Interview with Ian Roberts from Bloodgorge.
Red Light Grind :
To begin with I'd
like to thank you for taking time out of your,what i assume busy
schedule, to answer some retarded questions! Hey Ian how are you on
this glorious day?
Ian Roberts:
I'm really not that busy. I spend most of my time listening to music, playing my PS3,
posting on forums or sleeping. But to answer your question, I'm great,
thanks.
Red Light Grind :
Haha so maybe not that busy of a schedule. How did Bloodgorge get it's start? It's not that old
of a band right?
Ian :
Yeah, we're not that old. We started on the first of July, 2010, if I
recall correctly. I had wanted to do some goregrind, and my friend Loxx
had said that he wanted to do something similar to Hemorrhage/Impetigo. I
asked him if he wanted to actually go through with it, offering to play
bass and possibly do vocals, and find out something for drums. He said
it was cool, so we just kinda went from there. Originally the band was
going to be another old Carcass/Impetigo/Hemorrhage/old Regurgitate
clone, but I later realized it would be best not to. So he did some
riffs, we did a demo that I ruined because I rushed the shit out of it,
and then I guess he pretty much developed the sound we have. He's really
into sludge and doom metal stuff, and he even has his own solo
sludge/doom project, so when he did the grind riffs, I guess he didn't
notice the sludge influences he was adding. I thought it was cool and
unique, so we went with that.
Red Light Grind :
Your approach to goregrind is
unique and you guys pull it off perfectly. I have not heard the demo but
I downloaded your EP Imperial Death and it blew my mind. At first I was
a little baffled at what i was hearing and before i knew it was bobbing
my head to the riffs. You guys also bring another new approach,
Japanese themes such as war and samurais. I fucking love it!, excuse my
outburst, but i find the subject fascinating. What made you want to
focus on Japanese themes? Is anyone in the band Japanese, haha?
Ian :
Why thank you for the kinds words! As
for the demo, it's best if you didn't listen. It's really bad quality
and not worth listening to. No, none of us are Japanese, as far as I
know, haha. I came up with the theme when I was listening to one of my
favorite goregrind bands, Jig-Ai. I really liked their approach to
lyrical themes with Hentai stuff and other Japanese porn, but I noticed
that the only violent parts of their lyrics just deal with sexual
depravity and perversion. No crazy Japanese samurais going around
hacking people into pieces with a katana (which is pretty badass). I
loved the average goregrind/death metal lyrics with just random maniacs
slaughtering people, but I also really loved the setting of ancient
Japan, so I kind of just pushed them together.
Red Light Grind :
Your EP Imperial Death was released on
Dis-organ-zed records, the net label run by Gore Obsessed's Justin, how
have the reviews been on your EP? Has it been promoted well? You also
have physical copies through Southern Moonrise Productions how well have
those been sold?
Ian:
Yeah, Justin is a pretty cool guy. I wanted him
to deal out the download on his net label because I could tell that he
really has his shit together and he knows what he's doing. It was a
great decision, because since then, our facebook page has had 54 people
like it, which actually holds meaning to me since actual people have to
like it, not just someone trying to get their band promoted by adding
friends, like on myspace. I can tell that the promotion is coming from
his label, because most of the people on there are people that I
personally don't know or couldn't have promoted the EP to, myself, haha.
I've
tried promoting the EP, but it's not very easy since it's just some
less-than-great quality DIY grind, so most people either don't want to
listen to it, or they do listen to it, and they expect it to have studio
sound quality, like LDOH or CBT, and when it's not that great, they're
so disappointed that they just mark us off as "just another DIY
gore/noise band". The best responses I've gotten are from my friends,
and from the dudes over at the Histoplasmosis Records forum, since those
guys love DIY grind and noise. Some people have told me that they like
the music. Not a lot, but I'm just glad that somebody out there wants to
listen to it, haha.
As for SMPRODS, it's been disabled now, thanks to Google
and the old SMPRODS email being hacked by an advertising bot. There
weren't that many sales/trades, to be honest, but at least I got it out
there.
Red Light Grind :
It's a shame some people only give a band a few
seconds of listening before deciding if they like the band or not.
That's the case with Bloodgorge, I could see why someone would be turned
away. But if you really give Bloodgorge a deep listen there is some
good music laying underneath. Your vocals on Imperial Death have the
standard pitch shifting sound, but yours are more unique sounding, at
least to me. Do you use a pitch shifter? Or any vocal effects for that
matter or is that your true guttural vocals?
Ian :
At the time, I didn't know of any way to use
pitch-shifters, so on Imperial Death, the vocals are just normal
guttural grunts and whatnot. On the cover of Impetigo's "Staph
Terrorist", I did use pitch-shifters, though, because at that time I had
found out how to use them. I'll probably use them whenever we record
our full-length, though. I've always loved the sound of pitch-shifted
vocals.
Red Light Grind :
Speaking of your new album, how is that coming along, is it written? And will it still sound like your EP?
Ian :
I'm still in the process of writing. I've written about 10 songs
already, and there were some others that I wrote for the EP that we'll
have recorded for the album. Yes, it will sound like our EP, but with
some improvements. There will actually be recorded bass, unlike on the
EP where I didn't record any bass tracks. Josh, our new bassist will
also be doing assisted vocals, giving off some high-pitched
shrieks/screams to go along with my low, pitch-shifted vocals. I'm
trying to go for about 35 minutes of music for the album. There may also
be some other improvements, so expect the album to beat the hell out of
the EP.
Red Light Grind :
Will Bloodgorge ever make it live or will it stay as a studio band?
Ian :
We're just going to be a studio/recording band. Josh is my cousin, and
he lives about 30 minutes away from me,but Loxx lives in the next state.
So unless we stash the fuck up on snacks and gas, and fly a van to
Mississippi, kidnap someone to play live drums and put on a show on a
very short notice, then it most likely won't happen, haha.
Red Light Grind :
I like that plan haha. Well that's all ive got for now. Thanks again for answering these questions. The last spot is all yours !
Ian:
Alright, man, thanks for the interview! Cheers!
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Interview has not been changed except for a few grammatical corrections.
