REGURGITATE
Guts=Glory
By: John Gnesin
While still quite an underground phenomenon, gore-grind bands and music have become nothing if not more and more prolific over the last few years. One look at our catalog listings in this issue of Resound or on the Relapse website reveals that young bands vying to be the sickest and most gruesome in the genre are spurting up everywhere and making a disgusting mess like a teenage boy with his first porno magazine. Among both fans and bands of this twisted style, no name is as revered as that of Sweden’s REGURGITATE, and on the eve of the release of the band’s fourth full-length Sickening Bliss, I had a chance to catch up with vocalist Rikard Jansson to discuss the new album among other putrid pursuits.
Resound: Before getting to the new album, I want to know how you guys felt about your set at the 2005 Maryland Deathfest and your trip to the U.S. in general?
Rikard Jansson: “Man, we had such a blast in the US since we went there with our good friends in BIRDFLESH and GENERAL SURGERY. NYC was awesome; too bad we couldn’t hang out there more than we did. The MDF was a great festival and in my opinion very well organized. For me personally it was sort of a dream come true to finally be able to play out in the US and I think that goes for everybody in REGURGITATE as well as in BIRDFLESH and GENERAL SURGERY. It was also much fun to meet friends that you normally just have email contact with. All in all a fuckin´ great weekend for sure! I sure hope we can go back soon again.”
Resound: Everyone seemed to really enjoy seeing REGURGITATE live, which is a rare occurrence. You guys seem to have your shit together on stage so I am wondering why you don’t perform live more often?
Jansson (laughing): “It’s not that bad man, we did an embarrassing gig in Germany back in 2001 but I think that bullshit is forgotten now (or maybe not?). Some months before we went to the US and MDF we made sure that our set would be tight enough to satisfy our American fans by rehearsing every weekend until we left and judging from the feedback we got afterwards I think we succeeded.”
“Why don’t we play out more often? 75% of the band has families and kids to look after so it’s kinda hard to go do as many gigs as we really want to. An average gig-year for REGURGITATE would be like 10-12 shows. Feels pretty solid to me but that’s nothing compared to other bands that tour non-stop. That wouldn’t work for us, although we do want to start touring more now when Sickening Bliss is released since we’re all super satisfied with the production and it feels great to promote such an album by playing more frequently. We just have to convince our wives and girlfriends that it’s very important for the families that we go out there and do the hard work!!!”
Resound: Sickening Bliss seems to mix the best of older and newer REGURGITATE styles. A lot of fans were upset that Deviant was not as ‘gory’ as the earlier albums, and it sounds like you listened to the fans a little bit. What influenced the decision to take it back to the old school?
Jansson “We dug the Deviant album when it comes to the songs and how they’re built, but the sound is not what we were looking for. When you record an album in such a very hi-tech studio as Soundlab, it’s almost impossible to get a filthy production. Also, at that time I think both Jocke and Urban were focused on getting a clean and super tight sound that was still very harsh and they were the ones that spent most of the time in the studio during that recording.”
“With Sickening Bliss it was a whole other story. When we first started to discuss which sound we wanted the album, all four of us were totally on the same level when it came to which sound we were aiming for: The Effortless Regurgitation sound - nothing else!!!! Jocke knew a dude down where he lives who owns a studio with only analog gear that would probably suite us perfectly. We recorded a couple of songs in August 2005 just to try the studio out and the end result turned out fabulous so the search for the ultimate studio was over. So yeah, I guess we listened a bit to what our fans really wanted to hear but we were also aiming for a rougher and more chaotic sound to follow up the clean sounding Deviant. We were basically like: ‘Ok, now we’ve done a clean sounding grindcore album, now lets do the opposite!’”
Resound: What led to the decision to use fragments of CANNIBAL CORPSE lyrics as the song-titles?
Jansson “Say what??? Hahahahaha! Naaah man, I’ve always been a CANNIBAL CORPSE fan and kinda fascinated with how well the lyrics are written. During the time when I was brainstorming for song-titles I simply couldn’t help myself but borrow some sweet lines from them. If we’ve offended some people, well, sorry bout that. You’ll just have to deal with it. Much respect to CANNIBAL CORPSE and George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher!”
Resound: The album art is definitely the most eye-catching REGURGITATE cover since Carnivorous Erection? Who did the art?
Jansson “His name is Paul McCarroll and we actually found him via the Relapse links section. I honestly think it’s our best album cover to date!! Very nice and clean at first glance but utterly disturbing when you look at it more closely. Perfect!!”
Resound: It seems anyone these days can find a gross picture on the internet and make 20 minutes of noise and be an underground gore-grind sensation. What do you think of this recent phenomenon? Do you consider it cheating or lazy?
Jansson “I definitely consider it cheating. I just can’t stand bands that steal ideas from other bands just cause they’re too lazy to go their own way or come up with at least something that is close to originality. That’s just beyond lame. I also have a hard time getting used to bands with drum machines, there are some exceptions but I can definitely count them on one hand.”
Resound: Not that I want you to lose underground credibility as masters of gore, but if I may be so brave to ask, what horribly disgusting things make you as a member of REGURGITATE want to...uh...regurgitate?
Jansson “Too much alcohol mixed with too much weed, hahahahaha!!! I tried that once aboard the MS Stubnitz (a well-known ship where a lot of underground bands have played through the years) in the north of Germany. It was a real success I can tell you that for sure. A skipper came out with a fire-hose after I was done and sprayed the whole deck to get rid of the vomit. Goddamn, what a great moment.”
Regurgitate’s new album Sickening Bliss is due for an October 17th release date.
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