Due to the huge number of bands playing at Bloodstock this year, and the fact that our two roving reporters will actually want to watch some of them, we’re doing a little round of pre-festival interviews this year. We’re focussing on the bands playing the Jagermeister and Hobgoblin New Blood Stages so they get a chance to convince you to go and watch them. , these guys and gals are the future of our musical world!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are all from Oxfordshire (mainly Witney), but we are now a bit more spread out. Tom our bassist and Pat our guitarist both still live in Witney (Oxfordshire), Paul our other guitarist in currently moving to Bicester (Oxfordshire). Ben our drumer has been living in London for the past 6 months and Jay our vocalist lives in Northamptonshire.
How did you meet?
Ben, Tom, Pat and Paul all hail from Witney and have been playing in various bands together ever since we were young teenagers. Jay went to music college, and had a band with Ben, then afterwards a band with Tom. We all came together in this line up a few years back after we parted with our previous vocalist. As we all individually knew Jay, his style and had worked with him before we invited him in. We were looking for more of an aggressive sound and that is clearly displayed when you compare our current tracks to our first EP.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
In the current line up, it has been three years. But, as we said before we have all been playing together in various line up’s since the age of 14. A long old time ago ;)!
Where does the name of the band come from?
Mutagenocide is often mistaken for Mutants and war and zombies and shit. But if we’re getting hyper-philosophical it’s a portmanteau of Mutagen and Genocide; in other words, creation via the means of destruction.
What are your influences – individually or as a band?
Individually we all have a common love for most types of metal, but… We are all extremely diverse in our day to day tastes. As an example, Tom loves a bit of crust and sludge, Ben can’t help but get a bit o’funk and 80’s synth, Jay regularly grooves to harsh dance etc., etc. As a band we are all influenced by your classic thrash line up, modern death metal, prog and are selective about the type of tech metal that can turn our heads. All in all there is not much in of style that we don’t like, but it’s clear to say we have particular tastes on the execution.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Without trying to box ourselves into a corner too much on this type of question we would describe it as modern thrash. In recent years our writing style and aggressiveness have ramped up so who’s to say that we will say we are the same in 6 months time. The new material we are writing is more sophisticated and hones in on our sound as a group. We were happy with the results from our Devolve EP but we were still using tunes that originated from when we had our old vocalist. With this new aggressive style of vocals our songs (and set lists) have adapted to make the most of the elements we have.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Over the years individually we have played hundreds of shows. We are all involved in other acts and have each toured europe/internationally. We play as many shows as we can with Mutagenocide and usually have something once a month. But, with the momentum we have at the moment this will increase in of volume and distance. Our shows are energetic, as heavy as we can make it and interactive. Jay cannot stay on the stage at all and loves interacting with as many people as possible. The rest of us will only stop thrashing ourselves about to shout down the mic or to shred a solo.
When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Bloodstock?
We have been lucky and privileged enough to have signed a sponsorship deal with Hobgoblin Beer (Wychwood Brewery) who are a main sponsor of the festival and through their our music was introduced to Simon Hall (the production manager at Bloodstock), who thoroughly inspected our music – and kindly offered us a slot on the New Blood Stage! The last few months have really given us the drive to push harder in every aspect of the band, and to be honest the slot at Bloodstock certified to us we just need to keep on pushing forwards.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
A mix of brand new songs and a few from the Devolve EP. There is no down time in this set. We want to make the most of the slot and blast it out for the full 30 mins!
Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
For the Friday (the day we play) – Raging Speedhorn. We played with them a few months back in Oxford and it brought back a lot of memories from back in the day. Limbs were flying everywhere and that’s what we would expect from their show at Bloodstock!
What are you working on at the moment?
We have (literally just last night), completed a 4 track live demo of some of our new material. We felt it was important to keep putting out tunes, and even though we don’t have the time to dedicate to tracking another EP just yet we wanted people to hear what we have been working on. Other than that, we have a whole load of new merch in the works in association with Hobgoblin. People will be able to get their hands on our new t-shirt designs (before anyone else) at Bloodstock.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done on tour?
Long gone are the days where you can turn up to a venue and metal-out so hard the backstage melts. Promoters work hard and take necessary risks to put bands on. We like to think we are a respectful bunch of guys.. BUT…. There is no doubt that when we are all together, beers flow, speech slurs and things get lost. We are probably at our wildest when we are actually at a show we are not playing because that way we know we don’t have to get up the next day and shred, scream or groove our guts out on stage for 45 mins ;) People who come to our shows are probably the crazy ones. I distinctly an old friend of ours licking the face of everyone who crossed his path in the pit. Safe to say, Jay decided to stay on stage for a change.
What advice would you give to a young band just starting out today?
Be respectful to people no mater what you think. Stand up for what you believe is right. Finally, do what the fuck you want musically and stick at it. No matter if you’re still playing your local pub or shows up and down and around the world, every show is worth it.
If you could be part of any 3-band line-up who else would you have on the bill? One band above you and one below – a chance to plug a smaller, unsigned act!
Decapitated to headline and Dead A Thousand Times to open.
Mutagenocide play the Hobgoblin New Blood Stage on the Friday.
Mutagenocide: facebook | bandcamp | youtube
