THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE - Ritual #2 (March 2010)

INTERVIEW MED ANDREW NOLAN FRA THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE.

Could you introduce yourself and your projects:

2010 Line up is Bloomer, Carroll, Edgar, King, Nolan

Related Blockade projects:

Slaughter Strike
Brutal Knights
Sahkalin
Ride at Dawn
Piss Horn
Joshua Norton Cabal
Death Agonies
Windscale
Gack
Black Paintings

Probably some other noise projects that I've either forgotten about or don't know about.

How did the journey of the Endless Blockade begin and where is it taking the band now:

We formed in 2003, changed drummers in 2004 and added a fifth member for live purposes in 2010.

What were your intentions for the band to begin with, was there a concept, genre or something alike decided from the beginning:

To be honest any band that I'm the main song writer in is going to sound kind of like this band, I can't really play any other way for the most part.

To me there's a clear change in execution at the point when we recorded the Hatred Surge split when I changed my focus slightly, whether anyone else hears it or cares is debatable.

Are you still influenced by the same music you listened to when you started?

We're probably influenced by less music than when we first started, but nothing new.

Many hardcore listeners seem to have placed The Endless Blockade along with Hatred Surge and Iron Lung as the front men of the new wave of "true" powerviolence. Is this a position you can see yourself in?

I haven't heard us referred to as True Power Violence; it strikes me as faintly ridiculous. We're influenced by power violence, nothing more.

The noise incorporation in the music of Endless Blockade seems to me like a perfect choice for making the music more intense and brutal. Was it a choice from the beginning? And what are your thoughts on the two genres working together?

The noise was there on the first demo and the split LP with Warzone Womyn, it was just buried in the mix a lot more.

Noise is something natural for us and we don't spend that much time over thinking its role in Blockade; it's not something exotic or out of the ordinary for us.

I've been making noise recordings for around 20 years now and finally bothered to put my two musical currents together with this band having always had some degree of resistance in most of the bands I've played in before this point.

Everyone in Blockade has some noise related project on the go concurrently with our main focus.

What equipment and amplification do you use live and in the studio; is there a difference, and how important is it for the "blockade" sound?

It's important that we have half decent gear for volume and frequency response.

Noise wise the live setting is more stripped than in the studio, we travel light, Matthew will use a feedback loop, I'll use either a noise generator, a small synth of some contact mics and metal and an A/B switch into my amp.

We now have an extra member playing noise with us live so it can be integrated into the songs more now and not just used to fill the silence between blocks of songs or at the start and finish of our performance.

You played in Shank before the Endless Blockade. Shank were stationed in Glasgow which one probably can imagine is a lot different than Canada. How differs Europe from Canada in a musical perspective?

Well, it's hard for me to talk about Canada as it's pretty big and there's not much going on in most of the country.

But I think North Americans on the whole are more serious about their bands and Europeans are more serious about the cultural aspect of punk.

I think there's generally a better quality of bands over here (sorry but it's true), but the scene is very transient; there's barely anyone over the age of 21 involved and the infrastructures that are in place could all come crashing down at any moment.

And of course there are good and band bands everywhere in the world..

Songs like "Don't Voice Your Opinion" have what you could call an anti-punk message (say what you want to say seems to be a punk mantra). Could you explain the words behind the song?

It's less anti-punk and more anti-modernist I guess.

Society is over saturated with information and the seemingly meaningless exchange of that information. I think that telling people that everyone is a special individual and we should all be given equal attention is as damaging as constantly telling people they'll never amount to anything.

Quiet contemplating is apparently out of style. Almost everyone has an opinion on absolutely everything and by God they're going to tell you what they think whether you care or not and being unable to string together of coherent thought isn't going to be in anyone's way.

Most of us, and I certainly include myself here, are not nearly as smart, important and indispensable as we'd sometimes like to think we are.

Everywhere there's this incessant cultural noise and it's so tediously 'interactive'. Some people just seem to make as much noise as possible for fear that they'll disappear if they stop broadcasting their bullshit.

I'd like to hope that whilst others are shouting every half baked thought that enters their head that at the quiet periphery others are evolving into something better.

In general The Endless Blockade seems not to be a fifteen shows a month kind of band unlike a lot of "hardcore" bands. How do you feel about playing live?

Well, geography and age play a large role here.

If we were to play 15 shows a month we'd have to tour a lot more and touring regularly in Canada is largely a waste of time for a band that sounds like us so we need to go to the US (which is less distance for us to travel than to play pretty much anywhere else in Canada).

The problem with going to the US is that we have to sneak our equipment over the border which is always a stressful situation. Not to mention the fact that I'm not a Canadian citizen so there's always an added layer of bullshit for me to deal with.

I like playing shows occasionally, but not all the time. I find that I'm usually at least 15 years older than most of the people that come to our shows so it's often a little weird for me.

And let's not forget the financial cost is becoming more and more prohibitive for a lot of people to tour. Punk barely even breaks even these days.

The music of Endless Blockade seems to vary from release to release. You have recently released a split with noise/powerviolence mentors Bastard Noise where you contributed the fourteen minute long track Deuteronomy. Does this musical evolution come intentionally or is it a development on a more subconscious level?

I think our sound varies form release to release primarily because I write music for specific releases now. I haven't written a batch of songs with no purpose in mind since the earliest days now.

I find that if I set clear parameters at the start then I'm able to get a better end result and Deuteronomy was a clear example of this process.

The lyrics and imagery of The Endless Blockade often deal withe esoteric and occult themes on a profound basis. A line that stuck with me is "Man understands divinity / like a dog understands electricity". How is the occult an inspiration for your music?

I think of all the lines I've ever written that's one of the few that encapsulates exactly what I wanted to say succinctly and clearly.

Esoteric and occult ideas are an influence on The Endless Blockade in as much as they're an influence on my life and sometimes leak through.

I'm not setting about casting runes before I can make a move; I prefer to see esoteric traditions and ideas as being part of a living and permanently evolving worldview that adds another level of experience to this painfully meaningless existence that most of us lead.

There is a tendency in musical cultures to treat esoteric ideas as somehow naturally evil and blasphemous and in general this betrays a complete lack of understanding. I can appreciate the validity of playing the role of adversary but a lot of musical acts with occult images seem to be as confused as the drunkest of the drunk punk crusties.

In another interview, you described your approach to playing live as having the same elements as a magick ritual (as Crowley taught it). In my opinion, playing live is always some kind of ritual, be it social, psychological, or spiritual, and "errors" (like feedback) can never fully be controlled. Can you explain your view on this?

That sounds like the interview with Sleeping Shaman webzine where I likened aspects of the noise at the start and end of our sets being like a banishing ritual and helping me get in and out of the 'right' state when playing live.

Playing live can certainly be like some sort of ritual but sometimes people seem to confuse rituals with routines. Obviously it all boils down to intent and deliberately setting out to effect some form of change. Very few bands have those goals when performing live, I generally don't have those goals; mostly it's just about playing live with little greater importance than throwing yourself into the void for a short period of time.

Sometimes people who are really into ritual and ceremony just have a form of religious Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Lesser Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram get turned into psychic equivalents of washing your hands fifty eight times after touching a door knob...

How does 2010 look for The Endless Blockade

We played the other side of Canada a few weeks ago, our split with Bastard Noise just came, we're playing a week of shows with Hatred Surge in a few weeks, we're mixing our split LP with Unearthly Trance this month and then that's about it for a while I think.

In summary; busy at the start of the year, pretty low key for the rest.

Last but not least, what are you reading and listening to at the present time? Is there any underrated bands or books you want people to know about?

The best books I've read recently are Maldoror - Comte de Lautremont and Turning Back the Clock - Umberto Eco. Musically, well, this could last forever, but today I've listened to:
Ramleh - The Hand of Glory
Sockeye - Retards Hiss Past My Window
Witch Tomb - Crippled Messiah
Todd - Comes to Your House
Claws - Absorbed in the Nethervoid
Fall of Because - Life is Easy
Pink Turds in Space - discography
I've been listening to Geriatric Unit and Haters (UK not US) a lot lately.

THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE - Inverted Forest #1 (May 2010)

Toronto's Endless Blockade have continually exceeded all (high) expectations with their releases, with each more powerful and virulent as the last. The latest Bastard Noise split is clear evidence of that and should be picked up immediately.

Andrew Nolan is a very interesting and insightful person and shows that in this interview.

Could we please get the perfunctory introductions out of the way? Who are the members of the band and how long have you been around?

Formed in 2003, current line up: Bloomer, Carroll, Edgar, King, Nolan

What were the original intentions of the band? Do you think that these have been fulfilled? I have seen that the 3rd LP is slated to be the last; will this mean the end of the band?

I was perhaps a little rash in proclaiming our third LP would be our last, but it will probably still be the case. A band can only last for so long and remain vital and relevant to its members.

Given the self imposed restrictions we put on our music there's only really so much we can do with it until it becomes stale to us. We'll see what happens; I think there's life in the beast yet, but when it's time to stop we'll kill it without a second though.

How much time do you spend on your lyrics? Do you think that within hardcore punk there is an acceptance of weaker lyrics simply because they are not always easily decipherable in the context of the music? How important is lyrical content to you?

I'll have ideas of what I want to put across in a song and think about several of those ideas for a while before just getting everything out in one sitting if possible. I don't spend a lot of time trying to get them 'right', I'll figure out the key parts that need to be in the song and go from there.

I think there's acceptance of weak everything in our world and punk is generally no different. I only really notice lyrics when someone points out to me how utterly appalling they are, by and large I can live with them and pay only scant attention to most bands' lyrics.

Very few people (and I most certainly include myself in this statement) have much to say that the whole world needs to hear.

I've seen that you have commented that the recent split with Bastard Noise was something of a laborious process. Care to elaborate? Are you happy with the finished product?

We're all very happy with the end product and yes it was a long and laborious process at almost every level imaginable and everyone in Blockade lost their mind and interest at some point of its long and painful birthing process.

Anyone familiar with your work will be aware that there is significant discourse relating to religion and its faults within the lyrics. Freud suggested that religion will exists as long as fear is present within human nature. The implication being that we will never be rid of organised religion. Do you think that humanity will ever see a time where religion does not exist? Do human beings even deserve that freedom?

I think saying the reason that religion exists is based entirely on fear is the kind of useless bullshit you can hear from any armchair atheist with no real understanding of the role religion has played in the world either historically or presently.

People will also go on at great lengths to tell you that religion is the casue of all wars. Religion is present in lots of wars but it's not the cause, if anything it's more like the Twinkie Defence in a murder trial.

Religion appears in two forms; an individual form and a mass form.

Religion as an aspect of society was born out of a need for another racial/tribal identifier. People who worshiped different gods than you did were not your kin and thus both easily identifiable and easy to wage a war with.

It also served/serves as simple moral instruction and allegory. This is something the fundamentalists get horrifically wrong almost every single time. It's also something the atheists get confused with; as if they're confusing myth with fairytale (the two are very different.)

As a personal need it's generally just a way of acknowledging you don't know how the universe works.

The idea of a religion that crosses racial boundaries is a relatively new one. Any good practicing Christian can enter the kingdom of heaven; they just have to accept Christ as their redeemer. Same with Islam, those crazy militant fundamentalists that we're lead to believe are in our midst waiting to slit our children's throats will actually take a short break when everyone converts. The Jews are different though, you can't decide to be one of God's chosen people, you have to be born into it. Sure, people do convert to Judaism but in my experience those people are treated as curiosities and not taken seriously without the matrilineal heritage.

So religion has changed over the years as being a way of keeping the bloodline intact (kill non believers) to a way of keeping an idea alive (convert non believers). And I realise I'm skipping over things like supersessionism, but this is a punk zine and not a theological tome (unless I've been horribly misinformed).

Without a religious imperative wars would have still occurred, they would have just had to find another excuse for coming into being. People would have probably gone to war over what kind of local flora and fauna another land had without the God angle.

Saying things like 'No Gods No Masters' is cute but ultimately addresses a whole lot of nothing and to my mind is like trying to convert gay people to heterosexuality. A personal religious need is perfectly acceptable and often a deep seated human need that goes far beyond our modern understanding.

I think that modern atheism is generally nothing more than Victorian parlour games; witty intellectual conundrums and little else. I see the most useless aspects of religion (in particular fundamentalism, easily the dumbest and most modern thing about religious thought) and modern scientific atheism as being exactly the same stupid things; both want to make the universe a smaller and more explainable place. This is something I have no interest in; I want the universe to be incomprehensibly huge and daunting. I don't need answers to every single thing.

Religion will tell you that things are the way they are "because God deemed it so, hey, no talking in the back, this is God's chosen representative on earth talking to you here." And scientific atheism will tell you things like stimulating a certain part of the brain will induce a feeling of divine presence and being in love is just a mere chemical reaction that ultimately means nothing.

I don't need science to tell me that I'm a bag of meat and bones with some weird chemical reactions going on to make me move. I accept that I am, but life is something I still find myself experiencing and it can't be explained so neatly.

I also don't need a religion to tell me that there are mysteries in the world and that trees and flowers grow for magical/divine reasons. I accept that my knowledge and experience is crushingly limited and I will never really understand even the tiniest fraction of how the universe works. And let's not forget that a wasp experiences the world in a far different way than a dog. Which one experiences the world 'correctly' and which one is deluded?

The term God encapsulates everything we don't know about the world. God is the idea of an idea. God is the idea of perfection, and as flawed human beings we have no idea of what perfection even looks like. So when someone tells you God speaks to them how do they even understand what's being said?

Even when people talk about God being a 'force' they humanise what God is. I take the stance that God is something I will never know or understand or be able to experience and for that reason is largely irrelevant in my life.

Neither religion nor atheism are able to speak to what God actually is (or is the absence of) so I reject them both as irrelevant to my life and sphere of understanding.

Do you believe that there is an anti-intellectual streak in punk music or punks in general?

I think modern life certainly doesn't encourage an inner life or quiet introspection, which could be conceived of as being anti-intellectual I guess.

I haven't noticed a specific anti-intellectual streak in punk though. If punk isn't visceral then I'm not really interested in it so I'm ok with it being perceived as dumb.

If you watch any documentary on the development of hardcore in the US the same talking heads will tell you punk was something wonderfully liberating and artistic until all the violent yobs came along in the 1980s and ruined it for everyone. Clearly those pesky working class oiks just had to ruin everyone's fun and good for them. I'd rather listen to Agnostic Front than X any day.

The Endless Blockade is building up quite a sizeable back catalogue now, is there any release that stands out in your mind or one that you are most proud of?

Probably Primitive, though I like the Bastard Noise split a lot.

What do you think of the use of descriptors like power violence these days? Do you think that settings such as internet message boards have created an environment where more emphasis is placed on genres rather than the actual output of a band? I guess what I'm trying to say is, do genres matter in hardcore punk?

It's generally only important if a band is good or not, however you choose to define good. If a band doesn't have some sense of internal logic and consistency then they'll almost always fail. Being aware of the minutiae and subtleties of genre above and beyond a "recommend me some power violence like Apathetic Ronald McDonal" level goes part way to accomplishing this.

I think message boards have created and environment where it's important to be seen as legitimate as quickly as possibly and it's fairly tedious to behold.

Trash Talk and Ceremony were the buzz bands for a while and now they seem to be written off as farts at a funeral; quite what happened is beyond me, perhaps people want to prove they have better taste than everyone else?

With black metal over the last few years there's been a rush to proclaim Blasphemy, Von and Beherit as the only bands worth listening to, which is great, I love those three bands and people should pay attention to them, but if it's only lip service in the quest for self legitimisation what's the point?

You can see it already with the new Burzum LP, many people are desperate to be the first to write it off as either garbage or the second coming of black metal based on listening to half of a sub-par download on laptop speakers.

Punk is no different; I heard Fucked Up jumped the shark because they have too many guitar tracks on their recordings or something.

I miss the days when you'd spend a year listening to an album before moving on to the next one.

But regarding your questions of genre, it's hard to say how important it is. There'll always be be people that will call Melt Banana noise, Morbid Angel thrash, Siege power violence, Slayer death metal and you get the picture...

From what I can gather your live shows incorporate a lot of noise elements. What is the usual crowd reception to this? Have you head any fan response regarding the Noah Creshevsky or The Rita remixes that are included with the new split with Bastard Noise?

We definitely use a lot more noise live now and have added a fifth live member to assist with this and integrate it more. Some people are into the noise live, some don't like it at all, some understand the noise on the recordings better when they hear it live at loud volume.

The reception to the tracks by Noah Creshevsky and The Rita have been largely predictable, some people dislike them, some people love them, some people want to try and understand it and ask questions. The Rita is certainly not what I would call entry level noise so that's definitely a tough one to get your head around if you've no real prior experience with noise as a genre.

I think people who were familiar with Noah Creshevsky's work before are amazed we got him to work with us and genuinely excited about the track.

Have you always been interested in the occult and the use of symbols and codes? How important are these to the identity of the band?

Possibly more than any other band I've been in previously I consider this band to be a large part of 'me' and consequently a lot of my interests break through the surface.

The occult is just a word than can signify a lot of different ideas of various merits. To me it represents another selection of ways of understanding and interacting with the universe. It's also a way of coding larger pieces of information into much smaller formats for other people to either decipher or not. The Unearthly Trance split LP came about largely because of shared aesthetics and language.

My interest in more esoteric matters has been an ebb and flow since I was a child. My first academic (i.e. an awareness of formulised systems by other people who didn't merely experience 'weird shit' as I had been for a number of years) interest came in my early teens after reading books (and practicing their examples) by Sylvan Muldoon and Oliver Fox and listening to several tapes obtained from my Sorcerers' Apprentice in Leeds. In my late teems it was Robert Anton Wilson, Peter Carroll, Phil Hine, Ramsey Dukes, Discordianism and others and from my 20s and onwards its been a strange mix of doomsday cults, post-Golden Dawn thinkers/practitioners, hermetic Qabalah, anti-modernist/anti-enlightenment ideals, antinomianism, Perrenialism and a lot of dysfunctional thought occasionally labeled as 'transgressive'.

And I view it all as being important and equally ridiculous. "It's" both the most important thing informing my worldview and complete and utter nonsense at the same time. "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" as Hassan-i Sabbah probably never actually said (but it makes for a nice anecdote).

What do you think about record collecting? What about record collectors?

I have an extensive and great record collection, what can I say? I've gone through significant periods in my life where money went on records or postage for trades at the expensive of rent or food.

The "Primitive" LP contains guest vocals from Jello Biafra; how did that eventuate?

Dave Adelson (20 Buck Spin guy) used to be the label manager at Alternative Tentacles and pulled the favour.

I have a fifteen minute CD of Jello saying "Endless Blockade" in more and more ridiculous voices including George W Bush and Elmer Fudd impersonations.

What do you have in mind for the future of the band? Any thoughts of an Australian or SE Asia tour?

I played some shows in Australia ten years ago and had a great time. If someone will pay for our flights upfront then we'll consider it carefully.

The future of the band is anyone's guess, we'll see when we get there.