BASTARD PRIEST (Eng.)
– Hi Matt, thanks for taking the time. What are you guys currently up to (just a month after unleashing the new BASTARD PRIEST’s)?
Matt: Hola! Right now we’re just waiting for all the post LP arrangements to fall into place – like doing t-shirts, patches and getting the CD version out there.
– First of all I would like you to make some history of the band (a bit about your past, present and future plans), as I guess there may be some people who don’t know about you yet.
Matt: Well we started out almost 10 years ago but didn’t actually do anything until we recorded the 2008 demo “Merciless Insane Death”. After that we’ve released that demo together with some re-recordings of songs prior to the 2008 demo on LP/CD in 2009 called “Under the Hammer of Destruction”. Right now we’ve just released our first real full lenght called “Ghouls of the Endless Night”.
– Why did you pick the name «Bastard Priest»? Is there any special meaning behind it?
Matt: No, not really – it’s just a name we came up with a long time ago… and since Jesus & the Gospel Fuckers already was taken we had no choice.
– And what are the band’s main musical influences?
Matt: I guess basically everything we’re listening to influences us – but main influences are everything from Black Flag to Morbid Angel to Tank to GISM to Nihilist.
– If I’m not mistaken you were formed in 2001 but didn’t release your debut album until 2010. Why did it take you that time?
Matt: I don’t know, I guess we didn’t have time until 2007 to do any real things with Bastard Priest – we got our own recording equipment in 2006/2007 also so that’s probably why it happened then and not earlier.
– Considering now this studio activity, can we then expect another album for 2012?
Matt: No one knows…
– If I’m not wrong you have always been a duo, have you ever considered having more musicians with you? Is it easy to do everything by yourselves?
Matt: Yeah we have but being just two dudes is so easy. Me and Inventor have been playing together for more than 10 years now – so we know each other very well when it comes to doing music.
– As I said, you have recently released your new «Ghouls of the Endless Night». How’s being its feedback so far?
Matt: It’s been quite good I think – I haven’t read that many reviews but people seems to like it.
– I think this new effort follows the same pattern as your previous «Under the Hammer of Destruction» but, how could you say you both have evolved as musicians since then?
Matt: I think the new albums is more well played and the songs are more thought through. The recording is also far more better than the previous one. As a musician I don’t think much have happened – I’m not much into developing skills and such…
– Artwork is simple but really cool, would you mind to elaborate a bit on it? Was done, once more, by Inventor?
Matt: No it was done by a friend of ours – Robban, he’s really good at drawing, tattooing and illustrating stuff. We’re really happy with the outcome of the cover art! We wanted it to be rather colorful to make it pop out and also try something new with colors as opposed just go the easy route with black/white and with some red…
– You mixed the album with legendary Fred Estby. How did everything go? Are you satisfied with his work?
Matt: He’s an awesome guy to work with! He’s really good at what he does and the mixing went really smooth. I think we mixed everything in 3 or 4 days so the process was pretty simple.
– How were recording sessions for this record? As I read you recorded the album in just a few days. Do you think this has an impact on the final outcome as well?
Matt: Yeah we recorded all the drums and one guitar in 8-10 hours I think. The additional guitars, bass and leads n vocals was done afterwards in our rehearsal space and in my bedroom.
– In this CD we can find two guest artists (from MAIM). Would you mind commenting a bit how did you come up with the idea, why did you choose them, etc.?
Matt: The Maim guys are good friends of us and I’ve wanted them on our recordings for a long time – I’m really happy to have Chrille and Lill-Lennart on the recording.
– Considering the similar sound between your two albums, how tends to be the songwriting process in BASTARD PRIEST? Is a spontaneous effort or do you set certain «rules»?
Matt: It’s a little bit of both, we have some things we would never do. On the other hand we have some things we really like to do so of course our taste plays a role in what we do. The songwriting process usually starts with a riff or two and after some jamming we hopefully have come up with some structure of a song. After that we usually record a rehearsal recording or a demo of the songs we have and try to elaborate on what we can do with it.
– Your lyrics are always surrounded by horror and evil; where do you draw inspiration from?
Matt: Other lyrics, movies, documentaries and stuff like that – it could be real life events also… well, not the zombie stuff so much but the war themed songs.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Matt: We’ve been working on getting some new shirts out to match the release of Ghouls and they’re out now. Bastard Priest is right now laying quite low until 2012 so not much is happening right now.
– That has been all from my side, thanks again for taking the time. Now it’s time for you to add some final words if you like.
Matt: Alright, keep it heavy and fuck the rules!
