God’s Country

Product Information

LM: It was just fitting when we were whittling down titles. Ray has this big list of stuff that we’ve pulled mostly all of our titles from. ‘God’s Country’ was on there. It’s hard to not have that stuff in your work if you think about it at all. I can see if you don’t think about politics at all, maybe somehow that could not be in your shit. I dunno. But if it’s anything that you’re thinking about, it’s just gonna end up in your art. LM: Yeah, I love stuff like that. That’s something that’s appealing to all of us, and I feel like it works. When we started writing instrumentals and got Ray in on vocals, it worked together. Having the theatrical angle with it - or maybe even literary, because there are a lot of characters and stuff in the songs - works, it’s cool. Artificial Brain put out a new record. I love them and I’m trying to throw some of the more spacey, death metal shit into Chat Pile. We’re working on a new song right now that is very much lots of blasts with weird, spacey death metal riffs. Gospel put out a record this year which I really loved, but they’re, like, super prog - I don’t ever see us doing that [laughs]. S: I think that type of music just attracts a specific type of nerd [all laugh]. Angry nerds who have no choice but to laugh about certain things.

CR: During Covid, instead of actually trying to help people, our governor was like, “oh, let’s have a day of prayer for people in the state.” Stin: If messing around in bands for many years has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t rely on anyone else to share your vision or even show up to help when the time comes. I think we have a strong point of view, and the best way to express that is by doing as much of the process as possible yourself. It also doesn’t hurt that we don’t have any money to spend on anything, so this is certainly the cheaper option! I could see us possibly working with a recording engineer who actually knows what they’re doing one day, but it would have to service the broader picture of whatever we’re attempting at the time. S: Really busy. As mentioned, there’s the Lingua Ignota tour, then we make our European debut at Roadburn. We’ve got a split EP coming out with Nerver, a joint thing between Reptilian Records and The Ghost Is Clear. Simultaneously, we’re trying to write material for our next album. It’s very much in the early stages, but we’re trying to get ideas together and make a vision. Honestly, there’s probably more stuff going on that we can even handle, but we’re gonna take it as it comes [laughs]. NR: It’s interesting that you mention ‘God’s Country’ taking a while to record and release, because it does feel like an album that’s been incubated. That’s a strength for me - it’s like the structure of the writing, and the interplay between the vocals and the instruments, wasn’t just thrown together. It feels well thought out.NR: As this is the end-of-year roundup for Norman, have there been any records/artists/general musical things which have particularly stood out to you this year? And if so, can you see any of them filtering into future Chat Pile work? One of the highlights of God’s Country is the massive “Grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg” which was released as a six-minute flexi demo not too long ago but ended up being a nine-minute monster transformation. Did you set out to make a song that long initially with it? And what inspired you to have Grimace as the monster of choice? The music is serious - what we’re doing is serious. So you’ve gotta have a little fun somewhere else, you know what I mean? RB: Some of my heroes on the mic are people like Jello Biafra, H.R. from Bad Brains, David Thomas from Pere Ubu. They all have a theatricality to what they’re doing. So if I’m bringing that, that’s why. LM: I don’t write any of the lyrics, but groups like Crass and Discharge and Rudimentary Peni - they’re a big one for me - have really influenced me. I like a lot of political- and anarcho-punk, and I think there’s definitely some of that flavour in ‘God’s Country’, at least a little bit. It’s hard to not be political about stuff. It’s not like we were aiming to write a political record, it’s more like - everything is political. If you’re saying stuff, if you’re writing a song about something you care about, it’s easy for that stuff to come out.

RB: I certainly like it when people compare us to those bands [laughs]. I’m not gonna shoo away anyone that wants to put us up next to some of the best political punk bands of all time! Stin: With all of it, we very consciously try to express and represent the feeling of living in the southern plains. Even the more Beavis and Butthead, ’90’s alt-metal musical leanings are meant to evoke a sense of place. It’s very culturally ingrained here. Raygun Busch: Goddamn, this question is too hard. I guess I’ll try to do an easy answer though there’s not way to not be reductive here: tax or jail for the rich; homes, medical care, clothing, food and education for everyone no exceptions; and of course, upturn law enforcement and completely reshape the criminal justice system in America (ie term limits, no death penalty, releasing those from jail for non-violent drug charges etc). Raygun Busch: It was borne from necessity but it’s really the only way to do things, right? We’ve each been recording our own music since at least our teen years. There’s really no reason for anyone to ever pay someone to do shit that a computer has made pig simple for the masses. The internet and computer programs have completely equalized the medium–You can make a record or a movie or whatever you want (easy as writing that book always has been lol) if you really want to. Tangerine was shot on iPhones and Tangerine is one of the best movies of the century so far. Deathconsciousness by Have a Nice Life was recorded using Garageband for chrissakes! Do you see those qualities in your music, and are you really working to try to get that starkness of presentation in there?RB: Remember when they’re all at the arcade in ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’? They’re hanging out and skating around, but then it’s like, “now you’ve gotta be a footsoldier for Shredder”. It’s like that, but with God instead of Shredder [all laugh]. Stin: Yeah, Ray took the words right out of my mouth with the whole “manifest destiny” thing. It’s obviously a very American thing, but it’s hyperly an Oklahoma thing as well. I feel like we’re the last domino of that type of mindset, and attributing that kind of entitlement to God plays a big part in how bad things are. LM: I also don’t pitch in on the lyrical side, but in general we try to have a pretty cohesive aesthetic. It’s meant to all feel coherent, so if there are lots of observational qualities and characters in the lyrical content then I think that works together with the music. NR: Yeah, as someone for whom those bands were doing things before I was born, I can relate to how the similarities between them and you are changed by the era we’re living through. Like, Crass probably wouldn’t have written a song called ‘grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg’, but that’s what happens when you get internet-brained. In light of this award, we sat down with the band over video call to shoot the shit about the reaction to ‘God’s Country’, Chat Pile’s journey up until this point, and what the future has in store for the group.

NR: This is another influence question - and this might just have come from my continuing obsession with Death Grips… LM: I am one-hundred percent there as well. I remember us making it, because it took forever - well, I shouldn’t say forever, but it took a while because we self-recorded. But we sat on it for a long time too, so it’s like a weird cycle. We’d made it, and then it was finished for eleven months, and then we finally put it out. In that interim period, I’d heard it a million times. Now that it’s out, it’s awesome that people are super into it, but it’s kind of old material now, you know? There’s other stuff that we’ve been working on. So yeah, it’s weird - it does feel like it’s own thing. It’s cool though. RB: I didn’t know John Darnielle was religious, that’s interesting. You know who I like a lot who is religious? Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian. He’s a real Christian, but he writes very interesting lyrics, sometimes about the church and stuff. NR: It’s kind of just a quirk of calling on behalf of a company based in Leeds, but a lot of people refer to Yorkshire as “God’s Own Country”. There are other places that claim that title too.Now, moving forward, are there any literary or cinematic influences you pulled from in particular for God’s Country? Are there any real-life stories you pulled from? LM: I think ‘God’s Country’ fits though. Especially with the image and all that, I think it all makes sense together. It’s evocative - you see those words, and the picture of the substation and the jail, and you get what we’re saying. Stin: Ya, more than anything, we’re trying to capture the anxiety and fear of seeing the world fall apart. Raygun is especially talented at that, even if the lyrics are fantasy based at times. I think that that specific type of anxiety comes through no matter what. S: Yeah, in my opinion it’s the greatest version of whatever it is - I guess you’d call it metallic hardcore - that’s ever been made.