RAMMING SPEED
Interview with Jonah Livingston (drums)
By Metal Mike
Photos by Angela Boatright
If you haven’t heard of the beast that is RAMMING SPEED, do yourself a favor and go check them out (their most recent record, a split with ANS, is available now through Tankcrimes Records). Mixing elements of thrash, grind, and death metal together into a toxic ooze, these guys blew my mind when I first saw them at Brainsqueeze 2010. Despite being one of the openers, they stuck with me and I looked forward to either new material or another live show in the Bay. Time passed, but I didn’t forget the band and jumped at the opportunity to interview the Boston based thrashers. I talked with drummer Jonah Livingston about what the band has been up to, their maniacal live shows, and the bands plan for the future.
I first saw you guys well over a year ago at Brainsqueeze with TOXIC HOLOCAUST, VITAMIN X, and MUNICIPAL WASTE. What has RAMMING SPEED been up to since then?
We had a weird year, honestly. Last winter (2010-2011) we toured with MUNICIPAL WASTE and SAVIOURS over in Europe and when we got home two members decided to leave the band. At first it was really crushing on a personal level, in terms of the friendship and trust aspect- not to mention the blow it dealt to our momentum, songwriting, etc. We kept writing, hammering away in the practice space as a three piece, and eventually welcomed two truly awesome musicians into the circle: Blake Chuffskin (guitar), a long time friend who used to be in BONES BRIGADE and COCTOPUS (currently in CONCUSSION) and Ben Banoogen (bass) who is pretty new to our crew and had been playing locally with his band THUNDER MOTHERFUCKER now round things out. We took the new line up on a short tour with BARN BURNER, finished up writing for our new full length and were invited to the MetalSucks.net Metal Suckfest down in NYC back in November. We recently did 30 day US tour (the first chunk with SAVIOURS) and are now holed up in the jam space getting new songs tight.
You guys also just wrapped up an extensive US tour that took you all the way up to the 31st. Did you guys have a good time going around the States?
At some point we realized that with all the writing and sitting around we were missing out on our favorite part of being a band – TOURING! SAVIOURS invited us out on a ten- day run from NYC to SF so we went ahead and booked twenty more dates to finish up the big American circle. This was one of the most consistently awesome American tours we’ve done, thanks to really great promoters, local bands and crowds all across the country. It was also the first tour we’ve done in a while that wasn’t a complete financial disaster (laughs). Shout outs to all the party freaks in New York, Ohio, Nebraska, Oakland, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Florida and Philly! Definitely a great time as a whole…
You guys are one of those bands that are relentless in their live executions, do you guys always go onstage with a mindset of “ok, lets wreck the place”?
Thanks man! Me and Pete (our singer) are usually tucked into some corner of every venue screaming and jumping up and down before it’s our turn to play, just getting loose and hyped up. It makes a huge difference as far as hitting the stage running. No one wants to see a band looking all stiff, staring at their guitars, you want sweat and blood and pain and triumph. If bands were movies we’d be Rocky 1 through 4. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but we’re all heart all the way.
You guys are also one of those bands that seem to be on tour without end, does the word “break” even exist for you guys?
We don’t have a booking agent or anything, so if we aren’t on the road we’re either booking the next tour or writing for a record.
RAMMING SPEED always seems to be playing alongside bands such as MUNICIPAL WASTE, how did you guys cultivate such a band friendship?
A few years back we toured with Phil’s other band CANNABIS CORPSE and around that time also played three or four gigs with (vocalist) Tony Foresta’s side project NO FRIENDS, on top of a few random one offs with the WASTE themselves. It just so happened we ended up hanging out with those dudes a bunch of times and since then we’ve been invited to open for them in places ranging from Germany to NYC. They have some of the most rabidly loyal fans around so it’s been a great experience jamming with them and the various projects they’re always involved in. Speaking of which, keep an eye out for VOLTURE, (guitarist) Ryan Waste’s killer heavy metal band!
Are you guys working on any new material to be released this year?
The biggest news this band has probably ever had is that we’re finally getting close to a second full length. We have 13 new songs that we’ll be recording at the end of March with legendary knob twirler Kurt Ballou at his God City studio. This dude is absolutely the best at what he does – no one makes guitars sound as dirty and vicious while keeping drums and vocals sounding huge and full.
We’ve been sweating and cursing and pounding away on these songs for three years and they represent the first time that RAMMING SPEED really sounds like our own band. While our records before have dabbled in guitar harmonies and blasting and dbeat and all our various influences, the new one is going to really flush everything out. It’s both angrier and more triumphant.
And what’s something you guys want to accomplish as a band in 2012?
We’re currently unsigned, so the first step this year is recording the album and sending it out to the labels we’ve been chatting with. Once we have a team behind us the plan is to hit the road harder then ever. When the record is out we’ll do full US and European tours, and past that it would be really phenomenal to hit up Japan, Australia and anywhere else there are rock thirsty maniacs waiting to drink beer and run in a circle. I’d personally love to play Iceland again and try another shot at Norway where our shows fell through during our last attempt.
