherf.cker. Who else is out there? Ziggy Marley, Steven Marley, DJ Shadow, Q-Bert from INVINCIBLE SCRATCH PICKLES. He's a really multi-talented guy and does movies, but he's the king of turntables.

What are you're expectations of touring with ECHOBRAIN? That must be somewhat of a scary prospect.
Jason: No, I'm mostly very excited. My expectations are that the band is gonna play good. If people that appreciate good music still get into it, which I think they will because no matter what language you speak I haven't seen or heard one bad reaction, I'm happy. My expectations are not great in that we're gonna sell a zillion records or be big any of that huge touring thing or anything close to what the big bands have done. We're just doing what we do and what comes to us comes to us. That's all. We've got a plan and we're gonna do it ourselves whether anybody helps us or not, so you're not waiting around for big record companies or any of that bullshit. My expectations are that I'm gonna have fun playing this music that's a little bit different and it's really a great challenge to me. Every day it's a challenge to play this music with these guys.