We spend two minute with Whitehorse and find out what’s happening…
What’s going on in the world of Whitehorse?
Well, after a 35 date US tour last year we had a line-up shuffle and got a few new good heads involved, drummer Scott from Pneumatic Slaughter, Infinite Void etc and Sean from Ignivimous on guitar, we have also recently added Ben from Pneumatic Slaughter, Evil Ways etc on second guitar.
We played a handful of shows this year including awesome shows in Brisbane at Total Attack Fest and Sydney at Evil Invaders Fest.
We are working on new material, a split 12? with Negative Standards from Oakland, CA will be coming out on Vendetta Records (Germany) soon, and a couple of other new releases are planned for the not too distant future. On top of new stuff we are working with Vendetta and MusicFearSatan (France) on re-issues / collections for release early 2014 to coincide with our first ever European tour!
We are also super excited to finally to hit the Perth and play with our friends in Drowning Horse amongst other beastly apparitions of the West and are working on having 3 different sets covering 7 of our 9 years worth of output.
What motivates you to make music?
Who knows… I pretty much hate music, this has all been a mistake. Unfortunately at this point I can’t see a way out of it. I figure we may as well keep travelling the world playing shows, boozing, feeding and hanging out with awesome people until it’s all over.
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
OK… Low point, on our first US tour in 2007 some small internal band issues snowballed into a kinda terrifying mess of a tour, while a lot of the shows were great and definitely memorable we hit a pretty grim low point in Philly. One guitarist had to sit out the show sick in bed and our other guitarist managed to get obnoxiously drunk and on top of pissing off the people who put on the show and staff at the venue, couldn’t work his borrowed amp enough to be audible. At one point he nearly knocked his rig off stage. Our noise guy at one stage threw a mic at someone, hitting them in the head after they accidentally threw water or beer on his pedal set up while trying to douse our wasted guitarist for laughs. This show remains to this day the worst show of any band I have been in, none of the other members of that time are in the current Whitehorse line up. The next day we had to leave our sick bandmate to be taken to hospital on a stopover in Atlanta on route to San Diego to play our last 2 dates of tour. At this point everyone in the band was a bit of a wreck. Looking back on the tour it’s a string of jaw dropping stories both good and bad, but at the time it was all really intense. So intense that we didn’t play again for over 2 years.
As far as high points, there are a lot. I guess I’ll drop a point from the same US tour mentioned above, that began an awesome long running relationship with Whitehorse and The Body. Some mutual friends had recommended playing shows with this 2 piece from Rhode Island called The Body, I had been in touch with them and tee’d up some shows. Then on recommendation of our label at the time we had taken on a booker who somehow managed to fuck up the plans I had with The Body and I had to get in touch with them direct and work something out last minute when I found out. Chip and Lee said they would get something together for us, It turned out to be the best show of that tour.
We turned up to play a basement show at a house called The Metal Mansion with Tides and The Body, the guys from the house provided an endless supply of Narragansett, the local budget beer and hooked up biggest backline we had ever played… in a fuckin basement! The Body kicked off the show and totally melted everyone’s brains, not only were they the heaviest band ever but they were also the best people! We played second and were met with a heaving, slow circle pit, people hanging from the ceiling and two girls making out in the pit! Shit was absurd! The bass rig was two 8×10 cabs stacked sideways on top of each other behind the drum kit which our drummer told us afterwards had made him feel physically ill the entire set. Tides rounded out the night and we all hung out to the early morning . August from Tides made us a great veggie chilli and we drank until almost dawn. Since then we have remained close friends with The Body, touring and releasing a split 7? with them in 2011 and playing with them again in 2012. We are looking forward to hopefully touring with them again in 2014.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
I can only answer that on behalf of myself, not the rest of the band. I have been listening to a terrifying outfit called Wretched Worst a lot .. I came across them on the internet one night .. it’s members of two bands I like a lot, Hair Police and Cadaver in Drag .. both intense listening. Death metal band Vastum from the Bay Area have been getting a solid spin, I am looking forward to hearing new stuff from them by the end of the year, we played with them in SF last year and they destroyed. New EP from The Body… other than that .. just some regular grindcore and death metal fare..
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first?
First?
I would eat all of them in a obscene, greasy banquet. There is no lone first place.
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off?
I see no reason to add to the cesspit of complaining on the internet about pointless crap. I save my negative vibes for real life complaining.
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring Australian artists? Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
That’s a bit of a hard one to narrow down to one show… but keeping it in the heavy vein maybe Disembowelment, Dad They Broke Me, Heads Kicked Off, Christbait and Whitehorse at The Punters Club might be a bit of a nice heavy show to be involved in.
