Iron Bitchface ***New Interview***

About twenty years ago 3 hardcore bands were on tour, when one of bands blew head gasket on the way to a club. The other 2 bands stayed with the 3rd because it was there first time in the US and they didn't want to leave the English stranded in a large US city. One of the bands called the clubowner and he showed up with pocket full of quarters. Not knowing who to call he spent $8 at a payphone and then 28 cars showed up. Soon over 100 cars showed up people started chanting 'Show!', after two bands played the English band setup their equipment and the crowd yelled 'We came for punk show, not a disco!' The band continued to setup their electronics and then the singer yelled 'good afternoon everyone were Discharge!'. Iron Bitchface reminds me of that phase of Discharge, they have a sound that also reminds of Econocrist and Lard with the same type of lyrics and they have a great live show to boot. I got the band to tell their story...

Introduce yourself…

We are Iron Bitchface. Sometimes we have been one person, sometimes we were everyone in the room. Currently we are a collective of three and it will stay that way until we die!

Kaye Rottingham - Voice/Noise

Deevon666 - Guitar

Pat Out Ov Hell - Drums

How did the band start?

There are too many beginnings to this band, but the only one that really matters is the current one. Members have come and gone and ideas and momentum were never really able to take off because of that. It was always the same thing, same songs, different members. A case of wrong members at the wrong time, when one member would be hyped the others would be too busy, not at the same level or lacking in enthusiasm altogether. We were basically just a group of good friends having fun making noise, but never really thought of ourselves as serious or as a band. By the time last summer had crept up (the year 2010 for those reading in the future), Iron Bitchface was pretty much already long dead and too boring to really put much thought into. However, that June, all three of us were at the same party in Toronto to see The Death Set. We were drinking, that lead to talking and that then lead to Deevon recommitting to the band and Pat joining. The next day we all agreed that it was just drunk talk, but also a good idea. Definitely the best lineup the band has seen and the right time for finally moving forward!!!

How did you come up with the name?

Back in school- spinning on chairs, being obnoxious and listening to Black Sabbath with an Orange Crunchie chocolate bar sugar rush yelling the words "I am Bitchface!" repeatedly and faster until a slip and stumble of words transformed the original phrase and "Iron Bitchface" was mistakenly uttered. Not much of a story, basically it's an old, meaningless name that we are now branded with. Sometimes people assume crazy things about us because of the name of the band, that's fine. Turns out it's worth keeping though, because the name works great for filtering out the people who don't know how to have any fun!

As someone who started your own style of music, who would you say are your influences?

I don't know if we invented any styles, some would say we are just not good at playing conventional music. Maybe we just play fast and noisy to hide this fact, if that is the case, there are plenty of other bands doing what we are doing. But, we do take influence from bands like Black Flag, Gorgoroth, Andrew WK, Atari Teenage Riot, Prince and Venom. We like plenty of music, those are probably the best ones to cite as influential though.

Describe the song writing process…

We like to play distorted, noisy, fast and noisy. Usually we start with a beat programmed on the drum machine, a minimum of 200BPM is generally a good starting point. Distortion pedals and various instruments are plugged in and we proceed to make a lot of noise and press record when we hear sounds we like. Sometimes we replicate and build on the improvisations while playing live, sometimes we just get noisier. Right now we are getting ready to use live drums for recording. We will be re-doing all the songs we usually do, but without a drum machine and scrapping the electronics for more of a raw sound.

What have you guys released?

Tower of Satan & A Wide Spectrum of Boners, both albums were recorded to have more tracks to choose from for the most recent tour of America. Tower of Satan is the newest release. A Wide Spectrum of Boners is a collection of the most requested songs to be played live, they were re-recorded to get better backing tracks for sampling. I Smell Fire is a live improv noise session recorded by Kaye and Deevon the day after coming home from tour in 2009. Pulse Pounding Cyber Slam & We Are Trolls are the oldest material, consisting of short, spazzy, videogame laced black metal noise.

Have you guys toured? Where have you toured?

On top of playing plenty of shows locally, yes, we have made it into the outside world. We've been across Canada, through the U.S. and have made various trips to play shows in Europe including France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.

Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?

Fabio can have his tropical island, sometimes there is no place we would rather be than on the streets of Denmark. 1000 FRYD in Aalborg is the most rad club ever and Copenhagen knows how to party hard! The video of us playing an acoustic show in the streets of Copenhagen demonstrates the true partying power of a group of drunken Danes!

Do you prefer to do shows at large venues or  small clubs?

Now we rock a house party at the drop of a hat, yeah!

Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?

We toured with the Assdroids in Europe a few years back. During our first night out the show got shut down because some guy decided to use the staircase as a toilet and then smeared the mess around with his fingers in an attempt to clean it up. There was plenty of Old Danish being passed around, but I can still hear the voice of the dude saying "it must have been because of my poopy fingers!" while explaining why the show was being shut down. Later we all bonded over stories of what the possible origins of this mysterious figure may have been. Some said he was a man from the north sent on a mission, others thought he was just really wasted. One thing is for sure, that voice will haunt us until the day we die. That was day one of a series of bizarre things, great adventures and good people. The Assdroids are really awesome guys and we had a blast hanging out and playing shows with them and would do it again in a heartbeat!

What do you see is the future of the Iron Bitchface?

Drinking beer, making noise and waking up in strange countries!

How can people contact the band?

We can be found at www.ironbitchface.com, we dump any new stuff there and it is also a portal to all the other sites you can find Iron Bitchface stuff at, including downloads. We tend to lurk on Facebook the most though, so come and talk about trolls with us on there! For regular email, we can be contacted at ironbitchface@yahoo.com. Also, when the wind whispers our name, we will be there...