Today's
guests are about to release a highly anticipated album that will have
the Doom/Stoner Metal community talking for a long time to come. They
call their blend of music – STREET DOOM.
And
these guys don't FUCK around where the riffs are concerned. Their
debut album – In The Wind – is already starting to receive some
impressive reviews. Our team member, ThisHairyGuy, said this about
the album.
“In
The Wind’ is the impressive output of a reliable and well-oiled,
vintage groove machine that relentlessly and unapologetically keeps
plugging away as newer models come off the production line, fall
apart and die. It is the classic VW Camper that hurtles past some guy
standing on the hard shoulder looking furiously into the smoking
bonnet of his modern 4x4. It is a record that is completely
comfortable with the size of its dick and has nothing to prove.”
I
had to find out about these self-professed – Street Doomsters –
and see what makes them tick and what the future has in store for us
all....
Hi
guys. How are things with you today.
Another
day closer to death…
So
why did you choose the name R.I.P. for your band. Though I'm glad you
did as it's awesome to see a band without the terms – BONG, WIZARD,
WEED, ELECTRIC in their band names.
We
wanted a name that reflected what we wanted the band to sound like:
straight forward and morbid, and also many of our fans do not know
how to read so we wanted to make it something easy to spell and
pronounce for them.
How
did the band get together. Did you all know each other before forming
the band.
Angel
and Fuzz have been playing music together in different bands for the
last seven years, when they decided to start R.I.P. they knew they
needed the most depraved knuckle dragger in the northwest to keep the
rhythm and Willie D was the only dude who had enough white zombie
CD's to make the cut. We went through at least four or five different
bass players who couldn’t handle the R.I.P. lifestyle or didn’t
have long enough hair until we recruited Jon the mingler Mullett, a
dude Angel and Fuzz have been touring with in other bands for years,
and the real R.I.P. finally solidified.
For
a first time listener looking to discover your band - How would you
describe your music. Though I see your music is being classed as
“Street Doom” - What is STREET DOOM. Love that term!!!
Seems
like every day there's a new “heavy” “doom” band that tries
to be the slowest most magickal group ever, burning candles and herbs
on a stage draped in “mystical” symbols, reading their mom’s
chicken soup for the Wiccan soul book for song titles, writing
concept albums about their astrological sign etc etc, in R.I.P. we
want heavy metal out of the stars and into the streets. We write
songs about the shit we experience everyday, fear, death, drugs,
panic, real shit. We don't have 50 pedals hooked to each instrument,
we don't try and mystify anyone with some fake witchcraft shit we
read on Wikipedia, its just street doom plain and simple.
Your
new album – IN THE WIND – is a brilliant seedy, dark and twisted
tale into the world of Occult based Doom Metal. Well that's my take
on it. If you have to describe your upcoming album in your own words
to a perspective new fan – What would you say to them.
West
coast street doom, nothing more nothing less.
Was
recording the album an easy or hard process to complete.
We’re
a live band primarily so it was a challenge to capture what we do
live in the studio, but Andrew Grosse has always been the fifth
member of R.I.P. he’s recorded everything we’ve ever done since
our first demo in 2012, so working with him made it easier. We’ve
all been a fan of Brian Ellis’ work with Egyptian Lover so we knew
we could trust him to craft the street doom sound we needed in the
mixing, and he definitely came through.
The
album is being released by the excellent TOTEM CAT RECORDS. How did
you get involved with them.
How
hard is it being a band in today's world. What are the most difficult
aspects in being in a band.
Our
biggest challenge is finding bands that don’t suck to play shows
with, and close second is find audiences that aren’t wimps to play
to. Its bleak out there.
What
is the song-writing dynamic in the band. Is it a group collective or
down to one individual.
Fuzz
handles the lyrics, Angel writes the riffs, but the process of
melting all that shit down into an actual song is everyone
Can
we talk about the fantastic album cover. That's perhaps one of the
best covers I've seen in a long time. It looks it was inspired by
classic 70s/80s Heavy Metal records. Was that the case.
We
talked with Adam about concepts and aesthetics we dug, 70s sleaze,
90s southern rap, spooky shit, tough shit, and he ran with it and
cooked up a masterpiece. We’ve been playing shows with Adam’s
various projects throughout the existence of R.I.P. and we knew he
more than anybody picked up what we were putting down and could turn
our sonic message into a morbid vision
I
see you got Adam Burke to design the cover. How did you get Adam
involved as he's drawn some amazing album covers over the years
within the Doom/Stoner Metal scene (Adam has designed covers for Sons
Of Huns, Ancient Warlocks, Danava, Diesto and Ice Dragon. He's also
Guitarist/Vocalist with FELLWOODS)
Angel
and Fuzz have been playing shows with Adam around the Northwest heavy
scene since before R.I.P. and Fellwoods were around, and his new
project Pushy is one of the best bands out right now we play with
those guys all the time, he’s been down with R.I.P. since day one
we’ve played shows with all his bands throughout the years so it
only made sense to get him to apply his paintbrush to the project,
he’s one of the few that really gets it.
What
inspired you to become a musician? Any particular album, band or
life-changing event that told you – Yeah, that's what I want to
do....
Death
is always on my shoulder, never letting me forget the grave is the
only guarantee and we’re living life on loan, i got no choice but
to bang my head and scream with whatever little time the reaper lets
me have before that scythe comes down forever, there's no time to
waste so play loud, play hard, play with your guts, be real before
you’re bereaved, that's whats kept me dragging myself up on stage
the last 15 years, that's the attitude i bring to R.I.P.
Will
you be touring this record heavily. If so what dates are you
performing and what can people expect from the live R.I.P.
experience.
We’re
doing a full US tour this spring, probably another west coast tour
this summer, and got our eyes on Europe after that. When R.I.P. comes
to your town you can expect all wimps to wither under the scythe,
you’ll see leather, hair, spikes and studs, you’ll hear the most
regressive rock n roll to waste your brain cells to, and Fuzz will
probably talk allot of shit to you too. Here are the dates so far:
3/7-
Seattle, wa @ lucky liquor
3/8
- Portland, or @ starbar
3/9
- Sacramento, ca
3/10
- San Francisco, CA @thee parkside
3/11
- San Diego, CA @ till 2 club
3/12
- Flagstaff, AZ @ flag brew
3/13
- El Paso, TX @ grynde bar
3/14
- San Antonio, TX @Faust Tavern
3-17
- New Orleans, LA @ Siberia
3/19
- Birmingham, AL @ spring street firehouse
3/20
- Columbia, SC @art bar
3/21
- Ashville, NC @ static age
3/22
- Richmond, VA @ strange matter
3/23
- Baltimore, MD @ sidebar
3/24
- Brooklyn, NY @ st vitus
3/25
- Portland, ME @ genos
3/26
- Boston, MA @ obriens
3/27-
Philadelphia,PA @ kung-fu necktie
3/28
- Buffalo, ny @ hoyt house
3/29
- Pittsburgh, pa @ gooskis
3/30
- Indianapolis, in @ Indiana city beer
3/31
- Chicago, IL @ smiler coogans
4/1
- Milwaukee, WI @ high dive
4/2
- Minneapolis, MI @ rat hole
4/3
- Lawrence, KS
4/4
- Denver, CO @ bar bar
4/5
- Grand Junction, CO
4/6
- Salt Lake City, UT @ the underground
4/8
- Eureka, CA
4/9
- Oakland, CA
4/10
- Salem, OR
Before
you go, do you have anything to say to your fans.
Street
Doom AINT A Spectator Sport. BANG YOUR FUCKIN HEAD!!
Words
by Steve Howe and R.I.P.
Thanks to Claire at Purple Sage PR
for arranging this interview. Thanks to R.I.P. for taking the time
out to talking to me. In The Wind will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl from Totem Cat Records from March 2016.
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