Violent restitution-ST (2012)

I discovered Violent restitution thanks to a recommandation from Hipness as a second language. And I now recommend it to you myself cause it's really cool stuff. This is a trio based in Vancouver (a vocalist called Jessica, a guitarist called Sarah and a drummer called Pierre, yes another one guitar only band. on the record the singer is Mya Mayhem). what they play is a brutal, noisy and  chaotic mince / grind. and they do it with all the agression and attitude needed. it's another cool band from the rising canadian hardcore / grind scene. the lyrics are about animal liberation and anti-capitalist  and environmental issues. they released their first self titled record through their own label called Mercy of slumber records.

you can stream / download it for free on their BC page.

here's their FB page

check it!

and Sarah (guitars) and Pierre (drums) answered to my questions, so you can read it, just below :

-to start with can you present the band?

Sarah : Violent Restitution started out as "Degenerative Myelophaty" in December 2011. We changed the name because it was kind of wierd and it turned out to be something different than we had originally thought. It consisted of Myself (Sarah )on Guitar, Pierre on Drums and Mya on Vocals. We started out Jamming in Mya's basement and then got a jam space. We recorded our 5 song Demo for our First show which was Feb. 4th at my House in Vancouver. After that we didn't practice that much like maybe once a month. We finished recorded our LP which was the demo songs re-recorded and a few additional ones. Released in July 2012. We then did a 6 1/2 week tour across Canada playing with a bunch of bands like PowerCup, TheVanishingAct, Misanthropic Noise, Gowl, Northless , Archagathus, Head Hits Concerte, Psycho etc...Then i went to Winnipeg for a bit and Mya went travelling so we didn't jam for a while.

so: Jessica*Vox/Pierre*Drums/Sarah*Guitar

 -what about your new singer? do you think this line up evolution will really change the music of Violent restitution?

Sarah: Jessica has really great lows and highs just as Mya did. She currently plays in MERV which is this really awesome grindcore/southerndoom fusion. killer. We are really excited to have her on board because she rules and because being able to get those kinds of vocals just right is really hard and you need to be extra talented. We are also stoked to be able to keep the Female vocalist sound as well as that was really important to me. Having to play with a million dudes get fucking frustrating and i want women to feel encouraged to pick up some guitars, drums or mics and blow it all away. Fuck yea.

 -what about your self titled record, how would you describe it and how was it conceived?

Sarah: I Would describe our self titled record as Old School grindcore. I guess it also takes in various other elements but it has a lot of punk, thrash and mincegrind elements as well. I don't know. We basically wrote the album in little under 4 months and then recorded with Cody Baresich ( ISKRA ) in Victoria in our friend's House at the TROYLER HOUSE. My label, Mercy of Slumber Records as well as What is making us sick, and Black Banana records put our the record.

Pierre: I think the record is pretty straight forward and represents how and why we started this band. Sarah and I started jamming, we wanted fast and to the point old school grind. Played our first show after maybe a month of being a band, and recorded the album and had a six week tour booked not much after that. We stand by our political and social beliefs/whateveryouwanttocallits and wanted to have fun while we play some wholesome BC Kind Grind for our buds. Making a record is the best excuse for tour, right?

-Violent restitution is openly a political band, making a stand for its ideas, can you illustrate your points with some comments about the lyrics of a few songs in the record?

Pierre: I didn't write the lyrics and I wouldn't play on something that I didn't believe in. but I will say don't suck. Don't be mean to animals and don't make anyone else's day harder than it has to be. Have fun.

Sarah: The Lyrics were written by Mya so i can't really go into too much detail about them but We did hold openly political lyrics in various subjects. Speaking mostly about Animal Rights and Liberation and issues surrounding Patriarchal systems, Misogyny and Human Rights. I guess from a broad spectrum just focusing on resisting those systems and fighting against/abstaining from support of the industries that cause harm to animals.

 -a few words about the cover art for your self titled record?

Sarah : Our Pal Adam Kindred of Halifax did our artwork. He is somewhat of a celebrity in the Canadian Punk scene. People even call him the "Canadian pushead". Anyways it's a bunch of animals and plants over growing in a city and taking back thier natural space and is also reminicent of that old-school grindcore style of sketched large artwork.

-grind and crust are often linked with radical politics/ideals, in your opinion what's the main explanation for that. maybe your own evolution can shed some light on it?

Pierre: One might think that it's radical music for radical minds but all different kinds of people are playing grind. Abolishing homo and transphobia, Pizza and weed, animal rights, there's all kinds of stuff found in grind lyrics these days. I think we should just maintain on the path of having fun and not sucking, and leave a lot of room for more open minded people to come party with us. There's always an element of "bro" in all scenes and it's time to cut that shit out. Sooner or later we'll smarten up. Until then, we can just all continue writing songs about fighting the unjust.

Sarah: Well, Grind grew from Crust/Punk in the UK/Europe in the 80s with bands such as ASOCIAL's blasting 7" and Obviously NAPALM DEATH and EXTREME NOISE TERROR. The UK had a pretty special anarcho scene that really influenced a lot of people especially in the years to come. Punk has had many different incarnations but there has always been that "against the grain" kind of mentality. I feel like there are definately scenes and bands that held true to this while others did not do so well at it..but depends what "punk" we are referring to. It's never been something that was created in order to normalize and blend in with mainstreem ideals and pop culture. I Guess it always has room to grow specifically in the misogynistic, Homophobic and transphobic sense but you know, we work with it i guess. For me it was a progression as well. I was always interested in radical politics but it took a few years and some inspiration along the way to really look into it. I don't know this shit is complicated. whatever do what you want except don't be a shithead.

-how did you get in contact with and what attracted you in the grind music & scene, what does it means to you?

Sarah: I guess I started out going to Hardcore shows and progressed from there. At first I didn't even like grindcore really. ( yea yea get mad ) but then one day it was like WOAH, and ever since then i've been a total blast-head. It keeps me busy. I have way too much energy sometimes and it gives me something to channel it to. The community is what is important and as soon as we lose that i guess it won't mean much more to me than some regular old bullshit. But at least i can hide in my room with records.

Pierre: I play drums... what drummer wouldn't want to try and play as fast as possible?! You spend so many years in punk and hardcore bands with people trying to tell you to slow down or d-beat this or that, when you find something where speed is a necessity, you just want to stick with it. I've got a busy mind and a short attention span. I grew up with Boston hardcore, I couldn't agree with a lot of the politics of the scene, so I stayed at home and listened to records. Not to sound like a dick, but I don't really go to shows to socialize. I don't want to spend half my night drinking in the alley while bands are playing. So I found a scene that appreciates the same thing as I do. I still get drunk and miss bands sometimes, but not very often!

-which bands from your area would you recommend?

Sarah: uhm, AHNA, Head Hits Concrete, Haggatha, Osk, Expression of Pain, Iskra, Hoopsnake, Grimhorse (rip), Archagathus, Loutish, Cetascean etc.. i don't know too fucking many,.

-which were your favourite record released in 2012 and why?

Sarah: Oh man, i'm bad at this. I'm kind of a sucker for old death metal and shit so i tend to have a shit-time keeping up with the new stuff. uhmm I guess that new Noisear LP, Turbulent Resurgence andd i've been really digging that new Skullhog LP as well. Squamish BCs HOOPSNAKE is really killer southern doom they self-released an LP this year so i don't know how distributed it is but it's really really good!... uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! fuck! The Kill's new LP as well , I am stoked for the actual Vinyl hey!

-what is planned for Violent restitution in the coming months?

Sarah: well i am moving back to Vancouver and i guess we will start jamming again. We're releasing a split 10" with GOD Grotesque Organ Defeilment a rad as fuck political goregrind band from Oshawa Ontario, and then sometime after that we will be realasing a split with Suffering Mind.

-a final "full of wisdom sentence" to conclude?

Sarah: Thanks for the interview!! sorry it took so long!!!

 Pierre: Parting words: Be excellent to each other.> > > > thanks!