DATE OF INTERVIEW:

STEAK NUMBER EIGHT

5th May 2012

BRENT VANNESTE; JORIS CASIER; JESSE SURMONT; CIS DEMAN

METAL DISCOVERY: I labelled your style as “post-stoner” in my review because the songs mix up a lot of stoner grooves with post-rock sounds. Do you think “post-stoner” is an appropriate label?

BRENT: Yeah.

(Brent Vanneste on being compared to "a new Kurt Cobain" by the Belgian press)

"It’s definitely a compliment but I don’t like it. It’s a compliment but I’m not Kurt Cobain, I don’t sound like Kurt Cobain…"

Steak Number Eight - promo shot

Photograph copyright © 2012 Eva Vlonk

Interview by Mark Holmes

RELATED LINKS

Steak Number Eight Official Website:

STEAK NUMBER EIGHT DISCOGRAPHY

When the Candle Dies Out... (2008)

Albums

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Nina Potthoff for arranging the interview

All Is Chaos (2011)

Steak Number Eight Official MySpace:

Steak Number Eight Official Facebook:

JORIS: Yeah, it’s good.

CIS: You’re the first person to say that. We like it a lot. It’s cool.

JORIS: Our manager says it’s like Mastodon having sex with Isis!

MD: Metal Hammer are giving the album away for free with their latest issue which is quite an usual move for a mag to give away an entire album – how did that come about?

JORIS: Through Adam Sagir of The Noise Cartel in London. Yesterday, the boss from Metal Hammer came to our show.

MD: And you got good feedback from him?

BRENT: Yeah, he liked it. It was wicked!

MD: Have you had any major label interest yet?

BRENT: We’ve been shopping, like checking out every label.

CIS: I want Century Media!

MD: ‘All is Chaos’ is self-released but did you try to find a label or decide to bypass that and do it yourselves?

JORIS: We did it ourselves.

BRENT: We just got a distribution deal and the rest we did it ourselves. It’s expensive.

MD: [To Brent] It says on your website that you’ve been referred to as “a new Kurt Cobain”. Is that something you consider a huge compliment and a comparison you’re comfortable with?

BRENT: It’s definitely a compliment but I don’t like it. It’s a compliment but I’m not Kurt Cobain, I don’t sound like Kurt Cobain…I don’t know why…[laughs] Maybe the grungey sound sometimes…

MD: I have to ask about the song ‘Dickhead’ – is that referring to any particular person who you know?

JORIS: Yeah.

MD: Can you reveal who?

BRENT: Now he’s in prison.

MD: Oh really?

BRENT: Yeah, for handling coke. He was gathering money from a lot of people and went to Ecuador for one kilo of coke but he got stuck there.

JORIS: That was after the song ‘Dickhead’. Before, he was a dickhead!

MD: So he was proving himself a proper dickhead after your song!

JORIS: Yeah, he did a lot of shit.

BRENT: He sold tickets from door to door for handicapped people and put the money in his pocket. Then, one time, he came home and he said, “mum, your bike is stolen” and, actually, he just put it on eBay!

MD: What’s the sample at the start of that song, the woman with the English accent?

JORIS: It’s the girlfriend of Mario [Goossens], our producer and the drummer from Triggerfinger.

CIS: She’s an ex-girlfriend now.

MD: You’ve just released a video for the song and, obviously, I get why there’s a giant banana costume there, but what’s with you dressed in animal costumes chasing the banana?

JORIS: Because it’s cool!

CIS: It’s pure metal!

MD: Exactly! Rock ‘n’ roll! If you’re trying to get away from the Kurt Cobain comparisons then that’s the way to do it, put on a giant animal suit!

CIS: There were two days filming and those two days we were very drunk!

MD: So do you expect people to turn up to shows dressed as giant bananas now?

CIS: That would be cool!

MD: That’s not happened yet then?

CIS: No, but that would be cool!

MD: You could end up with a big pit of moshing bananas. I’d like to see that actually, as ridiculous as that would look!

[laughs]

JORIS: Good idea!

MD: Have you started composing for a follow-up to ‘All is Chaos’ yet? Any more songs written?

JORIS: We have written songs but we’ve never played them.

MD: So you current set is just from the first two albums?

JORIS: Yes.

MD: My final question - what are your aims and ambitions for the band; do you aim to make it as big as Nirvana after the Kurt Cobain comparison?

BRENT: Bigger!

CIS: Days like now and yesterday in London, touring my whole life is cool. I’m much healthier on tour than at home!

MD: Really?!

CIS: Yeah, at home I have hangovers…drunk…hangovers…drunk. Here, it’s like…

JORIS: Hangovers…drunk….hangovers…drunk….

[laughs]

CIS: [Pointing to Brent] He vomited yesterday!

MD: After the party I presume?

BRENT: Yeah.

CIS: There’s not a big party everyday but yesterday was cool.

MD: Right, thanks very much for your time.

[Collective thanks]