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Questions to
Susan (guitar) of Desensitised. (May 2002)
Braindead:
The first question's for Susan:
you must have heard
that question before, but what's different for a girl to
be part of the death metal/grind underground which is a
mostly male world? I mean you're my first female interviewee
in years...
Susan: Haha, yeah, I have heard this question before!
To me it doesn't make any difference whatsoever. I have
been in the scene for many years and I know what kind of
music I want to make and what I want to put across.
Braindead: Some of the members of Desensitised were
also in the band Catafalque. Can you explain what happened
to Catafalque, sum up what you did with this band and perhaps
give a run-down of your releases? Also what is different
between Catafalque & Desensitised?
Susan: Well, basically we have always had problems
with our line up (even now!). Somehow there are too few
people around here who want to play this kind of music.
So with Catafalque it didn't really work out although we
played quite some gigs with this band. A run-down of our
release(s) :
"Your final ride "demo ' 96
Haha!
The main difference between Catafalque and Desensitised
is that Desensitised is a much more mature and serious band.
Not that Catafalque wasn't serious, but when I started with
Catafalque I only played the guitar for nine months, so
I still had a lot to learn back then....
Braindead: How would define the music you're playing?
Is it alot of work to put that kind of songs together? How
much much do you rehearse etc...?
Susan: A good
description would be death / grind. It takes quite some
effort to write the songs as I think a song should sound
logical and should not just have some randomly chosen riffs
put together. I try to rehearse as much as I can. My goal
would be to rehearse every day. However, due to lack of
time this is not possible. With the band we rehearse once
a week.
Braindead: I think Desensitised sounds original
but still, what bands you think influence your work, consciously
and not? I know there must be Carcass, but besides that,
what old bands or newer bands do you listen to alot?
Susan: I think all our influences happen subconsciously.
We have never said : "we wanna sound like that band,
so let's play their kind of music", but as you know
I'm a big Carcass fan so I take that with me into our music.
We all listen mostly to extreme music, but that may vary.
Braindead: Can you talk about Netherlands a bit?
What is it like where you live? Do all the members of the
band live in the same area? Are you in touch with other
bands in the Netherlands? Do you know people from bands
like Inhume, Last Days of Humanity, Maggots etc... ?
Susan: I like living in The Netherlands. I live in
a small village only 1 km from the German border and only
a 5 minutes' drive away from Belgium, so that can come in
really handy sometimes! Our drummer lives 15 km from where
I live and our singer lives in Eindhoven (which is about
an hour's drive from here) but he'll probably move this
year.
Yeah, we all know the guys from Inhume and LDOH (Hi guys!!).
I saw Maggots for the first time live one week ago.
Braindead: Desensitised. Why did you decide to call
the band that?
Susan: It sounds good, but also rather harsh.
Braindead: I didn't get the chance to read your
lyrics, but I think you do write lyrics, am I right? If
so, what are they about? Are they part of a concept or something
like that?
Susan: Yeah, we definitely do! They are about different
kind of things like e.g. the phenomenon called 'spontaneous
human combustion' or genetic engineering etc. They're not
part of a concept, but they do mean something.
Braindead: You're about to have a MCD out. What
can you say about it? What label will be releasing it?
Susan: We are really glad that we have finally recorded
something! Our drummer wanted to quit but we all decided
that we wanted to record and release something after 7 years
of work. So that's what we did. We recorded this CD in only
one day and mixing it took us about 4 hours. Although it's
done so fast we are really chuffed with the result. The
guys at the studio did a great job! They knew exactly what
we wanted. I also have to say that we entered the studio
well-prepared.
As we only have seven songs the CD will be released as a
split CD with the Dutch band Exposing Innards by the Dutch
Bleedin' Hemorrhoids label.
Braindead: Do you have more future release plans?
Do you know what release you'd like to do put out after
that Cd?
Susan: After the release we'd like to play as many
gigs as possible. We'd also like to release a full length
CD in the future. Some singles would be good as well.
Braindead: If you could pick a band to have a split
release with, which one would it be?
Susan: Nice question!! Hard to decide really. If
Carcass still existed it would be definitely them! But bands
like Pungent Stench, Arch Enemy or Haemorrhage would also
do nicely!
Braindead: I know you did perform live a few times
with Catafalque. Is Desensitised a live band also? Do you
think touring or playing a few dates soon or later?
Susan: Absolutely! Once we have completed our line
up we are going to play live again!
Braindead: That's about it, thanks for answering
all that crap! Hope the questions weren't too dull. Please
add any comment you want!
Susan: Thanks for this interview!! Keep your eyes
peeled for our debut CD
"Thriving on carnage"!
Anyone interested in Desensitised can send an email to:
desensitised@mail.com
or go to our homepage:
http://listen.to/desensitised
Cheers!
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