#ROADTOBOA Interview: The John Doe’s Burial

Bloodstock 2016 logoHere we go again… Last year we covered every band on the Hobgoblin New Blood and Jagermeister stages in the run-up to Bloodstock 2015. This year, we’re going one better and aim to have interviews from all the bands on those two stages as well as all of those on the SOPHIE stage prior to the event kicking off on August 11th. That’s almost 100 interviews to get online for you lucky people over the course of the next couple of weeks. I bloody love this job, but you lot owe me a beer at Catton Hall, right?

Thanks to all the bands who’ve taken the time to respond!

The John Doe’s Burial – Hobgoblin New Blood stage, Sunday

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

We are from Poland.

How did you meet?

At the time when we started, very few people in our city were interested in playing this type of music. It was a very small group of people. We all knew each other.

How long have you been playing together as a band?

We started in the year 2001/2002. A long time ago. But then we played completely different music. It was aggressive HC. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Where does the name of the band come from?

It was an idea of our drummer. The idea was to have a name associated with something ,say mysterious, anonymous. Thus arose John Doe. The name The John Doe’s Burial was founded a few years later and was associated with significant personnel changes in the band.

What are your influences – individually or as a band?

There are so many bands. But I can say that we all like the music of the 90s.We listened to bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Death, Bloodbath. But also His Hero Is Gone, Tragedy, Brutal Truth and so on. The list is long. We keep going back to those albums. What is currently happening in music doesn’t really turn us on.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

It seems to me that our hardcore beginnings and the music we grew into resulted in an explosive effect called The John Doe’s Burial. We play music from the borderline of death metal and deathcore but we have a hardcore soul.

What’s your live show like – why should the baying hordes troop over to the stage you’re playing on to watch you?

We’re not virtuosos. I never tried to race to play faster or more technically than this or that band. It was never our goal, it’s not the point in the music. There is now a trend in metal music: triumph of form over content. Bands forget about the basics. The message, power, energy, a kind of addictive show. That’s what I expect from the music and what The John Doe’s Burial does every time. Old school in the new edition.

When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Bloodstock?

A few weeks ago we won the final concert of Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses in Poland. It was a great joy – bands that fought with us played great gigs. I would like to thank the organizer Wojtek Siskin Czyżewski. Great job man, thanks a lot!

What sort of setlist can we expect?

We will play most of the new songs. To spice up the show also will play some hits from the years 2008-2010. Most of the songs are very fast, a lot of blast beats but you can expect a few crushing, slow tracks.

Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?

We play Sunday, so I would not want to miss bands like Slayer, Anthrax, Satyricon and Unearth. That would be a damn shame.

What are you working on at the moment?

We are planning an autumn tour, things are beginning to slowly fall into place.  We are planning to shoot a live video to one of the new songs. It is possible that part of the material will be shot at Bloodstock. We can’t wait! After the new year we plan to again to the studio to record new material.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done on tour?

In 2009 we played on tour in Russia. You could say that the whole tour was one big madness. Over two weeks we travelled by the train, only with backpacks and guitars on our backs. We played a lot of shows back then. From the biggest cities like Moscow or Sankt Petersburg to the smallest ones. It was insane!

What advice would you give to a young band just starting out today?

Have a great time making music, playing concerts, traveling and getting to know new people. This is the most important.

If you could be part of any 3-band line-up who else would you have on the bill? One band above you and one below – a chance to plug a smaller, unsigned act!

Cannibal Corpse, The John Doe’s Burial, The Black Dahlia Murder. That would be fucking awesome!

 

 

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