Grind Inc. is growling sickness
interview with Tom, September 2008
Please give us a short introduction of yourself before exposing your mental state?
Hoi Twan and hey to all readers of BRUTALISM. Ik ben Tom van Grind Inc. uit Duitsland and mijn Nederlandse taal is niet goed. ;) I'm one voice of the dual vokills we do in Grind Inc.
And of course you are not the only one in the band so introduce the other grinders please?
The other guys are Adriano on drums, Jan on guitar, Thomas on bass and Chris on vocals. We are five guys on a muderous death metal frenzy, hehe.
In the bio can be read that the band started as a side project of two other bands. Isn't it funny that Grind Inc is more famous than the others?
Well, somehow yes. Back in the days Grind Inc. just started as a weekend project and was about some grinding and beer drinking, but some years later became a real band and we put the focus on it. This was a natural process as our other bands called it quits or just took a now quite long break like Night In Gales did after their members were also occupied with their other bands.
And you joined the band after quitting your previous band. Give us some info about your past bands. Why did you decided to join forces?
The band I was in before was called Coronation. We even made it to the Netherlands once and played in Eindhoven as support to Master, Xenomorph and some more – in front of two guests as we had to start before the regular playing time, yeah. Adriano also played in Coronation before and he, Jan and me had another band called Torture Chamber back in the days. So Grind Inc. was formed by them, also featuring Jochen and Chris vom Hatefactor. Some years earlier Chris and me decided to start a dual vokillz band one day, so after all these different bands we had before, Grind Inc. was the right place to finally get this plan going. Later on Jochen left the bass and focussed on becoming our live engineer, so Thomas from Resurrected took over the bass duties.
Never regret?
Actually the only time when you regret to be in an underground death metal band is when you spent 2000km on the road on one weekend, haha. Recently we played some shows on the Cryptopsy tour and we went to Berlin, Tilburg, a festival in Southern Germany and to London. I guess you guys can imagine how your ass hurts if you do it in a small transporter. But apart from that there is no point of regretting anything because it is damn cool if you have the chance to play cool shows and meet people who like that kind of music too.
So how does a regular day look like as being a vocalist for Grind Inc?
Hm, rather not spectacular. We all have our regular lives, jobs and duties. So most of my days are pretty much the same like with most of the other people too. I have two kids and a dog, so when I am not working, I am permanently on the run. Apart from that I like music, movies, sports and computer gaming, so I do not get too much sleep. With Grind Inc. we fortunately do not need too many rehearsals, mainly before a new album and if we have not played live for a while.
And how much precious time does the band takes? Are you doing only the interviews or also other things?
Actually we have splitted some parts of the work for the band. Adriano and Jan take care about new songs, Thomas does logistics, Chris does stuff like Myspace etc. and I do most of the inties, artworks and business stuff. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that when you asked me how a typical day looks like, haha.
Is Grind Inc a band that do rehearsals on a weekly base? And what do you practice? The songs you gonna play live? New tunes or are you playing your fav cover songs?
We did practice on a one to three times level per week in the past. But since our drummer moved to Southern Germany, we do not practice very often anymore. But it is no problem since we all know the songs we are going to play live. We already have some standard tunes in our set, but we also try to change a part of the songs so that people and we ourselves do not get used to it too much. We will start practicing regularly again when it comes to a new album. Actually we never play cover songs at rehearsals, just our own stuff for upcoming shows.
What are your fav covers songs anyway? Can you remember you first real metal song you ever heard?
To be honest, we have never managed to find a song to cover that would suit us all well. For me personally, I don't get the point in covering a song of another death metal that is maybe just a bunch of years old. If I would do a cover, it would be something like „Among the living“ by Anthrax or „Birth of ignorance“ by Brutal Truth; old school and influential stuff from the times when we grew up. The first real metal record I heard was Dio's „Holy diver“, an absolute alltime classic! I heard it around '86 when a guy from school showed it to me. That was like my personal metal ignition, followed by Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, S.O.D. and all the stuff which led me to exploring the death metal extremity in the late 80s.
In your show list we can read your upcoming live shows. They are only at festivals. Is this on purpose or are you abandonded by local venues?
Well, probably this is by co-incidence. We played a lot of clubshows in the past, but now we get more and more bookings for festivals. In three weeks we will play another clubshow in Essen, Germany, opening up for Nile, Grave etc., then in October we will play a bunch of clubshows in Austria and, yeah, another festival in Slovakia, sharing the bus with Leng T'che.
What is the benefit of playing festivals? Your chance to meet fans, see bands or shitloads of free beer in the stage area?
Actually this is a quite good description. It is easier to hang out with people, drink more beers than usually (though we often have to pay them ourselves) and see some other bands play. The organization usually is a bit more smooth, so if we have the chance to bring our own sound engineer, it is even better coz most of the technical stuff is already working properly when we enter the stage. Yes, I like playing festivals, hehe.
What is the average beer consumption of Grind Inc? Do you swallow all brands?
Actually we would like to point out that we only swallow beer and other alcoholics. Nothing coming out of male body parts. I don't know why, but I just felt the need to say this when I read the word „swallow“, haha. Remember Konkra's „Spit or swallow“; I was 20 back then and I loved the girl on the cover, haha.
About swallowing, what about the groupies?
Damn, I knew I was right with your evil allusions! Well, now we are a bit older, so let's say it decently: a gentleman enjoys and keeps silent, hahaha.
And how about giving deaf persons free entrance? And if they are in how are you gonna entertain them and maybe you can write what he would feel during the gig?
Wow, that's really a question I never heard before. Obviously I never thought about it since I did not know that deaf people could be into deaf, eh, death metal. But yes, I would let them in for free then so that they can try to get a hook on the energy we unleash on stage. Even if they cannot hear the music, they would see and feel that it fucking rocks and kicks ass.
For a band it is essential to write songs. Can you tell us how songs are made? Where are the inspirations taken from and how long does it take to give it form?
Adriano or Jan come up with some basic ideas for a new song, then they work on it together. Later on we check the song altogether, and when it has its final form, Chris or me invent the vocal lines for the song and we work on it until we are satisfied with the result. We do not have special inspirations apart from all the different music we listen to and that might leave its impact on us, for the lyrics it is the horror of daily life you get to see if you turn on your TV.
What makes a song a Grind Inc song?
Brutality, technical approach, growl/scream sickness and a certain groove that makes you bang your head or raise your fist and scream „hell yeah“.
How much did the computer helped you when recording Sudden State Of Hate?
Actually not that much. The even more important thing was that we split up the recordings so that we had some more time to reflect certain parts and rearrange some details here and there. The same went for the vokillz when we just had some time for experiments like the canon part at the end of the opener 'Certifiably insane'. We never had too much time in studio due to financial reasons, but with having the needed support of our producer Cazy from Ezysoundz, it was quite cool to work that way.
Now the album is out are you happy with the end result? And ofcourse there are always things you would have done different...
Yes, it is both. We are very happy because we believe that this fierce fucker of an album is quite a blast, but on the other hand we are looking forward to go on with a new album. For us the songs are already „old“ again, so it will not take that much time until we start to write some new stuff.
Are you satisfied with the reactions on the album? And what did your grandma think of it as you obvious send her a free copy?
Actually the reviews were very good and also the reactions of the fans that came up to talk to us after the shows or left some online comments. Well, though we are getting older, we are going heavier and heavier, haha. But you never know, we don't have personal limits except the urge to creating really ass kicking music. I think the sales of the album could be much better, but it looks like the underground will lose against downloading. If I would sell my ass off with records, I would not mind, but at the moment I have no clue how to pay for the next studio time. Downloading is cool for checking out a band, but if you like the music, you should get the original album including all the artwork etc. My grandma is dead so she cannot listen to the album. But I think she would like it. Not the music itself, but me doing something somehow artistic, hehe. Some weeks ago we played in Italy, in the hometown of our drummer's father before he came over to Germany. The real shit was that Adriano's grandma showed up at the festival site to watch the gig - and she liked it. I think she was in her 80s or something, but she really had fun of seeing her grandson with those sickos devastating the village in a storm of death metal fury. A big respect to the whole killer audience over there.
Speaking about your grandma, I saw in your pics gallery a Sinterklaas doing the horns up sign. What is your emotional bond with him?
The Satanic Sinter is our singer Chris. I think he was working in a home for retired people at that time or something similar. Well, in the Kerstdagen time it was his job to do the Santa for the old people (seems like not only kids like him), but well, Chris cannot step out of his skin, so even as Santa he had to raise the horns...
And as Sinterklaas arrives in December we are coming to an end. Any interesting to tell us?
Even more interesting? You should go and work for the yellow press, haha. After we survived the excursion on swallowing, you suspiciously often talked about my grannie. According to this, maybe next time we can exchange some really bad „your mother“ jokes. If you make it a regular column, here is the start: Your mom swallows more like a 7 Series BMW. Apart from the upcoming shows we are collecting material for a DVD and for a new record which will probably be a split album with another band which is not ready to be confirmed yet.
Last rites?
If you want to see Grind Inc. in the Nederlands, contact our booking. We will kick some ass, hehe. Thanks for the intie and thanks to the readers for taking the time for this one here.
Please give us a short introduction of yourself before exposing your mental state?
Hoi Twan and hey to all readers of BRUTALISM. Ik ben Tom van Grind Inc. uit Duitsland and mijn Nederlandse taal is niet goed. ;) I'm one voice of the dual vokills we do in Grind Inc.
And of course you are not the only one in the band so introduce the other grinders please?
The other guys are Adriano on drums, Jan on guitar, Thomas on bass and Chris on vocals. We are five guys on a muderous death metal frenzy, hehe.
In the bio can be read that the band started as a side project of two other bands. Isn't it funny that Grind Inc is more famous than the others?
Well, somehow yes. Back in the days Grind Inc. just started as a weekend project and was about some grinding and beer drinking, but some years later became a real band and we put the focus on it. This was a natural process as our other bands called it quits or just took a now quite long break like Night In Gales did after their members were also occupied with their other bands.
And you joined the band after quitting your previous band. Give us some info about your past bands. Why did you decided to join forces?
The band I was in before was called Coronation. We even made it to the Netherlands once and played in Eindhoven as support to Master, Xenomorph and some more – in front of two guests as we had to start before the regular playing time, yeah. Adriano also played in Coronation before and he, Jan and me had another band called Torture Chamber back in the days. So Grind Inc. was formed by them, also featuring Jochen and Chris vom Hatefactor. Some years earlier Chris and me decided to start a dual vokillz band one day, so after all these different bands we had before, Grind Inc. was the right place to finally get this plan going. Later on Jochen left the bass and focussed on becoming our live engineer, so Thomas from Resurrected took over the bass duties.
Never regret?
Actually the only time when you regret to be in an underground death metal band is when you spent 2000km on the road on one weekend, haha. Recently we played some shows on the Cryptopsy tour and we went to Berlin, Tilburg, a festival in Southern Germany and to London. I guess you guys can imagine how your ass hurts if you do it in a small transporter. But apart from that there is no point of regretting anything because it is damn cool if you have the chance to play cool shows and meet people who like that kind of music too.
So how does a regular day look like as being a vocalist for Grind Inc?
Hm, rather not spectacular. We all have our regular lives, jobs and duties. So most of my days are pretty much the same like with most of the other people too. I have two kids and a dog, so when I am not working, I am permanently on the run. Apart from that I like music, movies, sports and computer gaming, so I do not get too much sleep. With Grind Inc. we fortunately do not need too many rehearsals, mainly before a new album and if we have not played live for a while.
And how much precious time does the band takes? Are you doing only the interviews or also other things?
Actually we have splitted some parts of the work for the band. Adriano and Jan take care about new songs, Thomas does logistics, Chris does stuff like Myspace etc. and I do most of the inties, artworks and business stuff. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that when you asked me how a typical day looks like, haha.
Is Grind Inc a band that do rehearsals on a weekly base? And what do you practice? The songs you gonna play live? New tunes or are you playing your fav cover songs?
We did practice on a one to three times level per week in the past. But since our drummer moved to Southern Germany, we do not practice very often anymore. But it is no problem since we all know the songs we are going to play live. We already have some standard tunes in our set, but we also try to change a part of the songs so that people and we ourselves do not get used to it too much. We will start practicing regularly again when it comes to a new album. Actually we never play cover songs at rehearsals, just our own stuff for upcoming shows.
What are your fav covers songs anyway? Can you remember you first real metal song you ever heard?
To be honest, we have never managed to find a song to cover that would suit us all well. For me personally, I don't get the point in covering a song of another death metal that is maybe just a bunch of years old. If I would do a cover, it would be something like „Among the living“ by Anthrax or „Birth of ignorance“ by Brutal Truth; old school and influential stuff from the times when we grew up. The first real metal record I heard was Dio's „Holy diver“, an absolute alltime classic! I heard it around '86 when a guy from school showed it to me. That was like my personal metal ignition, followed by Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, S.O.D. and all the stuff which led me to exploring the death metal extremity in the late 80s.
In your show list we can read your upcoming live shows. They are only at festivals. Is this on purpose or are you abandonded by local venues?
Well, probably this is by co-incidence. We played a lot of clubshows in the past, but now we get more and more bookings for festivals. In three weeks we will play another clubshow in Essen, Germany, opening up for Nile, Grave etc., then in October we will play a bunch of clubshows in Austria and, yeah, another festival in Slovakia, sharing the bus with Leng T'che.
What is the benefit of playing festivals? Your chance to meet fans, see bands or shitloads of free beer in the stage area?
Actually this is a quite good description. It is easier to hang out with people, drink more beers than usually (though we often have to pay them ourselves) and see some other bands play. The organization usually is a bit more smooth, so if we have the chance to bring our own sound engineer, it is even better coz most of the technical stuff is already working properly when we enter the stage. Yes, I like playing festivals, hehe.
What is the average beer consumption of Grind Inc? Do you swallow all brands?
Actually we would like to point out that we only swallow beer and other alcoholics. Nothing coming out of male body parts. I don't know why, but I just felt the need to say this when I read the word „swallow“, haha. Remember Konkra's „Spit or swallow“; I was 20 back then and I loved the girl on the cover, haha.
About swallowing, what about the groupies?
Damn, I knew I was right with your evil allusions! Well, now we are a bit older, so let's say it decently: a gentleman enjoys and keeps silent, hahaha.
And how about giving deaf persons free entrance? And if they are in how are you gonna entertain them and maybe you can write what he would feel during the gig?
Wow, that's really a question I never heard before. Obviously I never thought about it since I did not know that deaf people could be into deaf, eh, death metal. But yes, I would let them in for free then so that they can try to get a hook on the energy we unleash on stage. Even if they cannot hear the music, they would see and feel that it fucking rocks and kicks ass.
For a band it is essential to write songs. Can you tell us how songs are made? Where are the inspirations taken from and how long does it take to give it form?
Adriano or Jan come up with some basic ideas for a new song, then they work on it together. Later on we check the song altogether, and when it has its final form, Chris or me invent the vocal lines for the song and we work on it until we are satisfied with the result. We do not have special inspirations apart from all the different music we listen to and that might leave its impact on us, for the lyrics it is the horror of daily life you get to see if you turn on your TV.
What makes a song a Grind Inc song?
Brutality, technical approach, growl/scream sickness and a certain groove that makes you bang your head or raise your fist and scream „hell yeah“.
How much did the computer helped you when recording Sudden State Of Hate?
Actually not that much. The even more important thing was that we split up the recordings so that we had some more time to reflect certain parts and rearrange some details here and there. The same went for the vokillz when we just had some time for experiments like the canon part at the end of the opener 'Certifiably insane'. We never had too much time in studio due to financial reasons, but with having the needed support of our producer Cazy from Ezysoundz, it was quite cool to work that way.
Now the album is out are you happy with the end result? And ofcourse there are always things you would have done different...
Yes, it is both. We are very happy because we believe that this fierce fucker of an album is quite a blast, but on the other hand we are looking forward to go on with a new album. For us the songs are already „old“ again, so it will not take that much time until we start to write some new stuff.
Are you satisfied with the reactions on the album? And what did your grandma think of it as you obvious send her a free copy?
Actually the reviews were very good and also the reactions of the fans that came up to talk to us after the shows or left some online comments. Well, though we are getting older, we are going heavier and heavier, haha. But you never know, we don't have personal limits except the urge to creating really ass kicking music. I think the sales of the album could be much better, but it looks like the underground will lose against downloading. If I would sell my ass off with records, I would not mind, but at the moment I have no clue how to pay for the next studio time. Downloading is cool for checking out a band, but if you like the music, you should get the original album including all the artwork etc. My grandma is dead so she cannot listen to the album. But I think she would like it. Not the music itself, but me doing something somehow artistic, hehe. Some weeks ago we played in Italy, in the hometown of our drummer's father before he came over to Germany. The real shit was that Adriano's grandma showed up at the festival site to watch the gig - and she liked it. I think she was in her 80s or something, but she really had fun of seeing her grandson with those sickos devastating the village in a storm of death metal fury. A big respect to the whole killer audience over there.
Speaking about your grandma, I saw in your pics gallery a Sinterklaas doing the horns up sign. What is your emotional bond with him?
The Satanic Sinter is our singer Chris. I think he was working in a home for retired people at that time or something similar. Well, in the Kerstdagen time it was his job to do the Santa for the old people (seems like not only kids like him), but well, Chris cannot step out of his skin, so even as Santa he had to raise the horns...
And as Sinterklaas arrives in December we are coming to an end. Any interesting to tell us?
Even more interesting? You should go and work for the yellow press, haha. After we survived the excursion on swallowing, you suspiciously often talked about my grannie. According to this, maybe next time we can exchange some really bad „your mother“ jokes. If you make it a regular column, here is the start: Your mom swallows more like a 7 Series BMW. Apart from the upcoming shows we are collecting material for a DVD and for a new record which will probably be a split album with another band which is not ready to be confirmed yet.
Last rites?
If you want to see Grind Inc. in the Nederlands, contact our booking. We will kick some ass, hehe. Thanks for the intie and thanks to the readers for taking the time for this one here.
