Exhuming the Carcass

We haven't posted a new article/interview on here since 2014 so we took this time to interview Bill Steer and Jeff Walker of Carcass on the eve of their USA tour in support of Slayer and Testament. For this interview we did things a little different and enlisted the help of Greg DiPasquale (Seplophile) so we'd have questions that the generation below us would wonder.

 Front of the 1990 Carcass "Nauseating North America" tour shirt

GT: let's go way back to begin with. jeff, how did you first get involved with Electro Hippies?

Jeff -I was friends with Andy the guitarist from being involved with hunt sabotage (fox hunting with hounds & horses) and I later met Simon Guest the drummer - he lived pretty close to me. I kinda drifted into it - I guess cos Simon knew I’d sang in a band called BOMB CULTURE (which also consisted of Mark Griffiths who would later form CATHEDRAL with Lee Dorrian). Simon asked me to “audition” at a rehearsal. I was TERRIBLE!!

GT: any fond memories from your time in that band?

Jeff - Not really - in rehearsal the band was TIGHT and at the time Simon was a much faster drummer than say Mick Harris of NAPALM DEATH - in fact I remember Mick was a bit jealous of the first 12” EP EH did cos of the speed of one of the songs. Live though - yuck, a SHAMBLES - probably cos of the drinking. At least I got to play The Mermaid (Birmingham) with them in ’87 Funnily enough I recall seeing Ken and Bill at a show we did in the audience - I can make a funny observation about their personalities summed up by their denim jackets and how they were “decorated” ha ha!

GT: Bill, even before your time in napalm death you had started an early incarnation of carcass. how did the original lineup of carcass come to be?

Bill - We were all at school together. At that time Ken was just doing vocals, I played guitar and a friend of ours named Chris Gardner handled bass. We were all fifteen. On drums there was an older lad, Dave Mottershead. That line-up didn't last too long. Just a few practices, then it fizzled out.
 

Back of the 1990 tour shirt

 GT: for your 1st north american tour carcass was able to come over as support for Death. you were barely out of your teens when you were offered the tour, did it feel unreal to be so young and know you'd soon be flying thousands of miles to tour on another continent?

Jeff - We weren’t REALLY that young - me and Bill were 21, Ken was 20 so couldn’t drink legally ha ha! It was an adventure, a trip of a lifetime (or so I at least thought). You’ve got to understand it was a big deal back then, trans atlantic travel wasn’t as cheap and popular as it is now - I never expected EVER to travel to the USA - sounds crazy to say that now, but you know I was a penniless bum at the time!

Bill - Well, not to nit-pick, but Jeff's slightly off there... I was 20 at that time, didn't turn 21 until December that year (1990)! But yeah, it was a massive buzz for all of us. Like most British kids, we'd grown up exposed to a lot of North American culture from watching TV, films and so on.

GT: any particular show/city stand out in your memory from that 1990 tour?

Jeff - I can remember almost every show, day on that tour - every day was an adventure where something crazy would happen….West Palm Beach stands out to me, but I don’t want to go into it - I’d sound like a sleazy asshole ha ha!

Bill - In all honesty, I don't remember as much from that tour as I should. We've done numerous American runs since then, but that first one was unique in every way. The things that stick in my memory tend to be some of the characters we encountered on our travels, and some of the nutty situations we found ourselves in. That's the stuff you will never, ever forget... As far as the gigs themselves, the one that stood out for me was the Country Club in Reseda. By our standards, that was a large audience and there was a real energy in the air. Before we played, Jeff rushed out front to sort out the projector. When the Carcass logo appeared on the screen at that back of the stage, a big roar went up from the crowd. That was nuts.

GT: as early death metal tv stars... what do you remember about your experience as "smeg and the heads" on Red Dwarf?

Jeff - Well I remember the pay cheque ha ha! Was a lot of money to a “kid” at the time - we got picked up from home in limos and dropped off at the end of it - easy money! We still get royalties from the BBC to this day for it! It was a trip - I always had flights of fancy about being on TV so….

Bill- I don't recall being as keen as Jeff - I'd already made a fool of myself on TV with Napalm. But he twisted my arm without too much trouble. It ended up being a decent laugh. No real complaints there!

GT: did they tell you specifics in what to do musically or do you guys completely improv that?

Jeff - We just improvised - it was done over a few takes - if you listen closely I’m actually playing the riff from “Reek Of Putrefaction” all fucked up!

Red Dwarf episode with Bill and Jeff 

GT: is your writing process any different now than from what it was in the earlier years of the band?

Jeff - Not really, what I would say is there’s been a “power shift” over the years - what I mean by that each album has had a different “core” of people writing the riffs- “Reek” was probably Bill, Ken and Me almost equally, “Symphonies” a hell of a lot of Ken, “Neuroticism” still a lot of Ken, But Bill and a bit of Amott, “Heartwork” Bill & Mike, “Swansong” Bill, me & Carlo Regadas and finally “Surgical Steel” Bill, and one song by me. You can see how/why each album is “different”.

Bill - Ha, not sure I'd completely agree with that analysis... But one thing nobody would deny is that Ken contributed a lot of killer riffs to the first three albums. As for the actual process itself, I'd say it's scarcely changed at all, in the sense that we still get together in a rehearsal room and work on a bunch of riffs.

 Carcass at the Skyroom in Buffalo, NY 1990

GT: bands have been known to reform (or let's say become active again) and just live off the past, ie. tour but not release any new material. will there be a new carcass album?

Jeff - I think it WILL happen given time - we’re in no rush. If we wanted to capitalise on our momentum off the back of the “success” of SS & we were “clever” we’d rush it out - but that’s not our style - it WILL come given time.

GT: with 6 albums of material under your belt does it bother you at all that some of the older fans are vocal about wanting to hear more tracks off of the first 2 albums performed live?

Jeff - No, not at all, we DO play songs from those albums, but you know the reality is those albums are not as popular as the later ones so…we have to satisfy as many people as possible in a limited time, and some songs work better live than others so it’s a trade off. That said let’s be honest, there’s bands that basically sound like cover/tribute acts that we influenced that play that style 100% better than we can ha ha!

Bill - If those people are vocal, somehow I haven't heard much of it. And in all honesty it's possible you've inadvertently put two separate groups of people together - the few who are genuinely fans of our early work, and those who just want to score a few underground points on social media.
GT: with each album carcass's sound has changed slightly. should we expect another slight change in sound as carcass continues on?

Jeff - i think, and hope so. To me SS is our “thrash” album and having Andy Sneap mix it worked - but I’d like to get a different over all “sound” not he next one…I think our next album will be our “NWOBHM” album ha ha!

Bill - Personally I wouldn't want to make any predictions at this stage. But if we were to make another record, it would certainly need to be a little different stylistically. No question about that.

GT: in 2014 carcass toured the usa as a headliner, but now in 2016 you're coming back as a support act for slayer and testament. did you anything differently to prepare for this tour?

Jeff - We haven’t done anything (yet) besides get all the backline arranged…we’ll rehearse for a day in Chicago when we get in the country. We only get to play 30 minutes so….we had a similar time slot when we played Download Festival (Castle Donnington) so we’ll do a set like that - non stop with no gaps for me to talk drunken bullshit- it will be a relief for the audience!
GT: any plans for after this tour?

Jeff - Yeah - we have some euro festivals booked and we are actually come back to the States - we have a festival (yet to be announced) in Chicago & Heavy MTL (Montreal) so we’ll book more dates inbetween those two dates (possibly a festival in Mexico City in the middle). As well as that Bill plays with GENTLEMANS PISTOLS & I’ll possibly have shows with BRUJERIA - that album is meant to finally drop in September on Mexican independence day (if it’s ever mixed!!)

Bill - And if we really are going to tackle a new album, we'll need to set aside some time in the rehearsal room.

Carcass at the Skyroom in Buffalo, NY 1990

Greg: Bill, what inspired you to tune down to B? Given the time period that was very unusual, and ultimately ahead of its time.

Bill- Obviously plenty of people had tuned down over the years, Tony Iommi being perhaps the most obvious example. The B tuning just felt right to us, and at the time it seemed no-one else had gone that low... Although naturally we're open to correction on that one.

Greg: Jeff, what happened with Columbia Records?

Jeff - One word - NIRVANA.

Greg: Do you think that whole experience led to the initial demise of the group?

Jeff - Not really, but where do you go when you get “dropped” by a Major Label? It just seemed like we’d “tried” and that was that.

Bill - To me, it felt as if the band had been on its last legs for quite some time. The label issue was just one of several problems we were going through back then.

Greg: Any perks to the partnership?

Jeff - yeah, all the free CDs you could pack into a suitcase! We got a great advance, and even more money when we walked with the tapes of Swanson which we THEN sold to Earache.

Greg: Bill, given your love of NWOBHM how much fun was your stint in Angel Witch? Did that influence any of your writing on Surgical Steel?

Bill - It didn't really influence the writing of "Surgical" in any direct way. For a start, a lot of the material I brought to the table had been written prior to joining Angel Witch. But yeah, I felt privileged to play with that band. I'd grown up with the debut album, so it was amazing to stand onstage next to Kevin Heybourne and play that material. 

 Jeff at A Day of Death (1990) in Buffalo, NY. Photograph by Sharon Bascovsky

Greg: Jeff, memories of the 1990 day of death festival in Buffalo?
Jeff - I recall meeting Scott and Matt (REPULSION) for the first time & finally getting to meet Chris Reifert (we’d been writing to each other). I tell you if that line up was put together today….that would be THE dream line up for Neurotic Deathfest in Holland, and that’s 1500 cap venue over 2 days!

Greg: Bill, at what point did you start to feel disconnected from the death metal scene, and ultimately Carcass as well?

Bill - I think we all began to feel a lack of interest in the Death Metal scene quite early on. It wasn't just me - we were all branching out, exploring new music or even just returning to some of the stuff that we liked as kids. We had a lot of  respect for the founders of the genre - Death, Repulsion, Master - but it was hard to get enthusiastic about some of the newer acts. I know plenty of people felt (and still do feel) differently, but I'm just being honest with regard to how we were at that time... As far as the second part of the question, in the original phase of the band everything peaked for me around the time of "Heartwork". When we re-grouped to work on what later became known as "Swansong", you could tell that something was wrong. Some of the ideas I was bringing in weren't appropriate for the band, and Ken didn't seem happy playing in the straighter style that was more or less forced on him for that recording. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy some of the tracks on the album, but there was a bad atmosphere in the band for much of that period.

Greg: Bill, the feeling you got the first time you plugged in, with full distortion on a guitar tuned to B after years of playing bluesy hard rock in Firebird?

Bill - It felt very familiar, needless to say... After so many years playing in that style, it wasn't likely to feel entirely alien going back to it.

Greg: Bill, any plans to resurrect Firebird in the future or is your spare time now being occupied by Gentlemans Pistols?

Bill- Strangely it seems there's a lot more interest in Firebird now than there was at the time. Sometimes I feel like it'd be nice to do something of that nature again, and I still have plenty of ideas in that vein. So who knows... Currently though I'm quite happy being a member of "just" two groups. Gentlemans Pistols are a great band to be involved in.

Greg: Bill, since your return to extreme metal have any newer bands or bands formed since your absence from the scene caught your ear?

Bill - Along the way I have heard and seen bands that made an impression, for one reason or another. But there's nothing contemporary that I'd feel like playing at home. If I wanted to listen to intense Metal, I'd put on some of the earlier extreme stuff, whether it be Venom, Wargasm, Zoetrope...

Greg: Jeff, what brought about the Carcass Cuntry album?

Jeff - Me on a Gram Parson’s trip! Just a product it’s time - a dumb idea of fusing “doom metal” and “country” that went off on a tangent - was an excuse to indulge myself and have some fun!
 
Greg: opinions on the Carcass clone bands like The County Medical Examiners?

Jeff - I think it’s cool and flattering - they serve a purpose - we don’t play in that style anymore so when people “complain” to us we can advise they go listen to bands of that ilk!

Bill - Definitely flattering. No two ways about it.

 Carcass at the Skyroom in Buffalo, NY 1990

Greg: Did this glut of bands help make you realize how much the band was loved and missed?

Jeff - No, not really, immediately after the release of “Reek” there were bands like that, Xysma etc spring to mind

Greg: bands like Carcass and At The Gates seemingly skyrocketed in popularity while both bands were dormant, was that bittersweet or confusing at all?
Jeff - I think of it as the fact that our demise created a “vacuum” where you had substandard stuff filling the void - not just us and ATG disappearing but also Vincent leaving MORBID ANGEL, Nicke leaving ENTOMBED - something was DEFINITELY “missing” in that period….some dreadful bands got big on German labels off the back of this….maybe it made people appreciate what was missing?

Bill - I wasn't aware of this development until Jeff, Michael and a couple of other people alerted me to it. If what you are (and they were) saying is true, that is very interesting. Either we did leave a void in our wake, or the remaining bands just weren't delivering strong enough music. Or both.

Greg: Bill, favorite song you wrote in Napalm Death?

Bill - Ha, I must confess that I can scarcely recall which tunes I brought in for that band. It wasn't many, that much I do know.

Greg: 1992-1994 were very important years for the band and it appeared carcass was gaining momentum at a very high rate. Because of this, do you think expectations for "Heartwork" were a little too high or unrealistic for a band that still had screamed vocals and blast beats?

Jeff - I don’t think there WERE any expectations? From Colombia you mean? I don’t think they really expected anything from it - it sold 70k in the year they had it which sounds like FANTASTIC sales in todays age…back then bands were selling millions!

Greg: Repulsion or Master? Why?

Jeff - REPULSION for me. To me it’s “Garage Death Metal” - I mean that as a compliment - when I first heard them it reminded me a bit of good US hardcore as much as “metal” - lots of hooks and even though they were cruising on blast beats it has groove and doesn’t sound like noise.

Bill - Both are essential listening for the genre. I wouldn't wish to choose between them as they're such different beasts. What they did have in common was that both were utterly brutal, yet somehow had a kind of groove and flow that hasn't been heard since.

Greg: Bill, will you continue performing back up vocals going forward on record or was it just a special return for surgical steel only?

Bill - If we make another record, the chances are I'll do some more backing vocals. Jeff established himself as lead vocalist a long time ago. But on "Surgical" he gave me a hard time about how important it was to have another voice on some of those tracks. He was right.

Greg: Jeff, lots of the vocabulary on the first 4 albums is incredibly obscure and impressive, anything push you in that direction or was it just creative instinct?

Jeff - I was influenced by Ken’s writing - I just ran with it...

Greg: Bill, right around the time the band first broke up your name started appearing more in mainstream guitar magazines as a player to keep an eye on. Despite the impending demise of the band, did you enjoy that press or are those kind of accolades unimportant to you?

Bill - Really? I don't remember much of that. Which ones are you thinking of? Playing this style of music, one wouldn't really expect to be taken very seriously by those publications. We certainly weren't back then, and it doesn't seem as if much has changed. It's nice to get recognition now and then, of course. In our case that would tend to come from people we meet at gigs and festivals.

Greg: Bill, napalm death, carcass, firebird, Gentlemans pistols. What do these bands each represent to you in your evolution as a musician?

Bill - Napalm was a band I'd been a fan of for a while. When Mick Harris asked me to join, I was delighted. The following two years were fairly insane. We crammed a lot of experiences into that time and I was lucky to be involved. Musically it was just a lot of fun to play to those extremes, and the reactions we got from audiences were...well, hard to describe if I'm honest... Carcass meant (and still does mean) a lot more to me personally, as I started the group with friends on home turf. It also felt as if we had some scope to develop musically. And I guess you could say history has borne that out... Firebird? Tricky to summarise that one. You could say I learned a lot. As a guitarist, it was a deliberate case of back to basics. Plug in and go. Plus the 3-piece vibe is still my favourite in many ways. But it was the wrong band done in the wrong way at the wrong time. I'd wanted to explore that side of my music for ages - and in many senses it was a very liberating thing to do - but ultimately it was like swimming against the tide... Gentlemans Pistols was a band that I'd long been an admirer of. I loved the songs and the people, and that hasn't changed since joining.

Greg: Jeff, which one of your post carcass projects did you enjoy the most?

Jeff - The “solo” album I guess - was good times just hanging out in Helsinki a lot staying with Miika (That’s Gas from HIM to you).

Greg: Jeff, was Blackstar still together when Ken Owen had his health problems?

Jeff - I think so…

Greg: Is that what ended the project?

Jeff - No but it was a DAMN good reason. It had ran it’s course anyhow.

Greg: Bill, was their any particular moment or event that broke down that wall and made you say: "yes, Carcass can live again as a band that makes new music."?

Bill - That was more of a gradual realisation, rather than a sudden decision. Jeff and Michael had chipped away at me for quite a while, suggesting that the band reform for a few shows. Initially I was sceptical, but before long I started to warm to the idea. Once we were up and running, it felt entirely natural that we should go on to work on new material. Of course, the Arch Enemy guys felt differently, but once that line-up disintegrated Jeff and myself were free to work on a new album.  

 

 
 

Nuclear Death Box Set and Patch

 Glorious Times has a limited number of the Nuclear Death 4lp box set available for a reduced price. Online this incredible box set normally sells for $90 + shipping.... we have a limited amount we can sell for $60 + shipping. In the USA total with shipping would be $66 payable via paypal to glorioustimesdeathbook@gmail.com   outside of the usa please email us for shipping rates.

About the box set:

The Crypt is proud to re-issue the first two albums from Arizona's cult Death metal act, NUCLEAR DEATH, Bride of Insect and Carrion for Worm. Both releases will be luxurious double vinyl sets with new liner notes, classic band photos and original artwork. Bride of Insect will feature the "Wake Me When I'm Dead" 1986 demo and "Welcome to the Minds of the Morbid" 1987 demo. Carrion for Worm will feature "A Symphony of Agony" 1987 demo and the "Vultures Feeding" 1988 demo. Forged in 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona, Nuclear Death were one of the few bands in the genre with a female vocalist, Lori Bravo. Their style was compared to the likes Impetigo, Blasphemy, Autopsy, Deceased, and Repulsion. Their first demo, Wake Me When I'm Dead, was released later that same year, receiving positive reviews from American and overseas zines. They were notable as at the time very few thrash metal artists had female singers. In 1991, the band released their more controversial work, entitled Carrion for Worm, which features vocals by Autopsy's Chris Reifert on two songs. This ultimate edition will be strictly limited to a one time only pressing of 666 hand-numbered copies - 222 of which will be classic black vinyl. These killer slabs of wax come housed in 2 separate jackets with UV High Gloss Varnish, featuring the both of the original Wild Rags covers and layouts. Also included will be a 12 page- zine styled booklet with classic flyers, exclusive band photos, classic interviews, new liner notes by Lori Bravo and an introduction by Michele "Mick" Toscan / The Nuclear Abominations rag! Each gatefold will contain a huge poster of each respective original cover artwork. Both gatefolds come housed in an amazing, heavy gauge case wrapped, hand numbered box.

 

Glorious Times also has a very limited amount of these sweet Nuclear Death "Bride of Insect" woven patches for sale. $6 (includes worldwide shipping) paypal to glorioustimesdeathbook@gmail.com

Nuclear Death - "Bride of Insect" 

THE CONCERT FOR JENNIFER RINALDO

The Concert for Jennifer Rinaldo
March 22, 2014
The Forvm, 4224 Maple Rd, Amherst, NY

RESTHAVEN (pre-Malevolent Creation)
RELICS
JOHNNY REVOLTING
ANCIENTS OF EARTH
HEROD

 

Bret Hoffman on vox for Resthaven 

(Jan. 2013 at Club Infinity, Williamsville, NY)
   

 Musically this show is unlike anything Glorious Times has ever been a part of. There's power/thrash, stoner rock, punk rock, a Pink Floyd tribute band and then there's Resthaven. The name may not be familiar to you if you live outside of WNY, but there's metal history there. 

Back in the 1985 or so 5 guys from North Tonawanda started up a cover band doing hard rock and early metal songs. The name of the band members should be familiar to you...Bret Hoffman, Phil Fasciana, Jim Nickles, Dennis Kubas and Kevin Peace. Resthaven would go through a number of member changes starting with Jim Nickles leaving to start Leviathan (which also had Chris Barnes of Cannibal Corpse/Six Feet Under fame). In 1987 some former members of Resthaven would get together again to form a new band...Bret Hoffman, Phil Fasciana, Jim Nickles, Dennis Kubas and bassist Jay Blachowicz would be the original Malevolent Creation. In 1988 Malevolent Creation would move to sunny florida, but their roots remained in WNY.

 

Bret Hoffman and Kevin Peace; Jan. 2013 at Club Infinity
   

  Flash forward many years, Malevolent Creation has gone one to have an impressive metal career and along with bands like Baphomet and Cannibal Corpse has cemented the Buffalo NY influence in death metal. In late 2012 Rob Barrett (Cannibal Corpse, former Dark Deception, one time Malevolent Creation member)  was planning his wedding reception and wanted something special. Never forgetting his Buffalo roots, Rob was intent on putting together an unforgettable show in his hometown. The lineup for this special show included reunions of many Buffalo bands from the late 1980's/early 1990's. 

Amongst those reunions was the first performance of Resthaven in many many years. The Resthaven lineup for that show was Bret Hoffman, Jim Nickles, Kevin Peace, Rob Barret and Mike Valenti. The guys had a blast so decided that every now and then they would get together as Resthaven, but of course with Rob involved with Cannibal Corpse his participation would be limited so they recruited Robert Hall (who was a member of Resthaven in the 1980's after Jim Nickles left the band). 

 

Jim Nickles; Jan. 2013 at Club Infinity

     Resthaven performances are very few and far between but they have agreed to get together again to be a part of this show that is very close to the hearts of Glorious Times (particularly Brian). It's not enough that you get to see metal history live so come out for this rare opportunity and enjoy Resthaven and 4 other excellent bands for a great cause.
 

 

Jennifer Rinaldo 

The Cause.
 
Jennifer Rinaldo was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer around Christmas of 2011. Jen immediately began treatments. The side effects of her treatments and meds were brutally harsh on her but through it all she continued to fight. Even in the darkest of times Jen continued to put others above herself....taking some of the money that was raised at a benefit for her and donating it to a young girl who was also fighting cancer and always making sure her children were taken care of. She battled through gamma knife treatments then chemo and when chemo became too harsh she moved on to a newer treatment at CCS Oncology. On September 14, 2013 Jen's body could take no more and she succumbed to cancer leaving behind 3 children (2 teenagers and a 5 year old). 

On March 22, 2014 we will hold the 1st annual Concert for Jennifer Rinaldo. Come join us in a celebration of Jen's life. Proceeds will be split between Hospice and Jen's children, the way she would have wanted it to be.

INCARCERATION: PAYING THEIR DUES FOR THE LOVE OF METAL

It's been several months since Incarceration issued their promotional package and immediately Glorious Times wanted to do an interview to learn more about this young up and coming powerhouse. We decided to wait until the band got back from their first Euro-tour, then came delays and holidays and other things which means this is a little later than we anticipated. BUT better late than never - Incarceration is definitely worth it. Do yourself a favor and check these guys out!

GT - Coming originally from Brazil, what sort of stuff from that country were you listening to when you first gained an interest in the extremer forms of music? Do you like the hardcore punk style as much as the metal?

Daniel - The year was 1999, when I was introduced to the extreme forms of music. At that time Brutal Death Metal bands like Krisiun, Abhorrence, Rebaelliun, Ophiolatry were very popular on the Brazilian extreme metal scene. I was very much into them, together with old Nile, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and others. Only after doses and doses of Brutal Death Metal that I slowly began to discover the gems of Old School Death Metal, specially on 2007. I like very much hardcore punk but metal is my life.

Daniel at the Berlin Death Fest 2013 (Photo - by Laura Vanselow - http://www.lovepeaceandrocknroll.wordpress.com/)
 

GT - Obviously you were inspired enough to begin your own band, but it was a one-man band, so to speak, is that correct? Most of those aren't too good since they rely on computers and there's a lack of personality perhaps? (Plus I guess, us oldies seem to always think 'Bathory' when single man bands are concerned)... Do you agree or disagree?

Daniel - Yes, Incarceration began as an one man band. On that time I had another brutal death metal band but anyway was feeling the need to write old school DM songs. At the same time I wanted to write it alone. That’s how the song ‘Sacrifice’ was born. About one man bands I think that actually most of them are not too much serious. But if you’re talented enough and really need to express yourself, I think that is perfectly possible to have a respected one man band.

The Brazilian live Incarceration line-up (Nestor (drums), Daniel (vocals/guitar) and Vitao (bass))

GT - I can relate totally to moving countries for music since I did it myself in 1990 - you're from Amazon Brazil, you got to tell us a bit about life there! You just don't expect extreme music there, how is it that you came to do what you do in that place?

Daniel - You’ll not believe but there in Amazon Brazil I had a Brutal Death Metal band since I was 14, and we played tons of gigs, did tours etc. We even played for 2,000 Death Metalheads at our town some time. Metal is definitely everywhere and there we had even a scene with other bands. Not that much Death Metal bands, but a lot of thrash, heavy etc. More than 100 active bands at least, so every weekend we could have metal sessions, rehearsals, gigs, and cold beers since in Manaus/Amazon you usually have between 30°C - 45°C the whole year. Manaus is located in Amazon but is a 2 million people highly industrialized city. And there are tons of maniacs over there and also bands. If you’re curious to check my brutal death metal band, here we go: www.mortificy.com

The Sacrifice release, on vinyl!

GT - How long before you decided to get other members for Incarceration? Can you tell us a little about them, their music backgrounds, how you met them, that sort of thing?

Daniel - I had bands my whole life since I’ve learned how to play guitar (at 13). So after I moved to Germany I felt an immense hole in my life. I was thinking how awesome would be to find members for Incarceration, than I began to ask everybody for a bassist and drummer into Old School Death Metal. After sometime I knew Björn, and later Micha. Björn is a big fan of Swedish Old School Death Metal, and also of Doom and Funeral Doom. Micha is more into Black Metal, Stoner/Sludge things but of course very into Old School Death Metal and also into Hanneman riffs. We rehearsed together and was incredible, the first rehearsal was already insane with us 3 playing and banging our heads as hell. On that day was already very clear that we could have a lot of fun and insanity doing music together.

Bjorn, Daniel and Michael (Photo - courtesy Daniel Duracell)

GT - What was the exact reasons for you to decide to move to Germany?

Daniel - My girl is German. We knew each other in 2008 on internet, while she was living in Germany and I was living in Brazil. Our relationship grew fast even being so far away, and in 2009 she moved to Brazil to live with me. Our first meeting was at the airport of Manaus (the most surreal day of my life) and we live together since that day. We lived there in Brazil for 2 years and a half, than we decided together to move Germany. We got married last year and now we live together here. Great story uh?

GT - Your promotional package is really impressive stuff, as is the case, a lot of the more modern metal styled bands don't impress us that much - but you came to us out of nowhere with this kick in the teeth. It's almost like you KNEW we'd love these recordings Daniel!

Daniel - Thanks for your kind words! Death Metal fucking rules \m/

GT - There's a definite "DNA stamp" on the Incarceration music, again it's not strictly "retro" like so many other younger acts because there's still individual personality shining through the savage excellently executed songs. Are people picking up on this fact, that you're not just another of the swarm of cookie cutter bands which pretty much make up the bulk of their modern day "scene"?

Daniel - The feedback is being quite good from far and we are very satisfied and inspired. We were also invited to play at Party San Open Air 2014 together with bands like Obituary, God Macabre, Napalm Death etc. So we are putting a lot of energy to do honest music, but I can say that we are feeling recognized for that.

Berlin Death Fest 2013 - (Photo - By Laura Vanselow - http://www.lovepeaceandrocknroll.wordpress.com/)

GT - Of the 3 songs in the promo package, can you give the readers a quick run down of the songs in your own words, from the oldest track to the newest track?

Daniel - We are talking about Old School Fucking Death Metal here, as killer as possible.

Sacrifice – Was the first song I’ve wrote to Incarceration, in 2010. you have a lot of Swedish Death Metal influences such as Nihilist, Kaamos, Interment, together with some US influences like Malevolent Creation and Slayer (always). The lyrics is about the allday hell, about the question “what I’m doing with my life?”, or “am I sure that I’m spending my life for that?”. We will not live forever, so it’s important to have clear for what you’re sacrificing your blood.

Forsaken and Forgotten – Was written this year. It’s a very genuine song in my opinion. Was written very spontaneously after overdoses of Sadistic Intent and other Old School DM, Thrash and also Crust bands. The lyrics are sad, are about an old man which was an asshole his whole life, waiting for his death alone, in an asylum, after being abandoned by his friends and family. It’s about guilty, selfishness, and as always about death.

Cemetery of Lies – The last song I wrote for the EP. Highly influenced by Repulsion, Nihilist, and also some crust bands. It’s about the Christian hypocrisy, pedophilia, rape and murder of a priest.

Michael Koch, Antwerp, Belgium 2013 (Photo - Nestor Carrera)

GT - Do you guys have many songs in your repertoire? For those of us unable to see you guys live, what would an Incarceration set consist of?

Daniel - We take a lot of time to write our songs because just use something like 5% (or less) of the riffs I write. So till now we have like 6 songs finished and a big cemetary of riffs (or purgatory of riffs if you prefer). Our set right now is very short and consist of

only 20-25 mins of songs. Some songs still have temporary names. They are:

Enslaved by Pestilent Chaos, Sacrifice, Infernal Suffering, Chaos and Blasphemy, Cemetery of Lies, Forsaken and Forgotten.

Attention traders: anyone get good soundboard audio from any of these Incarceration gigs?

The lads head out on the first ever tour of Europe. (Photo courtesy Daniel Duracell)


GT - The band recently just returned from tour, your first in fact. How was the experience for you?

Daniel - Was 19 gigs in 23 days, so it was fucking tiring but at the same time it was amazing. There’s nothing to complain. We did a lot of new friends, and was a pleasure to tour with Escarnium (if you’re into Grave, Immolation and Vomitory check them out and they will blow your mind). A very special thing was that for the first time me, Björn and Micha were together on the road. So it was an amazing experience for us and specially for our friendship.
 

Berlin Death Fest 2013 (Photo by Laura Vanselow - http://www.lovepeaceandrocknroll.wordpress.com/)

GT - Can you relay a few stories/tales from the tour? Something special to you, either good or bad, or both....

Daniel - A special thing for me was that my Birthday was exactly on the middle of the tour, and fortunately it was a weekend with a gig in Hamburg (where Incarceration is based now). So after 2 weeks touring around Europe was incredible to play to our friends and girls in Hamburg. When I moved to Germany I don’t thought that this kind of moment would happen so fast.

Berlin Death Fest 2013 - (Photo by Laura Vanselow -  http://www.lovepeaceandrocknroll.wordpress.com/)

GT - You made a video for the song "Forsaken and Forgotten" which truly showcases the band's talent and intensity - but without the ego - can you share with us how that process was for you?

Daniel - Was at our rehearsal room, where we play and drink every weekend. We played the song around 15 times being filmed on different perspectives, and banging our heads all the time. It was very hot that day and since I like very much to play with my leather jacket it was even hotter, but was very cool.

FORGOTTEN AND FORSAKEN VIDEO

DIE!!

GT - What's the plan for the band next?

Daniel - Keep writing songs for the debut album and hopefully record it already on the first semester next year. We have also some good gigs planned for the upcoming year, so let’s see how the future will be. 

 CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFO:

BAND WEBSITE FOR MUSIC AND MERCH: 
http://incarcerationdeath.com/

PRESS CONTACT: incarcerationdeath@hotmail.com

BOOKING:
contact@roadmasterbooking.com
http://www.roadmasterbooking.com/
https://www.facebook.com/roadmasterbooking 

OFFICIAL BANDCAMP & FACEBOOK:
 http://incarceration.bandcamp.com/
 https://www.facebook.com/incarceration

F.D.A. REKOTZ
http://www.fda-rekotz.com/ 

Special thanks to Laura Vanselow for the permission to use some of her killer photos, once again, here's Laura's blog where you can check out more of her work!
 http://www.lovepeaceandrocknroll.wordpress.com/

  

WE CAN'T HELP IT IF WE'RE FROM TAMPA!

Tampa FL is close to the heart of Glorious Times. After all one half of the GT team lived there during the dying off of the hardcore punk scene and during the peak years of the Florida death metal era. Florida had as many top shelf hardcore punk bands as it did metal. We're really proud to bring you a good long chat with Tony Patino who's recently released the DIY documentary about the Tampa hardcore punk scene, entitled "We Can't Help It If We're From Tampa" !!

GT - Tony, everyone had to start somewhere, care to share what sort of music started you off toward punk/hardcore and what were the initial bands that got you in it for life?

Tony - I was always a big fan of music as a kid. I listened to the radio all the time and made cassette tapes and all that good stuff. When I was 11 or 12 my older sister started dating this guy that was a die-hard music nut. While the average person might have had 20 to 30 record albums in their home, this guy had like 800. They were all kept on a gigantic shelf in his bedroom, alphabetized, with plastic slip covers on them. He was like seven years older than me, and he started turning me on to early Bowie, Blondie,  Ramones,  Motorhead, and Thin Lizzy and stuff like that. 

I remember one year I told him I wanted the newest Ozzy record. I guess that would have been Diary Of A Madman. He said, “Oh, I already have it! I'll tape it for you.” He brought me a cassette tape a few days later that said, OZZY on it, and told me to pop it in and give it a listen. We were sitting there in my bedroom listening to the first song together, and I thought it was absolutely horrible. He was like, “Man that's kick ass, ain't it!” As it turned out, it wasn't Ozzy at all. It was Captain Beefheart's Doc At The Radar Station album. Ozzy was on the other side of the tape. The joke was on me! He eventually married my sister. They immediately bought a small home, and I used to go mow their grass for them. I guess he noticed my growing interest in music, so rather than pay me ten bucks, he would just let me pick an album out of his massive collection. 

Over time, I'd taken all of his Motorhead and Ramones records, plus stuff like early Scorpions, The Michael Schenker group, UFO, and The Plasmatics. That's how I got started listening to unusual music, and then when I found out about WMNF 88.5FM (out of the USF Tampa campus) it was all over with. I turned off commercial radio and to this day have never turned it back on.

 Tony with Keith Morris (Circle Jerks) and Brandon Cruz (Dr Know) - (pic - courtesy Tony Patino)
 
GT - What sort of stuff were you up to back then, in your early years into this sort of music?

Tony - I grew up in Lutz, Florida, which is basically a community just north of Tampa. Once I got into High School I started picking up on skateboarding, which I began to embrace right away. There were a small group of weirdos that I hung out with and skated with there, and we all traded tapes and turned each other on to really obscure stuff. I already had a decent record collection by then, and I'd been playing guitar in my bedroom and stuff. I didn't know very much about the punk scene in Tampa, but I knew it was there. I first started going to shows in the summer of 1986, and one of the first bands I saw was Tampa's Jehovah's Sicknesses. They kinda' blew me away! 

My friend John started messing around on guitar a little, and we ended up starting a band with our friends Chris and Dale. That fell apart, then we tried it again not too long after that. Dale ended up not being a part of it at that point for some reason. Somehow, through Jay from Guy Smiley, we got our first gig in late '86 at the now-legendary Pet Cemetery out in Land O'Lakes. Other bands that played that night were Guy Smiley, Core Of Resistance, and Blemish On Society. It was scary and we sucked! We called ourselves Public Enemy for our first few shows, then we changed the name to Offensive Outlook when the rap band Public Enemy started getting well known. We ended up playing a lot of shows, but nothing big. We did the Slamfest at The Eagles Club, we were part of a disastrous night at The Ritz Theater, and we also played Chances, The Generic Club, and several parties. Our last gig was at The Sunset Club over near USF in the summer of '88, opening for Chokehold. That was our last gig, and Awake's first gig if I remember correctly. I was always taking pictures of bands back then, and ended up starting a zine called Music To Live By. I only put out one issue, and it included record reviews, local show reviews, and interviews with BP, GBH, and MIA. I sold copies of it for one dollar at Alternative Records over off of Fowler Avenue.
 

 Tony and John Stainer (Jehova's Sicknesses, Battles, Helmet)


GT - Did you do much traveling during those early years or where you basically camped out in your own local scene so to speak. What were a couple of the most memorable shows you went to back in that time period?

Tony - I didn't leave the city much back then. A lot of people I knew at that time were making road trips to go check out shows in places like Gainesville, Melbourne, and Miami. Sometimes even Atlanta. I wasn't fortunate enough to get to go on most of those trips. It's hard to pinpoint which Tampa shows were the most memorable for me, because every one of them was pretty crazy. Even if it was just local bands playing, there was still always an element of violence involved. Sometimes people would come around to check it out, and they would get their ass beat just because nobody knew who they were. Sometimes those people would come back and take their chances, and eventually get welcomed into the mix, but I think most of them just said forget it. It was always huge when the big bands would come through on tour. Those shows always had security, so I guess people felt safer. The big shows would have like 500 people in attendance, but the local shows would only have like 50 or 60 because people were too scared to go.

GT - So during your exploits you ran a record label as well? You've certainly done a great deal! Can you tell us a bit about the label?

Tony - There was a guy named Stepfan Jefferies that had just started a small independent label called Hello Records. It was 1998 if I remember correctly. He had been pointed in my direction by a mutual friend of ours because I knew a lot of bands and musicians, and had been organizing and promoting shows a lot over the past few years. Stepfan had a great business sense, and a passion for underground music, so when he found himself with an opportunity to start his own business he decided to try and do a record label. Neither of us were very familiar with how it all worked, but we started from scratch and learned together. When he came to me he had an alt-country band called Pleasureville, and a seventies-influenced rock band called The .357s. That was the foundation, and we built it from there.

 GT - You mentioned it was up and running for about 5 years - care to elaborate a bit on how you started out, what the label wanted to achieve and so on?

Tony - I just started reaching out to whatever bands I knew, and I think in the first six months we signed Billyclub, Fang, Dr. Know, Raw Power, Phantom Rockers, and an L.A. band called Tongue. There we other bands too, but those were our heavy hitters. From there we had to figure out how to get distribution, which is the most crucial part of being a record label. We learned everything through trial and error too. The internet was just beginning to blow up at that time, and the big thing was CDNow. That was the original online record store that ultimately killed all the record stores across the country. The major goal, for me at least, was to get our records on there. I still remember the day that we got picked up by them and our records showed up on their site. It was a pretty triumphant feeling to say the least.

We ended up doing a deal with GBH that ended up in a split CD with Billyclub, and we were talking with Bad Brains manager Noel baker about releasing their next record. They just wanted way too much money. One of our big projects was a tribute record that has still not been released. My buddy Dave Woodard was the singer for Billyclub, and he had heard somewhere that Keith Morris from Circle Jerks was having some serious issues with diabetes, and was having trouble paying his bills. I tracked down Keith and talked to him about it, and got his permission to pursue a Tribute To The Circle Jerks. We were gonna' try and wrangle a bunch of bands into doing Circle Jerks covers, and give Keith the proceeds. 

In the end I had (and still have) recordings from Nashville Pussy, Fu Manchu, SNFU, DOA, Mudhoney, Electric Frankenstein, Murphy's Law, Fishbone, Superchunk with Jane Wiedlin from The Go Gos on vocals, and just a slew more killer bands. I was even talking with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters about doing tracks. Foo Fighters actually contacted me about it, that's how big of a deal it was becoming. I did an interview with MTV about it and everything! Stepfan and I were hanging out backstage in Cincinnati at a Chili Peppers show, and they told us that Pearl Jam wanted to do a song too. It was interesting, because I found out how much love and respect so many people have for Keith Morris. It also gave me an opportunity to work with him myself on a personal level, and we're still friends and we still talk to this day. Unfortunately the label kinda' fell apart in the middle of that project, and all these years later none of those recordings have been released.

 GT - While doing the label you were also acting as a tour manager?

Tony - When things started falling into place with Hello Records, we were putting our bands on the road after their records came out. At that point it was me, Stepfan, Ray Smith, and Keith Anderson. This made it possible for any one of us to take off and do label related stuff whenever we wanted. Since I was the one setting up all the tours, I decided to tag along on some of them as tour manager. It was a way to see the country, hang out with the bands, and meet some of the club owners I'd become acquainted with over the phone for so many years.

 The longest tours I did were with Raw Power from Italy, and UK Psychobilly pioneers Phantom Rockers. Those were both really crazy trips for different reasons. Actually I think any tour is gonna' be crazy, no matter who you're with. For me, I was on cloud 9 most of the time, seeing all these amazing cities and clubs and watching my friends play every night. It just never got old. The funny thing about it all too, and any touring band will tell you this, is that you could write a book about all the oddball shit that goes down on smaller independent concert tours. Literally, if you go into detail about each day of the tour, you can write a crazy book. Almost everything that happened for me was really funny in some way. Except maybe when my van blew up in California and we had to leave it there. I wasn't smiling very much that day.

GT - How did things end with Hello Records?

Tony - Well, at first we were just doing it part-time at night and stuff. Then we were given a pretty substantial amount of money from Gibson Guitars. After that we were able to quit our jobs and try to make it work. It's a tough business though, and it took us quite a while to figure it all out. It was a lot more involved back then than it is these days, and we did everything from scratch. Magazine ads, posters, and all that. At one point, I was left to run the label while Stepfan explored other money making avenues in the field of  music. Eventually, I guess he had found some more profitable ventures, and the investors decided to go with that. So by the time Hello Records was finally starting to see a profit it was a day late and a dollar short, and the plug was pulled on it. It was pretty upsetting for a lot of people, and I remember some bad blood flowing over it.

   
GT - 40 Amp Media rose from the ashes of Hello Records - what parameters of activity does 40 Amp Media have? What about the previous experiences made you want to still continue doing things in this sphere?

Tony - Once you get as involved in the record label business as I had, it's really hard to just shrug it off and go back to your day job. My main concern was that I wanted the records to still be available. When Hello went under, it just sort of disappeared off the face of the earth. When CDNow ran out of copies, that was it! I still had this roster of bands that trusted me and were willing to work with me, but I just didn't have the resources to do it all on my own. At least not in the same capacity that Hello was able to. 

It was a lot of years before 40 Amp was born, and it's not a full fledged record label. It's more of a way for me to release projects I do as they happen. I don't do things on a large scale. I just make them available to the public. That way if someone goes hunting for it, it's there. I wouldn't trust any of my projects with a record label, book publisher, film producer, or whatever. I'd don't necessarily think that 100 percent of them are crooks, but I do think that about 75 percent of them operate with ulterior motives, and the rest of them are just good people that refuse to admit that their in over their head. I came dangerously close to getting in over my head with 40 Amp, and realized that I needed to pull back and not make promises that I wasn't absolutely convinced that I could keep. 

With my life, things can be fantastic one day, and then the next day the bottom just falls right out. I'd rather not take anybody else on that ride, so I've had to keep things on a low profile.

GT - You've been involved in the often thankless world of booking and promotion, care to elaborate and tell some stories about that period of your life?

Tony - God! I set up some tours for bands, and I ended up getting lots of calls from other bands wanting to employ my services. When Hello first got started that was one of the things we tried to do. We wanted to be a fully functioning service for musicians. We put some ads in magazines promoting the tour booking end of the business, and it took off. I became the primary booking agent for a few independent labels, and also set up several one-off tours for some up and coming bands. It got pretty hectic, and I remember wanting to get the hell out of that business on more than one occasion. 

As far as booking agents went, I was the new guy on the block, and there were a few seasoned old dudes that had been doing it for several years that did NOT like me. I guess they thought I was taking business away from them, which I was to a certain degree, but not on any kind of grand scale. When I think back on all that, there are a few incidents that still haunt me. One would have been when I booked a tour for The Hillside Stranglers from Detroit. Their tour had been over for several weeks, and I hadn't been paid for setting it up, and I hadn't heard from them at all. I went to their website, and saw that one of the band members had died from an overdose toward the end of the tour. That didn't sit very well with me. 

There was another tour I set up for this band from Germany. I'm not gonna' say their name. It was their first trip to the states, and they were pretty much unknown. I told them not to expect a huge response. I told them they'd be lucky to get $100 a night, and to treat it more like a vacation than anything else. They flew over and started the tour, and were doing these little tour reports on their website every day. I went to check it out one day, and it was like three days into the tour. Every day they had something bad to say about me on there. "That fucking Tony Patino lied to us! He said we would get $100 for each band member every night! That bastard!"It went on and on every day until they said the tour was now called the Kill Tony Patino Tour. They were playing in my town the day after they posted that, so everywhere I went that day I was looking at people and wondering if it looked German, and if it was them, and if they were after me. The gig was like a mile from my house, so I just locked the doors and hoped they didn't get my address from some local band. For years after that you could google "kill Tony Patino" and a link to their tour journal would pop up.

 Tony at a book signing for "The Road"

GT -When did you start getting the idea to write books, and can you offer a bit of information about each?

Tony - I always wrote little journals and stuff as a teenager. I had a typewriter when I was 17, and wrote a pretty lengthy one all about what was going on in my life. My father discovered it at one point, and immediately confiscated it and put me in a maximum security drug rehab. He finally gave it back to me after I got married. Another time, I wrote a lengthy account of my early childhood years and gave it to my mother as a gift for Mother's Day or something. The real writing didn't happen for me until more recently. 

In 2009 I took my kids to the local library, and I came across a book by a stand-up comic named  Mark Schiff. He interviewed nearly every comedian you ever heard of and had them tell him all these crazy stories about life on the road. The way it's put together, is basically like a book of short stories from each comic, and it's hilarious. I read it all in one day, and it's not a small book either. I'd never seen a book quite like that before, and it gave me the idea to try and pursue a similar project with musicians rather than stand-up comics. 

At that point in my life I'd done a lot of different things involving music, and had become acquainted with several well known players in the punk rock genre. So with a few heavy hitters on my side to get the ball rolling, I started contacting all these people. Mostly people I admired and who's music I appreciated. I did recorded telephone interviews with all of them, then transcribed them  and took selected stories they told me and made them readable. In the end I came up with 258 pages of stories, told by over 80 underground musicians, most of which are considered pioneers or icons in the punk/alternative community. That book is called The Road, and it was officially released in 2010.

"The Road" by Tony Patino

 E-BOOK & PAPERBACK THROUGH AMAZON

I was learning a lot about writing techniques during the final stage of putting together The Road, and ended up pulling out that old journal that my father had found when I was 17. There was a lot of funny stories in that journal. Some of them I didn't even remember taking place, but there they were in black & white. I decided to use that as a starting point, and turn it into a fictional novel. Basically, I laid out the entire course of my life, beginning from the early years, and ending around 1991, which is when I left the state of Florida. Once I laid out the initial blue print, that left me with the task of filling in the gaps. So in the beginning, it was just a bunch of crazy stories that had to be pieced together into something with a beginning, a middle, and an ending. I did reference a lot of true events, some that I was involved in, and some that might have happened to people I knew, or might have been dismissed as simple rumors back in the day. Take that, and add to it a purely fictional storyline and ending to draw readers in, and you have a pretty good read. Especially for people that grew up in those surroundings at that particular time. I decided to call it Life and Times, and it became available in early 2012.

  "Life and Times" by Tony Patino


E-BOOK & PAPERBACK THROUGH AMAZON
 
GT - How long did it take for the books to be completed, from inception time to being made available?

Tony - The Road was a pretty long process. I had to schedule all of these interviews with people all over the US and as far away as Australia, then I went ahead and transcribed the entire contents of the recordings into word documents. After that I picked out the parts of the conversations I wanted to use, then molded them into short stories. Some of the artists involved wanted to submit their own writings, so that saved me a little time, but  it still took about a year and a half to get that one done. I started working on Life and Times when I was about ¾ of the way through that. It was a way of getting a much needed break from one project and focusing on another. I think the ideas for that book had been bouncing around in my head for decades though, so it practically wrote itself.
 
GT - How have the books sold, were they distributed and if so, how?

Tony - The Road was picked up and released by a publishing company out of Boston, and I told them to fuck off almost immediately after it was released. The contract stated that a professional proof reader and editor would review the book for any errors or typos, and it never was. I was in the process of checking and editing it myself, and then all of the sudden they started calling me and pressuring me to get it done so they could feature it in some big Black Friday bullshit they were doing on the day after Thanksgiving. I was up for like two days straight trying to get it done, and eventually told them I couldn't do it, and to leave me out of their stupid sale. The owner called me and said he would assign someone to get it done, and to just send him what I had. I did, and they released it, typos and all, exactly as I'd sent it to them. There weren't even any page numbers in the table of contents yet, and they published it that way. He and I got into it big-time, and  I never saw a single royalty check or statement whatsoever. When I finally demanded that he send me a sales statement, it stated that they had sold exactly one (1) copy.  That's really funny too, seeing as how friends and family members had purchased copies. Not only that, but I did some book signings to promote it before the falling out, and people were showing up left and right with books in their hands. They had to have gotten them somewhere, right? 

I probably shouldn't say this, but I ended up fixing all the errors and releasing it myself on my independent label 40 Amp Media. So now if you go to Amazon or places like that there are two editions. The one with the typos has the subtitle A Book By Traveling Musicians. The one I released on my own has the subtitle Tales From Touring Musicians. I guess that publisher could sue me but I don't care. Another interesting part of all that is how the publisher charged me over nine dollars to purchase copies of my own book. My cut of the sales was about one dollar per book. But, I wanted a publishing deal and I got one, right?

 The whole process of finding a publisher can be really frustrating and difficult. Anyone that's ever been there will agree with me. I had one guy  offering to put it out, then when I checked out his back catalog I realized what a joke he was.

 Book publishers are just as bad (if not worse) than record labels! Needless to say, Life and Times was released independently by me thru 40 Amp Media. It sells pretty well too, considering there hasn't ever been a single bit of promotion for it. I've found out the hard way that I'm able to do everything these self-proclaimed publishers can do all on my own. That includes the interior layout, the cover art, the manufacturing and even getting it into distribution and available to the public.

GT - So over all then, what was the experience like for you, having done the books and looking back on that whole time period?

Tony - The Road was a joy to make, because I got to have these long, candid, phone conversations with people I idolized all my life. I started working on Volume 2 right away, and wanted to go bigger. That project was never finished, but I have all these  recorded conversations with people from different genres of music. I talked with original members from Thin Lizzy, Scorpions, Hawkwind, Iron Butterfly, and even Sha-Na-Na. One cool interview I did was with Steve Boone from The Lovin' Spoonful. He told me all about what it was like to tour back in the sixties and how different it was. He said they would play these big auditoriums using nothing but practice amps, and the crowd couldn't even hear the music, but would be down there going nuts the whole time anyway. Life and Times has been an interesting trip because so many people that grew up in the Tampa area during that time period have been able to relate to it so well. There's been more than a few people that have sent me emails telling me how that book is like a mirror image of their younger years.

GT - Yeah, we can definitely relate to that with the book we did on our own, we share very similar ground certainly. What's your opinion about the other books out there, do you pay attention to that sort of stuff?

Tony - As far as books I've read, I don't really enjoy books about the history of punk music because they always seem to be so selective about what cities they discuss. Just like I keep hearing people complain about that film American Hardcore. I'm constantly hearing people bitch about that film because it didn't include the city they grew up in. I think it's a great film, but it would have been impossible for them to have covered the entire US. I prefer autobiographical books over history books, and I mean that about any subject, not just music. 

With that in mind, there aren't very many autobiographical books out there by punk musicians. Jack Grisham from TSOL wrote a good one. He seemed to  be on the same level we were down in Florida as far as the chaos he likes to create. Joey from DOA's book is really good. Bob Mould from Husker Du did one, but I've read some mixed reviews so I haven't picked it up yet. I think some good ones will be coming out soon though, but some of these people are so busy that it's taking them a really long time to get them done. I know Keith Morris from Circle Jerks is working on one right now, and so is John Stabb from Government Issue. Those should both be pretty interesting.

  

Tony with mountains of vhs to work through and a camera that didn't make it.
 
GT - You sound like us! We're of the basic same nature concerning history vs autobiographical accounts . When did you start thinking about making a documentary about the Tampa punk scene? What was the impetus that started the ball rolling? Obviously many of the locals embraced the idea, was it well received in general or did you have a hard time getting material?

Tony - I've always been into video. For a while there, if I went to a show I would have my camcorder by my side and would always be filming. I eventually started trading with other people around the country and amassed this huge collection of bootleg live performances. There was never much video documentation of things that happened in Tampa in the eighties, just a few things. I think the most well known thing out there is a film loosely called The Scene. It's a mini-documentary that was put together in 1987 by a guy named Steve Burcham. That thing is all over youtube, and get's lots of praises by the people that have viewed it. He shot some interviews and live footage over the course of two or three shows, and it's a really good film. 

To me though, I didn't want  that to be the final statement on the Tampa scene in the eighties. Toward the end of writing Life and Times, I started toying with the idea of making something a little more in depth. Thanks to things like myspace and facebook, lots of photos and music that  probably never would have been seen or heard otherwise were beginning to see the light of day. I started gathering all these things, just see to if there was enough content out there to even consider the idea of making a film. Before long, it seemed like there was. There wasn't much live video footage though, so I tracked down Steve Burcham to see it he had any unused footage that he might want to contribute. He and I talked on the phone for a really long time, and he told me that there was quite a bit of unused footage at one point in time, but he had taped over it. Ha!

I forged on anyway, asking people to pull out their old videos, and accumulated pretty much everything that was filmed back then. After that, I needed interviews. I was doing a book signing in Tampa and took my camcorder, hoping to round up some of the old scenesters, but didn't get much done on that trip. It took me making one more trip down, along with the enlistment of my friend  Eric Grant, and we were able to get interviews here and there with the people you see in the film now. Zak Kirlis from BP did the interviews with Tony and Dave from No Clubs Productions, and Richie Lawler did one with Tanya McKee, who was one of the most outspoken girls from the eighties scene, and ended up being the only female in the film. 


 SEE TONY'S INTERVIEW IN THE STUDIO ON THE MIC SHOW

GT - It's only recently that a hard copy dvd of the documentary has become available, how'd that feel to see all that hard work finally come together in that format?

Tony - It definitely feels great to finally see it available now. It does have it's flaws, but I'm pretty proud of it, seeing that it's my very first attempt at making a documentary film.

GT - What were some of the highlights (or low lights) about making the film?

 Tony - One thing people don't realize is that my camera heads were going bad during the second trip I made for interviews. I had no idea that was happening at the time, and when I got home and started reviewing the footage I realized that a lot of it was unusable. It took 100s of hours in different video production labs to salvage some of those interviews, and even then, I wasn't able to save them all in there entirety. The interview footage you see of Dorsey Martin, Mike Mchugh, Jay and Dano from Guy Smiley, Chris Barrows, and our old pal Edgar, all had to be spliced together in a very primitive way. It took literally one hour of work to get five seconds of usable footage. I refused to redo the interviews though, because I didn't want to lose that original spontaneity, and I refused to make the film without those people in it. That's why those particular people aren't seen more in the film. Each of them had a lot more input I would have liked to have used, it just wasn't salvageable. 

I'm truly happy that I was able to get Edgar in there, because as a lot of people already know, he is no longer with us. That interview almost didn't happen too. He called me and told me we would have to reschedule because he was in the ER. I was only gonna' be in town for two days, so I told him I'd call him back because I thought it might be cool to do his interview at the ER. I got caught up doing something else and ended up meeting up with him the next day. When I asked him how it went at the ER, he said, “I don't know. I left!” When I asked him why he left he said, “To hang out with you and get interviewed for the film.” So Edgar was so supportive of that project that he ditched the ER hoping to meet me at his house that night. It was confusing to me, and I wish he would have called me before he decided to leave the hospital. He died shortly after the film screening, and that kinda' haunts me a little.

Tony and Sammytown (Fang)
 

GT - How was the local screening of the documentary received?

Tony - I originally started scouting out places in Tampa to screen it before it was even finished. We had one place that looked like it would work, but then Zak got Tony and Dave from No Clubs productions to do interviews and that changed everything. From that moment on, Dave Hundley was interested in making it a No Clubs/State Media event. That was what I'd wanted all along so I couldn't have been more happy about it. Dave wanted to do it at the Orpheum in Ybor CIty, but they'd never done anything like that there before, so certain factors came into play. I think he had a projector, but he wasn't sure what to project the film onto. When I showed up there, they had a gigantic white sheet hanging from the ceiling, and were trying to do a few test runs. At first the lap top they had to send the video to the projector wouldn't play the disc. We were beginning to scramble, but luckily they found one that would work. There'd been quite a bit of press to promote the screening, including interviews I did with the locals papers and stuff, and the turnout was pretty positive. I think we had over 200 paying patrons, and who knows how many people on the guest list. 

After the film, which was a rough version lasting about two hours in length, we had some live music. Slap Of Reality, Guy Smiley, and Pagan Faith, all basically reunited to play, then we had Dan Destructo, who had flown in from California to do a No Fraud set with some original members. The headliner was Fang from California. I've been friends with Fang's vocalist Sammytown for a number of years, and I thought they would be perfect. He was into the idea, so he flew the band in and we set up a week long string of shows for them to play all over Florida. Pagan Faith and No Fraud took turns opening up for them in different cities, leading up to the film screening. Big thumbs up to Brian from Pagan Faith! He helped out in a major way that night by supplying all the gear for the bands, among other things. It was also great to work with Dave Hundley. That guy know what he's doing for sure!

CLICK HERE TO SEE A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT THE SCREENING 

GT -  Many of the folks that took part in the documentary come to the screening? How did you feel seeing your work like that, being screened in public?

Tony - The guys in Rat Cafeteria had a prior engagement, and that kinda' bummed me out, because I really wanted them to play, but otherwise I think everyone else was there. It was kind of crazy seeing it on a huge screen like that. Of course it was a sheet, but I'm sure anyone that went will tell you that we all felt like we were sitting in movie theater. The whole experience also gave me some insight into a final edit to make it more proper for a DVD release. I ended up cutting some things out, including some of the later, more metal bands like Assuck and Paineater. I hated to cut those guys out, but the film was way too long at two hours, and they were more a part of that grind-core scene that came about as the eighties punk scene wound down to a close. I'll be making the original, uncut, long version available on DVD as soon as I change the cover art. I actually sold some DVDs of that version at the screening but they had "FIRST 100" printed across the cover.

CHECK OUT 40 AMP'S FACEBOOK PAGE - THERE'S A TON OF AWESOME PHOTOS FROM THE AFTER SCREENING GIG !! 

GT - What's the next project you have in store? Plus, you're compiling a coffee table type photo book as an accompaniment to the documentary, and Glorious Times has donated some photos for possible inclusion which have never seen the light of day. How close is the book to being completed?

Tony - The coffee table book is done. Right now I'm contacting everyone to get info on who to credit some of these photos to, and to make sure everybody is OK with me using them. It's about 300 pages long, and includes all of the photos I gathered to make the film and more, plus it has all the flyer and poster art from back then. I'm doing full color, full page images, and some even take up two pages. With the content and the size of the book, it looks like it might be a little pricy to purchase, so I plan to make black and white editions and smaller editions as far as dimensions. That way people can chose how much of an investment they want to make. This is my way of closing the door on the Tampa punk stuff and moving on. All I can hope is that these things stay available over the years so people can continue looking back if they choose to. 

Other than that, my second fictional novel should be out soon. I'm editing it right now, and my friend Joshua Rothrock, who did the cover art to The Road, is working on a cover for it. This book is called "Free Drinks", and it's sure offend at least a few people that pick it up. Let's hope anyway! 

 PURCHASE "WE CAN'T HELP IT IF WE'RE FROM TAMPA" DOCUMENTARY STRAIGHT FROM THE MANUFACTURER HERE

FOR PURCHASE BY PAYPAL OR CREDIT CARD SALES, CLICK HERE

FOR A ROUGH DIGITAL VERSION THRU SELLFLY, CLICK HERE 

Thanks Tony for the awesome insight into your work, and activity - SUPPORT DIY FOLKS! If you thought Tampa starts and ends with metal you're dead wrong, do yourself a huge favor and grab a copy of this documentary!