Interview With Exit International

Tuesday 29 December 09 • Categorized as Interviews

I met up with Scott and Fudge of Exit International in The Rummer’s Tavern and found out about the rather random circumstances surrounding their formation, their ambitious dream gig, the effects of being thumped by music, and at the end the tables turn as I find myself being interviewed for the first time.

VC: What is the meaning of the band name?
Scott: In Bizarre magazine there was an article on a euthanasia clinic in Australia, I didn’t read the article in depth but when I saw the name exit international I thought “That’s a fucking cool sounding name”.

Our previous names were pretty nasty sounding and a bit grim but this is quite non descript, straight forward and one of the bands that we got together with in terms of our influences, Girls Against Boys, we managed to get the seal of approval from their singer Scott McCloud, who thought it was a really cool fucking name.

And that says it all for us, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

VC: How did the band start?
Fudge: One of our mates, Richie is a big Melvins fan, myself and Scott aren’t really in to the Melvins that much, we hadn’t heard them, but Richie wanted to go and see the Melvins and we thought we may as well start a band for a laugh and support the Melvins because we knew the guy that was promoting the show.

So we had about three weeks, we wrote about six songs in about three band practices and we were all set for doing the show but it got cancelled at the last minute. We got replaced by some band they had brought over from America, we were like “Shit we haven’t got the show anymore but still it sounds good, lets fucking carry on and see what we can do”, so we just kept on rolling from there.

VC: How did you end up having two bass players?
Fudge: I can only play bass, I don’t know why Scott picked up a bass.

Scott: I think it was because when we had the initial idea to do the Melvins show we might have been listening to Girls Against Boys and we thought lets just try the two bass line up with no guitars.

And when you are putting it through fuzz boxes and magic pedals the sound is so loud and powerful no matter how metal or hardcore a band is with the sound of two basses distorted properly it resonates almost at the same frequency as dance music so even though you are playing rock it feels like dance music, if you know what I mean.

It’s a bit of a confusing concept to grasp but we you are getting thumped by music it’s a lot more effective than trying to be heavy and trying to sort of have a nasty sound and it not coming off, when you physically can actually make peoples stomach and ribcage move by instruments. The lowest frequency instruments all together on a plate where can you go wrong?

Fudge: Less is more. Well we have learnt from using two basses about the power of a limited palette and that the less you have got going on the more powerful it is. You can see bands that have got three or four guitarists and it is just a thin mess. If you strip everything back then you are on to something, you’re on to something big.

VC: In my review I described your music as “violent mind rape rock”, what has influenced you going in that direction?
Scott: Uh, violence and rape.

Fudge: Yeah, violent rape. I don’t know, it’s just what comes out. With the sounds that we use, you just have to pluck one note and it’s like you are going to fuck someone’s gran, there is nothing you can do apart from sound like you are going to rape some ones face, and we love it.

Scott: Our drummer, Adam, he is a fantastically technical drummer but he is a very unusual sort of like precision drummer/drummer with feeling. A lot of drummers are either shit hot but are like robots or they are really loose Keith Moon style where they play 100mph but it’s not very tight. He fits completely in the middle, which allows us then, musically, to drill things home.

How far do you want to go with sexual connotations? Because it’s drilling that low, bass sound, a lot of porn music is all about slap bass, and when every thing is that distorted and dirty why shouldn’t the words and the attitude be dirty to go along with it?

VC: What’s the best gig you have ever played?
Scott: My most recent favourite gig was when we were supposed to support the Towers of London in Swansea, in Sin City, and Towers of London ended up not turning up, and the crowd were not informed that Towers of London were not turning up, so the rumours went around and then it came to light that we were the replacement for Towers of London.

Three very good, but rock and roll bands were on before us and the crowd were sort of nicely wetted up, and then we went on. With our sort of set up, imagine us going on in front of a load of Guns N’ Roses fans, they are going to be fucking perplexed, and that perplexity turns into anger and then you’ve got people shouting stuff at you on stage. And the whole stage was set up for a cock rock band so we completely abused our rights and went up the Steven Tyler walkway and were abusing the crowd which tuned into a good thing in the end because apart from one person everyone loved it. We did offer to kill that person.

Fudge: I enjoyed the Eighties Matchbox gig in the Barfly, that was my favourite, just because the Barfly was sold out and the Eighties Matchbox fans really seemed to understand what were doing, and to get the chance to play to so many people that understood it and to gain so many fans in one night, I really enjoyed it.

VC: If you could play a gig anywhere, where would you play?
Fudge: Someone’s kitchen. I’ve always wanted to play in someone’s kitchen. Always. If you can hook that up we’re there.

If anyone reading this wants us to play in their kitchen we’re there, just send us an e-mail.

Scott: It’s more about the situation, because you could play somewhere like the ULU in London and it’s full of people that just don’t get you, and apart from the personal enjoyment of playing and the perverse aspect of being so loud and seeing a load of people hurting it would be more enjoyable to play in a shoebox where no one can escape but they all want to be there, they all want to have their faces ripped off, in a sexy way.

Fudge: Always in a sexy way.

Scott: In an Alan Partridge style, sexy way.

VC: Which of your own songs is your favourite and why?
Fudge: My favourite song is nearly always the newest song that we have written, and that’s an ongoing thing, we have always got two or three songs that are about to be finished or that are in the process of being written.

So at the moment my favourite song is “Brand New Song”, you’ve never heard it, only we’ve heard it, we don’t know what it’s called and it’s my favourite.

Come to one of our gigs in the next month or so and you will hear it. It’ll be the one that we haven’t named yet, that’s my favourite song and it always is.

Scott: If you had asked what our favourite song was live, then… That’s even harder, I’ve got a lot of love for “Sherman Fang”, basically it doesn’t make any sense. I can not stress how if you took apart everything, what key the song is in, why it goes where it goes and why it goes where it goes when it goes it doesn’t make any sense but it’s one of the songs that is us least restrained and the response we get from it surprises me. When you hear the applause after that song you think “You people must be sick”.

VC: What do you think of Rage Against The Machine getting to number one?
Fudge: I think it’s fucking great. I was hoping they would appear live on Top of The Pops, I just wanted to see a bunch of confused teenage girls in Christmas hats with an even more confused Californian aggro-rock band not knowing what the fuck was going on. I was praying for that to happen.

I think it’s a great thing when you don’t have some fucking pansy singing a shit song at number one, that’s great.

Scott: I think the most frightening aspect of it all was that the Christmas number one was determined by a social networking group. It had nothing to do with marketing budgets, TV appearances, all that was a by product of what the group initially set out to do. I just think that the idea two average people had managed to cause so much fuss.

Fudge: That will never happen again. There will be so many people next year trying to do the same thing. This is a one off, the only time it will ever happen, mark my words, that’s it, done.

Scott: We can already envisage how many unsigned bands are going to try and rally all their mates and families together with the idea, and ultimately the industry and the bands will reap something from it, because you are going to get royalties and whatnot from the singles, but if you get one group that want “Enter Sandman” as number one, one group who want “One Arm Scissor”.

Fudge: I think that Rage Against The Machine was perfect because of what they stand for everyone just got behind it, most of the people who bought it don’t even like the song, it’s not their best song but it is just what they stand for and I think it’s great, but it’s the only time we will ever se that happen.

VC: What are your plans for the future?
Fudge: Onwards and upwards. We’ve just signed to Undergroove Records, a London independent record label for our first two albums. I believe we a scheduled into start recording to album in the last week of February, and with Scott’s leg as it is at the moment we have no gigs for the next month and we’ll be locked away in our little studio just writing as much as we can and having a laugh with it.

VC: Anything else you would like to add?

Scott: I don’t know. Who are you listening to at the moment?
VC: Me?

Scott: Yeah.
VC: I like everything.

FUDGE: What is in your CD player right now?
VC: I don’t have a CD player, I just use iTunes.

FUDGE: Alright, what was the last thing you listened to on iTunes?
VC: Uh, I don’t know.

SCOTT: What’s the last CD you bought?
VC: I haven’t bought a CD in ages, I just download everything, the last thing I downloaded was, I think, an Aerosmith album, but I like everything., from Bad Brains to Beethoven and anything in between. As long as it’s good, as long as it’s a good representation of whatever it is I will listen to it. I won’t say oh, that’s punk so I won’t listen to it or that’s metal so I won’t listen to it, as long as it’s good I’ll give it a go.

SCOTT: Who’s your favourite sort of local band?
VC: I went to see a band the other day, “Henry’s Funeral Shoe”, have you ever heard of them?

SCOTT: We’ve played with them.
VC: I went to see them the other night and they were really good.

SCOTT: When we played it was a Henry’s Funeral Shoe gig, we went on before them and it was unusual, one of the weirdest gig’s we have ever played, but it was really enjoyable. I can see they are a good band but it’s not really my bag. Which is nice because having seen a couple of bands lately that were just shit and it’s not just me being jaded it’s that no one seems to give a fuck about their art being any good. It’s one thing being in a band, it’s another thing actually being, not the best at what you do but as a sort of unit being completely solid. Don’t give anyone the opportunity to call anything on you, ever.