Bombnation is one of the good thrash bands that play thrash metal the way it should be played and here is an interview with band member Jack Moose:
Tell me how the band formed and how you came to a solid line-up and did any band members come from any other bands? Tell me a little bit about each band member.
Everything started in late 2007 when me and Crocko had the idea of playing thrash. So we started to jam together and for a couple of months we were only 2. Then Crocko introduced Dan, as a second guitar player and then Mike showed up one day to try vocals with us, and finally decided to jam with us regularly. Finally I asked Whale to join the crew. Since Whale was more a guitar player, and Dan was more of a bass player, they switched up instruments and it stayed like that. Crocko had and still has many bands/projects like Fistfuck, Nourriture, Aorta, just to name a few and still plays with Mesrine, Cyanide Eyes and Stoned Horses. I'm also guitar player for Mesrine, Dissed and Immoral Squad and I play drums as well with Fuck You All. Whale also plays guitar with Stoned Horses, and Fuck You all. Dan was playing guitar with a band called Evanescent Soul a couple of years ago and Mike was more like an air guitar/vocal guy and he is the singer for Stoned Horses too!
Tell me about the 1st few practices. How long was the band together before you started writing original songs? Tell me how a song comes together.
As soon as we started to jam, we wrote some songs, we never played any cover songs. The demo and the first album H.A.Z.M.A.T. were mostly written by me and Crocko during jams, except for a few songs that were written by Whale on H.A.Z.M.A.T. We usually smoke a spliff and start to jam anything for fun, always recording everything, and when there's a part that sounds good, we keep it and try to add some other riffs and finally there's a song. We've always created songs "on the fly" like that, but Whale is more the kind of guy who writes some riffs at home and then he shows us his ideas at the rehearsal. I am more like, play a beat and I'll try something.
Who writes the lyrics and how does the lyrics to a song come together?
Mike Waters writes pretty much all of the lyrics, but I wrote a few songs. Dan and Whale wrote a couple of songs as well. Then Mike has to find the good song to put those lyrics on it, that's it!
Who came up with the name of the band and were any other names thrown around?
Mike came up with the name, he sent us a list of names that I can't remember and we all liked this one so we kept it.
In 2008 you released a demo called “Atomik Animal Annihilation”. How was it going into the studio as a band for the 1st time and what are your thoughts on this demo these days?
The demo was recorded in our rehearsal space so pretty smooth studio experience! We did it pretty fast and I think that it was a good representation of what we sounded like at this time. That demo helped us a lot getting known a bit here and there.
In 2009 you released your 1st full length called “H.A.Z.M.A.T”. Did you put that out yourselves or did a label put it out. If it was a label, what label and how was the response to this release?
Profusion records released H.A.Z.M.A.T. The response was good, the album spread around the world but since we are a really underground band, it is still relatively unknown, but we had a lot of airplay with many metal radios and many reviews from webzines and magazines, and most of the time, the reviews were good.
Do you think you’re an original band and if so why do you think this and at what point in the band’s career do you think you came up with the “bombnation” sound so to speak.
No, we are not an original band. Of course we have a "Bombnation sound" which is our own, but we just play stuff that is influenced by the music we were listening to when we were young and that we still listen to. We are not trying to do something different, we do what we like to do and that's it.
For someone who has never heard the band, what would you describe the band’s sound and what are some of the bands that you get compared to a lot?
I would say that we sound somewhere between Slayer and D.R.I. Most of the time we are getting compared to Slayer, Nuclear Assault and Municipal Waste.
Where you are based out of, Quebec, Canada, is there a lot of places to play and what are some of the bands you have shared the stage with and was are some of your favorite shows you have played so far?
Yeah, there are some good places to play in Quebec city, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières etc.. We shared the stage with bands like the Exalted Piledriver, fuck the facts, Alcoholotor, Hatebreed etc.... But most of the time our favorite shows were in small clubs with local bands. Always a lot of fun!
Do you think you’re a good live band and are there many videos of the band floating around on sites like You Tube and stuff? Have you had a chance to play live in the US and if so where and if not do you hope to soon?
I think that we are a good live band, as Mike Waters is funny as hell. We play our songs well, but the show is entertaining because of Mike wearing weird nuclear suits and drinking wine on stage etc... We never played the States and we will never play the States...Because of a 20 years old story, someone in the band is considered as a criminal in the U.S. and cant cross the border...
In 2010, you released “Crossover With Rage” as a split and then later on that same year it came out as a full length. Who did the split with you? What label put it out? When you ended up releasing it as a full length did you add some extra songs to it?
We did the split with a crossover band from Austin, Texas called Blunt Force Trauma. Dallaire from D7i / Toys of disharmony records and I had a listen to their stuff and we were like, we should do a split with them! So we asked the band if they wanted to do a split with us and thay said yes, so we did it. The full length that came out later had 4 more songs on it from the same recording session. In early 2014, a small Russian label called GSP Music , did a repress of it on a deluxe digipack CD with another 3 extra songs from another recording session.
Are your 2 previous releases still for sale and if they are how would people reading this interview be able to buy them?
Yes they are, you can find H.A.Z.M.A.T. easily on the web from PRC Music or ebay or many distros, Crossovered with rage CD can be bought from gsp-music.com You can still buy our split LP with Blunt Force Trauma from the Toys of Disharmony Distro : http://www.toysofdisharmony.com
Around how much time in any given week is spent doing band related things? Do you guys get to practice a lot?
A couple of hours, we usually jammin once a week. It's not a time consuming thing, it's an activity that we like to do for fun.
Is there a solid underground metal scene in Canada these days?
Yes, the underground scene is pretty strong these days, there are a lot of shows, and many bands are touring an in Europe and in the States. There is always up's and down's, but these days it looks like it’s up and strong.
Now we fast forward from 2010 to late in 2014 and you have a new release called “Night Invasion”. Why the 4 year wait in-between releases?
It took a long time for many reasons, but it's mainly because of Dan, Whale and Mike had kids, so less time to rehearse and learn the songs etc. Most of the songs were written since a long time, but it took a while for them to learn everything and finally record those songs.
This new release is on PRC Records. How did you end up hooking up with them?
Our friend Dallaire sent him the link when I posted the album for streaming and Rémi from PRC replied with an offer. Since Rémi runs a well-established label and his offer was straight, not complicated and good for everyone, we were very happy to release it with PRC.
How was it going into the studio for this new release? Did you do anything different this time as opposed to other times?
The main difference was that we recorded all the basic tracks together instead of doing it track by track. For the first 2 albums, I rented a studio for one day to record the drums and we did all of the instruments and vocals in our rehearsal space, or in a house, or apartment. For night invasion we had the studio for two days so we took our time to track the basics together and we tracked the guitar solos and vocal at the rehearsal space or in my mixing room.
Do you have any type of touring plans you would like to try to do to promote this release? With so many bands around do you find it tough at times to stick out from the crowd?
No touring plans for now since Mike Waters decided to take a break of music for an undetermined period for some personal reasons. If he decides to come back, we will check this out. Standing out of the crowd might be impossible these days, but we don’t think about that, so it's not tough! We are not expecting anything from the band except having fun, drinking beer with friends and meet some cool people.
Please plug any websites you have and what merchandise do you have for sale?
Our bandcamp : http://bombnation.bandcamp.com
Here you can get our releases in digital format, or contact us for t-shirts, stickers etc.:
PRC Records : http://prcmusic.com
For the Night invasion CD:
GS Productions : http://gsp-music.com
For the Crossovered with rage Repress CD:
Toys of disharmony : http://www.toysofdisharmony.com
For our split LP and all of our releases + awsome distro/label
Thanks for doing this interview. Any last words to wrap this up?
Well, thank you and for best results, listen to our stuff IN THE NIGHT !Cheers !!!
Interview by Chris Forbes
Answers by Jack (guitars)
October 2014