Here it is. A really cool interview with Bushmado's own metal brother Josh Anxt of SERIOUS GRIND. You can find out all kinds of cool shit about Serious Grind in this interview. Read on then go to their website and download some live bootleg mp3s.
Interview with Josh Anxt, vocalist of Serious Grind
Interview by DJ
In your fucked up band bio on your website it says
Serious Grind was born into the universe in 1970, for
those who don't know, when did Serious Grind form?,
and how long have you been playing out?
We started out totally unintentionally. Larry and
Screech had gotten together to write some Down A.D.
stuff and I was just hanging out. As they were warming
up Screech did a blast beat. I never knew he could. So
I was like “dude lets start a grind band!!” and we
started writing that day. That was about June 1st or
so of 2003. We played our first show on June 5th of
2003.
Besides having the live cd out, you're in the studio
right? How is the recording process going for all 4
members of Serious Grind?
Well, we don’t know yet. We go in about 3 weeks from
now to Anything Audio in the north side. I think its
gonna come out pretty strong. It’s a real studio that
looks like it belongs in Nashville. Not your typical
in some guys basement crap. It’s the real deal, and
with how much we’ve been practicing for it, it should
turn out killer!
How many songs will be on the new studio full
length? What is the cover art going to be?
Right now we are shooting for 8 long songs and maybe 4
short ones. If theres extra time for basic tracking,
we will do up to 3 more long ones. But it depends,
cause we only have about 2 days to get sounds and lay
down basic tracks. So if we are good you get a
shitload of songs, if we suck you only get a few. As
far as cover art, we haven’t even discussed it. We
aren’t even sure how we are gonna release it so only
the future knows.
I must say your taste in band pictures is good, it
was your idea for the tied up girls, and the original
"i love serious grind" titty pics. wasn't it? What did
you have to do to convince these women to be in these
photos?
It actually didn’t take much at all except for
promises that I’d never reveal their identities. The
first girl who did it I was telling her my idea and
she came to me a few days later with a pile of pics
her and her friend took. The newer ones where shes all
tied up with the ‘Katie’ gag over her head happened
kind of the same way, only this time I took the pics
and had pretty much an open door to do what I wanted
as long as her face wasn’t shown. Theres actually a
few in that series you won’t ever see involving her
and my body parts and fluids, but that’s a whole other
story... I actually wanna get a cartoon character of
Katie made. Katie being the tied up girl. I just
haven’t looked for an artist yet. So, if anyone out
there wants to give it a try let me know.
Who drew up both of the Serious Grind logos?
The skeleton one was done by a local artist named Jim
Townes that I used to work with. We had a bunch of
over exposed photo paper that was black, and he took
it in the lunch room and came back with this skeleton
scratch art and logo. As far as the death metal
looking one, my friend Martin did a rough version of
it, then my father, who’s an amazing artist, took it
and cleaned it up and made some minor changes.
With a band name such as "Serious Grind" what
aspects of the band are taken seriously and what things
are not taken so serious?
Well, obviously we take the music very seriously. More
seriously as time goes on, it just gets crazier and
crazier. And we take the business end of it seriously.
But as far as lyrics, art, concepts, on stage banter,
that’s where the fun comes in. Theres never really
been a grind/death/thrash band that’s just so over the
top absurd like we are who still holds up musically,
so that’s what we are here to do. We’ll make you laugh
and then crush your heads in with just mind blowingly
heavy music.
What has been the best Serious Grind show to date?
I’ve been asked this in an interview before, and my
answer was this one show in Ohio. And I don’t really
know if that’s true. Every show has actually been
great. Even the ones where no one comes haha! But
maybe the most important show we did was our first one
with the guys from A Moment Clarity. It was a crap
show at the Sandtrap? I think its called. But 80
percent of the shows we’ve done since then came from
that. Roman and A Moment liked us and gave us more
shows. From those shows we made more connections and
got more shows. SO that was certainly the most
important.
Any upcoming shows you want to mention?
All ages on April 2nd at Giorgios in East Pittsburgh.
That’s with Nuns on Fire and Conelrad. We go on at
6:30 so be there early. And over 21 on April 15th at a
place called Howlers, which is right by the Bloomfield
Bridge Tavern. That’s with And Chaos Ensued and
Surrounded by Assholes. We go on sometime after 9 at
that show, we aren’t first, but it starts at 9.
Do you have a favorite place to play or see a show?
My favorite place to play is easily the Smiling Moose
on the South Side. Perfect crowd for us. Favorite
place to see a show is gone now. I used to like the
Graffiti a lot. And I liked a place in Penn Hills back
in the day called City Limits. But like all the best
places in this town, they are gone….
Some might not know, but there was another bass
player before LB. 3000. What's Morgan doing musically
these days?
From what I know, not much. He just didn’t have the
fire in his eye for it. Which is a shame, cause he is
a really talented guitarist. He played bass for us,
but he’s really a guitar player. But I guess he’d
rather play along to his favorite albums instead of
making them. And I’m not sure he even does that
anymore. But to each their own. He’s still a good
friend and we still wish him the best of luck and I
personally hope he decides to give it another go
because he is good and a good songwriter. He is
responsible for a lot of our early riffs…
Do you consider Serious Grind more of a Grindcore
band or a Death Metal band? And Why?
Well, more death metal I suppose. Because we don’t
really have blast beats in every song. But we aren’t
death either. We are just all around extreme metal of
different sorts. We have death parts, grind parts,
lately a lot of thrash parts and even some Biohazard
kinda groove parts.
I heard the cover of the female Portland punk band
Harum Scarum's As Civilians Die on the live cd. I
think it rules. Will you be playing it again live, and
do you play any other covers?
No, that was just for a few shows to fill out time,
but we have more stuff now. We only do 1 cover song
now, which is only a half cover because we wrote the
music for it. It’s the “berserker” song from the movie
Clerks. Oloff, Do Berserker, chicks dig metal…..
Serious Grind has all three band members of Down
A.D. what other bands have you and the others been in?
Oh man, too many. Heres a brief breakdown. Larry:
Anxt, Reconciled Hate, No Other Option, Demonic
Assault. Screech and Travis: Sick End, No Other Option
and me: Anxt, Reconciled Hate, Negative Theory and a
version of the Body Bag Romance that never went
anywhere.
Are you guys still trying to add a second
guitarist?
YES! But people wanna give it half ass tries. We are
still looking though so if anyone reading this has an
interest email me and come down to a rehearsal and
check it out!!
How about that new Rwake Album. Fuckin Slays.
Fuckin right it does! Best album of last year in my
opinion. I think people who visit your site think that
I put so much stock in those dudes, and gal, because
Im good friends with them. But that’s not really it. I
really do think they are just a total cut above the
rest. No one is creating heavy music as original as
them these days. No one! And on top of it, its just so
totally full of feeling. Amazing stuff it really is…
Current Playlist?
The Hidden Hand-Mother, Teacher, Destroyer
Rwake-If you walk before you crawl you crawl before
you die
Death-Symbolic
Face Down in Shit-Shit Bloody Shit
Circle of Dead Children-Human Harvest
Testament-The Gathering
Iron Maiden-Self Titled
Seen any decent flix lately?
Yea, if I can remember them. Me and my girl watch like
2 a day, so they begin to blur. I saw a fucked up one
recently called Love Object about a guy being
controlled by his rubber fuck doll. And a Jeff Bridges
movie called “the Door in the Floor. Any thing with
Jeff bridges is just flat out great. And I’ve been
getting back into Kevin Smith stuff lately. Snoochie
Boochies!!
Smoke anything good lately? (i have!)
Same as always, weed and cock!!
Top 5 Bands of All Time?
Jesus how can you ask me this! Haha! Theres so many
that theres more than 5 in a tie for number 1! Um,
well I guess Ill give you todays answer which will be
different from tomorrows. Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden,
Death, Bob Marley, and anything with Scott “Wino”
Weinrich. If I can go more than 5, than also the
Beatles, the Doors, Ani Difranco, Mahavishnu
Orchestra, Hypocrisy, and At the Gates.
Best live band(s) in your opinion?
Rwake. Candiria. Serious Grind!
Favorite Black Metal band?
That’s tough. I like A LOT of black metal. But overall
I’d have to say I like the sound of Dark Funeral the
most.
Favorite Pornstar(s)?
Besides the obvious like Jenna and Janine, id say
Felix Vicious, Judy Starr, Monica Sweetheart, old
Ginger Lynn, and this cute lil chic named Jubilee.
As a fellow long time metalhead, (I'm 14yrs into
it, and for life&death!) what do you think of Metal
being back into mainstream culture and what do you
think of these new heads that have been into it for
months instead of years?
I actually hate it being in the mainstream for a few
reasons. I hate that theres stores like Hot Topic who
exploit my 26 year old lifestyle. Its like they
invaded my wardrobe and marked it up a thousand
percent. I also hate all the bands coming out now and
they either do the open E stomp in every single song,
which is talentless, if your hands not on the
fretboard, it isn’t talent! Or they all rip off At the
Gates riffs. Which is kinda funny for 2 reasons.
First, the press is starting to label it the “New Wave
of American Heavy Metal” BULLSHIT!! It may be
Americans playing it, but they are just ripping off At
the Gates and every other Swedish band that did it 10
years ago and did it better!! I bet half the kids who
buy those albums don’t even know of At the Gates. Well
heres a secret kiddies, take 2 members of the Haunted,
1 member of your favorite band Cradle of Filth, who
also used to be in The Haunted, add 2 more guys and
that was At the Gates! And I don’t mind new kids
getting into it as long as they stick with it and
realize theres more than the “New Wave of…” bands out
there. I mean we all had to start somewhere. I didn’t
jump into this with 20 yrs experience off the bat.
What are your thoughts on the horrific tragedy that
took Dime's life back in December 04?
It blew my mind. I walked around totally bummed out
for weeks. I went and immediately got his name
tattooed into one of the gravestones I have on my arm.
I haven’t been into Pantera much for the past 10
years. But I still hold them high, and Dime in
particular, in high respects. They got me into
underground metal in a way. Before them I was into
Skid Row, WASP, old Motley Crue, old Metallica, that
kind of metal. I realized after I discovered them that
there was a whole world of underground metal out
there. You have to remember this is when they
themselves were still underground, playing clubs and
such. I saw them at Metropol for gods sake!! But the
first time I saw em is when it all changes. It was
when Vulgar Display first came out. They were opening
for Skid Row, in like ’92. Lets just say I went in
there a Skid Row fan and came out a Pantera fan. But I
pay my respects to Dime and his family as well as all
the other victims and their families. R.I.P.
Thoughts on the world's current state?
Lets just say we were attacked by Afghanistan, and yet
they aren’t who’s country we’ve taken over? Bush is an
idiot. And the fact that he is back in office makes me
sick. He has done nothing for this country at all
besides engage wars. He’s more concerned with
democracy in fucking Iraq than he is with serious
issues in his own country. He claims he’s provided x
amount of jobs and the whole nine. But what he doesn’t
say is that he gave these 6 dollar an hour jobs to
people who lost 12 dollar an hour jobs because of his
little outsourcing deal. Unless you’re a straight edge
wealthy Christian, I cannot see why you would support
that guy…I know you asked about the WORLDS current
state, but that question makes him come to mind. Like
his whole abortion thing. Him and everyone else on his
side I’ve heard say “Abortion isn’t Christian” and all
that kind of stuff. SO WHAT!?!? Not everyone on Earth
is a fuckin weak minded Christian. SO why the fuck
should we have to share your values for your belief
system that we don’t agree with??? Keep your values to
yourself! Anyways, I’m gonna end this answer before I
ramble on for 20 more minutes why I hate him.
What can we expect from the Mighty SERIOUS GRIND in
2005?
Hopefully more shows and an album. If anyone has shows
to pass off to us, PLEASE LET US KNOW. And if anybody
is looking to put an album out that the recording is
already paid for, once again let us know!
Anything you'd like to add or close with? Stay
High!!!
Thanks to everyone who has ever come to a show, bought
a pin or sticker or live cd, visited the website or
supported or helped us in any way possible!! As DJ
says, STAY HIGH!!!
We started out totally unintentionally. Larry and
Screech had gotten together to write some Down A.D.
stuff and I was just hanging out. As they were warming
up Screech did a blast beat. I never knew he could. So
I was like “dude lets start a grind band!!” and we
started writing that day. That was about June 1st or
so of 2003. We played our first show on June 5th of
2003.
It actually didn’t take much at all except for
promises that I’d never reveal their identities. The
first girl who did it I was telling her my idea and
she came to me a few days later with a pile of pics
her and her friend took. The newer ones where shes all
tied up with the ‘Katie’ gag over her head happened
kind of the same way, only this time I took the pics
and had pretty much an open door to do what I wanted
as long as her face wasn’t shown. Theres actually a
few in that series you won’t ever see involving her
and my body parts and fluids, but that’s a whole other
story... I actually wanna get a cartoon character of
Katie made. Katie being the tied up girl. I just
haven’t looked for an artist yet. So, if anyone out
there wants to give it a try let me know.
What has been the best Serious Grind show to date?
From what I know, not much. He just didn’t have the
fire in his eye for it. Which is a shame, cause he is
a really talented guitarist. He played bass for us,
but he’s really a guitar player. But I guess he’d
rather play along to his favorite albums instead of
making them. And I’m not sure he even does that
anymore. But to each their own. He’s still a good
friend and we still wish him the best of luck and I
personally hope he decides to give it another go
because he is good and a good songwriter. He is
responsible for a lot of our early riffs…
Oh man, too many. Heres a brief breakdown. Larry:
Anxt, Reconciled Hate, No Other Option, Demonic
Assault. Screech and Travis: Sick End, No Other Option
and me: Anxt, Reconciled Hate, Negative Theory and a
version of the Body Bag Romance that never went
anywhere.
Yea, if I can remember them. Me and my girl watch like
2 a day, so they begin to blur. I saw a fucked up one
recently called Love Object about a guy being
controlled by his rubber fuck doll. And a Jeff Bridges
movie called “the Door in the Floor. Any thing with
Jeff bridges is just flat out great. And I’ve been
getting back into Kevin Smith stuff lately. Snoochie
Boochies!!
