Interview with Doom
Rezine: How is the band doing?
Bri: Good thanks. At the moment we are in the process of writing some new material for a couple of EP’s, one which will be a split release with some old friends. ON the live gig front we have 2 gigs at the end of this month in Sweden & Norway, then we plan a tour of South America next year.
Rezine: There's been lots of change in the band since the beginning do you feel that the lineup is more solid after all those years?
Bri: Yes. Well, we’ve always had solid line-ups at different periods. This line-up seems to be working…at the moment! I think the sound we create now is probably its best though.
Scoot : doom were inspirational to me back in 1988 & being 14yrs old living in a small town I wasn't exactly familiar with swedish punk music so it brought many bands to my attention & loving the discharge sound anyway with punk lyrics was a huge turning point in my life & being introduced to the diy scene, up to now this line up has been solid & hope it continues, it’s a brilliant noise when we get together (with some great/not so great messages-but you've got to deal with reality)
Stick: someone said being in a band is like a 4 way marriage, it's definitely can be a challenge but when it's working it’s worth it.
Rezine: New Album: Corrupt Fucking System, tell us about the concept of the album?
Bri: Well as most of our stuff is quite direct & to the point/simplified, it’s quite obvious what the ‘concept’ is. But, basically we are making a statement about the corrupt political/corporate/religious systems that govern people’s everyday lives. People are being exploited again & again by the same power mongers the world over. The rich ruling classes use tactics such as “divide & conquer”, pitting working people against each other, capitalism exploits people to create wealth for a minority elite & religion use the fear of death & lies to keep people in their control.
Scoot: it was like a catharsis writing the album & surprisingly enjoyable to write it & record it we all had ideas & putting them together really worked, i'm sure bri is proud recording & mixing the album. as bri said its mainly about the abuse of power & control!
Stick: we approached the process differently to any other album. Before we would take months to piece it together, this one was a concentrated into a few weeks. We got the song idea blasted out then moved onto the next. It could have been a disaster but it worked really well.
Rezine: What was the response from the audience? And the Medias?
Bri: All really positive. I think I read 1 negative review. Because it was 100% DIY release on our own label I think it has suffered a little bit with regard to distribution, but other DIY labels (Agipunk & Dogma Destroyer) have helped us out for international releases.
Stick: It's been good & was good to finally do a DIY lp ourselves, have total control over our music
Rezine: What motivated the compilation did you feel it was essentials for the fans?
Bri: We have done quite a few compilations. It’s often a good starting point for new listeners. It’s also good to bring old demos etc. together with some extra liner notes and artwork.
Scoot: Some of the old stuff is difficult to find or too expensive to buy so it’s great to keep it released in some way or another so everyone gets the chance to hear it! Also hearing where the music, lyrics, art etc. came from originally is always interesting.
Stick: This was something I started over 15 years ago when I made myself a compilation cd from all the old master tapes from the studio, I wanted everything in one place. It's quite eclectic & feature members from all the old line ups, even though there's been many changes it always sounds like doom... Strange
Rezine: When you went through the old songs with the compilation did you feel the evolution of the band?
Bri: To a degree yes and probably more so with our ‘sound’, but the songs are still pretty much in the same style (they all sound the same).
Scoot: It's nice to be a part of it & hopefully add something to it (usually annoyance & frustration to the other 3 ha)
Rezine: Did you surprise yourself with the old material?
Bri: Yeah. I don’t tend to listen to Doom all day every day, so it’s always good to re-hear what we’ve done many years ago. I recently re-mastered the demo for the “Greatest Invention” album (which I hate) & was pleasantly surprised. Now someone is planning on releasing it on vinyl!
Rezine: When you do a show do you try to only play new songs in your set list?
Bri: No. We try to do a mixture. It’s quite hard sometimes just due to the vast amount of material we’ve written trying to fit it into an hours set…..any longer & it get quite boring!
Stick: I think in the past we used to favour newer songs as they were written by that particular line up but when we started again this time we picked all the so fs we thought would work best as a set, a cross section of old, new, fast slow. Songs that complement each other
Rezine: Do you have old songs that you still play?
Bri: Yep. All the classics & we just brought “sick Joke” back to life after being hassled by a friend. We try to change the set if we can as it gets a bit boring for us too.
Rezine: What is the connection between Doom and the band Cress?
Bri: They are friends. We ended up meeting through Denis & Wayne’s old band Blood Sucking Freaks, but we actually played with the band that came before Cress – The Deformed.
Rezine: You guys did a first tour of North America in 2013 how was the tour?
Bri: The first US tour was in 2011, that & the the gigs in 2013 were surprisingly good. It had been along tome coming so it was good to finally make it over there. Met some really great people & played with some great bands, some of whom were also old friends.
Scoot: Always a pleasure to play North America as it’s so vast with an interesting mixture of people
Rezine: Do you feel that the North American scene is different from the European scene?
Bri: I think the European scene is much more organised with regards to feeding touring bands & giving them comfortable sleeping places. There seems to be much more organised DIY culture which is due to the large squatting culture I guess.
Rezine: Did you discover new bands during that tour?
Bri: When we played Canada I was impressed with Napalm Raid.
Scoot: truncheons
Rezine: You had a stop in Montreal? How did that go? Any memorable moment from the visit?
Bri: Brilliant venue Katacombes, & some really nice people.
Scoot: It looks like an amazing place it would be nice to try spend more time there, the scene seems really well organised & everyone seems to pull together
Stick: Whole tour was memorable, was great to play big cities & small backwaters like Halifax
Rezine: Any plans to come back?
Bri: Nothing is definite as yet but we hope to make it to the Midwest at some point.
Rezine: Your songs are politically engaged do you sometimes feel hard to carry out the messages?
Bri: I’m not sure I understand, but we write about things that piss us off in general. I agree & disagree with certain political view points and try to live my life accordingly. I believe certain viewpoints are wrong and always try to confront them when I encounter them.
Scoot: I'm personally not very good at direct confrontation but i wear my heart on my sleeve & live by what i feel is right & wrong, it can be extremely difficult carry out messages at times without getting arrested or attacked or the powers that be making you an example or scapegoat of you for the media to ridicule!
Rezine: Have you ever been threaten for your political views?
Bri: Yes. Fascists/Nazi have threatened me on Anti-Fascist actions. I’ve had a brick thrown at the back of my head by a nazi…I then chased him away until he pulled a kitchen knife on me. Nazi’s have also attacked our gigs. In Germany some Nazi’s threw tear gas canisters into the venue, but soon got chased away. We’ve also had police attacking punks at our gigs and while they try to get home, a friend in Poland was hospitalised by police after one of our gigs.
Scoot: I have been threatened in the past, we get all kinds of shit online, and it’s something that is always in the back of my mind.
Rezine: Cults of Human Sacrifice: who is giving the speech? Is it part of a documentary?
Bri: That is actually Sam Harris, an anti-theist. It is part of a debate he had with a prominent theoligist.
Rezine: Is there other political influence or documents that you feel the public should look for?
Bri: There is lots. For example; Albert Meltzer “I Couldn’t Paint Golden Angels” Errico Malatesta “Anarchy” Peter Kropotkin “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution” Sam Harris “The End of Faith” Christopher Hitchens “God is not Great”
Scoot: treat people how you want to be treat
Rezine: You recently sold your album digitaly Police Bastard to get money for Luis Alberto Velasquez Molina do you want to tell us why you decided to get involved? What was the response of your fans?
Bri: We just ended up reading about how the police had framed this guy who was an active punk & then we ended up communicating with one of his friends. There was no plan really it just ending up working out that we could actually try to do something to help this guy out & Police Bastard seems to be the perfect song! We had some positive responses form people, but that’s not the reason we did this.
Rezine: Are there other charities or causes that you are involved in?
Bri: We donated money from our split 10” with Cress to the McLibel case involving 2 activists who were fighting against the huge MacDonald’s Company who were trying to sue them for basically exposing the truth about McDonald’s shitty food/exploitation of animals & workers.
Scoot: benefits for political prisoners, scum fest benefits for autonomous places, animal sanctuaries!
Stick: The first pressings of police bastard ep was a benefit for hunt sabs
Rezine: Do you guys actively participate to demonstrations?
Bri: Yes. I went on a massive union demo not long ago in Manchester protesting against Austerity & I also recently went to a “Kobane is not alone” demo in Huddersfield, showing my support for the Kurdish freedom fighters (YPG/YPJ) who are fighting against the fascist “Islamic State” (ISIS). They have been betrayed by Turkey who have also been secretly helping ISIS even though there are supposed to be in Nato.
Rezine: Why do you guys bother to give an interview to my fanzine? Do you guys give lots of interviews to zines or bigger magazines?
Bri: Well, It’s taken us long enough to reply…sorry. We always answer interviews, it doesn’t matter who it is. I prefer to do small zine interviews than bigger magazines (they don’t ask us very often anyway).
Scoot: Yeah I am guilty of always being too busy or tired & slacking when it comes to interviews sorry! But thanks as always fir the interest! J
Rezine: Since Lady Gaga wore your logo in one of her video clip did you get any new fans?
Bri: Yes. But nothing to do with that.