Saturday, December 22, 2018

Interview with Isaac Horne (Sulfuric Cautery, Orchiopexy, Mankind's Devastation...)

I'm very excited about this post, not just because I'm really psyched with how the interview itself turned out, but also because for the first time in ages I was able to make an update relatively soon to the last one!!! Hooray!!!

So this time around I got to interview Isaac, who has for sure been an integral part of the goregrind renaissance we have all been witnessing for the last several years. Isaac has played in numerous killer bands and is for sure one of the most prolific blast beaters in today's scene.

I had the pleasure of meeting Isaac on my visit to Anti Music Fest #4 this fall which he organizes in Ohio, and I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to bear witness to the Midwest scene and hang with Isaac and everyone else in that insane scene. I'm sure for many of you, Isaac's reputation precedes this introduction, so I'll just cut it short. Thanks again Isaac for agreeing to have this chat and hope y'all enjoy this piece!!! 



Pic by Sicken Designs


PROCRASTINATE: HELLOO!!! Thank you 666x times for agreeing to do this interview!! How are you?? What have you eaten today and what was the last record you listened to?

ISAAC: Thanks for your interest Urho!!! I'm doing well, just at work right now. I ate a feta/egg/guac sandwich a few hours back. I was just bumping Hacked Up For Barbecue but got complaints from customers about it, hahah. Now I'm bumping Roland Jones, awesome ethereal phonk remixes from the Ukraine, check him out if you're into that kinda stuff!!

PROCRASTINATE: Ohhh nice!! I was actually just listening to Chainsaw Dismemberment today at work too!! Nice that you get to blast music at your place of work as well haha! Also, that sandwich sounds fucking killer... So, I have a ton of questions for you, but I wanna start with asking how you got into music in the first place? When did you get serious about it and when did you start playing your first instrument? What were your first projects like etc.?

ISAAC: I heard Linkin Park when I was like 8 and thought "DAMN that's heavy", haha!! I blasted a bunch of nu metal and awful alternative rock for a few years before inevitably getting into the heavy stuff. I started playing drums when I was 12. My dad was in a bunch of punk bands when he was younger and still plays music, so he wanted me to learn an instrument when I was younger.

For some reason I always wanted to play the drums and never guitar or the piano like he wanted. So after years of getting the "drums are too loud" response, he caved and I said I could get a kit and he would help me pay for half of it, so I did a bunch of babysitting and yard work for neighbors and eventually got a shitty one! 

My first band was a powerviolence band called Detroit who started off pretty rough but I think we were doing some pretty cool stuff near the end of our existence. I started playing with a horrible hardcore band called Suicidal Cop as my second band, and then a shoegaze project I still actually really like, called Hard Drugs Hamilton. Then I got fast enough to play grindcore and it was all downhill from there...




Hard Drugs Hamilton - Heinous demo brother (2013)


PROCRASTINATE: Drums are for sure my favorite instrument too, I just never really had the chance to play them regularly, aaargh!!! Do you still listen to nu metal? I have to admit that I sometimes listen to that kind of stuff as a guilty pleasure sort of thing, haha... Why do you think that people have this kind of weird/shitty taste for stuff? And when did you shift from hardcore and powerviolence to grindcore? Was there a difference between the scenes or a transitional period or something like that?

ISAACIf I'm hanging out with Kerby from Girth, chances are I'm exclusively nu metal, haha! And honestly, yeah I do independently sometimes too. I think it's largely nostalgic, and cause it's super funny, and straight up some of that shit is still heavy. Dystopia is more or less weaker Korn, haha. A big part of that transition waas just getting good enough and fast enough to play grind! With PV there's generally more slow parts and the blasts aren't as quick, so it was easier to manage for my amateur ass.

Also finding people who wanted to play grindcore was kind of a mission in Edmonton. The first two grind bands I played in were formed because friends from BC came to Edmonton to stay for a while so we started jamming. Scene wise there wasn't really a scene for grind or PV when my first two bands started playing shows. Sick bands would come through and the openers would be like a noise rock band, a punk band and maybe one grindcore / PV band which made me start booking shows to see 100% brutal line-ups!




Detroit - EP (2012)


PROCRASTINATE: Oh yess, I have a faint memory of banging some nu metal shit with Kerby!! And hahaha it's funny you should say that, I always thought Dystopia had a strong nu metal vibe too, haha! Do you like that band by the way? I listen to them quite regularly, I really dig the lyrics, or at least parts of them. And oh fugg, I forgot you used to live in Canada for who knows how long! So what was your first grind band there?

ISAAC: He's the king of the nu!! Nah, I never got into them. Really I don't like heavy music unless it's the most speedy brutal shit possible. If I wanna hear anything else, I'll listen to a different type of music. There's lots of soul songs that are millions of times heavier and more depressing than any sludge or doom stuff, for me at least. The first grind band I played in was called Cavity search. Collin from Shooting Spree and I started that project when he was working in Edmonton for a month. It was really fun! Not only because it was my first 100% grind band, but also if you know Shooting Spree, you'll know that Collin think about / plays grind like no one else on earth, so playing along to his insane riffs was quite a rewarding challenge.



Cavity Search - Demo (2013)


PROCRASTINATE: Ohhh that sounds great!! I'll have to check out that band, Shooting Spree too! I never listened to them although I've heard recommendations from lots of folks! By the way, I heard you say some where that for you 100% blasts are where it's at! Do you really prefer 100% blast music or what are your thoughts on the more tupa-tupa style grindcore? ALSO!! How the fuck did you achieve your current snare sound?? I never heard anything like it!! (With reference to the Sulfuric Cautery / Take That Vile Fiend split 7")

ISAAC: Shooting Spree is legit my favorite band. It's been a huge influence on my playing all around, and for the writing in Sulfuric Cautery as well! I definitely prefer all out blasting, but there's definitely some great groovy grindcore out there too. If it's pornogrind or all groove and no blast, I'm not down. But bands like Couple Skate and Girth do a fantastic job of mixing lots of tupa in their grinding. 

Thanks man, I've been on the hunt for the most annoying / abrasive snare tone for years, and this is the happiest I've been with it!

Step 1: Acquire a snare made of metal, preferably a large deep one.

Step 2: Put a clear head on it. Coated heads sound too traditional and not annoying enough.

Step 3: Tune the top head up as tight as you physically can.

Step 4: Get someone stronger than you to tune it EVEN TIGHTER!

Step 5: Don't be a featherblaster!!!

It's really hard on your snare and I have broken many many snares doing this, but that's the price of finding the perfect ping!



Track from the SxC split with TxTxVxF


PROCRASTINATE: Your style of drumming includes a lot of different accents and tempo changes that sound like they're really challenging technically! Was there a point where you really started to practice your technique and started to develop as a drummer, or did you achieve your current touch as a more gradual process? Also, when did you join Hyperemesis with Andy and how did Sulfuric Cautery get started?

ISAAC: I'm not a super musically talented person that can learn instruments quickly, so it was a very long and gradual process. But some key turning points for the blasting progress were learning to blast with my fingers instead of my wrist / arm, playing a set in between Obacha and Shooting Spree every night for 2 weeks, while getting any confidence I had annhilated daily, and pushing myself to play above my skill level in Sulfuric Cautery, haha.

Andy had been doing Hyperemesis for a few years as a solo project before I had even met him, and it was one of the first goregrind bands I got really into. He had Graham from Shooting Spree playing drums briefly. Then when he came out to Edmonton, I became the second session drummer in Hyperemesis. After recording a few splits and doing two North American tours, Andy decided I could be the full time drummer in Hyperemesis, and it's been a two piece since then. Soon to be a three piece with our homie Hepatitis Steve on bass!

Sulfuric Cautery started a few months after I moved to Dayton in 2015 with Ryan Mattox and me trying to make unreasonable hyperblasting goregrind, influenced by Last Days of Humanity, Warsore, Shooting Spree, Neuro-Visceral Exhumation, Deterioration, Goner, Anal Birth, etc. Trashcan Wilkinson joined in late 2016, and Kerby joined this year, so now we are a four piece!



Sulfuric Cautery - Live @ RDF (2018)


PROCRASTINATE: Hahah that sounds like a pretty intensive way to develop musically! Hyperemesis became pretty popular after you released such a huge amount of killer releases that maybe in some way redefined the modern goregrind sound / style, and I think with Sulfuric Cautery you've also had a nice reception. This might be a pretty weird question, but how has your experience of becoming a well known underground musician been like, and has that led to any sort of weirdness? Or does this at all ring a bell?

ISAAC: Ah thanks man!!! I've also noticed that the mincegore style that Andy did with Hyperemesis has been influencing a good number of bands in recent years. That's all his doing though. I didn't add much to the Hyperemesis sound other than playing some of the drum parts faster, haha! Regardless of success or exposure or anything, I suspect I'll always do this stuff, as I did for many years doing stuff no one cared about, hahah! 

Fortunately there's not much difference between a "well known" underground musician and any other underground musician, so there hasn't been any kind of temptation to sell out and play metalgrind or anything. Though it has been nice to not have to reach in my own pocket as much to be active in bands, factoring in breaking gear all the time and stuff, I'm still losing lots of money to play.

Establishing a good network of D.I.Y allies, definitely makes it way easier to put out records and book tours though. Shouts out to all the awesome people I've had the pleasure of working with throughout the years! The teamwork and passion driven nature of D.I.Y will forever be a grinders best friend!




Hyperemesis - Split with Dope Resin (2015)


PROCRASTINATE: I totally agree with you about the underground community being one of the best examples of what teamwork and non-profit mentality can achieve! What kind of ambitions or goals do you have as a musician? I know you've played tons of shows in North America, but do you have plans to go tour internationally? If you could pick one place for your next tour where would that be and why?

ISAAC: At the present time some of my grindcore related goals are: Improving my endurance on drums, getting the Moller technique down, and wrapping my head around stringed instruments better so I can write riffs that don't suck!!! Also a few projects I'm involved in have started trying to mess around with doing full length records instead of our typical 5 minute bursts for splits or demos.

Yes, we absolutely do plan to tour internationally eventually!! I've typically been too broke to invest over a grand in plane tickets to get out of North America, but the longer we stay here the more tempting it is to play outside the continent!! If money / logistics / fuckin' LIFE, man, in general weren't obstacles, I would book a Japan tour ASAP!! They've always had a remarkable grindcore / noisecore scene and it would be amazing to play with World / Unholy Grave / Viscera Infest / Patisserie / Oniku etc.! The culture shock of being North American out there sounds immense too, which I think I would really enjoy after being in the grindcore rich but culturally bankrupt American Midwest for the past few years.



Hyperemesis live at SGF in LA, opening for DT80k (2017)


PROCRASTINATE: A Japanese tour is probably a huge dream for lots of people because as you rightly say, their extreme music scene is just insane!! Not to mention all the other interesting cultural aspects that you mentioned. Do you currently play stringed instruments in any bands? I saw you do vocals for Sissy Spacek at Anti Music Fest #4, but this was a one-off kind of thing, right? How was that fest for you by the way? I'd imagine organizing such an event would be quite a hassle! Do you book a lot of gigs nowadays? Also, you mentioned something about the culture of the Midwest there, would you like to elaborate on that a little bit?

ISAAC: Nah, right now I'm only playing drums in bands. I don't consider myself anywhere near skilled enough to offer my stringed services to anyone, haha. I do play bass on most recent recordings for my one man project though, called Mankind's Devastation. The Sissy Spacek thing was indeed just a one time thing. The mic was shocking their bassist, so I improvised the set last minute. 

Lots of people seemed to enjoy themselves at the fest this year, so I'd say it was a success! I was a horrible stress bag the whole time though. I plan on making a few changes next year so I can enjoy myself a bit too, haha. I typically book about one show a month, but they're in my basement and only 4 / 5 band line-ups, so they're much more manageable. 

In a lot of regards the Midwest is the center of American ignorance, xenophobia and depression, which I think is responsible for why there is such an amazing grindcore scene here. Lots of people have put tons of effort to make their own special scenes from nothing, which I think is a very positive response to the overall bleak nature of the Midwest.




Mankind's Devastation - First Two Demos


PROCRASTINATE: I see what you mean. I think organizing shows has to be one of the most thankless jobs in the whole scene, when you consider the amount of preparation and hassle that's involved. I still wanted to ask about your other projects, including Mankind's Devastation. How long have you been doing that for, and how do you like having a solo project? You also play in Rancho Relaxo, right? Can you tell us a little bit about that project as well? ALSO, you're making the "Open Your Eyes and Die!" zine! There have been two issues of it so far, any chance of a third one coming soon? I really like the D.I.Y style of that zine and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Do you do the zine all by yourself or is it a group effort?

ISAAC: I think MxD has been around for around 2.5 / 3 years now. It started (as the name partially implies) as an attempt to combine the later non-stop blasting chaos of Last Days of Humanity with their early hellish noisecore stuff. I'ts been a fun experience doing a solo project, as it has pushed me to do more than just drums, get better at recording, and I can run further with ideas that might have been a bit too absurd to pursue in a full band.

Me and my partner Vicky are responsible for both Rancho Relaxo and OYEAD. It's been great getting to collaborate with her! I know it's not too different than grindcore, but the slight style change to play fastcore is quite enjoyable! Lots of changes in the super short songs, all single kick blast beats, and the style is much more punk.

We will be working on a third issue, after making a repress of the second, which is now sold out. I'm glad you're enjoying them. It's done purely out of our love for horrible noise, and to try and give exposure to projects that we think are doing interesting things. For the most part I handle the written content and Vicky does the visual stuff, but the separation of content isn't exclusive.



Rancho Relaxo - 2 tracks from the first demo


PROCRASTINATE: Nice!! You will definitely have to send out copies of the third issue to Europe so we can all catch up with the latest news and gossip over there, haha!! You mentioned self producing for MxD, so I wanted to ask you how you produce the stuff for your other bands. Do people mostly do D.I.Y production there or do you go to studios? Also, it seems to me that there are quite a lot of D.I.Y venues in the states, which I think is pretty cool and exceptional. How often do you play in clubs, and are there downsides to hosting house shows that makes it more difficult / less appealing?

ISAAC: Deal for sure! The time that I started doing Mankind's Devastation was the first that I've recorded independently, so it's a relatively new thing. Me and Ryan self-recorded most of the early Sulfuric Cautery and Orchiopexy stuff, and we recorded with Trashy a few times too before he was in the band. Now we do most of our stuff with Trashy because his set-up is far superior to mine. He knows a lot more than I do about recording, and just knows how grind should sound!!

All of the "higher quality"  recordings I've released have still just been with friends in a basement or practice space or something (shouts out to Doug Long, Shady Jim and Dan Ryckman!). I've never recorded in a studio, and I don't really have any desire to, haha. I know other bands and friends over here have done it, but it never seemed worth it to me, plus overproduced grind is poop.



Orchiopexy - The Ultimate Putridity (2016)


Fortunately the vast majority of shows we play are at houses or other D.I.Y venues, clubs / bars suck and do not exude the essence of grind, plus they exclude young people from the fun!! In some cases they are a necessary evil. It's better to have some place to do shows than none. It's definitely harder to run a D.I.Y venue than to put something on at someone else's club or venue, from my experience, but I still maintain it's a worthwhile thing to do! 

When you do shows in your house specifically, you have to deal with a bunch of drunk people in your home, on top of running a show and all the things that come along with that, like having shit stolen / broken, people pissing off your neighbors / roommates etc. Fortunately for the most part people have been pretty respectful since we started doing the Treehouse of Horror though, and it's been going for a bit over a year now!

PROCRASTINATE: Oh shit, I didn't even know you played in Orchiopexy!! And that reminded me that you also have the project Raw Addict! Haha, so many songs do you estimate you have memorized at this moment? It must be in the hundreds haha! By the way, what is it about gore that appeals to you? Are you really into horror and pathology, or is the appeal related to something else entirely? Also, when is the Sulfuric Cautery / Chopped Off Dick split LP coming out?

ISAAC: I think I only have like 30 songs memorized right now. When we write new ones I forget the only songs very quickly! I think pathology, and both real life and fictional horror are very interesting topics, but neither are my main draw to the goregrind genre. The most alluring aspect of goregrind for me is the sheer extremity of it. It pushes grindcore to its furthest limits. Between the faster tempos, the lower tuned guitars, inhuman pitch shifted vocals, and raw and nasty production, it is to me the furthest conclusion of grindcore, and by extension death metal and hardcore punk.

I wish I could state a date for the release of the Chopped Off Dick split 12", but it's still in the works. Our side is done, Chopped Off Dick have started recording their side, but it's not quite ready yet, same with the artwork. I'm incredibly excited for it to be out though. It's the best recordings we've done yet, and CxOxD are one of the most spectacularly brutal bands going right now! Plus Julian from CxOxD has been a huge supporter of SxC and my number one partner in grind, so on top of it being a super harsh record, it'll also be permanent evidence of grindcore friendship!



Teaser track from the SxD split with CxOxD


PROCRASTINATE: I really look forward to hearing both sides of that release! By the way, was Raw Addict a one-off kind of thing, or are you planning to release more stuff or do shows+ Did you do the collaboration with Joe through the internet, or how did that happen?

ISAAC: Raw Addict has been a project for longer than I've been living in the states, we're just very gradually releasing our stuff. Me and Andy spent two weeks in Winnipeg jamming for a Hyperemesis tour in 2014, and near the end of our stay, Joe invited us down to the Laboratory for Fecal  Analysis. We consumed malt liquor while jamming and then recorded the first Raw Addict session! It was supposed to be for a split with a band that Andy and Dan Ryckman were going to start while we were in Winnipeg, but that never happened, so we released this session on tape about a year later.

After the first session, all our stuff has been recorded long distance and sent through the internet though. Since then, we have released a self titled EP on tape, and recorded material for a full 7", out soon on Mullet Death Records, and a split with Flesh Hoot. We're currently in the beginning stages of recording for a split with Rawhead as well!!! As of right now, we haven't had time to get a live set togther, but if we find ourselves in the same city for long enough we absolutely plan to jam and hopefully play some Raw Addict shows! Joe has been a huge inspiration for me, not just in terms of his amazing grindcore output and partying abilities, but in his D.I.Y work ethic as well, so it has been an honor to collaborate on this project and we'll have much more coming soon!




Raw Addict - 2nd Demo (2018)


PROCRASTINATE: I really love Joe's projects too, and your playing really compliments one another in Raw Addict!! Now I'm beginning to run out of questions, but I wanted to ask if there are some things in the grind / punk / metal scenes that you'd like to see change, and on the other hand are there things that you'd like to always stay as they are now?

ISAAC: At the moment in our little scene, I'm pretty happy with it in a lot of ways. I really wish there were more young people getting involved though. Young people are the life of any scene really. No one gets into abrasive music in their 20's, but lots of people drop out the older they get. If younger people aren't able to attend shows are discouraged / ridiculed when they do, I firmly believe any scene will eventually totally die. 

The other main thing is that a lot of people are quite apathetic, not just locally, but in the worldwide grindcore scene. It seems like many people have for gotten or rejected the ideas on which the genre was first founded upon. I've seen a fair amount of people, mostly straight white males who aren't affected by any of these issues, call to keep politics out of grindcore, for people to shut up and play riffs, or point out that it's absurd that bands that talk about war and violence to be politically or socially minded, which I think is very dumb.



Filling in vocals for Rawhead, opening for Mortician in Baltimore


I view being able to simply enjoy yourself and listen to music as important too, but to dismiss it as purely entertainment seems short sighted to me. I know this attitude is largely a reaction to "PC Culture", and I do believe there are many flaws for that way of thinking as well, but to reject having any dialogue on important issues is a huge oversimplification of the matter. It's looking at it as a black and white thing, when like any other issue it's a shade of gray. And on top of that, to dismiss and act annoyed by issues that you're lucky enough to not be affected by seems pretty damn selfish. Those are my two main complaints, for the most part I think we have a pretty cool little scene locally, and internationally there's no scene I'd rather be involved in than the grindcore scene!

PROCRASTINATE: I see what you're saying, and I definitely agree about the D.I.Y scene being the best, even though some elements of it can in some instances be a bit questionable! But yeah, although it would be sweet to go on chatting for basically forever, this seems to be a good place to stop, as I think you've pretty much covered everything I wanted to ask you about! But if you have any final words, cheers, jeers, shout outs etc., the floor is yours!

ISAAC: Shouts out to you for the interest and great questions, you and Temsu for coming across the world to grind our brains out in September, Vicky for being the best, Girth for being our best friends and forever tour homies, Julian, Vulva Essers, Deterioration, PLF, HARM, Couple Skate, Melbourne sickos, Blake and Logan, all my awesome band mates and all the homies I've made through grindcore worldwide, ya'll rule!!!!! Big fuck you's to MDFL, Doperunner, Greg Deadfest, Esceula cops, and all other racists, rip offs, homophobes and misogynists out there, rail a bullet!!!

If you want to get in touch, holla at: sulfuriccauteryATgmailDOTcom



With the fam in Edmonton

AAAAAARGHHH!!! That's everything for now folks!!! Hope you enjoyed the read, and be sure to check out all of Isaac's projects from the links below and show 'em some support!! AAARGH!!! 


LINKS:
https://orchiopexy.bandcamp.com/
http://blastaddict.tictail.com/ (ISAAC'S LABEL / DISTRO)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrIfsAQ0TIgr_mCH2EQ0Q2Q
https://rawaddict.bandcamp.com/
https://hyperemesis.bandcamp.com/


2 comments:

  1. Great interview dude!! I like all of the audio/video clips for reference. Keep it underground two horns \m/
    Cheers Guyg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Howdy, I discovered your blog per Google bit searching for such really surprising requiring other than your moderate notice genuinely stunning for me. bizzjournals

    ReplyDelete

Interview with Isaac Horne (Sulfuric Cautery, Orchiopexy, Mankind's Devastation...)

I'm very excited about this post, not just because I'm really psyched with how the interview itself turned out, but also because f...