You know when a band name just catches your eye? Like Lawnmower Deth, Chainsaw Penis, Footprints in the Custard, Gloryhole Guillotine… Add to that list the lunacy that is Boobs of DOOM.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Originally, we were based in Glasgow, but I (Sadsack) moved to the north of Scotland last year leaving poor Thumper to suffer in the city on her own. We do everything over the internet now, but Thumper does come up and visit when her ill health permits. For all intents and purposes we only exist on the internet.
How did you meet?
We ended up in the same guild playing World of Warcraft. Spent more time chatting aboot music and tits than actually killing monsters. Once we found out we both lived a few miles away from each other, we started meeting up in my flat and crowding round a computer monitor bickering.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We started making music together in 2013, and put our first release out in 2014.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Like so many things in our lives; it came from a daft running joke from Guildchat in WoW. The original Boobs of DOOM belong to my wife and they became weaponised as a threat to maintain discipline and diffuse uncomfortable weirdness in Guildchat: “Don’t make me get the BOOBS OF DOOM!”
What are your influences?
Musically, we are in awe of acts like Sunn O))), Mogwai, Fuck Buttons, Chelsea Wolfe, Clark, Cult of Luna, Scientist, Portishead, Swans, The Body and the like. Some of our best tracks came out of trying to emulate our heroes and getting it horribly wrong. Otherwise we spend most days observing humanity and politics via the questionable medium of the internet, whilst uttering “what the fuck?” and “for fuck’s sake…” under our breath a lot. The existential horror and absurdity of it all feeds into our music and aesthetics. We play a lot of video games too.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Beats and drones and squiggly noises! Our first mail-out contained the following: “some damn fool said it’s as if Massive Attack. Mogwai and Sunn O))) got chucked in a blender, horsed oot the window with nary a gardyloo and the resultant post-metal trip-hop stain on the ground is what we sound like. w00t for that guy”… which people seemed to like. We are pretty unique, I guess. Peeps seem to have a hell of a time describing our sound. “Electrodoom” kept cropping up so we’ve decided to run with it.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
We used to have some spoken word / poetry in the mix but that has kind of fallen by the wayside in favour of guttural screams and hollers manipulated beyond all comprehension. Nominally it all boils down to anger and frustrations with our own ill health and abhorrence of humanity. But with daft jokes and allusions to obscure films comics and games.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We have never played live (!) Not that we wouldn’t love to. We both played real instruments in bands before BOD. And barely a day goes by when we don’t get messages asking when we’re gonna tour. The truth is: the peeps behind the masks are really ill in real life! We’re both disabled; I have a weird bone disease, Thumper is fed through a tube in her tummy, and we both have a plethora of mental health problems. I reckon a tour would actually kill us.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
If we ever do play live we want it to be more than two peeps with a guitar and laptop. We envision dancing girls and fire. Lots of fire…
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
AFAIK Thumper plays a Gibson SG through a VOX AC 30 and a Fender jazz bass, with a frankly ridiculous amount of FX pedals. We run tons of samples through a crapton of VSTs to fuck them up good and proper.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Our tenth album is out on 11th August. It’s called eXXpre$$ion. It’s our first to be available through all the usual digital retails like iTunes and all that crap, not just our Bandcamp, but also it will be released on a limited edition pink cassette by brand new indie label Odd Chorus. This is our first ever physical “product” and we’re dead excited.
What are your plans for the rest of 2017?
We have enough material for the next album so we are currently arguing over the final tracklist. We’d like to release album #11 before the end of the year but we want to give eXXpre$$ion some room to breathe. Also we’re doing our first round of remixes for other people which is crazyflattering being asked to do, but also a wee bit nerve-wracking hoping not to disappoint.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
First up: our mates Stupid Cosmonaut; we did a split with them earlier this year and it’s one of the best things we’ve done. They play spacey psychedelic doom drone that would set the scene for our nonsense extravaganza. Finally: Sonance; one of our favourite bands around at the moment; really impressive avant-garde metal that just boots us right in the feels.
From previous Band of the Day Three Kings High: What’s the best online resource for getting your music out there in your experience, and how do you use it?
No contest: Bandcamp. Great distribution platform with handy features and they don’t shaft the artist. Bandcamp has become integral to the creation process for our albums now. We have draft versions of the next four albums waiting to be finalised up there. We use them to judge the look and feel before unleashing upon the public. Plus if it’s good enough for Sunn O))), it’s good enough for us…
From another BotD, The Blend: What do you put on your toast?
Crunchy peanut butter in a hurry. No fucking butter.
And from Vanity: If you could go back in time and tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?
“That haircut looks fucking stupid, son. Grow a beard.”
Can you give us a question to ask a future Band of the Day?
‘What would you get paid in, if you couldn’t have money, and why?’
(we’d go with weed coz it helps with the pain…)
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