Malignant Artist- The Vomit Arsonist
1. FOR MY READERS NEW TO THE VOMIT ARSONIST TELL THEM
A BIT HOW YOUR DEATH INDUSTRIAL SOUND CAME TO BE?
The project started in the early 2000's, and it was
essentially just harsh noise. Eventually I started
incorporating more vocals into my work, but it was more like the
vocals were being used for texture and as a sound source rather than
being "real" vocals... I took a lot of influence from
MASONNA with that approach. Over the years, my taste for
certain kinds of industrial and harsh music expanded, particularly to
the EU death industrial and power electronics sound. I ended up
getting more gear over time, I learned how to use different programs
for recording, sequencing, programming, etc.. basically taught myself
how to do what I wanted to do. There were sounds that I'd hear
in my head, and I just had to find out what I needed to do to get
them out. I like to think that I'm a little outside the realm
of "death industrial" -- although the influence is
undeniably there. But I also still try and incorporate power
electronics, and, on occasion, harsh noise elements.. Particularly in
a live setting.
2. YOU HAVE YOUR OWN TAPE LABEL CORRECT .THIS SEEMS A
GREAT UNDERGROUND MEDIA STILL FOR NOISE AND DARKER INDUSTRIAL MUSIC
.WHY DO YOU THINK TAPES ARE STILL SO POPULAR?
Yeah, Danvers State Recordings. I can tell you
why I was drawn to it, and that's because it was a cheap way to get
my music out there. I could have done CD-r's, which likely
would have been easier and less expensive, but personally, and I mean
no offense to labels that deal in CD-r's, I think they're cheap
unless they're "pro" discs or have a really interesting
presentation or something. That said, people are still into
tapes. A lot. I'm not sure why, really. Maybe it's
kind of like the resurgence of vinyl, which is seemingly no longer
limited to "the underground." I think a lot of the
industrial/noise/PE stuff just sounds so much better on cassette than
CD, or even vinyl, in certain cases. Something about the tape
hiss, the warble-sound you always get at the very beginning or end of
a tape.. I'm drawn to it. It's a pleasant sound to me.
Maybe because the vast majority of my childhood was spent in my room
listening to cassettes? I have no idea.
3. HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK WITH MALIGNANT THE
PREMIERE INDUSTRIAL LABEL IN THE US?
I've been speaking with Jason Mantis for a number of
years now; Malignant has placed distro orders for Danvers State
titles pretty much from the beginning, so we had a "working
relationship" due to that. I put out a batch of tapes
earlier this year, around April, I think, and he ended up writing me
an email that essentially said "So, I suppose it's about time we
talk about getting you a CD on Malignant..." and man, I
was fucking floored when I read that. He'd written me
previously and told me how much he liked the "Go Without"
album, which I was pleased to hear. But when he offered me an
album.. I knew I had to step it up and give 150% of myself to
it. Since I learned about Malignant Records years and years
ago, I've wanted to work with Jason. Call it a dream, a goal,
whatever, but I'm beyond thrilled to have been given this
opportunity. Looking at the roster of past, present and future
artists on the label, I'm in the best company I could possibly be
in. Some of my favorite industrial acts and biggest influences
are Malignant artists. I consider it an extreme honor and a
privilege to share a home with them. Jason's reputation for
releasing only the best industrial, dark ambient and power
electronics is second to none. If it's on Malignant, it's worth
owning. Some people might argue with me, but that's how I see
it.
4. THE NEW ENGLAND NOISE, POWER ELECTRONICS AND
INDUSTRIAL SCENE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A THRIVING ONE WITH LABELS LIKE RRR,
FORCE OF NATURE, TRUCULENT AND SELF ABUSE TO NAME A FEW. WHY DO
YOU THINK THIS IS AND DOES IT CONTINUE TODAY?
Personally, I think things are dying down a bit.
At least in my corner of New England. I'm just outside of
Providence, RI, and when I moved here about 9 years ago, things were
a lot different. The industrial and noise scene was half the
reason I moved here. Labels and shows were still thriving with
really, really good artists... but a lot of those artists have
either moved out of New England, moved on to other projects or just
stopped altogether. There also used to be no shortage of places
to have shows, mostly abandoned warehouses and/or punk squat houses,
but the vast majority of those have been bought up by people wanting
to develop luxury condos and shit. As an aside, if you saw the
neighborhoods that these places were in, you'd quickly realize that
no luxury condo buying yuppie in their right mind would ever want to
live there. You can make the building as nice as you want, but
you still might get robbed when checking your mailbox. Moving
on.. Boston is really where it's at for me. Although I'm
not a Boston act, I sort of consider it my home as far as my music is
concerned. It's the city I perform in most often, and it has an
increasingly growing scene of incredible acts full of really great
people. COREPHALLISM, XIPHOID DEMENTIA, BITCHNECK, CORPUSCLE
(RIP), SHARPWAIST, SEWER GODDESS, ZERFALLT, and a whole host of
others I'm sure I'm forgetting. In my opinion, most of the best
Boston shows are curated by Egan Budd (XIPHOID DEMENTIA, Extistence
Establishment) -- Egan does great work, treats his bands well, and
he's a stand up guy on top of it. But why does stuff like this
continue? Well, the entire city of Boston is full of miserable,
angry and pissed off people. It only makes sense that this kind
of music would come from an environment like that.
5.ANDY YOU PLAY OR PLAYED IN SEVERAL OTHER PROJECT IF
YOU WOULD TELL US A BIT ABOUT THEM.
I'll do this in the form of a list, it's easier that
way...
BEREFT - two man death industrial/power electronics
act, myself and Peter Lee (ex-Force of Nature) ... the only band I
perform with that might be considered to have a political message.
Take that to mean whatever you'd like.. everyone else seems to.
WHITE LOAD - hardcore punk band I play drums in.
It's sloppy and awful. Live performances last around 8
minutes. We usually don't make it through a song without
fucking up something horribly-- and there's usually less than a
minute of actual song to get through. We're usually very
drunk. We're big on setting off fireworks indoors and being a
general pain in the ass to the audience. We've played a lot of
places and been asked to never come back. We played in Brooklyn
once and our singer grabbed my ride cymbal and hurled it like a
discus into the crowd, nearly taking off someone's fucking head.
We were asked to leave the property as soon as we were done packing
our gear. We don't really play shows in our home town anymore
unless we book them ourselves, because most promoters know us and
don't want us to play for fear that we might do something stupid.
And those promoters are probably right in making that assumption.
THE WOLFBANE BLUES - blues/rock/outlaw country band I
play bass in. Probably the most fun I've ever had playing
music, because it's really fucking laid back. We practice once
a week, play a gig every month or two, and that's about it. No
stress. The most stressful thing we did was record and release
an album earlier this year. That came out in July. The
best part, for me, is that it's a style of music I've always enjoyed
but never been a part of.
NAU-ZEE-AUN - an ever morphing, constantly evolving
industrial/multimedia project I play in, with Deftly-D (ABSTINENCE,
ZERO TIMES INFINITY, TERRORFAKT, etc.) at the helm. It's a
combination of all different styles of experimental music, with
influences ranging from acts like MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO and PUBLIC
ENEMY to MASONNA and PRURIENT. We don't play or rehearse nearly
as much as we should, but we all live in different areas of New
England, we all have day jobs, and our drummer and his wife recently
had a baby, so it's tough to get together. We're the first band
that I know of, at least on a local/underground scale, to incorporate
3D video projection and 3D video samples into our live show.
6. IS THERE A THEME OR STORY LINE BEHIND AN OCCASION
FOR DEATH?
Not really a story, but there's a theme, no doubt
about that. It's heavily influenced by the writings of Romanian
born philosopher Emil Cioran, who's quotes and prose I included in
the liner notes of the album. In short, the theme of the album,
the message that I tried to portray, is that human existence is like
some grand, absurd joke. I mean, think about it-- most people
wake up every day and do the same thing, they go to work, they come
home, they eat, they might do something fun on the weekends...
they do that for 40 or 50 years and then they die. And that's
what we all do. Is that really what life's about?
Obviously it's not that simple, I know, and admittedly, it's kind of
a closed minded world view. I know your life is what you make
of it, you have the power to change the things you don't like, things
like that. And all that's true. But think about all the
amazing things you've done, or would like to do, and all the lives
you've touched and all the people you've loved and everything like
that, think about all the good... and think about how
unimportant all of it is in the grand scheme of things. Most of
us will leave zero mark on society. Most of us won't be
remembered centuries down the line. Almost everything we do is,
ultimately, pointless. It's got a point at the time, sure.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't mean shit. When you feel
like you're at your wits end, when you want to hang it up because you
can't handle the absurdity and utter monotony of your life, you
should probably go out and change something. And you probably
will, and it'll likely make you happy or feel fulfilled or improve
your life in some way for a while. But at some point, those
good feelings will fade. Maybe you can hang on to them,
Maybe you find something else to fulfill you, maybe not. But at
the end of your life, after you've lived to the fullest, you've loved
as much as possible and done amazing things that you'd only ever
dreamt of... what are you left with? Nothing. Nothing any
of us have ever said or done will be worth fuckall in the grand
scheme of the universe. The album is about how after all is
said and done, we're all left with nothing. Always. It's
about the beginning and end of life, of existence, and all the
pointlessness in between. The monotony of daily life. You
have people you love that love you, a family, friends, you're
comfortable... but you can't take it with you, as the saying goes.
7. OVER MANY RELEASE IVE HEARD ANDY THE VOMIT
ARSONIST SEEMS TO MOVED IN A MORE IN SLAUGHTER NATIVE VIBE FROM
A FULL ON HARSH NOISE AND POWERELECTRONICS IDEAL. IS IT JUST GROWTH,
BETTER GEAR OR A MORE EXPERIMENTAL IDEAL?
It's a little of everything, really. Like I
said, I started out with very minimal equipment, and I had to work
with what I had at my disposal, which wasn't very much. Over
time I figured out what I wanted to do, got more gear, and honed my
craft. On top of that, about 6 years ago I started writing
lyrics that were more personal and direct than anything I'd ever
done, and that continues to this day, so I needed the music to
reflect that. It's important to me that the overall package
fits together. It needs to make sense.
8. WILL THE VOMIT ARSONIST BE TOURING OR WILL IT BE
MORE JUST LOCAL PERFORMANCES?
I would love to tour again. In 2010, I ended up
touring from Rhode Island to Milwaukee, WI and back, and it was
great. 9 shows in 10 days. I really loved it. But
it seems like it's out of the realm of possibility for a little
while, at least doing it on my own and self-financing everything.
Plus, you know, real life always ends up getting in the way of the
things you actually want to do. Obviously I'd kill to tour
Europe or the UK, or even just do a couple shows over there...
but that's a dream that seems like a long way off. I'll be
sticking with Providence, Boston and New York for the time being...
unless something else really interesting comes along.
9. IF THERE WAS ONE TRACK FROM ANY ARTIST YOU COULD
COVER AND DO JUSTICE TO , WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
This is a great question, and a tough one to answer.
I really like doing covers, and I've done a few in the past, mostly
for compilations-- two ATRAX MORGUE songs, "Try Me" and
"Myself As a Corpse", I've done a SWANS cover ("Mother,
My Body Disgusts Me") that was supposed to be released on a comp
but never ended up coming out (which is just as well, listening back
on it, I'm not at all happy with my version of the song, although
I've yet to re-record it), a cover of "USA For USA" by
CARNIVORE, "Ooh What A Feeling" by BRAINBOMBS, and two
AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED songs ("The Withering of Skin" and
"Acute Awareness (For Wood)") for the first Audio Assault
online comp released by Compulsive Masturbation Productions. As
far as a song I'd like to cover and do justice to... Probably
something off TYPE O NEGATIVE's "Slow, Deep and Hard" LP,
one of my favorite albums ever, and definitely by favorite from ToN.
Years ago, I actually finished a cover of "Unsuccessfully Coping
With the Natural Beauty of Infidelity" from the aforementioned
LP, and while I don't think it's awful, it's not very good, and no
one's ever heard it but me. The lyrics were what made me want
to cover it. If you know the song, you know what it's about,
and I was in a very similar situation personally and emotionally, so
it seemed perfect. Even though things are different now, I'd
still like to revisit one that some time. It's just a goddamn
good song. Maybe something by EYEHATEGOD, too... "I
Am The Gestapo," maybe. That's a great fucking song, and
Mike IX's lyrics are perfect for the type of music I create, I
think..
10. WHERE DO YOU SEE THE VOMIT ARSONIST SOUND HEADING
IN FUTURE RELEASES?
I don't want to say "more of the same,"
because I'll eventually get bored with that. I'm not at all
afraid of experimentation, and I've briefly considered adding more
members for live performances.. making it more like a band than
a solo performance. But, I'm really picky and kind of a
perfectionist, and although I've never had anyone say this to me, I
fear that I'm too much of a control freak to work with other people,
especially with material that's so personal to me. I like to
think that I sort of naturally evolve from album to album, and to be
honest, it's not really a conscious effort. I'll usually take
some time off, so to speak, between recording sessions... Since I
completed "An Occasion For Death," I think I've recorded
the basic tracks for one new song, maybe two. But in taking
that time away from writing and recording, different things happen in
my life, both good and bad, and something usually gives me the
inspiration to get into the studio and start working again...
and that's usually when something's different. Whether I find a
new sound with some gear, or just take a different approach to
writing, whatever it is, I think that's how I keep changing things up
while still retaining "my sound." That's one of the
few things I pride myself on; when you hear one of my recordings, it
may sound different or have a different approach than what you've
heard previously, but it's still sounds like The Vomit Arsonist.
11. WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY LISTENING TO ANDY ANYTHING
OUT THERE MUSICALLY REALLY IMPRESSING YOU?
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN's "The Totality of Death"
(2 CD's on Malignant and Silken Tofu) is absolutely brilliant work.
Due to the limited nature of his releases, and the rate at which
people snatched them up, I wasn't as familiar with his work as I'd
have liked, but I was able to score these two discs and they're just
brutal. Beyond that, a lot of stuff that I've released on
Danvers State... ANEMONE TUBE, N., :m:, CORPUSCLE, EN NIHIL .. and of
course, the old favorites like THEOLOGIAN, STEELHOOK PROSTHESES, IRM,
DEATH SQUAD (those reissues on Autarkeia were brilliant) GNAWED
(Grant's work with GNAWED is absolutely mind-blowing, and he gets
better with every release), MURDEROUS VISION, NYODENE D, U/731...
the list goes on. Beyond industrial music, I've been listening
to a lot of Alan Lomax recordings, old blues and folk stuff from the
1930's era south... some real old, obscure and raw country music...
THE CRAMPS... and metal. Mostly doom/sludge stuff.
SLEEP's "Holy Mountain" and "Dopesmoker" LP's are
records I'll listen to pretty much every day when it's Summer time...
12. FOR PROJECTS OUT THERE STARTING OUT WHATS THE
BEST WAY TO GET YOU ART OUT THERE DIGITAL MEDIA, YOU TUBE, LIVE SHOWS
WHATS YOUR THOUGHTS?
I'd love to take the "underground" approach
and say that people should just get out there, play as many shows as
they can in as many places as possible, record your shit, give it
away, sell it, do whatever you have to do to get it in peoples
hands... and while I believe that that's the way to go,
it's obviously so much easier just to put a song on Youtube or
Bandcamp or whatever, and that seems to be how it's going now.
I find it funny that the concept of a band recording a demo is so
uninvolved, compared to what it was only a few years ago ...
record it into your computer, upload it, done. You now have a
demo that literally every person with an internet connection can
hear. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that you had to
make a tape (or, later, burn a CD-R) and physically hand it to
someone and hope that they listened to it. It's almost too easy
now. My thoughts and biases aside, people should do whatever
they can to expose the world to their music.
13. ARE YOU FAN OF THE DIGITAL AGE OR DO YOU FEEL IT
OVER LOADS THE WORLD WITH SUBPAR SOUNDS?
It makes things a lot easier, I will say that.
But, because things are easier, there's very little quality control.
Anyone with Garageband or Audacity can record some cheap shit and
call it an album. And that's fine, I'm all for people doing
what they want, if it sucks, I don't have to listen to it. With
that said, I do personally take advantage of the ease of it-- you can
get some of my releases on Bandcamp, or watch live performances or
"music videos" (for lack of a better term) on Youtube ... I
guess it's a good thing, because I believe you should put yourself
out there as much as possible, and use every tool at your disposal
when doing so. The only "digital age" thing I really
don't understand is people buying digital albums. That's one I
really don't get. I'm not against it, far from it-- I just
don't quite understand paying money for a downloaded file... One
that, technically, isn't even yours. You don't buy the MP3, you buy
the rights to listen to it. That's fucking bullshit, if you ask
me. I've still got a massive collection of CD's, vinyl and
cassettes, and I don't see myself stopping that any time soon.
Getting that whole package, the double gatefold LP sleeve or the
digipack CD or the cassette that's wrapped in razor wire or whatever
and you gotta slice your fucking hands open to listen to the
thing... that's why I prefer the physical over the digital.
Plus, a lot of these releases are works of art in and of themselves.
They look good on a shelf. I like that.
14. THANKS FOR THE TIME TO SPEAK ANY CLOSING THOUGHTS
HERE
Thanks for taking the time to write up this
interview. I appreciate it. Obligatory website plugs:
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