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NAPALM DEATH's Prophecy Of Extreme Musical Destruction Realised · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hi, this is Barney from Napalm Death and you're listening to another podcast for
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  Heavy Magazine and hope to see you soon in Australia, say Saturday. I
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  like that joke. We are aware were hide it's been a while. You
• 1:26
  haven't been here since twenty fifteen when you're toured with carcass I think it was
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  twenty seventeen. Actually, yeah, twenty seventeen. Yeah, congratulations on frozen
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  in the jaws of defeats. And finally, I want to throw in a
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  few songs that you feel encapsulate Buona Palm Death, which we didn't get to
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  do last time during the interview, if you don't mind. Yeah, I
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  guess you guys have been touring around for a little bit now, mate,
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  But how did the pandemic affect your life and did it affect your writing?
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  By personally adds a bit, well, I see, Neil. The thing
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  is is that we were lucky in the sense that we already had things ready
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  to go that we didn't have to sort of get involved in arranging during the
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  during the lockdowns. Were that that material was already there. We'd already planned
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  to release the resentment. There's always seismic ep that was already planned before the
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  pandemic, so that all the all the parts are in place. Whatever we
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  needed to do during the lockdowns we could do because it was just a matter
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  of you know, making a track listing, getting involved in the artwork,
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  doing the layouts, et cetera. And so it was it was already sorted,
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  so I didn't write it in actually during the lockdown times. There was
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  no there was no no need or desire for us to write any music during
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  the pandemic times. So so we were lucky in that respect. And as
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  for your first part of the question, I think we've heard it correctly.
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  How did it treat me the pandemic, I've got to be honest, it
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  was like a dream to me because I could I could be in my own
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  company for a while. I could space mental space to explore certain things that
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  I don't I wouldn't usually get to do because of you know how how busy
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  and productive napalm death is. So it was actually a really good experience in
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  me. But obviously I appreciate that I wasn't the same for everybody, you
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  know, if that had dependence or families or whatever else. You know,
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  it was a very challenging time, but for me being very self sufficient,
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  it was it was great actually in a like ways the last time we've spoken,
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  and I think the words that you said to me, I like the
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  cut of your gym neal was. I never write questions down, Barney.
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  I like to keep things very organic, mate. Yeah, yeah, which
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  coming out of the COVID question, the pandemic question. And I've seen you
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  a bunch of times, and one of my favorite times, which I'll talk
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  about in a minute, we're seeing you almost open Barket in twenty twelve at
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  eleven o'clock in the morning and just seeing you go from zero to a million
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  percent, you know, at fucking you know, at breakfast time. But
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  who is Barney Greenway on stage and Barney off stage? And how do they
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  differ? Yeah, I mean, you know, it kind of makes me
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  cringe a little bit to think that I might be switching on a personality,
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  you know, and I go on stage because I'm myself at the end of
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  the day, no difference me. You know, it's safe for anybody,
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  you know. But but with the addition of like the music of make fun
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  there the ideas, you know, it's like it's just the lights which just
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  goes up and you just it's like you'd run into a war, you know,
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  just just to make the whole experience what it should be for people,
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  you know. I mean it's you know, Napalm, death is is everything
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  all at once, all with time, do you know what I mean?
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  So everything has to reflect that for me. So that that's the reason it
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  is how it is. You know, I I just can't. I can't
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  imagine myself to stand it still on stage, you know, it just doesn't.
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  It doesn't kind of marry with the with the music, you know.
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  So that's the reason why it's not because I feel like I have to be
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  some uber beast you know, on stage, there's nothing to do with it.
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  You know. It's the it's the natural flow of the music, you
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  know, and like I say, the ideas on top of that. That's
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  the reason it is how it is, you know, Napalm collectively on stage.
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  You know. I watched the doco that you did recently that's on Youtun's
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  about forty five minutes long, and I mean there's a performer. I love
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  your work as a fan, I love your work. And one thing that
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  you said that really struck me in that interview was that when you came into
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  Napalm you wanted to be in your favorite band. That was your goal.
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  Yeah, yeah, no question. Do you still feel that way? Obviously
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  the bear has been around for forty years. You're not being around there for
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  forty years, but pretty fucking close, right, Do you still feel that
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  way? Barney? Well, I mean, obviously that was then and this
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  is now. You know, I could say, it would sound a little
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  arrogant. I think that it would be arrogant, you know, to say,
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  well, the Aprom's still my favorite band, you know, it's it's
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  above all else, because obviously, before I joined, I was I was
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  a listener of the music, as I was many other bands, you know,
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  but yeah, Napal was my favorite band at the time. You know,
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  now I'm in it. I just think it would be a bit off,
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  you know, to start to start saying and while I would, I
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  think that, you know, there's a world of music, you know,
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  but obviously no Palm is kind of my an our pride and job. You
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  know, it's like a phantom limb almost, you know. It's so we
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  just have to make it the best of what it is. Obviously, my
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  perspective in the favorite band. Thing has changed naturally, But that doesn't mean
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  to say that I'm not going to give it one hundred percent and make sure
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  it is one hundred percent what it needs to be. You know, Let's
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  have a break because obviously we're doing a podcast for the show. Pick a
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  song for us, an palm song and introduce it for us. Let me
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  think, let me think, play play a belly full of sault spling,
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  you know, because because you know, I'll pick that one because that's that's
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  a bit of the soundscape, you know, and it was it was really
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  exciting. And when that track came together, you know, it was,
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  Yeah, it was quite something. You know, to do. I personal
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  that it is through a play ariing I court just you would you got to
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  get you such show such now choice Ma Drin got ship finely screen chat.
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  She'll apply, She'll apply to apply. Queer us Small Shall Small sway as
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  Small's said each other play say stand for cho Kid Show Street Guys Like chis
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  also partly Gold and Side Chi Si s Side the Soul the Sou. Having
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  been around for so long, what has been a secret to keeping the band
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  together? Cohesive, relevant, and influential that have passport. Well, I
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  mean, that's not things that we can think about, you know, those
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  are exterior factors. You know. All my interestees and we've touched on it
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  already, is to make the band creatively as as interesting as possible for me,
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  certainly, to maintain that extremity. Extremity comes in many different forms,
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  you know, sunnically speaking, that the ideas are cut through and that they
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  are pertinent, you know, And I guess it's those three things. Could
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  be other things as well, but those three things immediate spring to mind.
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  And as long as I do that, as long as we satisfy ourselves and
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  we put it out there, however relevant it is to people or the other
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  things that you mentioned, that that's something that's in my control or in our
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  control. We can only do the best that we can and whatever things,
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  whatever criteria meets beyond that point is up to other people. You know,
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  hopefully they like it, but if they don't, then so be it,
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  you know what I mean. I loved AdEx Predator. Easy Mate was a
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  fucking incredible album. It's just sheer, brutality and anger. In my opinion,
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  even the title track metaphorically screw you life, Just fucking times of song,
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  stunt or growth. Can you tell us how you came across the title
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  for that album abex Predator? Easy mate, Well, there was a couple
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  of things to it. Well. First of all, that where where the
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  nucleus of the idea from that album become as a particular event in Bangladesh,
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  which was the Rana Plaza disaster, which is the where the textile factory collapsed,
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  and all those workers who were already in lives of poverty and you know,
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  and struggle, you know, more so than we could ever imagine.
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  I would think, basically more or less strong army to staying in a building
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  that they knew was structurally well, unsounded is not the word for it,
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  you know what I mean. It was fucked, you know, that building
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  was, yet they were made to stay and they died, you know,
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  just for going to work. So that was the nucleus of it. So
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  I guess in that particular instance, APEX Predator would be that the factory owners
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  and the people that don't have to worry about where their next meals coming from,
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  and the ones that choose to exploit other people, you know, for
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  their own games. That is the PEX predator. And of course then the
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  easy meat was those people that were lying under that rubble in the end,
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  because that's what they were. They were easy meat, do you know what
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  I mean? So that's where the that's where the ideas back started from.
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  He's a bet spreader, that easy meat from name and dropping start solvoye ship
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  conder prayer, treat to larklass spreading or I amount for a clowns are labored
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  rounds tell the higher custom shop water of hours, the excrem conder prayer,
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  the treat of lawless pace for the woud armistres k take the restance like time
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  up, my boss, my nights and those I just day that night,
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  that night, that rid Hi. This is Barney from Napalm Death and you're
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  listening to another podcast for Heavy Magazine and hope to see you soon. In
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  Australia, no said, I said touch the nighteens of lush to start gone,
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  I said, gone to job. I was stray called h was stry,
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  called ryn ja ch jars got going joy and my guys don't replace something
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  in true much last stray called I started called, I started gone to job.
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  I stay gone, I started calling, I started jo rash a.
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  This is mental vy I'm talking to the man the legend, one of the
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  godfathers of fucking growing though he might you know it's you know, it's true,
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  hey, being a man of wisdom and never short of the word.
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  And how you feel about things? How how's aging Bunney Alder changed your approach
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  to performing, writing and also interacting with you know, me, other metal
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  artists and extreme extreme musicians. It's not a factors be honestly, you know
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  it doesn't change, nothing changes basically. I mean, I've never I've never
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  been the sort of person that places an emphasis on age being relative to how
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  effective something or a person's you know, to me, it was meaningless almost.
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  You know, I don't treat it any different, you know it's I
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  don't. I wouldn't deal with you any different. But you know, it's
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  no bearing on it at all. And sorry I didn't catch the first part
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  of the question was how was aging all to change your approach to performing and
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  writing? You know, yeah, it hasn't made To be honest, it
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  has no bearing on it at all. I'm performing, no difference the only
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  thing. But yeah, because this broken ankle that I've been getting over recently,
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  I mean, I've done it a lot of times in three times this
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  same ankle in ten years. So the medical people were a bit little concerned
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  that I was going to I've done permanent damage, you know, and I
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  was going to lose a fraction of my mobility. But I haven't. So
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  therefore, relative to performing on stage, I'm okay, you know, but
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  there is a I will say, there is a lesson to be learned.
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  There's nothing to do with age, because this could have been the same in
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  my twenties, you know, I am. I need to just be a
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  little bit more respectful of my environment on stage and not run into things just
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  because my brain, you know, at that point he thinks it's a good
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  idea to not worry about things that are in the way. I can't.
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  I can't do that anymore. That that's that's not going to help, you
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  know, it's it's going to if I get injured again, you know,
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  I might not be so lucky next time, you know, with the you
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  know, long term mobility and stuff. So yeah, I've just got to
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  be careful that respect. But everything else, age has not nothing to do
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  with it. You know. I've always been mindful of taking care of yourself,
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  even more so over the last few years. My sort of general level
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  of health and fitness is the same as what I was in my twenties and
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  thirties. So I no issues at all when you did your ankle recently,
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  and you know, we've seen the footage back on stage You're sitting on a
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  chair and screaming at the crowd. You know the next night, like was
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  that an obrainer and you were going to perform? Well, yeah, I
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  was never not going to do it. Finish the shows, you know,
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  because there's a lot of people relying. I've been doing that, not only
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  No Palm, put the other bands that were on the tour as well.
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  So I was going to do my utmost to make it happen. So I
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  did. Yeah, of course, you know what I how I normally approached
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  like being on stage sitting on a chair was It was a little deflating,
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  but what else can you do. I made the most of it while I
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  was in there. It's sitting in that you know, small space. That's
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  all you can do. That's what I tried to do. You know,
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  I'm fairly sure there was probably a certain percentage of people out there were like,
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  right, okay, well, you know whatever you know. But but
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  like I say that, that was the choice. I was left in to
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  do it or done, and I chose to do you know, beautiful.
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  So what Let's pick another song, pick another song for us from any album
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  and tell us why any album? God, let me think, let me
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  think. I'm going to pick Work to Rule. And I was listening to
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  it the other day and you know, it just it kicks that song,
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  does you know? I really really liked it a lot. That's a bit
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  of a sort of picking from a hat or whatever, but yeah, that
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  one just sprang to mind. Hi, this is Barney from Napalm Death and
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  you're listening to another podcast for Heavy Magazine and hope to see you soon in
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  Australia. Chalk Chalk to Jong, what's a wrong? Notch it war?
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  What's wrong? Art? You're gonna work the gar you got? Don't watch
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  a long time? What's wrong? Child on their hords on Mary do very
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  choice? Don't you? Boys? Were heard in the arts at Love to
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  check your board where you wish? N as there starlights all got jobs,
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  all the dolls you want? Jay bar just seems ja ja very just j
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  just back, very very joy toilet Barney it's metal v this is heavy mag
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  Excited to be coming back to Australia again, Matte, Yeah mate, Yeah,
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  a lot of friends that I haven't seen for a long deer friends I
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  haven't seen for a long time. Obviously. We've not been to Australia for
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  six getting on seven years now, so I'll be interesting to see how things
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  have moved on. Maybe maybe they haven't, you know, I mean,
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  we're as far as I understand. A couple of the venues are the same
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  ones pretty much. I don't know where you are in Australia. Melbourne,
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  you're at the Crossing, which is a fantastic venue. I don't think.
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  I don't know that that name doesn't spring to mind, so might be different
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  from last time. But time you're at the Prince of Isles with Carcass right
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  right right, So yeah, I mean I know Melbourne obviously my friends Extortion.
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  I'm now playing that gig, the Melbourne Gigger, so as I know,
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  you know, that's that's a band right there. That's that's a great
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  band, you know. So so yeah, I'm looking forward to coming definitely
• 28:52
  and bringing fucking the amazing worm right from Singapore. What a bard. Yeah,
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  It's nice how that worked out. Actually we've done shows them before,
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  we've never done to us with them, even though this is only as short
• 29:03
  and yeah, they're they're nice people, you know, so it should be
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  a I think it'll be a nice spread of things, you know, for
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  people to see. Beautiful. But I can't wait to see you again.
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  Mate. It's probably been my seventh or eighth time with you. Appreciate that
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  now, mate, Thank you so much for your time. I love Napalm.
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  I love everything that you've given me musically and even spiritually. Is a
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  music fan and to have the honor to talk to you again is such a
• 29:33
  privilege. Napalm with Worm Ross September fifth at Magnets in Perth, September seventh,
• 29:38
  Line Arts Factory in Radelaide, September eighth at the Factory Theater in Sydney,
• 29:44
  September nine at the Croxton in Melbourne. September twelfth at The Triffid in
• 29:49
  brizze Vegas. Yeah go call it brizz Vegas. Mate, make sure we're
• 29:55
  low call yeah. Yeah right, So I guess that the last two songs,
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  the last two songs, I want you to pick Barney for me,
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  for us to finish on is what song perfectly reflects your opinion of Napalm Death
• 30:11
  and all that it encapsulates. And what's your favorite song to do live?
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  Okay, so many? Yeah, mate, I'm struggle to encapsulate Snake Farm
• 30:23
  Death. Well, I'm going to go Scom for that one. I think
• 30:26
  that's a brilliantencapsulate Snake Farm Death. All the later albums too, But for
• 30:30
  me, that's always a it's a really important time in my life, you
• 30:34
  know, yeah, but for my life inside Napalm Death and for my life
• 30:38
  outside Napalm Death. But being on the periphery almost, so I'm going to
• 30:42
  say Scan, you know. And what was the other one? What's your
• 30:47
  favorite song to do live? I'm gonna I'm gonna go I could pick many,
• 30:52
  but I'm going to go for something on the result. I'm gonna say
• 30:55
  Backlash just because Okay, yeah, because that baseline is a ripper, you
• 31:00
  know, really, it's like a concrete mixer, you know, which is
• 31:03
  what you want? All right? Bunny looked. Good luck with everything coming
• 31:10
  up to and including the Australian Tool. Mate, thank you so much for
• 31:12
  your brief time with us at the Heavy mag and with me today. I
• 31:15
  love you brother, thank you so no worries now. I appreciate your common
• 31:19
  words. You know well hopefully ill good to make you. Finally, I
• 31:22
  love to hang out for a moment. You know, we're not we're not
• 31:26
  separated out, We're around so you know, if you see me fucking dawdling
• 31:30
  down the street or in the venue, just just stop making out. Well
• 31:34
  be's donny. Enjoy the rest of your day, mate, I appreciate your
• 31:37
  time. All right, mate, no worries. All the best, best
• 31:41
  ledge bath cheers, noail, see you low mate, bah blah real about
• 33:02
  about a better but don't alto talk a much better like a d d Hi.
• 34:16
  This is Barney from Napalm Death and you're listening to another podcast for Heavy
• 34:22
  Magazine and hope to see you soon in Australia, bas wish I'll watch a
• 34:37
  joke to ride Gray Gray my god d kind of one take one wild side
• 35:22
  the ride, Garge wide play the market, take wilt go and by that
• 35:53
  kind of a black cat tuation. One thing I should, one thing can
• 36:16
  make one lay down dot all. I don't don't, I don't go,
• 37:06
  don't go anymore. I don't my heart, I do okay,