You should all know by now my weak spot for AMEBIX - in fact I think along with Acid Reign, Carcass and Bolt Thrower they are one of the bands featured the most times here! (I swear that soon I'll move onto my fave bands that begin with "D", "E" and "F").
I was quite lucky to have the guys read my recent review of their outstanding new album SONIC MASS and managed to pin down bass-abuser, throat-user and Norton-cruiser Rob "Baron" Miller with one of his own swords and agree to an interview.
Sonic Mass revealed, a bit behind the scenes of the reformation, ghostly visitations in the night and Rob's next project - a trilogy in three parts, in D-Minor.
AMEBIX originally hadn't thought of reforming. From what I can make out from reading around it all started off with reissuing the albums, and then the DVD "Risen" - and "Redux" was originally going to just some bonus tracks on the Risen DVD ......and that led to Roy getting in the band, a tour and a new album. How did this "evolve"?
I met Roy Wallace when he visited Skye to interview me for 'The Day the Country died' and that led to a conversation about Amebix and the material that I had collected. So i contacted Stig to get his old scraps and photos and made a couple of journeys down to Antrim to help out with the editing. It was really only when it was almost done that the suggestion came about that it should have a definite end, maybe some of the songs done today, 20 years on. I was very reluctant initially but things conspired to change that. I had made an attempt to contact Roy Mayorga as a mutual friend had suggested some time ago that we get in touch. She,meanwhile had been having a few big problems including hurricane Katrina, so was unable to contact me with Roys number until literally the day I returned from Antrimn with this bee in the bonnet, so i took the hint and phoned Roy to ask him if he would like to help us record some old songs to finish this project,thats how it began.The problem was that it all went too well,and we ended up sort of looking askance at what we did and thinking hmmmmm...where does this lead.
Since the break up of the band in the late 80s Amebix have enjoyed a level of iconic status which encompasses not only the music but a philosophy/way of life - although you say yourselves that Amebix were never so much appreciated when you were together. Do you think Amebix the logo and the artwork have reached more people than the music itself?
Maybe so. From our point of view there wasn't much interest back in the day, maybe its like the Misfits, the majority of their sales comes from that one shirt design. Fuck knows how many people have actually listened to the band.
With that in mind why do you think Amebix took off so much "posthumously"?
Everybody loves you when you're dead,wasn't that a Stranglers song? I dont know, I think we succesfully ticked all the boxes for 'cult' - poverty, unrecognised, drugs, madness and magick, a sense of mystique and intrigue. There was so little information available before the Internet, whereas bands like Crass or Discharge were pretty well documented Amebix slipped between the pages.
Obviously the reformation was appreciated, playing sold out shows all over the US. Would you say that if you ever were going to reform that now was a good time to do so than say if you had done it in the middle of the grunge explosion or another time?
Of course I want to open up your head and poke around in your mind a little about Sonic Mass. Now to make an album that is a "grower" rather than an instant hit is something you have managed to do with every Amebix album. I wouldn't say any of them were "hard" to listen to but they are certainly almost layered, subtle and can need a closer examination in order to appreciate - why is this? It can't be something you do consciously, can it?
Consciously no, but I do think that if you are really passionate about what you do then you will seed ideas within it, a quality that is almost numinous. On one level we have attempted to make this a rich and engaging work but also the importance of the lyrical journey is what gives it a depth for the listener, these ideas are perrenial not temporal so it is something you can return to again and again and get a new experience from.
After all the time apart you've managed to create something with Sonic Mass that is basically an Amebix album like before but with much better production. Your tastes and influences must have changed over these years. Is the Amebix sound just in your blood? You write something and it just comes out like that? Or did you knowingly go for that sound?
I think Stig and I tend to have a particular mode of expression, also being siblings its kind of weird that we understand the same things and try to manifest the same type of ideas. To be totally honest we didn't start off with any ideas about how to make an 'Amebix' record, we just wanted to go with the flow and see what arrived. I feel much more that we have just done our job and interpreted the stuff that was given to us, in our own way, just being open to ideas and to hell with anyones expectations.
I want to know more about the story of Sonic Mass, the album itself. Would you say that it was a concept album on the whole?
What is the concept behind the story and the imagery? It almost seems at times that there is a positive message trying to break out of Sonic Mass, almost "spiritual" in some ways. It's very dark but it's filled with what I translate as very positive messages such as in Knights Of The Black Sun "you were always free" and The One "all sense of separation, this is your illusion".
Exactly. That's one of the things about Amebix that people didn't really understand. Its not about 'post apocalyptic misanthropic gloomsludge' or whatever tag people want to hang on it, we are the enemy within in one sense, in a side of the music world that deals primarily in negative imagery and lyricism I think we have always tried to bring a positive message across. I would want people to feel uplifted by music, like great art, to bring forward creative and aspirational ideas, not an obsessive pursuit of death, if all we had to say was another litany of helplessness or anger then I would not bother.
The song "Visitation" however is still confusing me - enlighten me on it!
It is really Roy's story to tell, but I will briefly summarise. Whilst recording in Ireland we stayed in a particularly strange place on the edge of an ancient oak wood, which itself contains the grave of the inspiration for Bram Stokers Dracula as well as having some very strange electro magnetic anomalies ,so spooky...dude. On one night both Stig and Roy were visited by two entities in the room in which we stayed, one in the form of the classic 'hag' the other a black dog with the face of a man. Both incidents separate. Roy had a conversation with the dog which shook him up for days. He spent some time writing the tune out for this and when it came time for lyrics I asked for details of the coversation which are incorporated in the song, it was quite a hair raising incident at a very dark time for us.'Visitation' is not really a song, it is an interlude, atmospheric, that centre point of the darkness that leads out again.
You've said yourself in the film Risen that the thing that first attracted you to punk was the freedom and the acceptance - do you still carry this with you today? Especially if I have understood some of the lyrics of Sonic Mass as I think I should have, is this what you would like to spread to others?
I have pretty much made my life on my own terms,and whilst it may not be the most conventional it is also ultimately an expression of all the things I believe - do what you are meant to do, be true to yourself, manifest your own nature.
Even though as far back as the 80s you were saying that punk has become a "cult of conformity" - do you think this is still true today? Worse, better, the same? (hey it's like going for an eye test!) - Can you find pockets of "the original idea"?
There will always be pockets of the original idea, although they won't neccesarilly be found within the narrow confines of any scene or genre. Spirit is like water, it will flow through your hands and not be owned by any one, the Spirit of Punk Rock was one of the things that inspired me originally and I suppose we eventually find that it was just a reflection of the spirit we already had...so better with...or better away? Better with? Away?...Sorry got fixated on the eye test there.
What music do you enjoy yourselves these days? Do you pick up anything new or old? Do you bother to try and "keep up", what would we find if we went through music you have absorbed over the past year or so?
Oh dear, I think the Metal Militia and the Punk Police would both be at my door with burning torches if they found out what I listen to. I am attempting to make in roads into more modern music, two teaspoons of Sabbath to one teaspoon of "Johnny young person's music".
The new Amebix album and reformation has excited the punk world very much, if I go round some of the forums and websites you can find a lot of people getting very excited about it. What do you think about being so well thought of and respected. And sub-question, you've risen very much above your peers of the time, for example Disorder, and Antisect - who has also just reformed but instead of the huge impact that Amebix got Antisect was faced with a little less of an "explosion".
Antisect were great guys and fun to play with, miserable looking sods but we were all secret metal heads really. I remember fondly us subjecting the Bristol gigs to Mob Rules on tape before going on, gawd...they hated it. Anyway, obviously very honoured that we are so well thought of, I have to be a bit arrogant though and say that it is deserved, we were always 110 percent about what we did, right or wrong and I think that shows. It is important to be your best, manifest the best possible stuff you can, simple as that. Most people we knew back in the day were playing at being in a band, we were entirely ernest about it as a life.
How do you find what people are saying about Sonic Mass, is it as divided as I see? And do you think those that wanted "No Sanctuary pt2" never understood Amebix in the first place? On the flip side do you think those that are going really deep into the album and giving it almost an art-school type review are reading too much into it?
I can't be too objective about this question. I am seeing some instances of absolute rage and indignation, whilst I can understand that people can like or dislike there are some who make it sound like you've just raped their granny and poo-ed in their pillowcase. People who maybe like the security of being able to order their music like they order their meals, plate of 84-87 crust with a layer of death/dark/doomsludge and some septic sauce, sorry to dissapoint...but no need to get into an incandescent fury about it. Some others are so locked into a nerdy approach that they have to list what perticular styles or nuances they hear in the music to justify an opinion - just chill the fuck out and listen, don't try to diagnose. I sense a genuine frustration in people who dont 'get' it, because I suppose they know that they never will, and they never did, they just like the idea of a splathead logo and No Gods No Masters. The music that means the most to me in my lifetime has always and invariably been that which hits a note on a soul level, it doesn't have to be clever or complex or too pre-conceived, it just has to have that quality that you cannot manufacture.
Now....You've had many drummers, some of them left, some of them died in bizarre gardening accidents or choked on "vomit" - and Sonic Mass does have something representing Stonehenge on the cover......am I seeing a connection here?
Actually I see myself as doing rather well in the shoe selling trade if needs must...at present I am working on an operatic arrangement of 'Lick My Lovepump'
Sticking with that theme - have you seen the movie "The Story of Anvil"? Since you guys never had the intention of reforming I'm guessing that you never had the "we're gonna be rockstars" attitude, but do you think this is an attitude that can be found quite often? People way past their prime who have had some minor success still clutching on trying to one day get there? I'm guessing this was never the aim of Amebix in the first place?
Ah don't be cruel. Actually Stig and I were watching that film on the flight back from Montreal, a real tear in the eye thinking...fuck...thats us!!! The genral mis-management and rip off was so much like our own story I could relate to that a lot. I actaully bought Anvil records when they came out, but there are some themes that are just plain out dated. Kind of like punk bands singing their Thatcher songs or repeated fuck the system stuff, I would really hope that what we have to say will still be relevant in another 20 years.
You've had many bands singing your praises - Neurosis have shrines to you that they offer cider and glue to every morning, Max Cavelera has Amebix pyjamas and bed covers and Vivian Slaughter of Gallhammer was never pictured without her Amebix t-shirt. This must be quite an honour that so many of such status say they got it from Amebix?
Pyjamas and bed covers..shit!! Really? I want some of that stuff to match my 'Arise' penis pump and 'poo's the enemy' eau de toilette. Seriously though,they all send cash contributions at Christmas, even the pagans!
Sticking with the cider and glue - you've grown up a lot since those days of spiking your hair and wearing the safety pinned clothes Risen claims you were always "the straight one". Do you feel there is an emphasis on substance abuse, alcohol, drugs etc in the music world and how do you guys deal with it? Rat Skates (ex-Overkill, that's my next featured interview by the way - ELK) is currently making a documentary on how the music world can lead to dragging people in to this sort of lifestyle and can prove a danger.
Well, I suppose that statement is in context, 'straight' means maybe taking less than everyone else around but I certainly dipped more than my toe into the water, it's just that I was also pretty focused even then and tried to make things happen rather than get swept away in the deluge of navel gazing .We were on the border of a time where drugs were definitely 'rock n roll' and glamorous. Stig and I were almost the only people in our town who even smoked dope when we were growing up, where as now it is ubiquitous. I dont have much time for that anymore, if I look around I see the damage done.
Contrary to me saying I found Sonic Mass to carry some quite positive messages - if you look back at your time in Bristol, which you seem to remember as a time of depression and desperation, would you say this was what formed your sound on the early recordings?
Yes I think the early stuff was a lot colder and maybe a bit desperate, we were living in a kind of surreal madness at that time, it wasn't until we got out to Bath that we had time to focus in a bit more on the songs. No Sanctuary is just like an asylum.
Finally - I know you have some up in the air plans for touring and stuff but so far what can the world expect from Amebix live-wise in the near future?
At this point it is very uncertain, I suppose the best advice is just to keep an eye out, these are strange times.
- Thanx Rob! - SONIC MASS is out now - go get it! Visit AMEBIX at AMEBIX.NET
