INTERVIEW: Whores.

For the uninitiated, Atlanta’s Whores. play perilously loud, abrasive, bludgeoning rock full of monolithic riffs that seem as if they were carved from a mountain. To merely call it “heavy” music or “hard” rock is a gross understatement; there are times when the drum and bass collide or when a particular chord is strummed and the sheer force and weight of it feels as if tectonic plates are being shifted. It can be deafening, for sure, but it’s also raw, dynamic, and incredibly thrilling. As a band, the trio is clearly indebted to such ’90s noise rock powerhouses as Unsane, the Melvins, and the Jesus Lizard, although there are also elements of more modern rock provocateurs like Queens of the Stone Age and Louisvile, Kentucky’s Young Widows. In a time when docile Pitchfork-approved pet projects and bland, staid corporate pop and rock dominate the headlines and airwaves, Whores. are more than a breath of fresh air—they are a giant middle finger raised and pointed at the entire music industry.

A few weeks back I had an opportunity to sit down with guitarist and vocalist Christian Lembach and talk to him about the band, the current state of music, and what it truly means to be, well, a whore. Check out the video below to see and hear his answers. In addition, I have posted a transcript of a portion of the interview that didn’t make the final cut. You can check that out after the jump.

Moe Castro: Can you give us a little Whores back story? How did you three get together?

Christian Lembach: Travis (drums) and I used to be in a band together called Black Mollies. Steven (bass) and I were in a band together for a couple of months. I was playing in Scars (a totally different band) and at one of our shows Travis asked if I wanted to get together and just see if we still had some sort of musical chemistry. I called Steve, the three of us got together, Scars ended up breaking up, Steve quit his other band, and we started taking Whores. seriously. It was really obvious to the three of us that we had something special.

MC: How did you guys begin to develop your sound? Did you already have material written prior to Travis and Steven coming onboard or did you guys just start from scratch?

CL: No, everything was built from the ground up. I don’t really like recycling parts or holding on to songs. I prefer to use the newest stuff.

I usually bring ideas to practice and we hash them out together. We try to get a basic arrangement first, and then we figure out if the song needs another part, or a different feel for an already existing part. I record the basic arrangement, bring it home, write words and tweak the arrangement, and then we all sort of “relearn” the song, if that makes any sense.

MC: It seems from what you’re saying that you have a relatively clear vision in your head of what a particular song should sound like and where it should go. Is that the case? How much of your songwriting is tracking down and flushing out a specific vision and how much of it is just stumbling across a new melody or riff through jamming or whatnot?

CL: We don’t “jam.” Ever.

It’s definitely easier to know what you don’t like. It seems to work best for us to get parts in a working order (i.e. verse, chorus, bridge, etc.) first, and then we can move things around if need be. I can tell you that if parts can’t be played in any order we put them in, they don’t feel like they belong in that particular song together. For example, if a song has a certain tempo, time signature or key, shifting out of that is a big no-no. It starts feeling like prog-rock at that point, and I think that mess should be wiped off of the face of the earth. If you want to get fancy, go play jazz. That business does not belong in this band.

MC: (Laughs) Fair enough. I’d like to ask you about your bio on your MySpace page where you basically discard most forms of rock music as being dead or irrelevant. You conclude by stating that “The only relevant music nowadays is hip-hop and ring-tones.” Do you have any theories as to how or why this happened? And do you think that it’s a permanent condition, that is, can rock/punk/whatever ever return to a point of artistic and cultural relevance?

CL: It’s weird. That stuff started as a joke, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Steven likes to call me “The Ruiner.” For some strange reason, I enjoy tearing things down. I don’t really know what that says about me; I kind of don’t like to think about it.

I guess the cultural landscape is just pretty gross right now. There are a ton of current, working bands that I absolutely love right now, but not one of them is that big. I’m hoping that a huge rush of awesome bands flood the system and lay waste to the campfire singalong bands that pass as indie rock nowadays.

Like I said, there are tons of good, interesting bands out there, but there’s also a lot of garbage.

More Info:
MySpace: www.myspace.com/whoresmusic