BRUTAL TRUTH - George Bush tuhle zemi zničil

BRUTAL TRUTH - George Bush destroyed this country

Brutal Truth jsou jednou z prvních kapel, které začaly míchat grindcore s HC, HC punk, noise… Inspirovali tak další pelotony podobných (mladších) kapel a po pravdě už nikdo nedoufal, že by to dali dohromady a že vydají desku. Ale vše toto se stalo a Brutal Truth jsou zpět na scéně, kde pobíhají již bezmála 20 let a vypadá to, že ještě budou. O tomto i dalších věcech si se vstřícným a nesmírně přátelským Dannym Lilkerem povídali onDRajs a bizzaro.

onDRajs: Hi Danny, with no obstructions… could You tell us

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few words about your break up in nineties? What happened?
Basically there were problems within the band with people getting along, but this has been resolved now and will not occur again. Hint- we have a new guitarist...

onDRajs: Even after your break up, You kept being active on the scene. Richard had (and he still has) Total Fucking Destruction, Kevin plays with Venomous Concept. And You, Danny, you are really a hummer, you play like in every band :-) from Venomous Concept, Nuclear Assault, The Ravenous, Crucifist, Overlord Exterminator… How could You manage all that activities together? Or maybe you put your other bands aside and focus mainly on Brutal Truth? It seems strange to me, that You kept playing the music, but quit BT.
Haha, you have certainly done your research! Well, firstly, Venomous Concept only does stuff when Brutal and Napalm are not busy, or are at the same festival or tour. Nuclear is mostly over since John Connelly is now a high school history teacher! The Ravenous is extremely inactive, we haven’t done anything for like 5 years now at least. Crucifist does a lot around here but it works around Brutal Truth’s schedule. Overlord Exterminator was a studio-only project. So it all works out...

bizzaro: Well, as you played almost every possible musical style – are you still untouched by any genre, and on the other hand, which is your favourite?
It would be fun to play in the style of Electric Wizard! I just saw them at Hellfest and they were amazing! I don’t have a favorite genre within metal, as long as it is extreme I enjoy it!!

onDRajs: Sound of Animal Kingdom was recorded also with Brent McCarthy, than he completedly dissapeard, as it seems. What is doing now?
He is busy being a good father and husband! He has a good job and he couldn’t quit it to keep up with our schedule.

onDRajs: He was later replaced by Erik Burke. Why him? How did You find him?
Erik is an old friend of my wife’s, he actually filled in with Nuclear Assault replacing Anthony Bramante a few years back for some shows, and when we needed a guitarist for Brutal, I knew he would be totally perfect. His playing and songwriting has brought a whole new level of intensity to this band.

bizzaro: So, Danny, you are married? How long, and which other members of BT… and how about children? Does it entice you to have them? After I passed thirty years, everything starts to bother me (kind of middle-age crisis, you know), how about you?
I have been married since march 2001, Kevin and Erik are married too, they have one kid each. My wife and I are not interested in having children, so we just have cats. Things bother you more as you age, this is natural, the more aware you become, the more you realize just how fucked up the world is!

bizzaro: What your wife think about music you play? Is she ok with your (musical) life, when you are often out of home? Where did you met her?
My wife is metalhead! I met her at a metalfest in New Jersey at one of the last S.O.D. shows. And half the time she is with me when we play festivals, you will meet her soon!

onDRajs: Do you know what Scott Lewis (BT’s previous drummer) has been doing so far? It seems he has stayed untouched by music after his departure from BT. And actually, why did he leave?
Scott works for Apple Computers now and has purposely not done other bands. He left because he didn’t enjoy it anymore, which was fine, you should only play this type of extreme music if you’re getting something out of it, and he wasn’t anymore. He’s happier now.

onDRajs: What was the key element in the decission of BT reunion? BT was one of the first band mixing grindcore with HC, HC punk, noise (great record Need to Control comes to mind) and actually it inspired tons of similar (yet younger) bands (Narcosis, Antigama etc.) Frankly, I almost lost my faith in your reunion, not to speak about new album.
We originally reformed to record an Eyehategod cover to help them out on a benefit/tribute compilation after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their equipment and rehearsal space.
After that, it was simple, we decided to grind again, we got a new guitarist when Brent said he couldn’t continue (which was for the best anyway considering our break-up in the 90s) and just wrote Brutal Truth music without thinking too heavily about it. That is how we function best, just smoke weed and write our music. If we think too much about how influential we’ve been, or what people expect of us, it would interfere with the natural songwriting process.

bizzaro: For so many people BT is kind of cult-status band. But You, at the time when You started to play, had surely heroes of your own. So, which bands You find „cults“, and – don‘t be too modest here – do You consider Your band cult?
For me, the bands that inspired Brutal Truth back then were Napalm Death, Carcass, Dark Angel, S.O.B., etc, so bands like these were certainly „cults“ for me!
Regarding the cult status of Brutal Truth...I hope I can say without looking like an egomaniac that we certainly have made a strong impact on the entire grindcore scene for almost 20 years now, and many people have told me that we are indeed „gods of grind“, so I will say yes, we are fucking cult grindcore.

onDRajs: Do you consider releasing any BT DVD as possible? You should have had some shows taken on camera in the past. What would you say? By the way, I like old times videos with a lot of energy, genius loci and zeitgeist

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taken here; I consider Napalm Death‘s Live Corruption as being the best live video ever. Really something.
It’s funny you should say that, we have just released our first DVD and the main part of it is from our show at the 2007 Obscene Extreme Festival right there in the Czech Republic! I’m sure you know our buddy Curby, right? It’s a 5-camera shoot of this show with 2500 grindcore maniacs going mental. There are also 4 shows in the bonus section from the late 90s in Australia, Texas and Califirnia. The DVD is called „For the Ugly and Unwanted, This is Grindcore“ and it’s out now on Season of Mist Records.

bizzaro: Hey, that’s cool, I was just about asking you if you remember Obscene Extreme, where you actually played one of your first reunion shows and whether you feeled any difference to play for the audience that came straight for grindcore, for the OEF recepctively, than the audience in the States. Especially OEF audience are bunch of crazy beasts, dozens of people on stage, disguises… one great unmeasurable party! Some special rememberances?
There is nothing in the world like OEF, the people there are total freaks and it’s beautiful! Playing for the people that come to OE is very special for us, we know they are there to hear some fucking crazy grind and we are more than happy to deliver. It’s almost like the hippie festivals I‘ve seen films of from the 60’s, just a really friendly and freaky environment.
Freak friendly!!!

onDRajs: Do you listen to any new bands? Whenever I read the interviews with any older musicians, they tell they listen just to their favourite old classics... Are you the same case?
I mostly listen to new bands by playing with them. We just got back from some shows including Weird Truth Productions4 in Spain, where we played with great bands like Nashgul, Looking For An Answer, Hindrance and Violent Headache amongst others.

onDRajs: I know New York is extremely huge city, but an extreme music community is small everywhere and everybody knows each other, so tell me who you meet a lot with?
Do you attend the gigs of other NY bands like Suffocation, Pyrexia, Skinless, Anthrax, Malignancy? Do you like them? (Anthrax is a stupid example) Try to be sincere here...
I haven’t lived in NYC for 7 years, I live up in Rochester, NY now where my wife is from. Up here, I hang out a lot with people in extreme bands like Spoonful Of Vicodin, Sulaco, Warblade, Abdicate, Bludwulf and Orodruin.
Sorry, see my answer :). All the bands you mentioned are cool, though...

onDRajs: When You reunited, do You think it’s possible that even Exit13 can be reborn too? Are You still in touch with other members of this special band? I think there’s absolutly no other band with similar attitude as Exit13.
I speak to the vocalist Bill from time to time, but Steve the guitarist was the magic behind the band, and no one has spoken to him for a long time, so unless he can be found and is willing to play again, I don’t know, sorry.

onDRajs: Evolution Through Revolution is out some time now and I’m interested about the reactions You get…? Me, I’m satisfied, yet it is maybe like a fixed odd a bit, isn’t it? To put it stright – It’s so classical BT stuff, your ten years intermission is purely unrecognizable. Very insane grind album with a lot of power to give out.
Well, I do think that Erik’s songwriting contributions for this record have given us a new dimension, but I agree with you that it is also classical BT stuff, we retained our general style and simply sprinkled some new seasonings into the recipe. We are an extreme grind band, we have to remain true to the fans and deliver absolute brutality along with some riffs to remember (some small melodies in the middle of the abyss).

onDRajs: How about Relapse Records? I guess you are satisfied with them, there is no other grind label like them. What they actually do for you - just backing or something more...???
Relapse is a perfect label for the band, they do what any good label does, helping promote your band by releasing your albums and getting you press and interviews, advertizing your albums, etc. Any good label does this, but Relapse knows EXACTLY who to reach for our type of music, so we are totally happy with them.

onDRajs: What do You think about engaged art? I refer to fact

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that You were part of This Comp Kills Fascists vol.1 compilation that targeted heavy George W. Bush. Is someone from the band active in any other way? And speaking about that, let me ask - what are your jobs?
George Bush destroyed this country, so I don’t HAVE a job now!! We do not speak out in other ways besides the lyrics, interviews and conversations, but I think you will find that 99% of Americans you speak to in the metal scene feel the same way about Bush/Cheney the war criminals.

onDRajs: Danny, you did not answer my impertinent question ;-) If it’s not secret, tell me what you and the other guys in the band do in personal life (I mean jobs, hobbies,…)
I had a job here for 5 and a half years as a stock guy at a party supply store, but when the economy got destroyed by the reckless and greedy maneuvers of the last administration, I was laid off due to „downsizing“, which means the company was running out of money so it had to let some employees go. So, I have been relearning Apple Final Cut Pro (video-editing software) and Reason (software music studio) to try and get work doing editing and soundtracks.
Erik works at a print shop that makes shirts, hats, stickers, Kevin is a contrctor who fixes houses, and Rich hangs out with his girlfriend.

onDRajs: I know that your lyrics are politicaly (leftist) directed. Do You consider BT political band? And the lyrics, are thay more or less only Kevin’s bizz, or do you write them somehow together, discuss them and so on?
We have become more political as the necessity demanded after 8 years of Bush/Cheney madness. In the 90s Bill Clinton was president and things were much better, so back then Kevin’s lyrics were more social/personal/imtrospective. Kevin is responsible for all lyrics but we all agree with them and trust him to make statements we would say in normal speech.

onDRajs: Small note about the sound. Song Turmoil came up longplay on mentioned compilation. I think that on this comp. BT has splendid raw sound (not unlike Need to Control), but on ETR it doesn’t sound quite the same way. In my eyes, the sound wave veils the quality and mad aggressivity of the song. How do You feel about that? Are You fully satisfied with the last BT album?
Wow, you prefer the version we made in the rehearsal room on a portable digital 16-track!! That’s great man, thanks! I do think the production on ETR is really well done and clear, but I also understand why you like the primitive version. I think you are like me, you like Darkthrone more than Dimmu Borgir!

onDRajs: I’d like to ask what do You exactly mean by the name of Your last album. Personally, I don’t think that revolution is the best form of evolution (maybe it’s because I’m from country with long history of communist reign.)
The word „revolution“ is mostly present to piss off the right-wing conservative Christian fuckheads here in this country. They have been complaining that all the changes Obama is initiating amounts to a „revolution“, which of course is bullshit, he is just fixing the mistakes of the previous 8 years and they are angry about it, that’s all. So we put the word in to fuck them off. They had their time, now they can sit down, shut up and watch.

onDRajs: I am quite critical about a present state of the music business. I wish a rapid demise to the big companies. Do you think a heyday of smaller independent labels in the 21. century is the reaction to this state? It seems to me a lot of people are disappointed so they start off the new and newer labels...
This will happen anyway. As home recording technology increases, it is easier for smaller labels to release quality music without spending lots of money, and it is easier and cheaper to promote music on the internet these days as opposed to 20 years ago, when labels always advertized in magazines that were very expensive.
And illegal downloading is hurting the big labels too, so I think they are just dinosaurs now.

onDRajs: What do you say to the phenomenon of MySpace and other

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things connected with a rapid development of the internet? You lived through the different times (eighties, nineties) so I expect you not to take it so seriously... Don’t you think that people are stuck in front of the PC screen instead of they meet people at the concerts? Maybe it’s bullshit, I do not know...
While it’s definitely true that the internet has revolutionized communication and made it much easier for bands to promote themselves, there is certainly a huge negative side to it. Unfortunately some people take advantage of the anonymous nature of message boards and forums to say a lot of nasty shit that they would never say if they were face to face with someone, and people (me included!) are now too lazy to go to the post office. The internet will never replace the special feeling of being at a nice, loud metal show with your friends having some beers!

bizzaro: Ok, we are in unity with this, Danny, so thanx for intie. Something to say to Czechs which are waiting for B.Truth’s show?
We can’t wait to get over to Brutal Assault, drink your delicious beer and grind you to pieces. See you soon!!!

www.brutaltruth.com
www.myspace.com/brutalfuckingtruth

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