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Unchain is proud to present an interview with Barney from
If I had to use one word to describe how important Napalm Death was in the evolution of modern metal, that word would be really
long. I mean, how many bands can claim to have kick-started, almost single-handedly, an entire genre? Back in the proverbial day, everyone was trying hard to be faster, louder, more
extreme, and then along comes Napalm Death, and they put an end to that whole trend because, after 1986's Scum LP, no one could be faster... No one could be louder... No one could be more
extreme than these Birmingham grindcore legends... After years of obsessive fandom, staff writer JW got the chance to talk to
vocalist Barney Greenway about the newest album, the music biz, the ills of the modern world, and the brilliance of Peter Cetera. Read on...
 JW: Hey, Barney, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me…
BG: No problem, man, no problem…
JW: Well, I'll go ahead and jump right in here: it seems like everyone is saying that the new album, The Code Is Red … Long Live The Code, is a return to form somewhat, in terms of the ferocity of
the music. It sounds like a revitalized Napalm Death. What do you attribute that to?
BG: To be honest, mate, I don't think we ever really lost our ferocity. I think that the last couple of albums before that were pretty storming, y'know. And yes, of course, we did that
experimental stuff in the 90s, and whatever your opinions are it still had quite an impact certainly on some of the extreme music scene in certain quarters. I think that, quite possibly with some
bands, they go in and think, "We've got to make a concerted effort here to really make an album that really hits the spot," and they kind of map it out in front of themselves, but for us, that's
never the case with us. I mean, every time we go to the studio, we just do the absolute best that we can. So there's nothing I can really attribute it to, apart from the fact that we just went in
and did our best. I mean, Russ Russell, who actually produced it on his own for the first time, was the best move that we could have made, and he gave it that extra edge because it's got a
really raw sound. I mean, the last couple of albums had a raw sound, but this one even more so, and that really helps it along. We just went in and did our best and knew what we wanted to do
, knew what we wanted to achieve, and just put it down on to tape, y'know…
JW: I think, to me, it's kind of the perfect blend between the old ferocious stuff and the more experimental stuff in the 90s, because you've got something like "Morale" [on the new album]…
BG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, "Morale"--some people remark, "Oh, this new kind of track…" but it's not new really, because we've
done quite a few tracks like that, and you can trace that back to From Enslavement [To Obliteration] actually. There's tracks on there that are very similar. And, I mean, it goes back to the point
that, yes, we're influenced by hardcore; yes, we're influenced by punk; yes, we're influenced by death metal; but there's also other things, y'know. We've got the whole, for want of a better phrase,
"art rock" thing —I mean, Swans from New York, My Bloody Valentine, all that kind of stuff was an influence on Napalm in the very early days, and we've always felt that in ourselves ever since
, so there's always been little things that crept in here and there.
JW: Very cool. It's great that you guys have never been afraid to challenge yourselves…
BG: No, not at all. People still say, "Well, why don't you make an album of twenty songs, and each one no more than a minute," and of course, we can do that—we can do that in about three weeks
flat—but is it really going to be a good depiction of Napalm Death in terms of being a challenging band, musically, lyrically, whatever? No, it's not really… It's the easy way out, y'know.
JW: Yeah, there's only so far you can go with a thirty-second song…
BG: Well, exactly, and yes, of course, on the new album you've got stuff like "Right You Are" which clocks in about 1:28 or something like that, and it's fast, furious – just as much so as
anything on the early albums -- but it's in context of what we do now, so it fits.
JW: On that note, within the creative process, how do you guys typically write songs? I know you did all the lyrics on this record, and typically do Shane and Mitch come in with fully formed songs
and then you go off and put lyrics to them, or how exactly does that work?
BG: It's pretty much the same process. The only difference, as you rightly point out, is that they, or really Shane, didn't contribute to the lyrics this time. I mean, it was slightly different
in one point in that Shane actually wasn't around when we were rehearsing. He had actually put his songs already on tape, and then we just took his songs into the studio, put them down,
tweaked them maybe a little bit here or there. When Shane writes songs, he seems to have a knack for writing things that are pretty close to what you need—it doesn't require a lot of rearrangement,
and that's always a good thing. For the rest of it, me, Mitch, and Danny kind of locked ourselves in the rehearsal studio and just went through everything, got it all down, and when it seemed to
work, I took it away and locked myself in my bedroom, because I do need absolute quiet and isolation as much as I can when I'm writing, I can't have things going on around me, so I just did that,
and it all worked out. Well, hopefully… (laughs)
JW: I guess so; I've yet to read a bad review of it…
BG: Yeah, I've got to be totally honest with you: I'm not lying when I say it was totally unexpected. I didn't expect it to get reviews like that because Napalm always gets mostly good reviews
, but of course, some indifferent ones. But that's fine, and I will say that—some people find this hard to believe—but I'm not affected by bad or indifferent reviews because it's one person's
opinion and it's going to happen. It happens, and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, y'know. And in some cases, I've actually agreed with what people have said, and I've actually taken their
points on board… I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Que sera, sera… What will be, will be… We can only try our best—what other people say or think about… It's just the way of things, y'know…
JW: And with a genre like extreme metal, you kind of just assume that some people aren't going to like it…
BG: Of course. Y'know, you can't please everyone…
JW: Back in April, you guys did a tsunami benefit show in Indonesia. How was that? I guess they don't get to see many Western bands live…
BG: Yeah, there've been a couple of bands that've been over there, but not many. The last one before us was Sepultura, many many years ago, like ten or eleven years ago, something like that.
It was great. I mean, they really appreciated us being there, and that of course gives you a warm glow inside. I mean, like seven thousand kids turned up, which is more than Avril Lavigne and
Simple Plan combined got a couple weeks earlier, which goes to show that maybe sense prevails after all… (laughs) I mean, I'm just joking… It's just a good experience to do. I can't deny that I
kind of enjoyed the holiday part of it, because I don't get to have many holidays, so I did enjoy that part of it, but there's a serious side to it, of course. One thing that hit home to me, and we
weren't specifically in any of the areas that were directly affected by the tsunami, but whatever, it's bad enough out there, the poverty. When I say "poverty," it's the whole shanty town
thing—miles and miles of houses made of, at best, corrugated iron lean-tos, stuff like that… People living in that condition… And it really makes you think: there's this big thing about attacking
poverty, but are people doing enough? I don't think they are. I mean, you're not going to achieve anything truly in this world until you stop the most powerful governments and the corporations and
everyone else that's ruling this earth, until you bring them into line and stop them from doing certain things. Are we ever going to come to a point where people have more equality and stuff like
that? I don't think we are.
Line up for the “Who Ate All The Twinkies” investigation
(I think I know who it was).
JW: Did you have any opinions on the Live 8 stuff?
BG: Again, it's good that people are talking about it. I'm not going to patronize people and say, "Oh, those people are just supporting what is basically the highbrow end of it." I mean, people talk
about it, but at least they are talking about it. But obviously the Live 8 thing… they're only going to go so far; they're not going to really cause a rumpus and go knocking on doors and really tell
Bush that he's got to pull himself into line. And not just Bush, other people as well. So there only going to take it so far before
they think, "Oh, well, we'd better not rock the boat too much," but y'know, it's good that people are talking about it. But the irony of it is that, I think at the concert in Philadelphia, the thing
that people were talking about most of all was not whatever was going on in the deserts in Niger or Chad or wherever else at the moment, but the cost of a bottle of water on the site—that's
what people were talking about most of all, which is kind of ironic really… (laughs)
JW: Well, speaking of the effects of corporations on the world, recently the US Supreme Court ruled that the file-sharing networks are legally accountable for the infringements that goes
on in their services. I know that you're obviously a musician, and you're also active in the Musician's Union there in England, but you guys in Napalm were also a product of the tape-trading scene in
the 80s, the underground scene then, so I wondered what your thoughts on that ruling would be…
BG: Yeah, y'know, that's a difficult one… My union's line actually is "protect the IP"—that's "intellectual property," to get around the
jargon—so they're very much pro protecting the intellectual property, and they really frown on illegal downloading, but my take on it is slightly different. Being an underground band, file-sharing
across the networks is absolutely invaluable, because album sales are very low in the extreme music scene, and I think that if a kid can take something from a P2P site, then I don't have a problem
with it at all. I think it's absolutely vital for bands to get exposure that way. The only thing that I do have a problem with, and I think it's deeply inconsiderate really, is when a band puts an album
out, and it appears on the internet basically within days of it being recorded. I mean, to run the band, we absolutely rely —not talking about making profit, but just to run the band year to
year—we absolutely rely on those initial album sales—it's absolutely crucial to us. I mean, when it comes out on the internet, yeah, a lot of those kids will buy it anyway, but when it
comes out, and if people were just downloading it and not buying it, that affects us quite significantly, because we need the revenue to keep the band properly. It's not cheap to run a band,
especially a band that sort of goes around the world, so that can be a problem. Me, personally, I'm not for this Draconian thing of tracing people through the internet and prosecuting them because
I don't think that's the way forward. So yeah, it's a mixed viewpoint on it, really, for me, but like I say, getting music from P2P networks, something like that, I personally don't have a problem with it.
JW: Yeah, I always thought the music business took the wrong approach to it…
BG: Certainly. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think it's rich for some of these bloody corporations to be moaning on about losing their livelihoods when they've absolutely skimmed off the
tops of record buyers for years and years and years, for decades, their profit margins have been pretty sick, and yet they have the gall to complain that they're being hard-done by all this. I mean,
it's just laughable…
JW: Funny, because it seems like they're the ones complaining more than the indie labels…
BG: Ain't life weird sometimes?
JW: Another question… All the guys in the band have side projects but you. Is there a reason for that?
BG: Just because quite simply I have enough on my plate with Napalm Death. It really is like an all-year-‘round thing, even when we're not on the road with stuff going on. Having been burned
several times through several processes, being in a band, I like to keep a close eye on everything that's going on, right down to the last letter and the last penny—I'm talking about the movement of
keeping a band solvent over the years, and I like to know everything that's going on, and that requires a lot of work. That's enough for me. I don't want to take on another band at this point
because I've got enough to do with Napalm. And, y'know, if I'm going to do another band, I want to feel in my heart that it's worth doing, and quite honestly, I haven't come up with anything
that would be worth putting out there, so I'll leave it to Shane to be the music machine, really. I mean, he does it. He's always got different projects, and that's all fine because the stuff that he
does isn't second-rate, and I'm not just saying that because he's in my band. I think the stuff that he does is pretty fucking good. Y'know, let him do that, really…
JW: Yeah, he's one of those guys that, if I see he shows up on an album, I buy it…
BG: That's cool. I'm sure he'd be pleased to know that. I mean, he comes up with stuff in his sleep, y'know… Always good stuff…
JW: I've heard rumors about a forthcoming split CD with Nasum. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
 BG: Yeah, we were talking about that the other day actually with Anders [Jakobsson, Nasum's
drummer]. I mean, obviously since Mieszko [Talarczyk, Nasum guitarist/vocalist] has sadly departed from us, that cuts down on the idea of doing new tracks, so we're talking about doing a split
live CD. Okay, so maybe it doesn't have the same appeal as new studio tracks, but that's the way forward at this point. Because, speaking to Anders, he's still quite emotionally affected by the
whole affair. I don't know if Nasum's going to do anything really in the future, so that's what we working towards. The only problem is, with the music business being the way it is, we have to get
permission to use tracks that have appeared on certain labels in their studio format, which, knowing the kind of conflicts we've had with previous record labels, they're not always willing to let us use
them, so we'll have to see how that progresses. "Watch this space," I think, is the best answer…
JW: (laughs) Tune into enemyofthemusicbusiness.com…
BG: Yeah, exactly. (laughs)
JW: Well, speaking of Nasum, you guys have always been great about introducing your audience to your influences, with two installments in the Leaders, Not Followers series now, and I've
heard you sing the praises of Nasum in interviews before. Are there any newer bands that hit you the same way that Cryptic Slaughter did, or DRI did…
BG: You know what, man, there's one band, and they're not new, they've had a lot of stuff out, but not many people really know about them, but they're called Das Oath. Their album they put
out last year, called Das Oath, the self-titled one—it's fucking immense, man. I mean, you've got to hear it. For a totally independent release, it has great production. It's absolutely
fantastic. It's like a mix of old style hardcore, but still grindcore, y'know, with a Killing Joke sort of thing—I mean, real primal Killing
Joke stuff. You've got to hear it. It's really fucking good stuff, man… It's on a label called Dim Mak Records. And something else,
there's a band called 324 from Japan that are really fucking good, as well. You should definitely check them out. I don't think they've got an album out at the moment, but they're really good,
they're definitely sort of one for the future…
JW: You guys are obviously active members of the underground scene. Do you still try to keep plugged into that?
BG: I do, yeah, yeah. I must be honest—there hasn't been tons of stuff recently that's really knocked me on my ass, but I'm always looking for it. Admittedly, I'm not scrabbling below the
surface like I was 10, 12, 13 years ago, but stuff actually just comes my way sort of, which is always good…
JW: I agree, I think the last few years, there are a few standout bands and then kind of a wash…
BG: I agree. Again I don't want to be sort of dismissive of any bands, but I think the whole death metal thing has become a little stagnant. It did do that kind of back in the 90s, and then there
was a bit of a resurgence, but it kind of needs something, a little bit of a spark at the moment.
JW: I live in Nashville, country music capital of the world, and I actually do enjoy some country music…
BG: Why not? (laughs) I'm not going to criticize anyone for that. Music's music…
JW: I was wondering if there were any artists that you love that people would surprised to hear about…
BG: Ah, I love Marvin Gaye, Jackson Five, who else? Journey. I mean, this is the thing: I'm a music fan; I love all kinds of music. A band like Journey, they were, of course, super-commercial—they
were probably the epitome of commercial bands—but when you look beyond the more sort of uncomfortable-for-some-people commercial things that happen, when you look beyond that, a
band like Journey were absolute genius… I mean, the use of melody… A singer that basically was a soul singer in a rock band—one of the finest uses of a voice… Neal Schon, one of
those guys that could make a guitar talk, pretty much… That to me is not to be sniffed at. I love them; I think Journey is fucking amazing, an absolutely amazing band.
JW: I think Steve Perry is second to Sam Cooke…
BG: Yeah, yeah… Sam Cooke as well… Then you could go on: Lou Gramm from Foreigner… What's his name from Survivor… Jim Jamison… The guy from Chicago… What's his name? I always forget his name…
JW: Peter Cetera?
BG: Peter Cetera. Fucking brilliant singer. And people might laugh at that. Fine, not a problem… (laughs) It is pretty ridiculous.
But I appreciate good vocalists, and whatever you think about it is fine… But what a voice…
JW: Yeah, great range. I got one more question for you. You guys are touring with Obituary in the fall. What's next after that?
Napalm Death on the ‘Jaundice 2005’ World Tour.
BG: Well, we may extend the tour to just come ourselves, do a few things ourselves. It's not absolute yet, and it may not happen. After that we've got some more European stuff to do,
maybe South America… Y'know, the general global Napalm globe-trotting thing… We'll see… Wherever it takes us, really, y'know, we'll do our usual thing… Just go where we want to do, and
places where bands don't usually go, we'll probably end up going there, as well… (laughs)
JW: I hope it brings you back to Nashville. I saw you here last fall, and it blew me away.
BG: Thanks for that.
JW: I brought a friend who likes—I don't want to say "bad" pop music, but music that I don't appreciate, really, and it made an impression on him, too… (laughs)
BG: (laughs) It's good to know we can cross the divide…
JW: Well, that's all I've got for you… I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. Have a good one.
BG: Thanks, man. All the best.
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