GIFTGASATTACK hail from Sweden and play raw distorted chaotic punk heavily inspired by Japanese crasher crust bands like GLOOM, DISCLOSE, FRAMTID etc. The following interview was conducted with Per, Micke and Rabbin via email in 2009 and was originally published in Agitate #10.
Can you introduce the band? How did GIFTGASATTACK come about? I’m I right in thinking the band started out just for fun with some drunken sessions? When did the band start to become more serious?
Per: Well first off we have drunk as fuck Rabbin on vocals. He has the most genuine collection of Japanese records I know about, in Sweden anyway. Granath plays drums and is a better drummer than you would expect at first sight, hehe. I play guitar and make fucked up solos. The newest member is Memphis who just got in on bass. We know him very well from other projects and he is an ace guitarist but now he must settle for this raw punk madness for a while. Hogge is the second singer, he is always out travelling Europe so we must always try and find him when we have gigs. GIFTGASATTACK started as a sick joke or something from Rabbin and Tallen (the former singer) where they tried to convince some stupids in Sweden they had done the “Våga Tanka Själv” EP from FEROCIOUS X… The band didn’t exist for real before I was asked to join in and I started making songs, however, we didn’t have any rehearsal room or anything so it all just laid to waste. Erick moved in at Rabbins and Tallens place and helped out getting a rehearsal space and he started to play bass and we asked Granath to join in on drums. Back then we had no sound or didn’t know what we should play but we had an idea of Japanese distortion. In time we have refined all the elements in our music (?) but it’s still very simple to the point crasher crust. Just the way we want it. Yes it’s still a drunken project ya know but yes we take it more seriously now. What happens happen you know. I want to play this sort of music and since not many people in Sweden do it maybe it can be interesting for them to hear it, I don’t know.
Micke: I really can’t remember, but yes it was a very drunken idea for all most a year before even starting to rehearse, but it got serious pretty fast I think.
GIFTGASATTACK is heavily influenced by Japanese crasher crust. What are some Japanese bands that have influenced the band the most? Do all members share the same love for Japanese crasher crust?
Per: Oh yeah, that’s the whole idea of the band but we have no bounderies whatsoever so there is lots of influences from England and the States as well. Personally I listen a lot to DISCLOSE, ZYANOSE, CONFUSE, KROSSA, UNARM, GLOOM, STAGNATION and GAI for example. Rabbin is the Japan-freak in the band but he has got me into it and I love it too. When we first started I think FRAMTID was the number one influence together with TOTALITÄR and DISCLOSE.
Micke: I say DISCLOSE is a very heavy influence. I don’t have the same diehard love for it as Rabbin or Per, I listen very much to old school American punk, and old thrash metal and raw punk from all over.
Micke: I say DISCLOSE is a very heavy influence. I don’t have the same diehard love for it as Rabbin or Per, I listen very much to old school American punk, and old thrash metal and raw punk from all over.
What about some of the American distort noise punk bands like LEBENDEN TOTEN, AGHAST, HELLKONTROLL etc. Are you fans of these bands?
Per: Yes of course. I love all of those bands and especially LEBENDEN TOTEN which I can’t stop listen to. I think this kind of thing is only happening in Japan and the US, the interest for this music or anti music whatever you like is not so big anywhere else but of course there are exceptions. DEAD NOISE is a good band. There are cool bands like BLINDED HUMANITY and PEACE OR ANIHILATION in Singapore which deserves to be mentioned.
MICKE: I don’t know.
How would you describe the progression of the bands sound from the “Distort Trash Destroy” demo to the split EP with DISLICKERS and the more recent split LP with MARDRÖM? I would say the split LP sounds much more controlled and less chaotic than the earlier releases. Would you agree?
Per: Yes it’s better songs now but we would like to keep the hysteria in the music which hasn’t worked out that well I’m afraid. I mean I like our recordings a lot and I think it’s good songs but it’s not as raw as we sound live and we must try and capture this for upcoming recordings. I think the split with DISLICKERS is the best we have done sound wise. It was a total drunken escapade, no one remembers anything, hehe. I think we will go for the cassette-portable sound again. We progressed too fast and got to technical to fast. We are not done with the raw shit.
Micke: Yeah I would agree, on the MARDRÖM split we recorded on better equipment than earlier, and we had rehearsed a lot more also.
How did the DISLICKERS and MARDÖM splits come about? What makes you decide which bands to do splits with? Is it the music, friendship etc? How did you get involved with D-takt & Råpunk Records?
Per: Well we know the people in this band and we wanted to do something together since we were the only raw bands we knew at the time. A friend of mine just started up this D-takt Och Råpunk label and thought it was a good idea. We are friends with the label that’s why we release there.
Micke: Have no idea, it’s Per who is the brain and driving force when it comes to that.
Who writes the lyrics? What are the lyrics to the song “Krigshög” about?
Per: We all help in the process of writing lyrics, sometimes it’s in a flink of a moment or somebody comes up with a good idea. As we have progressed musically we have done some shaping up with the lyrical content as well. “Krigshög” means High on war and it’s about how you as a soldier must drug yerself to be able to make these atrocities war is about. To be honest it’s a really shitty lyrical content to that song but it’s a good riff and we like to play it.
Micke: Everybody writes lyrics in the band, I don’t know ask Rabin about Krigshög……
What about the song “House Of Joy”? I’m I right in thinking the song is about the Ungdomshuset eviction? I remember seeing MARTYRDÖD play K-Town in 2005. Did you play there much? How did you feel about the eviction?
Per: Yes you are right in yer experience of the song. We have dedicated this song to the house since we all hung out there from time to time and went to good shows. I have played there both with ACURSED and MARTYRDÖD and I think the history of the house from an activist point of view is important to remember and cherish. The Danish society declared war with us by doing this and the fight are long from over.
Micke: I have never played there but been there drinking and having fun, it sucks ass that bullshit eviction.
Some members of GIFTGASATTACK are also active in other bands like ACURSED, MARTYRDÖD, DÖDSDÖMD etc? How do you handle priority issues between the bands?
Per: Well, there are no complications about this since both ACURSED and DÖDSDÖMD are not active at this time. Now I only play in AGRIMONIA, MARTYRDÖD (which never rehearse) and GIFTGASATTACK so there is plenty of time for us… and I think we have to keep the fire burning as it is now and do as much shit as possible before it burns out. Micke plays in some bands.
Per: Well, there are no complications about this since both ACURSED and DÖDSDÖMD are not active at this time. Now I only play in AGRIMONIA, MARTYRDÖD (which never rehearse) and GIFTGASATTACK so there is plenty of time for us… and I think we have to keep the fire burning as it is now and do as much shit as possible before it burns out. Micke plays in some bands.
Micke: I play drums in MOTORBREATH also, the priority has not been a problem at all actually.
Per, tell us about your new raw punk crasher noise band KIRAI? Sounds like there’s some serious fucking CONFUSE worship going on? What’s the line up? What plans do you have? Per: Haha, yeah… I had to get away from my shitty life in Gothenburg so I went to my old hometown just to relax a bit. Henka from DISCOVER lives there and we are good friends so we started talking about this since I had an idea of a band that would sound like this. He has a portable studio so we went in the rehearsal space and just did three songs and recorded them, no shit just doing it. It came out pretty good so we made a decision to make another recording the following week which we did. It came out even better this time and I’m satisfied with it. I have already spoken to D-takt Och Råpunk so maybe we release a 10 song cassette in the near future. We are only two persons so this will only be studio project.
Per: It’s getting better and better but as a city it stills sux. Scene wise we have lots of bands right now but it’s the same people in all of them. SEITAN and BLOOD OF THE GODS are great bands when it comes to D-beat. I myself play in AGRIMONIA which I think is a fairly good band. Since the scene is so very small and there is so much drugs and alcohol involved it can get somewhat chaotic at times so that’s when I don’t like it so much. From what I know I don’t hang out so much anymore. Rabbin has his Warsong label but apart from this I don’t know. There is a good venue here with decent people arranging shows at Underjorden. It’s a small DIY collective that book punk bands from around the globe. There are also some attempts to politicize the scene which is really welcome… and some friends are trying to bring the squat movement alive again after 20 some years. We have to wait and see what the future brings but as it is now it can only get better.
Micke: I like a lot here in Gothenburg, lots of punks lots of gigs, Spatt and Punk Illegal are two organizations that arrange punk and crust gigs, very good. GOO, THE TOILET, TVÄRKÖRT, MOTORBREATH are good bands, look em up. I think its too much finger pointing in the scene not enough chaos and disorder.
Rabbin, tell us about your label and distribution Warsong? When did it start? What releases have you done? Any future releases in the works?
Rabbin: OK I don’t really know if there is much to say about it. I also run a Dist & Confused with a friend from Halmsted. I wanted to do something by my own. Something more personal, mainly focusing on rawpunk and other things that I find interesting. I think it started when I was asked to release BESTHÖVEN / ALTERNATE SYSTEM split 7”. After that GIFTGASATTACK / DISLICKERS split 7” and split 12” with MARDRÖM. Those are split releases with D-Takt & Råpunk. Now I’m waiting for the split 12” with BETON and CAD from Slovakia. I’ve been friends with the guys in BETON for some years so I was just glad to put some money in the release. Next release will be GIFTGASATTACK split 7” with BESTHOVEN I think. Rawpunk bands feel free to contact me for possible releases! www.warsong.nl is address to the poorly updated page. Hopefully I will get some motivation to take care of it better!
What’s next for GIFTGASATTACK? Are you still planning to do an EP for Noxious Noize?
Per: Yes we have recordings for a 7” and the split 7” with BESTHÖVEN so hopefully this will come about before the end of this year. We will continue to make noise and try and make it more harsh than before. The upcoming recordings will be less quality but greater in noise. I feel we have to play as much as possible before we make an LP since we make songs too fast and we can’t even play them, haha. Yeah, Noxious Noise are really cool and it’s cool that they find interest in us… We would like to come over to England and play and maybe our friends in THE WANKYS can arrange that. They come over in October for some shows with us in Norway and Sweden. Those who live will see.
Micke: Next up is a split EP with a band a can’t remember right now and an EP with only GIFTGASATTACK on.
Favourite DISCLOSE record?
Per: Oh this is too hard, hehe. I like the sound of “Nightmare Or Reality” LP… But all the seven inches are fukking great. I don’t know really.
Micke: Most of them.
Rabbin: Each record is a masterpiece.
DISORDER or CONFUSE?
Per: Oh, I’d say both but I go for CONFUSE since they refined the DISORDER sound and made it more chaotic and shortened the songs.
Micke: DISORDER deluxe.
Top five favourite Swedish bands?
Per: NÖDVÄRN, DISCO VOLANTE, SKITKIDS, MIASMAL, MISANTROPIC. Micke: UNCURBED, ANAL FURTILAISER, NÖDVÄRN, NO SECURITY, TOTALITÄR.
Anything else you want to say? Any last words or comments?
Per: Well, bring us to England!! Thanx mate for the opportunity to be seen in yer zine. I have always liked Agitate. Please everybody help make raw punk alive again!
Micke: Well thank you very much for the interview, check out MOTORBREATH and have a drink.
Rabbin: Thanks for showing interest! If anyone want our records or other shit check www.warsong.nl or send an email to skitlivet@gmail.com. Thanks again.
Rabbin: Thanks for showing interest! If anyone want our records or other shit check www.warsong.nl or send an email to skitlivet@gmail.com. Thanks again.
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