Category: Interviews

2005 was a frenetic year for the London based post-hardcore supremos Hell is for Heroes. A change of labels, a new album, a live DVD and countless live shows catapulted them back into the public eye – and this year looks to be much the same.

Renowned for the intensity of their live shows, they left EMI midway through recording their second album and signed to the people’s champion of labels – the ever growing Captains of Industry, and are now settling over at Burning Heart and getting ready to head back out onto the open road.

Frontman Justin Schlosberg took some time out to answer a few questions about the last year from Dee Massey regarding the bands future..and most importantly whether he likes pleasure or pain.

Its been a busy few years for the band, The Neon Handshake took the UK by storm and you guys were riding the crest of a huge popularity wave. Can you tell us a little more behind the split with EMI/Chrysalis. The line in Five Kids Go “fuck your well trained golden handshake” seems to suggest you weren’t completely content with being on a major.

The split with EMI was over differences in musical taste. We respect them for not being into our new songs and I think they respected us for not wanting to change them. We were always destined to be a ‘difficult’ band for a major label, not least because we don’t have 6 figure album sales. But we had a good time with them and generally they treated us ok even if they were a bit annoying at times

You signed to Captains of Industry – compared to working with EMI how different it is being on an indie label? What are the good and bad points? And Burning Heart now – how’s that going?

It’s more real I guess. We don’t get picked up by chauffeurs but we do communicate with our label directly and relate to other bands on their roster.

For Transit Disrupt you returned to Tonteknik Studios with Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lovstrom. How did you recording in a foreign country, and do you feel getting away from London and isolating yourself there was a positive thing for the band?

Pelle and Eskil are our friends and we would have recorded with them anywhere. Just so happens they have a great studio which is a converted mental asylum complete with eerie underground passage ways and clinically white walls. Suited us down to the ground. We also did some recording in a barn in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Sadly we didn’t learn any Swedish apart from the obligatory greetings and swear words.

How much creative control did you have over the album, how involved do you get in the production? How do you feel the sound has grown with the second album? Hopes for the third?

Since we left EMI we have complete creative control. Recording with Pelle and Eskil never feels like ‘the band vs the producers’. its more like they’re our 6th and 7th members – they play on the record and we’re involved in the production. We spent a long time writing the second record, mainly due to personal issues and because we wanted to push our songwriting further. None of us are technical geniuses and we’re certainly not the most prolific band in the world. so it takes a while to meet our expectations. We hope the 3rd album will come quicker though. we got off to a good start and wrote one of our best songs ever. but now the standard’s been set we have to try and live up to it with everything else we put on the album. that could be a tall order.

Who would you cite as your main influences? What bands do you listen to?

It varies a lot between us and changes over time. right now I’m listening to JR Ewing, Explosions in the Sky, Fugazi, Caretaker and Mono.

One thing that always strikes me about HIFH is the ferocity of your live shows – the intensity and passion rolling off that stage is amazing – back in 2003 you actually suffered a minor brain hemorrhage after a show? Has that slowed you down or made you reassess how you perform live?

Kind of. Its not that our shows are any less intense but after a while just screaming and prancing around like a maniac starts to feel less intense. We’re constantly trying to evolve and grow as a band and I think that’s reflected in our shows. We still love the sound of loud dirty guitars though so in that sense i think we’ll always put on a good hard rock show. its just getting a bit more varied.

You toured the UK and Europe last year, how was it to be back on stage? What was your most memorable show?

It was good to get out to places we’ve never been – it makes touring a lot more interesting. The shows were a mixed bag. Some of our best and worst. Most memorable was Paris. It was the last show of a long tour and it was the biggest and best. Tours rarely end on such an undisputed climax.

Where’s your favourites venue to play?

Nouveau Casino, Paris

Who’s the most annoying member of the band in the tour bus?

Me!

What kind of stuff you guys get up on the tour bus to pass the time?

Read, watch bad films, talk nonsense, smoke weed, drink, sleep.

Got any dirt on anyone on the band?

Yes. Loads. [spoilsport!]

Worst experience of the tour?

Being locked out our hotel in Denmark at 4 in the morning in winter, drunk and freezing to death.

What does 2006 hold for Hell is for Heroes? When will we see you guys onstage in London again?

We’re back on the road in March and April. We’ll be in London on the 10th March at the Mean Fiddler. It’s a co-headline with Boy Sets Fire from the US. Hopefully we’ll break with tradition and write, record and release an album within a year. We also have our first album release in the US next month through Epitaph.

And last…quickfire round please Mr Schlosburg.

Favourite album at present?

Explosions in the Sky – ‘Those who tell the truth will never die’

Favourite drink?

Mojito

Worst habit?

You don’t want to know…

Guilty pleasure?

As above…

Pizza or curry?

Curry…

Pleasure or pain?

I like them both. At the same time!

Beer or spirits?

As above.

Giver or taker?

Definitely a taker.

And finally..any last words of wisdom for the readers of Caught in the Crossfire?

Remember to clean behind your ears and between your toes.

Will do.

For further information on Hell is For Heroes tour check out their site www.hell-is-for-heroes.net or www.burningheart.com

Dee Massey

Ben Myers is something of an enigma.

Part author, part journalist and part label boss, he filters through the shadows of the music world, interviewing some of the biggest names in rock, enjoying critical success as a band biographer and still finds time to write novels and runs Captains of Industry, the people’s champion of indy labels, with a fast growing stable of bands to boot.

Comparisons to Hunter S Thompson have been bandied about, as well as rumours involving Jack Osbourne and a gun, and so before disappearing into hiding to finish his latest biography, on System of a Down, Ben took some time out to lay his cards on the table.

You’re a total jack of all trades – writer, music journalist, running a record label and a well known face in the London music world – how the hell do you juggle everything without losing the plot?

I think I’d get bored doing one thing, and as some close friends could surely confirm, do frequently lose the plot and flee the city. But it’s all good. I work from home and work for a minimum of eight or nine hours a day, dividing my time between writing and runnin! g the label. Also, I gave up drinking and found I could be a lot more productive without hangovers. So now it’s all about caffeine and marijuana – for medicinal purposes, you understand. The weird thing is, I’m inspired by the work ethic of straight-edge types, like Rollins and Ian MacKayepeople whose artistic and business endeavours are all-consuming – part of who they are. I think once you resign yourself to poverty for the foreseeable future, it opens up a whole new approach – living for yourself, scraping by and doing what you want to. You’d be surprised by the number of successful writers and rock stars who are in debt up to their eyeballs in order to create.

Which part of your life do you enjoy more, the writing, journalism or record label…and how did you end up working for News of The World?

Writing fiction is my main interest and I’ve been doing it most days since I was ten, or certainly regularly for the past few years when I retired from office life at the age of 23. It wasn’t for me, taking orders and helping other people get rich. No doubt I’ll have to get a job someday, but it won’t be today. Everyone should try their hand at writing – it can be good therapy and a good way to get to know yourself. Writing is freedom. Read Charles Bukowski or Henry Miller at 16 and your life will never be the same again. But music is such a large part of my life I can’t do one without the other. When we set up Captains of Industry three years ago we never imagined we’d make so many new friends, discuss so many ideas and feel like we’re part of something self-created. I’m also lucky in that I get a lot of free music sent to me, something I never take for granted. If I didn’t I’d have to become a shoplifter and its awfully hard these days.

As a teenager I did a few weeks work at News Of The World, and was sent undercover for them to infiltrate a suspected paedophile ring in East London.

The main thing I learnt though was, while the freedom of the press in the UK is a wonderful thing, the people who run the tabloids are cunts. They’re not writers. I refuse to buy their dirty rags for all the hate they spread. They continually perpetuate racist and xenophobic ideologies and I want no part of it. The power they wield over people who can’t be bothered to think themselves is alarming. Fuck them all. And fuck the celebrity-obsessed masses for being so subservient to false dreams. I have a novel written called Celebricide which will be the nail in the coffin of this vacuous age of famous non-entities. If I can just get it finished…

How did you get involved with writing for music magazines? What publications do you actually respect and read?

I forced my winning personality on the good people of Melody Maker (RIP) until they had to relent and give me a job. I got lucky, because I clearly could barely string a sentence together at that point, but my shoes were pretty good. Infact, the day I left college they offered me a full-time job. Yes. I did a little sex wee that day.

The best reads today, I think, are Plan B and Loose Lips Sink Ships. DrownedInSound and Playlouder are the two best music websites and are great at discovering new bands. www.3ammagazine.com is great for literature and music too. Kerrang! still has metal and punk at its beating heart and is run by people who live it. The notion that rock journalists are on the payroll of the big companies just isn’t true. I should know – I’ve been waiting for someone to try and bribe me for years, but it just doesn’t happen. I enjoy writing for Kerrang! and you couldn’t hope to meet a nicer motley bunch of freaks. Rock Sound is also a well-maintained mainstream music magazine, also run by genuine lovers of music with an understanding of what it is to be a fan of The Rock. I also saw a couple of good new mags recently, Kruger and Nude. Plus, The Idler is good, in a noncey Grouch Club type way.

You’ve spent time with some legendary bands/artists – who’s been your favourite subject? And the hardest interview subject?

I suppose my favourite interviews have been with people who have significantly impacted modern culture, whether that’s Chuck D, Slash or System of A Down, or people like Hanif Kurieshi or film-maker Danny Boyle. The biggest bands are usually professional, courteous and like hearing their own voices, so you just have to learn to nod at the right times and smile at their nuggets of wisdom. The hardest bands to interview are usually the smaller ones who’ve had smoke blown up their arses by their record companies; ‘nu metal’ produced a fair few of those. Total numpties. I once had a run in with Goldie, which was pretty unpleasant and turned a little nasty. It’s good to see he’s doing so well now though…

Rivers from Weezer was a complete nightmare to interview. I flew to LA for 36 hours and he said ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to every question, then got a bit pissy when, after twenty minutes, I stood up and told him I was going home. He had nothing to say. And years ago a band called Jonathan Fire*Eater (now The Walkmen) were spoilt little brats, which was a shame because I was and still am a fan. I didn’t lose any sleep over it though. In fact, I slept very well that night.

Matt Bellamy – guitar genius or self indulgent soloist?

Neither. But he is a pretty amazing songwriter and, the few times I’ve met him, a pretty engaging individual. Funny nostrils though…

The Book of Fuck – autobiographical? What were your main influences when writing it? How do you feel about the comparisons to Hunter S Thompson?

The Book Of Fuck was a snapshot of my life at the time – living in a sub-zero squat, a Northern boy in the city, struggling to make ends meet, drinking and drugging, involved in a tumultuous but highly pleasurable relationship, travellin! g around with bands, having the time of my life but also addled with worry and doubt. In fact, I’ve just described my life now. Nothing changes. But I did make up some situations and characters, because you can’t give your whole life away too soon.

Being compared to HST was very flattering. I was more inspired by a gentler, more poetic writer called Richard Brautigan, whose style I appropriated heavily, plus tonnes of others like Bukowski, Miller, Billy Childish, John and Dan Fante, Knut Hamsun, Bret Easton Ellis, Jack London, Jean Genet and Jim Carroll, who wrote The Basketball Diaries. If you can find a writer who speaks to you or for you, you have a friend for life – and without the obligations a usual friendship demands. Everyone’s a winner.

Captains of Industry – How did you get involved with that? What were the main catalysts in starting your own label? What’s your mission statement for the label?

Captains Of Industry was started in 2002 and is run by myself, my brother Rich and our pal Lee. Those two are up based up North and I’m slumming it with oiks in London. Between us we cover all bases and play to our strengths. Like, I know nothing about business, finance and economics but fortunately Rich does so that takes care of that. Lee is a design whiz and excellent drunk. Plus, we have no office, no official label stationary or any of that superfluous expenses that labels indulge in in order to look good. We exist only via a network of laptops and phonecalls, all overseen by the mysterious fourth Captain, Gary, something of an enigma and technical wizard.

We started the label for the same reason most people do – to release some cool new bands we’d heard. But we also plan on turning this into a cultural force and revolution of sorts – like some of the great art/political movements that have gone before, like the Futurists of the 1920s who shocked people into thinking in new ways via visceral noise and confrontational art. Our mission statement was to DESTROY and CREATE. Destroy the old methods and practices and create within a new landscape of idealism, naivete and discontent. A label is only as good as its bands and we have some right fucking mentalists on our roster, all of them easy to work with, all pro-active, all great in bed. We have a long way to go but the acorn is already sprouting into a sturdy oak. If we can keep afloat for a few more years, we should be in Number 10 by 2020. We’ll remove the front door and invite everyone round for a party, with fruit punch and dancing. Then we’ll install a number of Prime Ministers – black, white, gay, straight, young, old – so they can be in several places at once, that way the problems of the world will be sorted out so much quickly. Naturally, Bush will have to go, but he seems to be doing a good job of that himself. We like to think our limited edition punk rock releases are giving him a nudge. We like to think that, but it’s clearly not true.

Then we’ll all go to a Gay For Johnny Depp show and get wreckless.

So really, on paper we’re a record label, but in our hearts we’re cultural revolutionaries flying the flag for freedom and libertinarism. Currently the flag is flapping at half-mast but what the fuck, we’re free. Like, I said, naiveitie and romance is at the heart of what we! do. We’re idiots, basically.

What do think of the state of UK music scene at the moment?

I think large sections of it are trend-driven, but that’s OK. It’s fertile. Having spent time in LA, New York etc I can safely say that the UK truly does have the best music scene / industry / press / radio in the world, even if there are lot of shady Simon Cowell figures running it all. We should remember that whenever we’re grumbling. Some countries don’t even have electricity.

Hell is For Heroes were signed to Captains of, after being dropped by EMI, and as a result their second album was a huge step forward for them. Do you think majors constrict band’s creativity? And what can an indy offer that a major can’t?

The whole indie versus major argument is an on-going one, but is of little importance unless you’re prepared to change it, or get involved in some way. The only thing an indie can offer is a closer working relationship with their bands and greater artistic control, but that’s not much use without the finances to make it all happen. I know lots of folk at major record companies and most of them are nice people doing good work, some of them are friends, though as pan-international companies they do have a totally different mentality – profit above all else. We at Captains Of Industry believe in art above all else and as such we’re extremely skint. But we’re still here….still living the dream, baby.

Hell Is for Heroes have conducted themselves impeccably and are now signed to the rather super Burning Heart Records. Will still does the best windmill moves when playing guitar and Justin still performs like a kamikaze pilot; we love them and wish them luck. They’re leading by example, doing what they want to do.

What’s this rumour about you, Marilyn Manson and a marmoset?

There was no penetration.

Lastly anything to say to the readers of Crossfire…

Zac Crossfire and James Sherry are the punkest people in London. Peace and fucking…believe! Thanks Dee – it has been a pleasure!

Check out the new website and forums on www.captainsof.com for free album downloads, every month, for everyone! Also check out www.benmyers.com for all your Ben Myers’ needs!

Dee Massey

Gene Hoglan is one of metal’s most experienced and respected drummers, serving over 20 years in the scene with the likes of the legendary Death, thrash pioneers Dark Angel, and of course the Devin Townsend led maniacal outfit Strapping Young Lad.

Prior to the band’s performance at London’s Astoria as main support to Arch Enemy, “big Gene” spoke to Ryan Bird in none other than the venue’s backstage shower area. Get those rubber duckies at the ready, you may get wet!

Wow, you smell nice!

Thanks! That’s my shampoo. Apparently people can smell it outside and everything. It’s awesome.

I’m sure it is! Anyway, this is the first time you’ve been to the UK in a while…

About 6 months I think? A pretty long time anyway.

Even then it was only a one-off show. How does it feel to be doing a full UK tour this time?

Well, this is only 5 shows, so I’m not sure you could even call it that – but it’s cool. We’ve not really hit much of Europe as a whole at all this time around, which I suppose sucks, but we’ll get there. Hey, could you pass me those boots over there?

Erm, sure. Here you go *covers eyes*

Thank you sir!

Not a problem. The bill seems to be rather diverse with yourselves sandwiched in between Throwdown and Arch Enemy. How does that affect your reaction each night?

Well it’s pretty much the same each night really. Arch Enemy have their fans, we have a bunch of people there for us, and Throwdown apparently have a cluster of their own fans at each show too. Everybody just seems to respect the bands whether they’re really into them or not, so it’s cool. Although, I haven’t managed to check out Throwdown yet.

After their latest record, I wouldn’t recommend it!

Ha! Really? It’s not good?

As good as straight edge hardcore can be I guess.

Say no more then.

Quite! You seem to be a band that can pretty much play with anyone and not seem out of place. I’ve seen you with everyone from Clutch to Fear Factory and now Arch Enemy…

Absolutely. We are a band that can play with effectively any band you throw at us. You could put us on a bill with a bunch of real mellow bands, and we’d wheel out the mellow material and slot in. At the same time, you can put us on a death metal bill and we’ll slam out some of our heaviest shit. It doesn’t matter what bill you wanna put us on, we’ll still rip your head off.

You spent the summer on Sounds Of The Underground which was certainly a very diverse line-up once again. How was that for you?

It was awesome. An excellent way to spend the summer. We had a good time with effectively every show we played. We’d just go up onstage, do our thing and then leave. We had this “fuck you!” attitude about us on that tour because we kind of stuck out like a sore thumb compared to most bands, and we didn’t give a fuck if people dug it or not.

How do you feel you stood out above all others? This was a tour that included bands like Clutch and Opeth after all…

Because a handful of bands aside, everybody else sounded the same to me. Metalcore or whatever you wanna call it. I mean it’s cool if that’s what bands want to do and I don’t have a problem with it – but most bands sounded the same to me on that tour.

Speaking of Opeth, I heard you had to help them out on that run?

Yeah, I did. Their drummer Martin got real sick, and played the first 8 or 9 shows regardless. Sadly for him it took its toll and the band sent him home, and they asked me to step in and play a couple of songs with them, which I was delighted to do.

How do you manage to learn such complex songs in such a short space of time?

Well I already played with them before, when they toured North America a while back. Again they needed some help with the drums and asked me to play a song at their Vancouver show. I knew Devin (Townsend – SYL vocalist) was going to the show and was a big fan, so I called him and asked him what song I should play. He was like “Drapery Falls!” so I listened to it overnight, played it through once at sound check and nailed it right off the beat. I had such a blast I learn another one straight away and didn’t even sound check it. As we played it onstage that WAS the practice run!

Wow, that’s gutsy. Obviously you’ve been playing drums for a long time now in bands like Death and Dark Angel, so it may be easier for you to pick things up so quickly compared to a lot of people – but how would you say modern day drummers compare to when you were a kid learning the trade?

Kids today are getting very tasty very early on. They’re playing these technical rolls and licks at 19 or 20 that I wasn’t even starting to grasp until I was like 25. When the whole thrash thing was starting in the 80’s and I was with Death Angel, it was a pretty tough task to find yourself a solid drummer. Charlie from Anthrax was solid, Megadeth had a decent drummer, and Lars from Metallica was…ok. Nowadays kids are getting so good so early on that you can easily find a solid drummer for a band now.

Which of course can only be a good thing for music in general.

Absolutely! You certainly have to wonder where it’s going to go next. There’s definitely a new level of heaviness that hasn’t been discovered yet, and eventually someone is gonna find it.

It’ll be me that finds it, and you’re not having any when I do. Anyway, back to touring. You were with Fear Factory for 6 weeks or so. I’d imagine that’s a crowd that would certainly appreciate your music…

Yeah, that was a fun time. We only had about 4 days off between the end of that and the start of this run, but it’s cool. I suppose with Fear Factory having a very industrial based sound and us dabbling with electronics ourselves, it was a nice balance for their fans. We certainly had a good time.

So with such extensive touring this year, what can we expect for 2006?

Well, Devin is going to be doing a month with the Devin Townsend Band– their new album is amazing I might add – but after that he’s said that he’s down with Strapping for the duration. Summer should be a big period for us, and we’ll also be doing a new album. I think we’re in the studio around April, so it should be out a couple of months later. Either way 2006 is a big year for us, so watch yourselves!

Strapping Young Lad’s ‘Alien‘ is out now through Century Media.
Go to www.strappingyounglad.com for ear bleeding chaos.

After working with The Roots and sharing the stage with Gil Scott Heron and the late, great Nina Simone, poet and spoken word artist Ursula Rucker took time out after busy visits to Germany and France to talk to Sam Hesketh about the Wu Tang, the burden of writing and being labelled as a “conscious artist”.

So let’s start with the basics – when did you start getting into poetry and slams?

Actually, I never got into slams, I don’t really agree with them. I did one, but that was to support friends who were putting it on. But I started writing really young, but didn’t realise I was a poet until I had enough sense to realise it and then started going to readings in little book stores and places like that.

Is it a good scene in Philly for poetry then?

It was, it was really nice when I started because nobody was trippin’ on anything, it was just a natural thing and everybody was friends. I don’t know what its like really now because I’m not in there as much but every once in a while I see a reading in the local paper and I wanna go and do it, just to have that special feeling again.

And the music followed pretty soon after?

Yeah it did. You know, the minute I started having the courage to start sharing my stuff from home publicly, everything kinda fell in with it. It was like “Woah, this is crazy”, and that was 12 years ago!

At the moment there are more poets getting into the hip hop scene, Saul Williams and Benjamin Zephaniah for example, do you think that’s important for poetry?

No, I think its nice that people get introduced to poetry in that way, when they realise it can be acceptable, because it’s really like a community. I mean, you can learn it in school and the teachers tell you its all about rhyme and meters and shit, and that can really turn people off, I mean I don’t operate that way. So yeah, it’s nice, but it’s not necessary.

Listening to your stuff, it seems really powerful because its so different from when you turn on MTV and see the rap stars throwing money at the camera and women shaking their booty in hardly any clothes. Do you consciously go out to be different to that?

I don’t consciously do that, but I am conscious y’know? We get put in a box negatively, I mean people like me, Mos Def, Talib Kweli as “conscious”. I’m just conscious like I’m aware. Different people are pre-destined to see and care about different things, from a young age. I had to grow into being a rebel, because I was shy and I had to be brave enough to make a comment, it’s what’s around you.

So, have you ever felt like, you’ve seen something on TV or in your community and you HAVE to write about it?

Yeah! It’s funny you should say that, I’m sure I’m not alone, many people feel like that, artists or not. I was watching something on the TV and I just thought, why do I let things affect me? Why can’t I turn it off? I just can’t! This morning even I flicked on the news, I saw something saying “30 people blown up in Baghdad”, and everyone is de-sensitised to it now, but it’s still such a heavy thing, and I think about how many were children or women or old people y’know? And I’m included, like you hear it every day and you’re just like [hand over face] this. And that’s what I care about, in an age where phones can do everything for you, be your prom date, all kinds of shit, it’s such a time to call on people to pay attention to people.Even if you don’t share your stuff with any other person, if you know in your heart that you’re that type of person, if your art is personal, you’re still progressing as a human being.

Working with The Roots and sharing the stage with real greats, is there anyone that you would absolutely love to work with?

Always the same answer. I had a list, which I did ages ago and I write his name on it like, if I write it enough it’ll happen for 15 years – The RZA. Since the first time I was recording for an album, which didn’t come out as something happened with Sony, and I had to make a wish list for people to work with and RZA was top then. Even if I haven’t always agreed with everything they’ve said about women, as a unit, they are what hip hop is all about, getting together and keeping it constant with good quality music. I like that whole thing, they always take it to the next level.

Well RZA did a world rap album not long ago, with French and German guys on there, so he’s willing to go places other big names don’t go.

Exactly! You can take that shit from the hood, and I mean seriously the hood, you know they are from where they say they are from! And he takes that and doesn’t change who he is when he goes off. He gives who he is to these other people to work with, I love him.

So, when you write your stuff, I guess the poetry comes first and then the music follows?

It works both ways, I mean in my mind the poetry comes first because that’s the major thing, but sometimes I need some sounds, when I’m working on a project. When I work on personal things, I don’t obviously. When I was on this last project, I was bogged down with life shit, and I wasn’t in the right place to write poetry all the time, so I asked Ant, the guy who did most of my album, that I might need music upfront, but I told him the themes beforehand. For this album, I wrote everything in the studio, the day before we recorded it, because I so gridlocked in life. I had to get it where I could get it, and I’m not even really a spontaneous person.

It must be hard then coming over to Europe when you have four sons then.

Its hard, but most of the time its because I’m trippin’. I’ve done this a few times, one kid, two kids, three kids, four kids. They don’t like it when I leave but its only a short trip this time, but its mostly because I’m trippin’. My eldest son is 11 now but he’s into hip hop and everything so it’s cool.

In my dissertation on “Hip Hop and Communication Theory”, I read a theory that even if you only touch one person, in all the billions of people out there, its worth it. And I always get that from hip hop, do you feel that way about it?

That’s what I always say , it’s important like that.

I mean, even my mum likes the album!

That’s the real shit right there. When people play it to their parents and they dig it, that’s the biggest compliment you can give me!

You’re music touching all sorts of people then!

Well that’s it, if someone asks me to describe my audience, I can’t do it. A lot of people might think because I’m black or a woman or a poet, I’ll have a certain audience. But you can’t put it down like that, especially at a live show. When I go to a reading or a University, I reach people on different levels, its all important and all relevant.I mean, I know poetry isn’t on the radar like other things are, but I’m so happy to be here right now, it’s amazing. I have mentors and I know the long lasting reach of poetry, and it allows me to get my shit off and let people know this is what’s troubling me, or what makes me happy and that’s the best thing. It’s all about that urgency of the moment you’re in and you get to write it down.

It’s cathartic as well to write all that down.

Oh yeah, I can’t stop, I have to chase things down wherever I go. I liken it to if I were a photographer, because you know they carry their cameras around everywhere. Or if they don’t have it, they see something they want a photo of and they’d kill to have it, and it’s that moment I’m into.Well, thanks for talking with me, I hope the rest of the day in London is cool.

Thanks so much, make sure you tell a neighbour about the CD and get to a live show next time I’m over!

After the tape stopped, and Ursula found out this was going on a skating site, she told me that her eldest son was into skating and she’d make sure he’d check out the site. On top of this, as I was leaving, she told me that the skating scene in Philly used to be great as the Love monument was used by all the skaters, but the city then closed that down for skating and she felt it was a shame because it was an awesome community to have around.

Ursula Rucker’s upcoming album, “Ma’At Mama” is out on February 6th, on K7 Records.

By Daniel Crouch on December 3rd 2005 at Oxford Brookes Uni

How’s it going today?

It’s going good thanks, I’ve just eaten my duck and cashew nut dinner, which tasted like shit, but yeah I’m good today!

How’s the tour been going so far?

Great! We’ve been touring since June pretty much, so it’s a long haul, but for me, playing live…it’s always good.

It’s been only a couple of months since you were last here in the UK.What made you want to return so quickly?

Well it’s always been the plan to come back and hit the cities we didn’t get to the first time round, which is why we’re playing places like Exeter and Oxford instead of the usual London, Manchester, Glasgow schedule. Also, we wanted to play the Mean Fiddler in London the first time round to drum up the support and get the numbers in to sell out a show at the Forum the second time round.

You’ve been touring pretty hard on the back of Ghost Reveries – from the likes of this tour now to the summer you spent on Sounds of the Underground in the US. What’s the general reception been like to the album so far – both live and critically?

It’s been good, very positive so far. I mean, Europe is always a good market for us, but the US is better, obviously as there are more people there, so it’s great that we’re going to places and seeing twice the amount of people there than we would usually expect to see.

Are you getting people whinging at you to play certain songs off the new album you’re not playing?

*laughs* Yeah, well we obviously have to play new songs, but we have 8 albums of back material too; there are people who moan because we haven’t played this song or that song…like over here in the UK now, we’re playing all these smaller venues, and maybe 20 people are going to 2 or more shows, and obviously these are the more dedicated fans, and often the ones that go on the internet forums afterwards and say “Why didn’t you play Ghost of Perdition?”, but we have to be thinking of the other people at these shows who won’t have seen previous shows and play a setlist that reflects the entireity of our music…but…yeah, the reception to the album has been great.

Is it possible for you to play a completely different set each night, similar to bands like Dream Theater?

*looks horrified* Oh no! We’d have to rehearse and practice all the time to do that, and we haven’t got the time really. We have maybe 14 or 15 ‘live’ tracks, which we’ll rotate round in setlist that has 10 songs in it each night, just so there is a bit of variety in our sets.

My theory is that Dream Theater are probably actually robots…

Ha! Probably.

Sounds of the Underground must have been quite a weird experience, seeing as many may argue you’re a band best suited to a smaller venue and not a larger outdoor event…

Yes, it was. I mean we’ve played the big festivals before over here in Europe, like Download over here in the UK, but it (The Sounds of The Underground tour) was a touring festival, which is unheard of in Europe, so that was a totally new experience for us.

How were the headlining and main support spots sorted out? Did you have some guy poke his head round the door first thing and shout “Right, you’re on in five minutes guys”?

Well we got to headline once in Montreal, as we have a big following in Canada, but for the most part Lamb of God headlined, and the main support act position was rotated around….we were told usually in the morning what the schedule for the day was, so we were always prepared.

What was it like to share a stage with such a diverse line-up? Obviously bands like High on Fire and Madball are a mile away from yourselves in terms of genre etc…

Well we certainly stood out a bit, which isn’t anything new for us, and we mostly didn’t really pay any attention to the other bands on the tour; we tried to concentrate just on ourselves. Most of the other bands were, what do you call it…’metalcore’ bands, who in my opinion mostly sound the same really…..that’s not to say they weren’t all nice people, but it’s just not really my thing. But no..it was good, as we were turning a few fans towards our music, so it was good for the band.

So come on, just how many songs did you manage to fit into your set each day?

laughs* Oohhh, about 3 or 4. In festivals like that you usually only get about 30 minutes to play, and with our music we can’t really play many songs in that amount of time.

Like at Download, where you managed to get through ‘The Drapery Falls’ and about two other songs?

Exactly.

But it’s all good value for money?

*laughs* Well I hope so!

So back to the latest album, how would you say you’ve progressed musically since Deliverance and Damnation?

Well we never really set to purposefully progress our sound, it all happens naturally just from ideas and stuff we’d have floating around. Obviously a big change from the Deliverance and Damnation records is the addition of a permanent keyboard player, but also we had more time to prepare and rehearse before we went into the studio, unlike previous albums.

Actually before I came here tonight I was watching the ‘Lamentations’ DVD documentary, which showed up the problems with recording the previous two albums…

Yes, we wanted to prevent that happening again; we were determined to get it right this time.

How did you approach writing the album whilst in a transition period between labels?

Actually the album was written and recorded before we signed to Roadrunner. But we had decided we wanted to sign for them before we entered the studio, so it had no impact at all on the making of the album, we just wanted someone to put the cd out….we certainly don’t trust any of these labels with ideas concerning direction etc; we don’t want some American boss telling us to change our sound and gel back our hair to some style, we’re always wanted to do it our way.

Speaking of Roadrunner, how have things been thus far between you?

It’s a good relationship I think, we just want them to put our album out. They did complain about the length of the songs, but you’d expect that with them wanting to put songs on the radio and make videos..but that’s nothing new as our previous labels Koch and Music For Nations were the same. But we’re certainly trying to keep away from being told what to do.

Roadrunner seem to cop quite a lot of flack from within the metal community. Why do you think so many people seem to have such a vendetta against them? Is it simply their success and popularity?

Probably. I mean Roadrunner ten years ago was full of classic metal, but now because they’ve signed more commercial bands and metal is getting popular again, people are slagging them off. I’ll bet these people were the same people who listened to Korn back in the day though. Roadrunner having Nickelback and Slipknot on there doesn’t affect us at all. It just seems they’re being criticised for making money.

I think a lot of people assume that such a relationship may turn your sound a bit more commercial so to speak. Do you think such an assumption is a little ridiculous given that this isn’t exactly the first time you’ve been on a major label?

It is ridiculous, I mean, if people think after 8 albums we’re going to suddenly change just because of a label swap they can fuck off. We’ve always been non commercial, the only reason we’re doing more press and interviews now is partly because of Roadrunner yes, but also because we’re getting more popular, so obviously we’re going to get more exposure, but that has no effect on the music, we’re still writing ten minute songs.

It’s a bit like the Metallica syndrome; they make a video and suddenly they weren’t ‘cool’ anymore…

Yes, I only didn’t like Metallica when they changed their sound to be more popular, but people are always going to love your band when you’re unknown and relatively underground…but they don’t want everyone knowing about you and you being successful, it’s a little crazy really.

So presumably, if next year we see you guys in a video surrounded by gold chains and bitches, we officially have permission to twist your nipples and pull your hair?

*chuckles* Ha ha…yes, if we start gelling our hair into spikes and rapping……well, we’d deserve it.

So what’s next for Opeth? A bit of relaxation time?

Oh no…we’re on a four week tour now. Yesterday we played Exeter, today Oxford, and tomorrow…or tonight, whatever it is..we’re going to Holland, and then back to Sweden. I think I get back home just in time to do half a days Christmas shopping pretty much. We’re having a month off in January, and then out again until maybe October…it’s certainly very hectic, I’ve only seen my wife for about 30 days since June.

It’s a case of music not just being a job, but a life then?

Definitely.

Well thanks for taking the time out to do this Peter, I’ll leave you to enjoy your duck and cashew nut dinner…

Actually I’ve eaten half of it already, usually the guys have pizza every night after the shows…so I’m trying to avoid that tonight.

So there’s no travelling Opeth chef?

Noooo…maybe Lenny Kravitz has one, but not at this level. People probably don’t realise we’re actually working all day, not just for the show. We get maybe 20 minutes before we go on stage to eat, so there’s a lot of fast food!

Does that mean there’s a lot of bad smells floating about on stage?

*laughs* Oh yes, but I’m the only one who doesn’t fart! But Mike…well…he has his very own smell!

Daniel Crouch

Humanzi are a brand new band coming out of Dublin, Ireland who have recently set ears on fire with Fix The Cracks, their debut single out on Fiction Records.

Crossfire thought it was essential that this mag covered the band from day one so Zac met 2 members on their tour bus outside the Barfly in London on a freezing cold night in November 2005.

Right, Humanzi blokes, introduce yourselves….

Colin: Colin Rutledge, lead guitarist, one of three backing vocalists

Brian: Drummer, two of three backing vocalists.

I just read your biog and it said that you’re very wary of the media. Have you had a good kickin’ or something?

Colin: The English media have been nice so far in the little bits we’ve got. But the Irish media, not naming anyone, have been a bit begrudging y’know? Like they don’t wanna see one of their own get something outside of Ireland. They’re happy with U2 being that band.

Yeah but that’s years ago now man!

Colin: Yeah it is, but that’s just how it feels. A couple of people have said like “Who do they think they are?”. I mean we have all this hype around us, but we didn’t create the hype. It’s nice to have it around us but we didn’t create it. That’s the Irish way of looking at it anyway. But the English media, we’ve done a few bits and pieces and we’ve had a good response, it’s been nice.

Tell me a little bit about the history of the band and how you formed because most of the readers of the site will only have just heard about you through XFM and won’t know too much about how you got together.

Brian: Started off just as drinking buddies y’know? Me, the bass player and the singer were in a band and the bass player and Colin were playing together in another band and it all kind of merged together

Colin: This is basically the best four from all of the bands that we knocking about.

Which bands were you in before Humanzi?

Colin: Going in chronological order, me and the bass player were the first of all of our mates to be in a band, a band called The Sheds, a four piece. It was kind of poppy stuff, it was good but we were too young to realise what a record deal was even about. We were happy gigging away. And that’s the difference between that and us now, because we’ve all been through it with other bands, and this is it. And one of us said “If we don’t get signed in a year, we’ll call it a day.”

Brian: And because we’d only been together a year and a half, the year we got signed, people were making a big deal of it because they said bands have to slog it out for ten years. But because we’d all been in bands before, we knew that was bollocks. We just played some good songs and some good gigs.

So you’ve done the circuit in Dublin. Are you all from Dublin?

Colin: Yeah, all of us are.

So I hear there was a bit of a bun fight for your signature. How comes you ended up at Fiction Records?

Brian: Well we did the whole meeting everyone from labels thing and you just forget everyone’s names because they’re all just saying the same thing. So you get to where there are a couple of labels, that we felt really strongly about and kinda got attached to y’know, which made it harder to make a decision.

Colin: The other label we got emotionally attached to but in the end we had to look at their track record and listen to what a few people told us about them and what our future had to be like and we had to look out for ourselves anyway. I mean, we had to distance ourselves from that kinda thing. Everyone was saying the same things anyway and we knew we had to take a risk with someone. And we knew that if we just went on and on like this we could lose it too! So it was this and the other label…

What was the other label?

Colin: Virgin

Zac: So Fiction got it. What about the history of Fiction, obviously The Cure are the flagship band from my era.

Colin: Actually, I didn’t really know that these bands were on Fiction, it was more to me that they seemed like a new label, an up and coming label. And if you go with them then you grow with them rather than being thrown into big label that have all these big ideas of throwing your face on every bus that goes by. This just seems a little more… tasteful, unique.

Let’s talk about the record. People have only heard the single so far “Fix The Cracks”, which is a pretty hefty debut single as far as I’m concerned, is it an old track or new track?

Colin: We’ve been writing for fifteen or sixteen months so I suppose it would have been somewhere halfway through the writing wouldn’t it? Some of the songs on there are old, one of the songs on there Tremors is the very first song we ever wrote. It was when it was only me and Sean in the band, he wrote the song and I wrote bits and pieces. Fix The Cracks was just an instrumental thing we had going on, but then we got a structure to it and turned it into a song, but to begin with it was just a big jam.

Brian: A lot of the songs come about like that too. Fix The Cracks, we had a rehearsal booked on a Sunday, and it was the only time we had, we were all doing different things and knew we just had to get our shit together on one day. We just started jamming and it came from that like most songs do I suppose and we just thought “Fuck it, this is going in the gig“.

So you’ve produced Fix The Cracks with a guy called Garrett Mannix. Is he a Dublin guy? A local producer, or a friend of yours?

Colin: There’s a lot of people in Dublin you know. That’s how you know your real mates. I mean, there are people I’d say hello to and just have a drink with for five minutes before making my excuses. So we knew him on this sort of level but now we’ve worked with him and he’s really talented and we got some really good results with him. And he’s always busy, like I saw him the other day and he looked like his eyes wouldn’t open, like he only gets two hours sleep a night. But he’s worked on six tracks on the album. It was done by a few different producers.

Yeah, i hear Chris Renner was involved from Nine Inch Nails…?

Colin: He was the drummer in Nine Inch Nails

Ah! That makes a big difference on the production of the album then obviously.

Colin: Yeah well we went into the final two weeks and just went over everything that we’d already done y’know. And his work on the drums was just…

Brian: It was great finding someone to work with who had the same sort of ideas in his head of how a drum kit should sound.

It’s really important as well, especially if you have something danceable, the beats are absolutely essential and on the dance floor they have to sound crisp so obviously he bought a hell of a lot to the production. So did you work in America with this dude?

Colin: No, Ireland. It was in a studio right slap bang in the middle of Ireland. Its about a two mile span in the middle of Ireland.

Brian: It’s like an old farmhouse, really cosy and stuff. It’s good because it’s a place where you can go to just get away and concentrate on your music.

Colin: We found it good because no-one can get lost there, we were basically sleeping above the studio and you just get the work done which is what we wanted.

Did this guy have any particular traits that were weird? I know someone who worked with this guy called Steve Albini who used to get up at 6 o’clock every morning and take an axe onto a load of logs and go out there for an hour and pump himself up and then get everyone out of bed at 7 in the morning and be like “Right let’s fucking do it!”

Colin: Sounds like a good idea actually!

Did he have anything crazy to get to where you wanted?

Colin: Nah, to work with him was just great because he had the know how and a good vibe. We get on with anybody, but like on the first day we got to know each other, but after that we were at the bar drinking and we got on really well. We’d consider him to be the main man to help us out now.

Someone who suits your music?

Colin: Yeah someone who can work with us as part of a team y’know, so hopefully he’s gonna be our main man.

But you did mix the record in Connecticut I hear, with Peter Catus. He’s got Interpol on his CV, was that a particular reason that you chose him, because of the bands he’s worked with?

Brian: This is before we worked with Chris, we were just shopping around looking to compare the people we worked with, and we did two tracks with Peter which turned out really well, and when we came back, we finished the album with Chris and Chris had something else to do so couldn’t mix it, so we looked at Peter for the mixing.

Colin: Peter actually recorded two tracks with us, one of them’s going to be on the album, one is debatable. He was actually someone we wanted. We were name-dropping and his name came up, because we’re all fans of Interpol, which was why he was mentioned. The tracks he did with us are amazing.

Will one of these be a future single?

Colin: One of them could possibly be yeah, somewhere down the line.

So let’s talk about Connecticut because I understand you were in the middle of nowhere, and also the studio is in the loft of where Peter lives, which i hear used to be a halfway house for the mentally insane?!

Brian: There’s definitely a vibe left over!

So it’s a strange place to work?

Colin: The house isn’t short of things to do, it’s not as if you get bored there, you get more bored in my house. But if you go out for a walk, all you see is petrol stations and semi-retired people driving around.

Brian: There’s also a cemetery the size of Dublin city up the road as well.

Colin: There’s petrol station called “Freedom Fuels“! And if you walk five minutes in the wrong direction, there’s a ghetto. We got caught there looking for a couple of beers, and it was one of those places man…

Did you leg it?

Colin: We turned and ran, didn’t look back.

What was in the ghetto?

Colin: It was just like something off the tele y’know? Dodgy looks and stuff.

I understand that you took a trip to New York City and got kicked out of hotels?!

Colin: I can’t tell you the half of what I’ve done, because it really shouldn’t even be printed! – 48 hour sessions!

I’ve actually heard “three day bender” mentioned.

Colin: Second weekend, we had some friends come over from Dublin, because there was a music festival in Boston, so there was about 14 of us in New York having a craic. We all know how to party so it was great.

I understand that one of you met Snoop Dogg on your travels?

Colin: That’s Gary, the bass player yeah.

And became quite pally?

Colin: He was playing last February, and we were just about to go off to LA to meet with the American connection at Interscope and the guy we met ended up getting us on the guest list for Snoop Dogg and we got backstage and ended up meeting him. At the end of the gig everyone was singing “Ole, Ole Ole Ole” and he was like “What the fuck was that you were singing?” because he didn’t have a clue y’know, so he got us all singing it and started doing some little rap over it. He was right beside me, and y’know how his voice is so gentle? So then we were supposed to get a big bag of weed but… Anyway yeah then we heard a rumour that he was supposed to be doing something with Franz Ferdinand…

Colin: Imagine like us, who the fuck are we y’know? Next to him! haha!

I think it’s great, and he’s even started up a skateboard company too you know.

Colin: Well he had a dip, he had his great albums from the nineties and then had a dip but now…

He’s back on his game man.

Colin: Imagine it though, us working with him, we’d explode onto the scene. We could record like a new Irish national anthem or something.

Obviously you’re going to busy for the next year touring this album…

Colin: Don’t tell my girlfriend that!

She’ll just have to get used to it [laughter]. So, we’re at the Barfly tonight, but where do you see your futures going? Are you excited about what’s going on?

Colin: Not really actually, I’m just living it as it comes. Obviously I’m excited about it but there’s never been a time where there’s so many bands around. I mean, if people think we’re a great band it’s great but then they’ll drop us for the next one. There’s always a new band around the corner y’know? And if we get too excited then we’ll just go out on the piss too much. We’re all really aware of that, we don’t wanna go on tour for a year and not write a song, we wanna keep it real.

Brian: All the hype too, we just wanna be here a year down the line with people at our shows who are really into what we’re doing. We just wanna build up a loyal fan base too, not one that just goes off to follow another band in six months.

What influences the sound? Where did you all start musically that influenced you?

Brian: The very start? I suppose its what influences everyone really: The Stones, The Beatles, Zeppelin. The kind of thing were you wear the tape or CD out and go onto to find new things. We all moved onto different things but all similar type of music.

Colin: If you got us all on our own we’re be listening to very different things. We’re mad into dance music, which really comes through.

When you talk about dance music, are you talking about techno and house?

Colin: We’re more into dance bands than DJs, stuff like Leftfield and Chemical Brothers, who might only have had a couple of albums but they’re really great and its great to get that sort of thing into a guitar band. I hate going to see guitar bands that just sing songs, they always have songs in their set that lose people. At our gig, its full on and you have to dance to it. There’s no breather in there.

So it’s a lot harder live than it is on the record?

Colin: Yeah it has to be, it’s softer on the record, it has that lo-fi thing going on.

Now you’ve heard the record and lived with the record, you know the potential of what you can do in the studio, has it changed your live set at all? Adding little bits to make it a bit edgier.

Colin: Even before we recorded in the studio, we always did bluesy rock and roll tunes and people in Dublin were like “that’s amazing!“, we always had a good live set up with four people. The only problem now is that there are over dubs on the album that we miss out on live. But we’ve always been full on live, I mean, Brian is the fucking hardest live drummer, we all to try and keep up with him.

So you get into your live thing, you get into your drums.

Brian: Yeah it’s great. I mean, I’m hitting my drums hard and this lot keep up with me but play loud so I’m having to hit them even harder so there’s this big assault. I just feel sorry for the people up the front.

I read today that Sean was going to be a chef, but he’s obviously not making soup in the kitchen! So what are the worst possible jobs you’ve had on your CVs?

Brian: How long have we got left on that tape?

Zac: Probably about 20 minutes.

Brian: Not long enough then [laughter], just everything from working in a warehouse to selling bathroom suites!

Colin: Tell him the classic one….

Brian: Well, I saw this ad in the paper, to get money fast and I’d been on the dole for a while, immediate start. So I went in for the interview, sat down and they said “what’s your name?” and I told them and they were like “grand, when can you start?”. So I thought this was good and they told me to come in the next day and dress smart and when I got there the next day, they brought out this big postal bags full of ratchets, nuts and bolts. And they sent me going to everywhere, like butchers, trying to sell people these things that no-one wants.

I think I can almost beat that. I worked for a company called Britax, who made prams, and I was on the dole, skating, in a punk band and my mum was like “you’ve gotta get out and get a job“, so I went out and took the first thing that came up. I was sitting there in a factory, and I lasted two hours.

Colin: The worst job I had was having to hold a pole for a land surveyor, the guys you see standing on the side of the road. And we were just assistants and the boss used to call us “monkeys with sticks“. And because it’s a one man job, you literally just stood there holding this thing for him to look through and get the reading of the level of the road in the freezing winter months, with my minidisc player, shaking with the guy shouting “hold it steady you fucker!”.

OK last question: Penguins on a menu, does that ring any bells?

Colin: Just what I was saying earlier about the record company taking us out. I hate posh food, I think it’s disgusting, I just like something you can tuck into. They bring you these stupid big plates with a piece of lettuce and a prawn on it or something. And we went to this posh hotel in Dublin, and we ordered a load of food between us and there was some confusion and someone asked what we were eating, because it did taste a bit weird so the waiter went away to find out. When he came back he told us it was penguin, and we were like “fuck off penguin” and he was saying “no honestly, its penguin“. Where’s the fin? Where’s the beak? And then he came back after and said it was chicken or something. I mean, we were just brought up on stews, Guinness stew!

Check out Humanzi in 2006 as they are sure to be in your ears at some point….and if you can’t wait for them to come to you, check out the December Indie Show at Crossfire Radio by clicking here and launch the show to get the latest Buzz tunes.

Fiction Records release their second single Long Time Coming on February 13th, look out for it.

Test Icicles have recently burst into the spotlight with their debut album “For Screening Purposes Only” and one hell of a mental live set.

Their hybrid of hardcore punk, metal and screamo seems to either annoy people or turn them into followers…they are either loved or hated, it is that black and white.

On a cold December afternoon in 2005, all 3 band members dropped in to see Zac at Crossfire HQ to get this interview down. The band were burnt out somewhat and were genuinely knackered from the amount of promo stuff they are asked to do due to the demand but with a couple of hours of hanging here, they left with smiles on their faces which made this more worthwhile than usual.

So, Test Icicles…..the most spazzed out punk band out there at the moment, nice to see you guys, let’s talk a bit about how you all put your shit together in the first place, where are you all from?

Rory: We are from all over the place I guess, essentially me and Dev were brought up in London. I was brought up twenty miles out of London, kinda in Barking.

Sam: I’m from Milwaukee via Perth, Western Australia

Ah so you’re well travelled Monsieur. When you say Barking, is that where the Hounds Of Hell are actually from?

Dev: It is originally where Hounds Of Hell are from. I’d put that down as an official statement, they’re from there.

That’s the highlight of the Barking, Essex area then!

Dev: Yeah! And also a guy from some…thing…to do with… drummer….(*runs out of steam and realises it’s really not relevant!*)

What?! Even the dog’s laughing here!

Dev: Type that exactly how I said it!

Don’t worry I will! We’re here to confuse our readers not give them any info!

Dev: Who cares anyway right?

So what year did this band start rolling then?

Dev: Last year (2004)

That soon?

Dev: Yeah it was actually August of last year!

So it’s all come about pretty quickly then?

Dev: Yeah, you could say that. We obviously had nothing better to do with our time.

So come on then, give us the spiel, how did it all happen? Was there a bun fight with the A&R men? Cream buns all everywhere all over the venue? Or was it in through the back door to dominance?

Dev: There was a bum fight

A bum fight! Tramps etc?!

Dev: We got some tramps off the street. Basically, we got a load of A&R men into a room and set a load of tramps on them and saw who was standing at the end. Lawrence is a big guy, he took it and Domino were triumphant!

What other labels were interested in taking on your punk rock?

Dev: Interscope, Sony, Def Jam, Earache, Epitaph, Drive Thru….etc

Sam: Motown

Dev: Motown! They’re not doing too well.

Rory: A label from the future called Death Shock 4000 records…..Clear Channel wanted to start a label! They just wanted us, no-one else.

Sam: It’s gonna be more than music, it was gonna be more than entertainment. It was this new thing that Clear Channel were brewing up.

Is this true? Or is this…

Dev: It’s all true

Sam: It’s gonna… fuck the kids up, I dunno.

Rory: They’ve got the banners, the advertising, the venues, they’ve got everything now so they just wanted to co-ordinate us with all of that.

Sam: It’s this new concept y’know? It’s not even music or art or performing, it’s the next thing, they looked at us and were like ““yeaaaah”

Rory: It’s called “Guff“

Guff?

Rory: It’s not music or art…it’s GUFF.

Dev: We’re like the Terminator 2 of the music industry

Sam: But then they signed Kaiser Chiefs

Dev: They’re doing pretty good though

So you had to step down a level?

Sam: So then we signed to Domino haha!

So that’s the long and the short of it. Lawrence signed ya! Domino Records, they’ve been around for a while and they’ve put out some fucking great records. Did you know the artist roster before you signed? With Sebadoh and Pavement and loads of other artists on there.

Rory: Yeah, yeah.

This is a question aimed at you a million times now, but the Arctic Monkeys have suddenly just blown up, do you play shows with those guys? How does a label mate thing work with all them?

Rory: They basically keep us away from all the other acts I think!

Dev: We never meet any of them!

Rory: We met The Kills by accident the other day, they were very nice.

Dev: Sons And Daughters, we met them at a photoshoot.

Rory: But Arctic Monkeys support like, Franz Ferdinand and we don’t get asked to support our label mates, they’re worried something bad might happen.

Dev: Franz Ferdinand, I was asking for their stuff, like demos whilst they were recording the album, and I got a burnt CD… after it had been out in America! That’s what I got from our label.

Rory: Nah, but they’re good haha.

And the internet… do you think the support from that helped you get a record deal?

Rory: Not really a record deal, that had more to do with our friends.

Dev: More afterwards really.

Rory: It helped more afterwards yeah, because we didn’t really have that many friends beforehand we got signed.

What, as in friends friends or myspace friends?

Rory: Internet friends yeah… and real life as well!

Well of course, everyone has gotta have someone.

Rory: That’s why we joined a band, because no-one liked us. That’s why we don’t have a drummer or a bass player.

They’re a pain in the arse to have around…

Rory: Well, when no-one likes you its hard to get fellow band mates!

Dev: What do you call a guy that hangs around with musicians?

What?

Dev: A drummer!

Did you get that out of a Christmas cracker by any chance?

Dev: I read it…yesterday…in a comic.

Rory: That’s the number one drummer joke innit?

Did you ever have a drummer at any point?

Rory: Nah, nah never.

You can play the drums though right Sam?

Sam: Yeah I play on three songs.

Three songs on the album have you drumming?

Rory: Interludes

Sam: New single, out now on Clear Channel!

What is this with Clear Channel? Because a few people in the punk scene that I’ve come across really don’t like them?

Dev: I’m all for it! I think they’re doing great things haha. I don’t see why everyone is against them.

Rory: Because they’ve limited all the choices

Dev: It’s all the best though.

Rory: It could be a good thing in that it destroys everything and proper independent music has to rise up again. It goes in waves doesn’t it, the bigger the aggressor, the bigger the fightback. It’s like Star Wars!

Darth Vader is at the top then, have you got the force?

Rory: I don’t think we have! Haha hopefully someone else will.

Sam: The Monkeys!

Rory: The Monkeys have got the force.

Dev: The Arctic Monkeys are kinda like… I can’t remember his name… Luke Skywalker!

Rory: They’re like Che Guevara! Or Trotsky!

Let’s talk about your album that’s just come out. Tell us about the recording of it, if you haven’t got a drummer, how does the recording process work. Who did you hook up to record this record?

Rory: Same guy that produced everything we’ve ever done except for our 4 track stuff. We originally did stuff on 4 track. But yeah, its this guy called James Ford. We recorded all our demos in tiny little recording studios and they sounded good so then we spent all our money re-recording them all in a big studio, which was fun and cool. But that’s the week of my life.

Was it difficult?

Dev: It was 2 weeks though…

What happened to the other week then? Did you just not turn up?

Rory: I just didn’t wanna be there…

Is that because it’s like… work?

Dev: We were on some farm in the south of France

[voice from back]: North

Dev: Was it North? Haha I had no idea!

Sam: We only had to be there for 2 days!

Two days? Is that all?!

Dev: Yeah but its so boring when you’re in between, there’s nothing to do. I don’t like travelling either.

Rory: That’s officially the worst 2 days or week of my life.

Dev: The worst day of my life was the video shoot

What happened there? Where did all the fans come from?

Rory: Haha Myspace! There were only like 5 people haha! But no, there were quite a few, it just got made to look like there were 50,000 people turning up!

I was gonna say, they did a great job of superimposing the whole of Camden into the video!

Rory: They filmed it like, filming all of it from the left, then filming all of it from the centre and then filming it all from the right, so if you look carefully you can probably see the line. And probably see all the same people!

Dev: Our new video has got insane CGI action!

Like Terminator?

Dev: Yeah man, like Terminator 3 of the video world.

Rory: I’d say it was more like Jurassic Park, 2 or 3 thousand strong fans as well.

And it’s proper?

Dev: It’s proper and we spent about £200,000 on this video! It’s like a tie-in for the King Kong film.

Rory: Oh yeah and Bon Jovi is in it.

Bon Jovi is in it?

Sam: No, no, it’s like a Bon Jovi video!

Ah right, so plenty of chicks?

Dev: Yeah fire man.

Sam: Amazonian women.

Oh man, that’s an amazing movie. Amazonian Women is a mad 70s movie. So we are sat here and just saw your new video for What’s Your Damage for the first time ever.

Dev: Haha oh no! I don’t know who’s going to vote for that to go on TV! But no its quite cool, I like it.

Zac: So how comes you’re not playing in it?

Dev: Well we decided we weren’t going to release that song so we didn’t perform in it. We just went to a park and went to play basketball, BMX’ing, and there was skateboarding but we didn’t get any shots of that.

But the band isn’t playing in the video! Haha. Did that idea come from someone else?

Dev: Kinda of like… The Pixies, when they’re walking over the rocks. You think something is going to happen but its literally one take of them just walking over the rocks. I love that punk rock feel to it and that’s what we did. A day of basketball, there’s moments when you think something is going to happen but then, no. Nothing does.

Where was it shot?

Dev: Finsbury Park but we did an MTV making the video thing and I told them we were in Venice Beach… So I will just say Venice Beach, North London.

So how much did you have to spend on the stand in pigeons and ducks?

Dev: Ah that was all within the recording budget, they stuck around. I was proud of them they stuck around the whole day.

Did they have high demands?

Dev: Yeah they wanted wireless and tea and bread and stuff.

What kind of bread were they after?

Dev: The kind of Warburton’s thing y’know, with a bit of powder. I didn’t even demand that!

You should’ve shot one of the buggers and put it in a sandwich! So, anyway, who writes your shit? In general how does it go in the rehearsal studio?

Sam: Oh no, we don’t rehearse, we just play.

Really? Tell me more. We used to have to rehearse all the time!

Dev: Well, we suck so we just play man.

Rory: Well, we write the songs, lately actually its been done individually rather than on an 8 track, tape player. And quite a lot of the time its us writing by ourselves. A drum machine, put down a guitar riff, write a whole song from scratch and then just go down and record it as a band together. It’s kinda difficult without a drummer but it used to be like we’d make a drum track and we’d all stick stuff on it and muck around but its got a bit more methodical as we’ve gone on.

What inspires you to write the mood swings in the songs? Because when I put the record on, it was kinda like taking parts of Brainiac, Suicidal Tendancies and The Stupids out.

Rory: A couple of people have mentioned Brainiac…i haven’t heard them..

Brainiac were amazing, you should get their records man you’d love them. It’s fucked up twisted shit but its got this kinda weird keyboardy kind of vibe, mental beats. Just chaos really. I get a lot of that when I hear you though. When I first heard it I was like “woah“, its coming from all sorts of different angles. Is that because three of you are writing the shit and you’ve all got different influences?

Sam: Not really, because all the songs were written individually, like ten of the twelve songs were written like, solely by one of us.

But it all works, it’s all got the same thread. It’s weird that you all write separate stuff but you can tell that it’s Test Icicles.

Rory: We had an idea of this net that we could write into.

Dev: Yeah after a while we had an idea of what could make a song.

Rory: We have similar sort of influences we all had when we were writing our stuff so…

So what are your top 3 bands each?

Dev: Mine probably don’t influence the record at all.

What about personally then?

Dev: Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, probably Nirvana, Descendents

Rory: Sonic Youth, Lutten Bachers, I should probably have something old, maybe The Melvins

Melvins rock. We just dedicated the Christmas heavy shit show to them. Have you heard that Jello Biafra shit they did?

Rory: I haven’t even bought it yet. I downloaded a track the other day and it sounded good.

It’s the heaviest shit ever. It’s raging metal. I DJ it out whenever I get the chance, fucking tears the floor apart. So what about you Sam, your favourite records?

Sam: I can’t answer that.

No influence?

Sam: It’s weird, nothing that I truly love influenced my writing.

I know it just comes out but you have to get something from somewhere.

Rory: I think the music that I like comes out more on the album more than what the others like. Its not because I write more than the others, it’s just that that was the vein we started in and it continued in that way. But it’s all stuff we all like. Its like a channelled down like, neater version of the West Coast American Spazzy Punk bands stuff. Just a little bit easier on the ear. I guess its just kinda produced better, I dunno.

What about the genre? You mentioned the word Spazz and I’ve read a few things online where all sorts of stuff comes up. So, where do you categorise your music? I put it down as punk rock, but its not just punk rock. Its fucking loud noise! If you were in a record shop, where would you go?

Dev: Punk. Or a section on the left in Virgin on Tottenham Court Road.

Rory: I dunno, I guess you could say Alternative. But it’s not ultra Alternative, because there’s some proper fucked shit out there. But I just think it’s a bit different to the average stuff you get to hear in this country or on the radio or in the NME.

It’s interesting you mention radio. I mean, where are you picking your radio play up from? Is it difficult for the record label?

Dev: I have no idea actually!

Rory: I think Zane Lowe really likes it, Lamacq, so it’s getting a lot of Radio 1 late evening play and the same with XFM, John Kennedy stuff. We don’t really get daytime.

Dev: I don’t think the new single will get any radio play.

Rory: Nah, I think it will. It’s different though, I think it could do quite well. It’s either going to do really badly or quite well.

Does that bother you in any way, shape or form?

Rory: No its more interesting really, because we didn’t choose this single so it’ll be interesting to see how it’ll do.

So what would you have chosen for a single off the album for January 16th?

Rory: We were gonna do “Your Biggest Mistake“, the first one. We had an edit though, because it was quite long and we had this big breakdown in the middle and it would’ve lost people on the radio so we cut it up and tried to make it a more of a 3 minute, straight down the line thing but with all the good bits still in, some extra vocals. But they weren’t really down for that, I think it was just still a bit extreme. It’s funny though, because some bits on the record don’t seem that extreme to us but to some people they really do.

Well yeah because you’re in control of it, you’ve got the jugganought in your hands.

Rory: I guess if you haven’t seen it being made or haven’t stuff like that before then it probably seems a little more… crazy.

Have you ever thought about it like “fuck that, we’re not editing anything, this is what we do“? Like Radiohead do?

Rory: Well, I guess if you’re like that then they shouldn’t bother with singles.

Dev: We couldn’t play it, we couldn’t play that bit live haha.

Rory: Well, we haven’t practised it anyway.

And what about live? Obviously your live shows are absolutely explosive. We came to see you Upstairs at the Garage, knowing it would be pretty full on, so we knew what to expect. There’s nothing like going into a venue going “yeah I wanna fucking kill everyone” and that’s what I felt like then, wanting to kill everyone. But how do you get away with a tour without killing yourself? Don’t you lose your voiceS?

Dev: I think I’m dead right now, Zombie. Or close to it anyway!

Rory: Luckily we don’t play that long. Haha. I don’t know how we do it, every day is different. Either it’s the end of the world or it’s ok. Every gig is a combination of angsts or wanting to die. And then something you’ll get a bit more lighthearted and be all over the place during the gig. And some people were just stood there not knowing what to make of us and we don’t really even know what to make of ourselves. So you get this big bag of conflicting…things.

What about people at the shows? Obviously they’re growing in numbers, I mean I hear the ULU show in January is close to selling out?

Dev: Really?

Rory: Serious?!

It”s on the grapevine, people better get their tickets up front and soon. But at the end of the day you’re picking up a lot of people on the internet. How much does myspace.com play a part in all of this.

Rory: I dunno, myspace is a funny place. We’ve got 20,000 friends or something but then again there’s people who just want friends for the sake of having friends and I think probably one out of 10 who probably give a shit. It’s getting out of control though because we get so many messages a day that we can’t even be bothered to read them anymore.

Well you have a job to do anyway.

Rory: Well yeah I’m only on the internet like once a month anyway so I can’t reply to sort of 4 weeks or messages, like 1,500 emails. So I don’t even read them anymore because I feel bad reading them and not replying!

Well at least people know now why you’re not replying.

Rory: I mean, I talk to people at gigs and talk to them when we’re out but I can’t just sit there all day and talk to them.

Dev: And I mean, we are busy, like people think we just do nothing at all, like they think we do one show in Leeds, where they see us at.

So what’s the average day for you lot? Do you all live together?

Dev: They live together and I sleep on my girlfriend’s floor.

Rory: Most of the time we’re going to places, or playing.

Dev: We’re not ever really in London, maybe like 4 days in a month.

Must be difficult holding a bird down. I mean not physically holding down, although you have bandmates to help if a fat one gets rowdy!

Dev: An actual bird? Big bird!

But is it difficult? You must meet girls on the road?

Dev: We reckon this was made up by the record industry to make bands tour because I think I wanna go on tour but…

Rory: There’s not really the kind of girls I wanna meet!

What kind of girls do you wanna meet?

Rory: Someone who is older and better than me who I can look up to, who I can look at and think “fucking hell that person’s amazing” and they think that about me but I don’t know why. I need some milf in my life. No more 18 year old girls in my life.

You don’t wanna say that man!

Rory: Seriously, head fuck.

So what happens then? You’re touring, do the label put you up in hotels or are you in a van being real punks?

Rory: Nah its alright we’re in these Travel Lodge things.

That’s quite nice, most punk bands don’t even get a nice van! I’ve done enough floors in my time. So what’s next? You just gonna play it by ear or are there plans? I mean, like are you guys gonna to America?

Rory: Yeah, yeah, we’re planning on America in March 2006.

Do you know who you’re playing with?

Dev: I think its just us pretty much.

Rory: We were trying to do something with Eat Your Own Pet because we get on well with them, they’re really nice guys. Our tours are kinda depressing though because there’s not much excitement. Not many parties and the ones there are, are shit.

[Phone rings]

Do you have Butthole Surfers as a ring tone?! I want one of them!

Rory: But yeah, we wanted to have fun and do stuff with Eat Your Own Pet because they’re young and funny and last time we were together we were dancing around like fuck heads on a random floor. They’re just funny and we’d love to go on tour with them in America. We’re supposed to… were supposed to.

Will any of you be packing a skateboard for your travels?

Dev: I’m sorting out my deck straight after this.

Well thankfully, you’re gonna have ltd edition Crossfire – Test Icicles decks to take away.

Dev: Yeah, they look pretty cool.

Dev: I probably wouldn’t use it, but I’d love to have one on my wall! Only 75 of them made…it’s a great idea.
We only found out like, 2 hours ago.

So are you both skaters from old?

Rory: I can’t skate. I’d like to learn, but I think I’m too old now, I’m 25. I’d get out on a skate park and there’d be all the people looking at me and pointing!

Dev: I was just remembering when I walked past here… is it still called Playstation?

It’s Bay Sixty 6 now….

Dev: Yeah, I remember the first time I skated here and just how intimidated I was, it was a Saturday morning

How old were you then and what set up did you have?

Dev: Er… 14 I think. Toy Machine deck, I think it was just indys. I had another set up which was the worst set up in the world, which had horribly loose trucks which I never tightened. Good times man. Meet up at Liverpool Street and come up here and then after the session up here we’d go down to St Paul’s like, every weekend. I used to get scared there.

I haven’t skated that place in ages!

Dev: Radlands, it’s all about Radlands. We used to arrange day trips to go there or we used to go to Rom.

Zac: It’s still there man, just had loads of extensions and stuff on it. You used to
go on day trips up there?

Dev: Yeah, that place is insane man!

Were there any pro skaters that we favourites of yours?

Dev: I always like Geoff Rowley but I really used to obsess over Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta and what they used to do. I used to love that mainly because I could only do street stuff and sucked, so I used to love what the old school dudes.

What was your favourite trick?

Dev: Er… Oh ! I used to be able to 360 Flip but that used to be all I would do. I just wouldn’t do anything else. I just did it every now and again in front of people to look good.

Sam, you have a skateboard right? Do you still skate now?

Sam: Yeah, in the summer I did and I really enjoyed it, but the weather kinda gets me down too much to skate in England, but yeah I used to skate a lot.

What was your favourite set up?

Sam: I never really had a proper set up, it was all Australian brands probably. I had a really good Time deck… do you know them? No… Um…Chocolate? Yeah I had a really good Chocolate deck

Did you use skate parks or street or both?

Sam: Yeah a bit of everything really, smoked a lot of weed, it was cool..

We did acid and just skated downhill like “Aaaarrrgh have it, fucking have it!”. Scabs man, I’m telling you, the scabs. Primrose Hill in the summer, I used to love going there, taking the dogs up, having a barbeque. So there you go, I’m impressed with you guys, most bands are pretty disorganised. Look out for those decks coming soon!

Rory: I’m pretty good at swimming! I can float and everything.

So are you sponsored by Speedo?

Rory: Yeah I have some on right now. Tight ones.

Do you like them to go right up the crack?

Rory: Yeah, right up the crack!

And on that note we’ll leave your Icicles in the water. Do you wanna say thanks or fuck you to anyone?

Dev: Thank you to anyone who bought the record and thanks for having us at Crossfire, very cool.

Rory: Yeah and fuck you to that blind guy that called me a freak the other day!

Sam: Fuck you Dad, Mum and all my teachers.

Dev: And the Pope!

The Pope still gets shit, what’s the story there?

Dev: It’s a long story which I don’t wanna go into. We just promote Clear Channel!

So you won’t be seeing Test Icicles at Download or on Capital Radio in 2006

Dev: Or on anything!

Rory: All Tomorrow’s Parties were trying to put a show on in New York and there was only one venue in the whole city not owned by Clear Channel!

Sam: Fuck Clear Channel!

You can hear more from Test Icicles on the None More Punk Show on this very site mid January and also win 5 signed copies of their album on this very site over Xmas.

Visit www.myspace.com/testicicles or www.test-icicles.com

All That Remains are a band considered by some to be metal’s ugly duckling. The band that got left behind whilst many of their peers shot to rapid success, leaving the Massachusetts quintet to go it alone with their slowly-but-surely route to the big time.

Having just completed a summer-long stint on the new and crushing Sounds of the Underground tour alongside the likes of Lamb of God, Clutch and GWAR – things are at last looking up. Former Shadows Fall vocalist and current ATR front man Phil Labonte took some time out from the band’s recent UK stint as main support to new kids on the block Trivium, to tell our own metal maestro Ryan Bird how things stand for both himself and the band in 2005…

Hey, what’s up?

What’s shaking, man! I’m fine!

How does it feel to be back in the UK?

It’s still almost unbelievable. We’re one of the luckiest bands around to have been on the tours that we have in recent times. When we came through with Killswitch is was cool, but this tour is definitely shaping up to be just as good. The Killswitch tour wasn’t as long as this one is, but every show was sold out. Now it seems Trivium have just blown up the same way that Killswitch have, so we feel spoiled to be back on such a run. It’s amazing to see that there’s kids who actually know our stuff as well! Yesterday there was like a couple of dozen kids hanging out outside our bus, and that just never happens in the States.

Last time you were over here you were with Killswitch Engage playing middle sized venues. How do you feel about playing some smaller club shows such as this this time around?

I guess it’s pretty cool to actually be able to see the fans for a change! Sounds of the Underground was averaging about 4000 or so every day so it’s almost like a breath of fresh air. I don’t want anyone to think we’re too big for our boots or anything like that, though. It may be the heavy metal dream to play some big ass shows but we like to keep it intimate as well.

Does playing different sized venues every night make things difficult? Presumably you’ve got to change it up quite a lot.

Sure, it can be tough, but it’s something you just have to deal with. I guess the way to describe it is that it’s real work, it’s not just all partying. There’s a lot of stuff you’ve got to figure out. You need to know how you’re gonna do this, how you’re gonna do that, if you can’t do this then what are you gonna do instead etc. It’s not all just sitting around playing video games!

Of course, you guys are no longer strangers to the bigger sized venues as you just spent the summer on Sounds of the Underground. How did it go?

Simply amazing. Practically every show people knew who we were, and I’m not talking just a handful – I’m talking hundreds. It was the chance of a lifetime.

How does it feel for you guys to see that so many people want to come out and see an underground metal show in this day and age?

It was weird, because it’s a scene I’ve been a part of for a long time and seen go almost unnoticed for so many years. It’s surreal for me because I was someone who helped kick start this whole movement a long time ago, and all the guys I was playing with back then are now in these bands that are getting gigantic. To be in a band that is now considered to be on the rise is awesome.

In the past couple of years, it seems that type of music went from being a dirty word to being more than acceptable. What do you think triggered that?

I dunno! I have absolutely no idea! Why should I?! There’s no real reason I can pinpoint. I’m just thankful I’m going to be able to experience just a little bit of which the bands I admired as kid experienced. Bands like Metallica in ’91 and At The Gates – stuff like that. Thank god I can actually do this for a living, and hopefully continue to do it for another 10 to 15 years.

Obviously you were once a member of Shadows Fall. Is it tough to see them succeeding and doing so well?

Not at all. Those guys have got BIG coat tails! If it wasn’t for bands like them and Killswitch Engage, there’s no way I’d be able to do this. Everybody in Shadows Fall has always been cool to me, they’ve always been my friends, and there’s no ill feeling at all. I’m the biggest cheerleader in the world, and I want nothing but the best for the guys in Shadows Fall and any other bands out there that I consider friends.

Do you think that eventually the scene will totally collapse on itself and disappear into the undergrounds again?

I don’t think it COULD happen, I know it’s GONNA happen! That’s just the way music goes. I’m not foolish enough to think that I’m going to be doing this forever. I know that one day I’m not gonna be in a band anymore. How many bands do you know that stay relevant and stand out for years after they’re gone? To think it’s going to carry on forever is not realistic.

It’s been a good 18 months or so since you released This Darkened Heart. Any plans to start work on a new one?

Yup, we’re already talking about that one. Adam D from Killswitch is going to be producing again, because if something isn’t broken then don’t fix it! We’ll start writing around December and then head into the studio in March, so hopefully we can get the record out before the summer is over next year.

What kind of ideas are being tossed around for that right now? Anything that may surprise people?

Vocally it’ll probably see a bit more melody with the vocals, but at the same time there’ll be some more death metal growling going on. Our drummer is a massive death metal buff so whenever I’m around him I usually end up listening to stuff like Cannibal Corpse! Musically, I can’t really say just yet. As far as writing the riffs and such that’s still primarily done by myself and Oli (lead guitars), but this time I think it may be more of a band effort. I think we’re at the stage now where we know where this band is going, and we know that the sound this band has is pretty much where we’re going to stay. It’ll be different, but you’ll still be able to tell it’s an All That Remains record.

And after the album is done?

We’ll come back here, and hopefully we’ll be in a position by then that we can come through and do a headline tour of our own. The way this tour is going, it’s pretty much a given that we’ll at least pull a few people in. Whether the album is out or not by the time we come back doesn’t really matter so much, because I’m sure the second it’s done it’ll be all over the internet anyway. GO CYBERSPACE!

‘This Darkened Heart‘ is available now through Prosthetic Records.
See www.prostheticrecords.com for more information.

Orange County four-piece Thrice are the type of band many love to hate. A cocktail of raw aggression, shameless emotion and a hell of a lot of pop-hooks; the band have steadily risen to new heights in recent times on the back of their critically acclaimed LP ‘The Artists In The Ambulance‘.

With a new full-length plucked, prepared and on the way to a stereo near you; the band’s own Eddie Breckenridge gives Crossfire the low down on everything from Warped Tour to Peter Gabriel…

Hey, how are you today?

I’m ok, thanks!

So, you’ve just gotten into the UK yesterday. Have you been up to much besides sleeping?

I actually slept for the whole plane ride over here, but it was still pretty hard to wake up this morning. I guess everything is just one big blur right now.

You spent the summer out on the road doing the Warped Tour. How did that go?

It was awesome, but it was also very tiring. The days are long, and relentlessly hot. It’s always boiling hot on the Warped Tour. There’s a really cool community aspect to it as well. You go into it not knowing too many people and you come out of it with a really solid group of friends. Plus you get to watch these awesome bands every day and then hang out and talk about music afterwards, which is never a bad thing.

What was the general reaction to the newer material compared to old?

We were playing two new songs every day I think, and the reaction was actually really good. Kids are singing the songs back to us already, which is crazy because the new record’s not even out yet. I guess people are recording the shows and uploading them onto the internet some place.

How do you think people in the UK will respond to the new stuff?

I really don’t know! I think our fan base is so eclectic in as much as metal kids are into us as well as punk rock kids and stuff like that, so it’s difficult to predict how an entire group of people will react to specific material.

How do you think the new material has progressed compared to your past efforts?

By far it’s the most experimental collection of music we’ve recorded thus far. It’s got some of the heaviest stuff we’ve ever done, but also some of the mellowest. The songs contrast each other really well, too. The heavier parts come when needed, and the slower ones in turn do the same.

I noticed a couple of the newer songs were a little slower than some may be used to, particularly as Artist in the Ambulance was a pretty upbeat and high tempo record…

It was really weird at the beginning. I mean we knew we were writing slower songs, but we didn’t immediately realise just HOW slow some of them were coming out. When we first started laying things down we played a bunch of stuff to our label and our management, and they were kind of like; “maybe you should think about what you’re doing here”. Looking back now though, while some of the stuff on the new album may be slow, it’s still way faster than it was on those original recordings. We’re really getting into producing more atmospheric music because that’s where our influences lay. We love everything from Sigur Ros to Isis.

How did you approach the writing process for this album, did you do anything differently?

With our previous record we had about 3 months to write the whole thing, so we were just hammering songs out most of the time. This time we had a bit more room for experimentation. Various members of the band would bring in drum loops and stuff that they’d made on a computer, which is something we’d never done before. We’d spend hours listening to these weird sounds and effects and playing over them to try and piece them all together.

Steve Osborne handled the production duties this time around, and obviously he’s not exactly a hard rock producer having worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel in the past. Why him?

One of the main reasons is because there are so many bands in our genre that are coming out with albums that sound almost identical. They’re even using the same producers and engineers to get a certain sound and feel to their records. We just really wanted to get away from that as much as possible and make a record that people wouldn’t be able to categorise or compare to anything else.

A lot of people have previously branded you as an “emo” band. Would you say that’s a fair way to describe your sound?

I don’t even know what that tag means anymore! I definitely agree that music should have emotion involved, whether it be aggression or sadness or anything like that, but I don’t understand the whole generalisation that goes on nowadays. To be perfectly honest I don’t know how people would describe us and I really don’t care either! As soon as you start trying to pigeonhole music like that it almost loses a part of what made it so special and unique in the first place

What’s your opinion on the current state of that type of scene?

I think that if people carry on making records that sound the same as everybody else and stop pushing the boundaries, then in a couple of years most of these bands won’t even be around anymore. Every time a certain “trend” starts to become over saturated like that, the appeal soon disappears, and in turn so do the bands. You only have to look at when KoЯn and Rage Against The Machine came out with this cool new sound, and then a thousand others come out of the wood work and eventually blew out the fire.

Presumably you think you guys have done enough to save yourself from the wreckage should that ever happen…

I guess we’ll find out soon enough. We’re just going to carry on making music we’re happy with and that feels right to us, and if people are into it then great. At least we’re trying.

Thrice’s new album ‘Vheissu‘ was released through Island Records on October 17th.
Go to www.thrice.net for more..

Once there were people happily milling about taking part in the day to day rat race that humans become accustomed to, ripping each other off, taking over each others territories and generally surviving….

But now, the planet’s greed has now become fast food for the fallen where the mighty and the avaritious are nothing more than tasty morsels for Zombie flesh munchers that play some of the best old school thrash metal since Slayer! Let us serve your brains to the UK’s most hungry living dead….welcome to the world of Send More Paramedics…

This interview with lead singer B’Hellmouth was surgically removed by Ryan Bird, before he was carried out on a stretcher destined for his local Oxford morgue – R.I.P Brother Ryan

Good day there my flesh eating amigos. How’s tricks?

UUUUURRGGHH.

Eaten any tasty limbs lately?

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH. C’MERE!

I heard a rumour that you’re not really zombies. Is this blasphemous speculation true?

DUH, LIKE YEAH, WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE, HUMANS DRESSED UP AS ZOMBIES? SEND MORE PARAMEDICS IS 100% DEAD.

If you’re REALLY zombies, then why have a name like Send More Paramedics? Surely you want LESS paramedics because that means there’s less interference with your blood-splattered quest!

PARAMEDICS TASTE GOOD. SEE ‘RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD’ FOR DETAILS.

Why choose to be zombies? Why not be a giant pack of Tesco Value sausage rolls? Or a 4-fingered twix?

WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT. IF WE WAIN’T ZOMBIES THEN WE WOULDN’T GET TO EAT BRAINS….

If you could zombify any band, then who would it be and why?

SLAYER…BUT THEN I GUESS THAT WOULD KIND OF PUT OUR ZOMBIFIED PSEUDO-THRASH-METAL SCHTICK OUT OF BUSINESS…

If you could zombify any lovely, lovely lady – then who would it be and why?

THEY TASTE BETTER ALIVE…

I bet you’d eat her good and proper, wouldn’t you?

PHWOAR! BRAINS.

Do you have any favourite horror/zombie movies?

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD…REANIMATOR…ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS…NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD…

What’s your favourite blood type? I favour a nice O myself…

NOT FUSSY…

After devouring a victim, do you ever get hungry for seconds and go back for more, but by that time the blood is all crusty and looks a bit like Corn Flakes? That’s just not right is it? Do you have to peel off the scab to get it flowing again or what?

ERRR….CORN FLAKES?
You must get a shit load of fucked up groupies who are into this zombie thing. Ever had any interesting offers?

WELL, THE LADIES DO LOVE TO BE SCARED…IT’S MORE BEGGING THAN OFFERING – BEGGING NOT TO BE DEVOURED, THAT IS….

It’ll probably be gothic looking ladies who request fucked up shit, but I hear it’s illegal for gothic looking women to be minging, so that’s a bonus, right?

ONE THING I LOVE ABOUT THIS BAND IS THAT IT INSPIRES PEOPLE TO USE THEIR IMAGINATIONS…

You recently spread the flesh-tearing chaos to the unsuspecting Donington masses. How did your conversion plot go?

AMAZING. THE GREATEST DAY OF MY DEATH. WE HAD A GREAT TIME, AND HOPEFULLY WE IMPLANTED THE INFECTION IN A FEW NEW BRAINS…PLUS I GOT TO SEE SLAYER AND MOTORHEAD LIVE – SWEET.

What about your new split release with Zombie Apocalypse – don’t you feel threatened that another bunch of zombies are trying to muscle in on your turf?

NOT AT ALL. WE’VE GOT EUROPE COVERED AND THEY’VE GOT THE STATES. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING…SOON THE CONTAGION WILL SPREAD TO ENGULF THE WHOLE OF CIVILISATION! AH-HAH-HAH-HAAAARRGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I bet your dad’s could beat up their dad’s…

NO SURE ON THAT ONE…THINK THEY’RE ALL PROBABLY DECEASED…

I reckon you should have some sort of audience based sacrifice before each show on your upcoming UK tour. What do you think? Fancy a bit of public funny business?

WE NORMALLY SAVE THE SACRIFICE UNTIL AFTERWARDS, WHEN OUR PREY IS EXHAUSTED FROM MOSHING…

What about some private funny business afterwards, big boy *purrs and rubs legs*

CERTAINLY…BUT I THINK I MAY HAVE SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT IN MIND FROM YOU…

Check www.sendmoreparamedics.com for all tour info and www.iatde.com to pick up the new album and support your local UK thrash scene!