After taking a long and irrational pause from Perpetual Vomit im back and ready to write and share music with fellow noise geeks worldwide!
Because of my long time of absence on this blog i present as an humble excuse my Assuck interview i made about a few months ago.
The interview are meant to be a headliner of a zine im hoping to make with help from the two other writers from this blog but that project might take a while and i want to share the interview so here it is:
Among the many grindbands of past and present Assuck still have an most original and inventive sound. Anticapital (1992) and Misery Index (1997) stands as two mighty monuments in the confusing maze of grindcore. These two full lengths are filled with an classic death metal approach meets old school Napalm Death. Think Repulsion and Napalm Deaths lovechild.
Besides having that special sound i admire the most in grindcore (besides Discordance Axis and Gridlink) i was amazed when i first read the lyrics of Anticapital.
Behind the growling rage there´s words written of the finest quality. One could say that is dosent matter when you cant understand the words anyway but i disagree.
I think writing intellegent and insightful songs is an important factor that often tends to be forgotten.
This is certainly not the case of Assuck.
Paul Pavlovich sang for Assuck from the founding of the band in 1987 until 1994 when he quit the band and began to focus on visual art and design.
Anyways the interview:
The start of Assuck: How old were you at the time and how did it begin?
We all went to the same high school. Steve and I became friends because we had a common taste in music. There was a lot of tape trading between us and a small group of friends. We exchanged ideas about what type of band we wanted to be in. Our first attempt at music was a hardcore band in the vein of Septic Death. Steve didn’t play guitar at this point. He was writing lyrics and fronted the band as the singer. I was trying to play the bass and realized I wasn’t very good at it. Steve and I were eventually introduced to Rob who already had a reputation as a skilled drummer. Steve wanted to play guitar and I had no business playing a musical instrument. We discussed a project where Steve would play guitar and I would take over on vocals. Our main objective for the band to be as fast and as heavy as possible. All this activity was taking place before the term “Grindcore” was a part of any of our vocabulary. Everything was either ‘metal’ ‘trash’ or ‘punk’. Then we heard ‘Scum’ by Napalm Death and our ideas fell into place.
Hailing from Florida, did you guys come from background of music?
None of us were formally trained if that’s what you mean? I think Rob may have taken drum lessons before he started playing with Steve. When we first started practicing and writing songs there were immediate results. You could tell Rob had been playing for a while and he was comfortable behind a drum kit. Steve was entirely self taught as a guitar player. It seemed second nature to him. He got good very quickly. Even his song writing skills improved by leaps and bounds. I, on the other hand was always clumsy playing an instrument. My focus was writing lyrics, drawing, design work etc. I was lucky you didn’t need any particular vocal talent to be in a grindcore band. All you needed was a bit of anger and some motivation.
What were Assucks musical inspirations?
We were interested in a bunch of different music. Obviously the underground music that was coming out of Europe and the UK made a huge impression. I was listening to bands like Celtic Frost, Winter, Fear of God. Then I started getting into punk bands like Crass, Discharge and Rudimentary Peni. I also really liked the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. While Steve and Rob were into tech-metal like Watchtower and Cynic.
Any local bands inspired your music and did there exist a hardcore scene in Florida at the time??
There was a 5-6 year period where the Florida music scene was massive and very active. It was hard not to be influenced by it. There were great bands who we supported and got the opportunity to play with from all over the state. In Tampa there was a very tight-knit Hardcore and Death Metal scene that were getting a lot of attention. Everyone was recording at Morrissound Studios and the producer Scott Burns was so busy we wondered if he ever got any sleep. We were fortunate to be introduced us to a bunch of really good people. We found our closest allies and the people we related to all came from a much smaller punk and hardcore scene that existed at the same time the Death Metal scene was exploding. Then, for some reason, everybody toned down, left town, or just flat out stopped.
I know you played at Slap-A-Ham’s Fiesta Grande at Gilman 924, did Assuck have a connection to the power-violence phenomenon and the bands involved in this?
We were honored to play the first Fiesta Grande festival. We use to frequently correspond with Chris Dodge. He asked us to contribute a song to the first Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! 7 inch comp. It was through that experience with Chris that we decided to plan our first west coast tour. All the bands that played that night were brilliant. It was an amazing experience and that show continues to be one of the more memorable Assuck shows for me personally. As for the ‘Power Violence’ phenomenon Assuck didn’t have any formal connections to it besides being huge supporters of bands like Crossed Out and No Comment. Back then the term ‘Power-Violence’ wasn’t frequently used to describe a genre of music. I remember Man Is The Bastard using it to describe there own music. These days ‘Power Violence’ is huge with a bunch of great bands at its core.
An aspect of Assuck that always have kept myself close to the band have been the lyrics.
I will dare to call them existential and poetic in many ways, what were your influences as the writer?
My first attempts at writing lyrics were crude and under-developed. It gradually got better over time and the more serious we became as a band the more serious I took the writing process. My main influence and the source of song ideas was simply the condition that politics imposes on the world, and how I saw myself and other people in that corrupt environment. The writers I care about most and never grow tired of are: Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Emma Goldman, George Orwell, and the anti-war poet Wilfred Owen.
I know the guitarist of Assuck took over the vocals at some point, when did you leave the band and why?
I parted ways with the band in 1994 the year I graduated college. The plans Steve and Rob had for Assuck no longer corresponded with my own personal objectives. I had shifted my attention to visual art around that time and I didn’t think my role in the band was working anymore. I felt like I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish with Assuck. We released records we were proud of. We toured and met a lot of great people. It was an incredibly creative time for all of us. In retrospect I think I picked a good time to split because everything I heard about the way the band broke apart in the end sounded like a nightmare. So Im glad I got out when I did.
Do you still have a connection with former band members?
With Steve and Rob...sadly, no. I am still close friends with Pete Jay who was Assuck’s first Bass Player.
And I get an e-mail every once in a while from Steve Kasiba who is a good friend and replaced Pete on bass.
Do you feel Assuck have a legacy of some kind?
‘Legacy’ sounds like such an over-blown word... I’ll put it to you like this: I never thought there would be a continued interest in the band 15 years after the fact. People still like the music and respond positively to what we did and that means a lot to me. All I wanted to do while I had my opportunity was to share ideas, express some thoughts about life and the politics of living in an unstable world. My intentions were humble. Anything said about the band beyond that is flattering.
You have been involved in other musical projects since Assuck among others the band Cattle Press from Hydra Head Records. Are you in bands at the present time?
I lived in New York for a short time and while I was living there my dear friend Javier Villegas who was playing bass for Cattle Press at the time asked me if I wanted to take over the vocals. I practiced with them several times and because of personal issues I had to return to Florida. So my involvement with Cattle Press was cut short. I am currently working with a group of friends on a gloomy and crushing project called EXITSECT. It’s heavily influenced by Amebix, Winter, Swans...etc. We have a few songs in the works and hope to have a full length record done by the end of the year. If your interested in checking out the first song “Embrace of the Pale Rope” its posted online at this address: www.myspace.com/exitsect
You studied and have been involved with art for quite some time. What kind of art have you been focused on?
Music, Art and Art History have been at the center of my life for a long time. I make a living as a graphic designer. I also work on illustration projects and get opportunities to show my personal work which consists of paintings and prints. I’m interested in contemporary work but lately I’ve been obsessed and research German Expressionism and sculpture from the 1920’s and the work of Kurt Schwitters. Also, the darker work Francisco Goya is what currently interests me.
What are your favorite authors?
Besides the authors I listed in your previous question. I really enjoy the work of Christopher Hitchens (especially his writing on religion), Karl Marx now more than ever, Janna Levin who wrote a great book called ‘A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines’ about The lives of Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. The Serbian author Momo Kapor, Writings on the Paris Commune by Mikhail Bakunin, and Peter Kropotkin. I’ll be happy to go on...I think you get the idea.
Well not much left, thank you for the interview and the time you have given to this.
Last but not least, any last words?
Thanks Gustav...and regards to all of you who continue to listen.
Assuck - 1990
Assuck - Gilman 1993
