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A.S.R.A.: New York Grindcore

A.S.R.A.: New York Grindcore
BANDS : ASRA

Andrew and Monty

 

Metalfan: Hello and welcome to Metalfan! What I have interupted you from?
Monty Hukill: Right now we’re getting ready to go on tour and to record some new material right when we get back. We’re doing a week with Jon Chang’s bands Gridlink and Hayano Daisuki on the East Coast, then going into the studio to record eight tracks or so for a couple of splits.

Metalfan: As this is the first interview for Metalfan regarding A.S.R.A., please introduce the band to our readers and note the most important things from your history so far...
Monty Hukill:Andrew and I started the band about three years ago or so. We’ve been through a lot of bass players in that time. For the most part it was Andrew on drums and me on guitar… Harris replaced our old singer after coming to practically all of our shows. Recently, I switched to bass and we have Mama Moogley from Kursk on guitar. The most important things, I guess, would be finally having our first record out and doing a tour to promote it (albeit a short one).

Metalfan: How did you get singed by Black Box Recordings? Which do you think that was the thing that convinced them?
Monty Hukill: Mike lives in Brooklyn and came out to see us one time at a place we were playing right by his house. The one thing that convinced him to put our record out was the first riff of Burning Proletaria…That and the fact that he’s known us for a while. Andrew used to roadie for Mike’s old band, Anodyne.

 

Andrew

 

Metalfan: Where does the band name A.S.R.A. come from? Could you tell us more...?
Monty Hukill:A.S.R.A. stands for Alleged Satanic Ritual Abuse. The name comes from a phenomenon that occurred throughout the US during the 1980s when the Christian Right was getting hysterical about supposed pedophilic sex rings in which all sorts of fucked up things were alleged to have occurred…Forced cannibalism, ritual killings, etc. People were being arrested and convicted for being involved this sort of far-fetched, completely mythological occurrences.

Metalfan: Who has choosen this name as a band name?
Monty Hukill: Andrew read about it in a book and once he told me that a lot of this happened in my hometown I was sold on the name.

Metalfan: Not too long ago you have released your first full-lenght album "The Way of All Flesh". Where have you recorded this album?
Monty Hukill: The record was tracked at MetroSonic in Brooklyn, mixed at HSH Images & Noise, both by Chip Karpells, then mastered by Scott Hull.

 

 

Metalfan: Did someone help you with the production or did you make all by yourself?
Monty Hukill: Chip is the mastermind behind the way the record sounds…We pretty much left it to him.

Metalfan: Do you think that is harder to write short songs or longer songs?
Monty Hukill: It might be harder to write longer songs individually, but I would say it’s harder to write a bunch of short songs. The shorter the songs, the more riffs you have to come up with to make a complete record or live set.

Metalfan: For example how long did it take to write the whole album The Way of All Flesh?
Monty Hukill: The songs on The Way of All Flesh plus the tracks on This Comp Kills Fascists (Relapse Records) were pretty much all the songs we had written to date. We didn’t set out for a certain length/amount of songs before going into the studio…Although I suppose we’re doing that now to some degree.

Metalfan: The whole album last just 22 minutes. If you have to play a longer show for example like 40 minutes, do you play again the album?
Monty Hukill: We never play more than 20 minute sets…Our set of new songs for the Gridlink tour is all of 12 minutes total. I don’t think we’ve ever been asked to play X amount of minutes…Most people probably want our shit over sooner than later. Nobody has that sort of attention span anyway.

Metalfan: A funny thing that I've figured out is that one of your songs from this album is titled Untitled. Why did you choose this title?
Monty Hukill: Because we didn’t have a title for it by the time it was recorded.

 

Christos

 

Metalfan: Who has drawn the artwork for The Way of All Flesh?
Monty Hukill: Andrew’s long-time friend Jethaniel Peterka did the artwork…An original oil painting. He’s also Andrew’s tattoo artist. Once the painting was done, Aaron Nichols from Defeatist did the layout.

Metalfan: The way it looks is somewhere at the border between the old school and the new. Could you explain us the message behind the cover?
Monty Hukill: I think Jethaniel had already been working on the painting before he decided to do the cover art for The Way of All Flesh…He probably took it in a ‘darker,’ quasi-sacrilegious direction once he heard the music.

Metalfan: Let’s return to the music, what things have inspired you when you have composed The Way of All Flesh?
Monty Hukill: For me, I’d say boredom and beer.

Metalfan: What are your favorite three albums of all times? Why?
Monty Hukill: In terms of A.S.R.A.’s music, again just speaking for myself, I’d have to say the Blindspot/Anticapital collection by Assuck, Necrotism: Descanting the Insalubrious by Carcass, and Cause of Death by Obituary. Those are three albums that have certainly had an impact upon the way I try and write music…Or what I usually find myself listening to…That or Disincarnate.

Metalfan: Thank you for your time. In the end would you like to send few words to our readers or to add something?
Monty Hukill: Thanks for the interview.

Autor: H.
Vezi galeriile trupelor: ASRA

   August 13, 2008  | 0 Comments  | 8748 Views « BACK

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