Manic Californian anime loving grinders Houkago Grind Time return with their latest album Koncertos Of Kawaiiness: Stealing Jon Chang’s Ideas, A Book By Andrew Lee and it is jam packed with full on grinding madness from start to finish. Ahead of the release of the album, Gavin Brown caught up with Houkago Grind Time main man Andrew Lee and he gave us the lowdown on the new album as well as Houkago Grind Times return to the UK, anime, hip hop and what his other band Ripped To Shreds have got going on.
E&D: Your new album Koncertos Of Kawaiiness: Stealing Jon Chang’s Ideas, A Book By Andrew Lee is our next month. Can you tell us a bit about the album and how it was created?
Andrew: Most of my Houkago Grind Time releases start as an exploration into a new recording technique, something fun or different I hadn’t tried out yet. I set myself a challenge of using a fully acoustic kick with no samples for this record, as well as a mono room mic for kit sound and no cymbal close mics. I’ve been using fully sampled kicks on recordings for the last few years and wanted to really dig into tuning and kick mic placement to get something punchy enough to cut through a wall of drop Z guitars. I started working in August of last year and it took me about two months to write and record, but as always getting in the guest features takes the longest.
E&D: Has Jon Chang heard the record, and are you a big fan of Discordance Axis and Gridlink?
Andrew: I’m a huge fan of DxAx and Gridlink. I don’t like sending my music to people I look up to, mainly because I don’t actually want to know what they think, and as far as I know he isn’t really into any of my bands to begin with, but Dave Witte saw my Houkago Grind Time set at the Decibel pre-fest, and said it was good!
E&D: Is it a fun task selecting all the anime samples that are contained on the album?
Andrew: It’s probably the hardest part of making any Houkago Grind Time release! I don’t want to pick the easy meme samples that’ve been heard a million times, so I need to really think hard about what moe anime I’ve seen lately that has interesting soundbites. But sometimes I get lazy and just throw in the dull scream of anguish from Megaman X4.
E&D: What are the biggest influences on the sound of the album?
Andrew: I didn’t pick a particular record as a reference for mixing, but Sulfuric Cautery’s first album is a touchstone for how brutal a ping snare should be, along with Foetopsy’s Dyspartum and Baalsebub’s The Sickness Of The Holy Inquisition. I think my style of mincecore/goregrind is more death metal than punk, just because of my background and how I got into extreme music in the first place. I used to take more influence from Extremely Brutal, especially the twisty way that Harlan writes untraditional grind riffs, but I’m not sure exactly where I’m pulling from now.
E&D: It’s been said that the ‘record guaranteed to warm your heart before ripping it out”. Is that juxtaposition an important part of this new album?
Andrew: The energy of every Houkago Grind Time release is dead pan dead serious grindcore and heartwarming iyashikei moeblobs.
E&D: You’ve got a number of guests on the album; can you tell us about them and how they contributed to the album?
Andrew: Tom from Mass Extinction designed the new Houkago Grind Time logo and the layout, and he’s a fantastic shredder plus we share a love of glam/hard rock, so it only made sense to have him play a rocking solo on the party song. Joseph from Northwest Terror Fest sings on the new Colony Drop record, which I put out through me and my friend Brandon’s label Nameless Grave, and he has a sick crossover type scream that I thought would go great against Billy Smeer’s cockney hardcore shout. I can do a “fat guy powerviolence shout,” but it didn’t sound quite right for that song, so it had to be Billy and Joseph. Then I had Derek and Mark from Myxoma in the Weeb Dungeon for a few days while we were on tour in California, and they did their vocal tracks at that time. Joe from Meatus/Archagathus hit me up about doing a split last year, and I knew I also had to have him do some vocals on this record.
E&D: Can you tell us about the video you have down for the album track ‘Cruel Grinder’s Thesis’?
Andrew: I cut together footage from the shows I played last year. The majority of the footage is from the Asakusa show. Intetsu from the visual kei band AYABIE is a relative of mine, and he wanted to come check out the show and shoot it. Also some shots from Taipei which is the only time you will ever see me on stage with a headstocked guitar. My Kiesel fell over and the bridge fell off, and I didn’t have time to fix it before playing. And then also a bunch of crowd shots from Barely Breathing fest in Long Island. If I wasn’t so damn busy, I’d be there for the 3rd edition of the fest this August, but alas.
E&D: You’re heading over to the UK in September. How excited are you to be touring over here?
Andrew: So glad to be doing the damn thing with my friends in Myxoma (Taiwan), and Gerald from Gendo Ikari/Ashenspire will be driving us. I’m excited to show everyone how fierce Taiwan grindcore is!!
E&D: The tour concludes with you playing at Chimpyfest in London with Fuck The Facts and loads more. Are you excited to be playing that fest?
Andrew: I’m so glad to get back to London, I had a great time at the Black Heart last year with Ripped To Shreds and there’s so many sick bands I haven’t had a chance to catch yet. I’m most looking forward to seeing Meatspreader and Psudoku.
E&D: You’re also playing with great bands from over here on the tour like Endless Swarm. Are you looking forward to checking out all the bands you’re playing with?
Andrew: Yes! Best part of tour is discovering new bands and watching sick drummers blast.
E&D: Will you be playing a lot of material from Koncertos Of Kawaiiness: Stealing Jon Chang’s Ideas, A Book By Andrew Lee on the tour?
Andrew: There’s at least a couple of songs from the new record. Honestly I find it a lot more difficult to memorize grindcore songs than death metal songs, so I change up the setlist much less frequently than I do with Ripped To Shreds, and there’s so many releases that I want to get a few of my favorite tracks from each one.
E&D: When the new album comes out, you’re playing at the Noizee fest in Los Angeles with Tommy Wright III and many others. Are you looking forward to that show?
Andrew: I met Red from Bulma/Noizee Recs at the Mardigrind fest in New Orleans earlier this year and he turned out to be a real one, and he asked me to play his show which I was like he’ll yeah dude lets do it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun!
E&D: Are you a fan of hip hop at all and who do you admire from that world?
Andrew: Before I listened to metal, I was really into hip hop, but that was almost 20 years ago and I haven’t kept up with the new generation at all, so my favorites are still the old 90s/00s artists like Tupac, Nas, DJ Premier, Lauryn Hill, Dr Dre, Mobb Deep. I still fuck with a lot of the “corny” shit on radio rotation back then too, Ashanti, Chingy, Ja Rule.
E&D: Would you love to work with someone like Tommy Wright III on a track?
Andrew: To be honest, I’m not really sure what that would add to a grindcore song. Maybe a split for the meme factor but Fentanyl Surprise already did that with Viper and then…. yeah Viper kind of turned out to be a total piece of shit. Can’t be collabing with just anyone if you don’t know em well.
E&D: What Houkago Grind Time live shows have been the most memorable to you so far?
Andrew: Easily the one in Asakusa, with Go-zen and Needle Contaminated Pork. When I play HGT sets here in the states, only a handful of people actually get any of the anime samples or references, but everyone at Asakusa was a true otaku.
E&D: What are your favourite ever pieces of anime?
Andrew: Top ten in no particular order with movies/OVAs/tv shows mixed together: Totoro, Kemonozume, FLCL, Ghost in the Shell, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Escaflowne, K-On, OreImo, Konosuba, Haruhi-chan
E&D: How did Houkago Grind Time start as a band in the first place?
Andrew: Harlan from Bodies Lay Broken asked me to fill in on second guitar for his band Extremely Brutal at Antimusic Fest in Ohio. Once I’d learned the set I thought “dam these riffs slap. I need to start my own goregrind project.” And then the rest is history. I credit Houkago Grind Time with really leveling up my abilities as an engineer because of how many splits and EPs I pump out. It wouldn’t make any sense for Ripped To Shreds to have that kind of release schedule, so all the Ripped To Shreds releases post 2019 would’ve sounded like total garbage without that experience.
E&D: What are your favourite ever mincecore/grindcore albums?
Andrew: Archagathus’ Mincecore Demo 2005, Archagathus split with Meatspreader, Stoma’s Scat Aficionados, Pizza Hi-Five split with Powercup, Lunk split with Myxoma, Hyperemesis split with Agathocles
E&D: Are there plans for new Ripped To Shreds material?
Andrew: New album out in a few months!
E&D: What have been some of your favourite moments with Ripped To Shreds?
Andrew: Every moment I spend on the road rawking out with the boys!
E&D: What other music are you working on at the moment that you can tell us about?
Andrew: Working on a glam album with Mark Boals (ex-Yngwie, Ring of Fire) on vocals. Almost done with lyrics/vocal melodies, I hope to get it mixed and out there early next year.
E&D: Who is the biggest influence on you as a musician?
Andrew: Every DIY grinder out there who’s trying to record, mix, and release their own records! I couldn’t point to a specific person when I think about the entire approach to writing and releasing grindcore. If we’re specifically talking about guitar as a means of expression and attitude towards the instrument, then it’s probably Paul Gilbert. Man never stopped pushing and reinventing himself ever since the 80s, and right now I’m trying to really incorporate hybrid and economy picking into my playing so I make crazier angular lines that aren’t possible or comfortable with my normal playing style.
