How Ministry’s straight edge guitarist Sin Quirin became Al Jourgensen’s right-hand man

The old adage is that repressive political figures bring out the best protest music, and if there’s any silver lining to the current thrash fire of American politics it’s the resurrection of industrial pioneers Ministry. Following the death of the band’s long-standing guitarist Mike Scaccia in 2012, Al Jourgensen had declared that their next album, From Beer to Eternity, would be their last. Then came the 2016 election, and Jourgensen was suddenly re-invigorated, crafting the songs that would make up 2018’s AmeriKKKant, an intense and abrasive look at the bewildering state of global politics and the human stupidity that got us here. 

Ministry guitarist Sin Quirin has been with the band for over a decade now, and has been instrumental in creating the sonic assault that accompanies Jourgensen’s screeds. The soft-spoken guitarist has never touched drugs or alcohol, yet has become an integral part of the Ministry circus that at one point involved a mind-boggling array of substances and general insanity (see Jourgensen’s hair-raising 2015 autobiography). 

We caught up with Quirin ahead of the band’s current tour to discuss the making of AmeriKKKant, his unlikely partnership with Jourgensen, and if Ministry fans can also be Trump supporters. 

Ministry bring the AmeriKKKant tour to Montreal’s MTelus on April 15th with support from Chelsea Wolfe and The God Bombs. Tickets are $49.50 plus fees, available here.

Bad Feeling Mag: When you’re in the writing process do you think about how you’re going to execute these songs live?

Sin Quirin: Unfortunately I don’t [laughs] and I really wish I would! For instance, when I wrote “Double Tap,” that’s the fastest song I’ve ever written and I don’t know why I wrote it at that speed, I just did, And that probably would have been a great situation for me to think how I’d pull it off live. But I didn’t, so yeah, I probably should, but when you’re writing music you’re sort of in the moment, you’re not really necessarily thinking, “How are we going to pull this off live?” which is a very valid question and does make sense.

Did you ever think there would be a new Ministry record after From Beer to Eternity? Was that door closed in your mind?

Um, you know I can’t say yes or no. I always had hope, and I always thought there would be, because I had heard in the past that that was it, especially after the ’08 tour, [Al Jourgensen] was really ready to call it quits and hang it up, and there were a lot of issues going on at that time. So even though I was hearing “This is it,” I always had hope that something would change. And in this music business man, the first thing is “Never say never,” because you truly never know.

What’s your working relationship with Al like?

Horrible! [Laughs] The worst. No, you know, it’s a good working relationship. He and I are opposites in a lot of ways but then again, we have this common ground and we seem to kind of balance each other out somehow. I think that’s the only way I can explain us being together for 12 years. I’ve been clean and sober my entire life, like never touched a drop of anything, never been high in my life. So for me to be in this band, of all bands, to be in this one, and be sort of Al’s right-hand man for 12 years now, we’re definitely the ying and yang here. But we do find that common ground, and in the studio it’s been great, because he gives me so much freedom in the studio to kind of let me do my thing, while at the same time pointing me in the right direction.

And as far as producing, I’ve always said this about him, he’s the only guy that’s really been able to pull out things that I didn’t even know I was able to do in the studio. Somehow he’s got that gift. His production skills and his studio skills are the best in my opinion.

It’s weird in the sense that we don’t actually sit and say, “OK, let’s write a song.” Usually, I’ll show up with a riff or a song idea, and then it just kind of goes from there. We don’t really sit in a room together and stare at each other with guitars and start riffing stuff out. [Laughs] It hasn’t really worked out like that yet.

What was joining the band initially like for you? Do you remember what those first few sessions were like? Was there ever the thought of “What am I getting myself into?”

I still have those thoughts. They’ve never left. No, I mean I first came into the project in late 2005, early 2006 and I came in as a guitar playing for the Revolting Cocks. Ministry was getting ready to go out in 2006 with Revolting Cocks opening, and I came in as the guitar player, so that was my first introduction. I was in a band called Society 1, and we toured and had done the whole bit and everything, but this was definitely a different level and it definitely felt a bit intimidating at times, at least the first few rehearsals there. But quickly I got comfortable with it.

When you’re putting together an album like AmeriKKKant, do you discuss the theme of the album or the songs? Or does that come about later in the process?

That comes later on, because the music, pretty much 99% of the time we have the music together, and then Al starts working on lyrics and the themes and stuff like that, so we never really sit and say, “This is what this song is going to be about,” or anything like that.

So did the theme of this album come about as those songs were evolving?

It definitely came as the songs were being written and recorded. It was funny, because it was during all the political madness that was starting to happen and sort of snowball over here, so the timing just sort of felt perfect for it. It just kind of went hand in hand.

It’s almost a cliché that when you have a bad president you get some of the best underground music, but in some ways do you feel there’s a kernel of truth to that?

Well, it just seems to work out that way, I don’t know why that is. It seems to line up that way for us for some reason, I don’t know.

This might be one of the most eclectic sounding Ministry albums, you have the industrial and metal influences and even some hip hop in there. Was there a conscious decision to spread out for this one or did that grow from the songs?

A little of both. We did kind of go into it with that in mind, to bring in these other instruments and instrumentation. It’s weird man, it was almost like being in there when we were writing that we were starting to hear in our heads these other directions on where we wanted the songs to ultimately go.

Was some of it due to the anger in the material? Do you think that influenced the sound of the record?

I believe so. And one thing that I brought to the table on this record is that my ideas were slower than they had been in the past, slower song tempos. To go from a song like “Double Tap” that’s at over 200 bpm to the ideas that I had for AmeriKKKant were slower. And I do remember telling Al that and playing him some of the early demos of songs that turned into “Twilight Zone” and also for “America.” I had like two or three demo ideas of the early, early riffs I had that turned into those songs. And they were all slow, and I had written those in jesus, 2016. I guess that kind of was an early indication of where it was going to be headed. We didn’t want to make another album that was just 1,000 miles an hour. Because you can be just as heavy with a slow tempo song as you can with one that’s over 200 bpm, if it’s done right and if it sets the mood it can be just as intense and just as heavy.

It’s obviously such a divisive time politically, especially in the U.S. — has there been any blowback to the material from this record?

Of course. Absolutely. We’re just kind of used to that man. It kind of goes with the territory with us for some reason. Yeah, you’re always going to hear the backlash and people hating and blah, blah, blah. It is what it is man. It doesn’t phase us one way or another.

Are you someone who looks up what people are saying about the band online?

No. Definitely not, I know better. I used to do that 15-20 years ago, but especially being in this band., all you really hear and read about on those things are people talking trash, so no, we don’t bother ourselves with that.

Is it hard to isolate yourselves from that feedback loop when you’re in the midst of promoting a new record?

No, not really. It’s very easy to find stuff if you want to go looking for it, but if you don’t you just don’t go there.

I’m not sure if you can be a Trump supporter and a Ministry fan, but I guess there must be some small venn diagram of people who are into both camps — has anyone expressed that they’re against the anti-Trump sentiments on the new album?

No, not at all, We haven’t had that. And you’re right though, I’m sure there has to be a small percentage of that, but no, no one has come up to us yet. We’ll see, maybe on this tour. I’m sure we’ll run into some. [Laughs]

Do you notice a difference in the vibe of the crowd when you bring the tour outside of the U.S.?

Well, what I’ve noticed, and this is something I’ve always said, as far as crowd response and things like that, I’m born and raised in L.A., and L.A. is my least favourite place to play. If I could avoid playing L.A. I would. It’s such a jaded scene here and everyone is so pretentious. You’re up on-stage giving it 1000% and people are just standing out there with their arms folded. It’s always been like that here in L.A. You go down to some of the Southern states and people are going crazy, the Midwest they’re going crazy. New York can sometimes be like L.A., but Canada has always been great and Europe is always amazing. And then some of my favourite places are in South America because they just go bonkers. I mean, down there we’re running through places with crowds chasing us, that never happens in the States. Down there, from the second you hit the stage they’re on 10 the entire night, through the entire set. So yeah, you do see differences in how the crowds respond to you.

Is there a particular song from the new record that you’re really looking forward to playing out live?

Oh man, that’s tough. I’m really digging “Twilight Zone,” and “We’re Tired of It,” just because that one’s so brutal, so they go from one extreme to the other.

What do you hope people take away from AmeriKKKant? Is that something you think about once an album is released?

Everyone has their own interpretation of music and that’s the beauty of music is it will have a different meaning for everyone, but it would be nice if people looked at it as a whole, and really felt, ‘Wow, they really made an actual album where every song leads into the next and it’s a very cohesive piece of work,” as opposed to just a bunch of songs kind of put together. We did go into it with that in mind, of trying to make it more old-school. When we used to listen to albums as kids, we’d drop the needle on the record and just let it play. So if people felt that, that’d be great.

Is there anything else you want to let people know about the tour or anything else you’re working on independently?

Yeah, I’m actually working on something the complete opposite of Ministry, I’m working on this old-school power metal project called 3-headed Snake. I’m actually about to start mixing it but I probably won’t get to it until after the [Ministry] tour. I’ve got an amazing vocalist, and we’ll be releasing a 3-song EP after the tour.

Ministry bring the AmeriKKKant tour to Montreal’s MTelus on April 15th with support from Chelsea Wolfe and The God Bombs. Tickets are $49.50 plus fees, available here.