The band's vocalist Kosta talks to Ersegoth about the story behind band's name and its relation to Carcass in an interview with Latvian alternative music newspaper Black Monday.


I've first heard Carcass' "Swansong" (1995) album some 8 years ago and this work heavily influenced the development of my music tastes. Up until now I consider "Swansong" to be one of the greatest achievements in heavy music. Late last year I have gained a lot of positive emotions while listening to a demo recording of Latvian band ZX Spectrum that plays in a similar genre.

ZX Spectrum vocalist and guitarists Kosta answers my questions.

- "Human Herd" (2005) demo leaves a great impression, a very successful development of late Carcass' ideas. In my view, it is one of the best works that appeared in Latvia in the last 3-4 years.

- Thank you, good to hear that people like what we do. Yes, it is true that as a group we happened to start from Carcass covers. We played almost all songs from the band's two last albums before our own material started to develop, so it has a certain influence. We really appreciate the way Carcass goes on about presenting their music. I haven't heard anything like that before. The synthesis of aggression, melody and provoking lyrics gives you chills. At this moment in time this is one hundred per cent the way we would want to play. We are not confused by the fact that some accuse us of being similar to Carcass, this probably happens because people can't find anything else to compare us with, as Carcass have been the only band with the similar musical approach...

- How did the band form, who are the current members and what do you do apart from being in the band?

- The band was formed about 6 years ago. It all started from light rock but gradually, as the line up was changing, the repertoire started to change and slowly turned into the present direction. Quite a few people got to play in the band during this time and the bassist is the only original member. Currently ZX Spectrum are Anthony (guitar), Roman (bass) and Kosta (guitar, vocals) [The drummer Vadim has recently joined the band]. Apart from music, work and studies, we have various other interests that we share as friends.

- ZX Spectrum is quite an unusual title for a band. Whose idea was it to give the group such a name and what is the meaning behind it?

- Yes, the name is at least "strange". Usually the common name for a heavy band is something ultra evil, exaggerated or with a hidden, hell knows where, meaning. We, on the other hand, have decided to get around these stereotypes and give ourselves some absolutely unrelated and unusual name, leaving our listeners a chance to come up with their own versions... though, to be honest, there is no particular meaning behind the name. ZX Spectrum is an old and dull dare I say computer that associates merely with noise, fuss and primitivism. The idea was, as far as I remember, Roman's spur-of-the-moment. It started as a joke but stuck after a while, and we decided not to change the name.

- ZX Spectrum lyrics contain social themes. Why did you chose it to be and did you not want to write some anatomical lyrics, the likes of early Carcass on "Reek Of Putrefaction" (1988) and "Symphonies Of Sickness" (1989)?

- Yes, satirical social themes clearly definitely dominate. We try to write about the relevant problems in a plain language, maybe exaggerating to a certain extent. We might get too far from time to time, so to make lyrics more accessible, we write comments on each song, explaining what was actually meant in one text or another. We've put all our lyrics online on our official website (www.zx-spectrum.org) together with the comments.
As to early Carcass themes, neither do I understand nor support it. And as far as I am aware, the actual Carcass members have never taken it seriously.

-There are different opinions on this, but in your own view, do you think that it was the lack of artistic potential that caused the end of Carcass, or that the Liverpool Fab Four has not said it all yet?

- I have read that as early as in 1994 Bill Steer started considering other music. I think this has served as the ground for the style of the last two albums to becoming softer and contributed to group's upcoming disbanding. Judging on what the ex-Carcass members have been up to for the last 10 years, one may conclude that music (or to be more precise "that" music) became of no interest to them. Recently Jeff Walker seemed to have gone back to grind and was working with To Separate The Flesh From The Bones; Ken Owen has returned to the drum kit after having undergone post –coma treatment, and has been practicing in his garage. Bill Steer got completely involved in retro rock (he is the leader of Firebird, the band that plays in the 70's- 80's style, and heavy music doesn't seem to concern him much). My personal opinion is that they've done a masterpiece with "Swansong" and then finished just in the right time.

- Have you heard Black Star's "Barbed Wire Soul" album (the group formed of ex-Carcass members, excluding Bill Steer)? To my mind this flat and unexciting release only proves the first version in the previous question.

- As Steer was the main man in the band (music wise) nothing else should have been expected once he left. Yet, Black Star can't be compared to Carcass, as its style is quite far from Swansong. However if you don't think of Black Star in terms of earlier Carcass' works, but as of a separate group, in my opinion, it has some interesting ideas.

- Let's go back to ZX Spectrum. "Human Herd" instantly attracts with its cover artwork. Would be great to know what meaning it bears and if one can talk about any conceptual aspect of ZX Spectrum's works?

- We definitely stick to a concept and the cover of "Human Herd" is the most evident reflection to this. Famous XVI century artist Pieter Brueghel's painting "The Blind Leading the Blind" has been used as the cover artwork for our demo. The idea behind the work is that in the medieval times the blind used to gather together and live in commons, which alleviated their existence. Usually they were lead by the most sensitive blind, which everybody trusted. On the painting the leading blind falls into the hole by accident, and is followed by the rest. The idea to use the painting was suggested by a friend of ours. It turned out that the concept of the painting fits perfectly with the concept of our lyrics, so we put it on the cover straight away. The central theme of our lyrics is a human, with his problems, complexes, imperfections and mistakes.

- "Human Herd" is your second demo, the first that I unfortunately haven't heard is called "Not Really Demo" (2004), what is the difference between these two recordings?

- There are no stylistic differences, what's more, two songs from the first demo have been rerecorded and included in the second demo. The main difference is that the second recording has twice as many songs.

- As far as I understand, "Human Herd" has been recorded by yourselves, have you not received any offers from record labels?

- Yes, indeed, both demos have been recorded right in our rehearsal room, using our poor equipment. We think it is a bit too early for us to get into the proper studio yet, due to lack of both finance and necessary technical abilities. Haven't received any offers from the record labels, but then we've actually only recently got onto the internet as well.

- Have you been sending out the copies of your last demo to magazines or labels?

- Yes, but we have only started doing this, so it is a bit too early to expect any results yet.

- One of the pearls on "Human Herd" is Roxette's "Sleeping In My Car" cover version. It came out very bright and amusing. Why have you selected this particular composition, do you happen to be a Roxette fan?
- We listen to Roxette and respect them. We like 80's- 90's pop rock, and Roxette happen to be the brightest representative of that period and that style. This can't be compared to what is going on in the pop rock scene nowadays. Anthony suggested that we do this band's cover not only because we appreciate their music, but also because no-one has played heavy Roxette covers before... at least we haven't heard anything. Having left the main song structure and the lyrics, we added heavy harmonies and some solos. And after playing it at rehearsals for a while, we decided that is can become a good ending for the demo.

- What music do ZX Spectrum musicians listen to?

- In general we listen to heavy music of all genres except black and grind, however our whole musical range is quite broad: blues, flamenco, pop rock. Heavy bands such as Arch Enemy, Nevermore, Evergrey, Annihilator may be highlighted. Roman is a big admirer of Russian rock.

- What do you think of such bands as In Flames, Soilwork, Darkane, The Duskfall?

- Lately a lot of new melodic death bands have started to appear, most of them quite predictable, however some are very interesting. We love old In Flames (prior to and including "Clayman") and enjoy playing some of their songs.

- What plans do ZX Spectrum have for this year, maybe you are planning to record a full length album?

- We plan to play live as much as possible and work on new material. It is too early to think of a full length studio recording yet, but we plan to release another 5-6 song demo by the summer.

- And to finish this off, what would you like to say to the readers of "Black Monday"?

- Having been to a number of gigs recently I have noticed that people have become too aggressive and national conflicts have appeared (at least in our country). This has not how it's been before. So, I'd like to wish people who are into music to share unity and friendship.

- Wish you success, keep it up!

- Thanks for the kind words and interesting questions. Good luck!