Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music received responses to an e-mail interview with Bobby Bray and Justin Pearson from The Locust on September 15 and September 16, 2005.

Xtreme Music: How did The Locust first start recording their intricate breed of extreme music?

Bobby Bray: At first I suppose we were just attempting to be as brutal as possible. This was a very long time ago about nine or ten years. This was also before Joey Karam and Gabe Serbian were in the band, which has been the better part of six years now. I guess from the start it has been a matter of pleasing our anal retentive personalities by ringing each riff, idea, or concept through our overly harsh musical scrutiny. Whatever was good enough to pass through our process of elimination made it into the song.

Justin Pearson: For the most part it was completely created out of our subconscious. We didn’t say “Lets do this”, it just happened. Also, I think for all of us, we continue to dislike the previous material after we get something new written and recorded. Maybe it’s due to our touring schedule and the fact that we will play the same material for quite a while as it seems. But over all, we generally continue to grow, which I feel a lot of artists don’t do enough of.

Xtreme Music: Please tell us about the compositional and lyrical writing processes involved in producing music with members of The Locust.

Bobby Bray: One hundred percent equal writing in terms of musical composition. We bring ideas to the table individually, and as a unit we change everything completely, which is usually a good thing. You can not be too attached to your riff, part, or idea. We layer ideas over ideas until each song is so jammed packed full of ideas that it has to be shipped away. As for the lyrics, Joey Karam, Justin Pearson, and myself each write entire songs, usually after the music is already done. We divide up the singing so that we each sing in every song for the most part, minus Gabe Serbian, who’s got enough going on with the drums.

Xtreme Music: What innovative production techniques do you incorporate into your recorded music?

Bobby Bray: We really haven’t done too much “studio magic”. We record pretty much exactly what we play live, little to no overdubs. I’ve personally been pushing for a 5.1 audio mix for a couple of years, but it is just not practical for everyone to jump on board. The full potential of 5.1 has been ignored by most artists. It’s the furthest point in stereo evolution for the moment..

Justin Pearson: I think the best technique we have as a band at this point would be working with Alex Newport. He really has a way with producing music especially drum sounds. There are ways you have to approach music such as ours that is full throttle and that has so many clashing tones. Being aware of the fact that we as a band do cross the line of each instrument, such as how the untrained ear will write off a lot of stuff that Bobby and I do as synth. Or even how I tend to write bass parts from a drummers perspective. I feel that Joey does the same. So it has a lot to do with how we write..

Xtreme Music: Please tell us more about The Locust’s music on your record labels Three One G and Gold Standard Laboratories.

Bobby Bray: Three One G is Justin Pearson’s label and is home to many great bands like Arab On Radar and Quintron. Although we’ve released next to nothing on Three One G except for a five inch picture disc split record with Jenny Piccolo. Practically all of our earlier releases were on Gold Standard Laboratories, which is run by Sonny, singer of VSS and Angel Hair. We did split seven-inch record with Melt Banana and Arab On Radar. We also did a seven-inch called “Flight Of The Wounded Locust”, which was the last recording we did with David Astor, an original member of Cattle Decapitation. Most of these records ended up on CD versions, some re-recorded. To us though, these seven inches were pretty much “full” releases. Plus, it was too hard for us to hold off on a release and wait till we had enough material for a full length. We did release one self-titled full length on Gold Standard Laboratories, although I think most people would consider it an EP.

Justin Pearson: As far as Three One G is concerned, we did only release a small fraction of The Locust’s material, the split five inch with Jenny Piccolo which later was released as a Locust square shapped CD EP. Then there was a track on the dynamite with a laser beam comp too. But Three One G also sells a bunch of The Locust’s merchandise to avoid who and how our stuff is sold by outsiders. In the past, the label did mail order for the flight of the “Flight Of The Wounded Locust” puzzle record and now the “Safety Second, Body Last” twelve inch EP, both non-Three One G related releases. As far as the other ties to Three One G, it would be from the fact that members of The Locust are in other bands that are part of the Three One G roster: Cattle Decapitation, Holy Molar, The Crimson Curse, Swing Kids, T Cells, Fast Forward, Some Girls, and Head Wound City.

Xtreme Music: How did The Locust come to secure a record release with Ipecac Recordings?

Bobby Bray: Kid 606 turned Mike Patton onto us. He was into it and we met.. Originally he was going to put out our “Peel Sessions” recording. But we opted for new material instead as we weren’t one hundred percent satisfied with the Peel Sessions recording. We even did some touring with Fantômas after the release of “Safety Second, Body Last” which were amazing shows. Ipecac is all peaches. Miniscule vomit-medicine particles as boats to escape and alleviate the misery in the world.

Xtreme Music: Please share with us specific details on some of the tracks included on your Ipecac EP “Safety Second, Body Last”?

Bobby Bray: We intended this release to be one long listening experience. As it ended up we needed to put CD track markers. So the way the lyrics are set up coupled with the nature of the whole piece made a lot of blending between “songs”, so it can get a little confusing. That’s why on the back of the CD, the titles don’t match up with the track listings. It causes more interaction with the listener, and is defiantly lending itself to the question “What is a song?”, “Why must we place finite borders on our songs?”, or whatever. The last piece titled “Hairy Mouth” is my personal favorite. It’s one of the parts that I think can be comparable to a condensed bottled up, bundle of frustration, carefully planned for release, like a pre-mediated crime. I have personally found that sometimes only swift, accurate execution after well organized planning can relieve these petty accumulated human emotions.

Justin Pearson: Well I see it as one track. We play it live like that and I have considered it as one piece from the start. It does appear confusing with the “track listing” and I think that was part of our idea behind how it was looked at by outsiders. There was that whole thing about how we only wrote short, under a minute songs, so we took that and went the compete opposite, but added a twist with putting it into what some call “movements”.

Xtreme Music: What can you tell us about the cover artwork and additional imagery included within this release.

Bobby Bray: Done by a great man, Mr. Neil Burke. He was in the band Men’s Recovery Project and all by his lonesome is Sinking Body. Two bands you ought to check out if you haven’t heard of. One can only speculate what goes in that that man’s mind.

Justin Pearson: It has ties to our aesthetic as well as the words on the album. It is art and is up for interpretation, like it should be. Tome, it seems as if it could be the left over or aftermath situation from the “Plague Soundscape” artwork.

Xtreme Music: The Locust has toured actively with Fantômas, Melt Banana, and Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant. How do you feel The Locust’s live performances have been going and what has the crowd reaction been like?

Bobby Bray: On the tours you mentioned things went really well. Although there have been tours at which show goers were not so forgiving. For instance touring with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Northern England resulted in overly priced beers hurled at us. Luckily Gabe was able to retaliate with a cup of his own vomit, although he poured it on himself, not the crowd.

Justin Pearson: People are mixed in reaction to us all the time. For me, as long as there is a reaction, good or bad, it’s better than no reaction.

Xtreme Music: What particular highlights and enjoyable experiences can you share from your music career?

Bobby Bray: Ahhh, nothing like the joys of being broke, quitting jobs to go on tour. There’s nothing like quitting a shitty job. At least there is the somewhat noble feeling of knowing that I gave my entire life to this entity called “music”. This antic dote somehow makes it all worthwhile. As cheesy as it sounds I really enjoy communicating with other musicians to see how they attempt to document, through music, what words cannot.

Justin Pearson: If a career is living below the poverty level in a van with five others that moves around the world more than half the year, then we might need to alter the definition of “a career”. However, I have been lucky enough to meet some of the most amazing artists, seen so many places in the world, met tons of cool people who dig what we do musically, and have a great sense of accomplishment that most humans will never discover.

Xtreme Music: Please can you tell us some details about the music video productions “Live From The Russian Compound” and “Solar Panel Asses”.

Bobby Bray: Simon Chan did the “Live From The Russian Compound” video, the company name is Artificial Army. It was sent to us completely done without us even commissioning them and we loved it. It fit in perfectly with our music! As for “Solar Panel Asses”, it was done by a man named Rusty Nails. That man is a freak on wheels! He actually did another video for “23 Lubed Up Schizophrenics With Dilutions Of Grandeur”, which had Joey sweating in a bed and a freaky old man as his psychologist. There were some parts of it though that we didn’t all agree with so we never used it.

Xtreme Music: For those who enjoy music from The Locust, what essential music recommendations can you provide?

Bobby Bray: I would say Renaldo And The Loaf, The Residents, Fred Frith, Single Unit, and Harry Partch are music makers worth checking out.

Justin Pearson: Anything by The Birthday Party, the first two Pil albums, anything by The Dead Kennedys, most Queen, early Devo, all Crossed Out, later Beatles, all Public Enemy, all Brian Eno, early David Bowie, all Discordance Axis, all Drive Like Jehu, The Germs, all Men’s Recovery Project, all Born Against, all Arab On Radar, all Melt Banana, The Stooges, Mr. Oizo, Hella, Orthrelm… just to name a few.

Xtreme Music: What are your plans for The Locust in the near future?

Bobby Bray: We are working on a full length to be released on Anti Records, and we are going to tour Europe again, including Greece for the first time, in December 2005. There is also talk of doing another Japan tour, and I’m sure we will do more touring in the U.S. probably during Summer 2006.