Leng Tch'e
Leng Tch'e
Hi there, how are things in Belgium this nice summer?
Sven: Heya! Things are pretty cool here, not in the weather sense of things cause I'm baking my nuts off here in my office ;) but it's been quite busy with Leng Tch'e, Playing a lot of shows, doing some cool festivals, so all in all, we have no reason to complain at all.
Will you please start off by introducing yourself and tell us why you use your time in Leng Tch'e?
Sven: Hi I'm Sven, I play in this band called Leng Tch'e, we play songs, fast songs, grindcore with a twist of rock 'n roll and hardcore. I use my time in Leng Tch'e because obviously I'm too retarded to be doing anything else that actually makes money and gets you bitches. But you know, sometimes the less talented among us have to resort to some sort of exuberant exposition of their musical mischiefs as well, this is where Leng Tch'e fits in.
A small introduction to the rest of the band will be killer as well, and maybe a bit about their weak and strong sides too?
Sven: What do you mean weak sides? We don't have weak sides, we're all super awesome, actually one of our hobbies is being superheroes, we kick so much ass in various kinds of ways, we could fucking kung fu chop up your whole country by only thinking about it! The rest of the band is not important, they're all homos anyways. We got G and Jan who are Guitarded, Nicolas is showing off his chest and playing Bass and Boris who is Dutch, which is bad enough on itself, leave alone we even let him touch the microphone. Pity on you, pity!
You have just released your new attack of blistering grindcore "The Process Of Elimination", how has it so far been received by the press and your fans?
Sven: So far things have all been going pretty well, we definitely didn't expect people to like it this much, it was pretty much a transition record for us since there was a lot that happened in the band in between this and the previous record, a step into a more mature direction; I think the record turned out great, but for sure we didn't expect people to go bananas on it like they have been recently, thanks to everyone who is supporting the band!
How do you feel about the album?
Sven: Somewhat in between constipation and raw animal sex. It has its sweet moments, it's hardcore blasting parts and the necessary dose of groove to make us happy.
When you first started out to write the music for the album, what was the initial blueprint?
Sven: We never really have a blueprint or anything, anything goes within Leng Tch'e really. As long as each song fits with the band and we like it, it'll go. Off course it all somewhat stays within our own boundaries of "razorgrind" but as long as it blasts, grooves or rocks, we’re all good to go.
Do you think you have accomplished what you set out to hit?
Sven: I think the record turned out how it should, there are some things production-wise and also playing-wise we wish we could have done a bit better, but that's always the case with any record, it's definitely our most pissed off sounding record so far, the main goal was to work a bit more on our style and let the whole ensemble sound a lot more mature, I think we managed to pull that off with this one.
What do you expect from the album?
Sven: We don't really expect much, just hope that people are liking it and support the band, come to shows, buy the record or whatever they feel like they want to do. As long as we're enjoying ourselves, that’s all that matters. We're a very hard working band and just want to play out as much as possible. Besides that, we wish we got sluts and free cars, but that might be a bit out of touch, for now at least. Your money will do, haha
If you had to explain the album and sound of Leng Tch'e to a common metalhead, not knowing of the band, how would the description then sound?
Sven: Razor fucking grind. Simple as that, razorsharp angry pissed off grindcore with a furious dose of rock 'n roll and hardcore. That's the most fitting thing I'll say.
What would you like to accomplish with your music?
Sven: Play as much shows for as much people as possible, would be the number one goal. Also score your mom as a close second.
How does the band work when making music, do you have a main-composer or do you make the music in the rehearsal room, or?
Sven: Usually we work things out on rehearsals. The guitarists sometimes work out ideas at home and then we just finish the whole process in the rehearsal space with the drums, vocals usually come the last, or even in studio, it's a very loose way of working.
Where do you find inspiration for the fierce and hard hitting music?
Sven: Daily life frustrations really, what makes everyone go nuts, it's a release of anger. Plus all the different styles of music we all listen to contribute to this as well off course.
Many bands within your genre have a problem with keeping the songs interesting and varied throughout an album, you obviously don't, what is your secret?
Sven: We hate boring music. There is no point in blasting through a whole CD, or playing the same groove all the time, we want to keep things interesting and try to blend in as much different angles as possible; the songs are short so we can only do a limited amount of things, yet we try to keep everything as focussed and diverse as possible.
How do you look upon the grindcore scene nowadays?
Sven: Same as to any scene, there are good bands, there are bad bands. It’s up to everyone to pick out the bands they like for themselves. The biggest thing that usually bothers me in the grindcore scene is that some people seem to make it a race to who is the most "underground" or whatever. Which is plain retarded, all extreme metal is underground, we're not Britney Spears or anything. If you only want to listen to tapes of bands that were recorded in a garage, then that's your choice of course, but do it because you like the bands, not because it's cool to listen to a shitty tape that no one heard of and you feel superior because you got the goddamn tape. Fuck the underground police.
Any new and great bands in their way up and which of the old bands are your favourites?
Sven: As for old bands it's quite easy: Napalm Death, Regurgitate, Hiatus, Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass, Entombed, Hemdale etc. etc. so many to mention and some are still strongly active (respect!); newer bands, Cliteater, Inhume, Fubar, Suppository, Sayadina, Rotten Sound, and many many more are all doing a kickass job at representing a healthy part of the scene!
What is your preferred music and how much inspiration do you draw from that?
Sven: We all honestly listen to a lot of different things, not even metal related so it's hard to pinpoint one thing, I think everything you see or hear gets involved in your own creative process till some point, it would be silly to answer one thing.
Jan: I listen to all types of metal and hardcore. These last days I've been listening a lot to The Fucking Champs (math heavy metal), but that's not something I want to put into the Leng Tch'e's music of course. Bands and music styles that are more likely to be heard in the new Leng Tch'e songs are noise acts like Unsane, hardcore legends Fury Of Five, the stoner/doom band Yob and of course Mastodon too. It's kind of strange to say how much seeing Aborted play live also will have an influence on my share of the new songs, it's strange for the obvious reason that Svencho is in the band. It will never be as technical, but that's never been the plan anyway. People say the new songs have a lot of Converge riffs in them too.
Nicolas: Basically all of us listen to a whole lot of different stuff, from death metal to grindcore to hardcore, from rock 'n roll to jazz. We try to incorporate all these influences in our music while keeping in the "razorgrind" framework. On that note, I'd like to add that our next album will have a saxophone solo and Nigerian conga players.
Will you initiate us in your lyrical universe, which topics do you touch and how important is the lyrics for Leng Tch'e?
Sven: Our lyrics used to be really retarded with our ex-singer just talking about his dad all the time, but since then we have taken things in our own hands and started working out more serious topics. There are still some joke lyrics (who however have a very sarcastic point to prove), but mainly we talk about daily life and frustrations, global policies, bigotry, racism, various topics really.
Do you care to pull out 5 tracks from "The Process Of Elimination" and tell is about the exact lyrics for them and what inspired them?
Nicolas: 'The fist Of The Leng Tch'e': Is about using music as a weapon for the masses to rise up and fight mass consumption and general stupidity.
'Another Hit Single': Is about how the radio plays the same retarded songs over and over again and how hit singles are created void of any artistic creativity, just some marketing fags looking to score a quick buck and further reduce the listener's intelligence.
'Don't Touch My Spandex': Is an ode to German hardrockers who still wear purple tiger skin spandex pants and lots and lots of patches on their denim jackets. We salute you mighty metal warriors.
'Man's Inhumanity To Man': Homicide in the name of god is totally uncool.
'Testosterone Collar': Is about macho dudes who acquire large amounts of bling to compensate for their small reproductive organs.
Do you care to explain the idea behind the track 'Pimp' from "The Process Of Elimination"? It stands quite out with the stoner rock atmosphere and organ!
Nicolas: We had 2 stoner/rock 'n roll songs on our previous album as well, like Sven said we like to mix it up. Usually we play this as a final song live so that everybody can leave in a positive vibe, man. The lyrics are a parody on gangsta rap.
Do you think you can make a change with your music and lyrics?
Nicolas: No we're not that pretentious haha. We just play the music we enjoy playing and hope everybody has a good time at our concerts. Our music is pretty extreme so I highly doubt that we'll reach any new kids with this record. The only thing we could perhaps change is to make other bands see that hard work and dedication pays off and you, yes you can tour the world too and have grindcore groupies in every country!
Why did you choose to call the album "The Process Of Elimination"?
Nicolas: The album title is about people who are stuck in a rut, be it a 9-to-5 job or a relationship and do nothing but complain about it. This guy on the cover however had enough of it all and went on a killing spree. Not that we advocate violence kids, make love not war!
How would you describe the band's progression from the start until now?
Nicolas: Leng Tch'e started out as more or less a joke band with Anal Torture members, just trying to play guitar and drums and make it to the end of the song in the same time span you know. That's where the whole ninja image came into the picture, we were a gimmick band. Over the years however we realized that we were holding that guitar upside down, you were supposed to hit the drum skins and the mic wasn't plugged in all along! We became more proficient at playing our instruments and writing songs, graduated from Berkley Music School magna cum laude fartissimus, and started to take things a little more serious. At the same time some of the original members felt their girlfriends were more interesting than us (although Sven gives a mean head) so we were forced to replace them with more motivated and better skilled musicians. This of course had an effect on our style as Leng Tch'e became faster, more technical and tons more brootahl!! World renowned major label Relapse were baffled by our performance in the US in 2004 and made us sell our souls to them. I wasn't planning on doing anything useful with it anyway. We started recording our last album early 2005, realized original singer Isaac didn't have the vocal and lyrical capabilities to keep up with our progression, replaced him with Boris (ex-Suppository) and here we are kicking ass and talking names.
How would you compare your new album to your 2 earlier full lengths "Death By A Thousand Cuts" and "Manmade Predator"?
Nicolas: Basically you could compare it to Slayer going from "Show no Mercy" to "Hell Awaits": they dropped the makeup and traded the spandex for leather. Just replace "makeup" with "ninja".
Do you play a lot live and how is it to witness a Leng Tch'e concert?
Nicolas: We definitely try to play as often as possible, however Aborted still is and will always be Sven's priority so it takes a lot of planning in advance. We try to perform in the most energetic and brutal way without falling all over each other in a big pile of steaming homosexualism. That stuff should stay in the locker room where it belongs. Witnessing Leng Tch'e live will make you punch your best friend in the face, snap your neck and lose your girlfriend.
Do you have any plans of coming up to Scandinavia and deliver some shows?
Nicolas: Hell yeah! All the people in Scandinavian bands we've met and toured with have been hella cool to us so we'd love to sail up there and conquer your lands. I've only been up to Denmark myself with Aborted and that show kicked all kinds of ass.
How do you look upon the future of Leng Tch'e, and how much more do you think you have to offer?
Nicolas: Leng Tch'e will continue to grow as a band so all you underground warriors hoping that we'll record silly songs in a toilet bowl and release them on a 8-way split 7" can kiss that little fantasy goodbye. The line-up we have right now is the most promising we ever had and the new songs we're already writing easily blow anything off our last album straight out of the water!
Will you share your 3 all time favourite albums with us?
Nicolas: I don't really have any 3 all time favourite albums but these bands influenced me a lot growing up: Slayer, Cro-Mags and Black Sabbath.
Thanks a ton for answering my questions, if you have anything to add, feel free to fire away now!
Nicolas: Thanks for the interview and hopefully we'll play Scandinavia soon and ride some reindeers, yihaa! Check out our website for all the latest updates.
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