Rotten Sound have just released their best album to date in ‘Cycles’ and are in the middle of a short European tour. We caught up with Keijo in Colchester to see how things are going.
Planet Loud – Hi mate, thanks for talking to us. How are you today?
Rotten Sound – I’m fine. It’s great to be on this tour, it’s the fifth day today I think, so I guess we’re finally getting started.
Planet Loud – So you’ve been on the tour for the last week?
Rotten Sound – Well no, we started the tour last Wednesday, in Germany and we’ve been to Belgium, France and back to Germany.
Planet Loud – This is the first of two dates you’re playing in the UK. Are you looking forward to the shows?
Rotten Sound – Yeah, a lot. The response from you guys has been so great that we’re actually thrilled to see how it goes.
Planet Loud – Any reason why you’re just playing here (Colchester) and London?
Rotten Sound – Well just lack of time in general, we could only do three weeks on this tour. We’re missing off Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, and Greece, so many European countries. So we’re happy to do at least these two. I certainly hope we can do some more later on this year.
Planet Loud – So there plans for a larger tour later in the year? This isn’t going to be it and then we wont see you till the next album.
Rotten Sound – Yeah see you in three years. No we are planning to do the rest of the UK, Ireland and Scotland.
Planet Loud – Your new album ‘Cycles’ has recently been released and has received mainly very good reviews in the press and has also been well received with the fans. How as a band do you feel about that?
Rotten Sound – It makes us feel really great. We always want the highest quality we can do. I guess it was the longest time we’ve ever had to write and pre-produce, practically one year to do the whole thing. We basically recorded everything twice, so it makes us feel great that people appreciate what we did.
Planet Loud – Some people have even said that this is your best work to date. Do you agree with that?
Rotten Sound – Certainly. But I guess if we can’t do better things all the time then we’re too old and we should quit. We certainly think it’s the best album we’ve done.
Planet Loud – There seemed to be a void in the Grindcore scene with the untimely demise of Nasum, which with this album you seemed to have filled. When writing Cycles was that something you were conscious off and were aiming to fill that gap or was it something that just happened?
Rotten Sound – Well we’re really honoured if someone is putting us in those big boots of Nasum. Although I really don’t think there was a void, with bands like Pig Destroyer, Gadget, so many good bands out there.
Planet Loud – Was Nasum a band you looked up to then?
Rotten Sound – I think we both started around the same time, but they started as a real band, where as we were more of a project band for first ten years, so they got a good head start compared to us. I think they were really revolutionary and did many good things for Grindcore.
Planet Loud – How do you see the Grindcore scene at the moment? Do you think it’s a healthy scene?
Rotten Sound – I don’t really know. I haven’t been following the underground too much. There are a lot of good bands out there, but I don’t have enough time to go through everything.
Planet Loud – What do you mainly listen to then?
Rotten Sound – Actually not too much of Grindcore. Sometimes, yes Grindcore but a lot more Hardcore and some alternative stuff.
Planet Loud – Why do you play Grindcore then? Is it something that comes easy to you?
Rotten Sound – It’s not difficult for us to play Grindcore. All of us like Grindcore and sometimes I want to listen to it. But it’s not a thing that, I don’t know maybe someone does, but nobody wants to listen to it all the time. Or any kind of music.
Planet Loud – So once the London show is over with tomorrow you’ve got a few dates left on the tour?
Rotten Sound – Yeah we’ve got twelve left, mostly round the western European countries.
Planet Loud – What do you have planned after the tour then?
Rotten Sound – Next thing that happens with Rotten Sound is a bit of a break but then we are going to Sweden to tour with Disfear. That’s happening in May. Then we have quite a lot of summer festivals to do and later on this year we are planning on coming back to the UK. I hope we can also do something in the US.
Planet Loud – How has the album gone down in the USA?
Rotten Sound – It hasn’t been released yet, and I actually don’t know when it is released either. I certainly hope it comes out before we plan to go to the US.
Planet Loud – No plans to write a new album anytime soon then?
We talked about this one night on the tour. We were drinking, and thought it would be nice to do in less then three years. But it’s too early to say because we don’t really have any new songs yet; there are a couple of raw songs in the back pockets of the guys. But I think they are also writing for different bands right now. So we are kinder busy with other bands too, but I really hope we can at least record the next album next year and get it out 2010.
Planet Loud – Thanks for your time mate, hope the tour goes well.
Rotten Sound – Thank you.
Interview by Simon Douglass
