Interview With Timo Pahlke from Cock & Ball Torture

The Germans have a very particular form of doing Grindcore, in all its aspects. Whether making traditional Grind, Goregrind, Porngrind or Cybergrind, the Germans do not resemble anyone. And, in a way, that's thanks to bands like Cock & Ball Torture. Is that these insane marked the way forward, they created something unique and highly personal (the same applies to Gut). So why not interview one of the members of CBT? We contacted Timo Pahlke, and the bearded bassist agreed to answer our questions with all the kindness in the world.

Puro Ruido: Timo Hello how are you? I guess you're ready to break all together with Cock and Ball Torture!

Timo Pahlke: Hello as well! I am doing pretty fine at the moment. We try to bulldoze everything hahahah

PR: For what I read on the Facebook account of the band, for now only plan to play at Neurotic Deathfest and the OEF. There are proposals to do more shows?

TP: You know, we are not a professional touring band, we have our jobs and families and those have priority number one. Due to the fact that we work sometimes all across the world it is hard to organise a tour or gig, but we try to do as many shows as possible…e.g. we managed to do an aussie tour this year already

PR: How well did it go at the Australian tour? It was the first tour you did for Australia, right? For anyone who is not informed could you tell us how many concerts did and what bands played? I imagine that the concerts were murderers because Australians love extreme music!

TP: The tour was awesome! From day one we enjoyed the country and its people. We played all in all 5 shows within 9 days. We stopped in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide. We shared stages with aussie bands like The Day Everything Became Nothing, Captain Cleanoff, The Kill, Fuck…I´m Dead, Intense Hammer Rage and plenty more I can´t rememeber. Turn out was great, especially in Melbourne which is THE city of extreme music in Australia.

PR: Timo, one thing all CBT fans want to know: there's a new album on the way?

TP: This question comes up in almost every interview we do…we know it is already a long long time since our last release back in 2004. But due to working abroad and family issues it is more or less impossible to rehearse together…instead of releasing we at least managed to play shows in the USA, Japan, Australia etc…we really want to create new songs and record them, but I don´t know when this will happen..maybe next year!

PR: Let's make a little history. I remember the first I heard of you reminded me of Gut. But then evolved to create a unique style. What motivated you to create that personal style, full of Groove?

TP: When you start a band you always  play a style more related to the bands you dig the most. that´s normal. I guess motivation is the wrong word. We always tried and try to make music we like the most. It is just the sum-up of all the influences we have. Some say music should come from the heart, but we say grind and gore comes directly from the balls! so it has to groove!!

PR: Personally, what bands and albums made ​​you think "ok, I think this is what I do, play Grindcore"?

TP: Before we started the band we liked more the death metal style. With finding those underground jewels like GUT we thought that that kind of music would be the best. It captured us from the beginning. Of course I could name as well bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, Terrorizer and some more…

PR: This year will perform at the OEF for the fourth time in history, right? We would like to give us your opinion about this festival and Curby (a guy I admire and respect a lot). What is the most transcendent of the festival, for you?

TP: Yes, we will play it the fourth time. And it is in deed THE festivals when it come to extreme music AND true underground spirit. This combination is perfect and reflects Curby´s attitude 100% is assume. He is a nice guy. I rememeber he organised one of the first tours CBT did. We played Czeck Republic and Slovakia and so on…we know him already since more than 12 years. We are looking forward to play the festival again because it was the last time in 2008 we played there!

PR: There is something that always comes to my mind when I hear CBT: you are not the typical Heavy Metal Heads. I mean, I have a feeling that you enjoy listening to many musical styles, which are open-minded guys.

TP: We are really open minded. From Hip-Hop to Country to Classic to 80´s Pop we like everything. Of course not everyday. It just depends in which mood you are. I mainly don´t listen to extreme music, just from time to time…it makes more fun to play it!

PR: Timo, today there are hundreds of bands that limit themselves to copying CBT. Some bands sound well, but others seem to be more worried for copying details like the intros, all the “porn” question and all that, but they do not worry for the music. Do you believe that this kind of bands, besides sounds bored, saturate the scene without need?

TP: Hard question I can´t answer. When we started the opportunities of the WWW were not given, we still were tape-trading and writing letters. With the internet revolution it is nowadays way more simple to distribute your music and your band through all social medias. That´s why you have so many bands around nowadays. The good ones will stay, the other ones will be forgotten!

PR: Still without recording contract? I saw that Rotten Roll Rex is selling merch for you. But you are not under contract, right?

TP: No, we no the guy since ages as well. He just did some merch.We have no contract with nobody.

PR: Well, you are German, so I have to ask you something about the porn German: think that porn made ​​in Germany is the hardest of all?

TP: Don´t know. I haven´t watched porn stuff for years so I don´t know what´s the hottest stuff to get at the moment. Porn gets boring after a certain time, but I have to admit that the Germans have the nicest dicks hahahaa

PR: Let's talk about music: you have had the opportunity to play in USA. Extreme Underground scene remains strong there? Or do you think that the present and future of Death Metal and Grind is in Eastern European countries, Asia, Latin America, etc?

TP: I am not that active “within the scene”. So I don´t know exactly, but at least from what I hear those areas have one of the most dedicated fans! We never played Latin America or South America and Russia, so I just can say what I heard and not what I realised.

PR: Timo, the last question: how do you like that the crowd reacts while you are playing on the scene?

TP: Until they like to watch us from time to time hahaha if this should change we know it´s time to stop playing live!

PR: Well, Timo, thank you very much for your time! Hope to see you in Argentina sometime!

TP: Absolutely, that would be a dream come true to come over to south America and play there some groove laden metal!