If you're man enough to read on after seeing that mugshot up there, than you are a brave soul. I recently interviewed the man above about his new mail order/distribution/label Crawling Chaos Productions. If you like crude and punishing death metal of the ugliest kind, than this a label you should be following. Actually, you should follow them even if you like other shit, because he's got it. Maybe.
SFM - G'day cunt, now let's get started with the generic background info questions. Where ya from? How long has Crawling Chaos been going? What are some of the releases you currently have out? What genres of metal do you specialize in?
Wayde - Hey fuckwit! I’m from Australia, hiding a couple of hours south of Sydney.
I started up Crawling Chaos mid-2013 when the Coffins Slave closed down. It was a matter of sheer opportunity since I had been helping to keep TCS afloat since mid-2012 but ultimately things went downhill due to a lot of factors, which I won’t discuss here, and the controls were handed over to me.
I currently have two releases out; the first one is “Ritual Obscuration” by Brisbane black/death maniacs VILIFIER and the second, which just came out this week, is long-running Melbourne blackened death metal band VAHRZAW’S second full length album “Twin Suns and Wolves’ Tongues”.
I prefer to work within the realms of death and black metal, as these are my two favourite subgenres of metal, but I would also be willing to work with other styles of metal if a band catches my attention!
SFM - What are your goals with this label both professionally and personally? How far do you want to see this label go, and what do you think it can be in the future?
Wayde - My goal is to work with killer bands to release awesome material and contribute as much as I can to the underground metal scene.
I’m not too fussed on making the label “big”, so to speak, but, I would like to see it receive recognition in the future. I’ve always had a lot of respect for people who work their arses off to keep the underground alive and hope to one day be deserving of such respect from others.
Ideally I’d like it to pay my bills, but, that’s a tad unrealistic! Haha.
SFM - Now I know you're a diehard metalhead, as you've spent some years running the Witching Metal Webzine, but there's quite a jump from running a blog on the internet, to running a mail order/distribution/record label. Has anyone helped you get this going and has it been difficult at all trying to run Crawling Chaos?
Wayde - I had a lot of help from Hushy (former owner of the Coffins Slave, he now runs a screen-printing business called Two Headed Dog, check it out if you want merch made up for your band!), he taught me a lot about how to run things and what not to do. I’ve also received plenty of advice from other label owners. The most difficult part for me was building the website; everything else was pretty straight forward.
SFM - What are some of the current projects that you have in the works?
Wayde - Well now that the VAHRZAW CD is out, my next release will be a demo tape from CONTAMINATED, a crushing death metal band from Melbourne! Think Incantation, Convulse, Cianide and so on for influences.
SFM - Even with all of the awesome talent that's brewing down under, I'm sure you can't help but feel the need to work with killer bands across the globe. When you look to work with a band, do you specifically go through certain country's scenes, or do you just get in contact with any random band that you like?
Wayde - I would be more than happy to work with bands from overseas. For me, the main requirement is that I like their sound. If it doesn’t catch my ear, everything else is completely irrelevant. I don’t search through scenes, I just keep my eyes and ears open.
SFM - If you could work with any 3 "newer" bands going today, who would they be and why? What bands would be that much more awesome with "Crawling Chaos Productions" slapped on their CDs/Vinyls?
Wayde - This is a very difficult question to answer as I don't think I could narrow it down to just 3! So, I'm gonna be a cunt and not answer it. Ha!
SFM - What do you look for in bands that you want to work with? Is there a specific sound, or is it just something that has to be metal and has to be good enough to catch your ear?
Wayde - As mentioned above, I prefer to work within my personal favourite genres and the music has to be good enough to catch my ear. I'm not looking to put out hundreds of releases, just stuff that stands out to me.
SFM - Well, that's the end of the interview. The floor is your's my smelly, Avssie amigo.
Wayde - Thanks for the interview. Everyone reading should take the time to browse my store and buy some records at www.crawlingchaosproductions.com! Support underground labels!
