Albums of Purgatory interview Anaemic's Daniel Rides

Albums of Purgatory: whats the band up to right now?

 

Daniel Rides: We're currently trying to move closer to each other so we can all have practices again.  Phil lives in Nottingham at the moment, so it's a bit of a problem.

 

AoP: Is the band still practising together much then?

 

DR: Not really.   Ian's still writing songs though so we are still doing things.  He's written a couple I need to put vocals over before we send them down to Phil.

 

AoP: so how would you describe the Anaemic sound?

 

DR: Hmm, loud.

 

AoP: anything else come to mind?

 

DR: Hmm, thrashy, but with melody...

 

AoP: On hearing the tracks TMH and Icon, we thought the bands sound was brutal in places but very melodic in others.  What sort of views do you get from other people who hear your stuff?

 

DR: It depends on the person really.  We've been told we're Nu-Metal by one of the local bands aroun here, punk by a friend of Ian's and Death Metal by my girlfriend's brother.  The first thing people seem to ask me is "Does your throat hurt then?" Heh.

 

AoP: Silly bastards (ahem) anyway... How did the band begin?

 

DR: According to Ian (who may have been drunk at the time), it began wit a dream, a dream of bright lights and big ci....  erm, well, not really, he decided he wanted to start a band so he could annoy people and get away with it.   He put an advert up in college (I think) and Phil (the bassist) answered it.  They then took on   a vocalist , did a few things with him, took me on to get a double vocal sound, then fired the original vocalist for a few reasons.   I'm being vague

 

AoP: so why was the original vocalist fired then?

 

DR: Damn, knew you were gonna ask me that.  Well, he was into drugs, he also smoked.  Eventually he just couldn't hold notes.  He was a good friend of mine too, we've kinda drifted apart now

 

AoP: were you in any bands before Anaemic?

 

DR: Not any 'serious' bands, nor any I'd like to admit to... Ahem...

 

AoP: sounds ominous, what type of bands were they then?

DR: One of them was just noisecore, it wasn't a serious thing, just a bunch of people screaming and making noise in a practise room.

 

AoP: When was Anaemic formed?

 

DR: It still isn't completely, but the line-up we have now came about around February 2001, I think, I have a bad memory, too much hanging around Ian.

 

AoP: So have you been involved in any gigs yet?

 

DR: Just the one.   We had a friend from Leicester come up to Lancaster to play for us at a gig called the Alexfest.  It wasn't the most amazing of gigs, but we enjoyed it.  He played the drums

 

AoP: and how did it go?

 

DR: We made a few mistakes, and the bass was too loud *mumbles*, but we had a mosh pit, chants for more and no bottles full of piss thrown at us, so it went pretty well I think heh.

 

AoP: A lack of Bottles of Piss is always a good sign.  Have you any interest from any labels or anything yet?

 

DR: I'm not really sure.  Ian's been e-mailed by one, we've also had a few reviews in Rocksound and plays on Total Rock, but we can't really do much until we get a drummer.

 

AoP: have you had any luck in finding a drummer?

 

DR: We did have one, last summer we had a guy called Stephen drum for us, thought it would be a permanent thing, everything was going well, then he got ill, too ill to drum unfortunately.

 

AoP: wow.   it doesn't sound like you're having much luck.

 

DR: So who are the bands influences?

 

AoP: Tool, mainly, also the Deftones, Metallica, Candiria, Dillinger Escape Plan, Faith No More...  Probably a few more that Ian's not told me about too.

 

DR: Ian hasn't told you who your influenced by? He finds new bands every day and is influenced by almost all of them… Oh yeah, botch, he likes Botch

 

AoP: What are your favourite Anaemic tracks?

 

DR: Undergrowth and the Core of Orchids.

AoP: What are your favourite all time songs and albums?

 

DR: H, by Tool is my favourite song, I like Tat Twam Asi by earthtone 9 too (Oh yeah, they're a big influence too, I keep forgetting that, heheh), Arc Tan Gent and Ænima are a couple of my favourite albums. Astrocreep 2000 by White Zombie is excellent, I need a copy of it again.

 

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

 

DR: Anaemic with   Danny Carey on drums heheheheh.

 

Seriously, probably

Danny Carey - drums

Al Jourgenson - guitars

Karl Middleton - vox

Can't think of a bassist...  probably Al again, he could probably do it heheh

 

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

 

DR: Are we counting Limp Bizkit as music?

 

AoP: well it depends on your personal opinion really so personally... no

 

DR: Then music is in a fine state, no problems at all and everything's fine. 

Unfortunately a lot of people do count Limp Bizkit as music, more than those who count et9 as music.  I think this is very sad, especially when a band like et9 had to split up due to lack of interest. There's too much undirected aggression in a lot of bands, vocalists screaming about how they;ve been 'dissed' by everyone and their kitchen sink.

 

AoP: like papa Roach for example?

 

DR: The perfect example.

 

AoP: Do you have any funny stories about the band you'd be willing to share with us?

 

DR: Do you have   5 pages to put them all on? Heheheh

 

AoP: if thats what it takes

 

DR: Most aren't really anything we've done as a band, more like just going out for a night.  Ian likes to jump in bushes (the kind with leaves and branches, not the 'other' kind)...

 

Oooh yeah, there's one story about a guy who came on to our website and started slagging us off, making loads of personal remarks about us and our girlfriends and family etc, his name was vampire.  He mispelt the word *immortal*, we all laughed, he kept going, so I decided to act like I understood how he felt and told him if he ever needed to talk to anyone to vent his aggression, he could always come to me, I'd be a good friend to him… I think we scared him off.

We think he came back as a guy called Astoreth.  This time we found out who he actually was.  We've not done anything to him yet, but if he comes back again...

 

AoP: so did you actually know the person?

 

DR: We just thought it was funny that someone could take time out of their day to come to a band's website and spew forth this crap.  We semi-knew him.   We knew who he was and what he looked like.   We also knew what he did

 

AoP: Anyway, our final question.  What do you see in the future for Anaemic.

 

DR: Full time jobs at McDonalds.  We can work side by side with the et9 guys… Always wanted to do a project with them.  Ta Twam Mchicken Sandwich with fries