INTERVIEW: KEVIN SHARP BEATS HIS CHEST WITH PRIMATE

“The problem that I have is that so many dumb people are successful, it really does hurt my feelings. Maybe some day I'll be a rock star,” he posits in a voice of mock-childlike optimism, “what do you think? Is that possible?”

For a veteran foot soldier of the music industry, albeit one long gone rogue at the dark heart of his own jungle, Brutal Truth's garrulous frontman Kevin Sharp has a view of the world that a chimes in with his listeners. Brutal Truth is music made for crumpled cards at the bottom of the pack, by crumpled cards at the bottom of the pack.

His most recent release though, isn't Brutal Truth. It's Primate, a star-studded crust punk outfit (featuring one of Mastodon) that on paper at least, tries to pretend that Venomous Concept, a star-studded crust punk outfit (featuring half of Napalm Death and half of Brutal Truth) doesn't exist. Musically though, there's quite a demarcation – Venomous Concept are slick, Swedish-style crust in the high-octane, firework-spitting mold of Disfear, while Primate's debut EP, 'Draw Back a Stump', is lo-fi bottom of the pack gutter punk with a hint of 'My War'-era Black Flag.

“It's totally different,” he agrees. “I can take apart the subtleties, the lyrics and even phrasing and intonation vary from band to band. It takes about a song each for the gear to shift when you're knee deep in recording and over analysing. It's a totally different ballgame with Brutal Truth which is like quantum physics – I did some shows with Brutal Truth a coupla weeks ago. It's a bit of a switch and you kinda have to shift gears and become a different person, so to speak. If you compare it to something like a different role, because there're so many things that are different in my mind. Firstly with this one, it's more true to the Southern heritage.”

Though Brutal Truth will be forever thought of as from New York, Kevin hails from South of the Mason-Dixie Line, has ties to the NOLA scene (it was a Eyehategod tribute that brought BT back from the dead, lest we forget), and he's spent the last chunk of his life in Atlanta, Georgia turning his beard grey with the help of a beautiful family. Very much a local endevour compared to the globetrotting aspirations of Brutal Truth and Venomous Concept, there's a endearing sense of a gang of family men sneaking out to bowl or for a round of golf, and if the core trio weren't weather-beaten punk rockers, that's exactly what they'd be doing.

“I hooked up with one of the guitar players, Evan [Bartleson], who's a buddy of mine, he played in local bands – all of them pretty much,” recalls Kevin. “He's doing some commercial photography and I was working with him doing some set design stuff, that kinda thing, and we started talking about finding a way to put a band together. Just pub talk or whatever, it never leaves the bar napkin. He was in The Despised, a local punk/thrash band, and they broke up. I've known Dave [Whitworth, bass, also of The Despised] since I was a kid, we both got into punk like a million years ago when we were a lot slimmer - not really better looking but at least we were skinnier. Anyway, we hooked up with him and his drummer Shayne.”

It's the fan-spaffing presence of Mastodon's Bill Kelliher on guitar that'll bring in the rubes, though he wasn't in the band for their first faltering baby-steps, he contributed to the EP, and, of course, to the ease with which it was picked up and knocked out by Scion A/V (and for pre-order as a physical release) – the contentious car manufacturer turned promoter/label.

“Bill was wrapping up and Mastodon was going on a big break to see if they could get to like each other again. We did show before Bill joined, playing with Fang, Verbal Abuse and Capitalist Causalities, and he was out on tour. Bill was in Lethagy with [Brutal Truth guitarist] Erik Bourke, so we just kinda knew each other. We wrote a bunch of stuff and kinda submerged him in this weird demo project, it was really crude, and we put it up on Facebook, MySpace, whatever, Facespace. It came out really good considering we recorded them with sticks and rocks.”

Very much an advocate of rough-around-the-edges chaos, Primate is something of a break from the densely constructed assault of Brutal Truth. Not that Brutal Truth aren't chaotic, they're a precision bombing raid on a city, with burning trucks rolling off into the darkness and flak bursting in the sky, and Primate are a fierce one-on-one act of thuggery.

“People can over-analyse records into extinction, that comes with sitting at the ProTools console shifting things over. It should be a snapshot. Everything we recorded was recorded in three days, there was no goofing around, no going, 'What if we boo-boo-boo'. It took a little time to get the guitars right, but it was relatively quick and snapshottish.

“Some of the stuff that Brutal Truth is doing nowadays is pretty weird, man,” he admits, “and I have a tough time understanding it. That's the battle I have going on now – writing this Brutal Truth record.”