Show notes
Earlier this month I caught up with Bandit after their show in Atlanta. In between obnoxiously loud car engines and jokes about killing each other, we talked about their latest LP Siege of Self, their lastest tour with Chepang and Decultivate, what it was like to work with Colin Marston, and why Denny's might actually be hell on earth.
Read the (lightly edited) transcript below or listen at the bottom.
Eenzy: Hey guys, Eenzaamheid - Eenzy - here, I'm outside 529 in Atlanta, which is a venue, hanging in the parking lot where I came to piss earlier tonight - Bandit is the band I'm with. Do you guys wanna introduce yourselves?
Gene: Yeah I'm Gene Meyer, I'm the vocalist
Gobi: I'm Gobi, drummer for Bandit
Jack: I'm Jack, I play guitar, and is it a coincidence that every place that's good for an interview is also good for a piss and a murder?
*Eenzy laughs*
Eenzy: You ruined the end of this interview for me, so thank you!
Eenzy: Siege of Self, your full-length came out earlier this year. Me and a lot of other reviewers heard a lot of Pig Destroyer in the sound, was that intentional or just our lack of imagination as reviewers? Also, generally what are you main influences specifically on that album?
Jack: I would say it was intentional but we already got one Cease and Desist so I'm just gonna say no comment - I'm just kidding. I've listened to Phantom Limb and Terrifyer more than any other albums in my entire life. They have absolutely a massive amount of influence [on me]. The guitar you saw me use tonight I actually got from Scott Hull. In terms of other influences, I listen to a lot of Discordance Axis, Agents of Abhorrence from Australia - super incredible band - a lot of Chepang both new and old. I'm really big into the latest Car Bomb LP, which had a big influence on the grooves on the record, and you know like Rock 'n Roll - AC/DC, Lou Reed, stuff like that.
Eenzy: I actually got to see Chepang also tonight cause they're on tour with these guys, so it was quite the show.
Eenzy: For me, when I listened to Warsaw, I felt like there was an underlying theme. A lot of the songs are named after cities that had concentration camps in WW2 - would you say there's an underlying theme to [Siege of Self], and is there a connection to the record Warsaw? The reason I ask is because the last line in "End of the Rainbow" says "bury me in Czestawova" [Gene corrects my terrible pronunciation]. Are they connected, do they both have general themes, what's up?
Gene: Warsaw is about inter-generational trauma. Both sides of my family - my dad went through a very painful divorce as a child and my mom, her parents survived WW2 labor camps and all that shit. Siege of Self is more about my own struggles. A lot of it focuses on failed relationships, depression - I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder while we were recording - so a lot of it plays into that. But one thing we always try to do is reference older material in the new material. In that last song not only do I reference Czestawova but I reference the parking lot which is a reference from Self-Inflicted and throughout the album there are a few lines that are repeated like "a little bit of violence never hurt anyone" and stuff like that.
Eenzy: Your music seems intensely personal to me; is playing a cathartic experience? And do you ever struggle with how much you're willing to share with your audience?
Gene: It is intensely personal, I don't think we'd have it any other way. Playing is also intensely cathartic, I also don't think we'd have it any other way. On this tour, there have been some shows where we have just given our all and the audience stares at us like we're a bunch of penguins at the zoo, but tonight was a good example of the crowd really reciprocating our energy. We know that if we're gonna be a band that gives 110% every time, sometimes people just aren't gonna be ready for it and that's ok.
Eenzy: What's your take on the national mental health crisis and what roles does extreme music play in it?
Gene: I think the crisis we're seeing really started during the pandemic. I think the pandemic forced a lot of people to get honest about their mental health. Prior to that, especially in men, there's a lot of urge to downplay or ignore or pretend it's not there. I think it's actually moving forward, it's progressing, people are talking about it more openly. I'm seeing like athletes, and celebrities, and all that...
Eenzy: Yeah there was like a gymnast right? Who dropped out of the olympics?
Gene: Yeah! I mean last year Mike Patton cancelled a tour for mental health. It's becoming more and more of a widely accepted thing. And I do think extreme music is such a good outlet for people struggling with that shit, cause at its core it's about dealing with unpleasant emotions and really processing them with peers.
Eenzy: So this is for all three of you guys: What was your first exposure to grindcore? And what got you into this very abrasive, caustic form of music that my parents did not like when I was a kid?
Gene: It's a long story but the first CD I ever owned was Rage Against the Machine's self-titled and that really just sent me down the path. But the first grindcore album I ever heard was Prowler in the Yard, which I stole from FYE! Which makes me sound like a 58 year old man...
Eenzy: That's like the most punk way to get that album.
Gene: Yeah, I remember putting that in my mom's van and really just being blown away by it and being hooked every since.
Gobi: For me, I moved to the US in 2011. Back in Nepal, there wasn't a big grindcore scene. The first big band that ever came to Nepal was Napalm Death. So that was the only grind band that I saw or listened to. Once I moved to the US, on the East coast I met a lot of friends that were playing in the grindcore and metal scene so there was a lot of exposure to local bands like Triac, and it was more kind of like a closed circle [of bands] and friends that exposed me to more of the grindcore scene, and that's how I started playing in it too.
Jack: When I was 15, my best friend, our original drummer Michael Thomas, downloaded This Comp Kills Fascists, Scott Hull's first Relapse comp, and he was like "You need to check out this band A.S.R.A" and the first song I ever heard was "Cancer" by A.S.R.A. And that shit totally blew my mind, but the most influential band to me on the comp was Chainsaw to the Face, the New Jersey band - they were this incredibly arrhythmic, psychotic, brutal grindcore band. I had never heard anything like it, and when I found out they were a straight-edge band, that was why I became straight-edge and am still straight-edge to this day.
Eenzy: That's a great name for a band - Chainsaw to the Face!
Jack: Best name of any band, all time!
Eenzy: Your last album was produced, engineered, and recorded by Colin Marston, who is a bit of a legend on our stupid site. We love him way too much, in a creepy way. What was it like working so closely with him?
Gobi: Working with Colin is really organic and natural. Previously I've recorded drums with Chepang - we've recorded a couple albums with Colin - and his studio is called Thousand Caves and as soon as you walk in, in the middle of Queens, there are trees all around and there's a big hallway with a big piano and that's a live room. For drums especially he also puts a mic a little bit far [away] in the hallway too, and when you're playing it's super organic and loud. It's one of the most comfortable places to play an instrument. And it's super easy to work with him because you're already super comfortable.
Jack: One thing I'd like to add is - one thing Colin is famous for, and in some ways infamous for, is he really likes to capture a performance as it is. He wants to capture the way that a band actually sounds. Which, if you're really good, is awesome, but if you need to practice, can be very stressful. I swear to god I have never been as good at guitar as I was when we recorded this record because I had to do everything precisely right for it to be on the record the way that it was. There were even a few performances I was unhappy with but Colin thought were so great, and I respected him so much that I was fine leaving them in there. I really think that adds so much character to the records he does, especially records that are super technical like ours or like an Artificial Brain-type band that can easily end up sound overproduced and robotic. He is just like "We're gonna get an organic sound that is like the band playing in the room with you" and it's incredibly rock and roll and beautiful.
Eenzy: So you guys are nearing the end of your tour. What was your favorite city or show you played so far?
Gene: I think the real surprise of the tour for me was Davenport, Iowa. I had never heard of Davenport, it was a Tuesday, I thought there were gonna be like three people there, and there was like 80 people there and it was totally fucking rocking. We went up and crushed it on stage and the crowd just went wild for us.
Gobi: For me I think it was St. Louis. There was a crowd that wasn't as big as the Ohio crowd, but there was a different energy where everyone went all-out, so by the end of the show we were drained but it was totally worth it. There was a different energy there that we could relay back to the floor; they had a really good energy there.
Jack: St. Louis and Davenport were the biggest surprises of the tour and I had a lot of fun at those shows, especially at St. Louis. But I have to say Memphis was an incredible experience and my favorite show of the tour. And a big thank you to Josh from Wise Grind Records for setting it up and Corroded for playing the show with us. It was so much fun, such good energy - the entire crowd seemed to love every band. We really just had a great time hanging out and goofing around with our friends,...
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
