[ GUIDED CRADLE ]

Wenn ihr auf alles wegfetzenden Crustcore abgeht, dann solltet ihr Guided Cradle aus Tschechien unbedingt mal anchecken. Eigentlich ist es ja sogar eine internationale Band, aber lest selbst… Gerste

1.: Hello and welcome in CFMD #13! How are you guys doing and how was the tour you did during April/May this year? You played in different European countries together with cool bands like INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL and LEADERSHIT. It must have been a great experience. What was the most memorable gig you played on tour and where did you like it best? What were the funniest and strangest experiences while you toured? Do you regularly play gigs and is there a place where you´d absolutely like to play or tour once in your life?
ETHAN:Hello and first of all thank you for the interview! Our tour was great! It went better than we expected and the classic stuff that goes along with being on tour like meeting great people, eating great food, getting wasted and having a good laugh in general were well worth the trip... As far as shows are concerned, for me the best gigs were Barcelona at La Jungla, Bordeux at el Inca, Amsterdam at Catacomb, Copenhagen at Ungdomshuset with LEADERSHIT, Rostock with LEADERSHIT and INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL and of course Berlin at Köpi was memorable, even though I dont remember much of it... Cheap cocktails did me in... Actually the the border to Switzerland was one of the funniest experiences of the tour... Just before we got there, I tore out a picture of a large penis from a porno magazine and gave it to our driver... I guess he had put it in some kind of notebook where he was writing his tour diary and when the border guard was fucking with us, he looked inside the book and the picture fell out onto the ground... We obviously burst out laughing like crazy and the
guard let us go with a strange sort of frightened look on his face... Also the party in Barcelona was just full on laughing until the next day... As for where I would like to play, I think Asia is pretty high on the list and it looks like we are going to have our chance after the 2nd LP comes out..

2.: How long does GUIDED CRADLE exist for now and who´s involved in the band? You started as a cover band named ANTI-CLIMAX, playing songs of ANTI-CIMEX, EXTREME NOISE TERROR, DOOM and others. Would you say that the bands you covered have influenced the current GUIDED CRADLE sound? What do you think about the developement EXTREME NOISE TERROR went through the last ten years? In my opinion the former crust/grind pioneers became nothing else but stupid wanna be rock stars with a weak metal sound (but I still really love their older stuff like "A Holocaust In Your Head" though).
ETHAN: Our first gig was in August 2004, we had about 10 practices before that... I play guitar and shout, Austin is our guiterrorist, Tomas plays bass and Ctyrlist hits the skins... On the subject of classic crust as far as it's influence on GUIDED CRADLE is concerned, I have to say yes we do take a lot from those bands... Those bands have influenced me and what I play for years, I can't really imagine playing anything else... As for how I feel about E.N.T., I just saw them at a festival I was working and they were actually quite good! They played a lot of old stuff which was great but I'm not really into what they are doing today to be honest..
AUSTIN: The parellels between GUIDED CRADLE and classic crust like E.N.T., ANTI-CIMEX and HIATUS are obvious... We love the classics and want to bring them back to life in our own way... I think if any of us could go back in time and play in one of our hero bands we would, unfortunately we are all forced to try our best to pretend we are stuck in 1990...

3.: Why did you decide to form a "real" band instead of playing only cover versions? I think doing cover versions can be fun, but playing self created songs is a lot more satisfying. Do you agree?
ETHAN:Yes I totally agree... We still do an odd cover version from ANTI-CIMEX here and there... We decided to play our own stuff because we got Austin involved and just said lets make something of our own...
AUSTIN: I think we all kind of felt like playing covers only wouldn't be the direction any of us wanted to go in... Before I came to play with them it was just a side band for fun but when I joined we all kinda felt that there could be something more to create and maybe something more than just
a little side project...

4.: The current GUIDED CRADLE release is the split-7" with INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL from Germoney. What can you tell us about the co-operation with INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL and YELLOW DOG RECORDS, who released this nice little piece of vinyl? The coverartwork of the before mentioned split looks great and is (in my opinion) very much in the vein of legendary crust/stenchcore stuff from the eighties. It also reminds me of the drawings from Steve (VISIONS OF WAR). So was it Steve who created this cool shit or did it someone else? Speaking about artworks, would you say that this is the typical GUIDED CRADLE style or would you also use other stuff (for example photographies etc.) on upcoming releases of your band?
ETHAN:The cooperation with I.O.S. was great. I did their gig here once in Prague and let them hear our recording and they mentioned having a split straight away... Then after they played that night I just said FUCK YESSSS! Working with YELLOW DOG was pretty good for us too! Sven and Iffi are great people and it's alway's cool to do a record with a label that has such a great history of putting out good bands... I guess maybe you didn't notice because I am fucking retarded and forgot to mention Steve in the thanx list (Sorry man!I love you!) but yes, he did do the artwork... Having Steve do the cover was cool because he's a total bad ass!! I myself am more than satisfied with what Steve and Hush have drawn for us and have no intention to change the style we have gone with so far...
AUSTIN: I love having custom art on records, for me it's so much better and individualistic than having another black and white photo or collage made from war pictures... Seriously that shit has been done over and over and over... I think art is really important on a record and you kind of do
everyone a dis-service when you throw together some crappy art in 2 minutes... I think bands need to be more involved with their records, people should spend more time recording and more time making every release special in it's own way... I wish that would happen anyway, if it did there would be much fewer crappy records to sort through in the distro's... I guess the point is that there would be even more great records to choose from..

5.: What kind of response have you gotten on the split-7" and on your debut-lp/cd?
ETHAN: Suprisingly very good responses! the 1st 500 LP's were gone in a couple months, the EP went even faster! We got a Canadian version of the LP coming out on UNREST RECORDS and they want to get us over there to Canada and the states early next summer... That plan just depends on visas
right now... A lot of people from Malaysia and Thailand want us out there as well... A really nice guy named Iem Avail put out a tape version of the LP and wants to do a discography thing in the future... So yeah, we're really happy and quite suprised with the response so far!

6.: I´d like to talk a little about your bandname. What do you wanna express by that? Has the axe in the logo a special meaning (a tribute to AXEGRINGER?-haha!)?
ETHAN: Well GUIDED CRADLE was an instrument of torture that was used in Europe by christians of course... It was just so brutal I had to use it somehow, I went to the museum of torture when the band was trying to decide on a name and found it... The guys all seemed to like it so we kept it. As for the axe? It's just cool isn't it? METAL!

7.: I absolutely agree with the line of your song "Garrote": "Religion + Politics = Organized Crime". That´s true for sure! What´s your opinion about the topics "religion" (especially "organized religion") and "politics" in general? For me it seems that a lot of people don´t want to live without religion and without politics/political leaders. They just want someone/something to believe in and they wanna be led (to the slaughter) by their gods and their masters. That´s much easier for them because they don´t have to think for themselves. What do you think about that?
ETHAN: Yes unfortunately for some reason this tragically seems to be the norm... I think about 80 percent or more of the human population actually enjoy being led like a herd of sheep... Most religions make me sick! Luckily in the Czech Republic a majority of people are athiests... Sadly not all countries are like this one... In most western cultures for example, christians and catholics are taught from birth to have the same opinions and thoughts as millions of others all over the world... Most never stop to think about it for themselves and live with small and bigoted minds for their entire lives... That is the weakest point of most humans, not being able to think for themselves and objectively see all the flaws in their ideologies...
AUSTIN: One thing that alway's sticks in my mind when I think about religion is how people of one single faith can't even seem to agree amongst themselves... For example, christians fucking argue and kill each other over the smallest disagreements in the details of the teachings of christ... It's laughable, how the fuck could anyone ever buy into a deadly argument that is basically over semantics?? Also, how could hundreds of generations live in outward hate, self loathing and servitude all over something that nobody has even a shred of evidence for either way... It makes my head spin..

8.: Does the church and organized religion have big following in the Czech Republik? What about the social and the political situation in Czech today? How would you describe the Czech society? Who rules the land, what are the biggest problems and what would you do to solve them if you had the chance to?
ETHAN: The church isn't too popular here like I said, communists took care of that! Their are a few parts of Czech that have real christian villages but not a lot. That's a big plus! The Czech government is a social democracy, the way I see it is it's just a bunch of clowns... Different partys, chairs trying to come up with something and arguing about it for months until they come up with something that had nothing to do with what they were trying to solve in the first place. Honestly I try not to really pay attention to it!

9.: GUIDED CRADLE also played some gigs in Germany. What were your impressions from the country I´m coming from? Have you ever been there before 1990, when East Germany (where I live) was known as the "German Democratic Republic" (G.D.R.)?
ETHAN: I love playing in Germany! The gigs are very well organized and bands get taken care of very well there. I can't say it's a great country but the punk scene is good. I was 9 in 1990 so I wasn't ever there in those times... The first time I went to Germany was when I was 17 playing with OI POLLOI and I almost moved there after that tour... There are just really good gigs and people But I have noticed latley that so many bands come through there that it's become hard to impress a room full of punks... Everyone seems pretty bored with the band sometimes... Not always of course but pretty often..

10.: What are you guys doing besides playing in GUIDED CRADLE? Are you involved in any other bands or projects? Do you work regularly? What do you think about "work" in general? Is work "modern day slavery" in your eyes? Are workers "wage slaves"?
ETHAN: I do 2-3 gigs a month in Prague and work at festivals in the summer. I dont work too much, I haven't had to pay rent for quite a few years now so i don't need too much money to survive here at the moment... I work at the 007 Club usually. I am happy with the work I have but there is no way
I would become a wage slave working under the thumb of a rich fat bastard every fucking day... Sitting at the same fucking boring place just to get some money and think about my future and how I'm gonna save money to be old. !NEVER!
AUSTIN: I work as a bartender at night which is pretty relaxed and not too difficult usually... During the day I tend to play guitar and watch movies, I like to live as relaxed a lifestyle as possible... I hate being stressed and busy so I try and avoid it as much as possible... Truthfully I spend a majority of my time playing music which is almost always something I enjoy and want to do... Usually if I'm not playing with G.C. I am playing by myself because as many people know, I tour and make solo records as well...

11.: "Straight Edge" is a lifestyle I really can´t understand, because I love to drink and I love to smoke, but if someone doesn´t, I respect it of course. Are there any members in GUIDED CRADLE straight edge and what´s your opinion about this lifestyle? Are you vegan/vegetarian?
ETHAN: I respect straight edgers if they respect me... I mean, its still a person doing their own thing in the scene and I done care if he/she drinks or not. None of us are straight edge! NO WAY! We're pretty much party people. I am vegetarian. I had a fish faze after being vegetarian for about 10 years but I felt bad and stopped...
AUSTIN: Yeah, we're a total party band... Usually the very last 2 people standing at a fest will be myself and Ethan and our best drinking partner Michelle if she comes along... I used to be vegan for 7 1/2 years and I hadn't eaten meat for 10 years at least but then I had this really terrible health condition which I couldn't shake and the doctors couldn't seem to figure out... Then I spoke with a nutritionist and she asked me to try and eat meat to see how I felt... Seriously within a week I was better and I haven't been sick like I was for over a year... It sucks because when you tell a vegan/vegetarian that they have to eat meat to be healthy, it's not an easy thing to hear... I feel like shit everytime I eat meat but I don't feel even half as bad as I did with a throat infection that lasted 3 years...

12.: What do you think about the following persons:
a.: Saddam Hussein
AUSTIN: tyrant deposed by a tyrant
b.: George W. Bush
AUSTIN: Tyrant trying to depose other tyrants, probably trying to win world
record of worst tyrant in history.. probably won't succeed.. probably
loses sleep at night thinking about how hitler was way worse and how he
won't ever be as evil or as short...
c.: Joseph Ratzinger a.k.a. Benedikt XVI. (the pope)
ETHAN: better dead than wed!
AUSTIN: I try not to think about child molesters or the head of the lagest
organization dedicated to child molestation in the world.. nor do I like to
think about nazi's, former nazi's or drooling old child molesting nazi's...
d.: Angela Merkel (German Chancellor)
AUSTIN: I don't know anything about her but she seems to hate being touched
by g.w. bush..
e.: Václav Havel
ETHAN: presidents that go to demonstrate against police brutality with a
bunch of techno stoner kids and have a history of being in prison for anti
communist activism are not that bad!
f.: Ernesto "Che" Guevara
AUSTIN: sweet hat!
g.: Jeffrey Dahmer
AUSTIN: my friend used to take the bus to work everyday with jeffery
dahmer, he used to bring her coffee and they would talk on the bus.. she
said he was super nice and really quiet, she also said that he seemed like
the last person who would ever do something like that.. fucked up huh??
h.: Johnny Cash
AUSTIN: I'm upset that I never got to go on a speed bender with him, that
is actually one of my saddest unlived fantasies..
i.: Elvis Presley
AUSTIN: not the most talented man on sun records in the 1950's, still
pretty sweet though..
j.: Karel Gott
ETHAN: a fucking joke!

13.: If you had the chance to take 5 records (and a record player of
course) to a lonely island, which would it be and why?
ETHAN: is there electricity on that island? I dont want to carry them
there if theres not!Id rather take some food or something...

14.: In my opinion there´s a very active scene in the Czech Republic.
There are some pretty cool bands like MALIGNANT TUMOUR, NEEDFUL THINGS,
GRIDE, SKODA 120, INGROWING, CEREBRAL TUBURLENCY, LYCANTHROPHY, MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS, SEE YOU IN HELL... and labels/distros like INSANE
SOCIETY RECORDS, DRUGS KILL YOUR MIND, IMPREGNATE NOISE LABORATORIES, PHOBIA RECORDS... . Also one of the biggest and most well known festivals for so called "extreme music" (OBSCENE EXTREME) takes place in the Czech Republik every year. So what´s your opinion about the Czech scene? What
about unity, understanding and mutual help? Any bands/labels/distros/zines
you´d care to recommend to our readers?
ETHAN: You've mentioned most of the good ones! a couple bands like
DEMARCHE and FESTA DESPERADO are worth mentioning. and of course Damage
done records! I think the czech scene is quite big for a small country!
theres enough unity in the the crust, HC punk scene.. there's some shit
talking and bullshit as well but that's like everywhere I think...

15.: On September the 9th you´re going to play at the PLAY FAST OR DONT
FEST in Hradec Králové near Prague. I hope to be there and I´m very
excited about this festival but I´ve never been there before. So what can
I expect from the PLAY FAST OR DONT FEST? Has GUIDED CRADLE ever played
there before or is it you first gig there? What do you expect from this
festival?
ETHAN: we played there last year, it wasnt our 1st gig though..I thought
it was great! good atmosphere, got blackout wasted..but this year its in a
different place so I dont know what to expect sound wise...last year was
great sound!

16.: Ok, let´s come to the end of the interview with the obligatory
question about the GUIDED CRADLE futureplans. Any upcoming releases, tours
and gigs?
ETHAN: We plan to record another LP maybe in may or something.. plus 2
songs for a 4way split LP with instinct of survival, visions of war and
nuclear death terror. hopefully going to slovenia in october and then
canada and the states next year...

17.: Any final words or comments for our readers? Thanx for answering my
questions and all the best for GUIDED CRADLE! See you at the PLAY FAST OR
DONT FEST!
ETHAN: Thank you for the nice interview and thanks to all the people that
came/come to our gigs and supported us and took care of us.. come again
and get drunk with us next time! we love you! cheers!

www.guidedcradle.org
www.myspace.com/guidedcradle