Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Occult 45 Interview


1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Dean: We're just some dudes playing angry music. We all love grind and sludge and wanted to do our own thing with it.
John: The labels we've received over the years are endless. We do consider ourselves a grindcore band, but someone will always disagree. Make up your own mind. If music is good, it doesn't matter what fucking genre it is. I think if anyone likes "Enemy of the Music Business" by Napalm Death they should surely enjoy us.
Jay: I’m more than happy to commit to calling us a grindcore band, we also have a dirgy sludge element which comes from our love of bands like grief and noothgrush, over all I think our mix of extreme music and punk ethos set a foundation for alot of ground to be covered in our songs.

2.Over the years you have released a good amount of music, how would you describe the musical that is presented on the recordings?

Dean: We self record with our buddy Jeff so that's going to give it a certain quality and character. It's angry dissonant music. I really don't like too many people. I hope that comes across in the riffs.

CK: This isn't really about music but our artwork helps to present what a certain release may be about as well. I try to make the layouts for our mixtapes pretty whacky.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
John: The downfall of man. Human disgust. Horror movies.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Occult 45'?
Dean: Jay(drums) and I were sitting around smoking just coming up with play on word band names and Occult 45 came up. We remembered it when we finally started talking to John(vocals) about getting some jams going.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Dean: Lexington, KY or Binghamton, NY would be some of the best. Our boys down at Dis Haus in Baltimore have never treated us wrong. Our Stage Performance? I guess I'd describe it as you're very likely to get covered in beer.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
John: We'll be hitting the road for a couple long weekends starting in March. We're going to set out to do a longer tour around the end of August, around I the same time as last year’s tour.

CK: We're also playing one more rad show this year in Providence, it'll be on December 27th with Dropdead, Churchburn, Krieg and Sangus at DUSK and we're excited to end the year on such a high note.

7.Earlier this your you where part of a split with 'Drones For Queens', how would you compare their musical sound to yours?
Jay: I’d say they’re a much more technical band than we are, but I just seen them live and while they still have those real technical jams, they also know when to just do some punishing blast riffing, almost reminds me of misery index. they rule, we both sound vastly different while both representing grind in our own ways

8.Over the years you have worked with a good amount of different record labels on some of your releases, do you feel these labels have been very helpful when it comes to getting your music out there heard?

John: We've been really fortunate that we've worked with labels that were interested in the music, and shared some of the same background with us. Each label has a different audience, and different outlets.

CK: We're thankful to all the labels that have shown us support and helped get our music out there. At this point we feel pretty comfortable with knowing what release would work well on what kind of label. When we DIY our mixtapes they're made by us through Open Casket Cassettes and those tape releases have served us very well when we're on the road as both of our 2013 & 14 cassettes are now completely sold out. When we feel we've got something really special we see what else is out there for us.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of grindcore?
Dean: I don't really know how the world feels about us, but all of your girlfriends think we're great
Jay: if theres anyone out there on a worldwide level, pls connect

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
John: I feel like personally we have carved out our own niche for songwriting over the last year or so. I don't see much changing from what we enjoy doing right now. We have been experimenting with some noise in our recordings so maybe that will transpire to our live set one day.
Jay: every new batch of songs we write is in my opinion better than the last, so I’m guessing in the future you will be hearing more even better grindcore.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Dean: I think collectively Napalm Death, Rotten Sound, Brutal Truth, EYEHATEGOD, Grief, Noothgrush, and The Melvins are all a huge influence for the band. These days? Dr. Dre is forever in rotation, I haven't went a day without listening to Chelsea Wolfe in about a year. I really liked Earth Primitive and Deadly and the new Blut Aus Nord record as far as 2014 releases.

CK: These days I'm more down with the slow and low musical styling's. I think it comes out in the stuff I end up writing for the band.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Jay: Moutain dew, Weed, Little ceasers

CK: Drugs and crazy art

Dean: Disassociating with the human race

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have ant final words or thoughts?
John: As mentioned earlier, we do have some out of town shows being lined up right now. If you're on the east coast, chances are we will be coming by a town near you soon. We have a 7" coming out on Broken Limbs Records titled "Human Abhorrence" sometime in early 2015, a split 7" with Intheshit on Dullest Records, and another cassette demo that we'll be making ourselves. Big thangs.

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