First off can you introduce Birth and its members? How would you describe your music? What other bands & projects are you or have you been a part of?
Birth started as myself, Chris doing vocals and drummachine and Paul as a guitarist. We are twin brothers and have been jamming together since birth. Recently we found a drummer, Dan. We have been playing with Dan since September 2011. Paul and I have been in the previous bands Buried Terror c. 2003-2007, Kwisatz Haderach c. 2006-2009, and Birth c. 2010-present. I would describe our music as grindgore.
Can you cite Birth's influences? What's your reason for getting into this weird genre of music? And what prompted you to start such a band?
Of course there is no other reason for getting into this weird genre of music other than the love for it. Paul and I played grindcore for a long time and just started moving towards goregrind. After playing in our last band Kwisatz Haderach, which was grindcore/grindgore type of stuff we decided to start a new band and refine the style we wanted to play which was basically grindcore influenced goregrind. Our influences are bands like Lymphatic Phlegm, Bodies Lay Broken, Regurgitate, Last Days of Humanity, Embalming Theatre, Retaliation, Ulcerrhoea, Dysmenorrheic Hemorrhage, etc. Way too many bands to name.
Does the band name BIRTH have any special meaning in regards to your band's music/sound/lyrics? Did you maybe have other discarded band name ideas for this project (if so, I would love to hear them!)? Also what inspires your lyrics (or just song titles), what do you want to put across with this stuff?
We didn't have any discarded band names. I brought the name up to Paul and he had thought about using the name also. Twin telepathy I guess... Our lyrics are usually pertaining to birth defects, diseases and misanthropy. I mostly want to convey an idea of general malcontent with the human race.
I have a really bad ear for these things but I'm assuming you're using a drum machine, right? Do you use a drum machine live too? Do you plan to use real drums sometime or is the drum machine really a part of your sound and you don't want to change it?
Yes, we do have a drummachine on all of our previous recordings. We have used drummachine live and played a handful of shows. We haven't played live very many times but now that we have a drummer we are looking to play a lot more shows. We've only played one show with Dan thus far.
Can you reveal what gear you're using? What sort of drum machine? Any guitar FX Pedal? What do you use for vocal pitch-shifting? What guitar tuning do play on?
We used a drummachine on all of our recordings with the computer program Beatcraft. For vocals I used to use a Digitech Vocal 300 Effects Processor. That thing died recently and I got a Phase Shifter guitar pedal which I have used on our latest unreleased recording. For guitar effects we use an MXR Fullbore Metal pedal with drop B tuning. For the drums, Dan uses a DW Pacific 6 piece with a Pork Pie snare. He uses Zildjian Custom A cymbals and Iron Cobra Double Pedals.
BIRTH Discography
Split Cd w/ Human Jerky
(2010, Violent Annoyise Records)
"Empty World" Demo CDR
(Kill a Cop Records)
Split CD with DETERIORATION
(self release)
"4-ensic Undergrind Methodology" 4-Way Split CD with Birth, Streptococcus Pyogenes, Active Stenosis, and Hyperemesis
Lt. Dan Split Cassette (Smoke Out Tapes)
What kind of place do you rehearse & record in? How does the songwriting and recording take place? By the way your riffs are some of the best I've heard in a goregrind band in a long while! Does it take work for you to come up with cool riffs or is it all pretty effortless for you?
Paul and I live in an apartment with a practice space in it. We have always recorded ourselves. I have a digital 8-track recorder that I've used for all of our recordings. Thanks for the kind words about the riffs. Songwriting is pretty easy for us. Paul and I have been playing grind together for almost ten years and we listen to the same bands but Paul is also a classical musician. Basically Paul comes up with a riff and if I like it we will work on different variations. Our song structures are very simple so it doesn't take long to write songs.
You have a bunch of releases out... What is contained on the "Empty World" CD? What's your favorite Birth material so far? What is still available to get? And how can people get a hold of your stuff?
The Empty World release was our demo. It was a pretty rough recording in my opinion. Personally my favorite recording thus far is the split with Human Jerky, that will change as soon as we finish our new recording with Dan. So far we have the "Empty World" CD which was released on Smoked Out Tapes, the Birth/Human Jerky Split on Violent Annoyise Records, the Birth/Lt. Dan Split tape on Smoked Out Tapes, the Birth/Deterioration Split CD which was self released, and the "4-ensic Undergrind Methodology" 4-Way Split CD with Birth, Streptococcus Pyogenes, Active Stenosis, and Hyperemesis. That was also self released after we got fucked over by Histoplasmosis Records. (Fuck you!) That's it thus far. We are in the final stages of recording eighteen new songs that we don't know what we are going to do with. So bands and labels get in touch!
You're also working on new material... What's planned to come out next? Do you know which band you'll do a split release with next? Are you looking to release some stuff on vinyl too?
We have been out of touch for some time due to varying circumstances. We are definitely looking to release splits or a full length. We have no idea with whom, but we are trying to find labels and bands to do splits with currently. We'd love to release vinyl if we can.
How much live gigs have you done so far? Could you describe what a Birth live gig would be like? How's usually the audience response to your music?
We have only played maybe five shows with Birth. Our first show with Dan was January 14 2012. Our live sound is good. We usually only play around a ten minute set. Usually play songs in sets of three or four. Very little time between songs. Playing with a drummachine live we usually played the whole set straight through without any breaks. We generally get a pretty good reception from the crowd. A lot of people around here have never heard this style of music before so we usually get a good response. I don't speak much on stage other than to say thank you. We are very unassuming and unpretentious.
You seem to be knee-deep in the underground grind scene... What are your currently active favorite bands in the style? Is there any bands you're most friendly with?
Probably some of my favorites are Patiserrie, Streptococcus Pyogenes, Gaf. Regurgitate, The Corpse in the Crawlspace, Lymphatic Phlegm, Squash Bowels, etc. Aside from grind I'm also a huge fan of D-Beat and Japanese Hardcore. I have had a lot of contact with Nick from Streptococcus Pyogenes, Jim from Agitate/Deterioration, and Cody from Lt. Dan. Other than that I've kind of been out of contact with other bands for quite some time.
If you have a current playlist or any music/whatever recommendations, I would love to hear all about it too!
Been listening to Contrast Attitude, Lymphatic Phlegm, DSB, Etae, Necrony, Crude, Noisear, Martyrdod, D-Clone, Selfish, Nice View, Retaliation, Shock Troop, Skitsystem, Death Side, Realized, Spazz, 324, Unholy Grave.
Thanks for your time! If you want to add anything please go ahead...
