Those of you who follow the Rubber Axe webzine for some time know we are quite comfortable with basically anything. Drop some rock and we will listen. Drop some pop, and we have no problem with it. Any extreme metal? Certainly OK! Mumble rap? What about we bring some good goregrind instead, what do you think?
So yeah, I’d really should correct the statement. We won’t listen to anything, there are simply some things that definitely should be avoided. But what’s unavoidable – this interview with one half of a very interesting gorenoise project from Bristol (UK) with a complicated name and equally complicated abbreviation.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s our chat with Harry from CxBxFxIxHxFxLxFxRxE, which stands for Catastrophic Blunt Force Intracranial Haemorrhage Fluid Leaking From Ruptured Eardrums.
Hello, Harry, and thanks for your time answering this interview. So, the very first important question: How did you, guys, get into such an extreme niche as gorenoise? Any interesting journey from mainstream? Like, starting karaoking Take That in the pub and suddenly boom!? 🙂
Well my good sir, it was more or less exactly that!! It was a fine summer’s day, all was well in the world, the birds were singing, animals were mating, people were mating as well, for that matter, and I had a message asking if I’d like to take part in a goregrind band with a couple of friends. Now, as you can imagine, I agreed immediately. Initially they wanted me to play guitar, but after some slipping and sliding, some ins and outs, ups and downs, it was decided that the band wasn’t actually going to happen. Carlos and I were faced with a choice; do we bail completely, or try to salvage something of the band? CxBxFxIxHxFxLxFxRxE is the result. I switched to drums and we decided to make some kind of noisecore, gorenoise crossover instead (we had neither the sense nor the musicianship for anything else). So perhaps on reflection it wasn’t exactly what you said, but I like to think that you were correct in spirit.
What would you consider your biggest influence in creating gorenoise, be it musically/sonically, or thematically/graphically?
Mainly a lack of talent when it comes to instrumentation, but a nod has to be given to old exploitation films. Can you really go wrong with them? The answer is of course yes, but we shan’t dwell on that.
Your discography is pretty rich. Do you know how many individual releases in total have you released so far? And as for those, you are mostly featured in splits or X-way splits…any plans for doing a full-length gorenoise album?
Right now I’m listening to The Armour of Ire, by Eternal Champion. It may have no relevance to your question, but it’s a fantastic album to be sure. Now, when you ask me whether I know how many individual releases we’ve put out, I can answer that for you simply. No, no I do not.
We do however already have a full-length album, but I’m not sure when copies will be available. Half of it is on our Bandcamp page already, and has been for some time, but yeah it will see the light of day in full form sooner or later.
Your first officially released stuff is the split with Shitnoise Bastards from Malaysia, if I am not mistaken. How do you recall the cooperation between your band and SNB? And yeah, what’s generally the situation on the gorenoise scene as related to co-operation? Do you have any favourite artists you would like to do split with?
Well, I can tell you now, you are not mistaken at all!! They are from Malaysia, and our first split was indeed with them. Hazree is a great guy, and Choi, and whoever the other dude was, I don’t remember, but yeah we played a versus set with them on new year’s eve in Kuala Lumpur (that was our third or fourth gig, as it happens). Pretty much the way it works is a bunch of bands ask us for splits, we say yes to all of them, then forget about fifty percent of them because we have various levels of brain damage. If a band or artist hassle us enough then we will release anything, any time, but yeah we are kept busy by our constant efforts to evade the Avon and Somerset constabulary, so at times we are somewhat slow or forgetful. As I understand there are even splits out with our logo on which we’ve never contributed to, which further blurs the lines when it comes to actually taking account of our releases, but we take full responsibility for that.
As for favourite artists we’d like to work with, mmm, I can say that I personally would very much like to work with Montero Lamar Hill, I think he would make some really interesting gorenoise, and it’d also be enjoyable to work on a spoken word album with Bob Lazar, I believe he could really bring something new to the table. Furthermore, I take back what I previously said about taking responsibility for our failure to release all the splits we’ve previously agreed to; I blame it entirely on the conspiracy.
Just recently you’ve been playing in Europe. Can you share some info about that gig (I know there is also a video of you playing there)? How often do you actually play live?
If by “just recently” you mean a couple of months ago, then yes (what I should make your readership aware of, is that it took me many, many weeks to write this response, for which I also blame the conspiracy). It wasn’t just one gig but a tour, I think we did something like six shows, so I’m not sure which specific video you are referring to. I recall we played in Utrecht (shout out to Isa and the mice in the woods), Ghent with our main man Isaac, actually that was great because we played with Acid Cannibals who are really something. There were a few shows in Belgium, one or two in the Netherlands and we wrapped up the tour in Germany at some kind of crystal healing festival (greetings to Danny from Disco Inferno SS, we will rise again my man, keep wearing those amulets my friend). Two new bands were born out of that tour, actually, I played bass for Dan from Oplinter (there is some footage of CxBxFx playing in his living room). He was putting together this supergroup of sorts, in that he played for a whole range of fantastic, widely successful bands (such as Cause of Divorce, League of Mentalmen, Ulrika’s Dream, Intestinal Disease and many more) and the vocalist is none other than Nikos of VRV, Disco Killer, Discophobia, Drink my Puke and countless more bands which sound much the same. I was called up, in my limited capacity, to play bass in what became known as Mad Dan and His Fancy Lads (I was one of the fancier lads, it must be said). Also on that tour Disco Inferno SS made their debut performance, actually on the same night as Mad Dan and His Fancy Lads, if I remember correctly, but our first official show was in Namur (thanks to Michael and Cecy). We did the tour half with Hurricane Joe, who’s real identity I swore never to reveal (I will keep my blood oath ’til the day I die, my friend) and the other half with Assur from Antwerp (or as I like to think of him, “Assur El Sonbaty”).
Also, you just returned a few days ago from playing a festival in Nepal. Man, in Nepal!!! How the hell have you managed to get there? Can you tell us and our readers something more about that festival, your experiences and recommendations? Any pros and cons worth mentioning?
Yeah it wasn’t bad mate. Have you ever eaten dry, hard corn on the cob, burnt in places to a blackened crisp? Well, before traveling to Dharan, nor had I. Once again I’m late in responding to this, but yeah we just hit up some bros there and the rest, as they say, is history. I would recommend visiting Nepal to anyone, and would happily let the fine people of that great nation touch my hair and discuss AEW deep into the night. The pros are that snackers there cost you about two pennies, the cons being that sometimes the authorities there make issues for the promoters. There are too many people to thank individually, but if any of them happen to read this, they will know who they are. I hope we will see you again soon, my friends. If anyone is into getting their skin forever marked with ink of various shades and colours, I would thoroughly recommend visiting Static Engravers. We went to the studio in Dharan but they also have a shop in Kathmandu as I understand.
What plans do you have for the rest of this year? Any new material in preparation? Some other live gigs?
Yeah we did speak about recording some new stuff because our last recording session didn’t go so well. The material was the same as ever, no change there, but there was some problem with the bass tracks in the end. We didn’t pick up on it initially but the resulting sound was almost unusable, even by our own admittedly low standards. After much thought on it, we’ve decided that it is the work of the conspiracy. As for other live shows, we don’t really have anything lined up now, or… I believe we are doing a show with Haggus in September, and my other band Pyophagia (old school death metal/goregrind), but yeah I’m still not entirely sure that’s going ahead. It will be just before Chimpyfest anyway, and I hope if anyone reading this is attending they come and say hi.
I know you still have some merch available…what is it and how can people order it?
At this point I don’t even know myself what is available, we have been immersed in other things of late and haven’t got any new shirts or anything like that for sale right now, though there are still tapes and things floating around. A lot of our stuff was distributed at OEF this year (by my fine self) but what is remaining can be purchased through our Bandcamp.
Any final message to our readers?
Who’s going to be following the Olympia this year? Really interesting turn of events what with the myriad of accusations flying around at the moment. It’s a damn shame that Sean won’t be able to compete in September, although I gather he is still prepping in case something changes so it would be a game changer if he stepped in at the last moment to defend his title. As for Jeremy, hopefully someone will remove his skin and hang him from a watch tower, I couldn’t be bothered watching any of Kenny’s never ending stream of poor content; I would be comfortable seeing either one of them taken down so the lawsuit was (anti)music to my ears. I’d love to see Roelly take it this year, but honestly in my heart I think I know Brandon is going to be the next Mr. O. He put in a lot of hard work, and William shot himself in the foot by bumming off his coach. (S’up Neil? You good my man?) If any of you guys have the time, get yourself some of that raspberry lemonade from Gregg’s, a vegan sausage roll as well if you have a pound to spare, sit down, and relax whilst listening to Stronger than Evil by Heavy Load. Also, for those of you that are down with Mike Nolan, always remember, FTC boys, FTC. Keep your eye out for the conspiracy, they’re always watching you, eat your vegetables, and if you’re reading this Clarence, go kill yourself. Thanks to Mighty Arzel, who stands in the East, for assisting us in our ventures, George at Herepath Studios, and Ivar Malm for being a sick lad. (Also I was just joking Clarence, you’re the man Dr. C.) If there is no chalk residue ingrained in her skin, Larry Wheels is an innocent man, trust in “Bob” and you’ll be all right, and if you don’t know anyone with a Flaming Hot Cheetos bodysuit, do you even really know anyone worth knowing? If you didn’t know it already, you can make instant ramen noodles into pizza, cupcakes, and even apple pie. Great thanks to my good friend and accomplice in all things that shall not be mentioned here, Rudolph, for putting together these questions and being patient with me in my response. Free Kai Lawrence!! Respect those who put pineapple on their pizzas!! All hail King Paimon. 666
