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Napalm Death
This interview with Napalm Vocalist Mark "Barney"Greenway was recorded on
22nd April 1997 at The Civic Hall in Wolverhampton during the band's UK
support tour with Machine Head. Questions in bold type. Answers in normal
type. Interview conducted by Phoenix.
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So, you're touring with Machine Head at the moment.What's it like to be
touring with Machine Head?
Well, it's a funny old thingreally, but they actually supported us on their
first US tour. But yeah, you know, it's fine. It's actually quite nice.It's
very different though, because we only usually do headline tours, you know,
'cause our music is so fucking mad that most bands won't take us out ontour
with them! But it's good, because this is a big show, sold out venue, and
there's probably a lot of kids who'll see us tonight that wouldn't usually
come and see us.
You've been around for quite some time now, andare widely regarded as one
of the major influences for Extreme Metal. So how does it feel to be partof
such an influential band?
It's very flattering. It's gives you a sense ofpride, you know. But it also
gives you the sense that you should struggle on, and keep on doing whatyou
do best, but also try and move on with the music but at the same time notgo
away from what you were about.
The new album "Inside the Torn Apart"is quite different to anything you've
done before, in that it's a little more accessible. What brought about the
change in style?
Well, to be honest I wasn't actually in the bandwhile the album was being
written. I knd of got kicked out for a while, you know. So I couldn't
actually pinpoint where the other guys' heads were at, but there's never
really any kind of great masterplan with Napalm Death. The basic idea wasto
keep the 'Argh!' in, you know, the extremity, but bring in some of thesenew
bits and bobs as well, but also bearing in mind that we aren't jumping on
any bandwagons or anything.
What was the story behind you leaving the bandduring the writing of the new
album?
Just differences of opinion, really. We hadn'tbeen getting on well for a
couple of years, what with the pressures of touring and all the rest ofit.
We were living in each other's pockets for too long, and we kind of drifted
apart. It was just a mess, basically. SO they kicked me out for a little
bit, and I started doing other things, and had sort of resigned myself to
not doing it any more, when they called me up and asked me back. I was
shocked... So I'm back, you know, and it's going pretty good at the moment.
OK, changing the subject a bit, what are your currentfavourite bands?
Well actually, I've had a lot of trouble getting into some of this new
music, because I find a lot of it's really false, you know? Not necessarily
the heavier bands, but I find some of the 'one foot in the Indie thing,one
foot in the Rock and Metal thing' very, like, wishy-washy, if you know what
I mean. But I like the new Machine Head album, and... Well, my favourite
bands are kind of older bands... stuff like Discharge, Motorhead, older
Death Metal stuff...
What about the other bands on this tour - CoalChamber and Skinlab - what do
you think of them?
Yeah, they're good. Skinlab are excellent actually.They're kind of with the
flavour of what's going on with the tour, but they've got a lot more noisy
stuff as well. Gotta love a bit of noise, you know what I mean! Coal Chamber
I'm not too familiar with, but they seem to have a lot of character...
What do you think about the current state of theDeath Metal scene? How's it
going right now in your view?
Sadly, not absolutely fucking swimmingly, whichis a major dissappointment
for me because I fuckin' love it, you know. All the bands like Death and
stuff like that were doing mega fucking intense heavy music, and now they
seem to have fallen by the wayside, and that makes me really sad, you know.
And the ones that kind of replaced them are a bit second-rate, to be honest.
Having said that, there's probably some fucking great Death Metal bandsin
the underground that I haven't even heard, that are probably doing verygood
stuff. And I'd like to hear 'em, you know... Send me your tapes!
OK, well thanks for the interview. Finally, andtotally off topic, we were
wondering what you thought of the new Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition,and
what you all-time favourite Star Wars character is...
Oh, right. Seeing as it's kind of in vogue againat the moment... Well, I
thought the new versions were pretty good, with the extra five minutes in
Star Wars. I thought the big lizards were pretty cool, you know. As formy
favourite character... Well, funnily enough, I've got a Star Wars connection
that I just remembered... I'd have to say R2-D2 because my grandad was
friends with the guy that was inside R2-D2. But I love all the characters
really. It's always been one of my favourite films, you know. I saw it back
in '77 when it first came out, and it wasn't until a few years later thatit
hit me how good it was, and it's been my favourite film ever since... Butto
be perfectly honest, now it's come out again it doesn't have quite the same
appeal because it's so commercially exploited now. You know, you go into
every shop and they've got Star Wars this and that, you know... 8 quid fora
fucking C-3PO plastic mug that couldn't barely hold two sips of fuckingtea.
It's gone mad, know what I mean?
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