I am actually great, just returned from a vacation in Croatia with my old lady and rehearsing has begun for the newest Master CD. I also received news of the 7-inch release of the original Funeral Bitch demos from 1986 coming up soon. So things are looking up. No rest for the wicked I say.

Well, at the time you speak of I was just trying to get my life together. After auditioning many guitarists in and around Chicago original Master drummer Schmidt became disillusioned with the band and Master never really got off the ground. Bill joined a band called Mayhem from Chicago and began rehearsals for a demo with these guys.

My father passed away in the fall of 1984 and I was left along in his house until the house was sold. I was playing bass in the basement one afternoon when the riffs came to me for a song called The Truth. I felt like I was surrounded by mannequins and society was a complete farce. This song would forever change my life. I began auditions for a guitarist myself after being left alone to my own devices. Chris Mittelbrun came along as well as Scott from a band called Natas later Not Us. Anyways, Scott broke his leg and never returned to practice after a few rehearsals, so my girlfriend’s brother Kirk Miller came in and a drunken maniac called John Leprich. We began rehearsing in the basement and after a few weeks we went to record "Fuckin Death". Problems arose when Leprich had trouble with "Pay To Die".

The 3 songs were recorded on the first day and thankfully John pulled off, just barely, Pay To Die on the second day. We mixed on the second day. So needless to say this was done really quickly which is still my favourite way of recording and we still record quickly today. I was listening obviously to Venom and Slayer at this time and visitng concerts of these killer bands, but the obvious inspiration for the demo came from bands like GBH, MDC, The Exploited and Discharge.

I never really thought of it as death metal, for me and the guys in the band it was just plain metal. All these silly categories came later on in the music scene.

These are just original rehearsal tracks that some kids made back in the day on a tape recorder and they are aggressive as fuck so it’s cool for the people to see what things sounded like in a storage unit back in the day. I mean by listening to these rehearsal tracks you can tell that these young cats were onto something. These original demos would go on to influence a generation of bands for sure.

I suppose there are a couple others for a future release as bonus tracks. I laughed when I read some Italian review yesterday that said the bonus tracks were shitty sounding. It was rehearsal after all and they are still brutal as fuck so whatever.

We’ll see, I’ve had one offer so far at the moment. As far a reunion this will never happen because the guys are all lazy fuckers that have no interest in touring or playing concerts. I will have a different lineup if I ever tour with the band.

Again the original members are long gone, it’s been twenty years since we toured. Unfortunately guitarist Dean Chioles passes away from ALS many years ago and the drummer Aaron Nickeas runs his own pizza places. There will be a new lineup for Abomination, but it really doesn’t matter as I am the front man and main writer of all these bands.

We never played a concert with Deathstrike so no.

This statement was actually misinterpreted by the press, the guys never left the band or were fired. Everything is still normal. The drummer just refused to play the show in Israel and I had to pay the promoter 1000 Euros back for the flights because I am metal and felt bad about leaving the guys holding the bag, so I paid them. The promoters read a bit more into the statement I made than what was really true.

Freedom is the strongest benefit in this country. Police look the other way when I walk the streets, they’re not interested in who I am or what I am doing. Some of the most beautiful women in the world live here. The food is great and the village I live in is small and quiet.

I enjoy Italy for the food and the crazy fans across that country. Holland is by far one of my favourites as again, freedom exists there. You can choose what you wish without government intervention. The Netherlands have their own set of rules I guess, but freedom is at the forefront. Brazil was excellent in 2010 as well.

Any seasoned musician will tell you that he had experiences with drugs. Drugs can be enlightening sometimes. I don’t really experiment with drugs anymore, but I am an advocate of freedom of choice. I enjoyed smoking pot and hashish when I was growing up and it helped me become the person I am today. I indulged in mushrooms and acid and tried cocaine for a while, but I am really now only addicted to Marlboros and Jack Daniels, the latter only on tour. Actually I wrote some killer bass-lines while stoned back in the day!

I don’t know. Really my friend... Sorry for this answer!

All lyrics from all my records were inspired by personal tragedy and the society we live in for sure. Governments of the world have too much control over what the population does and should be brought down and executed for their crimes against humanity.

Many bands have sold out for sure which is ridiculous, but I guess they have to eat maybe. I have always stuck to my true beliefs when it comes to my music. I will never sell out!

Money is not as important for me as integrity. In the end you have to live with the music you create.

A band called Duce at my high school really planted the seed so to speak after I watched a few shows.

I began as a singer in a cover band called White Cross at school and then realised playing bass would be better for me. I practiced my ass off until I could play. Then I met Steve Harris and my world changed. After discovering Geezer Butler I really began a rigorous regiment of practice.

Actually I discovered a record called "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" among my older brother’s Disco collection. After listening to this and Aerosmith’s "Draw The Line" I was hooked.

I plugged my cheap Epiphone bass into my brother’s stereo when he was at work and began jamming along with the records and discovered I could actually play these tracks by ear. It took years to get really good though. It wasn’t an easy journey but in the end it was well worth it.

More shows across the globe for sure. Mexico is coming up I believe and several festivals here in Europe and the Abomination tour of course.

Yes thanks for the killer interview and people can purchase some rareties from many entities if they are interested. DeathStrike Fucking Death from Dark Descent Records also The Human Machine is available on vinyl at Doomentia Records in Czech.

For more info people can go to master-speckmetal.com

Answers by: Paul Speckman

Interviewed by: Osiris Stefanelli and Robert Williams