|
Interviews  Thee
Plague of Gentlemen
by Chris
Barnes
 The
sheer weight and volume of this band's sound is an incredible thing to
behold. A frightening amalgam of Death/Doom/Noise aesthetics, Belgium's
Thee Plague of Gentlemen have their amps set to "Crush and Destroy".
Hellride Music catches up with founder/vocalist/guitarist Steve McMillan
on the band's unique sound, their recent gig here in the U.S., and the
fashion implications of the handlebar mustache.
Hellride Music: Steve, thanks a ton for taking the time out to do this interview
for Hellride Music. For starters, can you give us a bit of history on Thee
Plague of Gentlemen? That's gotta be one of the best names for a band
I've ever heard, where did it come from? And what's an Englishman doing
in Belgium?!
Steve McMillan: Hey
Chris, no worries mate. We appreciate the interest and support. Well,
TPOG started in about January 1999 with a completely different line up,
different drummer and numerous bass players and even a second guitar player
at one point. The sound was quite different to what we're doing now. Basically,
I wanted it to get heavier, slower and more "out there", but
the other members weren't into it. We put out a split 7" EP (with
American Heritage from Chicago) at the end of 2000 with a limited press
of 300 copies on super heavy yellow vinyl on our old drummers label. Around
that time we got to play with Electric Wizard and Sons of Otis on their
doomed Euro tour. I was really stoked to be able to play with Ewiz, but
the other guys were like moaning and didn't show any enthusiasm at all.
That's the point I realized that this ain't gonna work out with this line
up for long. David (current drummer) and Karel (current bassplayer) were
always coming to see us play and knew that deep down, these were the people
to play with as they shared the same vision in sound and had the capability
of doing so. David and I used to play together in Neuthrone about 10 years
ago, we put out three 7"s and did a couple of Euro tours in the very
early 90s, Neuthrone broke up in '94 and I hadn't played with David since
then. But even then we were doing slow heavy doom with some prog influences
and basically was the seed to what TPOG is now. I talked to David and
Karel about the situation and asked if they were interested. They were
(and still are) involved in a band called Hellfiller which convinced me
that these guys weren't afraid of tuning way low, customizing their amps,
using super thick strings and playing at extreme volumes. About 2 weeks
after the last show with the old line up, we were jamming and rehearsing
like crazy with the new line up. I think we kept like 3 songs from the
old line up, but even they are virtually unrecognizable.
We started writing new stuff immediately and it was obvious that this
line up pissed all over the previous one in terms of heaviness and intensity.
This was January 2001 and by March we were out playing live with a totally
new set of material and getting loads of feedback from people and it just
felt so much better to be in a band where enthusiasm, discipline and a
clear vision of direction were present. We did 15 shows, recorded 2 CDs,
went to the states and did a German/Belgian tour in 2001, all in the space
of 10 months, with out any kind of label backing or management...just
the drive and will of the band made it all happen and I count myself blessed
to able to be in a band with these guys.
TPOG took its name from the totally fucked up British TV show called "The
League of Gentlemen" which is like a British comedy version of "Twin
Peaks" but really, really fucked up and hilarious. Ultra gruesome
and dark and yet funny as hell. After we found out that there had been
a band in the 70s called the League of Gentlemen (an offshoot of King
Crimson) we decided to use the name of one of the episodes of the show
namely "Thee Plague..." and I think it's a name that doesn't
limit the musical boundaries of the band, which is good.
I'm the product of a British mother and a Belgian father, born and raised
in the South East of England and finally moved to Belgium in July 1991
as the UK was really starting to suck...I used to come over to Belgium
a lot in the 80s anyway to stock up on obscure Euro metal records and
see some kick ass shows, so Ii took advantage of my dual nationality and
moved here to waffle land! I was brought up trilingual (English, Flemish
and French) so the language barrier was no problem at all.
Hellride Music: TPOG
is not just another "sludge" band. There seems to be way more
than that going on. TPOG has a sound that I can best describe as the bastard
son of Doom and Death metal. It's a sound that totally crushes. Would
you agree on this? How would you describe the band's sound?
Steve:
Well, as we've all been involved in the heavier side of metal/noise/doom
etc. for well over a decade now (playing wise) I guess as were older,
we can draw on a lot of influences that you don't see or hear about a
lot anymore these days..bands like early Killing Joke and Swans were a
huge influence on me around the same time I was really getting off on
Celtic Frost and Gore, this is around 1985/86.I got my first Sabbath record
(Paranoid) in 1979 along with AC/DC's Highway to Hell LP
and I immediately fell in love with the slower, heavier sound of Sabbath.
So although I really got into the whole speed/thrash/death metal thing
for the aggression, I was always searching out bands that that took the
nod from Sabbath and used the slow/heavy approach. To a certain degree,
bands like Nemesis/Candlemass,Trouble and Saint Vitus filled that need,
but when I heard Melvins first LP in 1987, I knew that this was the style
I would love to play. David and I are also huge Voivod fans and Karel
is a massive Japanese noise fan, so it's pretty obvious that all these
influences will come out eventually! There's something addictive and surprisingly
soothing about massive low end doom notes surrounding you and when Karel
plays a chord on his bass, stuff starts to shake and I like that very
much.
Hellride Music: Speaking of the TPOG sound, what are the band's inspirations
musically? What about lyrically? especially for "Motown Misfortune.
Has any aspect of your life or upbringing played a role is shaping the
TPOG sound?
Steve:
Well, I think the previous answer took care of what might have influenced
us musically to a certain degree. We don't really have any sort of agenda
when it comes to lyrics, I know there's certain stuff we'll never sing
about, but a lot of spirituality and existentialism seems to be popular
in our lyrics lately, not really planned, it just comes out that way.
My life in the UK definitely had an influence when it comes to bitterness,
anger and frustration and the need to find some sort of redemption and
solace through music. I guess its the same with David and Karel. Mysticism
and historical religious events are another popular theme.
"Motown Misfortune" is about Mr. Marvin Gaye who briefly lived
in Belgium in 1980/81 and a Belgian TV channel did this interview with
him at the time and they showed him walking along the beachfront during
the evening in the autumn, with his collar pulled up high, talking about
his drug addiction and how his career was over etc. He later moved back
to the states , cleaned himself up, had a huge success with "sexual
healing", got back into cocaine and his dad shot him. I have some
Marvin Gaye records, but this song is basically about human suffering
and no matter how hard you try to get back on your feet again, You always
end up being your own worst enemy.
Hellride Music: The entire band came out to the states last October
for the Stoner Hands of Doom III fest in Texas. Tell us about your experiences
at the fest - what other bands totally blew you away, how was the U.S.
experience? Would you do it again?
Steve:
Man, I tell ya...it was an uphill struggle for 7 long months leading up
to Shod 3. Originally, we were gonna do a tour with Dragongreen from Philly
and play SHoD together, but then shit went wrong for 'em and they pulled
out of the fest, so we ended up coming over for just the one show. We
booked our plane tickets on the 5th of September, the day after we hear
that the Belgian airline company Sabena was on the brink of bankruptcy
and that the entire staff was on strike, Then something happened on September
11th which made us very wary of flying at all.
The day before we left (on the 4th of October), Sabena was still on strike
and we were sure that we weren't gonna make it over. Many U.S. bands canceled
their Euro tours after September 11th and but we decided to fly anyway...we
turn up at the airport and Sabena had been given some extra cash for a
month which enabled them to continue briefly. There were 60 people on
the flight over. I was nervous as hell about flying now and had been awake
for 48 hours straight worrying about it all. But we made it to Dallas
and our main man Steve Abell and his wife Julie from Arlington,Texas picked
us up at the airport and put us up and were fantastic hosts and super
nice people. The immigration guys at the airport kinda gave us a grilling
about what we were coming to the US for and they even broke into my guitar
case to check for anything suspicious... I should've left the combination
lock open really. But after all that, it was great, we spent WAAAAAY too
much money on records (espesh at the customheavy booth!), met up with
loads of friends, behaved rather neanderthal-like on some occasions with
the help of pitchers of beer and mind numbing metal. Our set was not a
good one, due to various technical gremlins fucking with us, like amps
etc etc, but the sound was great and we enjoyed most of it.
Bands that tore my head off were IRONKIND, LAS CRUCES, OVERSOUL, ZERO
THE HERO, MEN OF PORN, definitely PLACE OF SKULLS, SUPER HEAVY GOATS ASS,
SOUR VEIN, ACID KING, LIFE BEYOND and WITCH MOUNTAIN. Also the food was
great, had a great laugh with loads of people...it was fun fun fun all
the way!
We would definantly do it again, but making sure that it wouldn't be a
financial disaster by maybe hooking up with a larger band that would draw
in the crowds.
Hellride Music: What, or who, inspired the handlebar mustache? That's
friggin' cool...I tried to do that about a month ago, but my girlfriend
would have none of it.
Steve:
Chris, no woman (or man!) should come between himself and his mustache..hehehehe.
I think i've grown this mustache like this to deflect attention away from
my receding hairline and it works!! It also works as some sort of spiritual
antennae and is handy to hang small bags of groceries on when my hands
are full.
Hellride Music: Give us a snapshot of the current music scene in
Belgium...what's it like? How does TPOG fit in?
Steve:
HA...TPOG doesn't fit in at all in the Belgian music scene, we ain't hip
enough, too loud, too slow you name it! I'm sure a lot of bands who play
like this can relate to that. The stoner rock crowd here are more into
ye olde happy doom stuff and hate to be bummed out by slow, dark stuff.
Belgium has a healthy amount of death/grind bands like ABORTED,WELKIN,
HEADMEAT, AGATHOCLES, LINK. Some cool heavy metal bands like the reformed
RITUAL ,DOUBLE DIAMOND, WITCHSMELLER PERSUIVANT( you gotta love that name),
MONSTER JOE, AFTER ALL and unfortunantly waaaay too many indie rock/emo
bands that are made up of sniveling bespectacled nerds with backpacks
and tofu snacks One other band that plays slow and super heavy but aren't
really a metal band is BLUTCH, very Melvins like and very quirky..great
band!
Hellride Music: Any plans for recording new material?
Steve:
We just finished recording another 4 tracks at the end of December,1 song
(our cover of "eternal frost" by WINTER) will be appearing on
a three-way split LP with two other sludge/doom bands in a couple of months,
the other three songs will hopefully appear in one shape or form this
year. There's a couple of labels that are interested who we're currently
"negotiating" with, hopefully we'll find out more whats gonna
happen in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we're writing new stuff
and are keeping live appearances to a bare minimum as to concentrate on
writing, we rehearse three times a week at 3-4 hours a time, so something
should come out of it.
Hellride Music: Cool man!! That's it.. any last words?
Steve:
As always Chris, it's a pleasure talking to you and thanx again for all
the interest and support. We also wanna thank all the people who helped
us out in the us (the Abell household, OVERSOUL, Jon and Solitude Aerturnus,
Rob and Cheryl Levey, MALA SUERTE, Spiked Impalement zine, Sabbath Steve
from HARDERBEATzine, Viix and Mike, Victor, Lee and Tim of PLACE OF SKULLS,
Dan and Slow Horse, Calamus and plenty more.....\m/\m/ you rule!!
if anyone wants to get in touch concerning anything you've read here,
please contact me at serpentcult26@hotmail.com
or Karel at hellfiller@hotmail.com.
Read the
Hellride Music review
of TPOG's self-titled CD-R
Listen to
As Cold As They Come in Real
Audio
Copyright 2002 HellrideMusic.com
Interview by Chris
Barnes 1/16/01
|
