PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Why did you pick the name ‘[ANTI]faith’ and what does it stand for?
When we decided to change the name (prompted by a pretty major line-up change), we all wrote down a bunch of different ideas and passed them back and forth. We actually toyed with calling ourselves ‘You Fail Me’ for a little while (after the Converge album of the same name), but eventually settled on [ANTI]faith because it abbreviated nicely (The Nine Inch Nails principle, I guess) and it kind of fit the ethos we were after.
Our music is about how various factors in our lives have failed us, so it’s not strictly a religious interpretation of the word ‘faith’, more a broader idea about the stuff you believe as a kid – that you’ll grow up, get a good education, get a good job, marry the woman of your dreams and start a family – that turns out not to be true. Of course, religion comes into it!
Rev: It embraces how everything fails us, everything we try for crumbles to ash…and it probably helps that I’m leading the charge of the fuck-ups with the SOUNDING OF MY MIGHTY HORN!
How did you come up with the idea for [ANTI]faith
Myself (Lex The Runt, Vocals), Reverend Gimpbeast (Lead Guitar) and T.W.D (Drums) were in a band together previously for a brief while; when the bassist quit and we sacked the rhythm guitarist, it seemed like the right time to change tack.
We brought in an old friend of mine on rhythm, Laberynth, and almost straight away wrote “The Raven”. That pretty much set the tone – dark, expansive songs with uncomfortably confessional lyrics. The image sort of mutated out of that – it’s homage to a lot of acts we love either individually or collectively, with our own little twists thrown in. Partly it was because we saw nobody else doing anything remotely like it locally, and thought “Why the hell not?” Personally I think a little theatricality can go a long way; but contrary to what some people have thought in the past, we don’t take ourselves that seriously, haha!
Personally speaking, my image is a bit of an affectionate nod to A.A Nemtheanga from Primordial, various Goth and BM acts and a little bit of affection for The Crow, combined with the fact that I get really, really hot on stage!
Rev: My image? Images are for puny mortals; I was born like this…Born from orifices you can only have night terrors about – the sexual perversions of the whole world accumulated and let out in one big RAPEY SOLO!
How would you describe the band?
Generally we just call it melodic progressive metal to avoid over-complication. There are so many disparate influences in there, though, that people will probably think that doesn’t describe us at all… Progressive Melodic Sludge Gloom Metal doesn’t really roll of the tongue so well.
Rev: That’s like asking me to tell you what I look like inside the mask… Let’s just say there isn’t a face under here…
What has changed since you first started out earlier this year?
Bassists! We’ve been through a few of them; WorldEnder is actually our third in nine months (five, if you count a couple of stand-ins), and originally stepped in as a fill-in bassist for his predecessor!
Other than that, I think we’ve steadily progressed and improved both in song-writing and live performance, to the point now that we’re itching to take our show further afield and show people just what we can do.
What are your musical influences?
As a band, we have quite a lot – we’re all into different styles of music, but we dovetail quite a bit. It’s a bit of a melting pot. We pretty much write by throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Myself, (Lex) I’m pretty disparate; some of my favorite bands are Tool, Lamb of God, Isis, Porcupine Tree, Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, SiKth, Million Dead, At The Drive-In, The Haunted, Nine Inch Nails, Primordial, Neurosis… I have a tendency to listen to ‘Natasha’ by Pig Destroyer repeatedly at 3AM for some reason at the moment, which probably isn’t very healthy, and I do have a bit of a thing for Akira Yamaoka (the guy who composed the Silent Hill soundtracks).
WorldEnder likes: Anything that turns me on, and no that is not a euphemism, I only mean that If I hear something and like it, I like it, I have no real boundaries and feel no shame when it comes to musical taste and intent. As a concept I like to listen to music for the emotion, and that is more than a case of what the words say, I mean the very messages driven into each and every note is in itself a rapture, and if it can make me feel something I like it, I aim to bring that principle to our writing also.
Laberynth likes Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, Slipknot, Anathema, Battle Of Mice, Times of Grace, KoRn, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Bauhaus, Sunn0))), AFI, Explosions In the Sky…
T.W.D likes Miss May I, Chelsea Grin, We Came As Romans, Lamb Of God, Machine Head, August Burns Red, Woe Is Me, WhiteChapel and many more along the metal-core / death-core axis.
Rev: I like the sound of the screams…whilst I’m laughing uncontrollably…I tend to admire guitarists along the lines of Paul Gilbert and Zakk Wylde…because it’s hard to molest them. I like a challenge!
What equipment do you use? Any endorsements?
Rev: Until I find out a way to get a volcano to fit in an amplifier…I use a Marshall JCM900 with a KFK EQ pedal going through the effects loop. On the floor, lacking hives of killer bees and poison smog in pedal form (one day, mark my words… one day)…I run a Weeping Demon wah pedal, to a noise suppressor, then running to a Bad Monkey tube drive pedal for solos, through a Black Label chorus and to end it all, a Planet Waves tuner. For a guitar…I’m intending t o custom build one from the bones of Rasputin. The tone from his facial hair alone would be awesome….anyhow…I use many guitars, but my favourite model is the Les Paul…Gibson or Epiphone, of course…
WorldEnder: Musicman S.U.B. Bass, 5 string, Ashdown MAG 600H EVO II amplification and Hartke 410B XL 4×10” Cab, Dunlop Distortion III Pedal.
Laberynth: I use a 7-String Ibanez, running through a Marshall Mode-4 Cab/Head, and a Behringer rack.
T.W.D: I use a Peavey International series kit consisting of a 22’14 bass drum, 12’10 tom, 14’7 Ddrum snare and two 16’16 floor toms. All the drum heads are currently the REMO pinstripe model. Hardware wise, I use a Dixon double bass pedal that’ll be upgraded to a Pearl Eliminator double pedal pretty soon. Cymbals are all from Zildjian.
Lex: We don’t have any endorsements as yet – we certainly wouldn’t mind though!
What kind of response do you get from your fans?
Really, really positive in general; people seem to really dig what we’re doing. I think it’s because we play from our hearts and we don’t compromise or try to conform to any particular ‘style’ or ‘genre’ – on any given bill we’re likely to be the weirdest band playing, which we whole-heartedly embrace. I think the fact our tongues are in our cheeks a bit helps, too.
Recently I’ve started noticing people singing along with me, which absolutely blows my mind – a lot of the lyrics I write are very personal and pretty idiosyncratic, so it means a lot to me to see even one person who’s taken the time to learn them. Having no real ‘rules’ to our music, I think we appeal on some level to quite a broad selection of people – there’s heavy bits; there’s softer bits; there’s angry bits; there’s sad bits… we’re not a one-speed, one-dimensional band and don’t want to be.
Rev : They don’t know what to think, a couple ask for pictures…but most of them just get bummed by me. Violently.
Any particular gig story or memorable experience you would like to share?
Oh god, playing The Bridgehouse 2 in Canning Town with our great friends Black Acid Souls(BAS) was wild.
The gig itself was pretty good, but everything around it was mental. BAS took us down in the back of their van – ten dudes plus all the gear – and the mini-bus carrying our fans got stuck behind a jack-knifed lorry on the motorway and showed up five minutes after we finished our set!
Add to that the fact that we were playing in London on the first day of three days of recording, we ended up taking an unscheduled detour to Dagenham on the way back (don’t ask) which meant we got back home at 5AM for a 9AM start in the studio the next day, and various other shenanigans involving an eight man piss break on a slip road and Gimpbeast shrieking ‘Look at my BALLS!’ multiple times in an enclosed space… yeah, it was pretty epic, haha!
Rev: When I was showing a van full of men my balls, they couldn’t ignore my girth. And by that, I mean the girth of my balls.
Lex: He’s not lying: – they’re like angry grapefruit in a particularly foul sock…
What are the plans for 2012?
We’ve got an EP called [SANCTUM 60/40] coming out in a couple of weeks which we’re self-financing, self-producing and self-releasing.
That’s pretty much dominating our time at the moment. We’re also planning to bring out some actual ‘official’ merch in March/April time. Hopefully in 2012 we can continue to grow onwards and upwards and maybe have some promoters take a shine to our antics so we can take that next step:
You can find out what we’re up to on our website, www.anti-faith.co.uk, or via our facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/ANTIfaith/196529937038783.
You can also order our EP direct from us via those links when it’s released, hint-hint!
Music-wise we’re always writing, and we’re just putting the finishing touches to a half-hour long, four-part song called ‘’ which we hope to introduce into our live set early next year. There’s an absolutely crushing Electric Wizard-esque Sludge passage in it that’s going to melt some faces, I can tell you!
Are there any messages that you would like to pass on to the readers?
Keep supporting original live music at a local level! It really saddens me to see how few venues are willing to take a punt on original bands because they don’t see it as ‘profitable’ enough, so get to your local venue whenever you can. Three or four quid on the door is a small price to pay when you consider going to see the latest shitty Twilight film costs at least double that… and you can’t drunkenly headbang to a sparkly vampire!
Other than that, if you’re curious about us, check us out – and check out our friends in Black Acid Souls, Divine Solace and Burn City Burn as well, because those guys are absolutely fucking awesome and we love them dearly!
Last but not least, keep them heads banging and those fuckin’ horns raised high!
