Grimskunk Want To Smack Stephen Harper In The Head

Last year was a big one for Montreal's Grimskunk. Along with a successful world tour supporting their eighth studio album, Fires Under The Road, they also celebrated the 10th anniversary of Indica Records. Guitarist Franz Schuller chatted with ChartAttack about North American xenophobia, Chinese rock fans and post-apocalyptic zombies.

ChartAttack: You've been touring this album for a while now. Have you been writing on the road?
Franz Schuller: We started writing some stuff in the past couple months, but haven't had time come up with an idea and really write together. It's hard to sit down and work stuff out when there's not even time for rehearsals. We must have done 100 shows and two jams.

I'm sure everyone's asking about the political content on this album, particularly on "America Sucks." Is there a particular suckiness you're referring to?
There is a particular suckiness! There was a time when North America was a beacon of hope, an example to follow for openness and tolerance in the '50s and '60s. Some very important questions were asked here about people's rights. A lot of things that seem to have been worked through. People like Bush and Harper have gone back to the stone age with this paranoid self-interest. They don't care what's good for our children, the poor, or the life of what's coming, just the lobby groups who are pressuring them. There're so many examples. For a year-and-a-half, [the U.S. government] didn't even touch the destroyed black neighborhoods in New Orleans, and then there were the comments about Kyoto being the biggest mistake ever! They're poisoning the air with words like these, and on a personal level it makes me want to smack Harper in the head! So, I wrote a song that's very aggressive, that is about the violent emotion we feel when we see people putting policies out there that are so backward.

In a previous interview with ChartAttack, you mentioned how politics was something you felt you should dutifully write about. So, is it something you consider a responsibility?
The goal is not to be a political band. It just so happens that we play music and have a platform. That doesn't mean that everyone around the world isn't thinking about the same things. It is a duty to express how I feel, to balance the bullshit. Staying silent is not an option. I wish the silent majority of this country would wake the fuck up and put these backward rednecks back in their place! Go online, read the posts and blogs, check out the xenophobia in this country, and tell me you're not scared.

What are you thoughts on recent industry events, namely the independent album releases by some very big bands. Is the future of labels on the plank, and will the role of labels like Indica change?
Actually, I think the future of large amounts of CD sales is on the plank, and really the tag "record label" may be on the plank, too. Everyone who works with artists should be there to support them and have them reach the most amounts of people. That's even more important today because the amount of people who are open to new music is bigger than ever and growing. There are huge markets like India and China that traditionally didn't listen to music from around the world that are now connected. There's more and more opportunity out there, and labels should be aware that you're working on a multi-faceted model.

You guys plan on touring this album very rigorously for another whole year, right?
Yeah, at least. This time, we'll be previewing the first of our five animated videos for five different songs on the album, all tied together by a narrative, projecting behind us. It's in a graphic novel style, loosely based on war and human behaviour from pre-history to post-apocalyptic zombies. I loved stuff like The Wall and Heavy Metal 2000 when I was a kid. It'll really help the crowd trip out!