Interview - Siege

Answers by Robert R. Williams (Drummer)

1.Fast and loud greetings from Peru,Robert! how are you brother! thanks for do this interview with us! is a pleasure!
I want to start by greeting every punk and metal brother and sister in every Spanish speaking nation. Venceremos and Rock Forever! SIEGE are headed for a 2 month writing hiatus at the moment, after a run of sick special events, and the fans and other bands have been fucking amazing. But soon it will be time to start rehearsing again – for Maryland Death Fest 2017!
Siege! hows going the things there?

2.Robert give us a short but a killer bio about the existence from Siege.
Well, (SIEGE guitarist) Kurt Habelt and I go way back writing music together, even before the Drop Dead cassette-era. SIEGE sprang up from the 2nd generation of the Boston Hardcore Punk Movement of the early 80’s, but we really idolized the British shit; GBH, Discharge of course, et cetera. (original singer) Screamin’ Kev Mahoney passed away far too young. But I feel the anti-war and non-conformist message behind our music is needed now more than fucking ever.

3.Now Siege is back! As has been the welcome of the old and new grind freaks?
Meeting so many younger fans and fellow freaks in other countries and states has really given me the feeling of how Punk is an eternal, international family. Yet, the old school punks have also come to show their support. It’s been Punks, Grind freaks, and Metalheads, together slamming, headbanging and celebrating once 

4.How many releases have Siege?
Well, SIEGE had the Drop Dead cassette in 1984, which was tape-traded quite a bit. That was immediately followed by the ‘Cleanse The Bacteria’ compilation lp tracks, put out by the artist Pushead. Then there was a period where there were some shitty sounding bootlegs, which was of course bullshit. Now our recordings, with restored pristine and powerful sound quality, are gathered on an lp made available by Deep 6 Records in LA, with corrected lyric sheet and even a couple of outtakes from the original sessions thrown in, on some of their earlier pressings on colored vinyl. Then we also have a rare demo from 1991 we made with Seth Putnam on vocals – the ‘Lost Session’. This saw ultra-limited release on a yellow vinyl 7 inch. We play all this shit live, incidentally, including ‘Grim Reaper’, with Tim Morse (ex-AxCx drummer) on saxophone. 

5.Destructive influences?
My “destructive influences” have also been positive ones; The ‘Beat Generation’ Poets, and the social protest and progress they represented, and the radical anti-war movement of the 1960’s & 70’s in America. Bands like Napalm Death, British 80’s punk and h/c, Lemmy and Venom, of course. Lately I’m quite inspired by some of the newer grind, hardcore and extreme metal bands I continue to hear, also. Die Choking are amazing.

6.Some member from Siege have another proyect now? band? label? distro?
SIEGE are going to continue to perform live through 2017, with big events in New York and in the EU after MDF. But I’ve just put my heart and balls into an anti-war album with many singers; ‘So Be It’ features vocalists Jeff from Grief, Stoffel from Yacopsae, Ami Lawless and Larry Lifeless among many others, it’s an album with an anti-war statement and sentiment to it which I feel we really need right now, and is forthcoming from Deep 6 on lp. But the man SIEGE has added on 2nd guitar now, Chris Leamy, who was once in Japanese Torture Comedy Hour has a prog-grind band called Brain Famine which I know fans will like - it has John Gillis (the mid-period AxCx drummer) on it. Incidentally, both of these cats are from SIEGE’s home town of Weymouth, where there are a lot of talented artists under the surface.

7.Tell us how was the extreme hardcore punk grindcore scene in the early years (80s,90s) in your city/country.
Explaim some more about this Robert!
The Boston hardcore scene in the early 80’s was dominated by the straight edge ‘original crew’ – but the audiences were actually very diverse – metalheads, spiky punks, artists, college students, homeless characters, all up front at the shows – and the pits were madness. The jocks on the punk scene cropped up primarily as this macho response to all the New Wave and pop punk that dominated Boston radio stations at the time. But SIEGE liked all music; DEVO, horror soundtracks, punk, power metal, and so on. I’ve said it before; it was an amazing time to be going to shows and to be discovering record collecting.

8.You know the extreme hardcore punk grind scene from Southamerica?
Oh, RxDxPx, for sure. Abhorrence ‘Evoking…’ was something I really liked. And SIEGE’s 2nd guitarist Chris Leamy is into Test, a new band, and Rot and Olho Seco.

9.Siege have stuff avaliable out now? how the grind freaks can find the stuff?
The SIEGE recordings can be obtained thru Deep 6 Records (lp), Armageddon Shop label (cd and cassette) and through the Deathwish label website for a high-quality download. And anyone who gets their hands on a ‘Lost Session ’91’ 7”, from Patac Distro, will have a very rare item indeed. These particular releases and formats are the ‘official’ ones, and have the finest possible sound quality the band can present. 

10.Morbid future plans in Siege?
Our future plans are to rock audiences with as sincere and authentically savage presentation of SIEGE’s music live, and to send the message we all share; unity, metal, punk, equality, protest, and a fist up the ass to whoever wants to judge the way we fucking live.

11.Robert thanks a lot for your time in this interview,last words to the readers from No Te Calles Zine!
I want to say ‘Hello’ to every kid and every aspiring artist out there reading this who has a new band, or wants to form one, or who has a work of art or a message of compassion to send. Never surrender your dream!