Currently Party Cannon is made up of Stony on vocals, Craig on guitar, Mike on guitar, Slovakian Martin on drums and myself on bass. Five fully grown men who should really all know better. Some people would refer to a “party cannon” as a cardboard cylinder that when contorted fires a large volume of confetti, where as other people would describe it as a way of life.
I guess Party Cannon “officially” became a thing in the middle of 2010, however Craig, our original guitarist Jack and myself had been jamming riffs for a while before then. Dunfermline is a really small town and there was only a handful of people into death metal. We all played in different bands at that point that were no were near brutal death metal. I played in a Black Dahlia/Obscura type melodeath band called Psychoanalysis whereas Jack and Craig were playing in a old school death/thrash band called Lycanthoropy. Both bands eventually broke up around the start of 2010 and that's when we started to take jamming a bit more seriously. Stony joined on vocals as also in Lycanthoropy for a bit and a little bit later Neal joined on drums. Since then we've played a lot of shows, had a few line-up changes and put out some ok-ish releases.
It wasn't really a conscious decision to be a brutal death metal band, it just came naturally as all our favourite bands were stuff like Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Defeated Sanity and Devourment. Besides, playing slams and watching people bust offensive dance moves is way more fun than widdly melodeath and super serious death-thrash.
Tell me how you guys go through your writing process, is it a case of everyone meeting up and firing out ideas or do you guys often send riffs and things to each other? Is there any bands you guys would draw influence on at all? I would like to know why Tyrone has sugar and why you want him to put it down as well?
When we first started writing and gigging our drummer at the time was rarely able to make practices due to work or whatever, so when we actually did get a practice we had to fit as much as we could into that time as possible. This led to everyone writing songs separately and using practices to teach our drummer the stuff. Since Martin joined on drums it's been a bit different, we now have our own practice space and are able to jam as much as we want so it makes it easier to bring in ideas and have everyone's input, I definitely prefer it this way.
When we're all together as a band jamming through ideas I don't think there's anyone in particular we try to sound like, we just go with what works and sounds cool. Personally though when I write riffs for the band I try to have fast more technical parts like Gorgasm and Blasphemer while having the slammy chun parts.
As for Tyrone; he has a serious food addiction and we're just trying to do what's best for his well-being.
You’re set to play a four date tour of Europe ending in Valentin Slam Fest in Leipzig Germany, have you guys toured much before? How do you find it? Is there any weird preparations you all go through to get ready for going on the road?
We've done a few tours of the UK and Europe before and they've always been great.
The last European tour we did was with Laceration (New Standard Elite Records) and while that went really well, the amount of things that went wrong with our van was ridiculous. Our windscreen wipers stopped working as soon as we got off the ferry into Holland right in the middle of a rain storm and we couldn't see a thing. We phoned the AA and their guy came out and did the sketchiest repair job ever; he tied an elastic rope around the windscreen wipers that fed into the driver's window, so any time we need to use the wipers someone in the passenger seat had to pull on the rope. It sounds silly, but it seriously really sucked.
Other than that we really enjoy touring, especially in Europe. The shows are always good and the people you meet are always interesting. As for the pre-tour rituals, the only one we really have is to leave booking all the transport until three weeks before the tour so it's extra fun and stressful sorting it out.
I remember seeing a while back you guys were arranging to tour America, how has that been going? Have you been finding it hard to break into the US and find date, I know you’re set for Deathfest. What I also found interesting about that is on the poster the only logo it doesn’t take a magnifying glass and a linguist to decipher was you guys.
Bay Area Deathfest is going to be amazing, it's pretty surreal we get to be part of it when there's so many great bands playing, plus you know a fest is going to be ridiculously brutal when all the logos are unreadable! Believe it or not the guys at Midnight Management got in touch with us asking us if we'd be interesting in coming over and playing BADF and offered us a two week tour with Epicardiectomy and Parasitic Ejaculation on top of it, how amazing is that!? So despite it being the furthest away we've ever played and our biggest tour, it's actually the easiest thing we've done organisation wise since everything is being taken care of for us – that is something we're really not used to happening!
For years now we've been getting messages every other day from people saying they'd love to see us in the US and I never really thought anything of it, then Midnight Manage got in touch saying they want to bring us over because there's apparently been a lot of demand for us, really did not see it coming at all.
How are you finding ordering and shifting your merchandise? I’ve been following for you guys for maybe near a year now and I’ve noticed you go through long sleeves a lot, or are getting a lot of new stuff in here and there. This leads me to ask how did you all come up with the logo and the idea for the actual image of being Partied in Half? Do you guys do your own image work or did you have somebody to go to for it? Has being duct taped to a flag pole ever been a problem for you all?
I was literally duct taped to a flag pole for the cover of the “Duct Taped...” promo, like suspended 5 feet in the air, I had a good time.
We do all the covers ourselves using practical effects, we feel the whole B-movie DIY thing really fits our music and find it adds a certain character to it. We're big into stuff like Brain Dead and Troma so it makes sense.
Our original guitar player Jack (who's actually on the cover) came up with the concept of 'Partied In Half'. He was high one day and text me saying “we should call the EP 'Partied In Half' and the cover should be a guy cut in half with confetti coming out”, and I thought “ok, that is something”.
With merch I think we're doing ok, our label, Gore House Productions, has been sending us a lot of cool high quality stuff, like stuff we've never even thought of printing – like we have Party Cannon shot glasses now, which is pretty nifty. I'm always really amazed to see where we get orders from, the other day I was sending packages to Russia, Japan, America and Germany. I have no idea how these people have heard of us, but it really means a lot that they'd choose to pick up some of our stuff when there's so much quality stuff being released at the moment.
Are there any bands out there today that you guys love that you think should be picked up on? People you’ve gigged with and the like. Also as we’re pretty much closed up on 2014, what are your favourite albums that were released this year?
People definitely need to be checking out Kaasschaaf from Holland and Repugnance from Malta, they are the best bands and people.
For me, the best albums of 2014 were: Gorgasm – Destined To Violate, Disentomb – Misery, Repuganance – Seeds Of Oppression, GutRot – Porto Potty Pervert, Indecent Excision – Aberration.
You will have been a band for four years this summer coming. Have there been many changes or have you guys been through any questionable periods through this time? Do you think maybe reaching five years in time will put things in perspective for you all? Where do you think you’ll be in another four years?
Weird to think it's been four years already, but a lot has changed for us since we started. Four years ago I had no idea that it'd be possible to start a slam death metal band in Dunfermline and end up travelling to Europe to play for people that genuinely like your band. We've had so many line-up changes in the past two years and we've learned a lot from that. In 2013 we actually came really close to calling it day as our drummer situation then just seemed so bleak. Hopefully in four years time we'll still be a band, but if we're not for any reason I'd hope that whatever we release remains in some way relevant and there'd be at least a handful of people wishing we were still a band.
“Last night during Squash Bowels' set we saw a man jump on stage, turn his back to the audience, pull down his trousers, bend completely over, deeply clutch both his arse cheeks, widely spread his anus and shake the exposed orifice in time with the music...” I’ve added this in from the experience you guys had at Grindfeast. Just because. Have there been any other insane occurrences you have experienced while gigging or at gigs?
Chris: That guy's anus must have been less than a foot from my face, he was really going for it with the whole anal exposure thing. Some pretty weird things have happened to us at shows, like the time some girl put her hands down my shorts during our set in Newcastle or the time we played the Cancerous Womb album launch show in Edinburgh and I somehow burst a blood vessel in my leg during our set and it made the right side of my arse turn completely purple. One of the best ones though was when we played a gig at the Troqueer Arms in Dumfries on the last day of our UK tour with Laceration. It was a pretty busy gig with a lot of people there. There was a guy head banging in front of Craig while we were playing, the guy was pushed into the headstock of Craig's guitar and it completely bust his face open. There was blood everywhere. We were all pretty concerned, but the guy thought it was awesome and just kept going mental! Dumfries is a magical place.
Lastly, we maintain a regular podcast (or at least try to), would you guys be cool with letting play one your tracks? Also do you keep up with any podcasts or blogs? Cheers for the interview guys, much appreciated!
Of course, we'd be very happy for you to play one of our songs!
There's a local journalist called Miss Bomb who covers a lot of cool gigs on her blog– be sure to check that out.
Thanks for the questions, really appreciate you taking the time!
Party Cannon are currently on that american tour and have a new album just released "Bong Hit Hospitalization":
Bandcamp: https://partycannon.bandcamp.com/
Big Cartel: partycannon.bigcartel.com
Gorehouse: https://gorehouseproductions.bandcamp.com/album/partied-in-half-reissue
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PartyCannonUK
- JP
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