Hrvoje Bubić | Interview with Rob (the Baron) Miller
For start, tell me about your start, how did you get in punk rock movement and music generally, your influence and your understanding of the punk movement.anarcho punk and crust punk.
I was introduced to Punk Rock initially by my Brother Stig back in 1977,when he returned from working in Jersey with a guitar and a copy of Sniffing Glue fanzine,we began listening to John Peel on radio One as the bands began to emerge,a very powerful and exciting time as a young man.we took the advice in Sniffing Glue literally,they said here are 3 chords,now go and start a band,so we did.This was really before Crass appeared properly or the punk rock movement became synonymous with Political ideals,in a sense it was a freer time.
Amebix, you founded with as lead vocalist your brother Stig(guitar) , Andy “Billy Jug” Hoare (drumes) and Clive Barnes (bass player) as Band With No Name, recorded a demo on a tape that came in Crass member and song University Challenged was featured on first Crass Records Bullshit Detector LP. Latter, Clive and Andy left the band and thye were replaced with Martin on drums and you as bass player. You practice in Martin’s parents house basement but he was removed from band by his parents becose he suffered from paranoid schizophrenic, you guys kicked from house and is it song “Largactyl” is about him?
Yes,it was song about Martin,who was quite tragic really,very much like Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd in that way,a sensitive person who burned out quite young.I am glad to say Martin is still alive and doing OK,i have visited him a few times over the years but realise that the damage is done really.
You swithched name from Band With No Name to Amebix, can you tell as why (cos Band With No Name is very good name) and you hired Norm from Screaming Heads, Phantasmagoria, NormYard as synth player(who was replaced by George on EP No Sanctuary) and Disorder’s Virus as drummer, making first two 7′: Who’s the Enemy , Winter), 12′ EP No Sanctuary. In that time, you relocated to Bristol, you lived in squats, how was living that lifestyle,making music and surviving, probably not very nice, right?
The band with no name was a name we gave ourselves after watching the Good the Band and the Ugly with clint Eastwood,who plays the man with no name.yes it was a good enough name but i think it may have become dated,whereas Amebix has an eternal presence.
Bristol was difficult,but we were young,it was a desperate time and also an exciting time in many respects,it taught me a degree of self reliance,and that no matter how hard rings get you can find a way through,you can survive.
During the recording No Sanctuary, you met Jello Biafra, frontmen of Dead Kennedys and owner of punk label Alternative Tentacles, on which you released your first LP Arise, which I would describe as Motorhead meets Joy Divison. Again there was changing line-up in band, with Spider on drums. You signed to Heavy Metal Records,releasing the last LP Monolith,on of your last shows was in Sarajevo, just before of end of Yugoslavia( btw my buddy Franko was on that show and wants to say hi).
Yes,Sarajevo was quite odd,i think we took some mushrooms before that show,a very chaotic affair,but we enjoyed former Yugoslavia as an experience although there was definitely something in the air too
After the split, Spider, George, and Stig formed band Zygote,what happen to you? I read that you live on some lonely island in Scotchland as self- taught swordsmith, please tell as something about that, did you have another music project? I just listening the Tau Cross, and it very good. It was you on vocals & bass, Michel (Away) Langevin of Voivod on drums, Andy Lefton from War/Pleague and Jon Misery of Misery as guitar players. Tell us more about Tau Cross and another projects?
I left England in 1991 and turned away from music and everything i had known to begin a new life on the barren landscape of the inner hebrides,it was a challenging time,before the Internet and the ease of communication we take for granted now.Amebix became a phenomenon whilst i was unaware of that,when i found the Internet eventually it became apparent that we had an influence on a lot of people despite the lack of any real support or success at the time.
I taught myself to become a Swordsmith in the traditional way,and lived my life that way for 20 years,until a documentary maker came to find me to talk about Amebix,and that stated a whole lot more trouble of course.
What is your opinion about today music scene, ether was mainstream or underground, do you think it still like was in 80′ during the Cold War and today’s War on Terrorism,you know fear as tool? Your opinion on political correctness,what is your life philosophy and view on world?
That is another discussion,and impossible to summarise in a written interview.As we grow older we can become less connected to music,this is how i feel now,there is very seldom anything i hear that makes much of an impression.
For the end what is legacy of Amebix,I notice that lots of bands mention Amebix as influence. The last Amebix album was Sonic Mass from 2011 with Roy Mayorga on drums, will there be a new Amebix stuff, some show in Split and what you would to say our readers?
Amebix split up again 2012,there will not be another Amebix.
