Steve: Sean and I jammed together for a while after UNDINISM and mainly just fucked around with playing along to albums and shit. (We lived together for a few years after UNDINISM split). I came up with a few songs and we started jamming those at first, Religiously Frustrated and Maggot Laced Meal were the first two songs we made. Then Sean started to come up with ideas and we also had Assassin to work with. We jammed these songs for a few months and just did it for a bit of fun, we liked playing along to Scream Bloody Gore & Leprosy a lot but never pursued the new songs because we couldn’t find a drummer.
Sean moved back to Geelong which is about 80km from Melbourne and one day I went to work with my bas s because I was going to hang out with him for the weekend making up tunes. This guy I sat near at work for a while said "hey do you play bass, what type of music do you play?". You know what its like explaining you play death/ grind to people so its something I usually answer with "just heavy shit you wouldn’t hear on the radio". He said "fuck that’s awesome I love death & grind" and I was like "cool, do you play any instruments?" and he was like "yeah I've been playing drums for about 10 years" and I was like fucken great we should jam one day. I went down to Geelong and told Sean that I thought I'd found a drummer so we organised a jam with my mate from work (Pete). In our first jam he learned the 3 songs Sean and I had along with a few Terroroizer, Pungent Stench and Brujeria covers. From that we knew we could get some shit happening. We jammed the first 9 originals for about a year before Damon came along. I was doing session bass in Abominator for their second albu m and that’s where Damon found out about my side project (because he was doing their vocals). I gave him a tape of our originals to see if he could find us someone to take over growls. He liked it so much that he agreed to do them himself.

I don’t remember ever selling the first demo (but my memory is pretty fucked). I do remember giving a shitload out to my contacts to spread the name and our style out there. A lot of old UNDINISM fans were not impressed because they wanted more blast, but the rest of the people welcomed the new sound and anticipated a studio release. We recorded that on a 4 track in our rehearsal room, it was basically a live rehearsal.

What was the main goal of starting the band? You guys are really influenced by the older bands, like Gut, Impetigo, Mortician, Autopsy, Rottrevore, Grave, etc. Tell us why those are your faves, and name some others you guys are into? Why did you decide to call the band KUTABARE(Japanese for, fuck you!)?

Steve: The main goal of starting the band is the same goal today, which is to just enjoy playing music. We have no internal pressure and just play to have a good time whether that be at rehears al or live. I fuckin love old school death, shit like Leprosy, Scream Bloody Gore, Severed Survival, Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, Consuming Impulse (I could go on) it’s just legendary shit. When playing in UNDINISM I wrote songs that were mainly focused on speed. I wrote different shit in KUTABARE to get a feel for the old days of the late 80's and early 90's (loved that era). It's just a bit of a hobby, I usually practice my bass along to albums, so I play a lot of the old school stuff all the time. I wrote old school stuff to get into a more heavy approach. We tune down 6-8 frets now to get the heavier sound (we have also incorporated the same tuning to UNDINISM to get that shit heavier). I like a broad range of music, I mean when I was writing UNDINISM shit one of my favorite bands was ATHEIST, so its hard to compare the influence to the output in that example. I think Autopsy is the main influence here. We cant see too many other bands doing this style at the moment which is good I guess, but we just started doing these tunes for fun and I guess that’s the most important thing for us. When Damon and I played in Abominator we jammed twice a week which was too big a commitment for me, I just wanted to do band as a casual thing (but still enjoy it). Now in KUTABARE we jam once a month (if we are lucky).

The name came from a Japanese friend I used to work with. One day I asked him to give me a list of the most fucked up Japanese words he could think of and KUATABRE was one of em. I love those crazy fuckers in Japan. I fuckin love the culture and would love to tour there one day for sure!. Colin from UNDINISM went to the Tokyo game show last year which is the pinnacle for me. Sean,Colin and I are all video game addicts, we have thousands of games and I even have a video game website (www.gameimports.com) which is outdated now because I have other shit to deal with in my life like a pregnant wife and building a house, plus preparing for live shows with KUTABARE for the album launch.

Damon, you've been into the underground death/grind scene for many years. Tell us how you first got involved. You used to play in CORPSE MOLESTATION. Tell us why that band broke up. Are all the recordings going to be coming out on CD ever? I think I remember hearing that Necroharmonic was going to be putting that out one day, is that still coming out?

Damon: WELL IT GOES BACK TO THE EARLY 80s WHEN I WAS LIKE 12 YEARS OLD OR SOMETHING I WAS INTRODUCED TO BANDS LIKE SLAYER, KREATOR , AND SODOM ETC ETC AND VARIOUS UNDERGROUND ZINES
LIKE BLACKTHORN FROM DENMARK AND METAL FORCES FROM U.K FROM THERE I WAS WRITING TO BANDS AND GETTING THEIR DEMOS
AND OTHER SHIT FROM LIKE PENTAGRAM (CHILE) MORBID ANGEL, AUTOPSY, LEVIATHAN, THANATOS, BLOODFEAST, TERRORIZER, IMMOLATION, SADUS, DR SHRINKER, REPULSION,ETC ETC AND MANY MORE BANDS IN THE LATE 80s /EARLY 90s LIKE MORTICIAN, INCANTATION,CREMATORY, ROTTREVORE,DEMILICH, BLASPHEMY,BEHERIT, GOREAPHOBIA, CARNAGE, GENERAL SURGERY AND THE LIST GOES ON. ALSO I HAD LOADS OF TAPE TRADERS WHICH I FOUND FROM ADVERTS IN THOSE ZINES TOO!!! I THINK AT ONE STAGE I HAD LIKE 40 OR MORE TRADERS!!
SOME I STILL HAVE TODAY, THAT'S HOW CORPSE MOLESTATION STARTED MADE UP OF UNDERGROUND FANS WHO WANTED TO PLAY BRUTAL SHIT!!! AS TO THE BAND BREAKING UP?? WE NEVER DID, WE JUST CHANGED THE NAME TO BESTIAL WARLUST FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT IT WAS MORE SUITED TO WHAT MUSIC WE WERE CREATING. CORPSE MOLESTATION WERE VERY POPULAR IN THE UNDERGROUND AND A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE STILL AFTER OUR MATERIAL , SO THAT'S WHY NOW A CD WILL COME OUT VERY SOON AFTER MANY DELAYS!! IT WILL HAVE DEMO 92 UNRELEASED TRAX AND A FEW LIVE TRAX AND POSSIBLY A MULTIMEDIA CD WITH ALL FLYERS,LOGOS, PHOTOS OF WHAT WE HAVE COLLECTED OVER THE YEARS!! AND YES THIS WILL BE BY NECROHARMONIC PRODUCTIONS AND BLOODHARMONIC PROMOTIONS TOGETHER!!
SO BE SURE TO LOOKOUT SOON!!!

Steve: This is how I first met Damon, because I was collecting demos in the late 80's and was one of the first in Australia to get the Corpse Molestation demo which I still have in my collection. Damon, get this shit out NOW!

What do you remember about the early 90's death metal scene? I remember you came to visit here in the states back then. Did you go to the Rhode Island death metal fest that the singer from PHLEGM put on? Tell us some bands you got to hang out with back then. Remember HEADROT? Whatever happened to them?

Damon: Well I remember so much!!! To much in fact!! I don't know where to start. I think most of all I remember always rushing home to see what packages I had in the mail new demos or vinyl or cds or whatever and I always had a fucking treat!! Then I would call up my friends and go over to there house,drink loads of beer and listen to the shit and just go crazy!!! Ha!! the good old days!! They were one of many back then!!
As to my visit to the U.S that was actually in 97 I hung out with many cool people that I had been in contact for many years like roy from necroharmonic prods, ross and bob from Immolation, sadistic intent, mark (rottrevore/now in eviscium)
And many more, it was great!!!! Of course I wish I had of been to that fest in R.I some years before all I ever got was the flyer!!! Fuck!!! Well I think what happened to Headrot from what I heard was they lost intrest same with phlegm
I kinda thought something was up when I got no more mail from them!! It's a shame cos both of those bands were killer!!!! I still listen to there material from time to time!!! Definitely both bands could have gone on to do more!!!!!

Later on, you started to play in BESTIAL WARLUST, who put out 2 awesome albums! Did the band ever have any demo material? Are the 2 albums still in print? Why did this band break up?

Damon: Yes they were 2 very awesome albums!! We are still all very pleased of them!!
as I said earlier corpse molestation changed the name to bestial warlust so it was the same members, we did a Few trax in the studio before the first album, it was during the name change process the songs eventually got reworked so they never were released but soon you may see a surprise on the corpse molestation cd so look out!!!!
As far as I know the 2 albums are not in print,but the label says they are going to re-issue them I think but I have heard that for the last 4 or 5 years!!! So who knows??
But I think they still have copies in stock!!!
Now as to the bands break up, I am not sure if it was a break up!!! I had actually departed long before anyway!! As far as I know the band had stopped rehearsing
For a short period and members went on helping out other bands,so the communication was lost between them, so nothing was happening!! that was some years back, but of recent news in the last 6 months is that skullfucker(guitars) and hellcunt (drums) are back rehearsing and plan to do another album sometime, hope it goes well!!!

You also played in ABOMINATOR. Tell us what happened with that band, is it still active?

Damon: Yeah thats correct!! I was in them from early 97 till late 2001 I joined em right after I finished with bestial warlust I did a demo and 2 albums with them, the first album was called damnations prophecy which I care not mention who released it!! And the second was called subversives for lucifer which is on osmose productions, both albums are killer indeed!!! Be sure to checkout there new album out on osmose very soon!! Its brutal as hell!!! There best yet!!! Anyway I finished up with them due to the fact I had hardly anytime to contribute because I was too busy with work, so I had some months off from bands which was a first in over 10 years, and then steve (as he explains in an earlier answer) gave me a tape of there stuff which I killed over!! and I found that it was exactly what I wanted to create myself someday!! So there it was so I joined!!!

Steve, you played in UNDINSIM, one of my favorite grind bands from the 90's! You guys had a lot of stuff coming out but then all of a sudden you broke up. How come? Did you guys ever plan a full album? I heard that UNDINISM is back together now? What other bands have you played in since UNDINISM broke up?

Steve: There are lots of stories as to why we split which is a combination of a few things. UNDINISM was dead for a while, we had fuck all songs left and just started rehearsing less. There was nowhere to play because heaps of people wanted to fuckin kill us so we lost motivation I guess? We got fucked around with our 7" EP and could not be fucked writing new shit (we used the same shit on 4 or 5 releases sometimes). I moved to Melbourne to get work after the band split because I was getting bored doing nothing all day. We always wanted to do a full length (I guess thats why Sean and I are excited about the KUTABARE alb um because this is our first). We got lazy and broke up, just lost the motivation. Now we can rehearse and get right into it so it is fun again. KUTABARE is the main band for Sean and I but UNDINISM is still a great band to play in. After UNDINISM split I started a project band which never released anything (because I was an alcoholic lazy cunt!). I used 2 of the riffs in the first Kutabare song. Immediately after UNDINISM I played in a Harcore/Grind band called CACHEXIA and did a few shows up in Sydney with them (awesome times), I also played in Abominator for six months and left the day they started recording their second album because I had pretty full on work commitments which involved travelling. That was when things in KUTABARE started to look promising.

Anyway, back to KUTABARE. Tell us about your upcoming full-length CD coming out soon. How long did it take to record it? Are you guys happy with the sound you got?

Steve: The album has ten songs which were released on the demo, but don’t let this deter anyone with the demo because the songs have developed greatly since then. We have Roger from Mortician doing the entire mastering of the disc and although I have not heard Rogers final mix we are very happy with what we have so far. (I am sure he is going to fuckin blow us away). It took 2 days to record the instruments plus some more for the growls (Damon can elaborate). I think this is the best recording I have been part of because this music is what I have wanted to get out since I started playing Bass 15 years ago.

Do you guys have any other new songs and releases in the works? Please tell us about them.

Steve: We already have another 5 new songs on the go and are getting ready to have another release organised for the middle of 2004. We are also doing Gasping for Air on an Autopsy tribute. We are currently working with a good friend of ours who is a DJ to get our live sound perfected. He knows all about sound and frequencies and is able to get us the right balance of noise to ensure we get as heavy as possible, so in the next 6 -12 months we should be able to blow your guts out of your arsehole!

Tell us about the current scene in Australia. Do you guys hang out with bands like Fuck...I'm Dead, The Kill, Captain Cleanoff, Vaginal Carnage, etc.? Tell us some other bands that you guys like and support. What are some good labels/distros? Is the war metal/black metal scene still big over there?

Steve: Most of our gigs have been with Vaginal Carnage and Fuck…Im Dead. They are all great people, organising shows and supporting the local metal in Melbourne (Australia). It is good to go to a gig and have people supporting each other by organising shows and shit like that. We recently played a gig to support a radio station that supports underground music in Melbourne, which was a very good gig because we had a great turnout, and the bands were just brilliant. Vaginal Carnage and Fuck…Im Dead are two of the best live bands I have seen, Chris from Vaginal Carnage is just fucking amazing, I could seriously watch them play every night and not get sick of it!. I live 150km from Melbourne on a couple of acres in a rural town so it is hard for me to get out and about apart from rehearsals and when we play gigs so I don’t get to see too much of the local scene. I have been getting a lot of underground stuff in the mail since KUTABARE started and am loving Neuro Visceral Exhumation’s album which is a brilliant release!.

Well, thanks for doing the interview! Any final comments?

Steve: If you have been bothered reading the entire interview at least download our MP3’s from the Razorback site to check our music out. Get in touch with me for more info about KUTABARE or UNDINISM. Billy and Jill, thanks for the support!.