Kuntsquad Interview. FFO: Rowdy, Metal/Punk as Fuck Musos!!!

 

Last week or so(tech issues with zee internets) this legendary band dropped their awesome debut album and I(Mark) interviewed them prior to the release date. This is a chunky, punky, honest and inspiring interview for the ages. As expected we gasbagged for over an hour and transcribing this would be a 13-page interview. We are giving you the whole audio interview and some highlights in written form below. Enjoy. Trust me the whole interview is worth your time; this is because they are excellent, down to earth humans who spoke genuinely about their incredible band.

Some highlights-the KS crew spoke about the band's formation:

Paula:

...the band was formed within 5 minutes on Facebook. I'd had a long break from playing and I'd been through the tragic death of my partner and I was like, I sort of had to get over that. And then it was like being ready to play now. I got my divorce and then I was like, Yes, now I'm ready to go. I was a band called Velvet Hammer back in the nineties. And we did a lot of touring back then. Steve and I didn't know Brett or Adam.

Brett:

... I had no idea Steve and Bryce(old drummer) were there and apparently, they answered the call within like a minute or two. Paula got flooded by interest to join this band and I've got there and I'm like, Holy shit, This is Velvet Hammer!. So they were very learning the songs for the first time in 17 years. And I was learning, like learning for the first time.

Paula:

But the funny story is that Brett thought it was just an audition, right? So and Brett was like, Oh, okay, I will see you next week. And we're like, Yeah, you're fucking in. Well, after the second rehearsal, Brett still asked like, So I'm in the band. We said Yeah!!!.

The band name:

Paula:

I said to the guys in this band needs to be KuntSquad, right? And I remember Steve saying, No fucking way, We can't call that. My mum would be cracking the shit with me. ....the band name has a strong feminist origin. .....It's embracing that word. And for a woman to be in a band that has the word cunt in it, it's totally empowering because there's a long history. Yeah, the word cunt, the word Kunti, who's also a goddess. There are a lot of stories out there about the various incarnations of that word and what it means to people. So literally, it's empowering. It's a word of empowerment for women and totally it's a reclamation of that word. For me, it Yeah, it's out there and it certainly and for us, it was that double-edged sword. It was like in Australia, as we all know, the word count is a term of endearment as well as disaffection. It's both.

Musical Influences:

Steve:

Everything, you know, everything from the most extreme back to old fifties rock and roll and that's it. Yeah. And you know, but for this, you know, we just wanted to go as brutal as we could.

On the album's production

Steve:

....well it's pretty well-balanced. So I think so yeah. We recorded at Goat Sound with Jason Fuller, who used to be in Blood Duster and he pulled the sound out of us. That's pretty unique, I think too. Well, I said to the guys after we'd had a bit of a mix. He threw a mix at us and I said, Well, this is very Australian. I'd call it a very Aussie mix because Aussie bands like if you look back at even what was happening in the, you know, with the Blood Dusters and the rest, that whole crew in the nineties, it's a very much in-your-face production. It's not like when you listen to European metal, it's so huge and because a lot of it's very atmospheric, some of them have keyboards, which we don't have. But I think what defines Australian like metal in particular is in that in-your-face kind of harshness that a lot of European are, in my opinion, not all of them, but yeah, seems to be predominantly.

The punk spirit of the band

Paula:

The point is the inspiration comes from the attitude, because that's if punk taught us anything, it's actually about getting up there. And I can tell you this, I personally can speak for myself. I am not the best guitarist in the world. Hallelujah. Anyone notice that I don't give a fuck, you know because for me, it's not about how many riffs I can do per second. Yeah, I'm not MALMSTEEN Nor do I want to be. Yeah. And, for me, it's been done. Hey, there's a shitload of bands out there now that do stuff way better than us. Yes, fucking shredders out there that are fucking amazing, but like, they're faceless. Yeah, Yeah. Because I get some it gets dull, but that can be an amazing player. But it's like the shit, I'll be going fucking. Is he doing that? Like, there's no songwriting, but I've never subscribed to that because it's not what for me personally, you know, as an old, you know, in the crusty punk scene, that's not what was about. And to this day, I still believe that that's the ethos. Me personally. It's about getting up, and having a good time. You take the piss if you make a mistake, great Because you know what? If I want perfection, I'll listen to the record. I don't want perfection when I see a band, what I want is personality. What I want is for you to fuck up to show me that you're human. And, you know, I don't care if people think I'm a shit guitarist or a shit singer. I really don't. I don't care. I'm past that. I'm too old to care, and I really am. And like, so this is why this record deal was a surprise for us. Yeah, because, like, just when you kind of put it out in the universe. Oh, you know, we're done. Yeah. It's time. Fuck comes to bite you on the arse, and it's like, Oh, shit. Okay, this is new. This is new. A new adventure. But it's an adventure.

Praise from Wormholedeath records head guy and being unique

Steve:

You know, we can play with punk bands and we can also play with metal bands and the difficulties we have is and as I said in a recent post, is actually the guy who signed us that quote, that blurb I put up just the other day about that came from the Boss of Wormhole Death when he heard our record. Wow. He said, this is extreme, but it's like not I can't think of any other band who sounds like this. Very Original. That's what he said. Unique. Yeah. So and it's it really influences it. But we're not. It's not like a compilation. I can't name any other band. Yeah. Yes. And that's his take. But that's the point. Metal is a bit of death metal. I kind of knew that would either be to our advantage or disadvantage. Yeah, Yeah. Thank God. Or someone you know. Yeah, it's been to our advantage. They really do what we do. So. But to this day, it is still difficult. Like it's difficult for promoters to kind of put you with, you know. You know, because we're not a death metal band. We're not doom, We're not any of those things. We're kind of like all of those things at once all the same time.

Personal best gig played

Adam:

I know what the best gig I played at was. Maybe not the best gig, but I played in a Motorhead Cover band or Tribute band? Yeah. Ace of Spades. And we played at Lemmy's funeral gig down at the Cherry bar in Melbourne.

and many other quality topics are covered, so have a listen, right now:

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