Push to Fire: Alternative Music Webzine

Push to Fire Interview: The Rotted
Lucy Pryor's interview with Tim and Gian from The Rotted, about life after Garrotted, industry parties and Topshop.

You only formed in 2008, with members coming from Garrotted, Cradle of Filth and Screamin Daemon. How’s this first year as a band been?
T: fuckin mental! We’ve had to do a lot. It’s been back to grassroots if you know what I mean. We’ve gone back to the start so we’re doing stuff like these barfly tours, festivals and everything like that, its been really good, a hectic year.

What musical influences have you individually brought to The Rotted?
G; well we’ve drawn from what we like, so from the grind aspects of the bands past to my black metal past, to a sort of more punky, hardcore, up to date in your face approach. We’re drawing on everything we like in our past. Everyone gets a fair go!
Your debut album ‘Get Dead or Die Trying’ seems to draw on very personal experience of drugs, alcohol and violence. Was it difficult to write songs about such personal experiences?
T: not really, we have found it easier to switch to that. After years of sort of living in a fantasy world, and like having a theme, it was like how much more can we do? It’s like eating the same dinner every day. He [vocalist Ben], was like no I want to write about my own things, and in fact it flowed out much better.

In the song ‘Nothing but a Nosebleed’ the lyric, "We’re gonna change the state of this land, we’re gonna form a million bands, but all we got to show for ourselves is nothing but a nosebleed", which I assume is about taking drugs probably coke? The song says to me that people want to change the world when they’re high and the cant be bothered when the come down hits. Do you think that’s a fair comment about the youth of Britain in 2009?
G; (laughing) yes that is correct!! Well done!!!
Thanks!
G; The amount of parties we’ve been too, and the amount of bollocks we’ve had to listen too, people always talk bollocks like ‘oh my god you’re the best, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna get up, play tennis, I’ve got 5 bands for you, I’ve got all the album written its gonna be great’, and the next day they get up they’ve got a small cock, nosebleed, no money, fuck off!
T: it’s a scene of its own, there’s a whole scene of people who literally just go to industry parties and talk bollocks. There almost like a necessity, you need them to go and talk for you but then its like fuck off and leave us alone after a while!
G; most of the industry types are ‘love the album band’ and then they spend most of the time in the bog. I’m not going to say any names but they know who they are!
The song ‘Kissing you with my fists’ seems to me to tell the story of people using awful murders and tragedies to excuse violence in their personal lives. Was this song also written about a personal experience or is it a comment on the society around you?
T; Its Ben listening to his iPod. Its him being on the London underground, paying too much to go half a mile, crammed in like fucking sardines, no ones fucking looking at each other and he’s got his iPod on and he’s listening to Flobbing Gristle, and he said he was just sitting their one day with Flobbing Gristle on sitting staring and he thought I could kill every single fucking one of you right now. And he had to get off the train. He was like, air, breathe, now, and he thought I can’t live in this shit hole anymore.
You are renowned as being a ‘f*** everything’ band, on your MySpace it mentions f*** 9-5 lifestyle, f*** taxes etc, what do you think you would have done if you hadn’t made it in the music world, not conforming, but had to live a different life to the one you have now?
T: fuck knows. I dunno.
G: Its not like, I wanna play music so lets live like this so we can play music, its I wanna do whatever the fuck I want, so what do I want to do, to do what the fuck I want? It’s not do what I’m told and live under the fair vibration and conform to society, and music is a good way out of that. So they kind of work hand in hand.

Last year high street chain Topshop used your song ‘No shirt, No shoes’ on their in store playlist. How did you feel about this? Did you worry that you would alienate your fans from listening to you with such a massive sort of corporate endorsement?
G: well yeah again it was like fuck off. I mean we don’t go to Topshop! The fact that they used one of our songs and it was the mellow one in between to of the heaviest songs on there. And we liked just imagining chavs going in there and saying ‘ oh these chinos are nice oh and this is The Rotted isn’t it,’ they buy an album and it just destroys them, and we’re like thanks for your money now fuck off (laughing)!
T: plus there’s some really subtle things going on there in the track like people smoking bongs and that! Its so nice to know that so many people are hearing our drummer going dedede on his bong (laughs), there’s so many fucking in jokes being played in Topshop and there’s thousands of fucking people hearing it!
Congratulations at making it on to the bill for a sold out Waken festival last year! Was it weird playing such a large crowd after only being a band for such a short time?
G: No because we’ve all played big festivals before.
T: It was like new name, same stage, bosh.
Have you got any festivals lined up for this year?
T: We’re doing Hammerfest in a couple of weeks, UK Deathfest, possibly a couple of others in the works.
And what about future albums? It’s been almost a year since your debut release, have you got any plans to be back in the studio anytime soon?
T; we’re writing at the moment. There’s a lot of writing going on, and we’re at that stage where you’ve got an hours worth of material and it’s putting it all together. You know one riff here one riff there, and seeing what fits together and what we want to use.

Photos and interview by Lucy Pryor; more photos in the live photos section of the site. This interview was carried out at the Birmingham Barfly on 07/04/2009. Thanks to Andy T for sorting out the interview for us and the band for being interviewed. Check out: http://www.myspace.com/therotted for more info on the band and tour date details.

Push to Fire Interview: The Rotted Lucy Pryor's interview with Tim and Gian from The Rotted, about life after Garrotted, industry parties and Topshop.
You only formed in 2008, with members coming from Garrotted, Cradle of Filth and Screamin Daemon. How’s this first year as a band been? T: fuckin mental! We’ve had to do a lot. It’s been back to grassroots if you know what I mean. We’ve gone back to the start so we’re doing stuff like these barfly tours, festivals and everything like that, its been really good, a hectic year.
What musical influences have you individually brought to The Rotted? G; well we’ve drawn from what we like, so from the grind aspects of the bands past to my black metal past, to a sort of more punky, hardcore, up to date in your face approach. We’re drawing on everything we like in our past. Everyone gets a fair go! Your debut album ‘Get Dead or Die Trying’ seems to draw on very personal experience of drugs, alcohol and violence. Was it difficult to write songs about such personal experiences? T: not really, we have found it easier to switch to that. After years of sort of living in a fantasy world, and like having a theme, it was like how much more can we do? It’s like eating the same dinner every day. He [vocalist Ben], was like no I want to write about my own things, and in fact it flowed out much better.
In the song ‘Nothing but a Nosebleed’ the lyric, "We’re gonna change the state of this land, we’re gonna form a million bands, but all we got to show for ourselves is nothing but a nosebleed", which I assume is about taking drugs probably coke? The song says to me that people want to change the world when they’re high and the cant be bothered when the come down hits. Do you think that’s a fair comment about the youth of Britain in 2009? G; (laughing) yes that is correct!! Well done!!! Thanks! G; The amount of parties we’ve been too, and the amount of bollocks we’ve had to listen too, people always talk bollocks like ‘oh my god you’re the best, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna get up, play tennis, I’ve got 5 bands for you, I’ve got all the album written its gonna be great’, and the next day they get up they’ve got a small cock, nosebleed, no money, fuck off! T: it’s a scene of its own, there’s a whole scene of people who literally just go to industry parties and talk bollocks. There almost like a necessity, you need them to go and talk for you but then its like fuck off and leave us alone after a while! G; most of the industry types are ‘love the album band’ and then they spend most of the time in the bog. I’m not going to say any names but they know who they are! The song ‘Kissing you with my fists’ seems to me to tell the story of people using awful murders and tragedies to excuse violence in their personal lives. Was this song also written about a personal experience or is it a comment on the society around you? T; Its Ben listening to his iPod. Its him being on the London underground, paying too much to go half a mile, crammed in like fucking sardines, no ones fucking looking at each other and he’s got his iPod on and he’s listening to Flobbing Gristle, and he said he was just sitting their one day with Flobbing Gristle on sitting staring and he thought I could kill every single fucking one of you right now. And he had to get off the train. He was like, air, breathe, now, and he thought I can’t live in this shit hole anymore. You are renowned as being a ‘f* everything’ band, on your MySpace it mentions f* 9-5 lifestyle, f*** taxes etc, what do you think you would have done if you hadn’t made it in the music world, not conforming, but had to live a different life to the one you have now? T: fuck knows. I dunno. G: Its not like, I wanna play music so lets live like this so we can play music, its I wanna do whatever the fuck I want, so what do I want to do, to do what the fuck I want? It’s not do what I’m told and live under the fair vibration and conform to society, and music is a good way out of that. So they kind of work hand in hand.
Last year high street chain Topshop used your song ‘No shirt, No shoes’ on their in store playlist. How did you feel about this? Did you worry that you would alienate your fans from listening to you with such a massive sort of corporate endorsement? G: well yeah again it was like fuck off. I mean we don’t go to Topshop! The fact that they used one of our songs and it was the mellow one in between to of the heaviest songs on there. And we liked just imagining chavs going in there and saying ‘ oh these chinos are nice oh and this is The Rotted isn’t it,’ they buy an album and it just destroys them, and we’re like thanks for your money now fuck off (laughing)! T: plus there’s some really subtle things going on there in the track like people smoking bongs and that! Its so nice to know that so many people are hearing our drummer going dedede on his bong (laughs), there’s so many fucking in jokes being played in Topshop and there’s thousands of fucking people hearing it! Congratulations at making it on to the bill for a sold out Waken festival last year! Was it weird playing such a large crowd after only being a band for such a short time? G: No because we’ve all played big festivals before. T: It was like new name, same stage, bosh. Have you got any festivals lined up for this year? T: We’re doing Hammerfest in a couple of weeks, UK Deathfest, possibly a couple of others in the works. And what about future albums? It’s been almost a year since your debut release, have you got any plans to be back in the studio anytime soon? T; we’re writing at the moment. There’s a lot of writing going on, and we’re at that stage where you’ve got an hours worth of material and it’s putting it all together. You know one riff here one riff there, and seeing what fits together and what we want to use.
Photos and interview by Lucy Pryor; more photos in the live photos section of the site. This interview was carried out at the Birmingham Barfly on 07/04/2009. Thanks to Andy T for sorting out the interview for us and the band for being interviewed. Check out: http://www.myspace.com/therotted for more info on the band and tour date details.