G'day Alex, the last half of 2014 was a little more subdued with 'real life' taking up more of our time. We've been playing some ripper gigs fairly regularly though and have written some new material. We've been stoked with how much people are digging the LP, getting on end of year lists etc, we think its a ball tearer and it's nice to have that validated by fellow nerds on the net. We've got a split 7" with Mellow Harsher from Wisconsin coming out on RSR in the next couple of months and planning to record for more splits soon. There's also a live studio 12" kicking about waiting to be properly birthed and an East Coast tour of Aus in Feb/March with our split buddies Manhunt. Always keepin' busy despite constant procrastination, that's how we do it.
Well, I already mentioned your tour, so I would like to know a little more about it. Was it your first experience in USA? Do you still remember the taste of their burgers?)
The recent tour was incredible! 15 shows in 18 days all up the West Coast (inc Vancouver), MDF, the Mid-West, Boston. We hired cars and drove ourselves around for the most part, which worked out surprisingly well. We were floored by the enthusiasm and generosity of everyone who helped us out with gigs, beds, buds, gear etc. So many killer gigs in sweaty hotbox basements, concrete DIY spaces, pubs and loungerooms, meeting heaps of top blokes n sheilas along the way, bangin' our noggins to some ridiculously tight and raging bands. The gastronomic bashing we endured was fantastic, in my opinion at least. Max and Christoph did not often share my enthusiasm for the cheesy, greasy, heart busting, colon clogging delicasies. 'Coulvers' Butter burgers and fried cheese curds before we played in Madison almost destroyed the band from the inside out! This was our 2nd tour, back in 2011 we played a few shows in New York and Philly. We had decided to come anyway to watch our mates in The Kill play MDF and thought we might as well cram a few gigs in, turned out to be a wild couple of weeks of immature mischief, antics and brain cell devastation. We learned many lessons from that short tour that served us well this time around.
Alas no, the 'grindcore commune' of my dreams will have to wait for now. I recently became a dad too so this concept of money and riches you speak of will be foreign to me for many years to come.
Time for a completely generic question. When I listen to your music, I notice the influence of old school grindcore (Phobia, Excruciating Terror, the list goes on and on). What is so attractive in all these bands for you?
Good old school grindcore just doesn't fuck about, every riff and beat is belted out with ferocious energy and a certain wildness that can't be matched. That feeling of controlled chaos during blasts when you think its all about to fall into a sloppy mess then it kicks back into a high energy thrashin' d beat stomper is the best.
Everybody knows that when you perform grindcore music (no matter if it's live gig or just rehearsal) there's a lot of energy go out of you. How does Internal Rot rest and refill its energy?
Our general frustrations with life and the world around us are more than enough sustainence. No rest for the grumpy.
- Having so many bands is shithouse when it's time to make records, but is great for keeping the chops up because it means there's always someone keen to jam and play rockstar with. Having different bands for different genres actually makes life easier, that way I don't ruin EVERY band I'm in with jump-metal mosh riffs/beats and the musical result is focused. Too many bands try and be 'innovative' and mix a whole bunch of genres together and just end up with the musical equivalent of poo-brown. Here's some of our other bands we make noise in:
Brad
-Super Fun Happy Slide
-Umbilical Tentacle
-Holy Boner
-Blarghstrad
-Clogged
-TakeThatVileFiend
Christoph
-Roskopp
-Headless Death
-Doubled Over
-Trench Sisters
-Unnatural Birth
-Contaminated
-Pregnancy
Max
-Agents Of Abhorrence
-Cut Sick
-Pivixki
-Faceless Burial
-Crumbs
-Headless Horsemen
Of course, i'm just bloody lazy and can't be buggered sitting down and teaching someone the riffs. We've always thrown the idea around but it's not a high priority. When playing live I run through a guitar and a bass rig and it does the job pretty well. It also helps when people let me borrow their amps which are infinitely better than my poor old head. We recorded the first EP and LP without any bass guitar, instead going for a guitar track pitch shifted down an octave to get that "rumble".
Many of us have his own "perfect vision" on some things in life. How should a perfect grindcore song sound?
Frenetic, ferocious, fast and filthy with woopwoop blasts that go forever and blown out angry as fark shriekin' vocals.
Continue the joke: "a kangaroo walks into a bar and says to a bartender..."
-"I'll have a pint thanks cobba", the bartender replies "That'll be $10. We don't usually get too many of your kind in here."
-"At $10 a farkin' beer I'm not surprised dickhead!"
What is the most frightening thing in modern life for you?
Humans.
What song of yours would you choose as the most representative song of a whole band?
'Eyelids' because it was the first song we wrote and we haven't done any better since. Its the perfect mix of completly unoriginal raging blasts, thrash and mosh.
What kind of emotions you feel when you're on stage?
-Anger, Happiness, Excitement, Frustration, Unbridled Enthusiasm, Grumpiness. Is ungodly sweatiness an emotion?
OK, time for a question that would help us in making a tourist route, hehe. What're your favorite places in Melbourne? What would you definitely recommend to look at to a person who visited your city for a first time?
Brunswick St and the suburb of Fitzroy in general is the 'hipster' area with lots of bars, wicked food, art galleries, weird stores etc. Melbourne is a good wandering town, we don't have the postcard sights so much, but there's always something going on. Really good live music and arts scene, and if you're a mad sports nut Melbourne would be right up your alley. Outside of Melbourne within an hour there are good beaches, dense mountainous bushland and much more visually stunning subject matter than whats on offer within the concrete urban sprawl. For the most part though it's the constant array of sick gigs, we're pretty bloody spoilt with top quality bands here.
Well, my questions are over. Thank you so much for this interview, Brad!
Thanks for the interview mate, appreciate your support and keep up the great work with the site.
Cheers!
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