Ian
Glasper plays bass in the new group Zero Again,
which soon will be releasing two singles. Thn is
interview was done in Christmastime in 2020. Zero
Again, a new band after what I understand, tell
me about the members and their previous bands? -Hi
Peter. Yes, it’s a brand new band – we have Dean
from Regret & Ephemeral Foetus on vocals, Payney
from Bring To Ruin
& This
System Kills on guitar (he also currently plays
in Social Experiment & System Of Slaves), Glen
from Grand Collapse & Four Letter Word on drums,
and myself Ian on bass, who used to play with
Warwound, Stampin’ Ground and Decadence Within
etc. It’s a pretty fresh chemistry between us…
we’re excited about it. You
will be releasing two singles in the spring
2021, tell me about them? -We
recorded 13 songs in October, ten of which are
for two five-song EPs, one called ‘Out Of The
Crooked Timber of Humanity’, which is being
released by Polish label Sanctus Propaganda, and
the other called ‘Revert To Nothing’, which is
being released as a joint effort between four
labels: Kibou, Little Jan’s Hammer, Cimex and
Sick World. The art for both EPs is amazing – we
can’t wait for people to see and hear these
releases! The other tracks we recorded are going
on compilations, including the new ‘Birds of A
Feather’ compilation for Grow Your Own Records. I
think your sound is somewhere between UK Subs
and Exploited - what about that, of course with
a lot of other influences and your own sound
too…? -It’s
kinda weird what people hear in the sounds of
other bands, I guess it’s to do with your own
reference points, but hopefully you like
Exploited and UK Subs, so this is a compliment,
haha! Between the four of us, we listen to a LOT
of different music, and we all bring some of
that to the table. When I write some of the bass
lines, I think my Rudimentary Peni influence
really shows, but by the time the others have
stamped their identity on it, it sounds
completely different. But I think some of our
biggest influences collectively are Dead
Kennedys, Neurosis, Killing Joke, Tragedy… When
we talk about UK Subs, Charlie went 75 years
some months ago, what will you do when you´re 75
? -Jeezus,
that’s 22 years away. I’d like to think I’ll
still be healthy and active and loving punk
music – hopefully even making music and writing
about it - but there’s no guarantees in this
life, so enjoy it while you can.
What´s your view on punk now and if you compare
with when you first came into punk?
-Well, nothing is as exciting as when you first
get into it when you’re a teenager, and that’s
why I have a special emotional attachment to
punk music from the early Eighties, but there
are still hundreds of great bands coming
through, and the scene still feels vibrant and
exciting to me. The music we’re playing with
Zero Again feels fresh, and we’ve got plenty to
say that’s relevant… there’s no shortage of
bullshit in the world to rally against, and that
keeps punk angry and intense (or should do). You
have done a new book now also, tell us about it?
And how we can get it? -It’s
called The Scene That Would Not Die: Twenty
Years of Post-Millennial Punk In The UK… yeah, I
know, a really snappy title, right? But it does
exactly what it says on the tin, and covers the
last twenty years of punk here in the UK in some
detail… there’s 650 pages, over 350 pictures and
over 200 fliers, about 111 bands – and it’s in
colour, so smashing punk taboos as well, haha!
You can get it directly from Earth Island Books. Back
to the band, how was the thinking when you
started it, how did you come to the sound you
have now…? -Warwound
had just split, and I was needing an outlet for
my music and lyrics, and wanted to do another
band. Glenn and myself had been talking about
jamming together for a while, so we started
putting the feelers out for a suitable vocalist
and guitarist. Dean and Payney were top of the
list because of our existing friendships with
them, their similar outlooks on life and their
musical legacies. It seems a great fit, no egos
jockeying for position and shit like that. Do
you think it´s important to release physical
stuff of your music? Do you think that you have
released a record if it´s only on Spotify for
example?
-We’re very much about releasing physical
product that exists in the real world, so people
have something tangible to interact with –
artwork to look at, lyrics to read, a cover to
spill coffee over etc. The internet is great for
getting your music out there, and you have to
embrace current opportunities and formats, but
we’re not interested in releasing anything in
only a digital format. We’re pretty old school
in that we want to do some 7” EPs, a 10”, and
then our first album, and introduce people to
the different aspects of the band bit by bit. To
play this sort of music in England right now,
how is it? -I
don’t know, because none of us have played a gig
since the beginning of 2020. Which is
frustrating as fuck, because punk is only truly
alive in the live environment, in that shared
moment between band and audience when we all
become one and the outside world doesn’t matter. What
about England, covid, brexit, rascists? -The
UK is pretty fucked up at the moment, but sadly
we’re not the only ones. COVID is running
rampant around the world, and right-wing
governments are chancing their arm with how far
they can suppress civil liberties, whilst their
policies and a heavily biased media embolden
fascists and racists. Brexit however is all ours
to be ashamed of for years to come, and a
particularly poorly handled clusterfuck all
round. Our government seemingly loves to
ostracise us from the rest of the world,
probably because they have the least to lose
personally. I´m
recently looked at the movie White Riot and the
fucking rascists back then, are England going
back to that time now? -I
sincerely hope not, but it does feel like the
country is drawing up battle lines again. It’s
not a time to sit on the fence. There’s a lot of
angry people looking for scapegoats for a lot of
pent-up frustration. Common sense and tolerance
must prevail or we’ll come apart at the seams. Have
you been playing live with Zero Again yet? -No,
sadly not. We’re not interested in playing a
socially distanced sat-down gig, so we’ll bide
our time and wait, and write and record lots of
songs in the meanwhile. Have
you been planning any live gigs yet, I think
about the covid-shit?
-We’ve got nothing planned yet. It’s
frustrating, but a lot of people have it far
worse. We’re not relying on our art for a
living, but millions of people do, and they’re
really hurting. Our thoughts go out to them, and
when the time comes, we’ll play as many benefit
gigs for those grass roots venues and promoters
as we can. I
love beer and I don´t know if you drink but if
you did an own beer it could be called Zero
Again and could have been a non-alcholic beer?
Or what have it been called and which type of
beer would it be?
-You’re asking the wrong band member as I
haven’t drank alcohol for over thirty years,
haha! But the rest of the band have been known
to enjoy the… er… occasional tipple.
Please tell me some of the titles on your songs?
-Well, the first EP has the following songs –
‘Tragedy Death Pain’, ‘No One To Mourn, ‘Husk’,
‘Hope You’re Proud’ and ‘Covid Dreams’. The
second one has ‘My World Now’, ‘Tomorrow
Disappears’, ‘Making Sense of Reality’, ‘Not As
I Do’ and ‘Angry Corpses’… all cheery stuff,
haha! How
do you do the music to Zero Again, is it so that
someone comes with an idea or do you do them
together or how do you do new songs? -I
present a lot of the initial ideas to Payney,
who adds all his guitar flourishes to them, and
then we smash them out in the practise room –
Glenn feels his way into the riffs and adds his
magic, which is when the songs usually start to
really take shape, and we all have a hand in the
arrangements, and then Dean figures out how the
vocals are going to fit best. Do
you play any covers with Zero Again? If you do
which ones is it? -None
yet, but we’ve talked about a few… no doubt
‘Zero Again’ by Rudimentary Peni will make an
appearance at some point! If
someone paid you to do a five-track-ep with
covers which five would you have done then?
-Personally mine would be ‘Sea of Desecration’
by Legion of Parasites, ‘Black Horse of Famine’
by Onslaught, ‘Azmeroth’ by Sacrilege BC, ‘Ballykelly
Disco’ by Exit-Stance, and probably ‘Bleed For
Me’ by Dead Kennedys… Five
favourite records right now? -The
last five CDs I played in my car were
‘Revelations of Oblivion’ by Possessed,
‘Immaculate Deception’ by Ludichrist, ‘Mutiny At
Muscle Beach’ by Night Birds, ‘Horse Bites Dog
Cries’ by D.I. and ‘The Best Of The Partisans’…
I wouldn’t say they’re my five favourite records
right now, because I’ve also been playing the
new Mr Bungle a lot, and the live CD of the last
Good Riddance gig, haha! But you get the
picture… tomorrow it will be something
different. Are
you missing to play live? -Yes,
I really am. Which
was the last concert you did? And which was the
latest concert you saw live? -The
last gig I was at was Testament, Exodus and
Death Angel in Bristol, back in February or
March 2020, but the last one I actually played
would have been with Warwound in London, in
October or November 2019… damn, that seems like
an age ago now I’ve written it down. If
you could choose five bands(live and dead bands)
to have a big concert with Zero Again, which
five would you go for?
-Rudimentary Peni Dead
Kennedys – with Jello Crass
Cro-Mags – ‘Age of Quarrel’ line-up
Voivod – with Piggy And
Metallica with Cliff on bass if any of the above
pulled out! Is
there any other good new punk/hardcore bands in
England right now?
-There are so many great bands here right now,
it’s hard to list them all, but check out Grand
Collapse, Drunken Marksman, Blind Eye, Pizza
Tramp, Burning Flag, In Evil Hour, System of
Slaves, Coughin Vicars, Attestor, The Domestics,
Bratakus, Jaded Eyes, Natterers, Rash Decision,
Bad Sam, Bad Breeding, Rat Cage, Unholy
Alliance… the list is endless, mate. And of
course, you can read about most of them in my
new book, haha! Some
of the old ones which have done some really good
record recently?
-Yeah, there’s plenty of established bands still
doing great too, not least of all Discharge,
GBH, Omega Tribe, The Inner Terrestrials,
Subhumans, Exit-Stance, Agnosy, Social
Insecurity, The Fiend… all still making new
music too, not just playing old songs at reunion
gigs etc. Zero
Again, how did the name came up?
-There are several layers of meaning to it. I’d
been knocking about the band name idea in my
head for several years, because it feels apt
when you leave well-established bands and strike
out with something new, so you’re going back to
the beginning. And I wanted there to be no
expectations, no egos, just about the music and
the lyrics. But also, I’m of an age now where a
lot of my friends are sadly passing away, and
I’m very aware of my own mortality, so it’s a
reflection on that as well, about returning to
nothing and what we leave behind. And of course
it’s one of my favourite songs by one of my
favourite bands too!
Future plans for the band? -We
have two EPs coming out in early 2021, but hope
to have another 7” and 10” out later in the
year, before we write and record our debut
album. We already have most of the songs written
for these. And we hope to play a few gigs
someday soon as well! For
yourself? -I’ve
got a few more book ideas in the pipeline, so I
plan to keep myself as busy as possible.
Today’s wisdom word?
-Don’t believe everything you see, hear and read
in the media. The truth is out there, but you
have to search for it. And look after each other
in these crazy times.
Something to add?
-Thanks for the interview, Peter, it’s much
appreciated. |