To be Disarmed

Interview with Jamie (guitar), Brad (vox/guitar), Ant (drums) and Noddy (bass)by Nicola “Nix” Crichton

The ‘tramps’ of Disarm are certainly no stranger to the regular readers of Pure Rawk. We’ve seen them do many things over the past year and a half ranging from high profile support slots to the small stages and each time, they’ve captivated the audiences with their own brand of hard and fast rock n roll.

They seem to have a lot of good things coming up - starting with a tour with Kitty Hudson to supporting Warrior Soul and then Bullets & Octane. Sitting in the back of their van just after their gig with CJ and the Satellites, Nix talks to Brad, Noddy, Jamie and new drummer Ant about the recording of their debut album, touring, pooball, snuff, pirates and the drummer crisis.

Nix: Would you like to reintroduce yourself to all the Pure Rawk readers?
Brad: I’m Mr. Huff’n’puff. I’m Brad really.
Noddy: I’m Noddy. Dirty, smelly and from South Yorkshire.
Jamie: I’m Jamie and I’ve got a big head, apparently!
Ant: I’m Ant and I play drums, that’s about it really.

Nix: How would you summarise the past few months for Disarm?
Noddy: F***ing hectic and stressful. We’ve been through 13 drummers in two months.
Brad: No it weren’t, that were in April you tit!
Ant: We’ve been practising like mad.
Brad: We’ve got Ant as new permanent drummer and we started rehearsing for the album. We recorded the album which was the last time we heard it. Sounds incredible. Sounds bad because its like me saying it but I was like (makes shocked Brad noise) about hearing it. Practising, recording and doing a few gigs over the past week.
Noddy: Its been cool. It was a shame that the person who did the recording for “By Any Means Necessary” EP couldn’t do it and we wanted to Axis studios (Matt Ellis - G.U. Medicine, Number One Son, The Glitterati) in March - it was absolutely incredible. I enjoyed it so much recording with him.
Brad: We got so much out of it. We wrote songs that we thought were right good - and then we wrote new stuff ... and we didn’t quite know the song - he’d go ‘what if you did it like that’ and it was like ‘whoa, s*** - didn’t realise it could sound like this’!
Noddy: He kind of helped produce the album and it was really, really cool. We’ve still got some stuff to finish off, ie. people writing lyrics.

Nix: And the song titles! (Laughs)
Brad: That can wait until we get the album printed!
Nix: Give me an example of your song titles?
Brad: Der ner ner ner ner ner, Sassy Groove, V.I Groove, Drop D -
Ant: Electric Banana Party (laughs)
Brad: That ones being left off of the album (laughs) one were called Hill Billy S*** Head
Jamie: Hill Billy Godzilla.
Brad: Oh yeah, Hill Billy Godzilla - but now its called The River City Ransom Death Pact
Noddy: See, we’re making up really, really random names for songs just so we know what they are. So if anybody’s nicked any set lists with “Der ner ner ner ner” on ‘em.
Brad: (makes funny muffled noise) “What the f*** they doing?”

Nix: Where do you get your inspiration for writing from?
Jamie: Cheap wine (laughs)
Brad: I don’t know. Its been kind of odd because there’s stuff that’s been recorded that were wrote quite a while ago. Then there’s stuff that we wrote earlier this year. It’s been a right mix and match.
Noddy: It’s all kind of been mashed together.
Brad: It seems to have worked on the album, but it seems weird.
Noddy: When we were writing that, we were thinking, how the f*** we were going to put this song with this song. Brad brings metal to it - so does Ant. Then there’s me and Jamie bring the rock -
Jamie: What you on about. And or roll!
Noddy: We bring the reggae! (Laughs) f***ing hell, Brad’s the emo.
Jamie: It didn’t help that we had like ten songs to write in two weeks!

Nix: I spoke to you before Trash-Stock, the tour - how would you summarise the Trash-Stock tour for you?
Brad: Drunk (laughs)
Noddy: Really good actually. I think we gained quite a few ‘Disarm-ers’ (laughs)
Brad: It were weird because there we had a drummer situation. It felt bad because it weren’t quite how we’d of wanted it to be.

Nix: You’re doing a tour shortly with Kitty Hudson, how did that come about?
Brad: I have no idea (laughs) I think it was like one of those things where you bump into people you gig with and go ‘yeah, we should play’ then all of a sudden we had a mini tour in!
Noddy: We were thinking of people that we could get shows with. Who we’d fit well with and who we could get as many Northern shows as they could get Southern shows. I’m not 100% on what things were but Kev talked to Kitty Hudson who we played with on your show (Trash-Stock London - on the Trash-Stock tour 07). We really liked them so we were like yeah, cool!
Brad: It’s cool because its somewhere we’ve not played before and its hard to find bands to tour with and that. There’s stuff that would be alright for one-off gigs but apart from bands like Zen Motel and Patchwork Grace ... I can’t think of more because I’m a bit pissed (laughs)

(Van door opens, Joey Strange and Danny “The” Gunn from Patchwork Grace pop in)

Joey: Hey lads, what are you doing?
Noddy: It’s Danny’s 21st Birthday on Sunday so he’s really hammered (laughs - Danny Gunn looks worse for wear)
Brad: Want some sidddder? (cider, passing to “The Gunn”) Disarm Special Brew Siddder.
Danny: What’s special about it?
Jamie: Its got piss in it!
Nix: (To Joey and Danny) How would you summarise Disarm?
Danny: Piss heads!
Joey: They’re just f***ing dirty aren’t they?
Danny: The whole tour we didn’t drink anything because they drank enough for everyone!

Nix: Tell us about poo-ball?
Brad: It were a game where everyone each s***s in a bag, ties it up -
Jamie: - and throws it at Patchwork Grace (laughs)
Brad: Nah, that were basically an extra rule that was invented. Its whoever the bag bursts on is who loses!
Noddy: Don’t forget about the hat!
Brad: There’s a special hat that has to be worn.
Noddy: All we were trying to do was to scare James and Michelle Riot. We were trying to push their buttons to see what would freak them out or not on the Robin Black tour (laughs)
Brad: Yeah, it was like ‘we kick around bags of s***’
Noddy: James kind of took it one step further and it kind of metamorphasized!

(Random madness takes place involving noises and blowing bubbles into a Jack Daniels and coke)

Ant: By the way, Kev, our manager who we mentioned earlier - kicks some serious ass!
Noddy: Why the hell did you say that? (Laughs)
Brad: ‘Cos he does
Ant: I want to make love to him! (Laughs)
Noddy: Right, you can probably see a new drummer on this next tour (laughs)

Nix: Favourite band you’ve played with recently?
Brad: Only allowed to pick one?
Ant: Zen Motel for me
Brad: It’s got to be Zen Motel and Patchwork Grace for me.
Noddy: No, you definitely can’t pick between the two. That was the best tour that we’ve ever done.
Brad: Dirty Rig were just a bit too hardcore (makes mad screaming noise) Just people beating the s*** out of each other and chairs flying and s***!

Nix: Tell us about ... snuff?
Noddy: (Mock Southern accent) Snuaaaf?
Ant: Kev is the snuff king
Jamie: Its brown. It stings your nose. Then you’ve got right bad bogies in the morning.
Brad: But it’s gorgeous!
Noddy: Someone dared me to snort one of those liquid cocaines (Goldschlager, peach schnapps, Jagermeister) and I had a right nosebleed after!
Brad: Yeah, this album launch party (for Patchwork Grace’s debut “Milk Teeth”) he were drinking vodka through his eye. Chili Vodka! Noddy was crying “Nauuurrrrrggghhh! It hurts!”

Nix: Tell us about the gigs that you’ve got coming up over the next few months?
Ant: We’ve got 10 straight dates down London way which is going to be good. Especially looking forward to the Purple Turtle gig on Saturday (22nd Sept, Pure Rawk pirate night).
Brad: Because we can go “Ooorrrrggghhh, Arrrrrghhh!”
(Random piratey noises mixed in with farmer noises and an argument of what distinguishes a farmer from a pirate starts)
Noddy: Read all of the dates!
Brad: I’m f***ing not, not sitting here reading it like World Service! Best to look on our MySpace for the dates.
Jamie: What’s that website that repeats whatever you’ve just said?
Brad: PornoTube (laughs)

Nix: I’ve been watching you tramps make noise, fart and make rock for probably about a year and a half, how would you say you’ve grown as a band?
(Laughs all round)
Brad: It’s been weird because we’ve had so many f***-ups. It seems to be just one f***ing thing after another but we just keep going and trying. We do try our best but its f***ing hard work sometimes.
Noddy: We just keep pushing away. Before the Trash-Stock tour, we went through thirteen drummers in two months -
Brad: Two weeks! It’s a bit Spinal Tap-esque. Hopefully we’ll get massive out in Japan and live our lives out there like depraved kings!
Noddy: Ant is exactly like us
Brad: He’s not totally insane but he’s got that drummer-type thing! That kind of mental deficiency! (Laughs)

Nix: Any last words? Anything to promote?
Brad: We’ve got an album out! But it’s not out until next year.
Ant: So buy it, please (hopeful)
Noddy: Have a sneak preview of one song on MySpace!
Brad: Did you know that if you give a parrot chocolate, they die? (Everyone laughs, a lot) Apparently its true, and I believe anything I read on the internet (laughs)

A long argument starts about the spelling of ‘bifter’/’bifta’, poo and fish and thus the interview ends there! If you want to catch the deviants from Disarm on tour playing their filthy, turbocharged rock n’roll check out their MySpace.

Interview and words by Nix, band shot courtesy of Disarm’s MySpace, live shots taken by Wolfie at Trash-Stock London.

© Pure Rawk 2007