1. Can you give us a brief history of the band?
Brother Agongy: I joined this year (2009). They weren't important before that. Probably met up in high school or something like that, mate. They had released a cd, a not quite a cd, and two live things prior to me joining. We are about to release a virtual 7" record, vs Nickleback, on the Crypt Designers Guild free netlabel (www.archive.org/details/crypt-designers-guild ).In the near future we will be playing the Royal Albert Hall for Prince Harry and Prince William, the national anthem at the SuperBowl in 2010, for Kim Jong-il at an special dinner and headlining the first Summer Rock Festival on the Antarctic mainland.We are also looking into a line of crushing films with which to visually assault audiences.
Tom:
We started feeling each other up in '03. The others weren't super big into the touching, but I just kept at it and the alcohol helped. We just wanted to be a band that we wanted to see, locally you seem to have two kinds of bands; boring to watch ones and shit ones. Oh the arrogance! We lean on the shit side and try to avoid the boring side. We've played a few local music festivals, some were metal, some definately weren't and those are weird gigs to play. I've attempted sleeping with a few guys from other bands, and failed. Some other interviews we've done have pissed the interviewers off, some gigs we've played we've been banned afterwards.
2. How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you before?
Brother Agony: Metal? I don't know if we know. It's influenced and perhaps similar to lots of heavy music. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes loud, sometimes not-as-loud. Taking the question as a hypothetical and I am now required to answer their question, I would say, "We're heavy and metal mate. You'll like it. At least once.". And that would be said with a great deal of conviction, mate.Other bands? Mate, other peoples opinions are probably better than ours. Pretty much all kinds of metal and heavy or hard music. But not really from a whole band of style of music, you know, that guys vocals on that track, that guitar which plays there but with that sound over there, the feel of that band, etc. Probably easiest to say it's all drawn from music from the 17th century onwards, with particular interest in sounds from the 60's onwards, especially heavy music.
Tom:
Molestation Metal is the name we're pushing. Others have called it Monster Metal. This one guy said we're the best and first progressive grindcore band he's ever heard. We do stoner and doom styled stuff as well. Loud. It's a sum of the parts of a drummer who practices often, a guitarist who drinks too much, a bass player that wings it and a computer processing unit-man that gets to do whatever he wants. They all do vocals in an attempt to be aggressive and intense. Surprisingly it works most of the time.
3. According to your Myspace page, the band is broken up, are there any plans to reform?
Brother Agony: Always. We broke up once after I joined, and that was the first important breakup. Then we briefly reformed with our original guitarist before remembering we we had got rid of him and re-hooking up with that red head, who really isn't that bad. And we are told he is a gentle and attentive lover.The important thing to remember is that Mother Eel is about the sound, not about the people. As long as someone is making the sound, Mother Eel will keep reforming, you know mate?After our new 7" is out, we may break up again for a while.
Tom: Some April Fools jokes are just dumb, ya know?
4. I noticed when I listened to your cd's and reviewed them, the style changed was that part of the bands music progress?
Brother Agony: Yeah, I know what you mean. No, it's not part of the music progress, it's more to do with microphones. We used to get the old sound, with the old stuff we used, which maybe ended up sounding kind of shitty production wise. But now we use the new stuff we use to get this new sound that is still shitty production, but we think it now really captures the essence of the shitty production and all sits together really well.But you probably aren't asking about the really new recordings of ours, are you mate? So, the sound changes more because of finding the right shitty sound that still rips off faces. The songs aren't really all that different, from the start to now.Our new 7" has a really different sound to the other stuff we've done, but it is pretty much what we sound like live, you know mate?
Tom: We are the poor man's version of most other bands you've heard of. Nathan just takes all these influences and fucks up on his guitar and then we have to structure a song around it. I'm always trying to play melodic stuff... mostly so I don't have to spend time actually learning anything that the band does. All the songs that have been written at various times sound all different when added with other songs on different recordings. With most of the things we record we just aim to put on songs we've been playing for years that haven't been recorded with songs that we think are shit hot right now. So to follow a linear progression of what we're doing musically is hard really.
5. What are some of the best shows the band has played?
Brother Agony: Probably the one at the Lansdowne in Sydney at the end of 2008, and the one at Richmond in Sydney early in 2009, or something. They are the only ones I've played at. The two coming up in late August and early September in Newtown will be good. I will be at those. Oh, and the one at the Mandarin Club in Sydney. We don't know what the fuck was coming out of the amp on the right.Of older gigs, mainly the Western Sydney, cos Western Sydney rocks mate!
Tom: The first time we were banned from a pub was pretty awesome. The manager guy came up half-way through our set and said we've got one mor song. He stood at the front waiting and when we finished he started complaining about how stupidly loud we were, and that our style of music isn't music and that we are to never play there again. After a year or two we went back and got re-banned. That was cool. The other guys went up the coast for a mini-tour, apparently that was good. I stayed home. 6. What are your main influences music wise or non music wise?
Brother Agony: Shit mate, that's a tough one. I'll say for me instead of the band then, cos I can't talk for them mate.Obviously I like FCA mate, cos that's my other band ( www.myspace.com/realfca ), anything on Glacial Avatar Archive to date, and then good music like (Black) Sabbath, Dio, Carpathian Forest, you know, shit like that mate.Mainly influenced by all the things I hate, you know mate? More than the things I like. It's all the music you have to hear in places and shit like that. All the crap that gets thrusted at you everyday. That's why I took a vow of silence, but no one will shut up, fuckers.I think we are all mainly influenced outside of music by stuff, you know mate, shit that happens.I do watch South Park though, but I don't seem to be able to see projected images, so that's all I watch. Oh, and videos of accidents on the internet, just for a laugh you know, mate?
Tom: Nathan says: people. They are contradictive, hypocritical, time-wasting scum. They keep repeating themselves and others. Musically we like things that challenge things, in any way you want to interpret that. I really like Mike Patton and Dave Lynch. It's almost a crush I've got on them.
7. What are you listening to nowadays and what are some good bands or releases that you would recommend?
Brother Agony: I listen to Cadaver's Necrosis. That's all you need anyway. That and maybe some good music mate. Plus all the local bands we are meant to say are good, of course. What I do reckon mate, is that people should go and see bands they haven't heard of. Some of them may be good.Plus I listen to Mother Eel's new stuff all the time at the moment. We really are on fire, fire, fire, FIRE!
Tom: I'm not big on the heavy-blasty stuff, I do talk about the Melvins and anything Mike Patton related, so I guess I'm into that Dillinger Escape Plan EP. Also that means John Zorn stuff is alright. One of his Naked City records that has the song called Blood Duster, which is apparently where they got their name from.
8. What are some good films or books that you would recommend?
Brother Agony: I can't see films mate. Books... mate, I dunno, maybe Et Tu Babe by Mark Leyner, and I don't know, maybe The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.
Tom: I'm into meditating, so books on that. Any film by Lynch, especially Twin Peaks, everybody who likes Lynch loves Twin Peaks.
9. How would you describe the lyrical content of the music?
Brother Agony: Oh, it's really good. But the vocal sounds we make with the music are more important. The lyrics exist in the songs, you know mate? They aren't poems or like a book or something. The way we speak to you with everything we do is more important than any words.
Tom: Nathan seems to rant about getting people to do things and all religions, spiritual beliefs and similar discourses are the rot of the world. I like the songs about transvestites. 10. WHat is thr meaning behind the bands name?
Brother Agony: There is a really big eel, it is the Mother Eel. But what it means to other people is more important. Maybe we don't want to be branded in the same way everyone else is, because it's all about the sound, you know mate?
Tom: There's heaps on things about the Eel Mother. There's many ideas as to what it could mean, and we're happy to let people bring whatever thoughts they bring to the name as long as they are thinking. Also, it has to be female... I think.
11. How does your home country react to your musical sound?
Brother Agony: That's pretty funny mate. Really well though, i'd say, based on the people that have reacted. But they are a very small percentage of Australia. But also based on that stuff, and what I know, I think that it would be about 37%, which is pretty fucking good if you think about our music. I reckon we'll be playing the Big Day Out and other big summer music festivals down here within the next year or so, and probably appear on the ARIA Awards or something (that's pretty much the Australian version of some contrived and shit music award show night, you know, with some American "star" "hosting" the show). Now that I'm in the band we are really going places.
Tom: People keep saying things, generally positive. It means nothing though, we hardly get any of the other bands coming to shows, and they seem only to be interested if you're booking a show, so that they can get on it. We've got some hardcore fans, that are at every show, and they are great. We're not playing live much anymore because venues are dicks and so are a lot of the self interested local bands, we become friends with most of the fans and it feels dodgey to make them pay to just hang out. The country is fairly generic and derivative, so it doesn't really matter what they think, it matters what those overseas think, then they'll think that here. If our Polish, German, Southern and Northern American and Russian fans all start talking, we'd be sweet here.
12. Any final words?
Brother Agony: Sure, I just wanted to take this chance to talk about a bunch of stuff. Now video cameras, even if low quality, are pretty fucking common these days. I just don't know how the fuck people aren't recording all the time. And then you have to post all the good bits online asap. Think about it, most people see all kinds of good stuff, just not all the time. But if you video everything you look at, then when you do see that good thing, like someone getting really hurt doing something stupid, or a huge piece of plaster board falling off a skyscraper, well, then you'll have videod it and then I could watch that. All the things I want to see are out there, but some fucker wasn't videoing, or worse still, just didn't post it online!! All you fuckers out there that don't video are making me angry, so cheers for that! And those of you that do, and that don't post it online... well, mate.. what can I say?The other thing I wanted to say was about some other stuff mate. Don't forget to check out or new virtual 7" record available from Crypt Designers Guild, and you can download pretty much all our stuff there, plus stuff that our drummer (Guns McQueen [AJ]) does as Kontoh, and Ag's FCA band.And don't pick up a cat right after it's done a poo. Not a good idea.That's some wisdom for you all to take away. Tom: We're keen to do some splits with overseas bands, Nathan is always up for CD trades, our CDs should be on sale through us, contact us for a list and pricing. Feel free to make your own Mother Eel merch... well maybe you should contact us about that. The only other thing I can think of is to say that maybe things aren't as easy as you would think. 13. Thanks for the interview?
Brother Agony: No worries mate. All good. We just drink beers and knock down a bunch of bongs (nothing like the Bong King though) so it always good to keep the brain ticking over by having to write something or talk to some bloke mate, you know?
Tom: Thanks heaps for being interested. Good luck with all your future things.
No comments:
Post a Comment