Interview by James Walkley

1).  When did Eddie Brock first begin as a band?  Were any of you in bands before this one?  Please share a little bit about those early days.

There were a couple early bands before we officially became Eddie Brock.  I wanted to start a band again because it was years since my high school punk band broke up.  So I asked my friends Brian and Tom if they were interested — and that is how the first phase of E.B. started.  It was called Discourse and that started in … I wanna say … 2008, maybe.  At the time, we asked a kid we all knew, Nick, to play bass.  He only played for a little bit.  He runs Photobooth Records now.  But that band was more of a Ceremony rip-off band.  Then Nick left and we changed our name to Choptank and got a little bit heavier and a bit faster.  We also picked up our friend Kelin to play bass.  That lasted a few months and then Kelin left.  We had been practicing without Kelin for a while so we decided to just not have a bassist.  That was when we decided to “three-man” it.  Being the nerds that we are, we used one of our favorite comic book villains/characters to name our band.

2).  Eddie Brock are a three-piece, with a vocalist, guitarist, and drummer, but no bassist.  Your recordings have a lot of low end, however, which seem to make a bassist superfluous.  Do you ever miss having a bass player in a live setting, where the sound can be hit-or-miss and extra low end helps?  In the future, do you think you might add that position in the band?

See the previous answer for why we don’t have a bassist.  When we record and play live, our guitarist Brian plays through a guitar amp and a bass amp.  So the low end is achieved through his bass amp set-up.  He also tunes down a bit.  We have never really discussed adding a bass player, but I don’t think we want to, anyway.  Brian likes his set-up and he is always buying more gear to make us even louder.

3).  Magrudergrind are a well-known fast hardcore/powerviolence band with three members, but sonically, Eddie Brock are more reminiscent of Weekend Nachos, particularly in your vocals.  I’m certain you’ve played with Weekend Nachos (including at one of the A389 fests, if memory serves); please describe what that was like.  Weekend Nachos are an insanely energetic and devastating live band, and Eddie Brock are ripping on vinyl, so I’d imagine it would have been nuts!  Also, what was the A389 showcase earlier this year like in general?

Weekend Nachos rule and so does Magrudergrind.  We rip them off too much.  But the A389 set was fantastic.  Both bands killed it — but they always do, so I expected nothing less.  It was a complete honor to open that night.  So many good bands.  But let’s talk about the next A389 bash.  It is gonna be insane! (more…)