1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Simon: The band started out as just a side project for Rasmus and Niclas, and then Christian just sorta invited himself, I think. I don’t really know the details, since I joined the band later on. Christian wrote me, and asked me if I’d like to try out some vocals for their grindcore band, and when I heard the word grindcore I pretty much just said yes right away. The band started out trying to play more straight up grindcore, but that all changed fast, and now we play this weird mixture of grind, noise, hardcore, and general weirdness – I personally had a really hard time ‘getting’ the riffs at first, they confused the shit out of me! I finally think I got it now, though!
Niclas: Well basically, Rasmus and I started hanging out back in early 2011, going to concerts and getting wasted together. We quickly found out that we had a shared taste for fucked up music and morbid humour. So fast-forward a few months and we are about to have our very first lets-just-get-drunk-and-jam-out-session - and then Christian (whom Rasmus previously had been in a band called 'The Full Nelson' with) show up, with a bag full of 'King' beer, from the local kiosk. I don't remember much more from that night, other than listening to Metallica and sweating a lot. And would you know it; by the end of the night, we had demoed 3 or 4 tracks. So naturally, we decided to meet up again - and I haven't been completely sober for longer periods of time ever since.
2.You have your first album coming out in November, how would you describe the musical sound that is present on the recording?
Simon: The sound on this record is very organic, and we really wanted it to sound like a band playing the music almost live into your ears. The music is chaotic and aggressive in its own way, and the vocals almost clean it up a little bit, making it more accessible in some weird way. We are all heavily inspired by chaotic hardcore and grindcore, but we bring a lot of different stuff to the table. I guess the music is that – grind inspired by a shit load of different bands and music styles.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Niclas: In broad terms, it's about how shitty we as humans are to each other and ourselves. The lyrical themes has a number of times been inspired conversations where the initial response have been 'HAHAHAHAHAH! .....okay, thats actually kindda really horrible when you think about it.'. Like teen-pregnancy terminated with a chair, for example. Yep, that somehow happened once.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Piss Vortex'?
Simon: The name is Christian’s idea, I think. The bands was already called Piss Vortex when I joined. I think it’s just something the guys found cool and funny – a vortex of piss sounds very disgusting and somewhat weirdly aggressive. The name has gotten quite the attention from a lot of people, but I don’t think the guys really thought that much about it. It sounds cool, though, rolls right off your tongue!
Niclas: I dunno, I just thought it sounded kindda sexy..
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Niclas: One of the best shows as of yet for me personally, would be the time we played Pumpehusets Byhave (the outside stage at one of my favorite venues in Copenhagen) with our buddies in Ajuna and Anti Ritual (who are now also our labelmates). We had just finished the recording of the album a week before - so we were doing better than ever perfomance-wise. The stage-sound were amazing and all the right people were there. The place was just vibrating with great energy.
Our stage perfomance is still a bit of a development in progress i think. For the most part throughout a show, we are just trying to hold on and keep our individual instrumental parts going without messing up - and are often having a really hard time doing so. Shit does get real though, when the breakdown finally drops (usually on a weird offbeat) or the blast-beating inferno hell finally unleashes.
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Simon: We’re planning on going on a small tour in Denmark in the spring, and then we are making plans for going around Europe in the summer. Nothing is 100% planned at the moment. The US might have to wait a bit, mostly because of money – we’re all broke most of the time. We really want to go there, though!
7.The album will be released on Indisciplinarian, how did you get in contact with this label?
Niclas: Good question, really! haha. I think it was Jacob (from Indiciplinarian) that approached us after the show in Pumpehuset. Christian had known him for some time, and he (Jacob) and Nikolaj who runs the label, both play in Anti Ritual - so it ended up being a quiet natural process for us to work together. Jacob and Nikolaj have both done an astonishing job with this record, taking insane amounts of work off our shoulders. So dudes, if you are reading this - thanks a bunch!
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of grindcore?
Simon: Well, since most people don’t consider it grindcore, but more of a mixture between a lot of different shit, the response has been very diverse. Some true-to-the-bone grindcore fans don’t find us interesting at all, but I’d say most of the response has been very positive. We’ve already gotten a couple of good reviews, which is always nice, and the reactions from the sites that have been writing about us have been overall positive.
9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Niclas: It's hard to say. It will definitely get weirder, thats for sure. More extreme both in terms of noisiness and technicality as well. We are already working on new material and its more fucked up than ever, haha!
10.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?
Simon: Some of the bands that we all share as inspiration in the band are early Mastodon, Botch, early Dillinger Escape Plan, and stuff like that. But we all have very different tastes in music.
Personally, I think that Nasum, Gadget, Gridlink, Discordance Axis, Napalm Death, and Crowpath have inspired me a lot for this band. Not necessarily because I want to sound like any of them, but more the whole sound and feeling of the music. Very aggressive and insane, but held together in some way – for me the vocals do that a lot. I guess it’s the controlled chaos that a lot of the more extreme bands bring to the table that inspires me personally. I listen to a lot of death metal too, so that genre must also have had some influence on my approach to music. The other guys listen to so many different bands, it would be impossible to list it all here!
Currently I’m listening to Helium Head by Mutoid Man a lot. Such a fucking great little piece! And Omega Massif from Germany – just everything they ever made.
Niclas: Some of my all-time heroes are Daughters, Khanate, Deathspell Omega, Iron Lung and Gorguts.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Niclas: I spend a lot of my time practicing Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It's great fun! Christan and Rasmus both work out a lot at the moment, getting their guns all swollen and shit. Simon swims and studies a lot as well. We are all very social.... and thirsty people. So we party hard a few times a week, either in the rehearsal space, at shows or at bar somewhere in Copenhagen.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Simon: Thanks for the attention, I guess! Look forward to the album and hurry up and pre-order the Piss Yellow edition before it’s sold out!
Oh, and also check out some of the great Danish underground bands that exist right now. If you ever need some new and great music to listen to, there’s Märsvin, Klusterfuck, Ajuna, Whorls, No Fealty, and Arakk. Enjoy the daily grind of life!
