Groinchurn - South African Grind

It's been a while since I posted any old interviews that was salvaged from Thanatopsis at Geocities.

This interview was done for Thanatopsis zine issue #3 in 1996. I had the opportunity to meet them in London in the late 90's but unable to go since I was doing my A-levels at the time.

 Recently I managed to get their SIXTIMESNINE cd courtesy of Shah of Random zine. Great to have the cd since they only gave me a tape copy last time round. Will try and do a review on it soon. Don't know if the address is still valid, but worth a try??

Enjoy:

GROINCHURN is one of the most promising grind band ever to emerge from the South African scene. Groinchurn began it's grinding assault of well crafted noise in early 1994. The band was formed by Mark Chapman and Sergio Christina of SEPSIS. Just before the recording of the first demo, HUMAN FILTH, Christo of DESECRATOR joined on vocals and bass. 

The band went on to release a 2nd demo, EVERY DOG HAS IT'S DECAY, which has to date sold around 800 copies worldwide. Next was a 20 min. spot on the FOUR WAYS TO MISERY CD on MMI RECORDS (Germany) followed by the release of 2 split 7" EP's : one with CAPTAIN THREE LEG on FUDGEWORTHY RECORDS (USA); and one with WOYCZECH on PAINART RECORDS (Germany). 2 live split tapes were also released: one with MINDFART on ABNORMAL TAPES (Slovenia); and one with NECROSE on AXIOMA PRODUCTIONS (Holland).

The latest offering, SIXTIMESNINE, is definitely the best and strongest material to date, featuring 13 awesome tracks of relentless and experimental grind with an original edge. Get it or die. I've heard it, sounds really fuckin' great man!!

For order or info:

Groinchurn, P.O. Box 4478, Vereeniging, 1930, SOUTH AFRICA. Or get it from Marbil Entertainment, P.O.Box 1264, Germiston, 1400, SOUTH AFRICA. Fax:27-11-626-1197.

Enough shit here, let's get on with the interview(answered by Sergio):

What's the latest news from Groinchurn? Any changes?
The lineup is still the same as always and the music is still fast and all that. Latest news is that we've just released our debut album and we're chiffed with it!! It was released at the end of Feb. the title being "SIXTIMESNINE". It is about 24-25 min. long and has 13 songs! Propackaging and production and all that.

Isn't Groinchurn members of Sepsis and Desecrator? What happened to the bands?
Yes, me and Mark were in Sepsis and Christo was in Desecrator. Both bands broke up ages ago.

Tell something about your demos.I heard you're working with MMI Recs for a CD?
Human Filth was our first demo. We recorded it in a tiny studio that usually deals with soft pop and gospel shit! We just weren't allowed to swear blaspheme and Christo had to sort of mumble swear words in the lyrics!! It cost us about 300 buxx or so to record and it was recorded in about 3 hours or so!! We recorded it in March 1994. It had 7 trax on it as was probably about 15 min. long. The 2nd-Every dog... was recorded in a professional studio and cost us a lot more that 300 buxx to record! It had 14 trax on and obviously had better sound. We recorded it in later 1994 because Human Filth sparked off local and overseas interest.
We did work with MMI Recs and were featured along with 3 other bands (NYCTOPHOBIC, CAESAREAN SECTION, WINTER OF DISCONTENT) on a comp. CD called 4 Ways to Misery. We were supposed to do a CD with MMI, but the label stopped, which is a damn shame 'coz MMI was a good label! Well after that we did a couple of split 7"s and stuff. Namely a split with Captain 3 Leg and a split with WOYCZECH. Soon we're going to bring out our Coughin 7" and Totally Fucking Live 7".

Now it seems the U/G scene is full of Punk/HC and Black metal bands, it seems that the two are considered as trends. Do you agree? Will Groinchurn turn to play one of these genres?
Black Metal and HC/punk seems to be big in our U/G now, I guess that's what's getting the most support now- whether its good or bad-I don't know. I reckon the important thing is that the bands in the U/G, whatever genre they belong to must be into what they're doing, i.e. they must be real, otherwise the U/G will be full of bands that should be in the mainstream, and that would obviously be bad! As for us doing Black Metal-Nah! As for HC-we've been doing that since we started, Grind is old HC taken a couple of steps further. Lyrically, Grind is similiar to HC and all that well I think so anyway!!

Have you guys done any gigs/tours before? How was the response? Is it hard to organize shows there?
Yes, we've played loads of gigs and we've done mini tours around the country. The response to the gigs goes up and down, sometimes it's goddamned chaos. It's not that hard to get gigs here now, say about 8 months ago to a year ago it was very difficult to get gigs, but now it seems to be picking up again. We're playing regularly now.

Have you heard the new Napalm Death LP's? Do you think they're the grind godz they were? How about Agathocles, Carcass and Brutal Truth?
ND has definitely changed, I certainly wouldn't call it grind anymore. I like "Fear,Emptiness.." but the new one is off. Their music isn't intense anymore. I haven't heard Agathocles' latest stuff yet, but I trust its still brutal. Carcass are now a bloody rock n' roll band to me, I won't even bother taping the latest album-no thanx! Brutal Truth can't be accused of wimping, I must say, they're still really intense. They're cool because "Need to Control" is more extreme than "Extreme Conditions..", and I'm looking forward to hearing the new one, whichI will soon!

How's the scene in S. Africa now? Name some bands + zines.
The scene here is definitely expanding. There's a bunch of new bands out. People like Philantrophy, Gutted Remains, Mayirism (don't know if I spelt it right), Sex Wax, Gaadacanal Dairy, Dieversions and a bunch of others whose names I can't think of right now! Zines-really too many.

Do you think your music can influence people?What are they about? Is the band a way to voice out your anger, depression + hatred to someone/thing?
I don't know if our music influences people. There's not many ways of telling. If it does, I hope its positively. The lyricsare about all sorts of things, personal conflicts, social things, hypocrisy and shit like that. The music is based on anger and frustration with situations that affect people day in and day out.

Your opinion about:
1.Neo Nazis,
2.Racists,
3.Wars
Neo Nazis are fucking sick and they are amazingly stupid creatures-"More hair than Brains" as the saying goes. Everyone hates someone, there's a little racist in all of us I reckon, or at least all of us have what it takes to hate someone because they're not the same. Racism is basically just another social disease kinda thing. Wars make no sense obviously. The war is a tool to satisfy greed, power or any other sick thing that reflects what mankind really is-stupid as hell!

Do you know any bands/zines in these regions?
I know of a handful of bands and zines and we are in contact with a few

You go into a store to buy a CD. Which one will get your attention: good coverart, mostly popular bands' new material or a new bands' name you really like?
Well good coverart will first get my attention obviously and then I'll go for what I knowor what I've heard about. I'm not really bothered if the band is new or popular or whatever, I just get what I'm familiar with.

Promote your merchandise.
Well, our CD is available now :SIXTIMESNINE it costs $15 postage paid worldwide.
We're also selling 2 split 7"s :
GROINCHURN/CAPTAIN 3 LEG for $6
GROINCHURN/WOYCZECH for $6
In the future :
GROINCHURN 'coughin' 7" GROINCHURN 'Totally Fucking live' 7"
And that's it!

Your closing words.
Thank you Noorwan for the interview, we appreciate your support!! Good Luck. As for the readers, if you're interested in us (info,merchandise or anything else) just right to : GROINCHURN
c/o Sergio
P.O. Box 1047
SASOLBURG 9570
SOUTH AFICA. 

That's it for the interview. Quite a long one too. Contact them now for info or merchandise. They got a homepage (edit: homepage now defunct) now as well. Since this interview they've released some new stuff, which I forgot now!! This intie was for our 3rd issue, but it came late so, I decided to put it here. They gave me pix but I don't have a scanner (shit!!). Oh well, hope you enjoyed the intie.

 Groinchurn on Myspace