ROAC hail from Denver, Colorado and feature several contrubutors from Profane Existence magazine as well as members Denver’s longest running crust band, THE CLUSTERFUX. This is ROAC’s debut LP and they offer up a heavy dose of doom laden mid-tempo darkness with hints of early AMEBIX, CELTIC FROST and DEVIATED INSTINCT while creating a sound all their own. Lyrically they rail on the horrifying imapct humainty has imposed upon our environment and eachother through unjust laws, war, greed and trechery. The cover features killer artwork from “Bam Bam” and helps make this one solid epic split release by the band’s own LESS ART RECORD LABEL and PROFANE EXISTENCE!
PE: Who plays what and why?
Josh – Dean plays drums because he is a drummer and has some drums. I play bass because we needed a bass player and I wanted to be in the band and Justin plays guitar because we couldn’t find a guitar player that wasn’t already in several other bands. Justin also does the vocals because he wanted to try vocals.
PE : How did you guys get together? Two of you were in the Clusterfux, was this band started during the Clusterfux? How did it start?
Josh – The idea for the band was planted the night Justin and I decided to disband Clusterfux. We tossed around the names of some dudes that would be fun to jam with and Dean was on that list. It really started out with a much different vision musically. At one point we did have a guitar played and Justin only did vocals. We were called Apex for a while but as our sound developed we dropped that name.
Justin- I knew I wanted to keep jamming with my brother but was kind of over writing guitar riffs. After 16 years in the Clusterfux and writing 90 % of the music I was burnt out. I really wanted to be a singer but that only lasted so long before I had to fill guitar hot-seat again. Then when I did I couldn’t write the way I used to. It made me physically ill to even think about it.
PE: In a city of amazing Grind Core bands and Ska Punk bands, how did you guys find yourselves playing low and slow.
Josh – I like some Grind Core but I am not a grinder really. I listen to a lot of metal and crust. Actually in our early conversations about the band we talked about a two vocalist punk band somewhere between Aus-Rotten and MDC. Very political and aggressive hardcore. Probably more like what World Pain is. But once we started jamming we let our sound kind of go where it wanted and not force anything. We are all huge Black Sabbath and Amebix fans so it kind of just ended up going in that direction. Like you said this is Grind City, I don’t think some people get what we’re doing. More people are getting tuned in but Denver hasn’t really had a heavy crusty-metal band like this, that plays slower…But really that’s what I am into personally…Misery, Axegridner, War//Plague, Neurosis, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Amebix, Deviated Instinct…You get the picture.
Justin- I even remember talk of doing a D.R.I. cover band for a sec., hahaha. When I became the guitar player and chief writer of Roac I just couldn’t play fast like the Clusterfux. I was always pretty good at writing thrashy punk riffs even helped write a Hirax album but I was done with it and was feeling something different. I sit around jamming Killing Joke, Amebix, Joy Division and Sabbath all day. What I was writing was what I wanted to be listening to. Our sound and music happened totally organically. We didn’t plan on being super crusty it was just the way the energy of the universe pulled our sound together. I am also a drummer and I play drums in some other bands like World Pain and the now defunct Dripfed. In those bands I play fast and hard for the most part but once Roac started playing I just knew it couldn’t be like those bands, I was feeling something different, I think we all were.
PE: In a time of extreme materialism, where consumerism is considered a virtue and plastic and pollution threaten to push the planet into extinction how do you cope and survive?
Josh – I ignore it. Commercials don’t work on me, its bullshit. I don’t relate to anyone in ads. They are the sheep. We are all consumers, you really can’t escape that but you can be smart about where and how you consume as well as what you do with the left overs. You vote with your dollar. You can eat at the locally owned establishment or some chain shit hole. Life is full of choices, anyone can buck the system and make better choices. Recycling is so easy these days, most cities have free recycling centers, its too easy to not toss shit into a landfill anymore. You make a choice, the trash or the recycling can. Make better decisions and pass that on to others. I have kids, this stuff will just be natural to them when they are older I hope. With that my son watches VHS tapes I get from the thrift store, sure I’ll cough up cash and by a new release if it’s something worthwhile like the LEGO movie (which by the way has a very strong anti-police state / New World Order message). We don’t succumb to every new product or advancement in technology. I finally got a new phone only because the old one died, not because I have to have the latest stuff. I pack up the kids’ old clothes and give them to friends or donate them. Again, that message is handed down to the kids. We help others as much as we can, we donate whenever we can and I explain to the kids why. They get it.
Justin- I have a hard time with it. The way people act is appalling. Greed runs amok through every single level, angle and facet of the planet and its resources. It’s easy to recognize the faults of others but soon you have to point the finger at yourself and realize those same truths are in your own existence. Then you have to discover how to overcome those and better yourself and help those around you instead of using honesty a means of hurting someone and making yourself falsely feel better. Instead of inanely bragging about ourselves we need try to reach out to others and better their lives.
PE: Over the years I have met people who have been “awakened to the big picture”. Meaning they thought, for the most part, what they learned in school was somewhat true just to have that idea shattered to its very core. Everything including Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Monoliths fling around our planet that Tesla tried to talk to, world banking systems hell bent on enslaving the human race, Anunnaki and Adamu , fake gods and their followers, 9/11 has been exposed. Was there a certain moment that awoke you guys?
Josh – My Dad was a hippy and raised us to question everything, don’t trust the police and don’t trust the government. We grew up listening to punk and metal and have always questioned authority but for me the defining moment really was 911. That was like putting on the glasses in ‘They Live’. I haven’t looked at the world the same since. It was from there that I did a lot of research on my own and starting reading books and hitting sites and getting as much info as I could. I have a much clearer understanding of the world now. Once you really wakeup it’s so liberating. The thing is that what used to be considered “conspiracy” is now main stream news. Drones for example, I first started reading about them on the conspiracy sites years ago, then it was on other media outlets like RT and finally they hit the mainstream. People from all walks of life are waking up and putting aside their petty differences to recognize that we’re all being lied to and mislead. Its too easy to go online and see that a presidential candidate is getting his financial backing from the same banks and corporations as his opponent. It’s too easy to research who the cabinet members are and see that they came from Monsanto. These are scary times, but exciting too. The revolution is fully under way and it’s all about information, exposing the phony wizard behind the curtain for all to see. Every meme your share or video clip is a shot fired.Like I said in the previous answer their tricks don’t faze me much anymore. I don’t have anything that I believe I have to measure up to except myself, there is no “keeping up with the Joneses” type bullshit to take from my happiness. I still have bills and I still work too much, I am still an economic slave in that sense but I have no debt and I live for furthering my cause. Not pay for crap that I can’t afford. My house is small but it’s affordable, I am not chained to an enormous mortgage and I am more free to spend my money on things that are more fun and fulfilling. I know people that put their entire vacations on plastic, they are 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars or more in debt. They live in McMansions that they cant afford and live way outside their means just to uphold an image. They will leave their children with debt when they die. I may not have a lot to leave my kids but there won’t be a pile of debt for temporary shit that isn’t even around anymore. I’ll be able to leave a house that is paid for. And a killer record collection!
Justin- A guy named Matt Easterly turned me onto it in the late 90’s. He introduced me to Alex Jones, David Icke and a bunch of other “conspiracy theorists”. That’s where I learned about Bohemian Grove, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group, Carlyle Group and the Illuminati and New World Order in general.
PE: What do you guys sing about, partying or politics or is it a mix?
Josh – Social / Political stuff, awareness and being awake. Justin writes most of the lyrics and his style is more poetic than how I write. But we don’t write party songs, I don’t have time for empty messages. We were watching a band the other night and their lyrics were so empty and devoid of meaning. You have to ask if it was even rebellious or just an excuse to dye your hair. We saw SoCal punk legends D.I. the other night too. A guy actually said to me that he didn’t like D.I. because they were “too political”! Really? Well at least you look cool. For me punk was supposed to mean more. Our lyrics aren’t all doom and gloom either, there are moments of hoped weaved into them. Justin could probably elaborate more.
Justin- I write about the shit going on around me. I don’t write about partying and trying to get laid but I don’t try to bum myself out through all of it either. Like in the song Blast the Opportunists… “ my friends and family rejoice in their sense of community” I write a lot about trying to survive mentally and physically in this world amongst so much greed puked out by lost souls.
PE: What the hell is a Roac and how do you say it?
Josh – Look it up!
Justin-Rowuck with two syllables
PE: Now that the LP is out what is next for the band?
Josh – More releases. We have several songs already written and would like to get in and record them by the fall. I’d like to get a cassette out or even a 7” or split in the not too distant future. We’ve got several out of town weekend shows in mind. We were just down in Colorado Springs last weekend and hope to go back soon and a few weeks ago we were at OC Cruststock. Then maybe we’ll get up to Cheyenne, Rapid City, and beyond. Now that we have a record out a tour in the fall would make sense too.
PE: Closing comments?
Josh – Thanks to Dan, Ben and Profane Existence and to Bam Sickos for the killer artwork. He really did some cool stuff for us. Here is his FB link > http://www.facebook.com/BamSickosArt
Profane Existence 