CRUSTACEAN
NOW,
HERE'S A BAND THAT TRIES TO PLAY OLD THRASH METAL IN A NEW WAY. I THINK
THAT THEIR MUSIC HAS A UNIQUE FEELING. EXCEPT THAT, BY READING THIS INTERVIEW
YOU WILL LEARN THE CONNECTION BETWEEN QUAKE AND CRUSTACEAN MUSIC...
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE THE MEMBERS TO THE READERS.
Crustacean started as Crystal Lake.
The band was founded in 1989 by JVI, our drummer. Crystal Lake released
two demos. In 1991 I joined the band and as soon as we released our third
demo 'Rip Off' we changed our name into Crustacean. Rip Off was our first
serious attempt to impress people. This demo
resulted in a record deal with Double Noise records, who released our first
(mini)CD headcleaner. The first ever product of Crustacean that was released
worldwide. A year after this release our line-up changed dramatically.
A new vocalist (TMP) and a new guitarist (RCS) joined
Crustacean. This was 1996, the year we recorded our Murderfuck666 demo
and contributed to a lot of compilation cd's. In 1997 we found ourselves
another label, teutonic existence records for which we recorded our first
full length Burden of our Suffering. This album got amazing reviews worldwide
and we had two busy years of gigging. Teutonic wanted us to record a second
album for them and so we did. In 2001 we went to Harrow Productions again
to record Insaniac. When we were done recording it, we found out Teutonic,
due to financial circumstances, could not release our album. We decided
to send a promo to 35 recordlabels and see what'd happen. Cold Blood Industries
was happy to release it, so here we are.
Our current line-up:
JVI - drums
TMP - bass & vocals
FDA - guitars (as of Dec 2002)
MKK - guitars
2.YOUR MUSIC IS PRETTY STRANGE AND
HARD TO BE DEFINED. CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR OWN DESCRIPTION OF YOUR MUSIC?
NAME SOME OF THE BAND'S INFLUENCES AND SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED ALBUMS.
I read your review and I see what
you mean. I think overall our music can be described as 80's thrash mixed
with 90's scandinavian deathmetal, played with downtuned guitars. Some
reviews I read even talked about hardcore influences in our music, and
they're right. Influences are: Grave, Vader, AUtopsy, Slayer, Dark Angel,
Infernal Majesty, Obituary, Atrophy, Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse.
Other-style influences are Korn and Lagwagon.
Beloved albums would be:
Morbid Angel - Blessed are the
Sick
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Gorguts - Considered Dead
3.TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT "INSANIAC".
ARE YOU STILL SATIFIED WITH IT? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO RECORD IT?
WHO WAS THE PRODUCER? WHERE WAS IT RECORDED?
We recorded Insaniac at Harrow
Productions, the studio where we also recorded its predecessor Burden of
our Suffering. We recorded it in 5 days. Mixing and producing the album,
which was done by studio technicians and ourselves also cost us 5 days.
We recorded Insaniac in 2001. So...almost two years ago already. I'm happy
to tell you I still like the album very much. Every time I play it, I review
it for myself haha! So at these moments I hope I will not be disappointed
by Insaniac, and as it has never happened I'd have to say I think it's
a good album which represents us very well. Our
new songs are somewhat faster, more thrash, but we still like to play the
songs that are on Insaniac.
4.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
WHAT INSPIRES YOU? DO YOU THINK LYRICS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS MUSIC?
Here's where I have to tell you
something about the way we write songs. All songs are written in Cubase
at home. So the only thing I do is programming drums and think of cool
riffs. That's the core of the song I think, rhythm and melody which together
compose a mood. That mood has to be intensified by the vocals, the
second guitar and the way our drummer drums the rhythms I recorded at home.
So that's the moment our singer will start writing the lyrics, to the mood
the song already radiates. Conclusion is that lyrics come in second place
for us. Our lyrics are mainly about war, computer games and psychological
disorders. It fits our music well we think. Inspiration are everyday events,
people we know, movies and books.
5.YOUR ARTWORK IS BEAUTIFUL. CAN YOU
TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT? WHICH IS THE CONNECTION WITH THE MUSIC?
Thanks very much. I'm glad you
like it. Some people don't seem to get the point and thinks it's an ugly
rendered retrocover. We disagree of course. RCS, the guitarist that recently
quit Crustacean does all our artwork and merchandise. And we like to have
a theme every time we release an album. The headcleaner EP was all about
deranged people as I was studying Psychology at that time. Burden of our
Suffering was about alien lifeforms, and Insaniac is about computergaming.
Inspired by Quake III and Unreal Tournament mainly. We think that first
person shooters like beforementioned mix very good with our music. Trey
(Morbid Angel) has his own QIII clan for example. We are hooked too haha.
6.YOU PRESENT THIS RELEASE AS A "MOVIE".
COLD BLOOD INDUSTRIES PRESENTS...ETC. WHY DID YOU DO THAT? IT'S VERY CLEVER
IF YOU ASK ME!
True. The idea was to make the
booklet look like a computergame manual. The designer, RCS, is a movie
freak and so he wanted to make the back of the booklet look like a promotional
poster for a movie called Insaniac (which coincidentally came out recently
if I'm right...) I think he did a good job and
it all looks swell.
7.HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS? DO
YOU LIKE PERFORMING LIVE? DO YOU REMEMBER ANY WEIRD OR FUNNY INCIDENTS
OCCURING TO YOU WHILST YOU WERE PLAYING LIVE?
We play live regularly, like two
times a month. Not every gig is cool, but most are. It all depends on the
crowd and the bands we're playing with. Most shows are great fun, mainly
the bigger ones. Playing open air is the best there is!! A big crowd, big
speakers and a big stage! We love that. Most incidents that occur when
we play live are not funny haha. When something unexpected happens usually
it is the mains dropping out for example. So there you are on stage, waiting
for the sound to return. Stupid!! On the other hand we have had some funny
experiences too of course. We've played at a festival where a striptease
dancer had to perform before our show. Funny thing was that there was only
one dressing room, so here we where sitting there with a nude woman preparing
her show, weird!!
8.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE TO
CONVINCE HIM BUY YOUR RELEASE INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ELSE?
To convince someone to buy an album
you'd have to explain what we do on that album. I'd say: Do you like the
first five albums of slayer? Looking for a band that continues that tradition
with a modern sound? Check Insaniac.
9.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST AND
WHICH IS THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER
IMPROVEMENT?
I think we're very good at writing
compact songs. I'm happy with most of our songs in that way. What I would
like us to do in the future is to have even more eye for detail. I think
we could improve ourselves harmony-wise. FDA and I at the moment play the
same riffs the same way at the moment, mainly because
he's still learning our songs. When we're done doing that I want us to
play different voices as much as possible!!
10.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK
YOU GET THIS FAR?
Yes certainly. I've read 36 reviews
already and most of them are positive. Only five are in doubt and award
our album with a number between 5 and 6. SO that means 31 reviews score
7 or higher (even 10!).
11.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION, WHAT
WOULD IT BE?
Joy. We like to make sure people
have a good time. Whether they're playing our album or watching our show,
people should feel good so they want to play it or come see us again. We
don't want to depress people but I think that shows when you listen to
Insaniac. It's aggressive yet optimistic.
12.YOU ARE GRANTED ONE WISH. WHAT WOULD
YOU CHANGE IN THE WORLD?
I'd relieve people of the burden
called religion.
13.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE
CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
Haha...why do we have to work and
can't we just have fun? But as I stated the question before, I am atheist,
I believe only in what I see and what history teaches us.
14.IF YOU COULD TRAVEL IN TIME WHICH
HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY?
I'd stay here! I don't want to
live in a time without internet and cellphones and computers in general!
I'm very lucky to be alive right now I think.
15.THERE IS A BLOODY AND CATASTROPHIC
WAR TAKING PLACE RIGHT NOW AGAINST IRAQ. PLEASE SHARE YOU THOUGHTS WITH
US.
Well, I'm no politician. I can
understand the motives the Americans have, but I doubt this war will solve
anything. Maybe it will only makes things worse. But like I said, I don't
have the information the American government has. I hope the losses will
be minimal. Some people say this is a war for oil, but I think that's nonsense.
This war is about American control over the middle east and against terrorism.
Which, if the Americas succeed could be for the best for the future in
my opinion. Too bad Bush is a stupid man :( I hope the war will be over
soon!
16.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW
TO HAVE?
Hmmm, maybe: Crustacean - Thrashing
opimists
17.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
Thanks very much for your interest.
To your readers I'd like to say: check us out. Unsure to buy our album,
come to http://www.crustacean.nl/
and download our mp3 and look at our stupid faces. And last but not least:
if you like our music buy our album! It ROCKS! Cheerz
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