1. Hey Blake! First off give us a brief history of the band and the current line up of Corpulate.
Well as of now Corpulate is still Matthew Valle (Drums), Matt Payne A.K.A Beast (Vocal), and Blake Cruz (Guitar). Corpulate came about in early 2003, Matt V. and I had left our pervious band due to personal differences, I was playing bass at the time and Matt was still playing drums, we had our guitarist from our other band
Come in as well, shortly after we had found Matt Payne, who then did not have any prior band experience, he was doin' vocals at the time. A month later our guitarist
Then left to pursue god knows what, I was still playing bass as we were looking for guitarists. Finally after a year I decided to put down the bass and pick up guitar we started really creating our sound about the time that Rob Lesniak (Embalmer, ect.), he was playing bass for us at the time, but sadly as much as we all respect him we
Had different musical styles that didn't work, but to this day personally I thank him for all he has shown me. After that we decided to just stay a three piece it worked better and we're just so tight as a group it's easy for us to work together and write.
2. Corpulate has an original and unique sound with sum pretty sick guttural vocals. You said the band is influenced by cephalic carnage, dripping and etc. but cephalic carnage is a really insane and unique band while on other hand dripping is a guttural brutal slamming death band. So how did both bands influence Corpulate's sound? And describe the bands sound in your own words!
Funny you say those bands. Kevin from Mutilated had once told me we have a very Vile type sound I though that was comical, but as were still honing our skills as musicians we found Cephalic Carnage to be great base for what we liked, which is grind, you don't hear it very much in the older songs, that's definitely a more doomy sound. We still have the sick breaks but then we had just not applied it. Mind you were still technical, but now were still pushing forward with our grind. Most of our slam definitely comes from Dripping but I have to say I like groove gore more. So yeah in our own words we feel we're a chaotic, technical, deathgrind band.
3. Personally I'm a huge fan of guttural slamming bands and I can hear some grooves and some slams in Corpulate's songs so being influenced by dripping does that help come up with those kinds of riffs? And which do you care about more creating slams and grooves or a pretty original and technical sound?
Well I can't really say that it helps me come up with riffs but I can say I know what I like to hear and I suppose in that sense, that what helps me write riffs, I just like to be different ya know, I guess creating a balance between both sounds is how I do it, I love to groove but at the same time being technical is just a part of our original style, we just like to mix it up.
4. Any guitarists influence you to come up with your current playing style and what's the big point of your playing style and your riffs? How about your main goal as the guitarist what do you feel that is?
Actually no hahaha... but I do respect many guitarists; in fact I'll go to even say that I appreciate styles of guitar more than actual guitarists. My point I suppose is to just be different, I mean everyone wants to be different but I just wanna play things I haven't heard before and yeah I guess that's also my main goal.
5. Beast the vocalist has cool gutturals so do you know what vocalists influence his vocal style? And which does he prefer to use inhale or exhale gutturals? What about Matt the drummer? What drummers influence him too? Tell us about the rest of the members in detail!
Well they're here with me now, Beast's earlier influences were older death like Iniquity but now its more about the low sick stuff like "shoving your fist in a pile of shit" sick, but for example such as Hour Of Penance, Gutted, Emeth, Liturgy. As for Matt, he does not have a specific band or drummer he directly takes as his influences.
Though he does listen and like bands like Cephalic Carnage and Dripping, he tries to keep an open mind on what he can do in the moment. He plays to or creates the beats that spawn riffs, it self urging the growth of our sound. The three of us have known each other for about four years, we're just goofy people. That's about the best way to describe us I suppose. Matt V. and Blake C. have been playing together as musicians since 2001, so due to that we've grown pretty tight with our sound.
6. What releases will you have for the near future? And do you have some merch like a demo, t-shirt and etc?
Oh shit stains... Well we do have a demo out in many forms. We do have an online site at Myspace.com/corpulate. There have also been many different copies of demos and we also have a 10 track CD that we recorded at Pacifica Studios with the assistance of our good friend Ryan Inman. As far as merch is concerned, we have 2 shirts plain red logo short-sleeve and blue logo long-sleeve, if you can find a red logo let me know hahahaha, much more will be on the way be sure of that.
7. What kind of gear do you use?
Right now I'm using my Line 6 Flextone HD through a 400 watt Peavey, I've been recently using my Schechter Diamond series with DR Strings, and I've also decided to put in Dimebuckers for clean sustain, but the whole rig gives me a thick sound that I need considering I'm the only guitarist and we have no bassist, on the demo you can definitely hear that there's no bass so I'm definitely gonna' layer a few more times, but when you see us live its present and thick. Hell, you'd think we had a bassist. Beast uses Yamaha/SoundCraft equipment and Sennheiser/Shure mics. Matt uses a Yamaha Stage Custom 6 piece, with a mixture of Paiste and Zildjian cymbals. He also plays on Remo Pinstripe skins for his toms, Evans for his snare and the Aquarian Super Kick 1, and DW 7000 double kick pedal.
8. What releases and bands have you been into recently? And also, how's Ohio's scene? Are there any new unsigned guttural brutal bands from there? I try and find as many unknown newer bands as possible.
As far as Ohio goes it's been stagnant but recently some new talents starting to emerge. Besides, now Embalmer's back and Dislimb's coming as well. It's gonna be great. We've been listening to a lot of Psyopus, Vulgar Pigeons, Gutted, Disgorge (Mexico) and a lot of Jazz and Funk as well.
9. Were you guys in any bands before starting Corpulate? What about now, do you guys have any side projects going on presently?
Matt and I have been in a few bands together and Beast to our knowledge has been doing vocals for awhile but has never been in a band previously. I am the only one with a side project, which would be Dislimb, I'm pumped to be doing that it's gonna be sick.
10. I guess you are good friends with my bro Shawn from Inhuman Dissiliency? He always suggested to me to hear your stuff and I noticed Inhuman Dissiliency in the list of influences on your Myspace page. So how does that band influence Corpulate?
Shawn's a cool fucking dude, I'm glad to hear he told you about us. Inhuman Dissiliency...........well shit, It's just sick. We like slow crushing stuff like that and they do it in new way so in that sense they influence us with there originality it's nice to hear some new shit being done.
11. What do you know about our Japanese scene? Do the newer bands like Disconformity, rest in gore, infected malignity and etc. get over well by you guys?
Oh yes, most definitely. We really appreciate how bands like Defiled, Disconformity, Vomit Remnants, Decapitation and Morbid Axe stray from the norm of how the deathgrind sound progresses. International bands seem to have a particular obscurity for their style.
12. Tell us the bands plan for the future.
Right now we're just playing as many shows as possible. Maybe some touring this summer, while keeping labels in mind, also creating new material with the aim of releasing an EP, not sure when we would be releasing it but we will keep ya posted.
Thanks bro! Any comments you would like to add like plugs, shout outs and etc?
Thanks to anyone who has contributed in any fashion, Seiji for giving us this intie. Ryan Inman for being there from the inception of and helping with the release of our first demo, Rob Lesniak for being influential as a musician. The gore soaked masses, Mutilated. Thanks.................hail THC