FIREZINE Phone Interview With PHIL AUSTIN

PA: I didn't know she was an intern, I thought she was Hillary. That's all I have to say. I thought she was Hillary. It was dark and I thought she was Hillary. That's all I've got to say. It was very dark and her hair is a lot like Hillary's.

FZ: She looks like Paula Jones too...

PA: No, Paula Jones is so ugly she makes Celine Dion look attractive. Paula Jones is a dog no matter what they do to her teeth. I mean it's frightening, Paula Jones. I mean if this is what he was reduced to as the governor of Arkansas, we all feel sorry for him.

FZ: Well he turned her down, that's what the deal was. That's why she's pissed off.

PA: Oh OK, that's what it was.

FZ: He must have said something like what you did when they brought her in.

PA: Something to the effect like, "Whoof, that woman is ugly! Yikes!"

FZ: You're all meeting with Rhino today?

PA: Yes. There's about 30 pages of script done. We're in kind of a typical period of insane assessment about the project so it will be interesting to hear what everybody thinks it's about. Ha, ha, ha. That's been one of the things. Right now the discussion that's ongoing now is whether the title of the album should be "Unconscious Village". That's the latest controversy swirling. And I have a feeling it will probably all be resolved today.

FZ: "The Mark Of Bozo" is gone now?

PA: "The Mark Of Bozo" is long gone. That's months old. Ha. That's old, old, old news. Things come and things go. They come, they go. It's really true. It's part of the process of doing this. It's like sometimes the title of anything is a long process. At a certain point it sort of appears. We're late in the game now and all the various choices like that have not survived. The current one is "Unconscious Village". And whether it will survive the weekend, I'm not real sure. But right now I think it will because we are officially dealing with the record company as of today. But what do I know, everything could change over night.

FZ: We read another title in Planet Proctor, "Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death".

PA: Yes, that's what was just bypassed. That's like slowly fading over the horizon. Although I believe Proctor is still hanging on for dear life.

FZ: From what you were telling me before, it seems you never really liked "Mark Of Bozo" title.

PA: No, I never really liked it.

FZ: It seems like in the beginning you guys started out with a title and then had to come up with an album.

PA: Well, it all depends on who you talk to. That's the thing, you are reaching out and wondering which part of the elephant you're feeling, when you talk to any one of us, even probably especially this conversation.

FZ: I usually get the bad part of the elephant when I put my hand out.

PA: Anal elephant parts. Yeah, the album certainly begins and is sort of surrounded by Unconscious Village. So right now that's beginning to be, ah, right now it's the title but you know, let's see what happens. Saturday would be interesting to see what everybody's saying.

FZ: I don't mean to pry, but are you going to be using the commercials that you made before?

PA: Maybe one of them and only one. We might wind up using the voice tracks from the original "Unconscious Village". We'll probably wind up using the voice tracks from the USPlus ad, but we're going to have to do new backgrounds, instead of everything else. Even then I can't really say. All I know, as pieces of writing, those two pieces have now gone on and expanded way beyond their original selves. USPlus actually exists and is an actual thing and Unconscious Village is now broadened out into something where it is much deeper than what it started out to be.

FZ: Does any of the "Sonoran Desert Doings" material kind of tie in with the album.

PA: Well.... Ray and Hal, Ray Amberjer and Hal Hiphugger show up and are inhabiting the album now for sure. There's not been an appearance of anyone else from there, although the fact that we're dealing with the millennium and the end of the world and the last day of the 20th century is what this album, where it takes place, means that we're slowly approaching... well all I can say is, "Watch out for the guys in the eyeball hats!" That's all I have to say about that subject. Watch out for the guys in the eyeball hats!