CIRCLE
OF DEAD CHILDREN
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A GRIND/DEATH
METAL BAND THAT REALLY IMPRESSED ME FROM THE FIRST LISTENING OF THEIR NEW
ALBUM. IT'S NOT ONLY THE BRUTALITY OF THEIR MUSIC AND THE VOCALS STRAIGHT
FROM HELL THAT MADE ME LIKE THEM, BUT ALSO THEIR POINT OF VIEW THAT PROVES
THAT THEY ARE THINKING PERSONS (AN ANSWER TO ALL THOSE THAT SAY THAT METAL
IS MADE BY AND FOR BRAINLESS FOOLS) . NOW WITH THIS INTERVIEW I LEARNED
THAT JOE (VOCALS) IS VERY FRIENDLY AND FUNNY GUY THAT MAKE YOU LAUGH WITH
HIS HUMOUR AND ALSO THAT CODC KNOW HOW TO TURN A LIVE SHOW TO A REAL ROCK
'N' ROLL PARTY!!! THERE ARE MANY OTHER THINGS THAT YOU COULD LEARN ABOUT
THIS BAND, BUT YOU HAVE TO LEARN THIS INTERVIEW. DON'T WAIT TO MAKE ALL
THE DIRTY WORK FOR YOU :)
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE THE BAND TO THE READERS.
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Hey Nick. The current members
of CODC are Jason Andrews on guitar, Mike Rosswog on drums and myself,
Joe Horvath doing vocals. We’ve hit a lot of roadblocks since we
started the band on Halloween, 1998. Jason and myself are the only
original members left. The original lineup was a five-piece and released
a demo cassette, “Starving the Vultures” (CD Willowtip Records. LP S.O.A.
Records) and “Exotic Sense Decay” (MCD Willowtip Records. 7” picture
disc Robodog Records). We then lost our bass player and replaced
him with an old friend of ours. With that lineup we released “the
Genocide Machine” (CD Necropolis Records. LP Willowtip Records).
Because our experiences with Paul Thind of Necropolis Records, we had to
make sure we didn’t release anything ever with them again. We then
went through more lineup changes with first our other original guitar player
and then our original drummer quitting. We quickly began working
with Mike Rosswog on drums and his style meshed perfectly with what Andrews
was writing and they way he wanted the percussion to sound. Mike
had previously been a pretty serious guitar player, but decided to make
the switch to drums and try out for the band. Shortly after that,
we lost our second bass player. At that point, about a year ago,
we made the decision to not try out any other people for second guitar
or for bass. We’ve found that working as a three piece, void of a
bass player, is really working for us. With this lineup we recorded
our newest release, “Human Harvest” [CD (North, South and Pan Americas)
Martyr Music Group. CD/LP (Europe and rest of World) Displeased Records]
at Austin Enterprise with Steve Austin. We have no intent on stopping
CODC any time soon. Andrews and I have been through too much shit
to stop for any reason other than us both deciding that we don’t want to
play this stuff anymore. Our new lineup is the strongest it has ever
been and “Human Harvest” is a verification of that.
2.WHY HAVE YOU NAMED THE BAND THIS
WAY? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SUGGEST? DON'T YOU THINK THAT YOUR BAND NAME IS
TOO BIG AND THIS MIGHT CAUSE A PROBLEM, SINCE IT WILL BE HARD FOR THE FANS
TO REMEMBER YOUR NAME?
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The band’s name came from a daydream
of mine about a year before the band ever existed. It was just an
mental image of a massive circle of flags from all over the world with
a deceased child from each country laid upon its homeland flag, the causes
of death being from unnecessary neglect or government warfare. It
was in essence, a circle of dead children. When I told the story
to Andrews, he and I decided that it would make a great band name for whatever
project we were going to start up next. I don’t think there is any
problem with people forgetting our name. If anything, some people
wish they had never read it because they wont be able to forget it.
Personally, I don’t care if people remember it or not. The music
will refresh the memory of the most stoned! Haha! The logo
is so damn messy that most people can’t read what it says anyway!
We’ve definitely never gone for the easily accessible path.
3.TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT "HUMAN
HARVEST" AND POINT OUT THE DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIED WITH YOUR PREVIOUS
RELEASES. ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH IT?
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To be honest, “Human Harvest” is the
most satisfied we’ve ever been with one of our releases. Just going
from a five-piece to a three-piece with no bass player and a totally different
drummer made a difference. Rosswog brought so much more speed and
violence to the sound with his drumming, and he had only been playing for
a little over a year when we recorded which I think listeners will find
pretty shocking. Andrews’ has always had his own style and it continues
to improve with each release. He recorded through a couple full stacks
and a bass cabinet when we recorded “Human Harvest” and the sound is totally
thick. It’s much more grind and less deathmetal sounding than “the
Genocide Machine” with the focus being on a complete fury of released demons
for us. Somehow, without any real conscious effort, my vocals ended
out being way sicker than ever before as well. In every possible
way we’ve managed to elevate the band on “Human Harvest”.
4.HOW IMPORTANT ARE LYRICS FOR YOU?
DON'T YOU THINK THAT GOOD LYRICS INCREASE A SONG'S VALUE? COULD YOU TELL
US IN A FEW WORDS WHERE YOUR LYRICS REFER TO? WHAT INSPIRES YOU IN WRITING
LYRICS?
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To me personally, I enjoy reading well-written
lyrics, be they from any genre of music. Like anything else, it can
be an art form and certain writers have they own styles. I don’t
attempt to write in any definitive fashion or force myself to write about
any one particular subject. I like to just grab a pen and paper whenever
I feel the urge and just let it go. I see each day as having some
sort of inspirational value, be it good or bad. My writing inspirations
come from the way my brain consumes and processes day to day events and
experiences. I endorse free-thought with that comes a sort of ease
when it comes to finding creative thoughts or whatnot. I enjoy writing
in general and cannot help but to always be thinking and wanting to learn
more about whatever particular subjects interest me. Writing can
be as much of an outlet as the actual singing as they both release inner
emotions.
5.NAME SOME OF THE BAND'S INFLUENCES
AND SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED ALBUMS AND MUSICIANS.
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The biggest influence initially was
Assuck. They are and will forever be the best grind band ever I think.
Solid in every way. Outside of that, we each listen to a lot of different
stuff. Andrews is mostly into punk and crust and hardcore, Rosswog
listens to a lot of stuff and loves Tool, Messugah, Lycathia Aflame,
Morbid Angel, Krisiun and many more. For me vocally, the influences
have come from bands like Assuck, Hemdale, Pillard era Incantation, early
Brutal Truth, Fear of God, and so on. Some of my favorite records
are Incantation’s “Onward to Golgotha”, Groundwork “discography”, Thergothon,
Acid King “Busse Woods”, early Abnegation material, and tons and millions
more. I think bands like Cephalic Carnage and Libido Airbag are pushing
the genres even further and it’s great! Music is one of the most
important parts of my life. I honestly feel I’d collapse and die
if it were cut from me. I could probably list a dozen favorites from
a dozen different genres right now!
6.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR TOURING
OR ATTENDING METAL FESTIVALS IN THE SUMMER? COULD YOU DESCRIBE A TYPICAL
CIRCLE OF DEAD CHILDREN LIVE SHOW?
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We just got back from playing the Maryland
Deathfest and it was a great time! We were sandwiched between two
of my favorite current bands, Brodequin and Malignancy, so that was awesome!
We plan on touring in October of this year with Today is the Day and Goatsblood
and we should cover most of the United States and some of Canada.
I’m not sure that we have a typical live show, honestly. There have
been some really crazy ones and there have been some tamer ones.
The more pumped up and energized the crowd is, the better we respond.
No matter what though, we’ll never stand still or anything like that.
In the past we’ve had raffle ticket give-a-ways where people won wonderful
and life enhancing prizes from us like a glow-in-the-dark vibrator, some
porn magazines (male and female), cookie cutters, a toy air plane, and
other random things. We also bring out some foam pool noodles every
once in a while and let the crowd declare war upon one another. There
has been plenty of bruises and blood loss, but most importantly a ton of
friends met and great times had! We are all about having a good time
when we play and letting the crowd have a good time as well. You
can’t be a hyper-brutal totally serious barbarian all the time, you know?
I think the music is extreme enough so I like to add some stupid fun things
in there as well. We’re currently planning out some live visual experiments
as well for the future.
7.LET ME PLAY DEVIL'S ADVOCATE...YOU
PLAY DEATH/GRIND WHICH IS A GENRE REQUIRING NOT SO MANY TECHNICAL SKILLS
BUT SPEED AND BLASTBEATS ARE ITS MAIN TARGET. SO, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO
SOMEONE THAT MIGHT SAY "OK!
GRIND METAL BANDS ARE ALL THE SAME".
WHAT NEW DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER AND WHAT WOULD YOU ANSWER TO SUCH A COMMENT?
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First I’d know right off the bat that
the person had no clue what the hell they were even talking about in the
first place. There are definitely plenty of bands all trying to do
the same thing and out-brutalize one another, but there are also some massively
talented bands out there who seriously stick out and become influences
over many other bands. We started this band not ever imagining one
person would stay our entire live set or even think of putting out one
of our releases, so automatically we don’t give a piss one way or the other
about pleasing anyone but ourselves. Somehow, what we do has taken
hold and we’ve been about to play a lot of amazing shows, meet tons of
great people, and have four releases out. I guess we’re doing something
right, I don’t know. All I can say is that we’re spilling out a lot
of emotion in these songs and we would be happy if anyone took the time
to check it out.
8.WHAT INSPIRES YOU IN COMPOSING MUSIC?
DO YOUR FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ATE VERY GIVEN TIME DIRECT YOU TOWARDS HOW
YOU WANT YOUR SONGS TO SOUND? AFTER ALL MUSIC IS EMOTION ABOVE ALL, ISN'T
IT? SO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO THINK OF MUSIC
AS AN INDUSTRY AND PRODUCT, AN EASY WAY OF EARNING MONEY?
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I really don’t know what inspires Andrews
to write his songs how he does. He writes them first in his head
while he jogs in the mornings. He’ll be jogging around with all these
riffs and shit going through his head. For the most part, that’s
how almost all of our songs have been written. Then he goes home
and grabs the guitar and starts to play what he had running through his
head. Mike is influenced by an internal drive to leave his human
body and become a machine I think. He just really loves to push himself
in most everything he does. For myself, it’s a love of the extreme…
music, movies, whatever. It’s obvious that music has turned into
an industry. This is in the mass commercial level. You have
a bunch of old, rich, white scum businessmen running the entire music industry.
These same people run the video channels and tons of other media entities
as well. They fully control what the people who tune into that garbage
like and what becomes the next “hot thing”. They control the imagery
of the general youth with what they show on the videos, the way they act
and behind and so on. Radio Programming isn’t just a figure of speech.
As with most things in an ultra capitalistic country like the US, money
soils the art. There hasn’t been one popular band in so many years
that should be memorable. There are no artists in that industry anymore,
only label-made music prostitutes letting their asses get pimped out.
The underground, be it in metal, punk, hip hop, industrial or whatever
holds the true essence of what music as an art truly is. Where people
take crappy jobs and live like shit only to be able to cram themselves
into a van and drive around the country and sometimes world playing their
creation and sharing their passion… and where peoples true emotion is what
drives the instruments to their fullest and a listener can truly hear the
sincerity… where the people create it all in their own community…
to me, that’s where art is still alive. Money and art don’t go hand
in hand most times unfortunately. What makes money is imagery, impulse
and a gullible buying population
9.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT
WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
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I’ve definitely never been asked that
before. Nice one. I guess I would say it would have the emotion
of a schizophrenic who jumps all over the place with his perceptions and
feelings. If it were a painting it would be of a group of old men
reflecting on when they were young and hand all kind of fun playing this
crazy music.
10.IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO MAKE AN
EXPENSIVE VIDEO CLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU SELECT AND HOW DO YOU
IMAGINE IT TO BE?
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I bet Mike would definitely have an
answer ready for this one as video and stuff like that is what he is really
into creating. For me, it would be a remake with the new lineup of
a song off of our first release called “Doom Farmer”. I would hire
a bunch of my friends who are into video type stuff and let them buy all
kinds of high-end gear and have them make the shit. I’d use the extra
money to throw a colossal party for everyone! I would expect the
video to be cold then spastic.
11.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE
CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
12.WHICH IS MAN'S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?
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To fall into the standard way of brainless
life where you work a 9-5 job 5 days a week, get married at 23 to someone
you met in college and have a couple kids who you can’t raise properly,
go to Church on Sunday and watch the newest hit television show till you
fall asleep at night just to wake and go through that all again.
13.WHICH IS THE SILLIEST THING YOU
DID IN ORDER TO WIN A WOMAN'S ATTENTION?
14.IF YOU COULD TRAVEL BACK IN TIME,
WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHAT WOULD YOU MISS
THE MOST FROM OUR TIMES?
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This is something that friends of mine
and I have sat around and talked about before. It would be really
cool to go back to when the Egyptians were building all those amazing structures
and finally know how they accomplished it, but I’m sure I’d have to work
my ass off there! I’m thinking maybe a trip back to Samurai era Japan
would work for me. The thing I would miss most from now are probably
the connivances of modern life.
15.WHICH IS THE STRANGEST/FUNNIEST
QUESTION SOMEONE'S EVER ASKED YOU?
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I had a guy who used to ask me to sell
him my shoes when we were finished playing a set. He said he wanted
them because he liked the way I screamed. I find it’s best not to
question things like this so I took the $100 from him and didn’t really
care why he wanted them.
16.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW
TO HAVE?
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CLICK HERE FOR FREE SEX, DRUGS, SKULLS
AND A TOTALLY INVASIVE METHOD OF GAINING 3 INCHES TO YOUR PENIS SIZE INSTANTLY.
17.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
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I don’t think that you’ve forgotten
anything, man! Thanks for the interview and for supporting the Circle!
NIKOS "William_Kidd"
PARASTATIDIS