NOMTRON interview by wolf
One of SCUMFEAST METAL's Top Ten Bands to check out in 2009. Virgina's NOMTRON are far from being pigeon-holed into someone's sedate safe genre characterization. Far be it for me to try and nail down a description worthy of them. I checked in with Bob, the band's singer/frontman and old friend, to find out what they call themselves.
SCUMFEAST - I heard that you had a run in with a hoofed and horned creature while driving home one night?
BOB - Yeah man, I was driving home from practice on a rainy night in the middle of the city when outta nowhere a deer came rolling down a steep hill to my right, bounced across the street & slammed into the rear panel of my truck. Dented the hell out of it.
SCUMFEAST - When Andy told me about it I was like, "Was it a Bigfoot, a Virgina Woodland Demon or a bum? Speaking of which have you ever seen anything weird in the woods?
BOB - Oh yeah, I've definitely seen some weird shit, but then I used to take a lot of acid. In all seriousness though I once saw a Polish immigrant set fire to a pair of pink underwear in the woods, but that's a long story.
SCUMFEAST - So when are you going to post some of NOMTRON's music on the myspace site? Yeah I know there's some on your BOBTRON site but not the official one.
BOB - New stuff is being recorded now & should be up soon. There is a link on our site to CD MAXIMUM where we have a couple of old songs up. Like you said, you can always check us out on my site.
SCUMFEAST - The words on your site which you use to describe your music are Metal Experimental and Ambient. Do you think it works to answer the question of "what you sound like?
BOB - When you break it down yes, because we don't follow the typical metal song structure. It's kind of like prog rock applied to modern extreme metal. It's more rock oriented riffs played very heavy & very fast. We also have a lot of melodic intros, spacey leads & often use ambient soundscapes & samples between songs.
SCUMFEAST - I obviously remember your days in JERMFLUX, a band that had crossover appeal to fans of Hardcore and Extreme Metal. NOMTRON seems similar in that you don't fit into a specific musical genre niche. So does NOMTRON also have crossover appeal?
BOB - Probably not in the general sense, however I have many times had people come up to me after a set & say that they don't usually listen to this type of music but they really liked us. I mean people that don't listen to metal. So in a way that's crossover appeal. Yeah we don't really fit into any "sub genres" because we have our own thing going, but we got the chops & the aggression to hang with the best.
SCUMFEAST - Did you read the piece I had written about NOMTRON in SFMZ's "Bands To Check Out In 2009"? I described your sound as MORBID ANGEL and the DEAD KENNEDYS crashing head first into a wall of BLACK FLAG and CARCASS. I called you fuckin insane Metal which is exactly what I was thinking when I watched your set at the club in Richmond.
BOB - Insane metal sounds good to me. The only band we've ever been compared to until now was VOIVOD. We are definitely fans of all those bands as well as Meshugga & a list that could go on for days. We used to cover Wiggly World by DEVO.
SCUMFEAST - How did NOMTRON start? Did you seek out the other guys or did they find you?
BOB - We all met during the last couple of years of JERMFLUX. We used to hang out & record on a 4-track for fun doing noise stuff inspired by BASTARD NOISE, SUPPRESION & SUBKLINIC. Eventually we just decided to form a real band. James was already a badass drummer without a band & Evad was already a badass guitar player without a band, so I thought we should go out & kick some ass. In the begining we played real short super fast songs & it just progressed from there.
SCUMFEAST - With a few obvious exceptions, I've noticed that there's alot of eclectic styled bands from Richmond, VA area. Especially the ones who came down to play the Caboose years ago. So what is it about Richmond?
BOB - It's the home of VCU the nations best art school so it attracts a lot of free thinkers & a lot of punk kids first time away from home, ready to go wild. Lot of people forming bands & putting on house shows. Lot of creativity in one small place. It's the kind of place where you can look as weird as you want & nobody thinks much of it. Even the normal people have tattoos.
SCUMFEAST - Have you set plans for future recording and releasing something in 2009?
BOB - We are recording right now down in Moyock N.C. @ SNIPER STUDIOS with our good friend Vince Burke (BEATEN BACK TO PURE/LUNCH/SOUR VEIN/HAIL HORNET!). We hope to get a full length cd out by summer.
SCUMFEAST - The last time I saw JERMFLUX was in 1999. So what have you been doing since then and singing for NOMTRON?
BOB - Well I backpacked around Europe for a while then cooled my heels down in the Bahamas doing caricatures on the beach for nickels. Nah fuck that, we've been working on this band since the end of JERMFLUX. We never sleep. We played & recorded under a different name until ..08 when we had to change it because of copyright issues. During a hiatus I sang for a band called IGON & released a cd on SATAN ROCK called PEOPLE.
SCUMFEAST - Will 2009 be a year of "hope & change" according to our new president. Or are you just hoping to Have Some Change Left In Your Pocket?
BOB - I've said that it would be funny if the worst thing that happened was that everyone was brought down to having to live like me & nothing got any worse for me. Then it would be like " Haha welcome to my world bitch". But lets face it; the rich will get richer & the poor will get poorer. Much poorer. It's also looking like we may see World War 3 sometime soon.
SCUMFEAST - What's Invein Productions?
BOB - That's a booking agency run by a good guy named Rocky. If you're looking to play in Hampton Roads you should hit him up. If you're looking to play in Richmond you should contact the VIRGINIA METAL ALLIENCE.
SCUMFEAST - So whatever happened to the infamous ARMISTEAD ASYLUM punk house which you lived at? Hey that wasn't that place in Newport News which a few of us from Raleigh stayed at when we came up to see the PIMPS years ago?
BOB - Yeah that's the place. We put on a lot of crazy shows there, all free. We broke bottles on the floor & danced in glass. We hung barbed wire inside the house, even wrapped it around the hand rail on the staircase. It was a great place but after a while every one started to move out for one reason or another & those of us left couldn't affored it anymore.
SCUMFEAST - Did you ever sacrifice an animal to a Pagan God of your choice there?
BOB - Nah, we were all animal lovers. We had a freakin zoo. Dogs, cats, fish, iguanas, a ferret.
SCUMFEAST - Are you still in touch with all those people who were in bands like THE STRAP- ONS/PIMPS, GNOB and NOBODY?
BOB - Not so much. Everyone kind of moved on. Lot of marrying & breeding. Still talk to most once in a while.
SCUMFEAST - Alright here's the last one and I'll stop bothering ya. There's a saying, "You are nobody in the music business unless someone hates you". Can you add to that on a personal level from where you're from?
BOB - That may be true because most people seem to like us & yet we are not yet famous. Most good bands I meet are under appreciated in their home town. It has been said that we sometimes go over people's heads, but I refuse to believe that metal fans can't appreciate something new & different that still has all the heaviness & aggresion they are looking for.
http://www.myspace.com/nomtron
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