Meathook Seed

We met the charming Meathook Seed members, Mitch Harris and Christophe Lamouret, also known for their major contribution to Napalm Death and Out, respectively, in London's tiny Bordeline. Those of you who still don't know Meathook Seed's awesome techno/electro metal are urged to buy the "Bible" album, so they will be able to regret the extraordinary gig they missed on that night.

- How did you decide to work together and form the band Meathook Seed?
- Mitch Harris: I was working on the music for many years and I came to a point where I knew I needed someone to write the vocals. I was speaking with Colin Richardson and playing him stuff with the 4-track. He said, I've just done the album with Out and there's this guy, Christophe, he's very nice and very creative, maybe he would be interested. We sent him a tape and he did some vocals and he sent it back with the song "Beautiful". We thought it was gonna work. We took the songs with the strongest vocals, the ones we agreed were the best, and recorded them.
- Where does the name come from ?
- MH: From a book that I was reading in 1989 called "Raism" by James Havoc. It's a very small, underground cult book, but the first chapter was called "I, meathook seed" and the book was so twisted, it had to do with conspiracies and things I was into, so I thought that was a strong name.
- Christophe, what interested you in the Meathook Seed project?
- C: Money? (laughs) Just kidding. I just loved the twisted riffs he sent me and I liked the atmosphere in all the songs. I just put lyrics on them and at first we didn't know what we would do with them. But the atmosphere basically attracted me.
- Where you fans of each other, i.e. Napalm Death and Out?
- MH: Yes, I liked Out when I heard it first. Napalm is an acquired taste. (laughs)
- C: Napalm is a kind of metal legend...
- People tend to compare your album to NIN, the Young Gods or Killing Joke, did you consciously want to get away from metal and do something a bit different?
- MH: It was conscious, but natural. I wasn't trying to escape metal, I listen to many different things and it's finally come out in the style. Many people compare it to NIN, Killing Joke, Young Gods, I like all those bands as well, but we weren't remotely influenced by any band in particular. It was just a natural evolution. Maybe bits and pieces sound similar to things you've heard before, but as a whole, it's different, really.
- C: We didn't plan anything, everybody just played their part.
- What was your level of participation on the album?
- C: I did the vocals and the melodies and we all structured the songs together. The music comes from Mitch.
- Do you intend Meathook Seed to be a band in its own right or just a one-off project?
- MH: I live and breathe this every day, it's part of my life. Yes, I want it to be a band and to walk and exist. But we also live with our other bands, Napalm, Out and all the other things we do. When you do one thing, you dedicate 100% of your time, until you don't have anymore time to work with. It's easier to focus on what you're doing when you have an outlet, which this is. But it's very serious and passionate. It's an artistic release between us, it's not a one-man thing. Each person brings an element. Eventually, Christophe will learn things for Out, I will learn things for Napalm and it will make Napalm more extreme, because it's a totally different style. There's an open door for us to go further.
- Why didn't Colin Richardson produce the album?
- MH: He offered to mix the record and at the time it was recorded, we had no record company, we had no money and we had only one friend with a studio, Framework Studio, where we did the Napalm stuff. He let us do it and 6 months or a year later we found a record company to mix it and to help us finish it. Colin was busy and Russ (editor's note: Russel) was coming in to help. We had all this techno-drum sounds, which was too much for the speakers, so he was fixing it and making it better. Colin would have been great, but Simon Efemey is also a good friend and it was just a good friendly vibe and many people working to achieve a final vision.
- Christophe, were you surprised at Out's success in England and especially in Scotland?
- C: We played with Pulkas last March and it was very nice, we had a very cool response from the audiences everywhere, especially in Glasgow, it was the first day and we were very surprised. We're very happy about that.
- Have you ever thought about singing in French on the Meathook Seed LP?
- C: Yes, there was a plan for it.
- MH: I love the Young Gods, especially when they sing in French because it sounds more insane to me. But we never did finally.
- C: Meathook Seed is not finished, maybe on the next album...
- MH: Yes, we have new stuff, maybe one hour.
- Are you thinking of a new album with the same members?
- MH: Yes, next year. But because we have much more material, it will be better and more polished. It's on the demo stage, but it's more electronic.
- The title of your album BIBLE means "basic instructions before leaving earth". Do you mean it as a quest for spirituality?
- MH: Yes, it's a spiritual interpretation and it simplifies a very complicated book. In fact, the Bible is all about it, basic instructions before leaving earth, they're a few basic rules for you to live a very happy life. You're here for a reason, you're supposed to live to do something and progress. If you didn't achieve your mission, maybe you'll have to come back again until you get it. It has a lot to do with that and conspiracy theories. It's linked with religion from a neutral standpoint, because you have all that Satanic stuff, Christians, Muslims, Mormons, etc. From the middle, you can make something out of it and live a positive life and justifiy all your actions. Even if there are bad things, maybe you had to do them to survive or for a reason, it's OK, you don't have to be afraid of dying.
- So you don't practice any kind of religion?
- MH: No, meditation. My beliefs are rather oriented towards philosophy, scientific research, astronomy, astrology, maths, the English language. I read and write poetry. I think everything a musician does in his life affects what they come out with. We have a vision and try to bring it to a physical form and share it with people.
- Would you be interested in expressing yourself through a different media, like film?
- MH: Well, maybe one day... I have this video editing gear, enough to make a home film or a promo video and I haven't learned to use it yet, but I wanted to make the music first, I did the most insane soundtrack to inspire the movie. It will have no budget or anything but maybe we can do something creative and the visual part is becoming part of everyday life, when you hear music, you need visuals. Sometimes, you can make the impact of a song much more instant to people. So yes, when we have the money and the time... I'd also like to write the music for a film or something like that.
- In its diversity, is this album totally apart or is it a means to gather people with different tastes?
- C: I think it's definitely the way metal should be in the next few years, because "traditional" metal was cool 10 or 15 years ago, but now it's dead because everybody was doing the same thing. We've added the techno parts to this music and we've also got the riffs. I think this mixture is definitely what will be the future of metal.
- MH: It's important for me not to turn our backs on metal, but I've written many songs in that style and I appreciate many types of music. It's important to bring it to another form for the sake of keeping it alive, for the future generations to realize they might like something because it's more melodic or more modern, but we know where it came from and if it wasn't for the 5000 bands that influenced us, as well as 200 pop bands and all this other stuff, we wouldn't exist in this form. What would Pink Floyd have done with all this equipment today?
- C: This kind of music isn't "untrue" as opposed to "true" metal, it's just the truth of today.
- Bible is dedicated to Björk. Why?
- MH: One of my excuses for waiting so long to do this record was because I had no inspiration. There wasn't much in the metal scene inspiring me, but with Björk, there's no guitar, there are classical arrangements to modern-day techno. It's pop, you can sing to it. The melodies make me close to tears. There are true artists out there. She was the reason that inspired me to finish the record.
- C: I also like Björk. My next dream is to sing with her.
- Can we consider your covers album as your past and "Bible" your future?
- MH: It is past and future. We'd been talking about making these cover versions for years and our manager thought it was a good idea. We loved these songs and we thought it would be great, most people never heard them. We didn't want to do a full album, because it would be predictable. It was a kind of tribute and it gave us some new ideas. It brought back some of the older flavour.
- What were your favourite albums or bands of '99?
- C: I liked the Coal Chamber album.
- MH: "Homogenic", it's the best album of the decade. I love the Cardigans' latest album, the Cranberries (!!!), Square Pusher, he's a friend of Aphex Twin, Vast, I love them because the vocals sound a bit like Dead can Dance and there are heavy guitars. It's good to see the ethnic elements crossing over with heavy guitars. I like the new NIN, the Propellerheads, Quicksand, Slip, the Deftones.
- C: Muse, as well.
JP Coillard & Marie Lecocq (photos: JP Coillard)

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