![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1220.photobucket.com\/albums\/dd449\/MTRBWY\/Ringworm_0.jpg\" "\\"Ringworm")
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“It\u2019s kind of strange to be honest as we\u2019re used to just flying under the radar so often and just continuing doing what we do and it seems that it\u2019s just coming around full circle and people are starting to get it.”<\/p>\n
Ringworm, hailing from the Cleveland hardcore scene and with a name the band would never thought would stick have now been around for the best part of 20 years and have delivered slab upon slab of blistering hardcore rock!\u00a0 They have just released their newest album ‘Scars’ to great reception and just celebrated the 10th anniversary of what many consider their stand out album ‘Birth Is Pain’ which also resulted in a small tour where it was played in its entirity.<\/p>\n
We had the chance to talk to Ringworm vocalist Human Furnace (aka James) about all things Ringworm, the new album, touring, the music industry and we then strayed to his art of tattooing.\u00a0 It’s a diverse read, so check it out and get an aray of Mr Furance!<\/p>\n
Over to you James…<\/p>\n
I know you probably won\u2019t tell me be it would be remiss to not ask. Can you tell me where the name Human Furnace came from\u2026<\/strong> OK, thought so ha ha, so \u2018Scars\u2019, your newest record has been out for over a month now, how has the reaction been to it?<\/strong> How did the songs come together for this one?<\/strong> Was there a certain theme you were going for on this new album?<\/strong> How would you compare it to previous releases?<\/strong> Really?\u00a0 No love ballads?<\/strong> You\u2019re heading back to Australia next month to play some shows and have been here many times before, how do Australian crowds compare to those around the world?<\/strong> What can we expect this time around?<\/strong> Earlier this year you did some shows to celebrate the 10 year of your Victory debut \u2018Birth is Pain\u2019 how were those shows?<\/strong> 2011 sees the 20 year anniversary of the band, obviously a lot has changed in the music industry over the past 20 years but what do you feel has been the biggest change you\u2019ve seen take place that has impacted the band?<\/strong> You\u2019ve talked about releasing a DVD covering the 20 years of the band, is that still in the works?\u00a0 When can we expect to see it?<\/strong> We\u2019ll aim for the 25th<\/sup> Anniversary?<\/strong> I have to ask, are you still involved with the tattoo stores?<\/strong> What was it that made you get in to that?<\/strong> How many stores?<\/strong> There\u2019s a thing about loyalty for tattoo artists, I\u2019ve been going to my guy for 15 or so years, people don\u2019t stray.<\/strong>
\nNope<\/p>\n
\nEverything is very positive, like all of it, when we\u2019re playing live everyone is really getting into the new material and we\u2019re getting nothing but positive feedback on it and everyone seems to dig it, so, even the bad reviews are good reviews, they say \u2018well I don\u2019t like this but I\u2019m sure a lot of other people do\u2019 that type of thing so it\u2019s getting a really positive response.<\/p>\n
\nWell, we had a lot of material to choose from this one, between the last record and this one it was about four years and we did some touring for the last record and a couple of guys in the band doing some other projects and focussing on other things in between and we did have a lot of songs to use for this, so it came together fairly easy, we just had to decide on what songs we wanted to pick for the record.\u00a0 So, it wasn\u2019t that difficult of a process to get it all together.<\/p>\n
\nWell, its not a concept record, but this one lyrically, it has a theme, lyrically, you know, the only thing I really sing about is myself, the way things affect me and the way I perceive things, that\u2019s the only thing I really know how to sing about honestly, it\u2019s the only thing I really know.\u00a0 So that\u2019s kinda what this record is about, its more of an introspective than anything else, it\u2019s kind of just a little diary of mine if you could put it that way, so they\u2019re all real personal songs for me.<\/p>\n
\nWell, just the sound of it, we kind of wanted to go for a more raw, more organic sound than the last record that\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 Just the material itself, we kind of tried to combine everything we\u2019ve become known for and then tried to incorporate that into it as well as well as moving forward in a direction that we\u2019ve been going with over the past 20 years, we\u2019ve been progressing a little bit at a time, we\u2019re not going to come out with a love ballad album or anything like that, but we try and do new things here and there, we\u2019re not trying to reinvent the wheel either, we do what we do and we try and incorporate some of the old with some new tricks we\u00a0 have, some of our new arsenal.<\/p>\n
\nNo, well, they\u2019re all love ballads, if you ask me, they\u2019re all love ballads in a certain way, but some people have a different idea of what a love ballad should sound like.\u00a0 I think they\u2019re all love ballads.<\/p>\n
\nWe were there once I think in 2006 I believe or something like that and we had a fucking blast.\u00a0 All the crowds were excellent, and it was great to be able to tour with Mindsnare again, because those dudes kill it every night, they\u2019re the best dudes to hang out with and we got along with them right away, so we\u2019re looking forward to just being able to hang out with them and have a really good time while we\u2019re there.\u00a0 And just the Australian crowds, they\u2019re really, as opposed to over here, but maybe it\u2019s because many bands don\u2019t get a chance to tour down there but they\u2019re really into it, they\u2019re really excited about it and everyone seems to have a really positive attitude about things, where as in the States sometimes, our music, one could say that it\u2019s not very positive, or that it doesn\u2019t make people want to hug each other but sometimes over here it gets a little too violent you know what I mean.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little too aggressive, I mean that\u2019s what the music is geared for to get your rocks off but over there it just seems they do it in a more positive way and I like that , I don\u2019t like seeing people get their face smashed in or anything like that, I just like seeing people getting a nice release for it and having a good time and all the crowds in Australia last time I remember were superb so I\u2019m looking forward to even a better time this time around.<\/p>\n
\nWell, we just got off a tour here in the States and as far as out set list goes we tried to mix up a little bit of each record on it, so there\u2019s equal amounts of our records in our set and all the new material that we\u2019re doing is going over really well, the more people know it, the more people are asking for us to play new material which is pretty strange when you\u2019ve been around for so long and you put out a certain number of records and people start requesting new songs, that\u2019s a pretty good feeling, it means you\u2019ve kinda hit the mark somewhere you know, the way things have been for a lot of bands is you just want to hear the old songs, you don\u2019t want to hear anything new, so when people are requesting new songs and they know the words to the new songs already, that\u2019s a pretty good feeling you know. ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1220.photobucket.com\/albums\/dd449\/MTRBWY\/ringworm-scars.jpg\" "\\"Ringworm")
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\nYeah that was earlier this year, we did like a 10 day, 10 show tour and we played that whole album in its entirety and then after that we played a shorter set of new material too but we were doing that whole album.\u00a0 It went great, it was really awesome, great turn outs, it\u2019s been rather strange because just being around as long as we have and it being out for so long, it\u2019s just kind of weird, because when that record came out no one really seemed to care about it too much. 10 years later it\u2019s everybody\u2019s favourite record in the world and you\u2019ll never be able to top it, which is always a strange thing when that happens you know.\u00a0 That\u2019s why when we play new material, people want to hear new material its that much more satisfying too because its great that people like a certain record and that\u2019s going to be their favourite or whatever but its nice to be able to know that they\u2019re still into your new material, but that tour was excellent.\u00a0 And this time around on the last tour, places that we played a year ago when there was not many people there this time around there was many people.\u00a0 Seems like we finally have an audience that\u2019s starting to come around to what we do.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m sure the music industry as a whole hasn\u2019t changed, its always been about trying to take a band and either exploit them or try and make money off them, I mean that\u2019s probably the same formula that\u2019s been around since the 70\u2019s when you found out that you can maybe take advantage of bands and make a lot of money off bands and I don\u2019t think a lot of that has ever changed but in the hardcore genre, in 20 years, the term hardcore music\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen it change from my hardcore growing up as Corrosion of Conformity and Septic Death and bands such as that, that was my hardcore, maybe some Minor Threat and that was hardcore for me growing up.\u00a0 Now, hardcore is way more a broadened term, its metal more than anything, even the purest hardcore bands around today, 90% of their riffs are basically metal riffs from the late 80\u2019s or early 90\u2019s so hardcore is an ever changing animal and obviously with like YouTube and even the internet, when we first started the band we had to correspond to tape trading and mailing actual handwritten letters and stuff like that so there\u2019s a lot more accessibility to anything out there and a lot more than you can do as a band for yourself.\u00a0 Labels are in big trouble these days, obviously with downloading\u00a0 as well and things like that, they\u2019re kind of in trouble.\u00a0 It\u2019s a weird industry, one that I prefer not to live in, I don\u2019t like to deal in the industry perse because it\u2019s such a sick and twisted business, so we try and stay out of it as much as we possibly can be it that we\u2019re in a touring band that puts out records and we have to put up with that stuff every day, it\u2019s a lot different, if that helps.\u00a0 That\u2019s a topic that you could talk all day about\u2026<\/p>\n
\nYeah, we\u2019ve just been really busy, and the sheer amount of material that we have, I mean photographs and small cassette recorders and different formats of recording stuff, from video cameras to DVR to VHS tapes I mean we have volumes and volumes of stuff to just put into a format that we can look at them onto a digital format that we can put together and we have it\u2019s just been taking a really long time, and to be honest, over the last couple of years, this band has done a lot of things, so we keep adding to it, there keeps being more that we want to add to a DVD so when it got to the point that it got to well maybe we should put something out because it shows where we\u2019re at right now, we keep doing more and more so we just keep adding to the volumes that eventually is going to make it on to a DVD, so we\u2019re still working on it.<\/p>\n
\nHa we\u2019ll see if we make it that long, we\u2019ve got a few more years to go before we hit 25, but we\u2019ll see how that goes, I mean as of right now, we\u2019re firing on all cylinders, things are starting to come around a little bit, we\u2019re getting excellent reviews and the turn out at the shows is excellent, it\u2019s kind of strange to be honest as we\u2019re used to just flying under the radar so often and just continuing doing what we do and it seems that it\u2019s just coming around full circle and people are starting to get it.<\/p>\n
\nOh yeah, that\u2019s my bread and butter, that\u2019s actually where I came from, I just got off work.<\/p>\n
\nWell, I\u2019m an artist, that\u2019s what I do for a living, when I was younger I did everything from portraits to band album covers and T shirt designs and murals and anything to make a buck and when I was 16 or 17, a lot of my friends were getting tattooed, and they would come to me to draw them a design and eventually the guy that we were all getting tattooed by finally started asking, where they were getting all these pictures from and telling me to come up there, so I went up there and he really peaked my interest and really pushed me in a direction and said, well maybe you should eliminate the middle man and start doing these tattoos yourself.\u00a0 Then at the time a few of us started getting a lot of them and one of us started doing them and a few of us started doing it.\u00a0 That\u2019s been a real job since.\u00a0 It\u2019s been the only thing I\u2019ve ever done, just as long as Ringworm, I\u2019ve been tattooing for 21 years.<\/p>\n
\nWe have 2 right now, we have 3 at times and we still may have a 3rd<\/sup> on the way.\u00a0 The tattooing industry is just as sick as the music industry, they\u2019re a dime a dozen, especially with the popularity of tattoos right now and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s the same around the world, there\u2019s probably a tattoo shop every 500 ft where you live and it\u2019s just a weird industry to be in now and we\u2019re doing very well, my shop has been there for 16 years so we do very well.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, it\u2019s like that you sound like someone who might have a lot of tattoos and I\u2019m sure everyone you know has one and it\u2019s just the popularity of it and I don\u2019t know if you get the same television programs down there, but the television is riddled with tattoo television programs, Tattoo TV and in a way its good for the industry but in a way there are more bad things about it, once you think tattooing has reached it\u2019s peak in popularity they go and do something perverse with the industry and the craft work of it that just makes it seem trivial, that\u2019s what happens and then you get every guy that can pick up a piece of paper wants to be a tattoo artist you know?\u00a0 It\u2019s almost raising a whole new generation of scratch tattoo artists that because they saw it on TV think well I can do that and I\u2019ll be rich you know.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like that.<\/p>\n