John: A’ight. Who’s in Doomriders, who plays what, and what other bands have y’all played or currently play in?
Nate: Doomriders is me, Nate, on guitar and vocals, Jebb on bass guitar and vocals, Chris on guitar, and Bev on drums. I play in Converge and also Old Man Gloom. Jebb was in There Were Wires and is currently in Disappearer. Chris plays guitar in Blacktail and was formerly in Cast Iron Hike, and Bev used to play in Hallraker, Pop Narcotic, and Some Kind Of Hate for a short time. Bev is homeless.
John: And when and how did this colossal monstrosity of heavy form?
Nate: We have always been and always will be.
That’s a lie actually. The idea for this band has been kicking around for about four or five years . Chris and I had always talked about playing together. We wrote songs together for a while and developed a pretty good chemistry and basically just waited to find the right people to play with. For a while I thought it was never going to come together but about two years ago the pieces all fell into place. We were really slow moving at first just practicing and writing songs for over a year before we ever played a show, so when the time came to start playing out we were pretty much well into the swing of things as a band. I really love playing with these guys. It’s nonstop fun.
John: Jimmy Fartknocker of Asshat, USA has never heard of Doomriders. Why should he invest his money in Black Thunder? In short, what are you all about?
Nate: Jimmy Fartknocker needs to get his shit in gear. Has he been living under a fucking rock? We are the shit. That’s all you need to tell Jimmy. On a serious note… what are we about?
Playing good music with our friends and generally not caring about anything else.
John: Your MySpace page says you formed in the polar caverns of Antarctica. Why do you travel all the way to Allston, Massachusetts to play gigs? Isn’t there someplace closer?
Nate: We wish ourselves there. Very clever question. Zing.
John: Your MySpace site also says that your radioactive mental waves melt off of the audience’s hair and skin. Do you honestly feel that mutating people is a responsible and smart way of building a long-term fan base? Or is creating an army of shambling mounds of wreaked flesh like that dude in RoboCop a political response to the emo fashion sense that permeates the Boston music scene?
Nate: I see... This is a continuation of the last clever question. Zing again. I do detect a hint of seriousness below the surface though. I’ll try and give you a serious answer but more than likely it’ll be bullshit.
Here goes: What we do isn’t really a response to anything other than people writing and releasing boring, mediocre music that focuses too much on being pretentious and “intellectual.” No one just writes music for the sake of having fun anymore. Don’t get me wrong, we are very serious about what we do… But we also have a sense of humor and aren’t afraid to laugh at ourselves and just about everything else. Basically we just wanted to write music that we want to listen to. Fuck everyone else.
John: Now how does the writing break down within the group? Is it collaborative or the work of one mad genius?
Nate: Definitely collaborative. There is a lot of jamming in our rehearsal space. We end up noodling for four hours and then don’t get anything done, but we have a good fucking time doing it! Sooner or later someone gets around to writing a song here and there.
John: Have you junked Doomriders songs because they sound too similar to your other bands?
Nate: No, that’s not really an issue that’s come up yet. Speaking for myself, the music that I write with a particular band (be it Doomriders, Converge, OMG) is a product of those particular individuals working together. All of my bands may share common characteristics because I’m a part of the process, but I don’t think that any of them really sound all that similar because it’s all VERY different people playing in each band.
We HAVE definitely junked songs though... but that was because those songs sucked.
John: What about songs that sound like Danzig’s “Mother”?
Nate: Zing.
John: You guys did a tour with Torche. How’d that go?
Nate: It went fucking great. Torche are one of the only newer bands that I am truly excited about.. It was a honor and a privilege to share the stage with Torche and Daughters on that tour.
John: Who else would you like to play with?
Nate: Anybody that doesn’t suck or have a fauxhawk.
John: What’s next for you guys? Any big touring plans lined up? Any place in particular you’d like to play?
Nate: We’ll be out on the road with Cave In from November 27 to December 20. I can’t fucking wait. Good friends, good music, good times all around. I want to play fuckin’ everywhere, man.
John: All ages, 18+, or 21+. Which type of show do you prefer to play and why?
Nate: Depends on who we’re playing with. I would generally say all ages because I’ll always be a hardcore kid at heart, but usually what we do goes right over an all ages audiences heads. 18 and 21 plus are good because people are good and drunk and pretty much like anything with loud guitars but then they just spend all their money on beer instead of buying one of our sick ass t-shirts with skulls and shit on them. Skulls move units.
John: I’m all out of questions, so why don’t you use this space to spout off some rhetoric, or least let us know what the Doomriders’ Manifesto is.
Nate: FRONTSIDE GRIND.
