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MM -
Introduce the band members to us.
Ash Randal (Guitar)
Joe Lambert (Drums)
Ben Scott (Guitar/Vocals)
Mike Stainsbury (Bass/New Guy!)
MM -
Where in the world do the band call home?
BEN SCOTT: We come from West Yorkshire, mainly Huddersfield. The
local council here have been trying to close down the rock/metal scene
round here for years. There's no real venues to play here anymore, it's
all dance clubs.
MM - When was the band first formed
and how has it evolved to the member status it has today?
There's only been a couple of drastic changes really. Always the bass
players!
MM - Where does the name
'Violent Design' come from?
BEN: 'Violent Design' comes from a number of meanings really.
Originally, we just wanted to put two 'cool-sounding' words together.
But over time, the name really fits. A Design is a blueprint or
plan for violence - our songs are a soundtrack for violence.
MM - How would you best describe your
music and who would it most appeal to?
ASH RANDAL: It's a mixture of the best types of metal. There's
everything there, Hardcore, Thrash, Death Metal, Nu-Metal - I think
anyone who likes metal in general will think this band is fucking cool!
MM - After the
very successful debut EP ' ...And the world will so allow it!' , the
band are soon to follow up with a full length album. How is this
progressing and do we have a release date for it yet?
ASH: We have planned four
songs for the next CD so far. They're more to the point and are SO much
heavier and confident. The production on this one is gonna be better
than the last CD too, we have got the best production our money could
buy. AND we're putting a CD-ROM enhancement on the next CD too!
MM - The band
will soon be kicking off it's UK tour. What towns will you be visiting?
BEN: We intended the tour to start in April. However, we have just lost
our bass player and we are working hard with Mike (our new bassist) to
make sure the machine keeps moving. This buggered up most of the dates
of the tour but we're hitting Birmingham and Dudley in April, Stoke and
Oxford in May.
We're doing a shitload of Northern UK dates (including Newcastle!!) and
a festival in Northampton in June. We have our schedule for the summer
pretty much decided as we intend to embark on a full UK tour in August,
bigger than last year's by far.
 MM
- How has the music media in general
responded to the band and it's music?
BEN: The music magazines in the UK are fucking useless. Unsigned bands
get one page per issue in every magazine. We're no longer the kind of
band that sits waiting to see if say, Kerrang! gives us a one-paragraph
mention. That's all bullshit we couldn't care less about anymore. If
you're not American and playing lightweight music, you don't mean shit
to them.
The fanzines and webzines are a lot cooler - that's the beauty of the
web, it lets everyone speak out on a global scale. If everyone liked
purely what is on the front covers of magazines, then magazines could
dictate a lot of things and have a lot of power.
MM - Who
writes the material that you perform, it is a solo or joint effort?
ASH: It's pretty much a joint effort. We try to make every song a little
different and we each add our own individual flavour to it so
everybody's happy.
MM - Is your music all
original material or do you include some cover versions?
ASH: Most of the material we play is original. On the last CD, we played
a Cro-Mags cover which we always play live. Aside from that we play
Slayer, Metallica and Sepultura stuff sometimes. It works well
live. If ever we play in front of a crowd and they hear something they
love it's an awesome sight to watch people's reaction. People are
starting to do that with our stuff now!
MM - What do you feel has been the
bands biggest accomplishment so far?
ASH: When the band set off on tour last August, we had no idea what to
expect. We played in front of the wrong crowds a few times. We got 25
mod-rock fans into a total slampit in Leicester, we did the same in
Leeds with a bunch of ska-punks and we got a stage invasion. A
band breaking out of Huddersfield is a major accomplishment anyway 'cos
the scene is dead here.
BEN: Slayer, Pantera and Biohazard have got a copy of our first CD!!
MM - What goes through your
mind when you are playing live onstage?
ASH: I think the most important thing to keep thinking is to just play
your part as good as you can.
MM - What types of music do
you listen to in your spare time?
ASH: We generally don't listen to anything that different to what we
write. Slayer, Earth Crisis and Deicide are among our favourite
bands, that shows in our music. People who like those bands will think
we're a cool band.
MM - What was the last concert, other than your own, that you went to
see?
ASH + BEN: The last gig both of us went to was Biohazard at Rios in
Bradford.
MM - Who designs the logo/merchandise artwork for the band?
Generally the band does the artwork, although we're thinking of using
some people for the cover of the next CD. We work with a
promotional partnership that handles the merchandising.
MM - When
you are not touring and living the life of rock n' roll rebels, what do
you do for a living?
ASH: Not one of us is doing anything we would like to settle in for the
next ten years apart from Violent Design.
MM - How would you like to see the rock scene progress in the next
couple of years?
ASH: It would be good to see bands concentrate less on image and more on
music. Nu-Metal just means Nu-fashioned-Metal, it's not the next
generation of passionate music. It's watered-down over-produced toss
that's as authentic as a Chinese Elvis, that totally takes away the rock
'n' roll spirit. I hope that rock bands (and their labels) start to
concentrate less on commercial gain and more on integrity.
MM - What band would you most
like to tour with?
ASH: Slayer seem like the coolest band in the world to tour with, but
everybody probably says that.
MM - Does rock n' roll have an age
tag to it? Are you ever too young/ too old to rock?
ASH: No. You like what you like and at the end of the day you can't take
away what you spent your life listening to. If other people don't like
what you listen to, fuck 'em! In this band we all realised very early on
in our teens that this kind of music won't please everyone you play it
to. I think that all people should keep that in mind, regardless.
MM - When growing up who did you used to imitate in front of the
mirror?
ASH: I never really did that, but if I did it was probably James
Hetfield (Metallica) and Max Cavelera (Sepultura/Soulfly).
MM - Just how far would you go to sell your soul in the name of rock n'
roll?
BEN: All the way. Any place. Any time. Any where.
MM -
When you die what would you like them to carve on your gravestone?
ASH: If we ever resurrect Donnington and headline it, I'd love to see
the poster etched into my gravestone.
MM - Where do the band go from here?
ASH: Obviously, we want a record deal and a little more attention from
mainstream media. We intend to tour the shit out of 2001 and work
to see those goals become a reality. World Domination comes later!
MM -
Lastly, Is there anything you would like to say to all your fans out
there?
ASH: Keep it metal!
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