Your Demise interview with former vocals George Noble

by Adam Warner – 2009

 

Hey George, how you doin?
Not too bad.

You guys just finished GhostFest in Leeds, how was that?
*laughs* Yeah, I got kicked out of that place.

You got kicked out! What the hell did you do?
I kind of have an ongoing thing with the security at [GhostFest] and I had been drinking like shit and had every intention of making their life a living hell. I saw them choke slamming kids and I talked as much shit as possible and they didn’t really like that much and decided to eject me; we were dressed up in corpse paint to.

So you got kicked out for standing up for the fans huh?
Yeah pretty much *laughs*

Do you guys prefer playing in larger arenas or smaller intimate venues?
Well that’s a catch-22 for me cuz like it’s cool playing little venues but there won’t be many people there. But I prefer a little venue when it’s sold out and people are sneaked in so there’s WAY too many people in it. I don’t know it’s just like carnage in there; when we supported like huge bands and it was really going off for us, it was like World War III happened at the same time. You’re always going to get better sound and shit like that at larger venues. I just have to go with smaller venues I guess, you got everyones sweat on you, on the right of you, on the left of you, just sweat everywhere; nice and dirty.

You guys have a little break in a week or two, whats your plans during the down time?
Catch a baseball game and eat loads of Taco Bell and bagels. I just got back from New York with my girlfriend and we’re going to a bit of tourist stuff I guess, generic stuff like go up this building, down that thing, over that bridge.

Oh, so you’re in the U.S. right now?
Yeah, we’re just in New York.

Ok, so do you guys have big 4th of July weekend plans?
Yeah, I didn’t even think about it when we were planning to come out here. Then on the way out my girlfriend is like ‘it’s the 4th of July’ and I was like ‘ah, fireworks’. I really have a bit of a thing for fireworks; definitely my forte I guess.

Well hopefully there will be some good fireworks this weekend!
Yeah, hopefully!

So on past tours, Your Demise has suffered quite a bit of complications while on the road. Has the tour this time around been a lot smoother?
Uhm, yeah, I guess so. Back in the day it was always like shitty vans, you’d get to the venue and no one knows who you are, no one cares, you’d have to pretty much entertain your own little crew; it was just little retarded things.

The new album “Ignorance Never Dies” just dropped in April. Based on the reviews from the major publications it has been getting great reviews, great ratings, how happy are you overall with it?
Well I can honestly say that it’s the only Your Demise record that I really like listened to and been able to play. It’s really more broad than what we’ve done in the past, we kind of explored ourselves a bit more. We didn’t really seem as into influences from other bands this time around; it was more like influence from ourselves and from past records and with what worked for us. I know it’s a bit here and there but bands that we’ve had a lot of inspiration from, have helped us better ourselves.  We didn’t have too much of a rush but we wanted to get it done so we kind of rushed ourselves a little bit.

Since the album was rushed a little bit, was the writing process any different?
We have always traditionally written the record in less than a month really. The thing is that we’re always writing records and kind of write riffs ourselves and I have literally a forest worth of paper with lyrics at home. We all kind of bring it together during practice sessions; we literally had 5 practice sessions for the last album. Then we play tested it and it was done. So everything really came together for us.

Earlier you had mentioned influences and anyone who listens to the album will know that your biggest influence is Sick of it All. What other bands or non-music sources influence Your Demise?
Pretty generic but life itself; every last bit of life for me is my influence.  It’s almost like an auto-biography I guess; literally writing like a diary. I think that it’s important to express that … wait what was I talking about *laughs* I get on these tangents and lose track of what I’m talking about. Anyways, influences-wise I think that if you look at bands that we’re supporting, we tend to go for bands that are more unheard of. For me the biggest influence is a band called Alcatraz; which is a few members of First Blood and City of Gold, I might be wrong but I’m sure it’s one or two dudes from First Blood. They literally just sound like they’re riding along on a horse with swords just killing everything in their wake; just these little hardcore uplifting chords while still stern and violent but their here to have a good time and get along with it. The biggest difference has to be the crowds you know. The crowds that came out for our first record and now are completely different and it’s really a progression rather than a changing for us.

There are a couple of tracks on the album that are very outside of what Your Demise is known for. What’s the story behind those couple of tracks?
Well, as much as I’m into hardcore I also a Drum and Bass DJ myself as well. Actually I was into Drum and Bass before I was into hardcore like way before. The drive in hardcore and the drive in Drum and Bass and everything that surrounds it… both scenes are really loyal to the music and passionate about it, it’s all about staying true to it and keeping it real. I would say that 60-70% of the hardcore scene are members of bands as where 60-70% of Drum and Bass are dudes that DJ. When you look at the music and kind of dissect it, you have really driving drums and really flowing heavy bass and of course the hardcore has a more violent side and aggression. But there is an aggression in the darker sides of Drum and Bass. I guess in a way we have tried to express how the two musics are in and of themselves really similar. One is all electronic and the other is a band but I just really, really, really wanna make a go of Your Demise because back home you’ve got Pendulum who takes the stage and it’s all kind of like… not bullocks but it’s just pop-Drum and Bass and I’m sick and tired of everyone ‘oh, so you like drum and bass yah, you listen to Pendulum eh?’.  In hardcore, you’ve got Madball, Sick of it All and Agnostic Front and there is such a world of hardcore out there, that why not try to get some kids into Drum and Bass as well. I know they are really different in America but in England at the moment it’s really picking up; get some local kids into it.

My personal favorite track on the album is “All I Never Want to Be”. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that track is about?
Well, assholes really; people that are just scumbags. Pretty much just ex-girlfriends and these people I see around me that use their dick as some kind of tool or girls that are equally as bad as guys who think it’s alright to fuck this, fuck that, do this, do that.

“Burnt Tongues” was the first video for the album, how was it filming that?
It was so much fun! The first video we ever shot was a bit chaotic and pure anarchy as where this one was more planned out and had a guideline to it; it had a bit of a theatrical part to it I guess. Literally when we shot in the venue, it’s the Pioneers Opus which is not even a block away from my house. It is the heart and soul of the hardcore scene. It was great to be back there, the local council is really making it as hard as possible for shows to go on there, anything to do with alternative music. If it’s not bullshit indie or honestly silly wank music that’s popular at the moment, then they don’t want it. It got to the point where we could just hire ourselves and do lots of shows for free , it was old friends, new friends and all from all over the country. People came from as far as New Castle, Scotland and Wales and stuff like that, so it was just a bunch of great people that we wanted to hang out with.

So was there a pretty huge after filming party that day?
Well, the filming was the party, know what I mean? *laughs* By the end of it I just collapsed, I was so tired. I looked like I had been chopped in half or something. Everyone was just tired though, there wasn’t really an after party at all, afterwards we just went and got in trouble or some stupid shit on the way home.

If you search YouTube for Your Demise, you’ll find a ton of hand-held fan videos of your live shows. Do you enjoy those?
Ya know what, I’ll admit I’m that dickhead who sits at home and I type in my name and the bands name into YouTube to see stuff like that. I guess the thing is that I love this band so much, I’m really into the music and I never get the chance to be in the crowd and watch the bands cause obviously I’m IN the bands. It’s neat to sit around and watch up play and see what it looks like. It helps me get a good feel for what the carnage really looks like.

Well George, thanks for taking the time to talk with us and I hope you enjoy the 4th!
Yeah, looking forward to the explosions! Thanks very much!