Flipside

 

Interview with GRANT Brand by CAKE Flip. Nick Blinko (vocalist/guitarist/artist/sometime lyricist) is the most tortured soul on planet Earth (or so you might feel if you listen to his sometimes painfully screamed vocals). His drawings and lyrics are artistic masterpieces of everything that torments him, including organised religion (i.e. the Roman Catholic church), geniuses who used their gifts for writing about fear and darkness instead of love (H.P. Lovecraft), and the uncomfortably misused power of the human race. Grant Brand (bass/sometime lyricist) has also had to go through his own private hell (i.e. his own debilitating battle with cancer in the mid to late 80s which apparently cancelled an upcoming and unprecedented U.S. tour in 1983), but has returned with an amazing amount of confidence and fierce determination. Jon Greville (drums) seems to have kept the beat throughout the tragedies and hard times. He is definitely the heart and soul of the band. Rudimentary Peni have influenced bands such as Big Black (Steve Albini has always expressed to the independent media that Peni's second E.P., Farce, is an extremely huge influence on him) and Mudhoney ( both Mark Arm and Steve Turner have said that Peni's music has influenced them quite a lot) and continue to influence dozens of rock and punk bands to this day. Many thanks to John Loder of Southern Studios for setting up this incredible transatlantic phone interview.

CAKE: Grant, thanks for allowing me to interview you! I was really looking forward to hearing a new Peni record since it has been almost six years since you recorded your last one, and three years since you released it (Pope Adrian the 37th Psychritiatric, recorded in 92 and released in late 95).

GRANT: That's right, yeah.

CAKE: What was the motivation behind this new record (Echoes of Anguish, in 98)?

GRANT: Well...it's an E.P. and it lasts about 17 minutes, and there are twelve tracks on it.

CAKE: So is this E.P. going to similar to the first two E.P.s?

GRANT: I think...ah...yeah...it's more to that sort of sound than the later things.

CAKE: I was wondering because the last two albums were a lot more operatic and progressive than the first three releases. I felt that Death Church was more of a straight-ahead punk rock album, and that both Rudimentary Peni and Farce were both more of a hardcore punk type of sound. So, you feel that it is more similar to the early records than the later ones?

GRANT: I think that the lyric similarities would be to Death Church. I mean...more than the first two E.P.s. I think that the difference is that there has been some progress in some of the lyric writing.

CAKE: I remember that the first two E.P.s attacked both politics and organised religion and, apparently, everyday life. Now, with the new E.P., there seems to be an incredibly negative view of relationships.

GRANT: Ah, yeah, I think that's probably true.

CAKE: So, this would be your present view on relationships in general?

GRANT: In this record, all of the lyrics are written by me.

CAKE: Just like the first two E.P.s?

GRANT: Ah, no. The material in the past has been a mixture of me and Nick contributing different tracks , whereas for the new one, I've written all of the lyrics and they've all been derived from my own experiences, or people that I've met.

CAKE: Do you know what the release date will be for the new E.P.?(Note: Echoes of Anguish was released in mid-June 98)

GRANT: We just finished putting the vocals on tonight and we've got some more work to do on it, and then we have to mix it, of course.

CAKE: Will you play any live dates in support of the new E.P.?

GRANT: No, that will definitely not be happening.

CAKE: So this will basically be just a studio project for Rudimentary Peni?

GRANT: Yes

CAKE: Is there a chance in the future of a possible tour?

GRANT: No, definitely not.

CAKE: That's too bad. I'm a huge fan.

GRANT: Yeah. I mean...when we tried four or five years ago...some of the gigs went really well, and some of the gigs were disasters. There seemed to be a real mixture, but overall it didn't seem to be a particularly positive experience, so we felt that it wasn't really worth continuing with it, really. What we're going for now is putting out smaller amounts of material but really taking a very long time with the writing to sort of get the quality up, you know? If you do shows, then you kind of blow the mythology, as well. People have certain ideas and/or expectations and that kind of blows that really unless you are going to be engaging ina lot of theatrics and everything in order to try it.

CAKE: I guess that you mean that in order to do Cacophony live it would require a lot of effort and time, and would be almost impossible to do, right?

GRANT: Yeah, that's the other thing. When we did the shows, we played for a fairly short while so that we could sustain it, but a lot of people would want us to play for an hour and a half, and that, given what we're doing, it's not possible for us to do that. It's just not physically possible for us to do that and to put across the intensity for that period of time.

CAKE: I understand what you're saying. All your records have so much energy in them that it would be quite tiring to continue playing the songs after half an hour. Does this mean that Rudimentary Peni will be releasing more records more often?

GRANT: Well, I've been writing more stuff for another E.P. which is obviously a project for the future. As to when we record it, it all depends on the time scale of this one, of course.

CAKE: Is Nick doing alright these days and is he still drawing?

GRANT: Oh, yes. Nick is contributing to the artwork and is doing all the vocals and guitar work, as usual.

CAKE: Will the new E.P. be released on vinyl?

GRANT: That, I have no idea about. (Note: Echoes of Anguish was released on both 12" vinyl and CD)

CAKE: I'm asking because people around here still buy punk rock records on vinyl. It's weird to see the original EPs and Death Church going for like $25-30 at collector record shops and record swap meets out here. You have a pretty big cult following out here in the U.S. and I've talked to members of Mudhoney, and they had told me in the past that your band was very influential to them.

GRANT: It seems to be more interesting what we're doing in America than what we're doing here.

CAKE: It seems to have always been that way fro Rudimentary Peni, I guess.

GRANT: Like in the very early 80s we were more popular over here.

CAKE: That's probably because Crass released your second E.P. and Death Church on their own label.