Drawing from their experiences in bands like AGATHOCLES, ABORTED, and SUPPOSITORY, formed in 2017, BARREN quickly established themselves in the grindcore scene with their intense, HM2 sound.
Matias was quick as hell answering these questions, faster then the band itself. 🙂 Without further ado, this is BARREN!
Can you share the story behind the formation of BARREN? How did you all come together as a band? Given that the members have a background in various bands like AGATHOCLES, ABORTED, SUPPOSITORY etc, how have these experiences influenced the music and direction of BARREN?
Indeed, I played in the 90’s with AGATHOCLES & SUPPOSITORY and later on I played with ABORTED and EMETH. So my roots are heavily in the grindcore and deathmetal scene and I think you can hear that in the music of BARREN.
BARREN got together sometime 2017 and it was clear from the beginning that we wanted to do something we describe as Chainsaw Grindcore; referring to the classic HM2 sound.
We never intended to be unique or doing something amazingly new, we just wanted create our own slab of classic 90’s inspired grindcore with no atmospheric respites, with a few unexpected tempo changes here and there, fast riffing, furious vocals and crazy drums, add to that the HM2 sound and you know… the kind music that grabs you by the balls and that doesn’t let go until you turn off the record 🙂
There were line-up changes in the band, also. How did that influenced the band’s creativity?
Yea, there have been some minimal line up changes, which are kinda normal I think when some people want to form a new band coming from different backgrounds. After that it demands a lot motivation and time and since we aren’t 18y old anymore there are other responsibilities in life as well. So far the few line-up changes haven’t had any negative influence on our creativity or songwriting process.
Even though you’re relatively new band, and have side projects, you are pretty much regular with EPs and splits, with one full-length album. Is there any particular way to choose who you’re doing split with? This year alone you have so far released two: one with VOMIT SPELL and the other with SICKRECY. Should we expect more until the end of the year? Or even new full-length? Will it be released on Selfmadegod Records again?
Yea I guess you could say we are a hard working band. But it doesn’t feel like that, we just love what we do and enjoy the process of writing, rehearsing, recording,.… Regarding the splits, I guess that’s my heritage from playing in AGATHOCLES, haha. I think doing splits is a great way to create a connection and a grind community. People may know 1 band but not the other, and this way they discover new bands and music. Like back in the old days where we would be trading tapes with people all over the world. We like to do splits if we can do it with a band we love and with who’s members we connect with. For example I know Markus from VOMIT SPELL from way back in the days when I was in AGATHOCLES and he was in NYCTOPHOBIC. Martin from SICKRECY and I got in touch and we had this immediate connection because we are both of the same age and both have our roots in the 90’s grindcore.
We are currently recording new material for a split with LESSER ANIMAL (USA) and we are in the process of finishing a new full album as well. We are in touch with some labels for the release of that but nothing is decided yet.
Can you describe the band’s songwriting process? How do you develop your songs from initial ideas to final tracks?
All BARREN music is mainly written by myself. We know a lot of bands write music together but my writing the majority of the music just works best for us. Our bass player Tom often says I have this backpack of songs, and whenever we need new material I just take songs out of this backpack faster than he can plug in his bass, hahaha. I guess its just my passion for grindcore and this extreme style of music since the early 90’s.
The songwriting process is the following: I record demo tracks (guitars/midi drums) at my little studio “the chainsaw laboratory”. Later Llano, our drummer adds his own drums. Once the drums are finalized and the song found its final form, we start working on the vocals.
Afterwards we choose a studio where we will mix and finish the album. Until now we always worked with “Hearse Studio” in Belgium, the albums were mixed and produced by myself and Lander from Hearse studio. For our next full album we decided to go to Kohlekeller studio’s in Germany, as Kohle is a real hm2-style chainsaw enthusiast as well, just like us. And he has worked with a lot of great bands who’s albums we like. We are really looking forward to this adventure.
What inspirations and influences have shaped your sound and lyrics?
The main ‘theme’ or driving force behind our music and lyrics is our disgust with humans in general, this current ignorant and stupid society and the fucked up way the world is going.
Do you think it is now easier to book a gig than during the period before the infamous coronavirus?
I think it’s never been really easy for a new band to find shows, but the coronavirus didn’t help. Right when we wanted to start recording our first demo the Corona virus happened. So we tried to make the best out of the situation, throughout all the lockdowns and things that were going on in the world we tried to record our music. That’s how and why I started my own little recording studio. The whole covid-19 situation delayed the band with almost 2 years.
We released our music in 2021 and it took until late 2022 before we even managed to get some shows. Luckily the situation has gotten a whole lot better these days and we are always looking to find more shows abroad of Belgium. Lets hope late 2024 and 2025 can bring us some shows in Germany for example. I have the impression the grind scene in Europe has changed quite a bit compared to the late 90’s and 2000. Lots of new promoters are around and its not always easy to get in touch with them.
Grindcore and extreme music genres are often associated with provocative artwork. How important is visual art to your music?
Our drummer Llano, also know as Letterface in the tattoo-world, handles most of our artwork. He designed the logo and also the covers of our first releases and he has done all layout for all our releases.
For the ‘I’ album with we work together with Bahrullmarta because we felt he really knows how to capture that misanthropic atmosphere. We also used a cover he made for the split with SICKRECY. For our next full album we will again be using one of Bahrullmarta’s artworks. If you don’t know him, go check him out!
What was the first show you ever played?
Like I said it took until late 2022 before we even managed to get some shows, our first ever show with BARREN was on 07/10/2022 a small (but fully packed venue) underground fest called ALIENS VS PREDATOR Fest with PULMONARY FIBROSIS and a few other bands.
Is there a gig you wish you had played?
Well yes, of course, but I guess there will always be shows that we would like to play or wished that we could have played. Currently we are working hard on new material and playing as much as possible live shows. We hope to be able to play in 2025 some of the following festivals; Grind here right now, Grind the Nazi scum, Obscene Extreme, Malmö Massacre, Ieper Hardcore Fest,… and a lot of other shows. We are an active band and are always looking for more shows, so lets see what the future will bring, fingers crossed.
What was the greatest show you ever played?
Uf that’s a hard one. We play every show with the same attitude and give all we have. We enjoy playing live and meeting other people and bands. Some of the best shows we did with BARREN was playing with WORMROT while they were on tour early 2023. Earlier this year we played with the mighty INHUME and we got do do 2 weekend tours in the UK with our buddies in PERDISIAN playing in Bristol, Nottingham, London,…
Are there any new bands worth mentioning?
Hahaha I am an old man who’s mind is stuck in the 90/00’s and who’s playlist consists of bands like WARSORE, HEMDALE, DAHMER, TERRORIZER, UNHOLY GRAVE, ROTTEN SOUND, REPULSION, AUTORITÄR,… and the likes. So I may not be up to date with all the newer bands around in the scene, hahaha. I think our drummer knows more about that. But some I would recommend listening to are PERDISIAN (UK), SICKRECY (SWE), BERATED (USA), TEETHING (E), DISTASTE (A), WHORESNATION (FR),…
Where can people see you play in the future?
In the near future we will be playing these shows:
22/08/2024 with DISTASTE – AMC – Antwerp – BE
23/08/2024 DEATH FEAST OPEN AIR with DISTASTE, TEETHING, THE RED CHORD,… – ANDERNACH – DE
31/08/2024 with CAEDERE, CARCERI – B52 – Ichtegem – BE
12/10/2024 CHAINSAW FEST – TOTENKREUZ, ORACLE OF WORMS – Sagewerk – Neukirchen – DE
If you live in the area of these shows; come out, grab some merch while you are there and have a beer with us! It’s the only way for the underground scene to keep growing and staying strong and connected.
Where do you see BARREN in the next five years?
Well first I hope that all the shitheads in the world come to their senses and stop their stupid wars for power or religion, stop destroying each other and mother nature.
Besides that I hope that we can continue playing the music we love to play, continue to release albums and play as much as possible shows, meet old friends and make new friends and hang out, have a beer and have fun.
Top three Belgian beers?
For me, the best belgian beers are La Chouffe, Grimbergen and Duvel. There are some others with a more fruity taste as well like Kriek, and of course we have a lot of normal beers as well like Jupiler, Stella Artois,… Talking about beers made me realise I am thirsty haha! Cheers!
Message for the fans?
Thank you Nenad for doing this interview with us! We appreciate the support you give to our band!!
We are a real DIY band and are not working with any booking agency or management and while we trying to reach as many promoters as possible we could really use a hand. So if anyone wants to see us bringing the chainsaw massacre to a stage near them, they can always send us an email at barrengrind@gmail.com if you don’t know any promoter, feel free to share our music and spread the word about the BARREN chainsawgrind massacre 🙂
Follow BARREN:
Facebook: facebook.com/barrenchainsawgrind
Instagram: www.instagram.com/barren_chainsaw_grind
Bandcamp: >https://barrenchainsawgrind.bandcamp.com
Youtube: Barren on Youtube