Medamaki Interview

Medamaki won’t be a name too familiar with many of you hailing as they do from the rock and roll capital of Evesham but hopefully with the release of their “Warbird” EP on Fury 76 Records this may change pretty soon. I caught up with Max (vocals) and Sean (guitars) to shoot the shit and trade insults and see what these backwoods metallers have to say for themselves.

First up guys, as you may not be a familiar name with too many people can you give us a potted history of the band…keep it brief, this is the obligatory question so no rambling!!!

We formed from the ashes of a couple of different and shit projects. Doug came to jam with us a couple of years back and it all took off from there really. It’s been a slow and long road to get to the stage where we have our own sound and material, because of the usual stuff life throws at you: family, work, drinking addictions, soiled underwear etc, but that’s what has formed us really. We just jam for a laugh and to forget all of the regular everyday stuff.

Medamaki is an unusual name, can you explain what it means (and bear in mind Max has told me the true story so I’ll know if you’re lying and print the real story anyway so you may as well be honest!)

Richie (guitars) is into his ancient Japanese mythology, and the name stems from a mis-interpretation of a certain one-eyed dragon. Now it stands for what we have become, and how we’ve developed over the years. However, the nearest translation would mean that we are a kind of omlette…

So Evesham? Not exactly the rock and roll capital of Britain. Is there much of a scene in the area and is it a help or a hindrance coming from a smaller town?

We couldn’t care less either way to be honest. We have excellent support from people like Kevin Ellison (Elly) at Black Frog Studios with his set up for either practice or live shows and there’s a definite expanding underbelly of rockers and metallers in the town, its just all about getting the stoned, lazy arseholes to go to gigs… that’s the curse of good rock ‘n’ roll. Good booze and drugs are always close behind. We do not endorse either of course.

Your style comes across to me as pretty full on biker/stoner metal with a nod towards bands such as Orange Goblin, BLS and C.O.C. How would you describe your sound and what are the main influences?

Different for all of us and too many to list, but the band members are all different ages and that gives a good scope across the board. To name a few, we’d probably drop in Grand Funk Railroad, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, Napalm Death and Every Time I Die. The idea behind this is that its not just the direct influence on our music, but the affect these bands have had on us personally, and how they have shaped what we have become as individuals.

Your “Warbird” EP is due out soon on Fury 76 Records and is available now for download at various sites. How did you hook up with the label, how is the relationship going?

Your memory must be shit man! (Ollie: I remember it fuckwits but the millions reading this won’t know the story!!!) We played a gig at “Taunton Rockers Live” with the Fury76 crew, and Scruff approached us soon after about a record deal. We were naturally excited, but alas, like so many things in life, this turned out to be an ice cream cone full of dog shit. Lots of promises, lots of shouting and jumping, quickly followed by no action and lots of waiting. We never even got to sign a contract though so officially……Ahem…. The Warbird EP is now pretty dated by our standards and we’re about to start recording new material which we’ve been building up over the past few months. We’re fired up over it and it’s by far the best stuff we’ve done to date.

How has the response been to the EP so far, have you had many reviews?

We’ve been waiting for so long for the label to sort something out for release and promotion, that we’ve had little feedback except from locals and folks attending gigs. They seem to like it but we know the next project will rip this EP’s tits off and use them as ear muffs against the sheer power of the next record.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you guys live on a few occasions now and each time you have blown my balls clean off. Call me picky but, although the EP is full of awesome tuneage it doesn’t fully capture your live power…a fair comment or worth a kick in the nuts the next time I see you?

Our thoughts exactly. But we’re still going to kick you in the nuts.

Where are you guys coming from lyrically? I’m guessing you ain’t exactly a party metal type of band!!!

The lyrics and the tunes start off separately and meld together over time. The words are just poetry really, some of it political, some just drunk nonsense about drinking too much. Like all poetry, we’d like to think that it could have different meanings to everyone. It’s what you want it to be, not what we tell you it means.

The EP features a very cool video for the song “Warbird”. How did the video come about and who came up with the ideas for it?

We turned up, decided on black and white with the excellent ‘G’ from “Strange People Productions” and rocked out until we couldn’t fucking stand anymore. Literally for some of the more hung-over members. That pain on our faces is REAL.

The UK seems to have a lot of cool stoner/metal/doom bands bubbling under the surface. How do you think you guys fit into this scene and what bands out there would you recommend people check out?

The Sontaran Experiment are amazing, the mighty Grifter ain’t bad either. Locally, we don’t really have many other stoner/doom bands but the scene UK wide is worth embracing fully. One recent band I’ve heard is The Buffalo Kings from Swansea. Those guys kick fucking ass and we really want a show with them…

It’s often been said (by me mainly I think) that your drummer Doug looks like someone from a bad 70’s German porno. Has he ever made a sex film?

Only the one with you in Grifter’s tour van, Jeremy 🙂 (Ollie: note, the Grifter van is called the Swollen Goat not Jeremy and I categorically deny this!!!).

Sean, has anyone ever told you you’re the spitting image of Silent Bob?

Yeah all the time but he has more interesting things to say than our Seanie does. Seanie talks from the brown lips only…

Can you explain Max’s “metal claw” and give us the story behind it?

There’s no story. It’s the old classic scenario of having a different persona on stage and letting yourself go with the flow. You know what I mean, like how you come on stage pissed, stinking like dog-cum, with your cock hanging out of your trousers… (Ollie: so nothing to do with wanking cramp then as I suspected).

So what’s next for Medamaki… future plans, gigs, releases?

Yup, new recording, lots of self publicity, as many gigs as we can manage, and hopefully some interest from some kind of outfit that can promote us the way we need to be.

Cheers for answering these questions chaps. I hope the future’s bright for you guys as you certainly deserve it. Any last words?

Thanks for all of the positively enthralling questions Ollie, it’s been a pleasure, see you out there!!

More info on Medamaki at: www.myspace.com/medamaki

Interviewed by: Ollie Stygall