Interview with Disposable!

Today we have with us William Robertson, bassist and frontman of Scotland thrashers Disposable (formerly Disposable Heroes), and a friend of mine.


SFM- Tell us a bit about about your sound, for those that haven't heard you. Who are your influences, and what do you enjoy playing?


Wilb- The sound is heavily influenced by Slayer. With Slayer being a band favourite they naturally became a big influence to us. We covered "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood" right from the start, which was nearly 2 years ago now so that has been there from the start. Its not as atonal as slayer though, theres more melodic type stuff going on in what we write. That comes more from a Metallica influence. But generally the over all sound comes from the metal bands we take interest in - including Andbawrs' metalcore and hardcore interests, which have led us to write less generic thrashy parts into our songs, more noticeable "breakdown" type parts that we just call "the chunky bits" though. But when you mix the speed and chunky bits, it sounds good, it sounds quite unique. 


SFM- A good range of inspirations never hurt. To my knowledge, you have one demo out. What are your plans for Disposable? Are you focusing exclusively on live shows at the moment, or is there any talk of a studio album in the near future?


Wilb- We dont like that demo much, haha. It was written and recorded a while ago, and looking back I'd rather we had just left out the recording, it was too early. We were lacking a second guitarist at the time and It was kind of something to do while we couldn't gig, and we had the songs so we thought why not? It's okay, there is potential in the songs, and we still play a few of them live, but we dont throw those recording around at people. I dont think we even have them anymore. But it gave us the feeling of being in the studio which was good. We've been playing live a lot the last year and writing too. At the current moment though, we aren't worrying too much about live shows, we've played plenty recently, although we have not stopped completely. We've written 3 songs we are properly happy with in the last little while and have been practicing them a lot for when we go into Splitlevel Studio in Edinburgh in October to record a 3 track EP. So that's the main concern at the moment, and we're looking forward to having some recordings we are actually proud of to let people hear!


SFM- Sounds like a good plan. A slight change of topic; what is the writing process within the band? Does everyone contribute material, and sift through the best of it? Who writes lyrics?


Wilb- I write the majority of the music that will become a song. What we've found while writing the songs to go on the upcoming EP, is that I'll write all the music and put it into guitar pro. And in most cases i'll be a bit too keen, and overdo it. I send the files to Andbawr and he will say "It's good, but goes on for too long". Or just "Thats shit". He's like my guide through the writing. He helps me shift the songs into a good structure until we are happy. Leez and Jack are less picky, and unless they are really against a certain part of a song they are happy with what we give them. Only on very few occasions have they said they don't like what we've given them, but they dont usually hear the shit versions, just the finalized songs. When it comes to lyrics, I usually write them. I dont think any of the rest of the band care less about what I sing or when I sing it so long as it fits the song. Andbawr has contributed a few lyrical ideas here and there, though.


SFM- You guys are part of a huge wave of new thrash metal bands that have recently started rising from complete anonymity to relative success. What made you decide to become a retro-thrash band, even though there are so many already? And are there any fellow NWOTM bands you'd give a shout out to?


Wilb- I don't think we ever made a particular decision to become "Thrash", its just the way things turned out. We started as just a metal band. The very, very early stuff we were writing can probably not even be considered thrash. It just developed into a faster, thrashier thing. When we got Jack into the band, it secured it as a thrash band. He's really into his thrash and goes for the whole leather and denim thing. The fact that there are so many other new wave thrash bands isn't something to put anyone off becoming a thrash band, if anything its more of a reason to become one, to strengthen the scene. Its definitely a case of "The more the merrier". As for shouting out to new wave Thrash bands, the obvious ones are the likes of Evile, Warbringer, Gama Bomb, Havok, Hexen etc, they are running the show. But as for upcoming bands there is some really good stuff going on in Scotland at the moment, bands such as AMOK, Citizen Death, Black Talon, Circle of Tyrants and Thrashist Regime, some of which we've had the pleasure of playing with, are all worth checking out - So do it!


SFM- How far do you aspire to go in the business? Would you be content with being a cult-level band, or are you shooting for Big 4 levels of success, and such?


Wilb- We aspire to go as far as we can. As far as people want us to. I don't think the level of the success really matters to us. I dont think we'd want to be too big anyway, not to the point where we lose the "human quality", I'd always like for people to come up to me and be able to speak to me as opposed to being like "woah i dont know what to say to you!"- that level of fame doesn't really appeal to me. But just wherever we manage to get to will be fine, hopefully it will be a lot further on from where we are now, though! 


SFM- Also, do you think the band will continue to play the same kind of music throughout your career? Do you have any restrictions on experimenting or changing your sound?


Wilb - I think if our career was to span a really long time the music would have to change. I don't think it will be the same all the time, we've only been a band for 2 years and we've changed our sound within that time, so it would be a miracle if it didn't change over time. I dont think it will ever stray too far from Thrash though. We dont really have restrictions as such, just a comfort zone, and so long as we are playing within that comfort zone we're happy. 


SFM- For the heck of it- best band in the world?


Wilb- FUCKING SLAYER!!!!


SFM- Can't go wrong, haha. Well, that wraps things up here. To end this, any words for your fans?


Wilb - "Bullhouse" and "J" and "Thrashpigs".  


But seriously thanks for the support! Just keep turning up to our gigs and shit, it means a lot to us! And listen to the EP when it comes out haha. 
Also pick up some merch if you're keen enough. Keep supporting Disposable, spread the word and all that! 


Check out Disposable on Facebook and Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCwje0GO2qY
https://www.facebook.com/DisposableThrash 


Interview done by Surya "Cereal" Mandyam