Interview with Tim of Hot Graves 2012

By Bradley Smith

Your debut album Knights in White Phosphorous has finally been unleashed.  Can you tell me about the journey it took to get here?  I mean there were a ton of EPs and such before we finally landed at a full album of unholy crust thrash/death. 

Hutchy: Well, everything we had done prior to “Knights” was part of the journey. When we started, we didn’t set out to write an album. We (Myk) just started writing songs, and once we realized we had more than enough songs for a full length, we set out to record it. So yeah- writing the songs, playing the songs live and seeing how they went over with the crowd all played a part in us putting together the full length. We got to see how the songs fit together.    

So you are trying to coin the term Hellbeat!  How is that going?  Are you taking up a similar quest like The Accused did with Splatter Rock?  Do you think you will manage to get it to stick and why did you decide to call it Hellbeat?

Hutchy: “Hellbeat” is a term Myk thought up that we all liked. We haven’t really spent too much time trying to brand it yet. We’ll put it on some merch sooner or later and see how that goes. A bunch of bands have names for their music, like Splatter Rock, so we’re just joining the club. I’ve always liked Tsjuder’s “Chainsaw Black Metal” and Archgoat’s “Angelslaying Black Metal”.

As a member of the Florida scene how do you feel that Hot Graves fits in?  I mean I can’t think of any crusty bands that were around when I was growing up in Tampa?  So do you feel you are in a unique niche?  And what are some of the most important Florida bands/albums to you and why?

Hutchy: I feel we fit in well with the Florida scene. There are definitely some other crust bands going on but I like that we can (and do) play shows with bands of different genres from Florida. I feel like all the bands in Florida that are starting to make name for themselves are doing something unique and cool, which is why anyone would give a fuck about them. I hope people give a fuck about us.

As far as important Florida bands, I’m never really good at these questions.

So how does it feel to have your creative output/art being praised by musicians/artists you have always looked up to?  Fenriz for instance.  What is the most important, flattering thing anyone has said about your music?

Hutchy: It’s pretty cool, kind of surreal. The Cvlt Nation review had some of my favorite language in its writing. The fact that you want to interview me is pretty flattering to me.

As you can tell from my webzine, I am a big fan of tequila.  Are there any alcoholic beverages that you prefer?  Why?  Do you like tequila or are you one of those people (read wusses) that can’t handle it after some bad experience in high school?  Heh heh.

Hutchy: I actually don’t really like tequila at all. I can drink it, I just don’t like it. Vodka either. I drink whiskey. I work in a bar and so does my girlfriend, so I spend a lot of time around booze. We all drink in the band, but I drink more (I think).

So do you identify with the evil characters in the movies and stories?  What makes them so much more attractive to you?  Why is “good” so boring?

No, I wouldn’t say that I identify with the antagonist more so than the protagonist. Hopefully the author or storyteller can make me relate to the main character more so than their adversary. I mean, yeah, the orcs in Lords of the Rings are waaaaaay cooler than the hobbits. Plus, the evil characters have the joy giving in fully to their psychic id.

However, any character that is just evil for the sake of evil is boring and childish.

Even great Cthulhu, asleep in the city of R’lyeh, isn’t out to spread madness just to destroy humanity. He is just is so far beyond humanity it is of no concern to him. No one would call a person evil for accidently walking through an ant pile and killing a few ants. Cthulhu is just walking through the ant pile that is human sanity. Any interesting “evil” character has justification of some sort. Hell, the Pope is trying to protect the church when he refuses to let any sort of worldly authority punish priests that rape children. Even the worst dictators think they’re helping their people with their actions. Too often this means killing all the intellectuals or creating an army of machete-wielding chimps (well, that might have just happened once).

As far as the imagery used in Hot Graves, I don’t find any of it to be evil. It’s desecration time because shit needs to be desecrated. The holy is evil (connotations, not denotations here, people) and angelicide is good. And yes, pictures of monsters, skeletons and goat deities make for way cooler merch than… I dunno… What do Christian bands put on their shirts? People censoring classic works of literature and art? 

So being from Gainesville, are you a Gator fan?  I ask because I am a Seminole fan and that of course brings a certain amount of animosity with it.  Is your town overrun with Gator mania?  Or do you completely ignore it all?  And how does it feel to have had such a religious nut bag like Tim Tebow being at your university?  Goooooo Noles!!!!

Hutchy: I am a Gator, but not a Gator fan. I’m just a UF student. I don’t like sports. I would ignore the Gators altogether but it’s not really a choice for me. I work across the street from the stadium and University. When somebody lights a couch on fire in the street at five in the morning because the Gators won some football game earlier in the day, I’d say that Gator mania runs wild and it fucking sucks.

Fuck Tim Tebow (who’s also gone now). Fuck any home-schooled, Christian, missionary, “women shouldn’t have reproductive rights” asshole. Fuck him and fuck all your gods. Fuck you.

How does it feel being raised in a country of Xtians?  Your views of open anti-Xtian and Anti-religious viewpoints must stick out like a sore thumb in the south.  Florida to me was always a little more open than the rest of the south, what do you think? 

Hutchy: Florida is a bit more progressive the rest of the south, for sure. Gainesville, with the University, is fairly progressive. Being that I was, in fact, raised in a Christian majority country, I can’t really compare it to my (lack of) experience being raised in a non-Christian majority country. Being atheistic isn’t as much of an anomaly as people think it is. Atheists are just a very underrepresented minority, being that we aren’t actually a group. Atheists just need better PR. There is also a thought amongst the religious (not all of them, I know, but grant me this one little overgeneralization) that morality is somehow exclusive to religiousity. This is, of course, not true. But when the religious teach their children that I’m immoral or don’t have any innate sense morality, it’s easy to see why somebody could be cautious of a religious person. So, remember kids- your parents are usually lying to you.

I went to both Catholic and non-denominational schools as a kid and have been taught by adults who believe the earth is 4000 years old and that James and the Giant Peach is ungodly due to the magic in the book. It kind of terrifies me that these people are out there reproducing.

I know you are a big fan of horror in general, both books and movies, is there any subgenre that sticks out to you?  Why?  The reason I ask is because I am big fan of horror and my favorite little corner of that style is Zombies.  Do you like zombies?  Do you prefer running or lumbering zombies?

Hutchy: I like zombie and post-apocalyptic stories quite a bit. I really want to read Brian Keene’s “Fast Zombies Suck” because I like Keene’s writing, and because I fully agree. I also like Lovecraftian lore. Any sort of “creature feature” can draw in me in pretty quickly, too.

I know in another interview you mention your love for Waffle House, but that made me think about the diversity of America.  What do you think about the diversity of America?  Do you think Europeans understand how vast and different America is?  I always get the impression that Europeans think that American is HOT all over the place but don’t really understand just how big America really is.  Your thoughts?

Hutchy: I think most Europeans realize that America is a large country. However, I am basing this solely on exchange students and other foreigners I’ve met that travel the states. I don’t find America to be too diverse. I think we should take note of the modern thoughts of Europe on the failings of multi-culturalism. We need to be sure to remember that it is important with cultural diversity that each culture retains its identity. You can’t allow one culture to envelop another. There is nothing wrong with the “Pledge of Allegiance” being recited in Spanish. We can be culturally aware and still maintain our own cultural identity. I feel like many Americans are afraid of losing their culture by learning another language or learning about another culture. You won’t forget how to speak English if you watch a foreign film. But seriously, why do I need American remakes of The Millennium Trilogy and Troll Hunter? And why don’t Americans know who the fuck Asterix and goddamn Obelix are?!

So what does the Future hold for Hot Graves?  Any specific plans?  New recordings or live performances?  Any other projects you might be getting involved in?

We have lots of plans for the future. We all enjoy getting out of town for shows, and will continue to do so. We have begun to demo out our second record, which will be called “In the Night”. We’ve already played some of the songs live and put them on our YouTube page. You can watch “Rip Shit (in the Night)”, “Night Hag (In the Night)” and “Witch Hammerspell (In the Night)”. The record will be coming out in 2012. Myk has other projects he works on, such as PROSTITUTE, which can be heard at the Satanik Recordings bandcamp page (satanikrecordings.bandcamp.com) and Matt plays in some other bands in town. And, you know, there is this Kvlt ov (((Ouroboros full length that has never been released…

Also, you can be the first one to know this, but soon (like real soon) we’re going to put out a compilation record of exclusively Floridian metal bands such as FATAL, FLYING SNAKES, HOLLOW LEG, SHROUD EATER, ORBWEAVER, FIRE IN THE CAVE, EXTREMELY ROTTEN and some other fully awesome bands. We are calling this project SWAMP ABYSS SORCERY and it will be awesome.

I’ll leave any final words of ritual goat worship to you.  Unleash a wave of verbal carnage upon us as we depart!!

That which is not dead can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.

No? Umm…

The only answer and end to religiousity is education beyond it.