Andy Kubiszewski knows the best-formulated plans often fall by the wayside when opportunity comes knocking. "Originally when I got into playing the drums, my goal was to get a job in an orchestra," says the drummer for Chicago's post-industrial hard rockers Stabbing Westward.

Curiously, Andy's first foray into the rock realm wasn't even as a drummer, but as a vocalist for Exotic Birds, an '80s band whose name may be familiar due to the high profile of their former keyboard player, Trent Reznor. In 1993, Andy got a pivotal gig playing drums for Matt Johnson's The The. "That was really the first time I had done anything worthwhile as a drummer," he admits. From there, Andy recorded with Reznor's Nine Inch Nails and toured with Crowded House. He joined his current band in 1994.

Stabbing Westward's self-titled fourth album represents a profound departure for a band notorious for recording songs dense with playing and programming. Andy explains the group's prime objective upon entering the studio: "Musically, we decided there were two choices: follow the current trend of really heavy music'the genre that we had been in forever - or make a complete break and do something no one expected, which was to go a lot poppier."

To make their sound more accessible, while still creating melodically inventive hard rock, the band went back to basics. "We didn't want to use any programming or click tracks," the drummer says, "and we didn't use a computer, which was completely alien to us. We wanted to do it like bands used to - just sit down and play your part."

Andy's very happy with the way his drums sound on the finished record. "It's been hard for us to capture Stabbing Westward in a live environment. This is the closest we've come."