I was lucky enough to fall in love with the genre where there are no unreachable superstars and you are able to have direct contact with your favorite bands. This is a gift that needs to be cherished and so I am super proud to share some first hand quality content with one of my favorite gXc bands! I first saw this band in Bloodshed festival 2014 and was blown away immediately. It's fast, it's raw, it's grim and there is absolutely nothing "happy" about this Besançon machinegun grindcore bunch. I am of course talking about the one and only, punch-in-the-face for a statement -WHORESNATION.
Tell us about the band name and some history, what made you think "I should be in a gXc band" one morning? Which country of this world you think deserves being called that (whores) and why?
Whoresnation started in 2009 in Besançon France. The line up was different back then and it evolved into what's now : Lopin on guitar, the only original member, Tonio behind the drums and Pibe on vocals who joined the band in 2010. But that has recently changed again with the addition of a new bass player.
As individuals we have different backgrounds and I guess that we have always all craved to play in bands and make things happening and grindcore is one big love for the three of us.
As a band we've always played grindcore, trying to be as fast as possible.
The name that was chosen for the band has been questioned many times but the meaning is generally understood. The idea is to play with words and reasign ideas, most, if not all nation are somehow selling them self, "whoring", to capitalism, sacrifizing the wellfare of "citizens" and jeopardazing ecology and life in general. And if it's not put on the altar of capitalism it's most likely about fascism, anyways we're fucked and the concept of nation is wicked and wrong. We target most of the nations with our name, but well, mainly occidental colonial pig countries.
We are rather "no borders" and "no love for a nation", states and governments are deeply unhuman and disgusting.
Of course you understand that the name Whoresnation has nothing to do with sex workers, the word "whores" remains a debate that we absolutely understand, but we've chosen to go on with it. We think that this is also a linguistic debate and we've carried our name for over ten years during which we have played about 360 shows on 3 different continents and kind of grew up with the band, we play grindcore and we stand against all kinds of oppression. We've released some EPs, splits and comps but also two albums, last one which is maybe a bit more deathy was released in 2018 and recently repressed by Lixiviat records. We're actually working on the next one.
It seems to be Whoresnation as a band is getting more and more serious/dark/metal/brutal. Is that image true and what are your main influences?
The speed and brutal part surely comes from the fact that at some point we played a shitload of shows and we practiced a lot, that's Lopin and Tonio's work that payed. The dark and metal part is quite new for the band, Mephitism as mentioned before is rather deathy grindcore, somehow a Death Metal thing in the atmosphere and the riffage was added. Vocals also changed to more growls. That was a natural direction that was taken as Tonio comes from Death Metal and all of us we're quite blown away by the recent new bands and productions in Death Metal with bands like Spectral Voice, Anatomia, Necrot and so on. But grindcore is our main love and we'll remain a grind band.
I don't know if we are more serious but we surely sound more serious. In the band we kind of distinguish 2 eras and we're for sure prouder of the most recent and of course of our last album Mephitism. We recorded at Disvlar studio with our consigliere Steph and it was mixed and mastered by William Blackmon, their work was perfect and that was the first time we were fully satisfied with the production. So maybe all these changes happened because we are now able to do what we want, we're really excited about writing the next chapter.
Is Whoresnation a political band? If not just that, what are other lyrical themes? What is "Who's to Blame? What's to Blame?" about?
We don't really consider WxN as a political band but we surely care about this aspect, we played in many squats and autonomous places, benefit shows, of course we are a leftist individuals and the messages behind songs are politically charged and 100% anti-fascist, anti-sexist and anti-capitalist. Lyrics on the last album are a bit less explicit and darker, they reflect on the human condition in general, we can talk about drugs or work, paranoia and anxiety and so on.
Who's to blame ? What's to blame ? Is some kind of tribute to the Wire, it's a song about drugs, violence, authority and cities. Lower class are always criminalized and used as scapegoat, it's about the war anti-drug and gentrification.
Mephitism is my favorite full lenght grindcore album from 2018. What does "Mephitism" mean and is there a concept throughout the album or rather just a collection of songs?
Mephitism refers to the stench, the thick and choking fuming reek. It's about the poisonous unbreathable atmosphere that our world is sinking in. We chose to remain blurry and picked a name and an artwork that are open to interpretation and let those who are curious listen to the music, check and the lyrics and make their opinion about the meaning of it.
There is a very cool video of you guys playing the legendary St Vitus bar in NYC. and the list of shows you have done is... impressive. Can you tell us more about your experience in US and some of the most memorable shows outside Europe?
We are huge fans of live set at Saint Vitus on youtubeshit, it was super rad that Frank Huang was there to immortalized this very special moment, that was our second show ever in the USA and we had a great time.
Regarding the amount of shows we played we wish we made more, it's never enough but we always managed to play as many shows as we can, it's become harder to find time with life going on but it's always been the main goal of the band: playing live.
Unfortunately we are bit stuck with the fucked up covid situation right now: we were supposed to make our 3rd North American tour in May with No/Mas and Warfuck but it fell through and we had also to postponed our September Eurotour with Endorphins Lost.
USA has always been good to us, and it's great to play there, the two coasts are really different and both are far from our European perception of things, that's also why we love playing there even if sometimes it's challenging. Bad part is to cross the border to the USA or Canada, we were always paranoiac and anxious about that, but once we were there we made great encounters and we helped by lovely and caring people. Also, weed is legal in some states and they've the best coffeeshops I've been in, that's a plus. Next year will be back there and finally do the tour with Warfuck, we're going to tour from the Maryland Deathfest to the Montreal Earslaughter Fest playing shows before and in between.
Outside Europe and North America we have only played in Japan yet. It was a unreal and great experience. We will surely tour there again for the next album. Regarding our top live experiences it's a difficult one … for sure New York was a Highlight as Oakland recently was (with Ghoul and and Impaled) in this huge and amazing venue. Some shows in Japan were absolutely crazy as well with pure raw energy. Playing fest is also most of the time stimulating and rewarding, Bloodshed fest, Maryland Deathfest, Obscene Extreme, Chimpy fest etc. are always made of great memories. We love to play live, everywhere, no matter which continents. We haven't yet tour on a large zone but we hope to discover new places and scenes.
Do you guys get along in the band well? Any threats to kill each other after touring?
Of course we get along, the three of us did a lot together and we have strong bonds. Other bands sometimes describe the way we interact as dad, mom and the child. We're not always agreeing and we're sometimes discussing things but we're united. Sometimes you feel it's time to go home on tour of course, when we're tired we're a bit moody but always finish tours before it becomes a problem.
What are your favorite non-brutal bands that you find to be heavy influences?
Regarding the lyrics (Pibe), French Hiphop and French Punk Rock have always been two big influences, And of course books, movies, series, cultural content that are not metal, but sometimes it's also brutal. Most of the time there are references to these in the words. Musically speaking (Lopin), I would say everything with a guitar in it can be influential. You won’t hear me tell "this riff has been stolen from Neil Young" but somehow we are all classic rock made and its may show up in tiny pieces in our music.
Can you tell us more about Deaf Death Husky records, what has it been up to, what is the main driving force behind this?
Deaf Death Husky is my (Pibe) records and tapes label. I try to help out friends as much as possible and to put out records I love. From the age of 15 I started to run DIY label and it's a part of my life, it's a very intense hobby and at the moment it's a bit slowed down but still, I just got my copies of the Satan Album called Toutes Ces Horreurs a band with which WxN made a split with long ago. But since I have moved to Paris my activity with the label is not hectic, but the husky never dies, it takes a nap.
What are other French bands our readers should check out?
Magma that's for sure! Well in the DIY scene we have many friends and luckily quite a lot of great bands ! If you're into grindcore and angry music check Warfuck and Satan that were mentioned before but also Blockheads, Doomsisters, Chiens, Deletär, Strong as Ten, Vomi Noir and all related projects.
The French scene is wide and various, luckily if you want some help to understand it Romain from Terminal Sound Nuisance blog wrote an awesome guide the French Punk Scene if you guys are interested just google "French DIY Punk Scene: The Definitive Guide" !
We are supposed to play some shows in autumn (mostly domestic) but we won’t be surprised if the covid situation will make it fell apart. Hopefully we’ll be able to play our postponed North American and European tours next year. The main information is we are slowly writing songs for the new album which should be released in 2021.
I (Lopin) would have think the mandatory home containment would be a great amount of time to work on new songs but I’m afraid I have to face my daily intereaction with our cruel world to get inspiration. Anyway you can expect something angrier, darker and lower. Lithuania was a really good moment last time, we would love to come back and play in Vilnius and other cities and with Faršas it would be a plus!
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