Culture Shock Interview: Waxeater

April 21, 2011 · by bfinkel · in , ,

Bari When did Waxeater become Waxeater; what brought you together?

Rob It started in May of 2006, it was started by me and another band in Bloomington, and when that band ended it sort of carried onto this band.

 

Bari Why the name Waxeater?

Rob Originally we were called Mouthbreather, but there was another band in Virginia with the same name that had put out an album with copyrights. So we went with Waxeater; they are both Jesus Lizard songs about drunken a**holes.

 

Bari Your last album, Sleeper, was released in September of 2010, are you currently working on a new album or are you mostly focusing on preparing for your tour this summer?

Rob We are writing a new one right now, which is a concept record about the television show The Wire. We are booking a five-week summer tour so we will finish the album when we come back. We’re touring this summer in support of the vinyl which comes out in June.

 

Bari Is the audience very energetic at a noise rock concert?

Rob Not so much in Bloomington, but the audience is similar to crowds at punk crowds.

 

Bari Do you find it difficult to recreate that energy while recording an album?

Rob Yes, that is always the challenge. We record live to try to combat that. We do it live in the studio to keep the energy up; it can be hard, but you just have to go into the studio with the same energy. It can be hard because you’re just playing to a wall basically.

 

Bari Who does the artwork for your albums?

Rob A guy named Mar Chant who we’re friends with did the album art for Decent Riff and Sleeper; he’s from Milwaukee. We gave him direction for both of them. For Sleeper, it was a concept I had that he just kind of went with. The concept was to take Cthulhu, who is on a lot of our albums, and Anne Frank, who I’ve had an obsession with, and combine them so that Cthlulhu is kind of stealing and transforming her.

 

Bari What do you do to pump up a crowd?

Rob Hopefully just the music itself. We tend to talk a lot, we joke around a lot. I’m not Ian MacKaye, we just like to be very obvious that we’re just having a good time.

Bari Your facebook captions and pictures are also pretty funny.

Rob We try to put things that look funny and things that we have seen and have had fun with. It’s more entertaining than having just “here’s the next show, here’s the next show, here’s the next show” on the page.

 

Bari What is the weirdest thing an audience member has done at one of your shows?

Rob I kicked a hole in the ceiling of one of my own shows. They haven’t done anything too crazy; I wish they had. I did once get shoved against my amp and they had to pull me and the amp back up during a show, but that’s because they were just a little rowdy.

 

Bari If you could play a show anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Rob I would really like to go to London. Europe in general, bands over there get a lot of amenities that we don’t have here. The venues pay for food and put you in hostels, you get a driver. It would be a nice way to see Europe.

 

Bari If you could play a set with anyone, who would it be?

Rob Probably The Jesus Lizard.

 

Bari What do you love most about noise rock?

Rob The tones, a lot of the bands that I’ve modeled what we do after have just really good guitar and bass tones. I try to get more into rhythms than into notes themselves. It’s always kind of weird and has a good sense of humor about itself.

 

Bari What do you and the band-mates do when you’re not rehearsing and playing?

Rob I teach high school about 15 minutes south of Indy. Our drummer is a butcher and our bass player is a waiter.

 

Bari What are you most excited for at Culture Shock?

Rob Playing to a whole new group of people who don’t see us. We don’t play as much locally anymore, it will be a good opportunity to see us and get psyched.

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