Feed the Prophet…
CVLT Nation Interviews Masakari

Without apology, I think one of the sickest bands that is bringing the ruckus is Cleveland’s Masakari. Their album The Prophet Feeds was on some next level of rawness. Then Masakari linked up with Germany’s Alpinist for one of the year’s gnarliest split and a ballistic tour. Maybe you can tell, I’m pretty stoked on this band – that’s why we are extra proud to go live with their interview today! So after the jump, read the thoughts of the members of Masakari…

What’s happening Masakari, how are you doing?

Greg: We are doing great and writing new songs at an alarming rate, for us at least. Usually, after we get home from a tour we don’t write much. But that wasn’t the case after our most recent tour with Alpinist, because we went straight from the van to our practice spot. We feel very good about these new songs, and we’ll be playing them at our upcoming shows.

We also have a split with Tempest coming out on Replenish Records (Run by Dan of Vestiges) which will be a benefit for two dog rescues that both Tempest and Masakari have chosen. By this point and time, it’s no secret that we hold it down for pit bulls and other bully breeds.

Your use of rage & speed in your music is on point – it seems that you use it almost as a melodic instrument. How do you achieve this?

Greg: It’s not something that we do intentionally, obviously, it just happens to form as we play. I would venture to say that the rage and speed that embodies our music has come from years of being labeled “not normal” by most peoples standards (how cliche’). But when no one likes you because of the way you look, the things you do, or the music you listen to, it’s easy to be angry; it’s easy to be filled with rage. Especially when you’re 15 years old, and the only time you see your actual friends is at a show. It almost becomes second nature to just “drop out” of the society that deems you undesirable. And those kinds of feelings just carry themselves over into adulthood, and for better or worse, defines the person you become. In our case, it’s worked out into our favor.

And also, all of the things that we don’t like we write about, and since we feel so passionate about them, the feelings emulate themselves through our guitars, not just the lyrics. With a mixture misanthropy and hate (in the right ways, or course), Masakari takes its true form… And I guess the speed part just comes from being punks and liking everything fast (haha).

I hear loud political overtones in your music. Were you brought up in political households?

Greg: Who listens to their parents? I don’t thinking any of us ever grew up with parental guidance when it comes to voting. A lot of people, including our parents, will just vote for a democratic candidate because they are democrats. It’s something people don’t like being called on either. Rather than put in time looking up a candidate and his/her views, they just align themselves with the party, and not the issue at hand. We don’t think it matters anyways; your vote doesn’t mean anything… I hate talking about this stuff because it’s such a tired subject for us.

As for political overtones… I would like to think we aren’t a political band at all, I mean, Skrewdiver was a political band once they “reformed”, and they just had fucked up politics. So, in essence, they were a political band, right? I think the label of “political band” in terms of a band being anarchists or counter-culture advocates has been beaten into a fine dust. Political bands don’t just stay centralized around the left side of the spectrum, ya know? Rather you pull for the left, or the right, you’re still pulling. We stay away from politics for that reason, we don’t vote, we don’t protest, we don’t care. I mean, everyone in Masakari lives under, or at the federal poverty level anyways, so who is really going to listen? From a personal standpoint, I’ve been poor forever, it’s not like I just found out I’m going to be poor soon and “occupied” Cleveland. It takes more than that, and until we realize that we need to stop taking casualties and start claiming them, we’re just going to stay in our coffee shops with our iPads.

Masakari’s music is very powerful & emotive – how does this translate when you are performing live as opposed to when you are in the studio?

Greg: A recording will never make up for a live performance; let’s get that out of the way right now. If Motorhead was horrible live, no one would care about them. You have to be able to record solid songs, and back them up with a solid performance. Like I said, your record could be the greatest piece of wax on earth, but if you squawk half of your notes live, you will be forgotten. We try to put as much passion in our recording as we do our live performances. But, obviously, our live shows will always trump studio time. You can’t replace crowd interaction with anything because it’s such a big part of playing live. If we were bored when we played, you would know it, but we aren’t. That’s why you always will see us having fun, and Adam will always be jumping around and hitting me in the head with the headstock of his bass. You can’t replace flying trash cans, you can’t replace broken bottles all over the floor, and you certainly can’t replace Cleveland.

What was your inspiration for the song “Untitled”? What messages are you trying to convey with your use of sampling in this song, & what purpose do samples serve in your music as a whole?

Tony: This is a question that gets brought up a lot. But I am really glad that it seems to have such an impact on its listeners because we get asked about it so much. It’s from Mike Prysner’s speech at the Winter Soldier testimony in March of 2008. A friend suggested that I watch the talks given by veterans and this was one that really stood out for me. It’s about the inherent racist attitude in the military and I thought it was a powerful and well structured talk about the dehumanization of the “enemy” given from a first person account. The overall topic of the Prophet Feeds I would say is how alienated and distanced we are from ourselves and reality; this seemed to fit it just perfectly. The samples as a whole serve as part of the song, sort of as a pragmatic function. They (hopefully) add to the intensity of what we attempt to convey in each track.

How did the tour & split with Alpinist come about?

Greg: We have really enjoyed Apinist’s music ever since they released their first LP. I believe Joe was in contact with them for a while trying to get them to come over here, and then Timo from Alerta Antifascista helped bring us together and then, finally, Joe and Adam booked the US tour.

While you were creating your material for the split with Alpinist what were things you wanted to achieve as a band & get across to your fans?

Greg: We just want to make music people enjoy, that’s the bottom line. And if we don’t make music people like, then at least we made something we can look back on and be proud of. In the case of our most current release with Alpinist, we took an extra-long time to write our songs. We really wanted people to recognize that we can rival bands that are as good as they are. And I think we did a good job, because the feedback from the split has been pretty positive so far. We spent so much time on it; we even did the Rise And Fall tour between recording sessions. We put a lot of time and raw emotion into this split, and hopefully everyone can hear that. Ultimately, this is the essential Masakari, we feel at least.

As for Alpinist, they are a great band and when we finally met and toured with them, we realized all of the similar influences we share. We also scrutinize our songs just as much as they do, we pick out parts of songs, that in hindsight, we would have changed. We joke about the same things, and share the same cynicism. There couldn’t be a better band in punk/hardcore right now, hands down.

What emotions, events, or moments in time influenced the lyrics on your new split album with Alpinist?

Greg: We can’t give that stuff away, can we? That’s half the fun of reading lyrics. I love reading lyrics and drawing my own conclusion to what they might mean. They mean more to you if you have a personal meaning to them, which could form a deep connection. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s interpretations of our music. As long as it pisses you off, you’re reading it correctly.

When it comes to your musical tastes, would you say that you are into a variety of genres, or just a few? Are there genres that influence your music that would surprise your fans?

Greg: We always play bands like Totalitar, Discharge, Death Side, Ripcord, Framtid, and Larm in our van- stuff like that. We all have our guilty pleasure that we will choose not to share with you… Anyway, I just saw Trash Talk’s mixtape and it was killer! I didn’t realize those dudes were into so much Japanese/Scandi crasher! It doesn’t really reflect their music, but it’s a total plus. I haven’t looked around at any other mix tapes, but that one has to be the best.

Joe: I’d like to interject that all the mixtapes have been alarmingly amazing, I didn’t expect any different. Also I can thank the dudes in Wild//Tribe for giving me my guilty pleasure of KISS.

Is there anything about the band that is never asked in an interview, but you want the world to know?

Greg: Stop sending us interviews! We are going to take it easy on interviews unless we personally know the interviewer, like CVLT. We’re not trying to be mean, we just can’t do 16 interviews filled with similar questions in two weeks time, it starts to sound and feel redundant…It’s just not possible, and people think we’re assholes for not returning e-mails and what-not. Do it old school, call us, come to a show and record and interview. You will definitely get one those ways.

Thanks Masakari for the rad interview!

All photos Sean Reveron.