Interview with ZUD mainman - Justin Curtsinger

Today I bring an in-depth interview with Justin Curtsinger from 

ZUD - a band who mix the heavy genres together with

amazing results - read my review of "The Good, The Bad

and the Damned" Here

Justin has been informative, amusing, scathing, concise,
angry and philosophical - often in the same sentence!

Read and enjoy.

1. I love your mix of hardcore/punk rockʼnʼroll which morphs 

together with a black metal feel. Is this something you worked 

at or just a natural progression of people playing together?

I guess it could be a little bit of both. One of the main ideas with 

Zud, at least musically is that it can go where ever it wants. When 

you factor in the “Fevered Dreams” EP (which almost no one ever 

heard and I don’t think anyone ever loaded it online), the two releases 

are vastly different, but strangely coherent. Together they cover a 

lot of really diverse ground. So in a sense, what you hear on “the 

Good, the Bad and the Damned” is intentional and there was indeed 

a vision behind it, but I suppose no one knew how the songs were going 

to turn out until they were finished, if that makes any sense. That “vision” 

doesn’t really constrain where Zud can go. I don’t think the next album 

will be as different as the full length was to the EP, but shit will likely 

evolve, if that makes any sense(?).

2. Most of your tracks are between 8-12 minutes long. I like the 

fact that you can really get a groove and flow going through the 

song passages. Will you continue in this vein or would a shorter 

song emerge if the structure demanded it?

Although I really like long songs, I like long songs which felt like 

they were short even better. Like I said above, all of these songs were 

brought together very naturally and in a sense (cliche or not), fell into place. 

So far they are all pretty long, but if something were to come along in the 

future which happened to be shorter then stuff so far, so be it. The intent isn’t 

to make long or short songs, it’s just to allow the song to go where ever it 

wants to go as it emerges and evolves.

3. The lyrics are quite dark but at the same time seem personal as 

well. Are you just gloomy fuckers at heart?

Well, I’ve personally been called a gloomy fucker more 

than once. And plenty of other things which are gloomier still. Everyone

else in Zud has their gloomy moments too. However, as gloomy as the lyrics 

may be, I think Zud is just as much a happy band (as it is gloomy). 

There are many different emotions and feelings being expressed through 

this band, often all at once... or in waves... feelings of being happy or sad 

or high or low or of love or of hate or whatever. I think the biggest message 

behind Zud is to remind those few who may give a shit that not all is always 

as it seems. There are always two sides on every coin. No matter how 

important or amazing any given moment in our lives may be, I think it 

is a very “healthy” thing for a person to accept how vastly irrelevant 

we all are. Our species is a complete disaster, our lives are in all seriousness 

pretty pointless, the history of humanity as a whole has been mostly just
this big pissing contest or drama-fest over really mundane things. 

Religious bullshit, political bullshit, racial bullshit, class struggle bullshit,
romantic bullshit, territoriality bullshit... I could go on with these “gloomy”
facts, but, another fact is that anyone who is standing (or sitting) on this
shit hole of a planet does possess the gift of free will and that is the other
side of this “gloomy coin.” Most don’t really want to acknowledge that fact
and just dwell on how much their lives may suck because of something that
“someone else” did or whatever else. But, I feel like anyone who

possesses the free will which I am talking about, has the “freedom” to
look at the world through which ever way they choose to

focus their eyes (and that’s a metaphor that could be applied to blind people
as well). No matter how much life may or may not “suck...” no matter what
the circumstances... it is ultimately up to each one of us to look ourselves in
the mirror and decide how we’re going to approach each day, no matter
what the “forecast” may call for. The holes on a styrofoam ceiling tile can
become pretty interesting under the right circumstances... Anyways, I’m
not saying that I don’t put in my share of pissing and moaning

either (cause I put in more than my share), but no matter how dumb
and pointless our lives on this planet all are, it still can be a

very interesting and beautiful place to spend some time, depending on
how we choose to look at it and THAT right there is where
the interesting things can happen. That’s when shit gets cool. When
one realizes that they just don’t give a fuck about the regular
shit that most of us surround ourselves with. By acknowledging all of
that gloomy stuff and accepting it as a reality and being able to function
within it and with it. And if someone can figure out how to function within
it, odds are they can figure out a way to break free of it to some extent.
Some say that by “accepting the dark side” or however dumb way one
wants to word it, it is one of the first steps on a path towards “freedom.”



I’m not talking about some “fuck it! We’re all gonna die!” mentality, or even

a “lets go re-watch Fight Club and then go crazy” mentality either, but a
realistic balance of what we have control over understanding that which
we don’t have control over, thus potential getting more out of it. And to
me, accepting how absurd we all are and how pointless our lives
are... that’s a start towards having accepted that said “dark side,” and
whatnot. And then, after a little while... that’s where the experiences start to
build up, the ones that you keep with you forever... the ones that sooner

or later lead you to look back on them and be inspired by those actual
experiences to create things like albums or paintings or whatever...
and from there be more inspired to go back out and experience more crazy
shit that’s out there and to explore further down that path, or another one
all together. I think making peace with the idea of death is way more
of a productive way to improve ones life as opposed to trying to be part
of some “scene” or find some romantic partner to “fix everything” or to
join some “political movement” of any kind. That stuff is all complete
horse shit to me because of what a disaster our species has proven
itself to be since the beginning (regardless of all the cool stuff!).

When I say that Zud is a “suicide-advocating” band, I really do mean
that in a happy way. I’m not in any rush to “check out” by any means
and I’m not going to say that it isn’t a shame when folks check out for
the wrong reasons pre-maturely. I’m here and I’ve got a BIG list of shit
to check off before any sort of “checking out” and I suspect it’s going
to take a really long time. If my body could keep going for 200 years
and I could find reason to ride with it, so be it. Any of us could get hit
by a car tomorrow or whenever though and if that list has to be

incomplete... “bummer dude,” but oh well. But, I’ll be damned if I let
myself get to the point where my health has me bound to a

bed and my brain is fried beyond the point of reason. One has to be 

careful of where they say shit like that (even right here it

could bite me in the ass later, cause this is all public info) because
most people flip out at such words and get offended and

scared and blah blah blah... but, I like to think that I will be leaving this
place on my own terms and on my own schedule. No one knows for sure
when or how they will die, but I think to check out on ones own terms
would be a nice way to go. And in all honesty, I think that that
concept is WAY happier than it is gloomy.

4. One of the things that really caught my attention were the powerful solos 

with what I call “classic Detroit napalm playing” - no guitar wanking 

finger tapping crap - just killer, almost heavy blues scales and note bending. 

Will this continue?

Probably.

5. The wall of noise you employ is known to be a nightmare for most 

bands to capture successfully in the studio. “The Good, The Bad and the 

Damned” has great depth and an almost live feel. Cʼmon - spill the beans - 

how did you do it?

I think that is more of a question for Todd Hutchison who recorded/mixed 

it and then also to Tore Stjerna who did the mastering.

They both know their shit really well and that’s why we chose them 

for the jobs. They both did pretty much perfect jobs as far as I’m concerned. 

My personal goal was to create my favorite rock/metal album ever and that 

goal was reached, but to achieve such a thing, writing the songs is only 

the first step. The “engineers” are the ones with the beans to spill when it 

comes to sound, not me. As far as what I do know, we did mostly live 

takes and then went back and fixed fuck-ups and re-did solos and

added vocals later, which I think is pretty common. So, I don’t know 

what the hell Todd was doing or how he did it and as for Tore, 

he’s in Sweden, so even though I’ve “worked” with him under other 

circumstances, as far as Zud goes everything between us was through email.

6. The underground world of music we occupy is virtually ignored 

by the mainstream - do blogs and the like help in spreading the 

word? Your website tells people to ignore Facebook. 

I find a lot of bands seem to spend a vast amounts of time getting 

likes and shares rather than just playing gigs and writing some fucking 

music - what is your point of view?

I don’t know. It’s a tough and very long (and probably boring) 

answer and there are several different sides to it. I want to

emphasize first that personally, everything which I “create,” I am first 

and foremost “creating” it for no one other than me to enjoy. Be it music, 

my zine, a drawing, my photo blog, whatever. If others happen to enjoy 

any of those things, well than there’s nothing wrong with that. In 

fact it’s pretty cool, but the primary objective is to make something that 

I know I’m happy with. As faras actively sharing all those things with 

others, well first of all; I don’t even really know how to use facebook. I could 

probably learn and to be fair, I bet it would have it’s benefits, but for now I 

guess I waste enough time on the internet as it is without facebook. Facebook 

is something that happens to gross me out quite a bit, though I know that if 

used properly it could be a very useful tool. I’ve been recently considering 

using the Zud facebook page for a little bit more than simply 

re-directing to the official website. Maybe start posting reviews on it 

and announcing shows as well? I don’t know. Before myspace had its 

“make-over” in 2010-ish, I would use it to find a shit-tons of bands and 

I think it was a really good tool for doing so. Keep in mind with all this 

that I would prefer that more people still did trades in the mail and 

made print zines. I’ve had a print zine of my own for going on ten years 

now, but I’ve excepted the fact that no matter how much people 

may claim that “the underground is only in print,” hardly anyone gives a 

shit about zines anymore. Or maybe no one gives a shit about MY zine (HA!). 

But for this day and age, pre-2010 myspace was indeed pretty cool when 

used correctly.

As far as blogs go, most of the reviews we’ve gotten have been

from online blogs (like yours!). Blogs seem to have replaced print zines 

in a way, but I think even regular blogs are starting to sort of fade, for 

me at least. Or, the ones that I used to go read all the time are losing steam 

for whatever reason (life is full of distracting things which make one loose 

steam as we all know) and I just haven’t found many new ones that interest 

me. 

Then again, there are very few active metal bands who I don’t happen to 

know personally that I’m actually interested in “following” and reading 

reviews or interviews of. I think the last time I bought a “metal album” of an 

active band at a store or on amazon or anywhere was.... at least three 

months ago as I write this? Hard to tell because I get so much promo stuff 

emailed to me for my zine and I’m constantly buying non-metal 

albums or metal albums that are old. Back to the facebook vs blog thing,

 it makes me wonder though if we are evolving into such shitty attention 

spans that soon only facebook will keep us glued? I don’t know. And

since, like I said; I don’t really even know how to use facebook, I may 

not know what the fuck I’m talking about. Keep in mind that I live in quite 

a thick bubble as well. And when you get rid of all this computer stuff 

and strip away everything else (even print zines), as I said above; 

Zud was made for my own ears. It is my favorite band. I don’t expect 

anyone else to enjoy listening to Zud as much as I do (including the other 

three members). And the same thing goes for the other “creative” 

things I’ve put out there for others to see. In a sense it sort of makes this 

“networking” stuff pretty pointless because the “victory” has already been

had..........

There was an urban legend surrounding a band from California in 

the late 90s which went something like the band being so “kvlt” that 

there was only going to be one or very few copies of their album ever 

pressed and anyone who wanted it was going to have to somehow acquire 

a treasure map to find where it was buried and on and on and on. 

This story I’ve been directly told from the main guy behind this band was 

all gossip and that it was built off of a joke that his bands label had made 

to someone which took off and became an actual rumer. But, it’s a cool 

story, and if it had indeed been true, well, that’d have been kinda neat. 

But I probably never would have heard them, so the debate of “why 

not share a cool thing with others” comes to mind. After all, playing shows 

and doing the “rock band” thing is fun and interesting, despite it’s 

annoying sides. The networking via online shit is simply a requirement 

of doing this stuff now. I don’t know if any of that answers your 

question about my point of view with this stuff though... I guess 

it is probably safe to say that as time goes on, the concept of 

music promotion (DIY or otherwise) changes just like everything 

else. Here we are in a time where mostly everything is done 

online. We can piss and moan about how the good old days of print 

zines and trades were so cool and how it sucks that no one 

cares about that stuff anymore... or we can do our shit anyways, 

whatever it may be, whether it receives recognition from others or not.

7. How has the reaction been to your release?

That is a question that has many answers which come from 

many different angles:

For starters, there is a Hungarian band of the same name who, 

as best I can figure out, started roughly around the same time in 

2009-2010 or so (when I was putting together the EP). They don’t 

sound anything like us at all (a mix of techno electronic stuff and 

nu-metal), but they are clearly very unhappy with us doing what 

we are doing under the name of “Zud.”

They’ve sent us a few really funny emails accusing us of 

having stolen their name and how we suck and all sorts of other

bullshit and blah blah blah. In a way I feel bad for them because they 

all look really young in their pictures and I’m sure they’re nice people 

and are just really excited about their band and are really bummed out 

that there is another band called Zud. But oh well... fuck ‘em (that 

girl they have drumming for them is pretty cute). From press and
reviews on the web and in zines, it has been about 98% excellent
and there’s been a lot of it for such a short amount of time. Even
though what other people think doesn’t matter in the grand scheme,
I still find it very interesting to read reviews and hear feedback. I
think I’ve only found two negative reviews and only one which
had any merit to it (one other which was just some moron who probably
spends most of his time of the NWN! “group therapy forum,” and couldn’t
speak English very well anyways). There have been a lot of reviews
from folks that seemed to have really really liked the album and

there have been some really nice emails from others who’d bought a
physical copy from the website. That isn’t to imply that album sales are
“through the roof” or anything. As I write this we’re just over half way
through the 1st pressing which was 333 CDs and I’ve given a lot
away to friends. But, we live in a time where not only does no one
buy physical copies of albums anymore, no one seems to even burn
shit from other people or even download anything. It’s all about
having a smart phone and listening to whatever spotify or
youtube recommends, which, is a cool tool for finding bands
(like myspace was a few years ago), but ultimately I
think is really sad.

Locally, it has been mixed. In a live setting, Portland is a funny

town for music and especially metal because for most tour

circuits (not all, but most), Boston is the end of the line for the 

Northeastern US. Most regular national (and even regional) tours

turn around either there or in Worcester, or go up to Montreal.
Most people who are not from Maine don’t even realize that there

is a Portland that is not the big one over in Oregon. Though I think in
the next 5-10 years that a lot of this will be changing, I mention it to
emphasize how incredibly sheltered Portland and the rest of Maine is
from much exposure to metal and musical culture in general... even in
the “internet age.” There are a few folks here who are working really
hard to bring bands from out of town here and are trying to create a
metal scene, but I suspect Zud likely won’t be too much of a part
of it. We’ve chosen our local shows very carefully (and kinda
“snobbishly” in a sense). Combine that with the fact that Zud is
a band that is not as “safe” or “predictable” as most other metal bands
of this day and age usually are... and in that, I think our local
shows which are put on by anyone other than ourselves and maybe
two other individuals which come to mind may be numbered.
That’s not to say that reaction has been bad by any means that I’m
aware. I’ve had people coming up to me after every show, be they
friends, strangers or someone I’d clocked in the face or kicked while
playing and they’ve given me big hugs saying they were blown

away and it was awesome and all that. But, there is a certain thing
about Zud which I think most everyday metal heads, whether

their favorite band is the Godsmack or Blasphemy, are afraid of and
promoters (DIY or not) are terrified of. Zud is a very real

thing and most metal fans are just clowns in costumes who don’t want
to deal with reality and are just looking for the same old

cookie cutter PC-bullshit. As in; losers hiding under their patched vests
and getting drunk.

I suspect that as word spreads, this mentality of “not getting invited
back” will continue most places we go. And that’s fine by me.

8. How is the search for a record label progressing?

Right now, we’re not really looking for label support. There have been
a few emails with weird offers, but nothing really interesting.
Mostly right now I’m looking for distro support and possibly help
for a repress of the full length and maybe even the EP (if there’s
someone crazy enough). Personally (as the asshole holding most
of the controls) I prefer to do most things on a mostly DIY level,
while simultaneously making use of things like PR reps when affordable
(the best of both worlds). If the right label came along at the right time,
than so be it. Most of the labels that we would have any interest in
getting into a bunch of paperwork with would demand we be able
to do a shit load of touring, and though it’s in the cards and in
all likeliness will happen and will happen plenty, at this very moment
we’re not set up for anything further than the North Eastern US for
more than a week. So we’ll see.

9. New songs ..... any in the pipeline ..... any being released this year?

There is a new full length in the works but it is in it’s infancy 

stages. One song is pretty solid but no lyrics for it yet. We’ve been

playing it live and it sure as shit is a fun one to play. I envision our 

next release being somewhere in 2015, but it depends on a lot of 

other things (see below).

10. What do you see in the future for Zud?

For the other three members, Zud is a side project and they all 

have other bands. Greg and Zak are in two other bands together. 

Tim has another full-ish time band. The line-up for Zud is very solid 

and I’m extremely happy with it but, I try and keep this band as 

something that has as minimal an impact on their other guy’s 

bands/life’s as possible... with the understanding that when it’s time 

for Zud, I own them. Greg and I are also involved with a pretty big project 

which has to be the main focus for a while (moving the rehearsal 

studio we own and run into a new, bigger building, thus expanding the 

business). Once that is on solid ground again, more emphasis can be put 

into Zud and the other bands taking off and playing further 

out... doing the “rock band” thing. Touring and kicking ass, reminding 

this hilariously stupid world what rock’n’roll and metal is 

all about... and the more this goes on and the more extensive it gets, 

the more people I suspect there will be with their arms folded, 

glaring through their Buddy Holly glasses, saying in their high pitched 

asthmatic-like voices, “those guys are fucked up.”

Thanks for the kind words in the review and for the interview.

Zud 666 website

Thanks again Justin for taking the time to do this interview - this
and the Black Majik Acid one I did last year have been my
favourite ones I have conducted. To any other bands that want an
interview - if ya cannot contribute as these two bands have - 
why the fuck not!

Black Majik Acid interview

It is my pleasure to bring this interview with Black Majik Acid,
to you, my dear readers and download monkeys.

Having been blown away by their self released album, I
had to find out more about their music.

"Grimy riffs that have crawled out from a grave worm into your ears

while the world weary vocals have an equal measure of dread and

despair to them. Distorted solos that conjure up the smell of

overworked amps are strewn across the tracks with power but

also with a great blues/psych feel to them." 

Read the rest of my review Here

1. Can you tell us a bit about the band.

The band idea formed in late 2011, spawned from a previous stoner metal project that fizzled out called Ungoliant. It was a similar band idea, and the first 10 or so Majik Acid songs were originally created by me as song ideas for the previous band.

Right now Majik Acid is currently in a line up transition. The first line up consisted of former Ungoliant drummer, a female bass player, and I. The drummer, having financial hardships that made it too difficult for him to maintain commitment, and the bass player's unwillingness to go through teaching a new drummer the songs has caused some set back. There is currently a great drummer and bassist eagerly awaiting to gear up and play shows. That’s where it stands today.

2. It is obvious that you love Sabbath and Electric Wizard ...... as do I. To me, the feeling of genuine love for the doom genre come across - you seem to have the vibe of “this is the music we listen to - this is the music we play” - fuck ya if you don’t like it!

Thank you. I've come to realize that that is the attitude needed to accomplish the desired outcome. Lots of people are looking to brand someone else as a 'poser' these days, so yeah, I've definitely adopted the; “this is the music we listen to - this is the music we play” - fuck you if you don’t like it!" attitude. Unfortunately, that is necessary among some circles.

My older brother turned me on to Sabbath 20 or so years ago. The first song i learned on guitar was Iron Man and Paranoid.
I love the idea of expanding on early Sabbath concepts. Music is my first true love, and my heart has always been set on the darker noise. Electric Wizard is a good template to work from, and because I lack the guitar virtuosity skills of Iomi, I look to the Wizard for a more simplistic approach, tending to focus more on the fat Wizard-like riff based song structuring.  Sabbath started it all for me though.

3. I thought the production on the album was really good, powerful & aggressive with a “very live” raw sound - are you pleased with it?

Overall yes. 'Chaos Sphere', as it was a little sloppy and I want to re-record that. The recordings were meant to be demos, for the purpose of shopping to replace the old drummer and bassist. A little buzz started with these recordings that was pretty unexpected.

Recording the demos was a gruelling process, considering the lack of recording equipment. I played all the instruments myself. The mix of drums and guitar is the guitar track recorded on a small handheld, played through an old 100 watt P/A, with me playing drums live to it while videoing it with a Flipshare camera. The audio picked up by that small shitty camera mic is the guitar and drum you're hearing. The bass and vocal tracks were done using a small handheld recorder, also, and the mixing of it all was done using Windows Movie Maker.

The shitty laptop used to produce it had no capacity to upload recording software, so I just worked with what was available, to get this shit recorded, so as to get a rhythm section.

4. How has the general reaction been to the release? It seems to me that while blogs/zines cover underground music, getting any response from the outside world seems nigh impossible.

Yeah, the reaction was more than expected actually. Within a few days of release, 'Hand of Doom radio' in Australia bought the digital album, wrote up a kind review, featured it as 'Riffage of the Day', and added it to their roster of radio play stoner jams.

A few blogs including yours graciously wrote reviews as well.

 I never expected to sell the tracks when setting up the Bandcamp, and paid no attention to the price setting feature. Then days later, people here and there are paying $7 for the album!!! It was pretty crazy…Much of the positive reaction received has been from outside the country, which makes sense.

The local music community here is pretty clique, and I think American consumers are generally pretentious snobbish assholes when It comes to consumption. If something hasn’t been commercialized, and sold out to the masses, then it's worthless to them.

 Even on a smaller scale, local music communities claim to be better than mainstream in principle, but in fact, they are usually guilty of the same thing, with stuck up cliques, elitists, and all the bullshit politics that come with that sort of thing. It sucks cause' this attitude chokes out good local music and creates a façade of what is supposedly 'good' or 'cool'. Anyway- I never expected to go beyond that threshold. It’s an unreasonable self-expectation, and I would end up quitting before I even started. Really- its people like you that make this shit real.. You guys that support for no reason other than you like what you hear-despite clique popular opinion. That's true artistry. It's hard to articulate an appreciation for that, and I thank you.

5. Is there an active scene for your sort of music - I always think of any band coming from California having a much lighter feel than doom.

Haha…I'm not sure. I think that with the great Stoner/Psych/Doom bands coming out, it is becoming somewhat of a trend so yeah, there is. I'm not super impressed with the cookie cutter crap that I hear with the genre (Nor am I - Tony), and I think there is a lot of that coming out as well. Opportunists see it as a way to gain money and prestige it seems. That’s cool if they are good, but when they sound like everything else, it gets annoying. I don't pay much attention to 'the scene', where as I mentioned before, all the politics and hypocrisy being so disheartening and uninspiring, it's difficult to find support there, so yes, and no I guess.

6. How does this translate to putting on your own gigs or are there plenty of places to play?

Ha.. Yeah, that's all politics too. Majik Acid has played twice, before the band line up fell apart. It seems difficult getting an appropriate show booked as the sound that BMA is going for is different than what people sometimes consider the genre to be. As you mentioned earlier in your review of us, some bands claim a particular genre like doom or stoner, and when they play live they look and sound like Nickel Back. On the other side of that spectrum are the elitists who book shows and the band line ups are formed with political bias based on what's popular with hipsters and other elitists. It’s a hard road for sure.

7. Do you find places like Bandcamp are able to get your music out to a much wider audience than just gigs and friends?

Oh yeah. The little buzz being generated is reaching the UK, Greece, Australia, and beyond, though not locally. This bitter sweet anomaly affirms two things; the somewhat apparent success in the direction Black Majik Acid is going, and the apparent failure of local music communities in acknowledging and supporting their 'scene'.

8. What is next for Black Majik Acid?

An EP split release is in the works and should be out very soon. I was actually working on a good part of it yesterday. Song ideas true to the Black Majik Acid sound you've heard continue to flow for now. There are probably 30 solid song ideas in the works. The next batch of Acid jams are mostly mapped out, and the hope is to finish one per week until they are done. About 6-7 songs. The same Windows Movie Maker process will be used- so expect the same lo-fi rawness as before. Hopefully this release will be consistent with the first. There are no plans of changing up the sound at all. The new members will be dialled in soon, and shows will definitely be played. If all goes well, we'll be touring abroad and hit your home town with a solid dose!!! Thank you so much for entertaining my rants, and I look forward to future interactions, as well as more great bands and band reviews on the Black Insect Laughter blog! You guys rock!!!!

Thanks for replying to my drivel,

Tony

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Wolves Carry My Name Interview

Last year, Wolves Carry My Name burst out with the amazing
album "Amongst Ruins and Ashes" which featured in my
top albums of the year. With a new single out, the guys have
kindly agreed to an interview - read the words and
download the sounds!

Who is in the band?

We are Dennis (Bass), Moritz (Drums), Adil (Guitar), Tobi (Guitar) 

and Konstantin (Vocals). Together we form the musical entity known 

as “Wolves Carry My Name”, which was born in late 2011.

You have a fantastic sound of Sludge and Post-metal but the thing 

that sets you apart (for me) are the fuzzed out psychedelic solos. 

Was this something that just happened or was it a decision you all made?

Almost every aspect of our sound from the stoner sludge/post-metal 

hybrid to the solos was a very natural development, which just 

happened during our first songwriting sessions. Our guitar players 

come from very different musical backgrounds. One of them is more 

post-rock/metal orientated and the other has a more stoner background, 

so it was a logical conclusion for us to blend both styles into one sound. 

Adil is the guy, who does almost all of our solos and he really enjoys 

writing and performing his stuff, so we let him do everything he wants 

regarding the solos as long as it fits the song.

Your album from last year “Amongst Ruins and Ashes” burst upon 

the zine and blog world with glowing reviews. Although this sort of 

exposure spreads the music to a much bigger audience, does it have 

any impact for getting people to gigs or new places to play?

We were absolutely amazed by the positive reviews and reactions from 

different corners of the web. It really helped us in finding new listeners, 

supporters and different contacts and it was also a great motivation for us 

to take further steps in developing our sound. This exposure was not as 

useful for us in the case of finding new places to play, since there is not that 

much of an audience for this kind of music in Germany at this moment. The

feedback from blogs and zines is still a major factor for our band and will 

remain  as important in the future as it is now. I am sure, that this also applies 

to almost every small underground band.

You have recently released the track “Bone Carver”. Why just the 

one track? Are you working on any more songs?

The release of “Bone Carver” was intended as a foretaste of our first 

full length release (“Bone Carver” will be a part of it btw) , which will 

hopefully see the light of the day as soon as possible. We also planed to 

make a video for our single, which was shaping to be the most awesome thing 

since the dawn of mankind, but unfortunately we had to cancel it due to lack of 

money. We will hopefully be able to realize the idea at some point in the future.

We are currently standing knee deep in the songwriting process, so yes there 

are more tunes in the making. We wanted the new material to sound more 

diverse without losing the feeling, that made “Amongst Ruins And Ashes” 

special. One reviewer described our sound as Eyehategod on and off their 

medication, which seems to fit the songs quite well. The new material will 

still have  those sludge, post-metal and stoner elements, but will also bring 

something new to  the table.

Is there an active “scene” for your sort of music?

We don't have that much of experience regarding the sludge/stoner scenes 

in other countries and since we started Wolves Carry My Name only 2 years 

ago, there is still  a lot of venues and scenes for us to explore. As for our local 

area...we don't have a particular “scene”, but there a lot of people who enjoy 

stoner sound and some of them  can even get over our pissed off vocals. 

There is even a bigger stoner/blues festival  called Freak Valley not far away 

from our hometown.

Do you have to put on your own gigs or are there plenty of places to play?

We did organise most of our gigs, since it is rather hard do find a people or 

booking agencies, who would be interested in our music. Most venues in the 

underground lean toward hardcore and metal crowd, which is not always 

interested in more atmospheric and slow music.

Your recorded sound is fantastic - powerful, aggressive with a chaotic 

feel to things. I have never been able to translate my live sound to a 

studio, things seem to come out watered down and thin - what method 

do you use ....... it sounds very natural.

We had a couple of great guys who helped us with “Amongst Ruins And 

Ashes” and “Bone Carver”. Both recoding sessions were very low budget 

and were held in our rehearsal room. No special sound magic, just simple 

recording stuff. I guess we just got lucky, since we don't have much experience

 in this field. We were able to use much better recording equipment for our 

single though.

The album is free to download - do you find places like Bandcamp 

are able to get your music out to a much wider audience than just 

gigs and friends?

Absolutely yes! We can't imagine us doing any kind of promotional work 

without sites like Bandcamp and the social media. There are surely many 

downsides to the explosion of band related stuff in the social media, but 

the positive aspects are more relevant in this case.

What plans have you coming up regarding shows/recordings? How 

hard is it to juggle work with playing?

We have to bigger shows coming up which we are very exited about. 

We will support PELICAN in our hometown Siegen and EYEHATGOD 

in Cologne. 

Both bands influenced our sound, so it is something very special to share the

 stage with them. We are pretty sure, that our next output will be a full length 

and not another EP. We can't give you any deadlines at the moment, but it 

shapes up to be rather promising.

Unfortunately work and studying take a lot of time at this moment, so we 

can't spend as much time writing and performing our music as we would like

to, but we are happy, that we can still manage to spend just enough time together 

to keep the things going.

Are there any bands in Germany that other readers may not of 

heard of before that we should check out?

There is a Whole bunch of them. If you are into sludge, post-metal and 

blackened hardcore be sure to check Bitterness Exhumed, Godbreaker, 

Reborn To Conquer, Ablaze, Depravation, Longing for Tomorrow and 

Under The ledge Of Secrecy..and thanks for the interview!

Pleasure talking to you - cannot wait for the new album!

New Tongues - Interview

New Tongues blew me away with their debut release which I reviewed Here. 

This was prime punk/noise rock which I gleefully fucking recommended!

The band have been cool enough to give me an interview, so here goes:

Who is in the band and how did you get together? 

I met Justin at a street fair here in Columbia and we began playing and writing 

songs together. It was just the two of us playing bass (Justin) and guitar (Shane) 

for a few months in this tiny little room. 

Mike and Justin went to high school together. Justin and I had been trying 

to find a drummer for a few months before we met up with Mike at a 

show to see what he thought. 

He agreed and we wrote most of the album in the course of the next 4-5 months. 

We recorded all of We Are... after playing only 4 shows together. 

I can hear influences of NoMeansNo, These Arms Are Snakes and 

Jesus Lizard in your music. Was this the music that inspired you? 

I have been playing guitar for decades now and my stuff still has 

echoes of The Ramones and The Stooges in it - 

music I love and always play. 

We definitely wanted to play loud, chaotic music that wasn’t necessarily defined by a period or predecessor. No doubt all of those bands and many more shape what we sound like however, we often find ourselves describing a feeling or texture in a song in non-musical terms ie “let’s make this part sound like a truck slipping out of park and rolling downhill into a jeweler or fine dining restaurant” 

Do you have to put on your own gigs or are there plenty of places to play? 

We definitely book all of our own shows. Columbia has lots of good venues and bars but the one DIY venue is scheduled for demolition because the owner of the building would rather have a parking lot.

What has the general reaction been to “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For” - I have seen some really good reviews on the web, has this album helped in getting people along to see you play and getting gigs? 

It hasn’t helped yet but we plan on doing some touring soon. We’ve got a few offers to play out of town. 

I thought the production was really good - powerful & aggressive with a “live” raw sound - are you pleased with it? 

Very pleased. We worked with our friend Dan Ruder, drummer of the band Jack Buck in St. Louis (an amazing band) on the record. He recorded it and we mixed it together. Carl Saff in Chicago mastered it for vinyl. It was recorded in about a day and half, mostly single takes with minimal overdubs. 

How difficult is it to juggle work with being in the band. 

Difficult, but necessary. We have smart phones that tell us what to do and where to be. 

Your digital album is pay what you want - do you find places like Bandcamp are able to get your music out to a much wider audience than just gigs and friends? 

It is certainly a great tool. We have no illusions about broadening our audience or making it. We love playing music and making records and prefer said records are in other peoples hands/turntables/ or respective listening devices rather than our hands/basements. Sharing is good!

Are there any bands in Columbia that other readers may not of heard of before that we should check out? Columbia has a small but high concentration of great bands. Normally these come off as “check out my friends bands” but they are fantastic. Coward, Dark Blue Dark Green, Bald Eagle, Hott Lunch, Jack Buck (STL), Believers, etc. are all bands that you should check out and buy their records.

What does the future hold for you? We’re going to try for some Europe or South American tours next year and continue playing shows here in the Midwest (No Coast). We’re probably going to write another record this year too. Buying a trailer hitch will also happen. 

Those are the words - check out the sounds!

Millions - Interview

After being blown away by the new Millions album

"Failure Tactics" - my review Here., I got in touch with

the band to find out more about what makes them tick

and was kindly given an interview by Corey Lyons who

hits the guitar hard and shares yelling duties.

 “Failure Tactics” seems to have a more structured and cohesive feel than “Gather Scatter” - was this a natural progression or something you worked upon?

A bit of both, really. We definitely approached this one more like an album, instead of just a collection of songs we’d written in the last year or so. We demoed a lot more than we did with Gather Scatter, which is to say we actually demoed this time around, and spent more time tweaking and retooling things.. A lot of that was also just out of necessity, since Scott lives in Portland now - it just forced us to kind of put the songs under a microscope more than before. But at the same time, focusing on the songwriting was definitely more of a conscious choice than before. With Gather Scatter, in a way we were hearing the songs for the first time in the studio, as we recorded them. With Failure Tactics, since we demoed them so much we were almost sick of hearing them by the time it came to record them! But that process also gave us more time to experiment and mess around, record noise tracks and stuff, which was something we wish we had done more of with Gather Scatter, but things just weren’t as fleshed out as much then. 

We also seemed more open to new and weirder song ideas rather than trying to write songs that sounded like Millions “should” sound. This time around we wrote more from our gut, more naturally. I see us going more in that direction in the future too.

Andrew Ragin produced this time around - he did an excellent job - was his work with The Atlas Moth an influence in getting him on board?

Andrew’s a solid guy and was a fan and into what we were doing, and wanted to record us. We all dig Atlas Moth of course, but it was more about the fact that it was something he wanted to do. And we had a blast recording with him too. He’s super laid back but also really knows his shit, the whole experience was just tons of fun. We’re all super happy with how everything turned out. The studio itself is amazing too, like a museum of old tape machines, pianos, and even a mellotron. We were hoping we could work that into the album somehow but ran out of time. 

The album has got very positive reviews which must be buzz after all the hard work you have put into the recording. How important is what the ‘Mainstream’ press writes? Web blogs are now my main source of music information but I am very aware of the fact that compared to some sites, mine is like a tiny fanzine being sold at gigs. You are taking the time to do this interview (thanks!) - do you get many of these requests?

We actually appreciate the blogs and stuff a lot more than the ‘mainstream’. A review in a big magazine or something is great but it’s no guarantee that anyone is actually listening to the music, but I think with the blogs you get a better sense of that. Seems like more people are looking towards the blogs for new music these days, I know I do. And man, I miss the days of fanzines being sold at gigs! Definitely had much more of a community vibe to things, and I guess blogs are kind of carrying on that tradition in their own way.

We’ve had a fair amount of interviews this time around, but are always down for more. Definitely dig doing them, always cool to provide more insight into the band. 

You are spread out between Chicago and Portland - how does this translate into the problems of recording and playing?

It kind of forced us to focus on songwriting more and allowed us to experiment and toy around with ideas. It also contributed to a change in our sound, but overall I think all of these things were for the best. Certainly not an ideal situation, and definitely was frustrating at times, but we made it happen and are really happy with how things turned out.

Playing live is a little different now. We’ve been playing most of our shows as a three piece for the last year, and it’s actually been going over really well. It’s not ideal of course, but it definitely works. Scott joins us when he can, such as recently for the record release show in Chicago. A lot of the newer songs lend themselves to being played as a three piece pretty well, but of course are just that much better when Scott’s around. And most likely there will be more touring as the original four-piece next year and in the future. 

What does the album title refer to?

Nothing in particular, but Millions is a huge outlet for us, a way to unleash our negative sides, so the album title kind of encompasses that. It also came to represent a lot of the frustrations and stuff we’ve experienced either personally or as a band since Gather Scatter. It could speak to the process of trying to write and record an album while your members are thousands of miles apart, problems on the road, etc. It almost became a running joke while recording and release the album, whenever something went wrong one of us would just say, “Failure Tactics!”

It’s open to interpretation. Not to get all serious, but given the state of the world these days, “Failure Tactics” just seems fitting. 

Also a while back we decided that every album title we have will just be two two-syllable words. Gather Scatter, Panic Program, Failure Tactics... so to anyone trying to predict the next album title, that should help you narrow it down to only several million two word combinations!

To my ears, Millions are the perfect mix of post-hardcore and noise rock - which bands have inspired you in the past and what are you listening to today?

As a band we’re kind of all over the place in terms of what we all listen to, but we share some common ground in the old AmRep/Touch and Go/Dischord stuff from the 90s. A few bands we can all agree on would be Rodan, Jesus Lizard, Swans, Fugazi. Swans is a big one right now, I know the last couple albums they’ve put out have got some of us pretty obsessed. 

While recording Failure Tactics, a couple of us seemed to purposely listen to things that didn’t sound anything like Millions, but would maybe inspire us when writing/recording. I was listening to a lot of early Pink Floyd and late Beatles for instance, instead of just drowning myself in Jesus Lizard and Botch or something. I think all the Pink Floyd help push the song ‘Darmok V’ to become one of our weirder songs. Fun as hell to record that one, all kinds of things going on there.

As far as what we’re listening today... Swans, Glenn Branca, Nina Simone, Lee Van Cleef, Fight Amp, Bohen & Der Club of Gore, Distorted Pony, Glazed Baby, Krallice, live stuff from The Who, 

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic, Lord Mantis....

I know a lot of the vocal duties are shared - do people tend to sing on the songs they have written or is it a different process?

For the most part, yeah, but it’s more because it just worked out that way, rather than being what we specifically had in mind.A few of our older songs are sung by someone who didn’t write the initial riffs, but everything on Failure Tactics has us singing leads on our own songs. Numbing the Dream was almost the exception, but we’re gonna save that outtake for our 20th Anniversary boxed set. When it comes to backup vocals, we tend to have a good idea as to who would be the best for that particular part. We’re no Frank Sinatras, but we all have our own distinctive ranges and whatnot that lend themselves to certain songs/parts of songs. I would sound horrible singing “Siberian Angel” and I don’t think anyone but Mark could have pulled off “Pervert’ how he did.

I missed the UK 2009 dates - are there any plans for Europe dates in the future?

Most definitely, it’s one of our priorities at the moment but can’t say when exactly it will happen. We were trying to go this Fall, then that turned into next Winter/Spring, but now I have a baby on the way (and Scott had one this summer), so it’s been postponed again. But rest assured, we’ll be back. That tour was a freaking blast and I can’t wait to do it again sometime. I was even deathly ill for half of it, either some kind of flu or vicious food poisoning, or both. Most of my time was spent curled up in the back of the van or passed out, but I’d still do it all over again. And I still say it was one of the best experiences of my life. In retrospect, I probably really should have gone to a hospital. Still worth it though. Next time I’ll just avoid airplane dairy products and gas station tabbouleh . 

Finally, what can we expect next from Millions?

There’s going to be a slight hiatus in 2013 while a couple of us are busy raising kids. After that there will be some more touring to support Failure Tactics, and then hopefully working on album number three! There’s already ideas floating around for that one, but obviously it will be awhile before we really sit down and hash it out. We’re all really excited about the new direction Failure Tactics took, and can’t wait to expand on that even more. I think it will be as different from Failure Tactics and that one was from Gather Scatter. Unless having kids changes us and it becomes an album of lullaby renditions of Botch songs or something. 

Thanks Corey for taking the time to answer my drivel - catch them at the links below:

Bandcamp

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