Con.Sect Interview (Year Unknown, Pre 2003)...
First off who is Assuck made up of, and when did you form?
At this point, Assuck is me (Steve Heritage – vocals, guitar) and Rob Proctor (drums). We’ve been in the band the entire time. Our new bass player is Jason Crandon, who plays guitar for Reversal Of Man. We’ve been together for a long time, since 1987 [No document, and I highly doubt it was "grind" they were playing. --S]
Give me some history about the band. Where are you from and what was the original line up?
We’re from Florida. Tampa bay, basically. There’s a lot of cities in Tampa bay. Originally we all lived in St. Petersburg. Now me and Jason both live in Tampa and Rob still lives in St. Petersburg. The original line up was me and Rob, and we had a singer named Paul Pavlovich.
What happened with Paul?
Paul was going to school for art, and he lived about an hour south of where we were. We didn’t see him that often. He spent the whole week at school and came home on weekends. He kind of floated and ended up being into different kinds of stuff than us. When he decided that he wasn’t into it anymore, and was kind of still doing it, we decided that he shouldn’t be in the band anymore. It was kind of mutual. There’s been a lot of line up changes since then, though.
At first, you had no bass player?
Yes. About a month before Anticapital came out, our friend Pete who played guitar for the band No Fraud, which is an old band from Florida, he really wanted to play bass for us. We thought that was awesome, because personally, I drew a lot of influence from the way he played guitar at the time. I was just a kid, and he was my age now. He wanted to be in Assuck, so I was like ‘wow’. That was ten years ago. It was really cool. I’m going to see Pete again on this trip. He called us out of nowhere. He lives in San Francisco now and he called when we were in Europe. He said 'I’m going to come out to your show and see you guys when you play San Fran.'
Where did the name Assuck come from?
It’s just a silly name we were fucking with in high school. We can’t change our name now, it’s too late.
What would you change it to?
I don’t know. I wish we didn’t have the name that we did, and we had something that was more serious, because we’re a more serious band now. At the time, that’s what was funny and what we were into. It’s stupid to try and start over just for a name change. I don’t really care about it that much.
You used to be pornocore.
When we first started, it was a joke. That’s why we didn’t need a bass player, it was just a joke. We were like, ‘o.k., we can just jam out and sing about this and that, and it doesn’t matter’. Then when we decided that we had the capability of being a real band, we set our minds as to what we wanted to do and what we wanted it to be about.
How did you first get involved with the death metal/grind scene?
I never really was into the death metal scene at all. I never really liked very many of those bands. I liked a lot of the thrash bands that were before death metal. I never liked the growly vocal bands or anything like that.
No?
I never liked them, no. I was out of metal by the time that stuff happened. We liked Slayer and Celtic Frost, Kreator and stuff like that. By the time that Cannibal Corpse or Deicide was big, the way that I actually found out about bands like that is because I work at Morrisound, and they would come in. I was like, ‘wow, this is what it’s like now, I guess’. I was into hardcore and I didn’t know anything that was going on with metal at the time.
So you came from a punk/hardcore background?
Absolutely. The reason that our vocals are all growly is because of bands like Fear Of God. Not because of Suffocation or any thing like that, even though those bands have their place. It’s weird. At the time when everything was becoming fast and like ‘grindcore’ and stuff, there were screamy bands, we called them dogs and cats. You had dog bands and cat bands. Some how we just ended up being a dog band because that’s the way Paul sang. Musically, we wanted to be Fear Of God. [You failed. --S]
And you keep it DIY. That’s more of a punk rock thing.
Absolutely. There’s nothing metal about driving around in that van right there [points to the tour van]. The only thing that’s metal about us is the traces of Slayer riffs in our songs. We’re a hardcore band that plays fast, with growly vocals.
What kind of old bands are you into?
When we first started doing Assuck, we were into Cryptic Slaughter, Septic Death, stuff that was fast but before there was ‘grindcore’. Paul liked Napalm Death at the time. I never had liked them. It’s more of an attitude, like the Pusmort records stuff, and Christ on Parade. All that old stuff. The fast hardcore bands. That’s why we were doing it. Right now, we listen to so much music. There’s so much music within the genre of punk and hardcore and metal, and anything that falls even close to that now. It’s hard to touch it all. At the time, it was the fast hardcore bands, which aren’t fast now in comparison. Spazztic Blurr, or Wehrmacht, they aren’t fast compared to like, Discordance Axis.
Do you dig DA?
Discordance Axis? Rob played drums for them.
Really?
They lost their drummer somehow. I’ve known John since they were called Sedition, and Rob’s known them for a real long time. They had a trip planned for Japan, and I guess they were going to get fucked out of it if they didn’t have a drummer. So Rob flew up and learned all their songs in a couple of days. And they went.
Rob’s the man.
Ya, Rob’s killer.
He’s a great drummer.
Ya, It’s because the kid’s that are starting bands now, or are learning how to play drums now, are learning from bands that maybe aren’t as fluent at playing drums. Rob was ripping off stuff from like Dark Angel, and guy’s now that are just too good to be in metal.
Lombardo?
Lombardo’s awesome. But for Slayer, it’s not the drums that are good, it’s the fucking guitar playing and the riffs. Lombardo never did anything nuts, but that’s what Rob was learning how to play. That and Charlie Benante and all the thrash bands that had hauling double bass. That’s how he learned. Now the kids are learning from bands like Anal Cunt. Skipping the kick drums, just hitting the crash symbol and the snare. Have you heard the drummer Dave Witte?
Of course.
He’s in a lot of bands. He’s in Black Army Jacket now. He played for Discordance Axis, he played on an Exit 13 record. He played for Human Remains. He’s fucking an excellent drummer, hauling ass all the time. Real good. Kids like that are pretty inspirational, because they’re still within the hardcore scene, but at the same time, they took the time to learn how to do stuff right and not just fuck around.
What are you trying to illustrate with your sound, what are you trying to make people feel?
I don’t think about it like that at all. I write songs that I think sound good and I don’t try to portray anything.
Lets get into the last record you did. You took a four year break between the Anticapital/State To State CD.
I think the last thing we recorded on that was the Blind Spot seven inch, and between that and Misery Index was five years. But we did a lot in that five years. We went to Europe, we toured the US two or three times, we switched vocalists twice, we switched bass players twice, and we wrote all the songs. We started a lot also. We started a record store, it was a volunteer thing. We were busy. Rob went back to school. A lot of things happened within that time period. It’s just that Assuck isn’t going to go away for us, so we don’t necessarily feel that we have to hurry up and write another record. It’s always going to be there for us. We don’t feel rushed, like ‘hey, when’s our next album coming out?’. It’s always going to be there, so it’s not a problem. We didn’t disintegrate as a band, we probably did more in that five years than most bands will do at all.
What did you do differently on the Misery Index release, as opposed to the previous stuff? It’s actually a bit faster with very few breakdowns.
We call it all go and no slow. Between Anticapital, which was recorded in ’91, and Misery Index, which was recorded in ’96, we changed a lot musically. Basically, we wrote what we wrote. It wasn’t a conscious decision at all. We wrote what we thought we could do.
Do you plan to have anything else out before 2003?
We are working on a project right now. It’s the same thing, we have so much going on. By the time this summer’s over, we will have played around seventy shows this year. That’s a lot. We started a band called Anthem 88, which is a youth crew type of band. It’s Assuck with another vocal guy. We recorded an album already. It’s twelve songs. We’ve played shows with that band. We picked out a whole bunch of cover songs that we’re going to record when we get home from this trip. Rob’s going to be moving, so it’s going to be kind of difficult to get that together, for rehearsals and stuff. He’s going for his masters degree and he has to move to the University of Florida, so…ya, we’ll be recording. There’s five Assuck songs right now that aren’t recorded. I bought this box that allows me to play guitar to my self in the van, through headphones. There’s a lot of time to kill in the van, so I kind of made a conscious decision to write more songs.
How is the scene down in Florida, do you get a lot of support?
The scene in Florida is awesome. There’s three or four different cities that have cool individual scenes, where there’s not a cross. Where, if you played in one city and played in the next, none of the kid’s would be the same. It would be a totally different scene. Florida’s pretty big. Population wise, It’s the fourth biggest state in the US, so there’s a lot of kids. Tampa, where we live, has a real good scene. A lot of kids come out to shows, and we started that record store which is basically a space to do shows. Gainsville has a really good scene, it’s totally different from ours, but there’s always kids hanging out. As far as Assuck in Florida goes, we do pretty well. Last year we played six or seven times just at that one space. You can only play so many times before people stop making a big deal out of it. We’re here like twice a year [Boston], and we’ve only played Boston like twice before. We never played in Worcester before, so…
And I know you had a bad experience one year at the Rat…
Ya, the Rat was rotten to the core.
So how has this tour been going for you so far?
This tour is a long tour. This is the last summer that Rob’s going to be able to go for the summer. He’s going to start taking summer sessions at school to get his masters degree done. Actually, this trip was supposed to be with Spazz and Man Is The Bastard. Spazz, who shares members with Capitalist Casualties, Max, couldn’t go, and MITB recently broke up.
I heard that.
Ya, exactly. This trip is big. This trip is probably too much for one person to be able to handle. We’re one month into it, we have another month to go. Were not like an Avail, or anything, that writes music and tours for a living. We have real lives at home, and we value that in a lot of ways. So being away for two months has a huge impact on our regular lives. We’ve been to Europe already this summer, and this is our eleventh show in the United States- we played a couple shows before we left. Over all, we’ve played about 29 shows so far, and we have another thirty to go.
I take it that you read a lot. do you have any literature you would suggest?
Rob reads nonstop. He’ll go to the bookstore and buy a book that’s like the thickest book he can find because he reads real fast. He’ll read a whole book on one trip. Jason brought a suitcase full of books. I can’t believe it. First of all, I don’t read that much. I sure as hell can’t read in a van. I’m always wanting to look at the map, or see where we are. Look around, stuff like that. I listen to music in the van, but Rob reads like crazy. His birthday is on this trip, and I just bought him The Grapes Of Wrath. He wanted to read it, it’s like a four inch thick book. That’s pretty cool.
What’s up with you and Seth from A.C.?
There’s nothing really for me to talk about. There’s no tension, it’s just shit that he starts. You know how he is, man. He’s not just like that towards us. He’s like that towards everyone. That’s part of their shtick. Specifically the Rat show? Were you at that show?
I was there, and I was watching him give you a hard time. Also, I was curious about your side of the story, because I got his side.
What was his side of the story?
I asked him if he really hated you that much. he said you ripped off his band and don’t give him the props. Like, you saw his show in ’88, and that’s why you formed.
I haven’t talked to him since we did sound for them at a show in Tampa once, but we were already a band. It was the same kind of idea. Fucking around and being nutso, which is why our first seven inch is the way it is. But, Paul quit the band, and we don’t do stuff like that anymore. It’s not even anything similar to what they do. A.C. was one of the first fast bands, so…right now, I think even more so than us, they’re a lot truer to what they were when they first started, than we are. Fuck around, write stupid songs, write 100 songs on a record type of a thing…it has it’s place, and kids like that. That’s great, but it’s not what I’m into at all. There’s very few fast bands that I think are good unless they're like old thrash bands.
Have you heard Crudos?
Yes.
Ebro, their drummer, used to play for Charles Bronson and still plays for MK Ultra- he’s pretty fast.
Ya, I saw him the other day. MK Ultra played at the Columbus Festival. They were rock solid, they were totally great. It was awesome. They were the best band of the day. They were also the only band that had anything intelligent to say. Everyone else was like, ‘oh, this is our next song, it’s really weird to be up here on the big stage’. MK Ultra totally, hand over fist, just had cool stuff to say.
You guy’s never talk when you play?
No, not really. I’m not a public speaker. I’m not that kind of person. I write stuff, and I edit it a lot. It’s very systematic, and rehearsed, the kid of stuff I write. And it gets trashed, and started over, and I’m not a very good on the spot talker. In addition to that, we’re not here to make speeches, we’re here to play music. If some kid wants to get into the whole political thing, or whatever, I’d be happy to talk to kids about it. We get bummed about some things we talk about, like fights at shows and people falling all over our stuff. We talk about stuff like that. It was cool to see MK Ultra do that, and they're that kind of band, but we’re not that kind of band at all. Shut up and play, is more what we’re into.
What’s your discography?
There was a seven inch called Necro Salvation that we hate. It got bootlegged again recently. I smashed a hundred and fifty of them on the fucking sidewalk in front of a club in Berlin. The kid tried to give me bootleg records as compensation for bootlegging our record. I just went off on him. We put out a record, it was a split with Old Lady Drivers a million years ago. There’s Anticapital, and State To State, Blindspot, and Misery Index.
