Conducted at the Milton Keynes Pitz in support of Lawnmower Deth, on the 5/6/09, in the company of Gama Bomb’s favourite interview watcher, John.

C (Carl): Firstly thanks for the interview, would you like to introduce yourselves to the readers.

Ph (Philly): Philly, vocals.

Pa (Paul): I’m Paul, I play drums.

D (Domo): I’m Domo and I play lead guitar.

L (Luke): I’m Luke I play the other guitar.

J (John): I’m John, and I’m……great!

(Laughs)

Ph: He sure is!

Pa: Where’s Wally? (laughing)

Ph: There’s a couple of Wallys round here!

Pa: Be professional!

Carl takes out his questions

Ph: Wow! More than one page! More than I’ve ever seen!

C: Firstly, how did this show come about? It’s a one off right?

Laughing form the group

Pa: That would be our bass player Joe, the one who’s not here! It’s his fault!

L: Joe suggested it to the guys from Lawnmower Deth and then they turned up and arranged it so ummm…(Starts laughing)

C: Why Milton Keynes though?

All: No idea!

Pa: Lawnmower Deth’s idea.

Ph: Yea them.

L: Apparently they used to play here all the time back in the day.

C: Did they? When? I’ve been coming here for about 5 years and I’ve never heard of them.

L: Nah this place is 20 years old! Slayer and Nuclear Assault played here.

C: Really?

L: Yep!

Ph: The mat underneath the drum kit is Slayer’s mat. Must have been left behind on some disastrous tour.

Pa: That’s the ‘famous part’ of this place!

Ph: Yea! That’s it!

(Turns to Paul)

Ph: You have now sat on the same rug as…. whoever!

Pa: Dave Lombardo.

Ph: Sure!

C: Ok, more to your music, your lyrics. Obviously zombies, but also global warming, dealing with racism and classic thrash.

Ph: Yep that sounds good

C: Who’s responsible for that?

Ph: We’re collectively responsible for that.

L: He’s responsible for that!

(Laughs)

Pa: No!

Ph: Yea the lyrics are a collective thing, about what we’re interested in and stuff. I suppose me, Luke and Joe write a lot of them. What you write always changes when you have to sing it because we play so ridiculously fast! So we write these huge tracts of absolute nonsense and you have to pick the wee bits that rhyme and make a load of nonsense out of it. But yea we all write lyrics, we’re writing a new album at the minute. It all comes out of stuff we have in common, there’s never something that someone brings to the table and people say, “That makes no sense”. We do try to stick to the same stuff. I think it’s really odd how loads of metal bands write songs about being upset or killing themselves or something stupid like that. Chances are its not going to happen anytime soon so what’s the point?

L: There’s also some song by (band I can’t pronounce or work out from the recording) about getting meat hooks.

Ph: Good for him! (Laughs)

C: You mentioned video games as one of your influences. Is that retro games?

Ph: Of course! I think you’d be hard pushed, I mean, we were all born in the 80’s as I’m sure you were yourself. It’s hard to fins somebody who isn’t interested in that sort of thing. We were all raised with the Commodore, Amiga, NES…

L: 64.

Ph: 64!?! What are you talking about, not even the Master System!!

L: Commodore 64!

Ph: Oh!

L: Not the N64! That’s way to futuristic!

Ph: Spectrum!

All laugh

Ph: N64! When Golden Eye came out we were already university material! (laughs) Yea we were raised on that stuff and I think everyone was. We never wrote songs about video games to be more 80’s, it’s just that’s the stuff that interests us. It’s just coincidental that that period was the 80’s! People are always nostalgic about stuff that happened when they were kids you know. That’s why old men are into collecting little cars and cowboy toys and stuff! Video games are like the hobbyhorses of our generation so that’s why we write about them. At the minute though we’re not really writing about them that much, we’re writing about…

(Philly gets interrupted by Paul and Domo jumping and dancing about)

(Philly notices my camera held at an odd angle)

Ph: Are you sure you’re not filming our chests?

C: I’m filming about that much of you. (just about his head, in truth it is mostly his chest, 1-0 to you Philly J)

C: I’m trying to get a good audio, as I don’t have a Dictaphone.

Ph: Ah! Is it going to be uploaded?

C: If I can work out how to do it I will get it up.

Ph: So if you can get it up….

(Luke hoots with laughter)

C: If I can get it up it will be there!

Ph: If you can get it up it will be pretty good, but otherwise you’ll just listen to the nice noises! I’m talking about erections…

(Laughter from all)

C: You guys have played with Exodus and Overkill, the kind of bands you are influenced by, how does that feel? Were they nice to you?

D: Amazing! Totally totally class! Overkill were amazing because I was never a massive Overkill fan or whatever, I liked them but, I never really got round to getting into them. But playing with them was great, I was like, these guys are one of the best bands I’ve ever seen.

Ph: And they’re good people to tour with as well because they’re good guys.

D: They’re themselves.

Ph: Bobby Blitz was really good to us; we’re still in touch with him now which I think is great because he’s an amazing singer, one of the best metal singers and I think because he’s able to give us advice on what to do. Exodus were really nice to, but the weird thing was that we are completely different people from Exodus. Exodus are not passivists, and they’re not this and that. They’re big scary ‘Hell Yeah!’ men. But we made really great friends with them! We had some of the most stupid things in common with them like Star Wars and Tears for Fears…

L: And ice!

Ph: Ice! What?

L (with a big smile on his face): Nothing man.

(laughing all round)

Ph: Right, ice!

L: Ice is only as bad as crack… (bursts out laughing)

(all laughing and talking about ice and crack)

(Philly gives a big thumbs-up to the camera)

C: That’s an endorsement is it?

Ph: Of ice? Yea!! (laughs)

C: There’s a lot of people up here, probably more, from, London than Milton Keynes. Is the London scene good to you guys then?

Ph: Yea, from the start we came here a couple of years ago now, long before we had a record deal or anything like that, played a gig in West Kensington, played somewhere called the Fox or something

D: The Fox…was it the Fox?

Ph: I think so, in like 2006. It was our first gig in Britain…England, and we headlined it, which was awesome! Were you at that John?

J: I don’t think so. Not West Kensington.

Ph: It was us, Pitiful Reign, Mutant and somebody else, it was just amazing!

L: Deceptor.

Ph: Ah Deceptor! It was just a like a proper thrash crowd, like all guys in cut offs. Since then it’s just been really good! I think we can thank concentrating on the UK for getting us a record deal because we have put the work in, and I think if you stay in Ireland all you’re doing is playing to the same 20 people. Of course you’re playing to the same 20 people over here as well, but it seems that people with their hands on the strings will come and see you over here. So yea, the UK has been really good to us.

C: What was Ireland like then? Has it got a good scene?

Ph: Don’t get me wrong! Ireland is great! We were playing round local towns for years!

L: Punks in Belfast are awesome and the Metallers in Dublin are awesome and it doesn’t work the other way round.

Ph: Yea some people take themselves too seriously.

(at this point my phone goes off with my Final Fantasy battle win music, causing Paul to start laughing)

Ph: And that noise means it’s time to go to the scores!

C: Have you guys started writing the new album yet?

Ph: Yep we’re in the middle of it.

C: Are you playing any new songs?

L: Yep we’re playing a few new songs today. 3 new songs.

Ph: We’re a bit wibbly wobbly, but they’re good songs! They’re wibbly wobbly because they’re new songs.

Pa: They need to be drilled into your head a few times!

Ph: Yea we’re recording in September and will release (burps) sometime between now and next February. We’ve got a couple of cool ideas about how we’re going to do it as well. Please God it will be a good record!

L: Skeletons are figuring heavily.

(noise from crunching cans comes in)

Ph: Now when I was a wee lady that’s what we used to call Robocop. We’d crush cans on our feet and call it Robocop, and you’d crush a bottle and put it on your bike and call it a motorbike.

(the interview starts to get interrupted by passing children, the Pitz is a leisure centre and there’s always a some class going on before gigs)

C: Go away.

L: Did somebody just get bullied by a wee child?

C: Welcome to Milton Keynes!

(Laughing)

(at this point we decide to move, with hoots of laughter fro  the band at the absurdity of the situation)

L: We’re getting chassed!

(more laughing)

(with the interruptions gone, we continue)

C: What do you think of folk metal?

Ph: I don’t like folk metal.

L: I thought that was ok and then you said metal.

(laughter)

L: Folk music is amazing and then you said metal and its rubbish.

Ph: It’s silly really, fair play to those people who do it, I’m sure they like it, but I reserve my right to hate it. It sounds so twangy (?).

L: Folk music on the other hand, is immense!

(lots of head nodding and agreeing sounds)

C: I’ve got some quick fire questions to finish off if you don’t mind?

Ph: What like how quickly would you catch fire? Very I think.

D: Nah, it’s way too cold.

C: Party or gig?

Ph: What?

C: Party or a gig?

Ph: Party!

L: Party!

Pa: Yep! (laughs)

Ph: Do you mean to play or attend?

C: Attend.

Ph: Depends on the band! Party though I think!

L: If (I think he said Dio) was playing it would be a party anyway.

Pa: Have a party at the gig!

Ph: Some gigs you can party at, but on the balance of things, I’d say party.

J: AC/DC was a party at the gig.

Ph: Yes!

C: You went to see AC/DC?

Ph: Yea I went to see them in Manchester with my brother!

(Luke walks off to laughter)

L: I went to see fucking Mutant and Fucking Evile instead!

Ph: So yes, party is the correct answer!

C: Ale or Beer?

All but Luke who is rolling a roll up: Beer.

Luke looks up: Are you talking about English ale?

C: English Ale.

L: Ah beer then!

(all laugh again)

C: What’s your favourite spirit?

Ph: Whisky.

All: Whisky.

Ph: Whisky or rum.

C: CD or Vinyl?

Ph: Ummm, digital?

L: CDs are digital.

Ph: None physical then Luke!

(laughs)

Ph: Digital download.

L: Vinyl vinyl vinyl.

Ph: Vinyl’s nicer than CD.

Pa: Cassette tape!

C: Yes! Old Skool!

(laughs)

L: How else are you going to listen to music in your car?

Ph: My Eddie Grant double album!

Pa: I have a vinyl in my car! It’s on the passenger seat!

C: Testament or Slayer?

Ph: Testament.

D: Testament.

L: Testament.

Ph: Although I’ve seen both of them live and Slayer were more impressive.

C: Really?

Pa: I’m going to go for Slayer actually.

L: Slayer’s first album beats everything by Testament so…

Ph: Absolutely! It’s all about Megadeth and Judas Priest anyway!

C: Last question, where is the best place to hid if a zombie invasion happened?

L: Joe’s house.

Ph: Joe’s house is an enormous Georgian mansion.

D: Mantress.

Ph: Yea, mansion fortress. And there are fences all over the place.

C: Cheers, thank you for the interview!

All: Cheers!

Thank you very much to Gama Bomb for a proper enjoyable interview!