Interview With Jason PC from Blood Duster

If you follow what we do in this blog, you may already know that Blood Duster is one of our favorite bands. Because of it, when my girlfriend Laura Serviän obtained this interview,  it gave me goosebumps. It is that the interview was not going to be with any member of Blood Duster: it was going to be with Jason P.C. (Jason Fuller), bassist and founder of the great Australian band. We have put happy to interview any of the Blood Duster. But having the opportunity to interview the guy who created one of the best bands we've ever heard, it's something thrilling. With you, Jason P. C.

Puro Ruido: hello how are you?

Jason PC: I’m good just sitting around in the grip of a Melbourne winter, I kinda like all the rain. It means I don’t have to go outside too much and everything gets a nice wash.

PR:From 2008 onwards, you released 3 splits (with Venomous Concept, Brutal Truth and Dwarves), in addition to the Sixsixsixteen Euro Dance Remix. That leads me to ask when will the new full lenght of Blood Duster?

Jason: We have had an album recorded for quite some time with the title of “KVLT” but have been looking at how we are supposed to release it to people.
I have some issues with the entire music scene in general right now and don’t know what I am supposed to do with all the fucking hatred I have.

Most is contained on the record. The title of one of the tracks “I’m finding it hard to express exactly how much I fucking hate you” kinda gives that away.

PR: "Lyden Nå " was and is, a colossal work. Not only for its duration, but also the quality of recorded material that triple album. How was it received at the time that album? I ask this because, before the album went on sale, I read in some forums opinions against the fact that "Lyden Na" was an album so extensive. Then, in those forums, I read only praise. (mind you that Lyden Na is our favorite)

Jason: Well it was received warmly by our fans, but it didn’t really go beyond that.
Blood Duster is a hard group for some people to get their heads around. We don’t do “normal” too well, we do whatever the fuck we want and we do it exactly how we want it.
A lot of bands say this kind of shit and I guess it could be true for them… but that makes me think that a lot of bands have no imagination or desire to push things further or do anything remotely different from anyone else. Everyone continues to do the same album over and over.
To me that is like death, once I’ve done something I want to do something even better or if not better then at least different from what was before.
I think that album was a little too left field for people to get their heads around. And that’s fine, fuck ‘em.

PR: Personally, I think Blood Duster is a unique group. And now I have the opportunity, I make a question that was always in my mind how did you created that style so rocker, so original and so full of groove?

Jason: Well we have always been into all sorts of music everything from Zappa to Anal cunt, we just do whatever feels good and right at the time.
I think bands tend to get locked into one way of thinking and don’t want to do anything outside of that little comfort zone.
I love bands that do what they want, DarkThrone are an example of a band I respect and look forward to hearing what they do with each album they are a rare band as they manage to stay true to what they do while combining influences into create something new within DarkThrone. You know what I mean? They seem to care about their past and are always adding to that past with each album.
I kinda feel that we do that too, not in any way the same style but in simple spirit you know? We like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, lots of old rock bands and it seems stupid to ignore the past or to simply just replicate it.

I guess we try and to add to what has been before us to get a similar feeling within a new frame of reference.

We don’t want to reinvent the wheel or go stupid and start mixing rap and metal or jazz and funk with metal in some hybrid just for the sake of doing something new and “wacky” but we do want to make interesting stuff within the confines of our style of “rock” music.

PR: Usually, when talking about Blood Duster tend to speak of Grindcore. However, I always thought of you is more than Grindcore or Deathrock, or whatever want to call it. For some reason, when I hear Blood Duster tend to think of bands like the old AC / DC (with Bon Scott), Rose Tattoo, The Saints and Radio Birdman up as influences, as well as the influences of extreme bands. But you better tell us what are the influences of the group, and by the way, if you like the above-named groups.

Jason: Yeah we like all that good stuff, but I also like a lot of 60’s stuff I listen to a bit of surf music and I like bubblegum stuff like Ohio Express and shit like that, real sugar coated novelty type music, something about that whole thing interests me a lot. But that said I also love a lot of doom and heavy experimental type stuff. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Harvey Milk, Torche and the Melvins, the Melvins are a really good example what I was saying earlier… A band working within their own sound and creating different things on each record. If I could compare blood duster to another bands ideals it would be them. They do nothing but great stuff in new and interesting ways.

Another band that I fucking love is the dwarves, one of the best bands ever.
I’m influenced by all this stuff, the only music I don’t really “get” is hardcore. To me it just sounds really dumb. Lots of my friends are in hardcore bands- Beltsy the guitarist from Blood Duster is in Mindsnare (who are one of Australia’s biggest hardcore bands) and while they are not so bad 99% of hardcore bores the shit out of me. Same as all the other “cores”, deathcore, whatevercore… its all bore core to me, breakdowns are shit.

PR: "Fisting the Dead" was conceived with the idea of editing as split with Impetigo and Meat Shits. If I did not read wrong, the album was out by Wild Rags label that became famous for ripping off the bands that were engaged by them. Why "Fisting The Dead" was released as EP and not split?

Jason: We were in the middle of negotiations with Wild Rags, actually we had signed with them by that point, but from memory Impetigo split up before it could happen… I think, So we asked wild rags to release us from the contract as we were going to release it here on a local label. And they did.
In the meantime relapse came sniffing around and wanted us to release it on Relapse.

Wild Rags never actually ripped us off, I’m sure other bands had trouble but we had way more trouble dealing with Relapse in later years, getting those fuckers to pay what they owed cost me a lot of time and money as well as really making me hate the so called “underground scene”.
These guys did the whole “we are your friends man” type thing and then got us to sign the shittiest contract ever and then they didn’t pay any of the royalties that they owed. It really just fucked us.

We did sign the shitty contract they sent us like idiots- but what happened to people acting like civilized human beings? That hurt more than anything else because to that point everyone in the scene was friends, they took that friendship and flushed it down the shitter.
All because they legally they could. I was raised with a “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should” ideal so it really caught me off guard that people could do that to other people. I know I couldn’t.

No hard feelings to those guys though- I just hope all involved die of fucking cancer.

PR: Have toured with Brutal Truth several times. Released a split together. Even recorded a split with Venomous Concept, band that sings Kevin. So have a good relationship with BT and Kevin in particular?

Jason: Yeah I toured those guys here in Australia a couple times, I mixed their last 2 records as well. (Shameless plug- if anyone needs mixing done get in contact www.goatsound.com.au)
I didn’t know them to well when I did their first Australian tour back in 95 or so, but I got to know them really well and we stayed in touch since.
They are good guys and deserve tons of respect.

PR: Why did you decide to invite Dave Evans to participate in the self-titled album? How came up with him?

Jason: We were looking to add some colour to the record and thought it would be cool to get some dudes from another generation involved, Dave was super cool. Turned up in full leathers and shit like an old rock star it was great.
Plus he was in AC/DC for a while there, and that’s fucking cool enough for us.

PR: Jason, have contact with any of the ex members of Blood Duster?

Jason: Yeah I still talk with dudes every now and then, apart from one or two members most of us still get along. Some ex-members are still taking it pretty hard after being kicked out, but most get over it.

PR: Jason, while you are not playing with Blood Duster Do you play in some other group?

Jason: I was playing in Captain Cleanoff for a while but I don’t want to tour as much as they do so I left, I still hang out with those guys quite a bit though. No hard feelings or anything, just life getting in the way of a good time.

I also have another band called “the Ruiner”, it’s a more heavy rock thing I guess, kinda like… well its hard to explain, its made up of the singer Jason V from Christbait and guitarist Craig from Christbait.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about Christbait were one of the most important bands Melbourne has ever produced, they did fuck all because they were lazy and retarded but the live shows were “the shit”.
Their gigs were absolutely packed with hundreds of kids going nuts. The albums they did were always too little too late and they broke up after only one full length record. Hands down best live band I’ve ever seen.
Check out their albums if you can find ‘em. I’m sure some cunt has put them up as an illegal download somewhere.
We are like a continuation of that band… only 15 years on from when they split up.

PR: The video for "Porn Store Stiffi" is a masterpiece. The group's sense of humor always seemed great, but in that particular video, can see very clearly the humor of the group. Was it a joke against the clichés of the Nu Metal bands?

Jason: Yeah there was soooo much shit music floating around at that time, limp bizkit were big and all that korn rubbish was around. I look back now and it’s a bit embarrassing to watch because the context is kinda gone. All those bands are dead.

PR: In 2003 had problems with censorship is that true? What happened?

Jason: We’ve had tons of trouble over the years, we were on prime time TV as an example of a perverted rock band and we’ve had album covers that people have refused to print for whatever reason…lots of interesting side notes of dumbness in our history.

PR: Well, Jason, What are we finalizing. plans for the future of the group?

Jason: Well I guess out immediate plan is to just to figure out the best way to deliver this record to a public that thinks records should be free and artists should have to pay for the privilege of them simply hearing it.
This is going to be a rant so please hold on…

I think people should actually buy a bands music if they like to listen to that bands music.
Otherwise simply choose to not buy it… and why not simply create your own if its no big deal?

I don’t care to just give people a record because they have decided what I create isn’t as important as what they create.

By that I mean I cant walk into wherever you work and just take what you have been building, making or doing.  I can’t simply decide for you that your time and effort isn’t worth shit, you would be fucking angry about it.

That may seem a little bitter and I guess it is, but the public has been brainwashed by corporate media to think it’s somehow wrong to ask to be compensated for creating something that people want.
This is kinda my problem with music right now, I can pay tons of money and spend tons of time to make a record that other people think should be free.

They have decided for me, that what I make is worth nothing, they still actually want it - just that I shouldn’t get anything in return.

I should be honored that they are listening? Fuck them.
Google, youtube and everyone else is making a fucking killing by providing everyone access to stuff they don’t own…to “content” that legally belongs to other people and everyone is standing up for these multinationals like they are being some kind of punk rock anarchists by doing so.

Have a think about it.

It’s simply another case of corporations taking money out of the lower classes (yes-most musicians are from the lower tax brackets, not everyone making music is a rich as Metallica or Bon Jovi most musicians I know are living below the poverty line) and they are putting that money in their pockets, not back into something good, back to shareholders who don’t give a fuck about anything but the bottom line.
I can’t believe there is even a question about this you know? People will fuck over whoever they can to get something for free, they will ignore facts and make up all kinds of reasons the musician is “wrong” when it simply is a case of- you want what I got and you will do anything to take it.

I know that was a bit of a tirade, but It’s my problem with music right now, people want a record and expect me to make one, but they are simply going to download it. I don’t want to be rich, but I do want to continue making records and I don’t know what people see as so wrong about being compensated for creating something that they actually enjoy.

It’s made me think if I’m just doing this for myself, Maybe I should just keep it for myself and simply not release the record or let anyone even hear it?

There will be more about this on our website in the coming weeks as we heard towards the release date.

It makes me question everything.

PR: How long will we have Blood Duster?

Jason: Don’t know… I tried to break the group up a while ago and the guys said no. So I guess we will be around for a little while yet.

PR: Ok, Jason, thanks for your time. It is a pleasure to interview one of the best groups we've heard in our lives. If you want to add something, feel free to do so.

Jason: Thanks it’s been good, so glad to an interview that doesn’t have some kind of retarded dumb gore questions in it like “Would you fuck a corpse?” or some other dumb shit like that.

Please stay in touch and visit www.bloodduster.com to see and hear more about what we are doing.

Thanks

Over and out.

Jason P.C.