1. Hey nik what's up bro?? ok so you are in two bands sikfuk and kretan but lets start off the interview with your first band kretan, So how did kretan start?(nik)I was already in aband at the time, nothing recorded just fucking around and my drummer was asked by Mark Rawls(cpt.bla) to play drums in his project Kretan. Mark, who was playing guitar, was just planning on writing 6 songs and then recording. When they got the 6 songs done and the vocalist had just quit he asked me and I said sure. I practised with them 5 times before I recorded the album with them
2. kretan has an original sound but what bands can you compare the bands sound to? and If i'm not mistaken the band was active around 2001 and during that time guttural brutal bands were few and far between and basically consisted of the likes of devourment, disgorge and etc. so did they influence kretans sound in anyway?
(nik)at the time thats all the guttural shit I knew was devourment and disgorge. i was so into that and it was new to me that they really influenced the way I sang maybe even dying fetus's deeper vocals as well. Mark was more old school like morbid angel, deicide, jungle rot, earl six feet under at the time, and our drummer was a freak, he loved the drumming nile, dying fetus, crytopsy and cephalic carnage and set his goal out to constanly being insane and play ass off the wall as he could at all times as you can here in his drumming so when you add us 3 together it made a very original sound i thought.
3. you released the cd entitled "christian corpse mutilation" through comatose records so how did you hook up with them? and recently comatose records announced they will repress that cd with bonus tracks of sikfuks new material right? Thats to say a split cd by kreatan and sikfuk?
(nik)we met lust of decay at a show we played in South Carolina and their guitar player steven green runs comatose. We became friends and talked off and on. Mark after having the kretan demo laying around collecting dust for 2 years decided since we had a sikfuk album out why wouldnt some one want to put out kretan, so he talked to comatose, sent them the disc and they loved it and wanted to put it out. Comatose has sold of of the original pressing and wanted to put it out with bonus tracks and we had these 3 sikfuk tracks that we supposed to be on a united guttural split that never happened. So he offered to put them on there, make the album a split and its gonna have a all new layout and insert and new print on the dice itself and it should be out at the end of april.
4. the guitar sounds are really original i think and that's thanks to mark (cpt.bla) who plays guitar but he also played drums for sikfuk right? so how did he come up with those riffs and in your opinion which does he prefer to play guitar or drums?
(nik) I think the guitar came across so original because of the crazy drumming, with a average drummer playing it i dont think it would of came across as good. not sure how hwe came up with those riffs but I think he perfered to play drums but I think he's better at guitar.
5. do you plan to write more songs for kretan in the future and get more material out?
(nik)wish i could but the drummer quit right after we recorded so it was just a summer project in 2001. Long time ago now. If I could find some people tp play tha style I'd sing over it and be glad to call it Kretan!!
6. ok now lets talk about sikfuk, why did kretan split up and you and mark start sikfuk?(nik)after the kretan drummer quit we were disappointed because Cpt.bla and me thought it was great. He already had adrum set, I used to play guitar so I said just for something to do, lets start anew band, I'll sing and play guitar and you play drums and he was into the idea. We had no plans on how the sound would be or how it would turn out, we were just fucking around.
7. you said sikfuk sounds like cerphalic carnage and devourment and i'd say that's a good depiction. tell us about the bands sound in detail, and how is sikfuks sound different from kretans?
(nik)comparing the vocals from the 2 I would say sikfuks vocals got way more insane. I went from 2 tones tops on the kretan disc to 3 and 4 on the 1st sikfuk album. the last 3 songs we recorded my tones are up to 6 and 7.The guitar i play has alot more weird tapping to it, more odd parts, more grind, less harmonics, i think just more in your face and more of a raw ass sound. Kretan had no bass and the bassist on the 1st sikfuk album was like the primus of brutal death he could tap and slap and grind like fucking crazy. I seriously have not seen a death metal bass player play like him and i wish he was still in the band. comparing the drums cptblas drumming was more straight forward blast and slam than the chaotic whirlwind that was the kretan drummer.
8. you started playing guitar in sikfuk right? so what bands influence you to come up with your current playing style? What's the big point of sikfuks guitar sound?
(nik)when i started playing guitar in the band I had not played in a few years, so i had no particular stlye set. The slams of devourment and old skinless are found on the first album, the shred and grind just comes with all death metal ingeneral, but i think the way I blended in the weird ass guitar tapping is what made the guitar stlyle sound more original. the weird riffs of cephalic carnage and the guitar tapping and sweeps from dying fetus inspired me but i kinda of took in and made it my own almost like I should be doing all that weird stuff on bass but I do it on guitar. its hard to describe but i always get a very good reaction from people at shows and people saying how can i play and sing like that at the same time and where and the hell do you come up with that stuff and if you compare that to what we are about to record its only getting more crazy!!
9. in may of 2005 cpt. bla left the band and now the band has only two members, you and jake from the brutal death metal band bloodasylum. so why did you move to Wisconsin and how did you hook up with jake who's from minnesota? And how's his band bloodasylums sound?
(nik)Cpt bla and my bass player quit on me off and on since 2003 till they were finally gone for ever inmay 2005. Thats why not many shows or anything got done really during that time till now. It was very hard to find new members in that state. I moved to wisconsin cuz thats actually where i am from. I lived in south carolina for a while, hated it, and came home. When i got here I put up a page on myspace and posted some songs. I also put on there we need a drummer and he replies within a couple of days and he's 17 years old to where im 28 but that does not matter cuz the kid is badass. Blood asylum is good in a traditional brutal death grind sound, nothing that makes them really stand out, but they are good.
10. what kind of gears do you use?
(nik)I play a HALO guitar and which i was sponsered by then, not sure if i still am, play through a crate amp head and a marshall cabinet, nothing great but its tardgrind we play so if its raw and nasty who cares cuz its tardgrind!!
11. your gutturals in sikfuk are more brutal than your gutturals in kretan if i say so myself but if you compared your current vocal style with the old style how did it become more sicker and brutal and how is the current one different from the old one? and tell us any vocalists that influence you!!!
(nik) I think what makes my vocals so sick is how diverse they are and how i constantly switch it up. All brutal death metal bands vocalist inspire me. I only use gutturals , no screams , no rowrs or shouts. I just kept finding new ways to sing guttural so i add it on. Kretan had 1 or 2 tones, sikfuks 1st LP had 3 to 4, the 3 tracks that are gonna be on that split have 6 to 7 and i still use all 7 to this day and havent really found a new tone but I really think its so sik because of all the tones i use and how iconstantly change them. Listening the song fingercuffing the beheaded thats when the 7 tones and constant changes really began.
12. you released the first sikfuk material through united guttural records so how did you sign with them? and tell us the discography of sikfuk and what releases will you have for the near future? I heard sikfuk is gonna release a split cd with abnominable putridity.
(nik)After sikfuk recorded the 1st demo we just sent it out to some labels and we sent one to UG and Rich(formerly of fleshgrind) thought it was great and thought i had the sikest vocals ever and he loved the guitar riffs so he wanted to put it out. So we took the deal. Sikfuk has out the gore delicious album in 2002 and 2 songs on the United colors of gore compilation put out in 2003 by Not like most records. We have the sikfuk/kretan split coming out on comatose by the end of april, our next album whch we will start recording next week entitled"teabagged at birth" to be released this year by goregiastic records and then a 7 inch vinyl split with abominable putridity to be relesed in november. And thats all done deals for sure shit.
13. in 2003 the band changed the name to pocket pussy hash pipe and then back to sikfuck, so what was the deal with the name change and why did you eventually go back to sikfuk?
(nik) One time when we split up in early 2004 and then got back together after a 4 month span we decided to change the band name just for fun. It was still the same band going in the same direction we just thought we try a new more original weird name. But alot more people know who sikfuk is so i decided with my new drummer to change the name back to sikfuk and let it continue.
14. what releases and bands have you been into recently?
(nik)all kinds of brutal death shit. I listen it to it sometimes like homework but recently i listen to alot of lust of decay, abysmal torment, new devourment, despised icon, soils of fate, wormed, happy face, gutrot, guttural secrete, goratory, red chord, origin, cephalic carnage, just whatever.
15. alright one more question, what's the main goal of the bands sound and tell us the future plans for the band.
(nik) the main goal right now is to get this album done and get out there and do as many shows as we can and have a good ass time playing and hanging out with the people that are into what we do and that goes the same for the future just to release more splits and album and continue playing show s and having a goodtime. Its fucking tardgrind so its all about having a good time. I can come home broke after playing a death fest but if i had a good time playing and partying with our fans thats where its at for me, fuck the money.
Thanks bro!!! any comments you would like to add like plugs, shout outs and etc?
(nik)just want to thanks to you guys for the interview and all the people who are into the music and all the people that constanly talk to me and put up with my fowl shit talk at myspace. All the labels who think enough of my music to put it out and all the bands that i talk to or hang out with in some form. to all the people....If you see me at a show come party with the muthafuking tardgrinder!! Supp!!