Formed by the Garcia brothers, Eddy and Danny, in the early 90’s, Pissing Razors released their debut studio album “Psycho Punko Metal Groove” in 1996. Following the underground success of the debut, the band released further albums in the 90’s and early 2000’s before going on hiatus. Returning a few years ago and with a recent deal signed to Art Is War Records, the band’s new studio album will be released later in 2019 but before that, the band hit Australia for the very first time along with Skinlab in August. We talk to Pissing Razors vocalist Joe Rodriguez ahead of the tour to discuss the return of the band, the new album and more.
Steve: Hi Joe how’s it going?
JR: Everything is great! Just grabbing a nice cold beer in a bar, going to put it down real quick so I can have a chat with you!
Steve: Nice one. So how does it feel to be coming down to Australia very soon?
JR: Honestly to tell you the truth, it’s a dream come true. There were some markets back in the day we wish we would have done, we were hoping to do them all but due to circumstances, me leaving at the time with my family and stuff, they are getting bigger, we fell short of the goal of going to the places we wanted to travel too so we were limited to Europe and stuff like that and never able to get out towards your way. That was sad but we are doing it now, we are looking forward to it going out with Skinlab and there are some bands there that are going to play that are familiar with Eddie Garcia because of his days touring with Overkill and stuff like that. This trip will be nothing short of amazing.
Steve: Great so I see you guys have some new music coming, can you tell us a little about that one?
JR: Yeah recently we put out “Crushing Grip” just to get everyone back in tune with the brand of music that we play you know, our “psycho punk groove” or whatever you want to call it. It’s been received pretty well, we are still following the same roots where we come from but kind of doing the same. We have another single that’s about to be released with a video yet to be announced and and to follow that will be a third single before we release a full length. We are looking forward to finishing the full length towards the end of the year or the beginning of 2020 and stay as active as possible, doing some short tours and stuff like that but the main thing is to get some music out as quickly as possible to get everyone back on board and following us as much as possible.
Steve: Sure sounds great, so without sounding rude I really thought Pissing Razors had gone into a forever hiatus, what were you doing during that period? Anything with music or just concentrating on your family?
JR: In the beginning when I left the band I concentrated on getting my family back in order, the kids were really young. As a matter of fact while we were out touring, my wife had the kids without me, it was an understanding we had as I was out touring the world but when my second son came along she was like, ‘Hey you know what, it’s pretty much time to come home or stay there and do that’, and I chose to do the right thing, stayed at home and raised them and they went on to do bigger and better things. I still remained working a regular job, I was still active in music but it was more so on the vocal level but I did a few things with Matt Lynch (guitarist), a few bands called The Six and we would release some music with Csar Soto and stuff like that, he now plays with Ministry.
Steve: Cool!
JR: I stayed a little bit active, it was so much that I wasn’t but I basically I had to stay in town so that I could do stuff with my family.
Steve: Yeah of course.
JR: Now that is all said and done we are in a position where you know, what it’s about the things that were left undone from back then, let’s get back together, that was the motto back in 2014 and that’s the motto now. We have unfinished business and that’s where we want to go with this right now.
Steve: Great so I take it you still keep in contact with the ex members?
JR: Yeah well Matt Lynch and Eddie Garcia are currently in the band and we have a new member by the name of Geo Gomez (Bass). Geo took Rick Valles’s position, he chose not to participate as he has personal issues with his family, he is raising a young son so we understood his passion for that we had already been through that we understood that so no hard feelings. We were cool with it, we were going to carry on without him, we have the first three original members so we are here man, we are good.
Steve: Well great to have you back! So I did a little bit of digging around on the old internet and you used to be known by this hilarious name “Backdoor Cyclops”.
JR: Yes Sir!
Steve: It made me laugh!
JR: It’s ironic you bring this up, I was talking about this with a friend of mine yesterday how ironic we had the name Backdoor Cyclops and now we are in a band called Pissing Razors. Yeah that makes sense! (laughs).
Steve: Absolutely! So can you take us back to the early days, what it was like for you guys as a band? I mean obviously it was difficult to get your name out there but from what I could read in the press back in the day, you were being compared to bands like Machine Head and Pantera. Was it difficult to forge your name back then?
JR: I wouldn’t say it was hard but you are compared to a band and you are expected to be just as good if not better and I think we had a flavor of those bands that people liked and that’s why we are still around after twenty something years you know?
Steve: Sure.
JR: I think our influences were from the Pantera days and we were compared to Fear Factory because Eddie Garcia was doing his drums and Matt Lynch with his guitars is compared to Dimebag Darrell which is phenomenal when you are compared with someone like that, it’s just amazing. I don’t think it was tough, it was more like, man can we keep up with being compared to them. It kind of helped in a sense because those bands were the heavy hitters and then it was like, oh shit if they sound like that then I have to listen to them. Some people it worked and other were like, ehhh I don’t like it because it sounds like what they are doing. It was a double edged sword but it was ok, we loved it.
Steve: You were always going to have your naysayers who are like it’s a poormans Pantera or whatever blah blah blah, but you guys stuck at it and that’s to be commended.
JR: Yeah absolutely, anyone else would have given up but forget that it’s not even worth trying and you get discouraged because you’re bashed for it because your not good enough but I still believed that we have something to offer and we still do to this day. So again we are trying to do it as passionately as we can and express ourselves as best as we can so that people can hear it and go, ‘You know what, that’s worthy of listening, let’s hold onto these guys for the next twenty five years’, you know what I mean.
Steve: Yeah I understand that. So is there any music that is ticking the boxes right now or do you steer clear of music while creating your own?
JR: No I love music so I listen to a lot of things, all genres as far as metal is concerned. Gojira is one of my all time favourites, it just makes me turn my head every time. Every emotion comes out just listening to the drums, those simple little riffs they are doing but they sound amazing, the vocals express themselves so well it’s like wow! It’s almost mind boggling and seeing them live it’s like Holy shit!
Steve: It’s next level!
JR: So that’s what I’m listening to as far as the metal side, you listen to it because you appreciate it, you love it and it does something for you. But I don’t listen to it to get an inch out of it or kind of add it to a repetoire of what we are going to do, we formed this band, believe in it and our formula and stick to it forever and far beyond.
Steve: Sure so just just quickly and I don’t mean to backtrack but with the new album obviously you want to break everyone’s head, did you go in with a particular idea or do you just like to hit record and let it spew out?
JR: I think first and foremost was to get in that room and see if we had that chemistry and once we got in there, it was evident that the chemistry was still there amongst myself Matt Lynch and
Eddie Garcia. Once we got Geo Gomez into the mix with the sound he bought, it sounded like the old days but with a newer twist, newer attitude along with ours. It was just kind of like woah! If this is worth doing, it’s worth trying to do again but we never messed with the formula. It wasn’t about, Oh let’s tune down or let’s tune up’, it was let’s go back to the original way, plug everything in the way it was. We are still in the same jam room recording studio we were in back in the day, I think that’s where we knew it was the real deal. It wasn’t color coding, it wasn’t bandwagon jumping, fucking nothing. It was this is Pissing Razors, this is what Pissing Razors is about and this is what they are going to get.
Steve: Balls to the wall as they say (laughs).
JR: Yeah 100 per cent.
Steve: Well thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it. Best of luck with the tour down under, go and destroy the crowd and hopefully next time you can come to the west coast.
JR: For sure and thank you so much for reaching out to me, take care my brother.
TOUR DATES:
THUR 1 AUG – BRISBANE – THE ZOO
FRI 2 AUG – MELBOURNE – MAX WATTS
SAT 3 AUG – SYDNEY – MANNING
TICKETS & INFO: www.hardlinemedia.net
