Flesh Creep – Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
White-on-black logo? Wavey, unhinged text? Disconcerting band moniker? Asking Tom from Flesh Creep a few questions should with any luck, get to the bottom of what I would wager to be quite a writhing mass of distorted and disgruntled underground Punk-Rock.
On brand with such in these comparably dimly lit times, the underground scene thrives. Though often so in an attempt to process such an existential age, one aptly attributed the precursory anecdotal exclamation of ‘what now‘, it often results in bands imbuing their cathartic craft with darkness-reared adjuncts, adding to the flavoursome, viscous byproduct of such woe. Or something like that.
The four humans in question hail from Birmingham and are laden with such darkness-read sides, oozing over and altering the composition of their brooding Hardcore Punk. Want to know more? Well then, it’s time to ask Tom from Flesh Creep just a few questions.
Origins, how did the four of you come together and why “Flesh Creep”?
The usual. The dissolution of various other bands lead us to Frankenstein, a new project that cut right to the core of what we wanted from music at that point. Flesh Creep is actually from a misheard line in a Megadeth song but I’ve since been made aware the villain in the Jack and the beanstalk pantomime shares our name.
Am I right in my detection of some Hard Rock-edged and Sludge-leaning aspects to Flesh Creep? ‘Combatant Youth’ comes to mind.
Correctamundo!
As a band, who would you say are your primary influences from both early Punk and Hardcore and more contemporary acts?
All of it and none of it. I think we strike a comfortable balance between not needing to reinvent the wheel and not following “the rules” too closely.
What is the least obvious influence on the band?
My biggest influence by far is Michael Stipe.
Extending that somewhat, if you were to introduce someone to Hardcore, what five releases would you choose and why?
Oh god!
- – The Faith/Void Split (Album) – Faith / Void
- – Downsided – No Comment
- – Nervous Breakdown EP – Black Flag
- – Pick Your King – Poison Idea
- – Victim In Pain – Agnostic Front
If those don’t sway you, there are probs a hundred other Hardcore records that might!
Who are your favourite DIY labels currently active?
Iron Lung, Static Shock Records, La Vida Es Un Mus and Quality Control HQ.
Punk and Hardcore in the UK are in a healthy space, who are your favourite UK bands currently?
As an adjacent question, outside of this “scene”, what else do you gravitate towards?
Movies, galleries, trying not to get mad about politics, Chinese food (shout out Jinn Li restaurant in Birmingham)
Talk to me about your local scene. Who should we be listening to? What are the best and worst aspects of it?
Slutmade, Mould, TRANSISTRRR and a million others.
I’d say, the best part is that we all stick together. What’s good for one band is good for every Birmingham band. And for that reason, I won’t mention the worst bits 😉
And now your favourites from overseas?
The new Wound Man (‘Human Outline’) record is my favourite thing I’ve heard in years tbf!
What festivals would you want to play going forward?
The one from the Epicardiectomy video in the mountains where the crowd does the Macarena.
Describe to me, the good, the bad and the ugly of Hardcore from your personal perspective. Go into as much or as little detail as you wish.
Hardcore rules because if you’re a cool person and your band is dope you can travel the country/world and have strangers scream your lyrics back at you without having to syphon off all your finances to various administrative industry leeches.
I guess the bad side is that there are no finances to leech off of in the first place, haha!
What would the younger version of you, as a fledgeling in the music scene, think of Flesh Creep?
I think my younger self would be annoyed at the fact I waited til I was in my thirties to start the band I’d always wanted to be in…
Talk to me about the ‘Bullets’ / ‘K.O.T.H’ single. You’re obviously no strangers to supplementing your bedrock with a little Metal for good health but it’s considerably more prominent on the latter half of ‘Bullets’ and the guitars are so much more unhinged and wild on ‘K.O.T.H.
Is a more “Metallic Hardcore” sound what you’re pushing towards now?
It’s actually something we’ve pushed against from the start but we keep writing heavy songs by accident haha. ‘K.O.T.H’ was actually me trying to do a “Hardcore” (The) Jesus Lizard or something along those lines, [they are] one of my all-time favourite bands!
If you had to make a three-track sampler for the band, what three tracks would you choose? What three do you feel illustrate the band best?
‘Gold’, ‘Heads Will Roll’ and ‘Like Dogs’.
Oh, wait! We haven’t released those yet.
Well, as it says on the metaphorical tin, that indeed was just a few questions with Tom from Birmingham’s Flesh Creep. Find everything you need on the band below!
- Updates:
- Music:
- bandcamp (Various, Noise Merchant Records)
- Spotify
- Apple Music
- YouTube Music
- Deezer
