Throat interview with Jukka Mattila

Throat is like stepping into a time machine and travelling
back twenty years to the heyday of the 80’s and 90’s hardcore music movement,
with bands like TAD, Black Flag, Henry Rollins Band and the Melvins. At times harsh and abrasive to be sure,
there’s no denying the decibal blasting invasion of the brain that is
experienced when you drop the needle on a Throat album, there’s a likewise
undeniable melody and rhythm that lines the underbelly of the beast; an
underlying scrutcture sorely lacking from most hardcore and punk music these
days. Perfectly controlled feedback and
gnarled distortion create swirling elixirs of unholy psychedelic doom, like
cacauphonies of madness belching from the mind of a madman in songs like ”Gift
Gas” and ”Katoye”, while the sludge filled medley of sorts ”Holey” sounds like
it could have been taken from any of the 90’s Rollins records. Throat is a force to be reckoned with and
they’re here to prove they ain’t got nothing to prove! There’s a lot more than what appears on the
surface with the band as well though, utilizing all to clever
loud-quiet-loud-quiet aspects in their songs, creating some of the most raved
up distortion-feedback dripping break downs I’ve heard in a long time and
combining all the best elements of noise, punk, hardcore with some good old
fashioned biker rock, Throat has managed to fashion a fiercly originaly
sound. With a career spannign four years
and culminating in the release of their first full-length album this year,
Manhole, lead singer and guitarist Jukka Mattila took the time to discuss all
things Throat with me a few months ago.
From their back catalog to the early history of the band, everything’s
covered here. So kick back with abeer, a
link to some tunes and take in some history from your new favorite band; trust
me you’re going to thank me when you’re done, take two and call the doctor in
the morning!

Listen
while you read: http://ihatethroat.bandcamp.com/

What’s the band’s
lineup? Is this the original lineup or
have there been some changes over time?

The lineup has
remained unchanged from the beginning: Jukka Mattila – guitar and vocals,
Aleksis Juhakoski – guitar and backing vocals, Tomi Lahtinen – bass and Jani
Laakko – drums. We’re anxiously waiting
to see who the first one to get sacked will be!

Are any of you in
any other bands at this point? It seems
pretty common place for a lot of people to be in several bands these days and I
love playing musical connect the dots!
Have you released any music with anyone else? If so can you tell us about it?

All of us have
more or less serious bands or musical projects besides Throat, but there’s no
need to talk about them here. I believe
all of those bands can stand on their own and don’t really benefit from being
directly connected to Throat, so let’s just leave it at that.

Where are you
originally from?

I was born in
Mäntsälä, a small town in southern Finland.

Was your household
very musical growing up? Were either of
your parents or any of your relatives musicians or heavily involved/interested
in music?

Not
really. The radio was probably on all
the time since I was a baby, playing whatever the radio was playing in the
early 80s. My dad played some guitar and
was into 70s hard rock etcetera, but I don’t think it ever was something he was
really passionate about. I probably
spoiled his dreams of rock’n’roll stardom.

How were you first
exposed to music?

Like I said
earlier, it was probably through some music played on the radio. Nonetheless I’ve always reacted quite
strongly towards music and paid attention to it, so some songs or melodies have
probably stuck with me ever since I was a kid.
That’s most likely where my fixation with 80s dance music and AOR comes
from!

When and why did
you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music?

That’s
probably the same old story of picking up a guitar or sitting behind the drums
for the first time in your early teens.
Then you play your favorite metal and punk songs, eventually starting to
write your own stuff. Basically that’s
the road I’ve been on for over twenty years now with little to no success.

When and how did
you all originally meet?

I had known
Aleksis for years before Throat formed and we had played together in various
bands over the years. I met Tomi and
Jani through a band of theirs I was singing in for a short while.

Where is the band
currently located?

Although we
all don’t live in the same city anymore, I’d still say Throat is located in
Turku as this is where we rehearse and this is where everything started in
terms of the band.

How would you
describe the local music scene there?

I couldn’t
claim to know even half of what happens in the local music scene in Turku these
days as I simply don’t have the time, energy or interest to keep myself
up-to-date with everything that’s going on.
Anyway, as far as I know, the scene is pretty varied and pleasantly
vibrant. There’s a strong history of
electronic music in Turku and I think that scene is alive and kicking these
days as well. Loads and loads of metal
bands here, just like in every Finnish town.
Some of the best Finnish punk/hardcore bands come from Turku and I’m
sure there’s a healthy scene for indie rock, pop and alternative bands even
though I’m not that informed on their endeavours. There’s also some great noise/industrial
artists in Turku, so like I said, the scene is pretty varied.

Are you very
involved with the local scene?

No. Obviously playing local shows and going to
see bands gets you acquainted with lots of people within the scene and
personally I’ve done a bunch gig organising etcetera, but I’m not the type to
go see every shitty punk show in town or get involved in activity not directly related
to my own doings. That might sound
elitist or downright assholish, but time and energy restraints force one to
prioritise.

Has it played a
large role in the history, sound or evolution of Throat?

Throat has
always remained indifferent towards whatever has been happening in current
music scenes, be it locally or globally.
Naturally it’s been great for us to have been able to play shows with
lots of different types of bands in Turku and every show counts in the
evolution of a band, but as fas as whether the local scene has affected Throat
or not, I would say no.

What led you to
form Throat and when was that?

The initial
idea for the band came in 2008 during some intoxicated discussion between
myself and Aleksis. We are long-time
fans of a lot of 90s noise rock/alternative/grunge bands and since we felt
there were no new bands around who were properly carrying the torch for that
specific type of sound, we decided to give it a shot ourselves. We did a three-song demo with just the two of
us and ended up playing the stuff to Tomi and Jani who showed interest in
starting a band with us. Immediately we
started working on new songs and rehearsing as often as we could, and after all
these years things have remained pretty much the same.

How did you choose
the name and what does the name Throat mean or refer to in the context of your
band name?

Coming up with
a name for your band usually sucks, at least in my opinion. I don’t remember if we had any other
alternatives, but Throat more or less came from the TAD song ”Throat Locust”
off the Inhaler album. It was an homage
to a band that was crucial in the process of forming Throat, but at the same
time it was a nice and punchy name with as many meanings and connotations as
anyone wants to make for it. We’ve never
tried giving the name any deeper analysis, it was just a name we chose and
we’ll stick by it until the end.
Obviously there are, and have been, plenty of bands by the same name,
but we’ve come across all of them after we named our band Throat as a matter of
fact. If someone wants to sue us, go
ahead, we’d love the exposure!

Who are your major
musical influences? What about the band
as a whole rather than individually?

Individually
we all have varying tastes in music and it would be impossible to list any
individual influences, but in terms of Throat as a whole most of the influences
could be said to date back to the 90s. I
think the names most often mentioned in relation to Throat are Unsane, Helmet,
Fudge Tunnel and -(16)-, and there’s absolutely no denying the importance of
those bands to us, but I could continue the list with equally important names
such as Distorted Pony, Godflesh, Rollins Band, TAD, Floor, Melvins, Big Black,
Pissed Jeans, Günna Vahm, Black Sabbath etcetera and the list could go on
endlessly. I guess the influences were
more important to us and perhaps were more evident in our early stuff, but as
time has passed and we’ve found our own sound, the influences have less
importance for the band as a whole, even though the brilliance of those bands
obviously never fades away.

Can you tell us a
little bit about Throat’s songwriting process?
Does someone approach the rest of the band with a somewhat finished riff
or idea for a song and finish the composition with the rest of you or is there
a lot of jamming and messing around?

The process
can vary quite a bit, all the way from someone bringing a complete song with
lyrics to rehearsals to someone making an accidental feedback noise and that
being the starting point of a new song idea.
Jamming is not really something we do in relation to our songwriting,
although we tend to have an incidental jam session at each rehearsal. There’s usually a lot of messing around with
different ideas until we can call a song finished. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes minutes,
you never know.

What about when
you head into the studio? Is there a lot
of preparatory work that you do to get ready before going or do you do things
more organically and off the cuff?

Since we try
to record live as much as possible, it means we need to have the songs carved
in our brain pretty well prior to the recording sessions just to avoid having
to do a hundred takes of each song and driving ourselves insane. Basically that’s the most important
thing. We may do some last minute
tweaking and arranging to the songs, but it tends to be quite cosmetic at that
point.

Do you all enjoy
recording? As a musician I think that
most of us love the end result. Holding
that music in your hands and knowing that you made it, there’s not much out
there that can beat it. It can be nerve
wracking to get into the studio to say the least though!

We’re in the
fortunate position that we can record in the same space where we rehearse, so
it makes things much more comfortable as we know how the room sounds, we know
all the gear we need is there and we know no one gets pissed off if we spill
beer on the floor. I’m sure I’m speaking
for everyone in the band when I say recording is not the situation where we
shine; we all tend to have a bit of the ”record button jitters” as we call
it. Anyway, like you said, it’s a great
feeling when you’re able to nail down a perfect, or at least as perfect as
possible, take of a song. I can handle
the recording process just fine, it’s the mixing/mastering stage I hate. Listening to the same shit over and over
again, arguing with the other guys about how everything should sound and
eventually becoming totally deaf towards the end product. All that gets on my nerves quite a bit, but
luckily we have a good guy handling the recording/mixing/mastering who knows
how we’re supposed to sound, so we don’t have to start from scratch every time.

Let’s talk a
little bit about your back catalog. In
2009 you self-released the Good Times EP tape limited to only two-hundred
copies. What are your memories of
recording that album? How did you go
about recording your first release? When
was it recorded? Who recorded it? Where was it recorded? What kind of equipment was used?

That tape was
recorded less than six months after the band was formed, so it was a pretty raw
thing, but listening to it now it’s still surprisingly good and nicely
documents where we were in the beginning.
We recorded and mixed it by ourselves in the summer of 2009 and like all
of our releases, it was recorded at our rehearsal space. The recording session was probably a whole
lot of fun since I hardly remember anything from it. We recorded on a digital 16-track recorder,
but other than that I can’t recall what equipment was used, most likely
whatever we were able to get our hands on.

You followed up
the Good Times EP with the Adult Situations 7” the following year. Can you tell us about the recording of that
material? Was it handled much
differently than the session(s) for Good Times?

The recording
session wasn’t all that different from Good Times, but I’m sure we had learnt
something about the actual techniques of recording and we probably had some
improved gear as well. Again, we handled
the recording ourselves at our rehearsal room, but handed the mixing and
mastering duties over to Pentti Dassum, a true legend in the Finnish
underground music scene and that proved to be a very good decision since we
never could have managed to get it sound so good had we mixed it ourselves.

I know Adult
Situations was released by Kult of Nihilow.
Was that release limited? How did
you get hooked up with Kult of Nihilow who would go on to also split release
duties for your next single as well?

The Adult
Situations 7” was our first vinyl release and limited to 330 copies with a
bunch of them (maybe 50 copies?) coming with a surprise photo insert. Marko from Kult of Nihilow is a good friend
of ours, Aleksis and I have known him for years before we started Throat. He’s liked our stuff right from the start and
wanted to release a 7”, so we didn’t think twice about it.

Then there was the
split 7” single with Fleshpress. What
about the recording of the untitled track for that single? When was it recorded? Who recorded it? Where was it recorded? What kind of equipment was used?

Actually we
recorded the tracks for the Pee 7” and the split 7”s with Fleshpress and Black
Sun in the same sessions in June 2011 with Ilpo Heikkinen, who has become our
go-to guy with recording, mixing etcetera.
Like before, the sessions were held in our rehearsal room and if I remember
correctly, this was the first time we used Ilpo’s recording equipment. He’s done recordings with lots of great
Finnish bands like Hebosagil, Viisikko and Sokea Piste to name a few, so he
also has his own recording gear which is much better than what we used before.

The split was your
first release with Kaos Kontrol who would go on to handle many more of your
releases. How did you first get involved
with them? How is your relationship with
Kaos Kontrol at this point? They
handled the release of your latest album, Manhole. Do you plan to continue to work with them in
the future?

Well, actually
Kaos Kontrol is my label, so in my eyes the relationship is perfect, not sure
if the other guys agree! If no one else
is interested in releasing new Throat stuff in the future, I’m sure Kaos
Kontrol will come to the rescue.

Later in 2011 Kaos
Kontrol released your Pee 7” EP limited to three-hundred copies. Can you talk about the recording of that
material?

As a matter of
fact, the Pee 7” came out at the same time with the split 7” with
Fleshpress. Like I mentioned earlier,
that 7” was recorded in the same sessions as the two split 7”s; nice sessions
with probably our strongest material up until then.

2011 was a busy
year for you all! You also had a split
cassette with Hebosagil, Mind Reality which was limited to only fifty
copies. How did that split originally
come about? How was the recording of
that material handled?

We have a
tradition of playing some easter shows with Hebosagil, so to celebrate those
gigs in 2011 we decided to do a short-run split tape where Hebosagil would play
a cover version of a Throat song and vice versa. We played a cover version of ”Big Sun” off
the Colossal album and actually recorded it live in rehearsal, so the result
was crude to say the least. Hebosagil
did an amazing version of our song ”Soft Rogue”, but luckily the tape was so
limited that not too many people have heard how those cats put us to shame.

Finally in 2011
you released your first 12” Licked Inch Fur limited to five-hundred
copies. It was a joint release between
several record labels, can you tell us who they were and why there were so many
people involved in that release?

Licked Inch
Fur was a joint release between Kaos Kontrol, Verdura Records (Finland), At War
with False Noise (U.K.) and Made in Kansas (USA). Basically the idea behind involving so many
labels was to get the best possible distribution for the record. The shipping rates these days are so insane
that had we put the record out ourselves a lot of people, in the U.S. for
example, would have skipped ordering it due to the high postage costs. But as there was a U.S. label involved, we
were able to get the record out to pretty much all the people who might be
interested in hearing it.

When was Licked
Inch Fur recorded? Who recorded it? Where was it recorded? What kind of equipment was used?

If I’m not
mistaken, the Licked Inch Fur sessions took place late in 2010, maybe
December. All I remember was the crazy
blizzard on the recording day, and standing outside our practice space
knee-deep in snow with a beer and a cigarette in hand. Ilpo Heikkinen handled the recording, but
just like with the Adult Situations 7”, we gave it to Pentti Dassum for mixing
and mastering. Looking back, maybe it
would’ve been better if Ilpo had done it all, but Pentti did a fine job. Regarding equipment, I think we used two
digital 16-track recorders daisy chained so we could record up to 16 tracks at
once, as otherwise those things can only record 8 tracks at a time. Like I said earlier, we record the drums,
bass and guitars live, so we really needed all those tracks, it wasn’t a Def
Leppard thing.

After a quick
break you followed Licked Inch Fur up with a 7” split with the band Black
Sun. Who put that single out? When was that material recorded? Who recorded it? Where was it recorded? What kind of equipment was used during the
recording process?

Actually,
Licked Inch Fur came out right after the Adult Situations 7”, about eight
months before the Pee 7” and the split 7”s.
Anyway, the split 7” came out as the tenth instalment in the 12-part
split 7” series by the Irish label Hell Comes Home. Joel from Hell Comes Home contacted us as he
had liked the Good Times tape and asked if we’d like to take part in his
upcoming 7” series. His offer sounded
great and we recorded ”Anal Paranoid” in the same sessions as the Pee 7” and
the split 7” with Fleshpress.
Incidentally that track was supposed to come out first, but ended up
being the last of the four tracks recorded in those sessions to be
released. To top it off, the guy who did
the layout for the 7” series had replaced our lyrics in the accompanying lyrics
sheet with someone else’s by mistake, but actually that made us look pretty
cool as the ”new lyrics” dealt with wolves and other great shit.

All good things
come to those who wait and this year (2013) you released your debut album on
12” Manhole, via another amalgamation of labels. I know the LP is limited to
five-hundred-and-fifty copies but who were the labels involved in the release?

Besides the
usual suspects, Kaos Kontrol, At War with False Noise and Made in Kansas,
Rejuvenation Records from France joined in as the fourth label involved in the
release. There’s been a lot of interest
towards Throat from France over the last couple of years, so it was great to
have a French label on board as well. There
are also a bunch of excellent noise rock bands from France who have been an
influence on Throat, especially in the early stages of the band.

Can you tell us
about the recording of the material for the Manhole LP? When was it done? Who recorded it? Where was that done at? Did you approach the recording of this album
much differently than your earlier records?

Manhole was
recorded in December 2012 with Ilpo Heikkinen at our rehearsal space, just like
before. Obviously being a full-length
record, it took much longer to get the songs together and we consciously took
our time so as to have a good bunch of tracks that would make for an album
still worth listening to years from now.
Not sure if we succeeded, but we damned well tried. There were eighteen months between the
previous recordings and the Manhole sessions, so we had time to let the songs
live a little and also play them live to see how well they worked in that
situation.

Has Throat
released any music that we haven’t talked about yet?

Not as far as
I know! We do have hours and hours of
dubious rehearsal jams and badly played demos which any interested parties are
free to release as a box set anytime.

Are there any
plans for a follow up release, maybe a single or some other morsel for hungry
fans on the heels of Manhole?

There are some
plans for new releases, but nothing I can reveal just yet. We’re constantly working on new material, so
when the time is right we’ll record them and get them released one way or another. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get
some new material out there, we sat on those Manhole songs for so long it feels
like we haven’t done anything new in ages.

Where is the best
place for our U.S. readers to purchase copies of your music?

I’d recommend
getting in touch with Made in Kansas.
Permanent Records and Crucial Blast also have some of our releases
available, probably along with a bunch of smaller distros/labels. It’s all definitely out there and available
in the U.S. as well, so support your local distros!

What about
international and overseas readers?

Kaos Kontrol
ships to wherever you may reside, but if shipping costs make you squirm, you
should check at least At War with False Noise and Rejuvenation Records. There’s loads of smaller European distros
with our stuff available, so just track them down. You guys know how to use Google, don’t you?

Having dealt with
several record labels as well as self-releasing your debut EP Good Times
yourselves, what are the major pros and cons of doing it yourself? What about dealing with a record label?

We haven’t
dealt with actual labels that much since it’s either been the labels of friends
that have released our stuff or Kaos Kontrol has been involved somehow. The only thing we’ve done for an ”outsider”
label has been the Hell Comes Home 7” series thing and even that barely counts
as we just needed to send him the track; all the artwork etcetera, was already
handled by someone else. We have a
strong D.I.Y. approach to all our releases no matter who’s releasing them as we
are in charge of all the ”artistic” aspects, right from the first guitar riff
down to the artwork design. Every label we’ve been involved with have treated
our D.I.Y. approach with nothing but 100% respect, so we’ve been lucky, I
guess?

Where’s the best
place for our readers to keep up with the latest news like upcoming shows and
album releases from Throat?

The absolute
best place is our blog http://ihatethroat.blogspot.com. We try to keep it up-to-date with all the
latest reviews, upcoming shows and releases as well as all sorts of stupid shit
we happen to come up with. Maybe at some
point we’ll get the blog somehow better integrated with our website
www.ihatethroat.com, but if/when that happens, you can read about it in the
blog as well.

What do you have
planned as far as touring goes for the rest of the year?

We’d love to
play as many shows as possible, but at this point the rest of the year looks
pretty quiet besides a couple of confirmed shows. Hopefully we can do some shows outside
Finland soon as well, so if there’s anyone interested in helping us out, get in
touch!

Do you spend a lot
of time on the road? Do you enjoy
touring?

It’s almost
impossible to do proper touring in Finland unless you’re a big and successful
band. Most often ”tours” for us are just
two dates in different cities, but in a way that’s enjoyable as well. We usually have a great time on the road and
playing live, at its best, is one of the greatest things there is.

Do you have any
funny or interesting stories from live performances that you’d like to share
with our readers?

Just a few
days ago I was talking with someone, can’t remember who, about our second gig
ever in June 2009. Right before we
started playing this chick came and asked me if she could show us her tits
during the gig and naturally I gave her permission to do so. At some point she indeed did lift her shirt
and let it all hang out, resulting in the bouncer kicking her out of the
club. For a band less than a couple of
months old that was a pretty reassuring gesture, but unfortunately there
haven’t been any mammaries to be seen since then. There’s been at least one penis though.

You have played with
some seriously wicked bands, who are some of your favorites you’ve had a chance
to share a bill with?

Out of Finnish
bands, we always have the best time with Hebosagil and Fleshpress. Those are some seriously wicked bands, let me
tell you! Obviously the chance to share
the bill with Unsane and Big Business was a huge deal for me personally, as
well as for Throat in general. All of
those guys were really cool as well.
Same goes for Church of Misery who we had a great time with. Hopefully we get the opportunity to play with
equally cool bands in the future as well.

With all of the
various mediums of release available to artists these days I’m always curious
why musicians choose the particular methods that they do. Do you have a preferred medium for releasing
your material? What about when you are
listening to or purchasing music?

Vinyl is
definitely the preferred medium for releasing, listening and purchasing
music. Perhaps it has something to do
with the dirty, rugged nature of our music but it just doesn’t feel right to
listen to it on a clean, shiny compact disc.

Do you have a
music collection? If so can you tell us
about it?

Knowing people
who have what I’d call a record collection, my collection is pretty
modest. I’m a collector in the sense
that I’d like to own a vinyl copy of every album I like so I could listen to
them in the way most enjoyable to me.
Obviously I’m nowhere near my goal and will never reach it, but it’s
nice to dream. I’m not a collector in
the sense that I need all the color variants of a certain record to stash away
and listen to the digital download version of it. To me records are made to be listened
to. Anyway, I’m not judging anyone’s
perversions, if we ever release a record with tens of color variants, I sure as
hell hope there’s people wanting to buy a copy in each color!

There’s something
magical about holding an album in my hands.
Having something to look at, liner notes to read, and artwork to take
in, it all serves for a more complete listening experience and gives me a
little glimpse into the mind of the artists behind the release. Do you have any such connection with
physically released music?

Hell yes! Having grown up in a time when vinyl and
cassette were the only mediums for music, way before CDs and the internet. Vinyl and cassette are still the two formats
I consider the best. Like you said, the
artwork is at it’s best in 12” vinyl size and as most music should be a
physical experience, it’s nice to have an actual slab of vinyl to place on your
turntable and experience all its minor imperfections; warm pops and surface
noise.

If you can’t tell
I’m passionate about music and music collecting. Having a digital copy of an album is awesome
though. It allows me to take so much
more music with me on the go than I ever have before and helps me share it with
a lot of people I wouldn’t otherwise be able to. Digital music itself has exposed me to so
many bands that I would never have otherwise heard it boggles my mind at this
point but on the other hand it’s gutting decades of work and infrastructure
inside of the music industry. As an
artist in the reign of the digital age what’s your opinion on digital music and
distribution?

As much as I
support physical records myself, the digital thing is great. I think as long as people want to hear the
music, it doesn’t matter in which format they listen to it. Everyone has the right to choose their
preferred method for enjoying music, be it from vinyl on a high fidelity sound
system at home or a mp3 from a pair of headphones when stuck in traffic. Judging by the number of people who have
listened to Throat on our Bandcamp page, the digital music thing has definitely
worked in our favor. Some people are
happy to listen to our stuff in digital format and many of them are even happy
to pay for it, even though most of it’s available for free. On the other hand there will always be people
who check out a band via the Bandcamp page or whatever and if they like it,
they order the actual record. As for how
digital downloading has affected the music industry, I really couldn’t care
less. A lot of artists and especially
record labels deserve a severe reality check and as a punishment for all the
commercial bullshit they shove down people’s throats, I wouldn’t mind seeing
most of them disappear. If they can’t
cope with how things are in this day and age, they should quit and start doing
something else. The digital revolution
has injected an incredible amount of new energy into the
underground/independent music scene and even though it’s also enabled the
crappiest artists to be able to get their shit heard, they will disappear
eventually; they always have and always will.
As long as the underground is alive and well, I couldn’t give two shits
about what happens to the mainstream music industry.

I attempt to keep
up with good music. Not just some of it,
but all of it. I know it’s a hopeless
quest but I keep up the illusion that I’m keeping my head above the water by
asking people for suggestions all day and all night. I love hearing about people who I’m not
already listening to, so who should I be listening to from your local scene or
area that I might not have heard of before?

Damn, that’s a
tough one as there’s loads of new bands in Turku who I haven’t been able to
check out yet. There are some amazing
hardcore/punk bands such as Kylmä Sota, Kovaa Rasvaa, Kieltolaki etcetera. Umpio and Sick Seed are always worth checking
out if you’re into noise stuff. I bet
there’s a lot of up and coming names who I just can’t get into my head right
now. Xysma is an old Turku band who have
re-activated lately in the form of playing some shows, but apparently they also
have some new material in the works.
Whether they ever release new music or not, their old stuff is still
worth checking out.

What about
nationally and internationally?

Out of Finnish
bands, I never get tired of plugging Fleshpress, Hebosagil and Baxter
Stockman. Fleshpress have a new album
coming out later this year and both Hebosagil and Baxter Stockman released new
albums earlier this year. All of them
recommended! For some reason, I seem to
have been listening to mostly U.S. bands as of late. Hawks are always worth mentioning as is
Power-Take-Off which is the band of Gus/Made in Kansas and they have a new album
coming out soon. Black Congress, Tile,
Faking, Walls, all worth a listen. I
always tend to forget all the great new bands when someone asks me to recommend
something!

Thanks so much for
doing the interview, is there anything that I missed or you’d just like to talk
about?

Thanks a lot
for a great interview, Roman! Anyone
interested in what we do, what we’ve done and what we’re planning to do should
visit www.ihatethroat.com. If you think
your wallet is too fat, be sure to buy our records, perhaps even multiple
copies?