Narcosis Interview

I did this interview originally for my zine, but seeing as i'm too lazy to keep updating it i might aswell add it onto here

(www.narcore.com)

Narcosis are to be seen (possibly twice) later on this year as part of the Pig Destroyer/Halo/Total Fucking Destruction tour hitting our shores mid-November.

INTERVIEW - w/ guitarist Chris
gav_revolt: Who are narcosis, what are they about, and why should we care?
Chris: Mainly about playing as fast as we can go. Trying to be inventive and tight as possible. I would say we are mainly a live band as most of our records dont really capture what we do live. Dunno why anyone cares though mate.

gav_revolt: I know from hearing your music that it's both technical and fast, was it hard finding the members to put together such a band?
Chris: Well it's been a slow kind of thing really. It's been hard finding members who can stick at it, people who are into doing really harsh stuff. I think the line up we have today is without a doubt the strongest and musically proficient (ahem...). I wouldn't say we are 'technical' though.That conjours up far too many negative images up. More 'complex'...if there's a difference.

gav_revolt: You'd rather distance yourself from an image of musical wankery?
Chris: Yeah i suppose, there are loads of 'tech' bands these days and so many of them sound really sterile. I think we have more melody, dare I say it. It's a way of pointing out the differences between crust/grind and other stuff. I do like quite a few of the tech bands though....

gav_revolt: Can you give us a few musical reference points you'd align your music to?
Chris: Erm...bands that we seem to get compared to are Discordance Axis, Arsedestroyer, Pig Destroyer, Corrupted some people have even said Death and mid period carcass (though I can't see that at all). We all like most forms of extreme music, grind, hardcore, deathmetal, noise, sludge etc...... We are most definaltley grind but with a few other things thrown in there.

gav_revolt: What has your music done for you?
Chris: It's allowed us to see loads of different countries. Well the inside of lots of different venues in differnt counties, haha. It's given us the chance to play with some truely awesome bands like Stack, Melt Banana, American Heritage, Hard to Swallow etc... We've made tons of friends through it and it's got me drunk for free quite a bit too.

gav_revolt: Favourite place you've played at whilst abroad?
Chris: We played a venue in the Czech Republic in Prerov i think, that was amazing!!! All the crowd going wild, ripping the lighting from the roof and huge piles of bodies on the floor!!! That was one of the best gigs we have done. Some of my other favourite gigs have been over here really. Especially the Swan in london, that's another place where people go mad!

gav_revolt: How big a back catalogue do Narcosis have now?
Chris: Not very big really haha we have a split 7" with morose, a split 7" with Swarrrm(jap), the Heart Slows Down cd/lp and the split with Melt Banana, Keelhaul and Morser is still on the way. Just gotta wait for Morser to get their bit done, thats a split 10"/cd i think. Doing split records with friends bands, and some of my favourite bands, has been something else that has been great.

gav_revolt: Do you profess a love for all things vinyl?
Chris: No not me, some of the others do. Vinyl is just a pain for me really as my turntable is shit and its a fucking hastle mailing that shit out too. A lot of the time vinyl pressings are shit too.

gav_revolt: Are there any good new grind bands on the go?
Chris: There seems to be quite few knocking about in the UK at the moment. Army of Flying robots, Trencher (though they have been about for a while i think), Esquilax, Blackened Heart Syndrome... It's getting pretty good in the UK at the moment. Some of my other new faves at the moment are Red Chord, and the last couple of Agoraphobic Nosebleed cds have been superb.

gav_revolt: Do you find it hard to find new music that you like?
Chris: I'm pretty dismissive I suppose. There's not been that many bands that have really blown me away for a long while. Melt banana and Pale Horse were the last live bands to do that. There seems to be a flood of new bands every so often and only one or two are either good or stick around. I haven't bought that many new cd's for a while, just trying to catch up on stuff I missed!

gav_revolt: What do you regard as "the classics"?
Chris: Carcass 'Necroticism...', Carcass 'Reek of Putrefaction'. The Smiths 'Strangeways Here We Come'. Melt banana 'Charlie'. Discordance Axis 'Ulterior' and 'The Inalienable Dreamless'. Depeche Mode 'Violator'. Anathema 'The Silent Enigma'. His Hero Is Gone 'Momuments to Thieves'....

gav_revolt: What does Narcosis lyric subject matter focus on?
Chris: Peet writes all the lyrics. Predictably they are not happy happy joy joy. More tales of hate and depression. They are quite funny too, and some of the new song tiltes are even funnier!!!! A lot tend to be sentences and short outbursts, though these days they are getting longer. No politics, though we are reasonably clued up about the world and what goes on in it.

gav_revolt: Does porno-grind have its place?
Chris: Yeah somewhere though not in my cd collection. I like porn and I like grind.Can't see how the two mix...

gav_revolt: What about gore grind?
Chris: I hate most gore grind, Mortician are utter shit. Exhumed are pretty good, though they aren't the same kind of ultra detuned kind of borecore that most of them are.

gav_revolt: Do you think people get confused between what they think are grind bands, but they're actually just metal bands?
Chris: Yeah, I think grind is most deffinatley punk on high speed, thougth in our case we have something to offer both sides I would say.... The difference between punk and metal is attitude anyway (as musically things are getting more and more blurred). That's why you don't see lot of 'metal' bands playing squats...

gav_revolt: Do squats rule?
Chris: Playing in them does, usually. Staying in most of them most certainly doesn't. Quite a few are nice places and people who have put us on are great and we very much appreciate it. But having to put up with pissheads keeping you awake untill 6am then driving for 10 hours is no fun. The thing is we know what we are getting before we get there so we have no excuse for crying.

gav_revolt: Should crusties wash more often?
Chris: Yes they should, but who am i to criticise??? I usualy stink like fuck. One person who does need to wash more often is dwid from thekervorkiansolution. That fucker STINKS!

gav_revolt: Is mr ives going to be doing thing with narcosis?
Chris: He certainly is, the next album.

gav_revolt: Right, i'll ask one more question.
Chris: Okay dokey.

gav_revolt: What are the current plans for Narcosis?
Chris: At the moment we have loads of gigs around about the country. The split 10" will be out soonish, and we will be touring this summer. Maybe with charger. Was supposed to be with Benumb but they couldnt make it across, financial reasons i think..... Check the site for more details, we update it quite often!

Interview by Gavin Kidd in March 2004