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| Interview with Commit Arson / Jeff Jerez |
Hello Jeff! I would like to thank you for taking your time answering this interview. How are things going?
Hey man thank you for having us here on your zine. We’re doing well so far. We have been inactive in gigs for the past five months but we are starting to work on some things again this January. We are recording some tracks for a couple new releases this first quarter of the year and hopefully we can get some shows again.
Recently you’ve been on tour with Disabuse. Can you tell us more about those experiences – both personal and from the band’s perspective? What were you expectations and what did it turn out to be?
Yeah we toured Singapore and Malaysia for three shows last April 2015. It was awesome in a lot of ways, made a lot of new friends, saw a lot of awesome bands, and met online friends personally and so on. I expected it to be fun but I never expected us to be received the way we were received by the scene over there since our band is practically new and unknown. We had positive feedbacks and it looked like they had fun during our sets so we were satisfied. On my personal perspective though, when we were in Singapore, I was in awe when we’re about to leave the airport and saw Fahmy of Demisor waiting for us. I didn’t know that he’s one of the people who helped set up our Singapore leg including our place to stay. I love Demisor, they are the certified Asian grind gods in my opinion and meeting him was too awesome for me. He even gave me a Demisor CD and their drummer Jali gave me a Magnicide 7”. Fuckin A.
How would you compare the current state of Philippine Grindcore / Crust scene to their local scene? Any bands you'd like to recommend?
The Singapore and Malaysian scene is a bit ahead in the game compared to our local scene in terms of the attendance and the support they are getting. From what I observed, a lot of people are coming to the shows and most importantly, buying band merchandises. Most punks even the show attendees only are in full battle gear and enthusiastic. All the local bands are supported when they are playing instead of people staying outside the venues and just waiting for the main act. Another thing I noticed is that they value their time, meaning, when they say the show must start at 7pm and ends at 11, it will start at 7 and end at 11. Unlike here were we are accustomed to “Filipino Time” which is not good. There are lots of good bands that we played with during the tour but I will name some that stood out for me. Blinded Humanity and Mild Shag from Singapore were awesome and wild onstage. We met Benzoate and Psychotic Sufferance in Batu Pahat. Shitnoise Bastards, Mass Separation, Compulsion to Kill whom we met in Kuala Lumpur.
Is any of the bands you played before Commit Arson still active? Tell us something about the bands you where in. Did you take anything musically or other ideas from your old bands with you for Commit Arson?
I had a death metal band called Ataol when I was younger but we didn’t manage to release anything haha. That was my only band before but I did sessions for some death metal bands when I was in college then I stopped for a long time until I formed Commit Arson. Right now, Hans is the only member who has another band as he plays drums for Amaranhig.
Can you tell us why you have chosen Commit Arson as bands name? Do you think it fits well to your music style?
I just got the name from a graffiti I saw in Malolos Bulacan and I always thought it would be a nice name for a band. Incidentally, the maker of that graffiti was our bassist’s friend so we asked if we could use it as a name for our band. That is how it all started, no deep meaning behind it. It does fit with our style I think because it sounds rebellious and aggressive.
You appear to be influenced by Napalm Death, Insect Warfare and Nasum. I assume there are lots of other bands too. What are some of the band strongest musical influences?
The four of us came from different backgrounds so we try to incorporate our ideas when making songs. We’re influenced by a lot of bands basically from Insect Warfare, old Napalm Death, Spazz, Weekend Nachos, Death Toll 80K, Regurgitate etc.
What is the songwriting process of a Commit Arson song like? How much time do you spend to write a song? Who writes the lyrics and what's the inspiration?
Most of the time, we just meet in the practice studio, make riffs then arrange. We prefer to make songs when we are together because our guitarist has a lot of distraction in his life that he is unable to make many riffs at home for some reason. But when he does, he videos the riff then send it to us. We meet again in the studio and arrange. There are some cases wherein the song starts with Hans. He has an idea for a drum pattern and writes them down. He lets us hear the drum pattern and we try to make riffs from there. As for me, I only write lyrics when we have five or six full songs ready. During regular practices, I just make sounds and jumbled words then record the session on video. From there once I’m alone at home or at work, I can make the lyrics and phrasings. Our lyrics range from social and political issues, human behavior, religion, nature, war, death and all things unpleasant.
Do you think grindcore is getting more recognition these days? Could you say something about what it is that appeals to you playing this kind of music?
Yeah I think it is more recognized nowadays than it used to because of the rise of the internet. Anyone can be grindcore or metal by staying in front of their computers and search youtube or facebook or what have you. I’m not totally against it since it’s uncontrollable but I prefer the older times wherein it takes a bit of effort to learn about a certain band or a certain album/song. What I love about grindcore is the fact that it’s straight forward speed and loudness. It’s aggression and rebellion in a form of sound. It’s the noise that appeals to me most for some reason. As a regular guy with a regular job, it is my outlet for my stress and frustrations and without it I don’t know, I might have been a different person.
Do you think having good lyrics and songwriting is important in grind/crust music? Seems like a lot of bands nowadays don't even bother to write decent lyrics anymore.
Lyrics are still important especially if your band has a theme or a message to convey. Unless you’re in a noisegrind band so lyrics is unnecessary as long as it’s fast and loud. In our case, I still right lyrics and try to make it as decent as I can haha. It gives character to your music so in my opinion it is necessary.
What Commit Arson's release/s do you consider as your personal favorite? And what can you say about the bands that you've shared releases with?
My first favorite would be our demo because that was the first thing we ever did and we suck in it ahaha. Every time I listen to the demo it brings back a lot of good memories. We did reuse some tracks from that demo on some of our splits. The second one would be the Global Disease Destruction 13 way split simply because those were our best recorded materials. The quality of the recording and mixing was really nice and there are still some tracks from that recording session that we haven’t used on any release. I am grateful to all the bands we did splits with. I love doing splits because it gives me a chance to know more people and make friends while learning about their respective scenes. We even played with one of our split partners Shitnoise Bastards in Malaysia and it was fun!
What is your opinion on people who completely pay no attention to the grindcore genre as being a waste of time and a hideous form of music without even listening to it much?
To each his own I guess, grindcore is definitely not for everyone. My motto is “don’t say you hate it when you don’t know shit about it”
A common conception about grindcore is that it can't be good due to the length of the songs among other things. Why do you think grindcore is great and what does it offer that other styles of extreme music don't?
People who conceive it that way don’t know shit haha. For me, this genre wasn’t made to be “great”. It wasn’t meant to be technical and the songs weren’t made to be longer just like other songs. It is a form of rebellion thru “music” or “noise”. It provides the aggression in a straight forward manner and you can feel the hate even on the first note of a song. Too much technicality and too much guitar solos in extreme music bores me to death.
Having been active musicians for a long time now, how does one productively balance band life with personal responsibilities like day jobs?
I don’t really consider myself a musician haha. I’m just an ordinary guy who happens to scream in a band and I treat this as a hobby. It’s a big part of my life but family and career will always come first. Same goes with my bandmates, we make sure that our band activities won’t interrupt with our responsibilities so we manage our time very well. We respect each other’s spaces, so when somebody says they can’t commit to a practice or a show then that’s totally fine as long as the reason is valid. All of us have jobs so we see to it that we all know each other’s schedule especially for me since I’m usually the one who sets up practice sessions and accepts gig invites. We were actually inactive for almost six months since last quarter of 2015 because of our work schedules but like I said, responsibilities comes first so we just waited until everyone’s schedule got rectified.
Do you have a great admiration to serial killers?
Yes I do! I have several books about serial killers and murderers that I got since highschool and from time to time I also read online. My favorite serial killers would be Ed Gein, Karl Panzram and Henry Lee Lucas.
Have you ever contemplated about how such serial killers feel about lyricist and gore enthusiast such as yourselves, using their twisted state of mind for lyrics and themes?
Yeah I always thought about that. Like, what if you give those people access to goregrind and show them the lyrics right? I mean they would be stoked! And they probably would be able to write their own songs as well based on experience haha. When I think of Jeffrey Dahmer, I imagine what would he say or what would he feel when he learns that there’s a grind band named after him?
If you are to be a serial killer, who would you be and what sorts your will your victims be?
Any serial killer will do as long as my victims are Politicians haha
And how would you like to die?
Nothing grand, just in my sleep will do.
What would you say set you apart from the majority of other grindcore bands that are out there?
We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel or anything so I can’t pinpoint anything in particular that would set us apart because we never tried to. We started this band with the purpose of playing grindcore, standing out was never the intention at all. We just wanted to have fun, do a lot of releases and tour. We let our audience decide whether they see anything that seems to set us apart from others.
What are some of the bands and albums that you have been listening to lately? What are some newer bands that you've heard lately that you recommend?
Lately I’ve been playing some CAVE STATE, DEAD ISSUE, SHITNOISE BASTARDS, COMPULTION TO KILL, WORLD DOWNFALL and many more. I’m more into collecting seven inch and cassette tape splits from different bands lately. I totally love the Fiend/Dead Issue split and the Deboned/Nekro Drunkz split tape. I’m digging plenty of newer bands lately and I would gladly share some that are on top of my head right now. It is imperative that you check these bands out: FIEND, a two piece grindcore tornado from Fresno, DEBONED, horror grind ala Impetigo/Repulsion from Quebec, MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION, hidden grindcore gem of Pakistan, AVIAN TERROR, 17 year olds playing awesome grind from Australia, MY MAN MIKE, power violence/fastcore from South Korea, SELF DECONSTRUCTION, freestyle grind with female members from Japan, XRDM, female fronted fastcore from Sabah Malaysia and many more!
What can we expect from the band in the near future?
We will have several splits in line and a CD that will contain all recorded materials of the current lineup. I have no specific details yet but it will be soon.
If there's a movie or book about Commit Arson, who would be in it and what would it be about?
I prefer a comic book series detailing the life of four struggling grinders and their day to day misadventures haha.
Well that just about wraps up the questions I had for you, anything you'd like to add?
Thank you Jamie for this interview, it’s an honor for us. More power to your zine and to your other endeavors. For the readers, always support the underground/diy local movement. Don’t waste your fucking time following rockstar wannabe bands who are clamoring for a slight fame and Facebook likes. Support LOCAL acts by buying their merchs and support the scene by going to shows, paying the gate fee, buying zines, and not being a general asshole. Thanks!
Contact:
https://commitarson.bandcamp.com/
commitarson.grind@gmail.com