|
|
Diabolical Conquest (Baz): Hello Reth. How're you? Now, given that the band is of course inextricably linked to Raw N Reth: Reese: I think collectively we could be considered dick heads but individually we are all very chilled out and easy going.
DC: Now we've got the English pleasantries out o' the way, it's time to talk some sort o' shite or other about the quaint sounds that you make with your instruments, hands and mouths. First of all, so we can get an idea as to why you started Reth, give us a nutshell biography and tell us which bands/albums formed/released prior to the composition of your own material first inspired you to perform it. Jim: Well, I can only really speak for the early Reth stuff as I'm not much of a metaller myself – I'm more of your common or garden real-ale-drinking-folk-playing grind-merchant. Reth started back in August 2000 when Smith got himself a drum kit. Me and him had been mates for about five years already, though we'd kinda drifted apart for the last year or so. So when we both went to the same sixth form, we decided to get together again and see what the score was. Grabbing a few choice pals, Tozz, Spekkers and Walton, we set about investigating this “score” and identifying it sufficiently well to write some “score”-based songs. Smith: Well, it was me ‘n' Jim that started off Reth. Jim got a guitar + amp for his birthday. I played guitar at the time but asked for a drum kit for my 16th birthday with the idea of starting a band, ‘cos no-one else we knew at the time played drums. We roped in various school mates to join the band regardless of what instrument they could/couldn't play. At first in Reth everyone could only play guitar! We started off jamming stuff like Sabbath, RATM, Biohazard, Pantera - the stuff we listened to at the time. Gradually we wrote more songs, started getting into heavier stuff. Each year we got into heavier/faster/sillier things and so did the stuff we tried to play. We went through a big phase of playing metallic UK hardcore style things like Stampin' Ground and Knuckledust, with fast thrash/HC bits and rubbish chug riffs. Getting heavier + faster, but still really awful. Then we started listening to yer entry-level death metal stuff and Relapse 'grind', and decided to try and write stuff like that. We finally managed to start getting decent after about 3 years - the Toxocara EP (2004) was the first stuff we were reasonably pleased with, in terms of the musical style. We've carried on trying to write more technical and unique sounding stuff each year, now its just got way out of hand... Reese: I probably started doing vocals when I was in college in some crap bands but I never really liked the music my friends liked. I definitely had a soft spot for stuff like early Cave In, Earthtone 9, and December... Eventually i started to dig deeper and deeper musically and connect with more "extreme" and "heavy" music like Dillinger, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Meshuggah... which made me want to do harsh vocals. Paul: Having only joined in the Summer of 2005, when the Reth pup was reaching teenage-dom, I can't speak for the original members, but things that inspired me musically to play how I am and have the style of playing I do would mainly be Meshuggah, Necrophagist, Coalesce, Emperor, Dillinger Escape Plan, Primus. Also, previous bands of course, Tangaroa, Narcosis and Canvas, Dan the drummer especially gave me a massive amount of pointers into how to understand, play, and construct technical music.
DC: You've got label interest, lots o' support in and out o' the lokill scene and secured several highly pleasant gig slots, the most laudable of which being your forthcoming performance at the Obscene Extreme shindig in Trutnov later this year, not to mention appearances with Brutal Truth and Defeated Sanity. Please express your feelings about this turn of events. Jim: Well, I'm chuffed to monkeys about the whole thing. I'm glad it's only really started to kick off properly now though. It's only very recently that I've been truly happy with the songs and our ability to play them. I certainly wouldn't have wanted all this recognition a year or two ago. The member changes and additions have definitely added to the sound considerably since then. Basically, my philosophy on this is that the further a band pushes towards the extremities of a certain genre of music, the more specific and restrictive this becomes – and this can kill all the fun and enjoyment. However, if you're smart about things, and silly enough, you can break out the other side. I really feel that that's where we're at now, but I guess only time will tell. Matt: It's lovely. As if my ego needed any further boosting... But seriously, we're in this firstly because it's a good laugh. But if we can play in sunny places, with tasty cheap beer, to lots of people then all the better. Reese: I am really happy with it obviously, there seems to be a steady and encouraging momentum about everything. I have only been in Reth for less than a year and everything has been very full on but an enjoyable challenge. Smith: Marvellous. Yes, yes, goood. Hurrah! Paul: It's fantastic, really is. I know that we've put in a lot of extra work and general pestering of course, which is now getting results. We'll still happily play the small back room gigs though no matter how many of these sorts of festival or support slots we get, it's all part of the fun and the experience. Whether it's to 20 people or, however many watch us at Obscene, we'll give it as much as we can. I don't see the point of playing live if you don't give it your best.
DC: Drug and alcohol consumption within Reth. Discuss! Jim: Drug consumption is fine if you like that sort of thing. I have no moralistic issues on that front, and I feel that people should be free to try whatever they like. However, I'm always one of moderation. I don't like watching people destroy themselves, and I don't like losing control myself, so it's a tempered-liberalist attitude that I have toward drugs. As for my personal consumption, I'll try most things once (though obviously there are things that I wouldn't touch with yours mate) but that's usually about it. Most of ‘em are all mouth and no trousers – all of the hype but actually pretty crap. Alcohol holds a similarly ambiguous place in my heart. I love drinking the booze, but again I've seen people mess themselves up pretty badly with it, some of whom have never come back. To my mind, it's more dangerous than all but the very hardest drugs. Nevertheless I still love it with a passion and will be a drinker from now ‘til my dying day. Reese: Normally alcohol, caffeine, tobacco. But I am easily persuaded to dabble in other things depending on the situation, who I am out and about with and how much money I have... I used to smoke a fair bit of weed but I have pretty much stopped that now unless I'm having an evening in or am on a comedown. Smith: Drugs and alcohol kill the revolutionary spirit comrade. Paul: I have been known to partake for virtually all my life! Yes. Whisky and Brandy are the most helpful to me. Matt: I'm getting too old for all that shit...
DC: Leeds 's extreme music underground is known for its unstoppable fecundity. Like any such musical environment, many of its acts result from rampant line-up inbreeding, which is splendid. Your stick, skin ‘n' stoolman Smith alone is in around twenty or thirty bands at the mo'. So, who plays/played what, with whom, concurrent to/before Reth? Reese: My first proper band really was Microsleeper who were formed by a few mates in Preston and pretty much summed up the music we enjoyed but was kind of the result of our alienation by the Preston music scene at the time - so we played just extreme technical grindcore written in jazz time signatures with weird widdly and ambient bits and I did the vocals. When that broke up I joined Reth! Not doing anything other than Reth but now I am in Leeds I wouldn't mind looking into doing some other things... Smith: I play drums in The Afternoon Gentlemen, Kastrated, EDT, and a new band (Gauge? Liquid Bastard?) with Barthur (TAG), Chris Narcosis, Jamie (EDT) and Bishop (Tangaroa). Paul: I play bass in Reth, and handle most of the 'sounds/ambient' bits that will crop up live or on record. Previously I played bass in Narcosis and Tangaroa, and did sounds and samples in Canvas. I also have side projects called Incandescence (dark ambient/weird), and Cerebral Constriction (harsh noise). Jim: I'm a bit of a loner when it comes to bands I'm afraid. I was once in a band call Biguana who played a few gigs round Durham while I was at University, doing Jackanory-style story-book songs about a badger called Harold. Currently, I do my solo acoustic stuff which is pretty successful, getting me gigs when I can spare the time. In fact I have my second full-length album coming out soon. For the future, I'm trying to start up a drum and bass act – drumming up genuine enthusiasm from the Reth lads to join me on this however is proving slightly difficult. Matt: I first started playing in a band which I formed with an old mate, called Morkret. Since then I've been involved in a few projects, many of which never really saw the light of day. Since all that I've been asked to play guitar in the live line-up for Written In Torment, which is a one-man black metal band from Harrogate . There are a couple more things in the works too.
DC: Reth used to be spelled ‘Re:th'. As an overt punctuationophile, I was distressed to note the removal of the colon from your moniker. Why was that then? Jim: Reth is from an African language, I believe called Shilluk, and means “king” Smith: That's all dead and buried and in the past, and so will you be if you proceed down such a frivolous path of interrogation sir! (Alternate answer to deflect the question: 'well we got rid of the colon cos it was a bit shitty...' hahaha) Paul: You're more than welcome to have the Reth colon, sir.
DC: (Token Alan Partridge question, asked whilst makin' desperate attempts to not look at your collective breasts). How…how do you write a song? Jim: Bloody hell, that's a question and a half! Erm, I honestly don't know. For me, stuff seems to just pop into my head, so I have a twiddle about with it until it sounds about right. Until recently, Smith wrote most of the songs – guitar parts, drums, bass, vocals, everything really. However, writing duty now falls on me and Paul – what we generally do is take the ideas we already have, sit with some paper and a nice brew, and not stop until we've got something so daft that we're absolutely certain it'll make Smith really annoyed that he has to try to learn it. Smith: We don't so much write the songs as sculpt fragments of tonal dissonance and euphonious auricular abrasions from the blackened voids of our collective souls then situate them within the deific temporal context of artistic struggle. Paul: In the last few months though, me and Jim do the basic song writing, and then take it around to the others, usually with basic ideas for their parts, and then work with the song to get it to a finished state. That's when the songs then take on even more speed, as little tricks, extra twists, a few swap arounds and morphoses take place to become a true Reth song. The songs are constantly tweaked though to get them the best we possibly can, with changes of little weird harmonies and drum tinkles and extra tiny stops and starts placed in once we have the basic slab on the table to hack and carve into. We are already well on our way to having another CD full of material since the recording of 'Precursors...', and they are already even sillier.
DC: For those of us who experience distinct tumescence whilst conversing about equipment and technology, please give details of your current backline, the preferred make ‘n' model of your instruments etc. Jim: Guitar is a Jackson – the fender replacement for the PS4, whatever that might be. I must say that, having owned a Jackson PS4 when Jackson were still just Jackson, Matt: I'd love to witter about setups and string gauges, but I'll be polite and keep it short. With Reth I'm using an Ibanez with DiMarzio pickups, running that through a Pod XT Live and a Crate poweramp. It does the job on the cheap, but I'd love a decent valve amp! Smith: I play a pretty battered old Pearl Export kit that's a rather fetching blueish colour, with pearl hardware + pedals, and an array of Sabian AAX/HHX, Zildjian + Stagg cymbals, though most of my cymbals are now cracked/knackered and I can't afford new ones =( Paul: I play a 5 string Cort bass. It's not the most swanky or expensive of basses, but it does the job, I could really do with getting a new one, so donations would be appreciated :-) My amp is an Ampeg B5R 500 Watt thing which I bought from Matt Red Stars Parade, and cabwise, me and Barthur from the Afternoon Gentlemen share a Hartke 1x15 and 4x10 stack set up in the practice room. I also used Nike Hydrospeed Fingers and Adidas Ultrareactive Brain Cells.
DC: You're all musicians, so you probably listen to other music whilst not engagin' in Reth orientated activities. What've you all been listening to recently? And why?! Jim: Currently listening to a guy called Matt Ward, Transistor Radio. It's a great album and I'm into the mellow, folky sound. Apart from that I've got my own acoustic project which I'm always writing for, so I'm going to a lot of open mic nights and listening to a lot of local artists. Matt: Black metal usually forms the staple of my musical diet, and recently I've also been listening to some doom, slammin' death and dark ambient. Reese: I've been listening to fair bit of different stuff. A recent B-sides and rarities CD of Mono, that Khunnt track which is on the TAG split is immense, The Vessels EP is really nice, Mucopus - Undimensional cd is fun too and loads more. Normally it just a mish mash of different stuff depending on my mood. Smith: At the moment I'm listening to Short Hate Temper, Man is the Bastard, Stack, No Less, Burmese, Agents of abhorrence, Hatred Surge, Blut aus Nord, Chapterhouse, The Telescopes, Pale Saints, Tortoise, Capricorns, and The Merrily Pigeon/How? split. Paul: Recently, aside from still hammering the Reth CD loads (most proud, but that's partly the reason why I am in the band, because it pretty much fits everything I want to listen to), been also listening to 'ObZen' by Meshuggah, Mucopus 'Undimensional', Coalesce 'Give Them Rope' mostly, Necrophagist 'Epitaph'. Why? Cos I right like them. They're ace! ;-) I'm currently in the middle of another big black metal phase though, which means I'll probably be living in my Darkthrone long sleeve for a while.
DC: Eeeeeeeee, these days, your average Death Metal or Grindcore band is in fact a foppish group o' tightly betrousered, fringe-flickin', sweep-pickin', Nicky Clarke-endorsed 'Deathcore' boy-tarts, who love sloppy beatdowns ‘n' make laughable stabs at Brutal Death vokill styles. What d'you think about all o' that? Do you fulfill the above criteria? Jim: Haha, I think that people can do what they like, but they can't expect me to be happy about it. As for us, we don't have any tight trousers I'm afraid. And as for fringe-flickin'; Reese: I like a nice well fitting pair of jeans but not so tight that it should affect my sperm count and I personally quite enjoy a bit of sweep pickin' myself! However, bands that focus more on the way they look than the music they play inevitably come across as bland and generally embarrassing. People who know their stuff can see through these bands and know what is genuine and what is not. Smith: Hehe, I don't know about 'your average DM/grind band' being like that! There's always a few bequiffed poseurs jumping on the latest musical bandwagon, be it post-rock, 'deathcore' or this nasty retro/rock thing that's happening at the moment. Most of said fops couldn't chug their way out of a wet paper bag, so I think the best thing is to ignore them and they'll go away. As for whether we fulfill said criteria - I'm afraid we're just yer average scruffy Northern degenerates (although Barthur from TAG does use Toni + Guy hair care products!) Paul: To be honest, I think it's the same in this scene as in any other. There's good and bad. There seems to be a lot more bands out of this lot though that get bigger just if they look cool, or have ultra squiggly logos, rather than based on technical or song writing ability. I've seen a few of the big ones who have bored the hell out of me. Still, I do like some of them, Suicide Silence, All Shall Perish, Misericordiam, and then bands like Chaos Blood, My Cross To Bare and a few others in the UK that are doing it way better than most. We almost fit in, musically, with some of these bands, especially since Reese joined due to a bigger mix up of vocal styles, and some pig squeals too, but then we almost fit in to the brutal or straight up death metal circles, grindcore, metal worlds too, but just not quite sit in any of them comfortably, which we are happy about to be honest. We just kind of roam about and do our own thing, we're the Free Range cow of the extreme metal world. Matt: It's all a joke... surely!
DC: I see Jim, one o' your guitarists, has a folk influenced solo project and likes to do acoustic sets. Other than obvious stuff like Guthrie ‘n' Dylan, as well as ol' Fairport, I'm not as familiar with the genre as I'd like to be. Are the rest of the Reth folk fans? What other genres or styles outside Grind/Death inspire or entertain Reth? Jim: Aye, I'm the folk master, comin' at yer like a crack badger. It's not really that folk influenced to be honest, but I guess that's the closest comparison. It's strange you should Reese: Not really my cup of tea to be honest but I like Jim's stuff. I listen to a lot of chilled out music like Mono, Mogwai, Vessels, Godspeed you Black Emperor or technical bewildering music with little or no vocals like Dysrhythmia. Smith: Folk music is for those closer to death. Paul: Personally I'm not massively into folk, I think Bob Dylan is one of the worst examples of a musician. He can't sing, he can't play guitar, mouth organs sound terrible anyway, and everyone who covers his songs do it better than he does! Some stuff I do quite like when I've heard it, but it's nothing something I'd particularly listen to. I know that Jim's stuff is very good though, he's a better acoustic guitarist than metal guitarist, technically anyway, but in both he's full of mint ideas. I like folk orientated black metal though massively so. Outside of extreme metal generally, I mostly love prog rock (King Crimson, Camel, Hawkwind etc.), ambient and electro (Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, Radio Massacre International), and classical stuff, still learning who I prefer, at the moment I just have a general appreciation for it. Matt: I personally love a bit of folk every so often. I usually prefer the more traditional side of things, but some 70's acid folk and folk rock is nice too. It's a real shame most 'folk metal' is embarrassing nonsense.
DC: Regardin' your upcomin' Czech appointment with hordes o' grindheads, brooootal chumps ‘n' fusty crusties at Obscene Extreme, you could be performing at anythin' between 10am to preposterous o' clock in the mornin'. What'd be the ideal time of day for Reth to play? Jim: About 5pm. Late enough to draw a big crowd, but early enough to leave time for smash afterward. Huzzah! I'm definitely looking forward to it. Reese: i really don't want to be playing at like 10 o clock in the morning that would be really gay but ill take whatever comes to be honest as it should be a great experience and fucking good craic! Smith: Around 2.30pm after a spot of tea and a light lunch sounds fine thanks. Paul: I'd love it if we could play on the Saturday, anytime from about 12 really, or say around 4pm onwards on the Friday. Just when things start to fill up and inebriate a bit more, but just the fact that we're on the bill makes me wet myself plentily! I know there's gonna be plenty of people we know there to support though, so it would be nice if everyone was well oiled (booze wise, not just baby oil!) and noisy when we play. Matt: Late enough to get slightly tipsy before. Early enough not to be completely wankered by the start.
Reese: I like those chewy penny sweet things you get in Quality Street boxes other than that you cannot go wrong with sour Haribo Smith: I do like the odd toffee bar, I actually had a KitKat Chunky today, though honeycomb Classics are a favourite. As for nuts, it'd have to be the noble cashew (lightly salted). Paul: Raspberry Ruffles! I wonder how many other people know about them. I've only ever seen them in one shop. They're awesome. I do generally like chocolate it has to be said, although I don't eat it very often. When I do I get a taste for it though. Quality Street crème ones are great, and of course Liqueur Chocolates! Booze and Chocolate! WIN! I am partial to Turkish Delight as well. Jim: I'm not a massive chocolate fan, but if I'm in the mood, a Galaxy or an Aero always goes down well. Nut wise, the salted pistachio is the King for me, while the Prince Regent is your basic slated cashew. I'm also a fan of crisps, but more lean toward the cheap and crappy maize affairs with more E-numbers than a McFlurry on MDMA.
DC: Favourite 'n' least favourite gigs so far (with current line-up)? Reese: For me my least favourite would be the last gig we played of 2007, i was constipated and had the flu. It was a nasty combination... Smith: Favourite – supporting Mincing Fury + Pigsty in London . Least favourite - dunno... Jim: Ye gods, you expect me to remember stuff like that. Erm… I really enjoyed the free gig at the Dry Dock the other day. It was with Dead Eyes of Quint and The Afternoon Gentlemen. It had a really relaxed and chilled out atmosphere and I went crazy-nuts “on stage,” which is always fun. As for a gig I disliked, I wasn't a fan of a recent one we did in Bradford . I was very shaky (for undisclosed reasons). We all played alright, but the sound quality was awful and I felt like I was going to die. Matt: My favourite was the Mincing Fury/Mucopus/Pigsty gig in London , along with Kastrated. Had a lovely day of death of grind, followed by sleeping in Jim's car boot in a service station. Good times! My worst was probably the one with Napalm Death, where pretty much everything went wrong for me! Paul: They're all amazing! Yes they are! Actually, I do enjoy all of them. Sometimes they're great for being well attended and the response is mint, sometimes just for us as a band having a laugh in the build up or during, sometimes for getting anger out and having a good old mosh and a stomp about, sometimes for us knowing we've played really well, tight and with good sound. I'd be hard pushed to pick one I didn't enjoy for some reason though, as I think Reth are improving in consistency at gigs. Even the times we have to sleep in vans or cars in service stations on the travel back has a certain fun element to them, even though it's not fun at the time.
DC: Although I haven't perused any lyrical matter, I'm intrigued by Reth themes/titles. ‘Shibboleths of the New Panacea' is a pearler! Who contributes these? Can you elaborate on 'em for us? Jim: Smith would be the one to answer for that. The general conceptual principal is about human wastage leading to a general degradation of living standards, morality and social/political accountability. Now ho Paul: Smith knows words. He likes them. I like them too, but he wrote them first. Reese likes words too, and since he shrieks them, I'm sure he'll write most of them from now. I might pop up with the odd line here and there though. Smith: I wrote most of the lyrics/titles on the latest cd (Jim and Reese both wrote one each too), though I think Reese is going to be in charge of the newer stuff. The lyrics on 'Precursors…' are all broadly socio-political, though we've never really wanted to push the lyrics/politics to the forefront of the band, its always remained secondary to the music. We're a bit wary of seeming pretentious or preachy. 'Shibboleths...' (like 'Science of money') is an attack on the modern education system. It's about the way knowledge and learning can become institutionalised and self-perpetuating in a way that means there is no significant benefit or advancement for anyone who is outside these small elite academic groups. These groups control the way intellectual ideas are articulated, and do so in a way that seem to actively create barriers to prevent ordinary people from understanding, accessing, and contributing to them. It's basically a reflection of the hypocritical, stifling environment of academia and also bureaucracy I encountered when I studied social sciences at University, and the way I felt let down by the system.
DC: Reth appear to be based in Leeds, West Yorkshire . Tell us where you're all from originally and, if you wish, a bit about your heritage/background as well. Matt: I'm from the Reth homeland of Cliviger, near Burnley . I'm also the only one left living outside Leeds now! Smith: the band originally started in Cliviger, near Burnley , which is where me n matt n Jim are from. It's pretty shitty round there so we escaped. Paul: Leeds born and bred. This is the second ridiculous set of grindcore idiots that I've ended up joining that were originally based in Lancashire/surrounding rather than Leeds and surrounding. Bloody weirdoes! Jim: I'm originally from Burnley, but in my time I've lived in Durham , Nelson, Colne and Leeds too. Don't really know about heritage and background, I'm just a Northern bloke really. I like drinking beer, playing snooker, throwing darts, having a laugh with my mated and playing the fast. In my spare time I read books, I'm writing a book (very slowly) and I write my own acoustic music. I've currently got one full length album of twenty tracks released and have a second fourteen track album recorded and poised for release. So yeah, that's me really. Reese: I was born in Fazackerly in Liverpool and went to school in Merseyside. I did a fine art degree in Preston in Lancashire and now I have recently moved to Leeds to make the whole Reth stuff easier on myself for traveling and stuff. The Blackpool North train is THE most boring train journey I have ever taken.
DC: Can you reflect for us upon the ‘Precursors to Extinction' recording/production process? What went well, not so well 'n' all that other shite? Jim: Well Rob's a crazy recording genius. I had a right laugh – it all went great. A thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. But then I enjoy that sort of thing. I especially enjoyed the cups of tea. Reese: I had bereavement in the family which postponed me finishing the vocals by about a month but of course was unavoidable. The whole experience for me was pretty stressful as i had to travel from Preston to do it and in some cases get the time off work to come down also i had very little recording experience so getting to grips with it all was new and getting the vocal sound i wanted proved to be a bit tricky. But Rob from Silent City is a cool guy to work with and was great for pointing me in certain directions. Smith: It was more hard work than any recording I'd done before. I spent about 8 days recording drums, all played against a click track which was quite challenging. Also Rob's perfectionism in making me re-record certain sections hundreds of times took a bit of patience! It was easily worth it in the end though. I normally hate anything I've recorded almost the instant it's finished, but I'm much happier with this. Also working with Rob (who's a close friend of the band), and recording outside the confines and pressure of a studio/an hourly fee made everything much easier and more relaxed. Paul: It took a few months to do actually, because of various breaks both us and Rob from Silent City had to take, and then a lot of scrutinizing to the finished thing, but to be honest, I love the recording process. It was good working with Rob, since I've jammed with him before, and am a fan of his musical skills and knowledge anyway, so it's all helpful in the grand learning scheme. There's nothing I'd change now on the recording. There's a couple of bits in one of the songs that could have been slightly tighter, and one song is pretty slow compared to when we play it live, but on the whole, the production and playing is as perfect as we could have got it without spending years on it. It's definitely helped us also lay to rest a few older songs that never got the powerful recording they deserved, and as a result, the writing process has got a lot quicker already. Matt: It was good to work with Rob who always made us work that bit harder to get things tight, and came up with a load of good ideas himself. Not to mention the amount of work he put into producing the cd. When you're sick and tired of the whole thing, willing to settle for something half-decent, it's important that there's someone there making you do it hundreds more times till it's perfect.
DC: Please give an in-depth account of your most recent bowel movements. Reference to diagrams or tabulation of results may be used to support your answer. Jim: Today I've had three massive shits. All of them were great. Pooing is one of life's great pleasures and should not be underrated. Reese: i had a Moroccan stew not too long ago and the sh1t that produced smelled amazing! I could have fished it out of the bowl and ate it all over again. Smith: Relatively cogent and satisfactory, despite high lager intake, but with a slight remnant burn of last night's chilli-sauce-covered pizza. Textbook really. Paul: Check your post. I packaged it up for you. It's the first one that's come out and done well in a long while, so feel privileged. Matt: Sadly, it's a long time since I did a poo worthy of mention.
DC: What can punters expect from a live Reth performance? Do you berate the crowd in any way, or are you lovely? Jim: We're generally pretty nice to be honest. Though we do talk a lot of crap. From me you can usually expect cock jokes and innuendo (in your endo). Though I don't have a microphone, so you generally can't hear me. Reese: i think we are polite and generally dashing. Other than that probably bad jokes, mumblings and ramblings in between songs by myself. We tend not to fuck about too much in between songs, just blast through the set and just enjoy it while we do it. Smith: all manner of raucous and nonsensical twatting about can be expected; inebriated verbal diarrhoea, faux metallic theatrics, grimaces, gurns and stomps, with band members occasionally berating each other. And we play songs. Paul: They can expect beards, blastbeats, sweat, swearing, pained faces, abuse sometimes. But we're still lovely no matter what happens.
DC: What's next for Reth? Paul: We're hoping to get another collection of songs (7 or 8) written and recorded by the end of 2008. Hopefully keep the list of gigs beefed up throughout this and next year. It would be nice if a label did turn around and say they'd like to help us, but it's still not the be all and end all. It just opens up more avenues I guess. The music will continue to get more technical, remain as catchy, remain full of riffs as well, and hopefully we'll just improve and intensify as a unit. Reese: gigs abroad. Pretty heavy gigging schedule playing as many places as we can in the UK . And work has already begun on the new CD and the songs that are being brewed for it sound great i think and its fun to stamp my own style and vocal patterns to them. They are pretty intense. Smith: Off to bed shortly. Jim: Well, we've got three songs ready for the next album and another one in the process of being written. Expect things to get more silly, more brutal and more hideously slamming.
DC: Cheers for the interview, have a good ‘en, see you soon! Paul: I love you. Jim: Ta! Sithee in a bit.
- Interview conducted by Baz
March 4th, 2008 |
    
|
erve Promotions, what better way to begin an interview with you than to ask a RN-banter based question such as ‘Why are you such a set of dick'eads?!!' 
and having now owned the fender made equivalent, the build quality has increased. This new one's much better, and much nicer to play. I had it set up properly in drop B, and it plays like a dream, though it's a bugger to get pinch harmonics out of ‘cos the action's so low. I run through a Boss GT8 pedal into a Crate amp head, all pumped out by a Marshall 1960 cab. The Crate's a really little thing and is ace to carry around, while still pumping out 150 Watts. A nice great big digital sound; perfect for precision tech-smash-bash. 
three out of the five members of the band are afflicted by a bald patch, so I guess for the most part it'd be quite difficult to flick a fringe. I reckon if the other two went down the Nicky Clarke route, it'd just look like an untidy mish-mash. I've been accused of not being “metal” enough in the past, and have always taken it as a compliment. I think you should be able to play any genre of music you like without having to have your clothes pigeon holed as well. I'm all for the sweep picking though. However, the sloppy beat downs and laughable vocals are right out as far as I'm concerned. If it's not hideously slamming and ear splittingly harsh, I don't want to know. I'm a tea drinking bastard, and proud of it. 
mention The Fairport Convention though, ‘cos one of my favourite solo artists is Richard Thompson, the original Fairport guitarist. As far as I'm concerned he's one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I'm not that bothered with Dylan or Guthrie. My take on Dylan is that for a guy who can't play the guitar, play the harmonica or sing, he did pretty well for himself. He could sure as hell write a song though. I'm into the aforementioned Richard Thompson, Matt Ward, Loudon Wainwright and early James Taylor stuff. Outside folk and grind/death (which I'm not that bothered about anyway) I like a bit of drum and bass. Electro stuff's ok too I guess. Specifically, I love Asian Dub Foundation and Massive Attack. 
DC: Do Reth like chocolate and other confectionary? If so, please tell us your favourites. I like Topics, Raspberry Ruffles and Quality Street . As well as Magical Elves bars, any given white chocolate, and Dairyfine Fruit & Nut from Aldi. And Blue Ribands. Also tell us your favourite nuts. Mine is the macadamia, ‘cos she is, of course, the queen of all nuts. 
wever, writing duties have been passed on to Reese – yon singing fool. 
