The first interview after the recent PC witchunt
Taken from : EXCUSE THE BLOOD
The following interview/discussion is with Rob Miller. Readers may know of him through his work with the seminal crust-punk pioneers Amebix, as well as with Tau Cross. In additional to his musical output, Rob is also a globally renowned swordsmith, for some 30 years plying his craft through Castle Keep. This Q&A looks at the history of Amebix and the forthcoming Tau Cross album. Other questions concern the practice and wider meaning of swordsmithing to the modern world, as well as wider questions surrounding technology, mysticism and culture.
One of the great qualities about Amebix was that the atmospheres of post-punk, the visceral guitars of early heavy metal and the raw anger of anarcho-punk are merged together seamlessly into a tribal, ritualistic whole. Could you perhaps give us a quick chronology of Amebix? What got yourself and the other band members at the time to eventually mature and then achieve the sound that you’d commit to tape? Who and what influenced each of you individually?
Growing up in Rural Devon in the 60s and 70’s my brother and I started a band in 1979 after he returned from a stint working on the island of Jersey. I was still in school, and formed a couple of different incarnations of the first band “The Band With No Name’ playing in local village halls, having fun being a young bunch of kids messing around with this new idea called Punk Rock.
The darker side of things really began with our moving into Martin Bakers house on the edge of the moors, an old Manor House with ruins dating back to the Saxon era. His parents were living in London so he opened the place up to us without anyone knowing about it. We practiced at night,slept during the day, lived a nocturnal existence.
We moved to Bristol in 1981 just after the riots and started to live a life of Squats and general uselessness punctuated by the occasional foray into a studio to produce two singles, a 12” and eventually the defining album “Arise!”. Moving back to a more rural
setting in a small Somerset mining village we continued until 1987,when the final album “Monolith” was released.
Shortly after the band dissolved into different areas,to emerge again in 2009 for a
retrospective DVD project with the help of drummer Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour/Ministry/Nausea etc etc). This led to the triumphant “Sonic Mass” album in 2011, after which the familiar gremlins reared their ugly heads again and the band once more dissolved into a now unresolvable form.
I went on to start my own band called Tau Cross,releasing a first album to considerable praise, the second to a little less. The third album was due to be released last August but was shelved by Relapse records due to the reference I made to an author in the thanks list. I also lost my band and the entire catalog in production, received Worldwide opprobrium and some idle threats along the way. At this point in time I have started to re write and record that forbidden album, as I believe it is a good body of work that can only be improved on now.
One of the great qualities about Amebix was that the atmospheres of post-punk, the visceral guitars of early heavy metal and the raw anger of anarcho-punk are merged together seamlessly into a tribal, ritualistic whole. Could you perhaps give us a quick chronology of Amebix? What got yourself and the other band members at the time to eventually mature and then achieve the sound that you’d commit to tape? Who and what influenced each of you individually?
Growing up in Rural Devon in the 60s and 70’s my brother and I started a band in 1979 after he returned from a stint working on the island of Jersey. I was still in school, and formed a couple of different incarnations of the first band “The Band With No Name’ playing in local village halls, having fun being a young bunch of kids messing around with this new idea called Punk Rock.
The darker side of things really began with our moving into Martin Bakers house on the edge of the moors, an old Manor House with ruins dating back to the Saxon era. His parents were living in London so he opened the place up to us without anyone knowing about it. We practiced at night,slept during the day, lived a nocturnal existence.
We moved to Bristol in 1981 just after the riots and started to live a life of Squats and general uselessness punctuated by the occasional foray into a studio to produce two singles, a 12” and eventually the defining album “Arise!”. Moving back to a more rural
setting in a small Somerset mining village we continued until 1987,when the final album “Monolith” was released.
Shortly after the band dissolved into different areas,to emerge again in 2009 for a
retrospective DVD project with the help of drummer Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour/Ministry/Nausea etc etc). This led to the triumphant “Sonic Mass” album in 2011, after which the familiar gremlins reared their ugly heads again and the band once more dissolved into a now unresolvable form.
I went on to start my own band called Tau Cross,releasing a first album to considerable praise, the second to a little less. The third album was due to be released last August but was shelved by Relapse records due to the reference I made to an author in the thanks list. I also lost my band and the entire catalog in production, received Worldwide opprobrium and some idle threats along the way. At this point in time I have started to re write and record that forbidden album, as I believe it is a good body of work that can only be improved on now.
You can read the full interview HERE
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