Saturday, February 27, 2016

Educated Scum Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Educated Scum was formed by Mikhail “MishGun” Kuznetsov and me, Dmitriy “Dimebag” Dasov in 2000 as a fun home grindcore project. They’ve already had some experience working together in some nameless
school thrash-metal band – Dimebag as a lyrics author and MishGun as a guitar player and singer. By
that time the band’s split-up and so we decided to test some new home studio software and try some
extreme grindcore. I took on growling and lyrics and MishGun – all other instruments. The efforts gave
birth to 6-track demo. It took 3 years to put ideas together and record a “full-length” album
consisting of 16 tracks 16-minute long. “From Chaos To Disorder” was recorded in October-November 2003 and it took a couple of months to put some samples between songs and make limited CD-R edition just to handle it to friends.
In October 2004 “From Chaos To Disorder” was released by Not Like Most Records as part of “Educated
Scum vs. Fight Back” split CD and live Educated Scum line-up (without me on stage) was ready to grind!
Some successful gigs (first 4 in October 2004, by the way) followed in local clubs (supporting Vader
and Behemoth, to name a few) and festivals such as Petrogrind. Things started to look really bright as
critics and public gave a warm welcome to the new extreme band, but in late April of 2006 live line-up
has eventually split-up and the whole project was put on hold for 4 years.
In spring of 2010 me and MishGun reunited to work on a new Educated Scum studio album with guest
session vocals by Konstantin Devilhead (of Human Device fame). It took a year to record, find the label
and release the second “React” album on Musica Production in December of 2011. With no interest from
Kosarev in the band’s future, Evgeny “Jack Vegas” Tkachev was recruited in 2012. Me and MishGun came up with an idea to re-record and re-release “From Chaos To Disorder” also keeping up the work on some new demos with Jack Vegas and then (maybe) try to build-up a new live line-up but… Jack Vegas emigrated toGermany and the whole project was again suspended for more than a year…
Still hoping to re-record the famous first album, we found session drummer Vladimir “Vile” Lyashkov who
played in dozens of bands such as Exult, Grace Disgraced, Beheaded Zombie etc. He took only a few weeks to learn the material and then recorded all songs in one day in Primordial Studio. Then Jack Vegas
visited Moscow to play a gig with a drone band A Foggy Realm and recorded all vocal lines in a couple
of days.
“The Chaos Complete: From Chaos To Disorder Re-Visited” was released on May 2015. This compilation
included original recording with original sound (and bonus tracks) from the first promo-CD; the new
re-recorded version; some rehearsal recordings of the last line-up and the 2000 demo never ever
released. Now the band still tries to find new members and continues putting together some new material
for another album…

2.How would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recordings?

The first release "From Chaos To Disorder" (recorded in 2000, re-recorded in 2014 and re-released in
2015) was a fast riffy grindcore with classic death metal basics. The next release "React" was still
grind/death-oriented but also with some metalcore/deathcore touch to it. In the future we plan to stay
brutal but pretty open to other metal genres.

3.There seems to be a great amount of gaps in between releases, can you tell us a little bit more about
it?

This low activity in the project was due to constant problems with live line-up that I mentioned. So
other side projects of Mikhail, our regular jobs and families (I have a daughter and he has even two
now) - also the factors that don't allow us to be too active. But we still try and work on some new
songs from time to time and plan to play on Fuck and Destroy festival in May with Jack Vegas that will
come to Moscow to share a gig with us.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explores over the years with your music?

Well, of course, the main lyrical influence is Napalm Death. The "political" or "social" grindcore is
what really inspires me as a lyrics writer. The real problems of the real people. The issues that
concern everybody and the problems within our society that an adult shouldn't ignore. Gore-oriented
lyrics are not the way we wanted it, so politics and social issues are the main themes in our songs
(and the samples in Russian between them).

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Educated Scum'?

Educated Scum are what, in fact, most of the politicians are. Educated but often not civilized,
intelligent but ignoring the needs of their own electorate, sophisticated but corrupt and deceitful.
That's what it's all about.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would describe
your stage performance?

The stage performanes were pretty funny because of the hardcore background of our previous singer
Andrey Shmorgun - he was pretty active on stage and even stagedived into the moshpit and sang some
songs amidst the moshing people. Some of the best gigs were opening shows for more established bands
such as Behemoth, Squash Bowels and Dead Infection in local Moscow clubs.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We only played thrice outside of Moscow (but always in Russia) and never toured - it was all small
local clubs and mini-festivals. So far the only gig that we plan is Fuck and Destriy festival in May
and then we'll try to find a new singer... once again.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal and grindcore?

In fact it's our first interview in English, so we were always a local act never known worldwide. But
with such huge help and support from our new label Symbol Of Domination (sublabel of Satanath) and
personal efforts to promote Educated Scum from Aleksey Korolev make us believe that it's only a
beginning for us as a musical project.

9.Are any of the band members also involved with any other bands or musical projects?

Yes, Mikhail always had side projects - always more "soft" because it was my idea to play grindcore and
he was more well-rounded guitarist interested in many other genres of metal and even rock. He
participated in gothic metal band Repentance (recorded one EP and one digital full-length album with
them), had couple of metalcore/modern metal projects released only demos and now he's playing something
soft-rockish in a band called Summer Arctic. I personally write lyrics for a couple of bands too:
thrash metal band called Maic Depression and international modern metal project Forces United produced
by established musician Kirill Nemolyaev.

10.When can we expect new material and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the
future?

For now we have 4 recorded demo-tracks without vocals recorded (but all lyrics written) and we present
one of them in Summer especially for Russian Death Metal compilation vol.4. And then we plan to record
live drums for these songs in Summer or Fall and release it as a digital EP, maybe. The direction is
still grinding death metal with some modern groove parts but still fast and brutal mostly.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what
are you listening to nowadays?

We both were influenced by classic thrash metal of 80's - Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, Exodus and so
on, classical death metal - Death, Carcass, Pestilence, Benediction and many others. I listen a lot of
different music nowadays - from classic art rock of 70's till grindcore. I like progressive metal, epic
doom metal, even avantgarde. Mikhail is not too melomaniac, he prefers something like Foo Fighters and
other modern American rock stuff.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

Regular jobs (that's what the real "grind" is huh?) and growing kids are priority, of course, and the
music is a hobby. It requires more free time that we lack so we're always busy, to say the last.
Besides, I write reviews for some internet resources and once a month or two I appear as a guest
commentator in Moscow metal radio show called Dream Keeper.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Well, it's not the best times for the underground music today in terms of commercial success. But there
are new possibility of promotion worldwide so the listeners would have more chances to discover your
music and start supporting you. Anyway, it's the survival of the fittest and we still hope for the
best, we still create music and we don't want to stop as long as we've got something to say. So, stay
tuned and support the underground!

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