Interview with Jason McLaughlin of Putrefy

Jason is the drummer and a lot of people would say the backbone of death metal veterans Putrefy.  An outspoken but very genuine character and above all full blown metal fan on the Northern Irish death metal scene.  Here is our interview with the man.

AATR: The band Putrefy recently celebrate 20 years together in November 2012, tell us about the bands history.  I note Chris Pervelis wearing the 20th anniversary shirt in the Internal Bleeding’s recent video shoot which must have been a trip also?

Jason: Yeah we celebrated 20 years back in November 2012, originally the band formed a month earlier in 1992 but held a Anniversary show in Dublin with various talented Irish bands, it was a great show and nice to repay people who follow the band at gigs, buy various merchandise, music, just a thank you back to the people who matter, it’s cool the band are still about after 20 years, hasn’t been easy but still something to prove I think.

The Internal Bleeding video shoot was cool and a nice surprise, Chris is a nice guy and true to his music and we’ve had many a chat about Death Metal and seem to share the same thoughts on the genre, and all members of Putrefy are IB fans, I’ve supported them since hearing them in 1992 when we traded some demos.  I’m really looking forward to checking their new songs out, and hope that Frank Rini does some work with them, I heard he was doing guest vocals, he’s a cool guy as well.

AATR: It’s been a few years since 2009’s One Nation Under Gore.  Where are you with the next record? How is it coming along?

Jason: The new record is written and is titled “Knelt before the Sarcophagus of Humanity”, we’re on-going in the studio trying to finish the recording process, it’s been a long process but we’re trying to get the best sounding, best played cd we can, so far it’s in a raw state but sounding powerful, drums and guitars are done, bass was to be laid down around Christmas 2012 but we lost our bass player suddenly and that held it back a bit but will be starting Bass and Vocals pretty soon, all bass will be done by Connor and Aaron on this album, we tried to get someone to do the Bass parts but his work and own band schedule didn’t work out so we’ll do it ourselves and I might as well mention that we’re still looking for a Bass Player, if anyones interested get in contact with myself.

The album we hope is out this year, we are currently without a label so funding it ourselves as best we can, hopefully a track will be finished soon so we can let labels get an exclusive promo track and hopefully get a new label home.

AATR: I have heard the new record is back to basics? Is this the case?

Jason: Yes the songs are influenced with the bands original influences from the early days being Suffocation, Massacre, Morta Skuld, just Old school in approach but still sounding like ourselves, I wouldn’t say we said “let’s go back” but the classic influences came through and spent time writing a Death Metal album that’s true to ourselves, the songs being the main thing, following ourselves rather than trends, I’m proud of the bands I grew up with and  hope this cd stands aside them, song titles are more horror in thought and the intent to offend has passed its sell by date, that we got tired off that and stopped it after the last cd as most of One Nation Under Gore was written straight after the debut album so songs was already a couple years old when we had them recorded and released.

AATR: There have been a few line-up changes in the bands history, is this down to finding dedicated people who will stick with the grind (sic)?

Jason: Experienced Band members I find out are impossible to find in N.Ireland, ones on the same page especially, all I ever ask for anyone in a band from me is to learn their craft, play the songs and show dedication, it maybe looks as if we’re hard to work with but things happened with past members, more music orientated than personal issues, its hard work maintaining a line up as you sometimes see that members aren’t as dedicated or driven as you thought so it’s a case of trying again, but dedication and belief is a big factor for me having someone filling a position, and a good work ethic.

AATR: I have always considered Putrefy to be pretty much ahead of the curve with the style of music you play, is this conscious decision or natural progression?

Jason: We originally written in a  4/4 style back in the early days and before we written the Lust So Vile mcd but scrapped the idea and went about doing it our way, it’s just how we feel comfortable writing music and as time and releases has went since then I feel the progression is there on each release and shall continue, best thing we did was to not follow normal song structures and let the song form itself, I think plenty of tempo changes in songs keeps the listener interested rather than the usual verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus way of writing, the less predictable the better, surprise the listener.

AATR: What are you listening to as the moment, are you taking any influence from anywhere?

Jason: Lately I’ve been listening to bands like Attacker, Helstar, Menace, Saxon, U.D.O and Centurian and Suffocations new cds, I don’t listen to a lot of Death Metal much now, well I do but it’s more the bands with a purer DM sound and not the Slam bands that’s pollute the scene now, totally fed up with boring one dimensional riffs and vocals, and the overkill of gravity blasts, hats not brutal it’s just crap, the slam riff has totally lost its appeal for me, it used to be used in effect and with a catchy riff to get the pit going, now it’s just dun dun dun dun dun dun dun,yawn,i still like the good bands, Soils of fate, Dehumanized, bands that do it well.

Influence wise I’m just doing my own thing, playing to what the song needs.

AATR: You are always it seems trying to help local bands with shows etc. what is your opinion on the current Irish / Northern Irish scene?

Jason: The scene is healthy I’d say, some good bands out there, but I’d say gig attendances aren’t the best, it’s hard for bands to try and keep a band going in N.ireland as venues and crowds and here and between, one night can be decent and the next night really bad, and unfortunately bands take a loss as they gotta fund each gig and take a chance, one time we lost over £350 in 3 local gigs in a weekend, I’ll always try and promote a few bands out there when I’m on Facebook and let the ones on my friends list check these bands out, I try and get good new bands on shows we organize and give the punter their moneys worth and the band a break in an area they don’t know and build a following as I know how hard it is to get the name out, anything we got we got ourselves and no help so I’ll do what I can to help a band out as it is hard nowadays.

Thanks for the interview Dave, and I hope everyone will enjoy the new album.

Thank  you Jason looking forward to it brother

Here are Jasons links:

http://www.facebook.com/jasonputrefy

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/PUTREFY/117333211610033 (Official Putrefy Facebook page)

http://www.myspace.com/putrefy05 (Official Putrefy myspace page)

http://www.reverbnation/putrefy (Reverbnation page)

http://http://www.deathmetal.us (Putrefy Forum)