PREMIERE/INTERVIEW: Screamo Band Limbs Talk Politics and Inspiration [Philippines]

INTERVIEW/PREMIERE | Limbs
FROM | Philippines
RECORD | Exquisite Corpse
https://www.facebook.com/limbs1991

Always excited to hear music and when that music is actually inspiring or makes us stop dead in our tracks, you know it’s going to be something special. Much like many of you, we too get overwhelmed with the daily deluge of bands, music, videos, photos, social media posts that creep into our lives. So for a band in this day in age with information overload, to be able to break through all that noise and grab someone’s attention, is quite the feat itself.

Our buddies (there are only 2 in the band) in Limbs have kindly taken some time out to answer a few questions as we get to be the lucky as FUCK website to premiere their incredible full length entitled Exquisite Corpse.

Yo! Debut record is fucking INSANE! Give us a brief background to the band please.
Thanks! Limbs started as a solo project back in 2016 where I did a couple of EP’s under that name. I met Joe of Modern Day Collapse and Badmouth in late 2017. I asked him if he could play drums for a special string of gigs earlier this year where we launched a split EP with my good friends Fictional Character (SG) and Na Mo. I found our dynamic to be invigorating, and we decided for Limbs to move forward as a duo. Immediately after the release of the split, we started working on this record.

So in the live setting how are you going to pull this off? Will you be inviting other musicians or keep it a duo act?
We’ve been gigging as a duo for a while now where we play with a laptop that’s in charge of the bass parts and other electronic layers. Maybe in the future we’ll expand to a full band but for now, I’m comfortable with just the two of us.

The music is so manic! What are the bands influences?
The obvious ones are bunch of old screamo bands like Orchid and Jeromes Dream, grindcore bands like Ed Gein and Full of Hell, but distilled in the weirdness of The Locust, Daughters and noise rock bands like A Place To Bury Strangers, Girl Band, and Lightning Bolt. We also listen to a lot of electronic stuff; this artist called Machine Girl is where we borrowed our 2-piece setup that uses electronics and backing tracks with live instruments.

Is their much of a scene for this type of stuff in the Philippines?
Today, there are few bands that are doing this chaotic sound. Off the dome, it’s HL/DV, Thieves, Conformist, and Beast Jesus. Some other bands are in hiatus, and there should be more that I don’t know about yet, but I feel that there is a resurgence in this style. For newer acts, one of Joe’s other bands named Dolorosa is to be watched out.

Where was this recorded, mixed, etc?
I recorded and mixed the record at my house, but this is the first time we worked with someone else as a mastering engineer. We brought the project to Raph of Saturnine Audio, and we are really happy that we had this opportunity. We never sounded this good.

Raph is doing some great stuff with Saturnine! As a mixing/mastering engineer what did he bring to the table?
He just did his thing! I did not mention any pegs or references; I trust his taste and ability. He knows the sound we’re after more than us.

“Conformist is a band that everyone should strive to be.”

https://www.facebook.com/conformistph/

Who are some peers in the Philippines that inspire your band today?
Conformist is a band that everyone should strive to be. They put out insane music and do really frenetic live shows. We can’t not mention Beast Jesus; the guts to do whatever they want and still be on top of their game is really inspiring.

“Fuck off if you’re a fascist in 2018.”

What are some themes that show up in your music/band?
There is a responsibility among artists to elaborate the social realities of where they are existing, and their places of practice, and not just be mouthpieces of self-expression and centrism most importantly during these dark days. What we did on this record is an emphasis on denouncing the war on the poor perpetrated by the Duterte administration, among other things that are symptomatic in a time of de facto martial law. The title of the album is based on the surrealist drawing game of the same name. Although this is not the intention of the drawing game, what I got from doing these exercises is a sense of powerlessness of being blind to the actions committed by the previous participant, leaving you to with the liability to improve upon the work. I allude to this to what has been happening here in the country: a sense of defeat to the horrors committed by oppressors, yet having to strive and change these conditions that were baked into our everyday experiences.

I find it interesting that Duterte, much like the much reviled Trump, actually has as many diehard supporters as much as those passionately against him. It’s even more interesting that there are pockets of people within the hardcore punk scene that seem to support him when he is clearly the antithesis of everything that punk rock was built on.
Yeah it’s an interesting phenomenon within punk. I always see people online “disowning” bands that do politicized music. Maybe they relate with the sound, which is understandable, but it only highlights their cognitive dissonance and their lack of a sense of history. What we can surely learn from this is to educate our ranks, for this affinity to fascism isn’t borne of “love of country” or “heroism”, but an intention to protect class interests. Fuck off if you’re a fascist in 2018.