A lot of crazy bands
have come out of Louisiana, and ABUSE is one of them. If you ever heard
of EXHORDER, this is exactly who they sound like with a twist more of craziness.
This interview is a bit old and the address is there old one, I lost their
new one, so if someone knows it, let me know.
VOID OF TOLERANCE-Last time I talked to you you were preparing
to record, tell us about that, you know, the format it’s going to be in,
release date, etc?
ABUSE-Well, it’s going to be on disk, we’re going with CD’s
this time. We’re going to have full cover front and lyrics. Hopefully we’ll
be working with Philip Ansalmo, from PANTERA, hopefully. Were going to
do ten new songs that haven’t been recorded, and wer’e going in on the
14th of Dec. and be done with it by the 29th. We’re going to shoot for
no later then Feb. it have that out.
VOT-Ok, is Philip suppost to be producing it?
ABUSE-Yeah, we talked to him a little bit about it, he might
come in in the later part. As far as he said he’s going to have a part
in the production of it, and if not we’re just going to do it ourselfs
because the studio’s pretty nice and we have two weeks.
VOT-So your going to have time to lay back instead of rushing
through it
ABUSE-Yeah, with the last recording, “Gruesome Tales of Sex
and Sickness” we originally was going to do it in three days, it took us
five days. This time we have fourteen days total, and there eight hour
days too.
VOT-Tell us a bit about that last release, “Gruesome.....”, the
response it’s gotten and stuff like that.
ABUSE-I feel that it’s gotten a real good response. We’re almost
out of tapes, and we ordered 500. We put them out in Blockbuster Music
and they sold there, we’ve had them distributed at record stores and at
shows. As far as fanzines, we’ve sent a lot off to fanzines, so it’s been
out there, hopefully since people know our name a little better now the
nect one will be better.
VOT-How is the new release going to be the same or different
from the prior release?
ABUSE-I would say more aggressive and brutal. The drums on it
are going to smoke. We have a few songs we tuned lower to give it a heavier
edge. It’s going to be in the same vein, in the same style, but it’s gotten
a lot more complex and is better written.
VOT-Is there any tentitive title for it?
ABUSE-I believe it’s going to be called “A Sunday Morning Killing
Spree.”
VOT-Would it have to do with any mass murderer?
ABUSE-It’s just a title. The songs are about different issues
and stuff.
VOT-Ok, on the writting, who does the writting for the lyrics.
ABUSE-The lyrics are done by Travis, the vocals, he does most
of his own lyrics. As far as the music goes, I’d say I write about 70%
of it and the rest would be Philip, our rhythm guitar player, then the
rest.
VOT-Since you mentions a few of the band members, could you tell me who the rest are? ABUSE-We have Travis V on vocals, he’ll be 23 in Dec., then me, Brian Strong, I’ll be 23 on Sat. (11/23/96-I hope I got that right!), I do lead guitar. Next is Philip , he just turned 22, he plays rhythm guitar, and we got Jeremy Young on bass, he’s 21. And last we have Jason R. on drums, he turned 21 not too long ago.
VOT-Ok, let’s back up abit. ABUSE isn’t originally from Louisiana,
mention about where you started from, abit about how you got together,
and how you ended up in Lousiana.
ABUSE-We all were friends in Mississippi , and Travis, Jeremy
and I use to jam in a band together, then that broke up and then we formed
ABUSE as a four piece later getting Jason on drums. ABUSe was a four piece
for a good two years, then we decided we needed something more, so we got
Philip, and we’ve been a five piece ever since. now, we moved over here
last year in May, so we’ve been here for close to a year and a half.
VOT-So why the move over there?
ABUSE-Well, we seen bands from over here, CROWBAR, Phil is from
here, EXHORDER was from this area; even though there’s not a lot in heavy
music here, there is a lot more then there is in Mississippi. There’s a
lot of good bands over there that you will never hear about because of
no clubs. We were playing over here almost every week so we thought, why
not kmove over here anyway instead of having to drive an hour and a half.
VOT-Yeah, you mentions CROWBAR, EXHORDER and everything. How
has response been locally for ABUSE?
ABUSE-Pretty good man! We’re head-lining now instead of opening.
If we do open it’s for like SOILENT GREEN or ACID BATH, or a signed act.
We’re just waiting for a label now.
VOT-Outside of playing Louisiana and Mississippi where else have
you played?
ABUSE-yeah, we played Houston one time, it wasn’t really a good
gig, it was at a college and it was the same day GREEN DAY played. We’ve
played in Florida and have had good resonse over there, and Alabama.
VOT-So what’s in the future for ABUSE or what would you like
to see?
ABUSE-I’d really like to get an album deal. I don’t just want
any kind of record deal, I want a decent one. Our recording that were going
to put out is going to be a quality recording, and if a label could pick
us up and get us tours and dates to play, that what direction I would like
us to go in.
VOT-Anything else in general to say?
ABUSE-We would like people to give us a chance, we work hard
at what we do.
VOT-I guess that would be all for now, thanks for the interview.
ABUSE-Yeah, I just would like to say that our album is going
to be out in Feb. And people can write to 3500 Division St. #286, Metairie,
LA., 70002, USA.