Interview with Nuclear Punishment

Nuclear Punishment

Interviewed By: Corix

Hello brothers, how’s the band doing? What’s spinning on your player rightnow while answering this?

Romel: We’re all good the 3 of us have kids now and we all gained weight except for pao. This is interesting I’m listening to Magrudergrinds CrusherEP, and FraLippoLippi and please don’t ask why. =)

Mike: Not good. We’re not as good as before, Lack of practice and to make it worse, we’re not even seeing each other anymore hahaha. We communicate only by Facebook or text so to be honest; I really don’t know what’s going on. Rommel is the only active representative of the band. Ah yes, I’m listening to Joel Navarro’s swerteswerte... Try to listen to it; you’ll develop a moustache immediately.

Coni: Yo, Corix! …And hello to No Bullshit readers. Nuclear Punishment is currently in the process of making new songs. John and Romel are pushing their wit’s asses jamin’ at john’s room. They currently have new songs they made up without the 60% of the band which is sad hahaha. We don’t normally see each other anymore due to work schedules and other personal shit. There was a time that too much lack of communication for some people in the band made themselves too important for the other members to even reply to a fucking text message! To think those persons has bigger income with other members that often reply that they are cool enough to practice/play a show or not. Some people wanted to quit due to complications with partners, but I think they changed their minds thou, sinceit’s so fucking lame to be controlled by other people since you were doing this beforethey met that person. Well enough of that… we saw each other last week at a studio practicing/polishing one of the newer songsand it was for me alil bittersweet, Last time we practiced as a whole was last November 2011, almost a fucking year! I really can’t tell if im pissed or happy since we used to do better back in the day. I’m quite trough with the correspondence with organizers and band things coz I’m too busy with my 2 sons and a job to keep. Romel is the only one getting us shows and gets to talk to other people about band stuff, hence we get to play some odd shows with unusual bands that we normally don’t play with. Hell!! beggars can’t be choosers. Stillwe stick to our ideology of not being too picky with the shows since they were cool enough to put us their bill and as long as 80% of the band is present.
... Since im at work rightnowslacking off while answering this soberly , it’s the deafening silence of all my co workers sleeping is what im listening to.

Let’s start the interview traditionally, your band bio? Just a short one.

Coni: well it all started when me, Mic, John and Pao jammed to a lot of heavy metal stuff when we were all kids at a practice studio owned by a common friend. But it was just 2003, when we decided to officially form a band. Pao was busy with some shit at school at the time so we got Romel to play guitar. We were asked by Mic’s sister to play at a show and at that time we still don’t have any songs. A day before the show we jammed and made 2 songs and another song before the show to total of 3 since we don’t want to play covers, and we all believed that covering other band’s musick sucks. We called the band then Nuclear Termuloid. After that We got invited to other shows, then pao joined along, but to our dismay our name was always pronounced wrong or spelled wrong on the flyers. After some veggie spaghetti we decided to name it Nuclear Punishment witch was funny at that time(still is, for me) thinking it was soo metal. Hahahah and then we got invited to more shows and met a lot of more people and acquaintances… and The rest is his story.(pointing out to mike and Romel)

How did you discover metal? What kind of music you are into before you discover the underground in general?

Romel: When I was 6 an alien fell from the sky with a Megadeth’s countdown to extinction tape and he handed it over to me. I asked the the glowing creature what to do with it and he answered me with “ shove it up your ass moron! Seriously it’s a tape play it” so that’s how I get into this type of music.

Mike:- Long time ago, while we’re enjoying listening to some millivanilliand Dr.alban with lovely birds singin.. Yet, suddenly Satan showed up and the rest is history…. Well actually, we’ve been listening to rock music back since elementary days (Not gonna mention any year. They might discover how young I am, From GnR, Bon jovi to punk to alternative etc.) Eventually, it evolves into deeper perspective and that’s how we met our pal Metal and Hardcore Music as well as the Underground scene, we’re not purist though we still dig our roots and listened to it until now.

Coni: my dad had some cassette tapes he bought when he was working in Saudi. I would sometimes crank up some of the Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath tapes since they had cool record covers. Mike, John and I were classmates since grade 1;we practically grew with each other. Back then were listening to Dr. Alban and other weird unusual stuff that you commonly hear back in the 80’s but the Beatles were our common ground, since we did a lot of bootlegging at school selling tapes of dub tapes of the Beatles. We were pirates back then & it was good business. We were grade 4 then. Mike’s big brothers were into new wave and some rock and roll and metal at that time …Then came the alternative and grunge era and from then on our tolerance for loud music evolved to other heavier stuff that mike’s big brothers listen to. We were always partyin to White Zombie’s La sexorcisto, Pantera and Sepultura.

Saw some pix of a recording session at Demiurge digital studio, is that for the new NxP Full length?

Mike:- That was our recording for DEAD ENDS’ Tribute. We’re still working some stuff for full length. Rommel will update you regarding that..hahaha still thinking that fuckin full length will take us forever to finish HAHAHA!

Coni: I hope it was dude! It was just us recording songs for the Dead ends Tribute record. I love Dead Ends so fucking mutcho so when we were invited by Ian of Demiurge I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Ian was cool enough to invite us in his studio and use his equipment. The sucky part was that was the only time the 5 of us got together again. We were not that fully practiced when we recorded the songs I had other ideas that were not used. I still want to re-do the songs and the vocals since I was not feeling well at that time.

Your music now obviously evolve to death metal, the hardcore feeling was minimized, how would you personally describe your music now? Any musical influences?

Romel:I would describe it as a bunch of untalented punks trying to sound like Cannibal Corpse that’s us TurboKabaong Showcase is a good example of us try to sound like Corpse but didn’t succeed. I admit it we’re not a good musician or talented or maestros like other band we looked up to in our local scene but we try not sound like anyone out there. Musical influence will always be Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Pantera, Sepultura, Earth Crisis and PigDestroyer to name a few.

Mike:- Yeah I know, it almost killed the hardcore influences from before but the truth is.. Some riffs and styles came from HALF THE BATTLE we just done it faster, more aggressive and crunchier (references: Rommel). We were surprised that experimenting this way will end up something different. I still don’t know what we sound like. Mechanical Metal ?Hahaha I hate labelling.. I love any forms of metal but I’m digging THRASH music these days so this might be my biggest influence so far.

Coni: nah we aren’t death metal… hell we still don’t know what we play since it’s just the amalgamation of what we all love…well there’s still the hardcore Punk feel there. I thinkit’s just the vocals that you were referring to. The songs on the Iron Mongoloid EP was Conceived 2006 and recorded back in 2007, and then the songs were trapped in Production Hell/limbo since we don’t know what to do with the songs if we weregonna use it on a split or send it to some label or wait for the other songs to be recorded so we could release a full release, w/c was not the case. About the thing you were saying about the death metal feel, I was heavy with death metal at that time. We are still the hardcore punk kids playing metal since day 1.

On your Iron Mongoloid EP, I heard some brutal death slamming attacks on some part of your songs, what musical direction do Nuclear Punishment want to go?

Romel: yes IronMongoloid sound will be our direction but we will outdo it and will try to take it a bit further. With our new songs we tried new things like jazz, polka, classical, country and punk but we’re not gonna embrace a subgenre or sound redundant. The slam parts that’s us trying to sound like hardcore. I remember listening to Biohazard before a practice and I tried to do a similar riff but the result was totally different.

Mike:- HAHAHA Those are for breebree moments… I don’t know. In fact, we want to remove those parts if we had a chance to re-record it. Those we’re the days that we thought breakdown were awesome.

Coni: nope, we were just playing with song structures and stuff. Beat downs ain’t really just for brutal death… you can hear ‘em at a lot of hardcore bands too. If you know us we just mix the shit up that we all love in to our songs. Our songs reflect the music that we love and what we want to play. It’s not that we want “in” with the brutal slam death bandwagon, it’s because we listen to some of them. I might say at that time I was inspired by friends from Pus vomit and Down from the Wound. We just play withthose parts just to have some brutal parts and have fun with it. We are still an experimental band after all these years coz it bore the hell out of us to do the same things over and over, unlike other bands out there. It just sucks to know that a lot of bands that we see in some shows do that breebreebree and chugachugachuga stuff too much. Once I had a discussion backwith Patrick Verano, your band mate, like back in 2006 or 07 that it sucks that everyone wanted to sound the same nowadays.

How did you guys write songs? What’s the writing process like? Who mostly writes the lyrics?

Romel: Our songs came out of nowhere to be honest with you we don’t write if we’re at home. Sometimes we buy our riffs from the internet and I usedstolen credit card numbers to pay them. And with new songs like “cannibalenciano” , “B Attack Now” and “family kwarta o kantot” the lyrics will always be about beautiful flowers, mother nature, love peace and gay priests with 4ft 6 yr old kids.

Mike:- Rommel starts with some riffs. Jan does works on drums from Rommel’s riffs and coni start writing lyrics (I have no idea what those lyrics are) Me and Pao? Accepting payments from them through BDO cash transfer, then we’ll get the job done.

Coni: we used to jam heavily a lot back in the days. But unfortunately since we all have families now and work we are a bit busy to make new songs and also the lack of practice studios is another thing. Right now it’s mainly Romel and John who does the majority of the songs structure. Since mike doesn’t have a place to store his drum set, he lend it to john so he can practice at home. With a line 6 spider 2 amp acquired a few years ago they practice at john’s room at weekends or if there’s free time. We used to debate on how the songs would be. I guess we’ll be doing it a lot now since i think we are just gathering our momentum again. I used to write words in the studio while jamming, that’s what I like to do and some of my favorite songs were written as the music was formed. Sometimes I write songs on pieces of paper when I get a sudden train of thought about something. But nowadays it’s just me and the mobile phone that I have in my pocket. Since nowadays I’m so sober and busy I can’t think of anything other than getting home to bed and sleep, unlike then I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep that made me write some fucked up words that don’t rhyme. My words are usually personal in nature but we name the songs on how we feel the music of the song or if we just like a funny name for a song. Songs on the iron mongoloid ep were mostly songs about people very close to me. The song Anakng Diablo was a song written by our drummer for his girlfriend were I added some words since I felt the same thing when I was going tru what he was going tru at the time.
We are still In the process of making and finishing the newer songs so I guess there would be more or other ways of me writing words for the songs. And our song making process is an evolving mutant so it’s really hard to tell in the future.

The band is 9 years old now, had released demos, ep and I guess full length is on the works already, and had played different places, what do you think are the things that you haven’t achieved as band?

Mike:- I think we’ve achieved things already. Right now, we’re playing for enjoyment, hanging out with old friends and brothers and to remove stress from work . I dunno about these kupaloids if they still got intereston a World Tour.

Romel: Tour Iraq, Afghanistan and Buratkiztan

Coni: wow 9yrs! I haven’tthought of it in a while but fuck was that 9 years already?! I always wanted to play and tour to other countries but I guess we should tour Visayas and Mindanao first. As they say wag magingdayuhansasarilingbayan. As for now my focus is to finish some songs that were meant to be recorded years ago(trapped in development hell), fucking up shitty bands, partyin with the bands we love to play with and yea at least spend quality time with my each other since we don’t see each other that much often. Even thou we don’t see or talk to each other more than we often tend to…we make it a point to party as much when we go to our shows.

Why is it that NxP’s 9th year anniv.gig wasn’t held in Cavite? And with a single band from Cavite on the bill? Any update of the Cavite Metal/Hardcore Fest that you guys annually organized? What can you say about our current scene in Cavite?

Romel: It was really intended to be done in Cavite but we don’t have a proper venue near Imus. One of my choice was Hyperzone but they shut it down and then Koi a good friend of ours of Helmet offered help to make this happen so we took it. There were 5 bands from Cavite on the original line up but yeah 4 bands can’t go they have their valid reasons. And for CMHCF you know for a fact that CMHCF is a free show and it will always be, it’s like our way of giving back to the scene but we we’re all busy last December Mike and I had a kid and it’s fuckin expensive to have a kid and celebrate their Baptism and shit. So we didn’t push through. We did it 3 straight years and I’m looking to do it by the end of this year we’ll see.

Mike:- We are not the organizer of this show that’s why we don’t have the control for the line-ups and just like the other shows; we’ll play the same as usual. I guess the only difference about this show is the title hahahaha.. I think it’s better for Rommel to answer. Personally, if im going put up a show, it will be for FREEEE! (Unfortunately, we’re not capable of doing that for now.. Damn.) And for Cavite Metal/Hard core fest.. It will happen this coming December 21, 2012 for freeeeee.

Coni: as I said im so buisy with family and work that I tend to lose my mind on time and stuff. I don’t usually go to shows anymore exept when I really want to ease out and see bands that I missed. I sometimes go to show even when I’m alone… sometimes I bring my wife along if she has no work… I love what Berms of Makopa is doing with his shows since some of the shows are purely D.I.Y. as fuck and you’ll see hardcore punk kids with Death Metal dudes on one show w/c is the same thing we do on our parties too…As for the 9thanniv show… It was brought upon by our friend Koi from Hellmet. He was cool enough to make a show in our honor. I was happy at first but yea the thing is if it’s about us, we should haveat least made the show ourselves. I wasn’t even really exited about a show saying that it’s our anniversary show. It’s like saying “hey were old”, w/c I think was fucked up or something and to think we are doing it away from our hometown, it kinda sucks… well who am I to argue? And I don’t want so sound like an ingrate. We love koi and he’s been a cool guy since we met him. We really appreciate that he respects and support our stupid band. Hopefully we can make another show here in Cavite and have a party in our hometown in the near future, rather really soon. It’s just again our excuse that we are so busy with family and work that we tend to lose focus on what was soooo fucking exiting and was important for us from the start… Partyin’ at shows and setting up shows for free so everyone has a great time.

Been noticed that you guys are always invited at “You Ignite It” production, I heard someone saying that You Ignite It is like Pulp Jr. what can you say about that?

Romel: We get invited to different kind of shows like Moshpit Sundays , Helmet Shows, Kaguluhan Music Festival or Kantutan Fest and we made a lot of new friends by doing so. YouIgnite guys likes what we do, likes our sound likes us as a person so they invited us to their shows like we’ll be opening for Decapitated . There’s no issue here anyone can invite us to play no worries. Most of them have their opinion about this but no matter how you explain things people will always have their own “trip” can’t please em all which I understand. A lot complains about high ticket prices but listen there’s always a massive cost in bringing in International bands to perform here and their shows like a lot thinks doesn’t have partners who supports them financially. Now if we can’t afford the tickets then let’s just stay home. I’m waiting who’ll be Pulp the third Pulp Sr or Pulp The fourth.

Mike:- We accept if possible any gigs that we’ve invited to. I’m surprised that there’s some issues going on. Pulp Jr.? OUCH!!! Accusing “You Ignite it” a jr. Pulp? Why?! I personally don’t know those guys are but im interested on hearing each other side hehehehe (Chismoso here)

Coni: as ive mentioned earlier we really aint that picky on shows whether it’s hardcore punk, metal or a D.I.Y. show or a not so D.I.Y. show with better equipment… even just a birthdayparty or a kid’s debut pool party as long as it fun and we really don’t care. I think you ignite likes our band and respects us enough to invite us to their shows. And for that we are thankful. yea there’s an issue about youigniteit being another pulp something w/c I think is lame If you tend to keep a closeminded thinking about it. Here’s the thing… Pulp is bringing bands and setting shows here in the Philippines but overpricing the tickets since they are the only ones with the money to do so.(well lets not forget INSANE BAZOOKA who is bringing death metal in his own awesome way!) As per se if someone else is doing what they do at a lower cost, they would see a competition and pulp wont monopolize on those kind of shows. It’s like in economics and if I remember it right… if there is competition, those entities will fight to get more people to their shows so they will be lowering their prices so us the not so well off can get to see those bands that would normally cost us a limb just to watch. Well that’s my opinion, I don’t know about the others… Yea I know there are a lot of politics goin around it and such but hell I won’t be taking in sides of it since it will burn me out. Taking sides are for sheep. This might have also be the same case when Dying Fetus played years ago where fellow underground bands opened for them even thou pulp was behind that. I dunno since I was not too cvlt to even ask how those great bands came to open for the great Dying Fetus. Romel was invited by pulp to play at their shows several times already but I turned them down again and again.It’s not that we hate them, actually I respect them a bit like the respect I give to other people’s opinion as a smart ethical person does. I dunno about this flame wars about underground stuff and not underground stuff. I think there is just some misunderstanding about it. There will always be politics. And I think bickering is too showbiz and I think that ain’t healthy. Don’t want to be the arbiter in this since I really don’t know the people who started these arguments and I just feel sorry for those who’s just riding on this hate trip. I’m always a neutral person from the start. As I’ve matured tru all these years, I’ve learned that Yea you really can’t please everyone.

Nowadays, access of music and gigs is so easy; do you think you still feel the feeling of true Underground? Do you think the Underground scene in general is Dead? If so, who do you think killed it? Why?

Mike:- Yes I still think there are kids out there doing what we’ve used to do and I still believed that the underground scene is not dead or for now but it will come back later. If someone killed it I might say its JUSTIN BEIBER and the stupid kids of today. Fuck you JUSTIN BEIBER I just bought your album “Boyfriend” and it’s totally sucks.

Coni: I dunno some elitist seem to generalize and categorize things too much. No difference in metal and hardcore punk, Always with the politics. There will always be someone who would profess they are more hardcore, more punk or more metal or more underground. The underground scene wouldn’t die out as long as there are kids, new blood that we can at least give a better picture of what is the scene all about… What it was and what it is really for…even if we get old there are gonna be newer bands and faces. Some Bands may break up and die out,reunite or make other bands… still there would be a scene where the normal people can’t and won’t understand. The reason that there is the underground scene is because we always want to deviate from the norm. The problem now is just that some people are just too sentimental on some issues and want thescene just to be theirs and theirs alone w/c I think is close-minded. There’s a new word that was just added to my vocabulary recently, CVLT… they just wantto be so CVLT! The problem is no one seems to compromise anymore. For me to declare underground as dead is when everyone sounds the same, looks the same, thinks the same and everyone thinks they are cooler than everyone else… w/c is redundantly fucked up! For me the hardcore purists are the ones that’sreally destroying the scene, always withtoo much animosity and let’s not forget those who just fuels the flame of ignorance…is not really helping at all.

What can you say about our current government? And how about you views on RH bill?

Romel: “we line them all up and we all gun them down and we all celebrate when they all hit the ground” -Transplants
Next song komposisyon title neto RH BILL .. 1 2 3 4 RRRRHHHHHBBBIIIIILLLLLLLL PAK OOOOOOPPPPPPP!!!!!! Tenkyu we’re kingkongbattery from Imus Cavite.

Mike:- Fuck you government! And RH BILL?! Stop RH BILL and switch to NUCLEAR PUNISHMENT! It will be a big help to our growing population. With one blast, all your problems will soon be solved immediately. You don’t have to think about reproductive health anymore and don’t worry, Satan and his CBCP demonic turbonized preachers from hell will take care of us.

Coni: about the government? Same shit as it was ever and shall be until world without corruption and greed. The system is still fucked up as ever. I have a criminal case that’s still pending for more than 10 years now w/c hinders me to get a decent job. Fuck that!
As per reproductive health I was and still PRO-Choice.Everyone has their right to choose what’s right for their own body.

Your top 5 local bands playing on your stereo these days? And top 5 fanzines you’ve been reading these days?

Romel: LOC, PusVomit, Sugarfree, Sauna, MassDefect.
Konspirazine, Incidental Afterthought, Scrawlshop. Wala na ko maisip eh TORO, at HATAW news.

Mike:- Powertools, Old Rust Phantom, loss of control, Grind Matador (Via Youtube) and the brutal guttural ultimate: Itchy Worms.
I got no fanzine.. I’ll borrow next time.

Coni: Currently imSTILL listening to a lot of Dead Ends, The Beauty of Doubt, Tool, Converge, and Municipal Waste to name a few… majority is speed metal punx…. Everything with speed on it is fine by me. Hehehe. But sometimes I tone down with easy music with my wife and I still listen to the old stuff that I listen since I was a teenager. I’m not really that of an elite in this stuff and I’m no scholar so I can’t really relate about the what’s what and who’s who on a specific genre. Call it ignorance it’s just I don’t want to fill my head with too much stuff nowadays.
The zines that I have at home are the recent issues of Konspirazine, Scrawlshop, Incidental Afterthought, InDarkPurity and No bullshit zinehehehehe. Fuck I love zines you can take em everywhere. No need for those internet connections.

Where do you think is your destiny after death? How about your views about the concept of God and Satan? Heaven and Hell?

Romel: If I die my soul will separate from my body and I’m free to roam around earth without getting thirsty or hungry. I’ll sneak out to the most expensive hotels and wait for celebrities or really cute girls get dressed of get naked. God, Satan, Heaven and Hell makes a good fairytale whatever .

Mike: I’d probably go to heaven. Yeah im sure I’ll go to heaven then staged dive from the gates of heaven straight to HELL!!!!

Coni: It’s all nothing… god is just something man made up to give them insight when they talk to themselves. Satan is just the antithesis of god said to convey the evil thoughts we have in all of us. A silly excuse to blame on all of our misfortunes.
Heaven was made up so we might fear not believing in some deity or religion… Always a weapon of fear to put us in line.Hellis no different, since it comes in a package deal.
in having fear you are awarded ignorance and a promise of 70 virgins. Hehehe religion is really a weapon. We just choose not to use it since its unethical.

Mike:
Word Association:
Brutal Death – pussvomit, DFTW, Human Mastication etc.
Black Metal – Black Death (The Real Black metal. The LEGIT one Hehehe)
Thrash Metal – Municipal Waste, Gamabomb, Violator, warbringer etc.
Pulp – Samuel Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Vernon go
Punx – not dead
Grind – Brain Drill, Carbomb, MagruderGRIND!!!
Police – Marconi’s new dad with tons of free fireworks!
Video games – COD MW 1 2 3 DIABLO 3 2 1
Straight edge –Im BACK FUCK!!!!!!
Facebook –The new life.. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


Romel:
Word Association:
Brutal Death – Pus Fucking Vomit
Black Metal – corpsepaint
Thrash Metal – Municipal Waste
Pulp – WWF SummerSlam
Punx – not dead
Grind – Magruder
Police – brutality
Video games – GALAGA, POOYAN,KARATEKA
Straight edge - XXX
Facebook – BaceFook!


Coni:
Word Association:
Brutal Death – PusVomit+DFTW
Black Metal – thin lizzy
Thrash Metal – Speed_metal_punx
Pulp –overpriced_everything
Punx –deviantS
Grind – my gears
Police – father-in-law
Video games–addiction
Straight edge–tried =failed.
Facebook–death to us all!!!

Alright brothers, thanx for sharing your thoughts and views and giving time answering this shits! Your last message…

Romel: Yeah hi to (insert you name here) and thanks!

Mike: KIDS DON’T USE DRUGS! For now, tomorrow ok.

CONI: Yo thanx corix for your unwavering support to the Diy underground scene as a whole… may it be punk rock metal and hardcore. Always a bro and supporting my bands since the I got a hang of the underground scene. Just lay off the MMORPGs bro hehehehe… they are gonna eat up your time and mind.
Keep on partyin!… no aggravations, no fuck ups… NO BULLSHIT!!!