Deathwish
Unleash Hell
Beer City
Interview with bassist/vocalist, Biddy
Biddy, bass/vox; Guinea Pig Champion, guitar/vox; Jimmy
Claypool, lead guitar; S.W. Macleod,
drums
Blasting out of Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Deathwish release their second
LP, Unleash Hell, on Beer City early
2017. Their thrashy brand of the Motorcharge style has been honed here to a
vicious surge. Biddy, bassist and vocalist, spoke with me after getting home
from work. His frank admission to the allure of dark and rebellious music has
become a life defining mission.
Biddy begins with his excitement for Unleash Hell. “This has better production, better written songs. The
artwork is completely different but phenomenal. Our guitar player, Rob (aka
Guinea Pig Champion) writes 90% of our music. Our first record took all the
time in the world. So, now the pressure was on. Can we write a better record? I
hope so…” jests Biddy. Biddy also plays in Wartorn and grabbed a new lead
guitarist, Jimmy Claypool, who is from In Defence. That pedigree would ensure a
better record.
“This is more aggressive. It rages more while being a little
progressive, a little more precise.” Biddy’s lyrics demand the feral snarl of
these heavy riffs. While he may not be writing the majority of the music, Biddy
appears to be the director of the band; subject matter, musical direction, and
tour planning all is his responsibility with this monster that is Deathwish.
Unleash Hell was
recorded by Adam Tucker at Signature Sound Minneapolis. Tucker has been
recording since the ‘90s. Biddy holds only admiration for Tucker. “He is the
best I have worked with. Adam throws in ideas and they accentuate what we were
doing, not pushing the song somewhere foreign. The process is smooth as glass.”
Deathwish had an April 2016 tour with MDC, their second tour
with OG punks. First was Chicago, then looping through NY, PA, VA, GA, LA to
eventually Fort Collins, CO. 34 shows in 35 days. “When I woke up the next day,
I had to be at my mom’s for dinner. I didn’t know what state I was in. When MDC
tours, it is the pedal to the floor. They give 110% and we are right there with
them.” Biddy adds, “This past year, we played 100 shows with tours, that’s not
including weekend gigs.” Deathwish will embrace the road to spread the gospel
of Unleash Hell. They have upcoming
tours in Europe eastern plus two fests. The band is also doing another future
tour with MDC and DOA, plus a DRI tour coming. DRI took them out before and
Spike (Cassidy) wants them to come out with DRI again.
The intent and motivation remains the same, to play demonic
rock and roll and leave venues in their wake. Armed with new material that
engages and punishes, Deathwish forged Unleash
Hell with an even darker commitment. “This record was inspired by things I
grew up on. That song (Rolling Stones’) ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, all the stuff
that alluded to Satan; Sabbath, Maiden. I was into it even as a small kid.
There is something about it which is very powerful. As a child I believed in
that, because I grew up catholic. And they scared the hell out of you with fire
and brimstone. But, as a small child, I was like, bring on the fire and
brimstone!” Biddy was drawn to the dark elements of this oppressive religion
not for shock value, but as a side effect of his defiant search for truth.
Biddy’s push toward the forbidden came from a rather natural
reaction to how the world treated him. “I have a mental illness, Tourette’s. I
have a mild case, dealt with it my whole life. I don’t experience happiness,
just depression and mania. As a child, I had paranoia.” He quickly connects his
disability to seeking out alternative answers. “The devil made sense when I was
kid. The church tells you about a great God, giving people gifts. Here I am,
suffering. Why? Does god hate me? What about children with cancer? What about
wars? Where is God then?”
Biddy continues with the honesty of a kid, an aspect that
has left a permanent impression. “Even as a believer, I was angry. How do you
rationalize that? The Church’s explanations were never making sense. They never
added up, just devoid of logic.” He continues to explore the contradictory
stories in the Bible that most doubters question. “God says ‘Thou shall not
kill’ but he floods the planet? Which is because he’s angry at people… that he
created.” His skepticism is palpable. But having heard this example countless
times, this isn’t the impactful moment. The following reveal is Biddy’s true
stake in the fight. “At same time, I am highly emotional. My mental illness
makes me more emotional or depressed.”
Defiance is a genetic propulsion for Biddy. He immediately
offers the heroic stances of his ancestors. “The rebel was engrained in me. I
am a German Jew and Ukranian. We didn’t do so well in WWII. My great
grandfather was thrown between two train tracks because he told the Brown
shirts to go fuck themselves. The other side of my family were Ukranian farmers
who said ‘fuck Stalin, because he’s starving us’. And even others were rounded
up into camps as Gypsys. My family is made up of rebels. We did not listen to the
status quo. If something doesn’t make sense, its bullshit. And we are going to call
out the bullshit.”
“In the garden, Satan told them they were naked. Satan told
them the truth. As an agnostic, I know Satan is probability not real. But, if
he was real, God made him that way only to have a scapegoat to blame. That’s
where I identify, because I was born with mental illness, someone society can
blame. In private school, I had learning disabilities. But I didn’t have
learning disabilities according to them. I had the devil in me. So, they were
going to beat the devil out of me. I got the shit beat out of me all the time.”
Biddy reports his parents, “being totally cool”, out of
those environments. The understanding parent was often missing from the
equation in the ‘80s. Parents were still very much part of the system, never
siding with a pugnacious child. But still the trauma of abuse of these
institutions had impressed their brand into Biddy. He reflects on their
distorted logic. “Oh you can’t spell? You have a disorder? We’ll put you in a
harder class. All the solutions were backwards back then.”
“Kids say oh things are out of control these days,” Biddy
expands. “No. Things were way more dangerous when I was kid.” We quickly
reminisce about how exactly close minded the general public was in the ‘80s and
early ‘90s. But instead of dismissing this new generation, as a child of
rejection, Biddy takes an empathetic approach. “I am going to defend the
millennials. The joke is (about millennials) that ‘oh they are so easily
offended’. But, I couldn’t have blue hair back in 1985 without being called
homophobic slurs and being beat up. I can’t tell how many times I got
hospitalized because I was a skateboarder. People couldn’t handle me eating in
a restaurant in the mid 80s because I had a blue Mohawk and two pierced ears.”
Biddy then recounts a few specific attacks. Luckily he was armed with an
alliance with his parents. But when his father called authority in one of these
incidents (which equates to attempted murder upon Biddy’s 16 year old self by
an adult), “the cops said, ‘yeah but isn’t your son a skateboarder?’”
Biddy had always had music as an outlet and weapon of
retaliation. This album is a sharper sword that Out For Blood. Unleash Hell
is reflective of that sentiment’s cinematic origin, gladiators with nothing to
lose attacking the system’s corrupt leaders. The fury in Deathwish’s music attacks
with speed and precision and killer riffs. The term Motorcharge (combining the
sounds of Motorhead and Discharge) is often used, but Deathwish pushes even
those limits. “I think we are different. We have a more metal influence like
Disfear, Toxic Holocaust, and Midnight.” Not that Biddy denies pure adoration
for Motorhead. “I had been seeing Motorhead since I was a kid. But then when I
saw Inepsy, I thought ‘this sounds like Motorhead, but they’re killing it’.”
Biddy doesn’t want to fit into a genre slot. He wanted to
join a band but d-beat or Motorcharge or crust usually come with fettered
characteristics. He knew the style which he wanted, especially after playing in
a slower, doom/stoner band. Biddy wanted an electric rush; grit and rage to be
the driving force. “But, I couldn’t because they made up 800 rules of how it
had to be. When I play in bands, I ask bandmates ‘what do you want do to do?’”
He takes their response and pushes, “Let’s do that, plus three more things.”
Biddy continues, “You can see the excitement on their face to start to begin
with what their passionate is. I’m trying to play with the most passionate
people I can find.”
“I’m addicted to rock and roll. That is my drug. It is what
I will do until the day I die. You can’t OD on it. Well, we’ll find out.”
Playing guitars since he was 15, Biddy has always used music as a release. But
30 years later, it’s more of a lifestyle than ever. He still works, as a
barber. I comment on the recent resurgence of barber shops with the cool kids.
“That’s just more competition. I have been doing this for 25 years.”
Despite his dedication to his art of haircutting, his music
will always be his primary focus. “I’m playing more than I have ever done. And
have got to tour with my favorite bands; Municipal Waste, Oi Polloi, DOA, MDC,
DRI, Hellshock. How the fuck did I get this lucky? If I end up in a stroke
tomorrow, it would balance out.”
Cheers to Biddy and New Noise Mags and Earsplit PR
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