Friday, July 13, 2012

Deaths Head Interview 2012

The following interview is with Jesse/ Deaths Head and was originally printed in the Italian 'The Stormer Mag' Vol 11


Salute Jesse, all ok there? What news do you have?

Not much news from Australia I’m afraid.... just more of the same, watching the country and the rest of the world get worse and worse every day.... and sitting in wonderment that people can just sit idly and watch it all happen. It never ceases to amaze me that provided they are fed, comfortable and entertained that most people will put up with the most terrible things in their society until it lands on their doorstep and then they will turn around and ask “Why me?”... On a personal note, I am just keeping quiet and working on my music... I recently finished a new Deaths Head cd called “The Reapers Kiss” and am organizing its release and am working on material for the next cd as well...

I think you have had line up problems. What is the actual line-up? Can you present the band (name-age work)?

Line up problems are a constant thing down here in Australia. I think there has never been a time when there hasn’t been some problem. At the moment I have 2 line-ups. One to record and one to play live. For recording I do a lot of it myself, most everything except for guitar leads and drums and these are taken care of by G and Paul, both older guys like me. Live our line up is slightly different with myself on Vocals, S on bass, also about my age, T on guitars a younger guy, and Paul on drums once again... I won’t get too specific on ages, names and occupations...better safe than sorry these days and as we get older people have families etc and cannot afford to lose their jobs over playing in an NS band....and it can happen.. as for myself I am all over the internet already so it’s a little late for me to try and be cautious ha ha.
 
Do you like playing live? How many gigs have you played in your career?

I have always enjoyed playing live shows very much. It is always good to reach people face to face and also the energy and excitement of a good show is always fun for me. It is hard to say how many times I have played... not so much in Australia as the scene here is very small, maybe once or twice a year, I was lucky enough to do a small tour in Germany....wow I was just thinking and that was nearly 10 years ago, I will have to get back there ha ha.... Anyway, I couldn’t say for sure how often I have played, but there was never a time over the past 12 years or so that I wasn’t ready to go with one band or another... Writing songs, and releasing cd’s are important for the movement in terms of propaganda and fundraising but for me it has also been very enjoyable to play live as well, just for the opportunity to share our music and meet so many dedicated people, here and abroad.

You play mainly Thrash metal, what are the bands that have influenced you? I think you are glad that nowadays many comrades listen not only to OI! but also Metal, HC, neo folk...

I love all the old 80’s thrash metal bands and I guess this is reflected in my own music, though in a simpler way because I just can’t play as good ha ha.. lyrically I use a lot of metal inspired themes as well, blood, death, battle etc in the context of trying to explain the plight or our race and hopefully spark an interest in NS... though this gets harder every year as laws around this speech get harsher and harsher, so sometimes the lyrics can be a little vague I think. Personally though I listen to many different types of music and I think that the more musical styles activists use to spread the message the more people they will appeal to and thus the wider audience they will reach. I have to admit though rap and the more electronic forms that Nationalist music seems to be experimenting with lately is lost on me, though I am getting older, maybe it appeals to a younger crowd...

I still remember the great gig in Alsace and the funny trip to arrive at the location (do you remember "nazi elvis" of steelcap strength?) Any funny things about that mini trip in Europe?

I remember this trip well as it was my best time in Europe to date... I recall Nazi Elvis, he was a crazy guy, on the drive to the gig we stopped for a break and I saw him drink jagermeister, be sick, then drink some more jagermeister...then back into the van to drive for more hours... I am glad I didn’t have to sit next to him...later I saw him asleep wrapped in a flag backstage at the show... before he had to play ha ha..still then he got up played a great set and drank some more... On the same part of the trip I remember we went to visit an old bunker from the war and went in to explore it with a group of people... We Australians got separated from the main group and got lost in there, it was huge and couldn’t find our way out for an hour or so.. we tried to ask directions  but no one spoke english so we thought we were going to be stuck in there til someone sent a search party...eventually we stumbled upon our way to freedom... then we went and played our biggest show ever, from playing to 60 people at home to over 1000... the whole trip was pretty exciting...
 
How do you write your music?

Basically I will write the music and the lyrics separately. As for the lyrics I will get an idea, based on a phrase or word that pops into my head and I will write the song all in one burst...Sometimes in just a few minutes...I may come back and change a few things later, but if I do not get the lyrics out in one go I know I will never finish the song... I wrote the lrics for the whole Kriegslied cd in 1 day at work, just because the idea came to me like that and all I had to do was write it down. So yes usually I will have a pile of lyrics lying around, so when I mess about on the guitar and start coming up with some song riffs etc, I look through and find the lyrics that suit the sound best.. then I will record a demo at home to get an idea of the finished track for the other band members...
 
How is the scene in your area? Any new interesting bands...

As always in Australia the scene flows, it will get larger and smaller over time, though it is always faily small compared to the rest of the world. It has always been this way though so I can’t see it ever dying out alltogether. New blood comes in as old blood leaves. As for bands there are no real new ones, though some old ones are reforming.. Deaths Head has been around in one form or another for 12 years and started gigging after a long break a couple of years ago. Ravenous reformed as well a while back and are very popular here, they might even release a second cd one day... And the infamous Open Season reformed a couple of years ago as well after 20 years and have been playing shows and also just released a new cd called “Behind enemy lines” so the scene is still alive here in Australia.

Do you like watching films? What is your fave? What is your opinion of the "Romper Stomper" film?

Yes I like to watch a lot of films, though sadly good ones are few and far between...coming out of Jewish Hollywood anyway. I think most of us have to turn off our politics to go to the movies or else we would spend all our time yelling at the screen. My favourite movie of all time is Reservoir Dogs.. I love the dialogue in that movie... though Tarantino fucked up with his Jewish murder-porn Inglorious Bastards, that was just shit on every level. I also enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy....I loved the books as a child and I was pleased the director didn’t pander to political correctness and force muds into a lot of the roles. As for Romper Stomper, I always enjoyed this movie, and it is by far the best in the “Skinhead”  genre, but only as an enjoyable movie...not so much as an accurate portrayal...though I have known some skins like that way back in the day ha ha....
 
I really like the Kilgore project, but you say some about the other band syou play in?

As you say, besides Deaths Head, I also have the Kilgore side project. This is just a recording project and I have done 3 full length cds of this. It is more light hearted than DH to say the least. I have toyed with the idea of trying to get this as a live act, though as always time, distance and line up problems have prevented this. At the moment I also play bass in Aussie RAC band Ravenous, which myself and the founding member resurrected a few years back. People here enjoy it and we are working on a new cd of this as well which we hopefully will record sometime in the future. Thats it as far as my ad commitments go...though I did guest vox for South Australian band Ultra Violence at a few live gigs a few years ago..that was fun. I don’t know, I am always happy to help people out I guess.


...hey where do you find time for everything?

I don’t have much of a life these days I guess ha ha.... Mostly all I do these days is go to work and play around with new songs and ideas.

And for the "rest of time" you run also a label: 9% Productions

Slight misconception there, I do not run 9% Productions...and it is not really a label. 9% helps me out with some of my stuff, cd’s sales etc as a distro. 9% has done a few releases of it’s own, mostly live and dvd stuff, but the production and release of cd’s is too costly to do here, especially since people are reluctant to buy from so far away due to postage costs. So 9% acts as a distro (The largest and best in Australia) for music and merch and raises money for a few groups who donate the  merchandise and also helps out with the live music side of things as well. All the money raised by 9% finds it’s way back into the scene in one way or another.... For people wanting to check it out the web address is 9percentproductions.com
 
What do you think of christian religion? for you N.S. could be "compatible" with that religion?

Religion in my opinion is a personal thing and so long as people keep it to themselves they can believe in whatever they want so long as it is within the boundaries of our racial struggle and survival. I have know racialists who were christian and the subject of their religion never came up unless it was me telling them I am not interested in hearing about it. I think Christianity gets a bad rap because of the New Testament, turn the other cheek and love everyone crap that it preaches, which I cannot see as being compatible with NS at all.. I am personally not religious, but as far as NS goes I think that so long as National Socialism comes first then it doesn’t matter what God you claim to follow, be it Odin or Jesus or whoever... Having said that, if you think you can put NS before your god, and then your god turns out to be real, then he’s going to be pissed at you, so I guess you would have to ask yourself either how religious you are or how much of a National Socialist, so I guess it is up to a religious minded National Socialist to find something to believe in that straddles both areas of belief without too much conflict...
 
You visit many European comrades, what are the main differences between our Movement and the Australian scene?  
How is the life there as far as normal life, jobs, immigrants, laws etc.

It is a lot bigger for a start ha ha. It is hard to say for sure really, because when you tour it is like a big party so you do not really see what everyday life is like. But the movement is much stronger and more organized overseas, from a scene perspective as I say, there is a lot more going on in Europe, as there are far more supporters, bands and also people to organize..but having said that there are also harsher laws and more oppression of our beliefs there so I guess you have to take the good with the bad.  I love to travel in Europe, there is a sense of history there that is very inspiring and unlike anything we have here in Australia. Normal life in Australia, is just that normal, we do not have some of the problems that people in Europe do, such as the European union and such open borders etc, but we are getting there with massive immigration and a government that seems to want to destroy our way of life as quickly as possible. We do not have such oppression from the police etc, but I think that is because we are so small that they do not think we are important... if we were ever to have any real success in this country I think we would all be under arrest faster than we could think ha ha...

 Your 3 fave DH songs.

Annihilation (Onslaught), because everyone down here loves it when we play it live, it is such a simple song, lyrically and musically...but it is always good to play and the crowd goes nuts down here, which makes you go harder when you play live.

Slaughter Lords (Feast of the jackals), This has always been my favourite DH song, I think we just got it right, with a really atmospheric song musically that flows well, builds up and has a good pace and is just really professional all around, with some very intelligent and powerful lyrics. I like the song Iron Warmachine(Hatreds Disciples) for much the same reasons.

And lastly, probably Swastika (Onslaught) because that song just says it all really... Once again another one that is powerful live as well.

"The Reapers Kiss" is actually your last album. I listened to the promo and it sounds very good and professionally played. Are you satisfied with the final result? Can you say more about it? (songs, texts, labels if you found, recording-)

We finished recording “The Reapers Kiss” in Jan 2012 after nearly a year of delays and hold ups. I think it is the most technical cd I have written personally and I tried to take it back to the style of Feast of the Jackals, which has always been my favourite DH cd. Overall I am happy with the result, though there are always a few things you would go back and change if you could. No musician ever thinks a release is perfect, but at some point you just have to say enough, and call it finished. I tried to get the sound as professional as possible, and it cost me a lot of money to do it, but DH has always done professional releases and always will. This gets harder all the time as illegal downloads are really hurting our music scene. People don’t seem to understand a good quality recording cost a lot of money... anyhow the new cd is 9 unreleased tracks and there is a promo online for anyone who wants to check it out on youtube just type in Deaths Head - the reapers kiss and you should find it). We are talking to a label now so hopefully it should be out soon.

You released most of your albums on different labels? is there a particular reason for that?   are you satisfied with each of them? what is the most professional for you?

The Main reason I have released on so many labels I mentioned above...Downloading has really hurt cd sales and labels have a hard time getting back the money they put into music production, which itself isn’t cheap. I am very active in music, I write a lot of my own stuff and also help out with a lot of projects etc when people ask me so it is hard for any one label to keep up with it all and release everything, so I tend to spread things around a little. Most of the labels I have worked with have been pretty good, though there have been a few who have not done the right thing by me over the years, such as holding back money for the recordings, or pressing extra cd’s without telling me, things like that, but I do not feel the need to mention these people, I try to only speak of positive things unless people ask me specifically...labels who do the wrong thing do not tend to last long as a rule as eventually the word gets around to all the bands and people refuse to work with them. Probably the best label I ever worked with was Panzerfaust (which is funny considering how that ended up)... they always kept their word, and were quick and professional and also treated us very generously, a very professionally run business...
 
Do you remember the first time you listened Fortress songs? How important was this band for the Aussie scene? Are you still in touch with them?  

First time I heard Fortress would have to have been around 1992/3 or there abouts, when they released their first self titled album, and that thing was on high rotation on our record player for months... They were one of the first bands I had heard when I got into the skinhead scene and have always been one of my favourites. They took a unique Australian sound to the world and still come up in a lot of peoples top 5 favourite bands alongside the likes of Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack etc, so they must have been doing something right. They carried the Aussie scene for a lot of years and any gig that had Fortress on the bill down here you could guarantee probably double the crowd of any other show. Their farewell gig was our ISD in 2007, which was nearly 5 years ago and I still get request from people trying to get in touch with them to see if they will play. I know the guys from Fortress and see them now and again, mostly they are just doing the every day thing that people do when they get older, work, family etc... none of them ever turned their back, priorities just changed as they do when you tend to have more responsibilities.

After 12 years with DH could you make a balance of activity?

Um, your English let you down a little on this question mate, I am not sure what you mean by balance of activity... I’ll take it that you are asking what we mostly do as a band, which would be to write and record new songs... As I say there were a good few years that we did not have a live line up and gigs are few and far between down here, and Europe a long way away ha ha, but Deaths Head has always been here in one way or another and is not going anywhere yet.

So, what we are waiting for the future with your band?

In the immediate future, there will be the release of the new cd. We have the 3rd Hammered gig for the Southern Cross Hammerskins coming up in April. Hopefully we will get back to Europe sooner rather than later as we are always keen to play there....and thenext thing after that, I just finished writing another new cd for Deaths Head, which will probably be called “Hangmans Jig” so I hope to start recording that soon as well, though  I will not rush to finish it so that is a way off... so there is enough going on to to keep us busy I think.

Thanx Jesse, your last words...

I’d just like to say thanks for taking an interest in our band with this interview, and hail to everyone who has supported us and enjoyed our music for so many years, we’re not going away just yet so hopefully the best is yet to come.

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