BRAZEN BULL

Rave Magazine Editorial/Interview

Sunday, 01 March 2009
CRAIG TAYLOR, guitarist of grind freaks BRAZEN BULL tells TOM HERSEY what it’s like forming a grindcore band in a town where no one plays grindcore.

Without sounding preachy, Brisbane isn’t city where grindcore is overly appreciated. International grind acts like Napalm Death and Pig Destroyer roll through town and no one really kicks up a fuss. It’s not only live shows either, you practically need to know a secret handshake to buy a Brutal Truth record. As a grind junkie (seriously, I have two different pressings of the Agoraphobic Nosebleed A Clockwork Sodom 7-inch), I felt compelled to bemoan the apparent lack of local grind in conversation with Craig.
Playing in arguably the only faithful purveyor of grindcore in the otherwise thriving Brisbane metal scene, he commiserates and shares stories of his own about the city’s grind scarcity. "Different cities dictate different types of bands, and I agree with your statement about the lack of local grindcore acts. I found in the recruiting process for the band that it was excessively hard to find musicians that not only shared our vision, but could also keep up with the music! We would have auditioned eight drummers and ten bassists until we found the right guys and I think that the dynamics of the band have been positive ever since."
From their inception, Brazen Bull have shaken up the death metal and metalcore-saturated local scene with their second wave grind sound and live shows bursting with frantic energy. Capturing both of these core attributes, the band’s debut EP was released late last year, much to the delight of the handful of grind aficionados in Brisbane.
The next big step for Brazen Bull is to take their tunes interstate, where the grind is greener. Heading out next month, Brazen Bull will be accompanied by local math metal dudes Hesperus. While the two bands differ stylistically, Craig espouses their merit as touring partners.
"Hesperus are a great bunch of guys and we always have a sweet time partying with them. The history of the bands started at the rehearsal studio, probably before we’d even played our first show. They’re not exactly like us, but they think progressively from a music point of view, and we’d rather tour with a band like that than a clone of the scene. They’re average age is 19 and ours is 23, we give them crap for comb-overs and hxc attitude and they’ll call us washed up grind try-hards. It’s definitely all a big pisstake and it keeps us all laughing."
Although Craig concedes that when it comes to touring, Brazen Bull are still a little wet behind the ears. He sounds excited to be heading out on a tour up and down the east coast. "This won’t only be a first tour for the band; it will be the first time Brazen Bull has played outside of Brisbane. If you’re going to do something, why not make it big and ballsy, right? The number of shows we’ve played could be counted on two hands… or eight amputees’ stumps, so we’re psyched to be going down the whole east coast with our brand of punishing psycho grind."