INSECT WARFARE

I’m not trying to be harsh, but, I have to admit, I’m not really all that into Insect Warfare’s records. Most of them are pretty boring, but I still try to pick up each one as it comes out. Whenever I see praise for them, I think that maybe I’m just missing something that makes them so popular to others, but it’s mostly that popularity that I’m really fascinated with. Beyond that, the guys in the band seem incredibly knowledgeable and nerdy about grind, and I would want to talk to them about that anyway. This interview came about after I was left with some questions about things said in their portion of Short, Fast and Loud #17. Insect Warfare recently announced that they were going to be finished as a band later this summer. Questions answered by Beau.

1) How do you describe grind to people?

When describing grind to people, I usually refer to it as the most extreme end of anything I can do musically. I think of it as the equivalent of throwing a pipe bomb into a police station. I’m not talking about this fancy, polished shit most people are talking about these days. When I speak of grindcore I am referring to the true masters such as Warsore, Arsedestroyer, and Gore Beyond Necropsy. I like the more noise-oriented side of the genre.

2) Referring to your interview in Short, Fast and Loud #17, what mistakes do you think the bands / labels surrounding Relapse and Earache have made? What is it that you’re trying to avoid, and, in turn, what do you want to be able to do with Insect Warfare in the future?

I think the number one mistake most of those labels made is the packaging. I don’t believe that a record needs to be elaborately packaged to be impressive but it should look appealing. I’m a huge
fan of aesthetics of records and I like records to be raw and striking as opposed to photo shopped and “safe” for the buying public. That’s my number one problem with those labels. Everything looks so homogenized.

I have a pretty nihilistic outlook for Insect Warfare. I don’t really think about the future too much and I am always amazed that we don’t break up on a daily basis. I guess that kind of adds to the chaos, which makes the band what it is.

3) You’ve stated that you want to continue to work with smaller labels, but do you ever think about whether that may be an impediment to people who want to hear your records? Do you think working with small labels exclusively helps to create a large secondary market for your releases?

I prefer working with a smaller label because when something is not going the way we want it I can call the label up on the telephone and set things straight. We are fucking particular about how our material is represented and I don’t want anybody calling the shots without our approval. Small labels are usually very understanding of our quirky personalities.
I know that working with smaller labels kind of makes it difficult for some people to procure our releases but, then again, hunting down music is one of my joys in life. I expect everyone to enjoy that thrill in his or her life as well. I also support people downloading or bootlegging our music so there are alternate venues for people to obtain our audio. We will be working with a larger label on a split 5” very soon. This is a label we actually talk shit about but they have agreed to work with us on our terms so it will be kind of an experiment in a way.

4) You seem to admit freely that your band isn’t bringing anything new to the table, but do you think that grind needs evolution? Do we need people to bring in new influences to make it interesting?

What I like about grindcore is the raw and primitive nature of it. I don’t want a lot of new influences coming in and fucking it up. If I want to listen to music that will progress my mind I’ll put on a King Crimson or Phillip Glass record. I would rather degress.

5) The members of bands like Carcass and Napalm Death have often talked about how they’re unhappy with the poor recordings on their early records, apparently not understanding that the poor recording is part of what makes those records amazing. For a long time, it seemed that many bands wanted to replicate not only the early grind musicianship of those records, but also the recording quality. More recently, even DIY-focused grind bands have had higher production quality on their releases. Do you see any reasons for that? Do you think better recording quality makes grind less powerful? Or more accessible?

I could go either way. There are some absolutely fantastic produced grind records that blow my mind but there are also the ones that are almost unbearable to listen to and I enjoy those as well. My favorite Discordance Axis record is the split with Capitalist Casualties. You can barely tell what is going on during that record but I just love how savage it sounds. I think the most effective record is one that is painful to listen to. I have often thought of experimenting by placing extremely piercing, high-end frequency loops in the background of our records so that people would be in constant agony during the listening experience. Then again, our music is so bad that I feel we are achieving the same thing without it.

6) I guess this could go along with question 4, but also in the afore-mentioned interview, in regards to noisegrind you said “a whole LP of that shit is a bit overkill, almost a waste of vinyl even”. Personally, Nikudorei’s ‘Genital Torture’, Arsedestroyer’s ‘xxxteenassrevoltxxx’, and Sore Throat’s ‘Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid’ are some of my favorite records ever. So, do you just not agree then? Prefer stuff that’s more straight-forward?

In terms of my own band, I think a whole record of noisecore would be a little much. Maybe we don’t have the genius of the aforementioned bands. I love all the records you mentioned and I would do anything to be able to replicate something like any one of those bands but I just cannot do it. Well, at least not yet. That being said, I think I am going to go study right now by listening to the DIE / Nikudorei split.

CONTACT:

post:
Insect Warfare
1846 Richmond Ave
Houston, TX 77098
USA

web: www.insectwarfare.com