Total Fucking Destruction – Richard Hoak
SMN News recently conducted an exclusive interview with Total Fucking Destruction drummer/vocalist Richard Hoak. Hoak discussed the band’s new album, his philosophy on life, the upcoming album from the re-united Brutal Truth, and much more.
Could you go into details about the origins of TFD?
Total Fucking Destruction started out as the idea to play music called ‘grind’ at its very simplest and also to have the emotions expressed by the lyrics to be the simplest expression possible. That’s sort of always directed the band; that’s why there’s only three people in it and not four. That’s why I just play the kick and the snare drums, so I don’t have to carry all those other drums around. I want to write riffs so easy that the drummer can write them. I guess a lot of that started with me being bummed out with Brutal Truth’s breakup and I was like “oh fuck man, what a waste. Any knucklehead can start a band with a dumb name and go around the world doing grind shows. Oh wait! I’ll start a band called Total Fucking Destruction and travel around the world doing grind shows.” It was a drunken thought, but snowballed to what it is today.
A lot of people think that TFD is a joke band or a goof, but it’s actually deadly fucking serious. I do present ideas with humor or using humor in certain ways, but its deadly fucking serious; its serious poetry for me and its things I think about and topics in my head.
With songs like “Biosatanic Terroristic Attack” and “Monsterearth Megawar,” I have to ask; does the band spend more time on the music or the song titles?
One of the things I always did in Brutal Truth, writing songs with Danny (Liker, bassist), was making sure it was extreme and ultra brutal first, and then we made sure it was musical, if there was a tune to your ears. With TFD, the songwriting takes that approach; it has to be musical, has to be a tune there you can hear in your mind when your not playing a super-fast grind style. Also, it came with the ideas and stuff I want to sing about. A lot of time, a lyric will come first. Like “Let The Children Name Themselves;” that was all lyrics first. Then we have to have a riff that’s like “Let The Children Name Themselves.” Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. I don’t know if that makes sense to you…
Yeah, it makes sense to me. I hope that the audience thinks it makes sense, but it makes sense to me…
Dude, that’s really fucking awesome when people understand. That’s what is cool about TFD; a lot of people get it. There’s always one guy on the Internet out of ten who’s like “This is a bunch of noise with some dude screaming over it,” but then we play gigs and kids come out and they’re like “dude, “Kill The Jocks and Eat Their Brains, what a great song.” It’s fun and its punk and it has a great message. What better song to fucking mosh in the pit to than “Kill The Jocks and Eat Their Brains?”
Tell me a little bit about the recording of the new album, because there was only one year between the releases…
Zen was recorded a long time before it was released. Zen was mixed by Danny O’Hare, but not recorded by him. It was recorded under suspicious circumstances…
Could you elaborate on that?
It was recorded on an 8-track reel-to-reel machine and then those 8-tracks were dumped to computer hard drive and then there were eight futile attempts to get guitar and vocal overdubs. It didn’t work until I did them in “Garage Band” and nailed them in or whatever. A lot of technical stuff.
But Peace, Love, And Total Fucking Destruction was recorded, mixed, and mastered from beginning to end with Dan O’Hare. That’s one of the things that helped us send our message in the best light possible. Dan did Brutal Truth and TFD songs for the Eyehategod tribute; I think he mixed the Brutal Truth songs for the This Comp Kills Fascists compilation, which was the first Brutal Truth stuff in ten years. He has a studio in New Jersey, just over the river from Philadelphia, so it’s cool.
Does the band plan on touring behind this material, or is Brutal Truth taking up most of your time?
Most of my time is taken up with work, family, and taking care of my household. Total Fucking Destruction will do a world-wide tour in support of Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction, but its not going to happen until 2009. It’ll start early on and it’s no sweat to work those bands together. Everybody is heavily scheduled, so as long as you know what’s going on, barring any unforeseen major fuckups, you can do one thing and do the next thing and do the next thing.
Do you ever see Brutal Truth and TFD headlining a tour together?
We did that in England six or eight months after Brutal Truth (re)started. I guess we did it in England in February or March of ‘07, where it was Brutal Truth, Narcosis, Total Fucking Destruction, and a local band opening up. That was cool. I totally dug it; I could play all night (laughs).
Are you going to bring that tour to America?
I would love to have Total Fucking Destruction and Brutal Truth touring the states. I would be totally psyched for that; it’s a little different because it’s a much longer drive. Touring around in England, it’s like being in the Northeast.
What’s your beef with the Internet?
(laughs) That song is a little tongue-in-cheek. In the lyric sheet for every set of song lyrics, there is a story that goes with it. It’s all part of a concept album. If you go the lyrics next to “Fuck The Internet,” we list where you can get in touch with Total Fucking Destruction on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/totalfuckingdestruction). Where the “Fuck The Internet” comes from is being over-whelmed by modern technology. At one point, I had nine e-mail accounts, and three instant messages going at one time, while I was talking on my cell phone. I cut a lot of that out; I shut off my text messages, and stuff. It’s like you’re overwhelmed with living the online life.
Since you alluded to it earlier, could you explain a bit about the concept behind the album?
Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction is the story of warriors of the fourth World War, after the collapse of civilization. There are people who will fight to survive and it’s mixed with the “game-boy” generation. There’s world-wide global manufacturing of weapons and technology that can go anywhere in the world. You can be a 12-year-old in Africa with an IPod, an AK-47, and a Hello Kitty backpack. It has a lot to do with globalization and giant corporations run the world; turn the Third World children into soldiers.
Is there any main character; I know there is a child with a gun on the cover art…
It has a lot to do with children in the future. I guess the whole concept is more than Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction concept. It’s more of the concept of Total Fucking Destruction, the band, and the lifestyle. This is one certain aspect of it. In Total Fucking Destruction, we assume that there is a slow-motion apocalypse unfolding around us. We don’t know if it’s the result of the world-wide corporate-military-entertainment-technological complex. Post-modern gadgets fill our lives; take our minds off of what’s really important…that the world civilization is approaching the end of history. When I was a punk-rocker and thought that the world would blow up, it would all be a nuclear cataclysm in seconds, but I since realized that the end of the world could take a hundred or a thousand years. It’s not until the year 2080 that the oceans are suppose to run out of fish. Taking all of that as fact, with Total Fucking Destruction, I try to create a sort of…mindset (so people) can come together and celebrate the end of the world. A lot of Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction is a comment on the role of children in the fucking apocalypse that’s going on around us.
Speaking of the apocalypse, now that George Bush is getting out of office, do you think it will slow down a bit?
No man. In eight or ten years, nothing big happens, unless something is truly the Anti-Christ and is playing it off so that they can get into the office of the president and push the button that launches everything. It’s just a slow decline; it goes up and down and up and down, sort of like a graph. It might make things better in the short-term.
You wrote a song about Anal Cunt vocalist Seth Putnam on the new album. Is the song a shining tribute to a great vocalist or knocking on him for making fun of Brutal Truth back in 1999?
Seth is a good friend and I consider him to be a great artist. I disagree with some of the things he says in his songs, especially in the context of making a comment from Total Fucking Destruction. Total Fucking Destruction is anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-facist, etc. So all that being said, there are definitely some things that Putnam says that I disagree with, but at the same time, I know Seth to uncannily accurate in his call on life. Seth can walk into and say ‘that guys a douche-bag’ and he’s totally right. That (song) is just a shout-out to him.
At the end of Zen and The Art Of Total Fucking Destruction, there are four songs which are acoustic-based, with a 60’s acid rock/jazz feel to it. Where did those songs come from, because they seem quite sudden and out of place, but in a good way?
It was at a rehearsal and I was like “These songs have to be able to be sung in your head. These songs can be A cappella or acoustic.” Then Pingdum (Steve Morasco, guitar) said, “We should play these songs acoustically!” It snowballed from there; I think Pinkdum had bought a pair of stereo microphones, so we could set it up in the old-fashioned recording style, where it was a stereo recording in a big wooden room. To mix it, you have to listen to it, and if the drum set was too loud, you have to move the drum set back. We did five songs acoustically, and they were just acoustic versions of other TFD songs.
Were they done in one take?
I don’t know if they were done in one take. They were done in one session. We recorded the songs and I did the vocals afterwards. We mixed it afterwards, and Dan O’Hare did the mix also. The mix was just stereo band and then a layer or two. I don’t think there were any overdubs. The music was live and we did overdubs for the vocals.
I enjoyed the acoustic tracks on the album. Will the band expand upon this sound in the near future?
Dude, I work by intuition. I’ve always done that in Brutal Truth and TFD. I don’t what might happen. It’s whatever I feel, I guess…
For a second, let’s talk about your influences as a musician and songwriter.
Well, for playing drums, I try to be like crazy drummers I admire; Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, crazy shit like that. When I write songs, I try to make them musical. I don’t know that I have any influences. Sometimes, I often have in my head song riffs of other bands or music that you hear on the radio, but every once in a while, an original riff pops into my head that I can’t get out of, and that’s how I know it’s a good song.
What’s the biggest misconception that people have about grindcore as a genre?
There are people on the planet who are privileged to have the extra leisure time and extra money to not only survive, but to make noise and create obscure art, like grindcore, renaissance painting, or free-form jazz. I always thought the music was supposed to be meaningful or self-aware; you have to be self-aware of what’s going on.
Let’s shift focus to Brutal Truth for a second. They are back together and you guys are working on a new album. Can you update the status of that?
We recorded at Watchman Studios with a guy named Doug White, who did an amazing job recording bass and drums. We recorded 24 tracks and then Kevin did his vocals out in Chicago. I think the text mixes are coming in and we are having Jason Fuller from Blood Duster do some test mix, and if it sounds good, he’s going to mix it.
Are all 24 songs going to be on the new album?
Absolutely not. It was a thing where I was pretty well rehearsed and I had a list of tunes and I was like ‘let’s just do it.’ We re-recorded all the songs on This Comp Kills Fascists and did some free-form jazz jams. We did a recording of “Walking Corpse,” but there are no vocals for it.
How does the new Brutal Truth material sound?
It sounds pretty good man. It’s like if you listened to Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom and took a step beyond that, and mixed it with the production of Need To Control and 30% of the brutal grind of Extreme Conditions. I think people are going to dig it; I think the songs are great. I haven’t really heard a lot of it with Kevin’s vocal tracks put on, but it sounds pretty spot on so far.
Is there a release date yet?
Nothing else official, other than its recorded and some mixes are coming in.
So off the record, when’s it coming out?
Even on the record, it’s coming out in early 2009; sometime between March and May.
Final question; Total Fucking Destruction: great or greatest comedy grindcore band ever?
Dan, grindcore isn’t a competition. This is a fucking brotherhood of grind and metal; it isn’t a competition. Total Fucking Destruction is what it is; my friend’s bands are what they are, so let’s fucking party.
By Dan Marsicano
(+20 rating, 4 votes)
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