Ever since their inception in 1997, Pig Destroyer have been a band that breaks down genre barriers, reinvents themselves on each new album, and generally doesn’t give a damn what people think of them. Starting out in the DIY underground scene, playing small sweaty shows in DC and Baltimore, the bassless grindcore trio spent their first few years producing the aggressive but somehow catchy and memorable mess that is 2000’s compilation of early material, 38 Counts of Battery. Their breakthrough came when they signed to Relapse in 2001 and released the brutal, nightmarish, art-metal of Prowler in the Yard. Since then, from the further artistic explorations of Terrifyer (2004) to the groovy Phantom Limb (2007) and finally, to their most recent, straightforward grind album, Book Burner, Pig Destroyer always have a fresh approach to their music. However, they also consistently manage to maintain all the signature elements that make them great: the harsh hardcore vocals, the haunting lyrics, and the unusual arrangements and awesome riffing by guitarist Scott Hull.
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They’ve also never been a band to shy away from change and the unusual--they put some flowery John Dyer Baisley artwork on the cover of Phantom Limb. Vocalist JR Hayes’ literary experiments have included a short story packaged with the deluxe version of Book Burner and a longform lyrical poem to accompany the twenty-minute doom track “Natasha,” which made up a bonus disc on Terrifyer. In 2006, they even grew to a quartet by adding Blake Harrison on electronics and samples.
It seems that the overarching theme throughout Pig Destroyer’s career has been embracing experimentation without sacrificing integrity. Scott Hull briefly played in Anal Cunt and loves punk rock, but isn’t afraid to use electronics in Pig Destroyer and his other currently active project, Agoraphobic Nosebleed. He has even released a solo electronic album. Blake Harrison is the former vocalist for Maryland noise-rockers Triac and played guitar in late 90s grindcore project Daybreak, but now he moonlights in a shoegaze band. JR Hayes has gone from simply screaming angry punk lyrics to producing a plethora of poetic lyrical material, and is in the final stages of completing a novel. With all this personal growth going on, it’s no surprise that the band keeps experimenting with their sound, and that no two Pig Destroyer albums have sounded alike. Still, throughout their career, they have maintained the same harsh momentum that they’ve had since day one--which is why, to the outsider, their music can often sound like a bunch of blasting and screaming.
Recently, I got the chance to talk with Blake Harrison about the new album, his role in the band, the recent addition of drummer Adam Jarvis from Misery Index, electronic music, punk rock, and so much more.
Your new album, Book Burner, seems a little closer to the ferocity and thrashiness of Terrifyer and Prowler in the Yard, a little different from the grooviness of Phantom Limb. How do you guys feel about the album and how it’s been received by fans? And how do you personally feel about it, as your second album with the band?
Well, we wanted to make a kind of more stripped-down, nastier grindcore record. Like you were saying, Phantom Limb was a little groovier, so we wanted to make this a little nastier and I think we’ve achieved it. The reception has been amazing so far. I think it’s our fastest selling record so far--not our highest-selling, but still. Personally, this album is a bit nearer and dearer to my heart. I’m an old school grind kid; I like it fast and raw, you know? Maybe you wanna edit that, that sounds a little sexual. [laughs] But really, that’s what I like. It’s grindcore; that’s the way it’s gotta be.
There was a big gap between Book Burner and Phantom Limb. What have you all been doing in the meantime, and why was there such a big gap between records?
That’s the million dollar question. We took some time off, to build a studio in [Scott’s] house, where we practice. So that took a while, for us to play some shows and actually generate some income for that. And we had some false starts with our drummer at the time, Brian Harvey, so we kind of parted ways with him. Then we had to get a new drummer, write some new material, etc. So it seems like we weren’t doing much, but we were constantly working. It did take a considerable amount of time, but we tried to kind of veer off the Phantom Limb path as much as we could.
I know you can’t really speak for JR, but I’ve always been a really big fan of his lyrics, and I’m curious since he has such a cool writing style, does he have any plans to publish any poetry or any prose without it being part of a record?
You know, I have answered this question a hundred times, so yeah, I can answer it. I don’t know if he has plans to release it, but he is close to finishing his novel. He’s been working on it for a number of years, so last time I checked in, which wasn’t too long ago, he said he was a few chapters away from actually finishing it. As far as his releasing it, I’m not really sure. I do know that he typed it on a typewriter [laughs]. He kind of shies away from most technology.
What is the songwriting process like with JR? Does he write the songs separately and then match it to the music you’ve written, or does he write stuff for the songs after he hears them? Or is it a collaboration?
It’s a little bit of the first two things you said. Mostly it starts with Scott; he’ll do scratch drums, scratch guitars, and present them to us, and we will rearrange them slightly. For the most part we don’t really mess with it too much--although Adam certainly has the freedom to do whatever he wants with the drums. Then, JR will either have an idea of what he wants for that particular song, or there’s times where he just picks stuff that he has written. JR writes when the bug bites him, you know. Then I come in and put my loops all over the place. So, that’s the basic songwriting process.
I know a lot of electronic music producers and DJs, and I know that a lot of work goes into sampling, but within the metal community, there’s this weird resistance to the whole electronic thing. [Blake laughs] Do you ever run into that? And also, how involved are you in the songwriting process? What exactly is it that you do for the band?
Well, I have a sampler, and my rig is constantly changing. I have a couple loop pedals. I just bought this thing that isn’t gonna be here till Friday, it’s like a tabletop synth. But yeah, it is kind of looked down on in the metal community, and it is what it is, you know. If you really look at some of the earlier grindcore bands, like Godflesh or Napalm Death, they have [electronics] on their records. There was a point in [Pig Destroyer] where they wanted to add something else, and they wanted to add me. I screamed for a band before, and I played guitar in a band, so it was a new experience for me. Honestly, I think I’m still finding my way a little bit. Someone who is really familiar with electronic producing may have been a little better suited, but I’ve been with the band forever and been friends with them forever, so you know, I kind of jumped up and down when they asked me.
As far as songwriting goes, I get in there when everything is mostly written. With Phantom Limb, I didn’t have a whole lot of time or space to add stuff. I had a little more leeway with Book Burner, and now our process has kind of changed. I don’t want to shit all over their music and ruin it. Whenever I add something, I want to be careful not to stomp all over vocals or a riff, just because I feel like I need to add something. And to anyone who says I don’t really do anything, well, I get to travel the world and make music with my best friends, so I’m perfectly happy. [laughs] I still have to have timing, I have to have a rhythm--I’m still playing music. It’s actually more challenging, because you have to get the right rhythm and timing and structure; sometimes I work on stuff over and over until I want to beat my head into the wall. [laughs] And then when I hear something in a movie, or walk by an air conditioner or something like that, I’ll try to grab that, I’ll try to work it in. But just like anything, you can’t work it in where it doesn’t belong.
Going back to the new record, it seems like you went back to your roots musically and conceptually. I know you guys started out politically focused, and then it got taken in the direction of obsession and more personal topics than political. But now, between the political lyrics on the new record and the bonus tracks of punk covers, which are really similar to some of the early stuff that’s collected on Painter of Dead Girls, what prompted this whole ‘back to the punk roots’ thing?
We tend to not pay too much attention to criticism. We kind of write what we want to write. A lot of people loved and hated Phantom Limb, a lot of people loved and hated Terrifyer. Terrifyer was a more arty-style record, and Phantom Limb was a lot thrashier and, like you said, groovy. And when we talked about what direction we should have when we started writing [Book Burner], we wanted something stripped-down and easy. We wanted to make an album that was short and to-the-point, just a pure grindcore record. As for the cover EP, we were kind of tossing around ideas for bonus stuff, and it got a little out of control, actually. [laughs] I think everybody contributed five songs, and I probably picked twenty, so we definitely had to pare it down. But yeah. punk is definitely one of our biggest influences, and I wanted kids to get into that and discover that. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t listen to Black Flag, so I wanted to do a Black Flag cover. Then it got really out of control, and we just decided we needed to focus on American hardcore punk.
Everyone that I’ve talked to in Richmond is super excited that you guys are playing the GWAR-B-Q, but I feel like since I’ve been living in Richmond, you guys don’t play down here as often.
[laughs] The really simple answer is we all have day jobs, Scott and JR are both married, and Scott has two kids. So it’s not necessarily Richmond--we don’t play that much anyway. I think this year is probably the most we’ve ever played, ever. We just kind of do stuff that’s offered to us; we pick and choose. The GWAR-B-Q just sounded like a lot of fun, and the timing was right. A lot of times we get offers for shows that sound awesome, and we just can’t do it. There’s a wedding, there’s a birthday, this or that. I know that doesn’t seem very punk [laughs], but you know, it’s how our lives are. And honestly, I’d like to get to Richmond and play something that’s not a festival show. Festivals are great, and there’s always a good audience, but honestly we like the more intimate, sweaty, violent, noisy punk show. Don’t you all have a new venue down there for punk shows--the old Nanci Raygun? What’s it called now, Strangeland?
It’s Strange Matter, but yeah, they get a ton of punk shows.
Yeah. We’d love to play there when we get a chance.
I always feel like you guys are really on-point and ferocious with your live shows. Like if you’re having a bad time you just channel it into your performance, rather than have an off night. I was just wondering if you agree with that assessment, and how do you guys pull that off.
Absolutely not. You definitely haven’t seen us on an off night. [laughs] It’s kind of strange--since we’ve been playing a lot more, I feel like we’ve been playing a lot better as a cohesive unit, but there were times when we started playing together after taking such a long break that things were a little rough. I think we’ve tightened up a lot since then. I just kind of try to approach it like I know the kind of show I’d like to see, so I try to do that for the people who come see us. We’re not the Dillinger Escape Plan, so we’re not gonna go super crazy--we just kind of do what we do and have fun doing it. I feel like if we give as much as we can of our energy, then usually we get that back. We’ve definitely had some bad ones, maybe just a higher percentile of good ones since we never play. [laughs]
Adam Jarvis seems to fit in really well with you guys. Since he has the background of Misery Index it’s no surprise that he can keep up, but it also seemed like he fit in really well with the chemistry of the band. How is it going with him, and what is it like having him in the band?
It’s been great. He came in and got right to work. We were a little bit concerned that there might be some scheduling conflicts between Misery Index and us, but so far, it’s worked out amazingly. We’re actually doing a few days in Europe coming up. He’s great, has a great personality, and he’s an awesome drummer. I’m not even sure that we could have written the record that we did without him. Him being able to play the way he plays definitely contributed a lot to the way Book Burner turned out.
Besides Pig Destroyer, what else do you have going on musically? Do you have any electronic projects that you’re working on?
I’ve kind of got a couple things that I work on here and there. I’ve got another band that may never see the light of day. I was playing guitar in it, now I’m playing bass in it. It’s kind of more of a shoegaze-y type of band. And then I have a couple electronic things that I work on. I do some noise/ambient type stuff, but I don’t know if I ever plan on releasing it. It’s kind of hard for me to judge that kind of stuff, because you know, it’s noise music, and I feel like it at least needs to have some sort of merit. Since I’m the one that makes it, I don’t want to put stuff out there and then people are like, “This freakin blows, man!” [laughs] So I haven’t really played it for too many people. It hasn’t really been completed--it’s like three separate projects that have been buried in various stages of completion. So, we’ll see. [laughs]
Last question: what can we expect from Pig Destroyer in the future? Do you plan to do another album? What else is going on with you guys?
We are working on a song currently, that should be finished Sunday, for Adult Swim, the TV network. And we’re going to be doing a couple shows in Europe. I think we’re heading to Hopscotch in North Carolina, a horror festival in Texas, something for Pitchfork. Then we are going to work on a grind EP. So probably not a full-length right away, but there will be an EP in-between. Scott has a lot of Agoraphobic Nosebleed stuff to write, so that does take up a lot of his time. I think that’s it, but we’ve definitely got some stuff going on right now that will keep us pretty busy.