GRIPE INTERVIEW

 I first found gripe through a blog,whose name i can't remember now.It linked too their demo The Future Dosen't Need You and i was immediately pleased with what i heard.blasting,buzzsaw guitars,snarling vocals talking of killing cops and such.i immediately began following the group as they've become bigger and bigger in the grindcore circuit.they released pig servant in oct 2011 and it became very popular at the blog grindcore karaoke and was put out by DIY noise and sold out in a  matter of days of being released.their newest split with Diseksa,Indefinite Detention,is tight as fuck and sold out quickly.Pig servant is being repressed now as well as the excellent split with Chulo from DIY NOISE rex. I interviewed brandon and dj about the band,their infulences and the politics behind their noise.

38th Chamber Of Thrash: How did gripe come to form?






Brandon: Gripe formed out of boredom and necessity in Athens GA some time in very late 2010. Dj and me were playing in our d beat band wolf charge. But we really wanted to play faster at the time. Tom had just moved to Athens from MI and did not have many friends and wanted to be in a punk band. Wolfcharge was on its last leg Dj and myself had no plans other than to start the fastest band in Athens. Tom and me started jamming at the local charity music space called Nucis. It sort of went from there. Bu6t thats just Athens we dont play ATl as much as we should really.
    

DJ:like brandon said it was after wolfcharge, we always knew we where destined to be in the worlds fastest band but needed to kill time until we met tom, i remember we would argue with our old drummer (in wolfcharge) so much brandon said"we should just call our next band gripe"

36th: what reaction did you garner from the Atlanta music circuit as you started?
 Brandon: Positive actually for the most part. We pretty much let it be known that we would play with anyone, anywhere, and anytime under  any circumstance. We just showed no fear and no pretension I think that went a long way with people.We started with every intention of full on alienating eveyone so it was cool to see kids just be like fuck yes! We formed  an odd couple  alliance with a local pop punk band called The Fuzzlers and started wrecking houses.  American Cheese Burger was still around for a lil bit when we just started as well. I think were just happy to see another fast pissed band in Athens so we got to play some cool shows with those guys before they broke up as well. We have had allot of fun.
Dj:we played one of our first shows in atl and as soon as we got done playing people wanted merch, we where like what? this is our second show. we still have no idea whats going on!


36th: what is some good grindcore from Georgia?
 Brandon: In a word Grinchfinger! Also God's Balls are pretty insane as well.
 Dj: Grinchfinger

36th: under what conditions was 'The Future Dosen't Need You' recorded?

Brandon: The Future Doesnt Need You was kinda neat because we really kind of did not know what we were doing at the time and I think it kind of shows. haha The dudes who recorded it Joel and Mike(who fucking rule) kind of walked us through it because it was the first time Dj and me had ever done anything that could be considered a "real" recording but Joel and Mike had never done a grind recording before so we were all figuring it out as we went along.. I was using a Busted ass Laney head 50 watt pro tube at the time it had been  dropped literally like 3 times at house shows going into the recording that same week and already sounded like shit in the best way possible of course. It was just feeding back uncontrollable in the "studio"  so they had to throw a ton of compression on it to try to make it sound close to  a "real" guitar sound. haha Dj did everything in one take.Refused to do any do overs. Partially because  He was extremely hung over and dehydrated but I also think its because he felt good about it. Tom was a pro and was an old hand at recording really. But I think we were all shocked at how well it came out overall. Dare I say even proud haha. When I first hear it I remember thinking this is going to be un listenable to most people and I kind of got a kick out of that. Ya know I like a kind of either you get it or you fucking don't kind of thing.  Of course the on line reaction  also came as a complete shock it seemed very unlikely and kind of surreal. haha We were not even able to tour because of finances but people were still finding our music and responding to it. Now I go back and listen to it and the recording  just sounds so weird and out of phase or something, but still incredible pissed haha I came up with the title because I was reading an article on Ray Kurzwell and futurism. It just struck me weird, the whole thing was about immortality and nano bot technology. So I was just like here human's are  arrogant as ever  using robots to cure fucking cancer and shit but on the other hand as a species we are still just as ugly, dumb and barbaric as ever in how we treat each other. So I came up with the title just sort of playing off the age old fear of technology evolving faster than man and eventually replacing him.

Dj: well on my part i was still pretty drunk from the night before and pissed i had to wake up early, thats why my vocals sound like shit. but the guys are fucking amazing (joel and mike) and just let us do our thing. i wanted to do all my parts in one take just like a live show. in repeating yourself  you lose intensity

what are some of your main infulences when writing lyrics?
Dj: robots, booze and pure fucking hatred for humanity

Brandon: I would say Dystopia for starters. I help out with the lyric writing process. I dont know I will just be doing my shitty job or in class doing a shitty assignment and I just sort of daydream up grind song titles. I have been doing this since I was  a kid so it is sort of second nature really. I like our lyrics allot I feel like Jordan (our current singer) does a great job.I think right now in the world of grind and pv it's all about riffs and compositions  and lyrics are an after thought really. I don't like that, We as a band don't like that. We still think what a band says is important once again, another outdated notion our band subscribes to. Jordan bust's his ass and works real hard and I think he says what he means and I think he draws from a wide variety of punk and even some black metal because religion is a pet peeve topic of his. DJ is pure nihilism.

how did you come into contact with diseksa?
Dj:that's all brandon
Brandon: Diseksa rule and they are just a rugged ass band who's always down for a split. They actually found us because I think a part of their thing is just seeking out the grossest sounding grind they can find  and cranking out quality splits relentlessly. So they actually contacted us. I met the drummer of the band Seluar Jeans Koyak online and he was a really nice super down to earth dude and we started talking about the idea of doing a split and it sort of went from there. I think they first heard us through the Operation Grindcore vol 1 comp(one of the best underground comp releases of last year) I love the SE Asia grind scene right now for my money one of the best active grind scenes in the world! Kids over there are all about anything fast, dirty, and blasty. Also I just feel like they are coming from a more sincere place musically than some of the bands in the good ol US of A. Where it is always scene this and scene that where everybody is competing with each other in the worse ways possible be it to get on the "right" label or just trying to make a name for their selves. They just dont come across like that in certain other parts of the world. So in a way there is just a more fuck you attitude to it and allot of bands we like come out of Asia.

where did the inspiration to call the split "indefinite detention" come from?
 Brandon: There was recently an extremely fascist law passed by our government and it kind of went under the radar in mainstream media but for the most part it allows people to be arrested or detained if you will  under "terrorist" charges without a fair trial and for an indefinite amount of time the law is written and constructed vaguely. This is intentionally so that the powers that be can dictate what qualifies as terrorism at any given point to suit their own interest.. I thought it would make a good album title apart from just not only being relevant but also because it catches your ear. I mean the law itself when spoken sounds creep, vague and threatening and I feel like it is designed that way. Also there is a tradition of grindcore and punk rock/hardcore songs addressing and calling out fascism for what it really is when they see it occur. But I feel like people have gradually gotten away from that maybe its to old fashioned or maybe its just apathy.I don't know.  But anyway to me that has always been a  big part of the roots of grindcore music it has direct ties to crust punk and the early anarcho punk movement and it has of course evolved into many different things and its own genre, but it  was originally a sort of  kill all extremity used as a vehicle for rebellion and  to capture the sounds of oppression and human suffering and  there is not a more capable genre of music than grindcore, crust and allot of the early fastcore that inspired it, for doing this in my opinion. I dunno I mean I like records like Misery Index and FETO just the way the lyrics add to the atmosphere, where lyrically they are coming from this sort of dark reality sort of place if not a reality than something that could easily become your reality. They always sounded like prophets of doom to me and it always had a sort of crushing desperation to it.  I guess Just trying to channel that  in our own way really.

I love the Man vs. Cop split w/ Chulo you just recently released,how did you guys come into contact with
those guys?

Dj: Thats also all Brandon.

Brandon: I heard Chulo on GK a while back. I was really into them it was a sort of blown out lo fi kind of sound that was real bass and groove heavy. I dig that kind of sound its always so painful when bands can do that right. Water Torture is another band right now who comes to mind. But yeah Sebastian the guitar player of Chulo was aware of us I guess and he contacted me on line and we started nerding out on grind and crust and pv and all this shit we were into.He runs a blog that covers South American punk rock and hard core so I was finding out about all these awesome bands and one day he pitched the idea of doing a split on floppy disk since you could fit literally only 1 minute of music on a floppy disk as a grind band we were capable of doing a two song single kind of thing and I thought it was genius! I told every one else and the fellas were just like naw he must mean flexi and I was like floppy no shit! haha I think its funny cause physical formats are such a dying animal. Its just like okay people just download music and put it on their ipods anyway if they get a tape or vinyl they regard as a sort of a "collector" item now anyway. But I just like the idea which was all Chulo! Oscar their  vocalist hooked up the art work and it came out sick. The Man Vs Cop floppy disk split release is one of the coolest things I think we have done as a band so far.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
Brandon: Just keep writing music. Still trying to capture that sense of urgency like the first time you hear Minor Threat or Scum when u are a kid. I want to write something that floors me like that. I liked The future and I liked Pig Servant even more I feel like our next record is gonna be even better hopefully, if not  go back to the drawing board. Dont want to repeat myself or regress. So yeah I think this is going to be our first official full length and expect dual vocals or maybe even three vocalist this time out who knows?


Finally,What are your top 5 anti police songs?
Dj:   acab, fuck the police,officer down, 911 is a joke, anything by r kelley
Brandon: ACAB, Fuck the police, cop killer, Police story, and revenge. Gotta have at least two black flag songs in there. 

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