“I love it when people that are BSI fans check out Ramming Speed,” says Jonah, surprisingly, “and it doesn't bother me at all if promoters try and use it as a selling point. I’m proud of the time I’ve put into both bands, and while they differ drastically in terms of approach, both bands manage to blur elements of punk and metal, so in that sense it’s all the same. The BSI brothers play metallic guitar riffs with a dirty hardcore punk mentality and the Ramming dudes play punk riffs with a shreddy metal mentality. It’s interesting that the two bands sound so different considering all parties are coming from the same influences - Metallica, His Hero Is Gone, Napalm Death, Skitsystem etc. I guess it just depends which side of the fence you start on.
“As a side note, BSI should have a new CD coming out at some point this year. It was recorded a while back with Kurt Ballou and should finally see the light of day through a friend's record label as soon as some business wheeling and dealing takes place.”
Once you get all the genre demarcation bullshit out of the way, perhaps the key difference between Jonah's two bands is that BSI wore their politics very much on their sleeves – but just because Ramming Speed don't, or don't even have sleeves (see aforementioned cut-offs), doesn't mean they don't have any politics at all.
“One of my favourite parts of Ramming Speed is that we manage to bring political elements into what can so often be a meathead genre of music,” continues Jonah proudly. “Pete writes almost all of the lyrics and we both read lots of world news and various political writings. Generally our 'good morning' - we live together - is like, 'Hey dude, you got work today? No? Awesome. You hear about Gaddafi bombing his own civilians? Fucked right!?'.
“In the song 'Political Party' off our debut full-length we attempted to speak to the idea that you can be both into smashing beer cans against your head AND reading the newspaper. The unfortunate stereotype is that if you’re into politics then you’re a PC fun sponge and if you’re into metal and raging then you shouldn’t think about gender issues or immigration law. I’m not sure if that song really hit the nail on the head or not, but it was an honest attempt.”
“We’ve always tried to stay on the road as much as possible,” explains Johna. “It’s one of those odd things where you either enjoy it or you don’t, and to be honest I feel like I’d suffocate if I didn’t do it on a semi regular basis. Also, besides just being an antsy person, I feel like touring hard is part of what it means to play this kind of music. To me, being in a band should involve risking the basic things that come along with a normal life. When you’re willing to let everything else fall apart - job, health, relationships, sanity, etc - and put all of your energy, muscle and brain power into touring for six months a year, it makes being in a band more than a hobby. It can easily become the only thing you have left and something really special.
“I’m lucky that at this point in my life I have a stable place to live and a very kind, understanding girlfriend, but I’ve experienced the other side of the coin plenty of times.”
With a harder, crustier sound that's only getting even harder on their forthcoming split with ANS and less than recent (but equally rad) 'Always Digusted, Never Surprised' 7”, you'd assume Ramming Speed had made some sort of decision to stay away from the DayGlo thrash keg party that's lurking in Municipal Waste's lime green wake.
“Our first 7” definitely had a song on it about pizza, so it’s not like we’re totally innocent,” counters Jonah, “but after completing our first US tour to support the record I think we realized that we all wanted to take things more seriously. During that tour we’d almost been killed by Hell's Angels, were held at gunpoint by cops, partied in Vegas, were filmed for a TV show, had the van break down in the desert... I mean, everything that could have happened, happened and it was only our first tour. When we all got home and wanted more, that was probably when we started adding more influences and brutality and thinking about our future as a real band. Partying and thrash metal and circle pits rule, but I don’t know if there needs to be any more songs written about it.”
As for the increasingly venomous sound:
“Definitely dude! A lot of the newer jams are darker than ever with more blasting and d-beats. On the flip side, Kallen [Bliss, guitars] has been writing a lot lately and some of his new riffs party harder than anything we’ve ever had… it’s a weird mix of neanderthal crust/grind and guitar harmony beer chugging party metal. He wears flip flops and drinks daiquiris, so that should give you an idea of where his head is at in regards to songwriting.”
Although currently working on a new record, that aforementioned split should salve your need for caustic, ball-crushing, punked up thrash
The idea for the record started when we played The Fest in Florida, 2008, the same day as ANS. Kids kept thinking we were in their band and vice versa, so we joked about doing a split called RAMMING SPEED IS NOT ANS IS NOT RAMMING SPEED IS NOT ANS. Years later it’s finally happening!
“I actually just got news today that out of the 600 copies Scotty Tankcrimes pressed he’s already gotten orders for 500 of them from stores and distros. The record hasn’t even come out yet and it’s practically sold out! It’s also worth noting that Andrei Bouzikov (Cannabis Corpse, Toxic Holocaust, etc.) drew some sort of weird swamp mutant thing holding all of our heads for the cover art. I think the joke is supposed to be that we all look the same? The ANS dudes eat way too much weed food and it’s their concept, so who knows...
“On the musical side of things, the ANS tracks are pure Suicidal Tendencies/Black Flag worship and ours are a lot heavier and angrier than our older stuff. Our favourite engineer in Boston (Ethan Dussaul) turned our old practice space/home into a studio for two days and it came out super mean sounding. The bass amp was practically on my bed and the guitar amps were in the bathroom! Luckily for me I had my drums set up in the living room area and didn’t have to hug the toilet.
“The 12” comes out April 12 on Tankcrimes, the same day as the new Victims and the Annihilation Time re-press. Funnily enough some of our best moments on the record are when we sound like a mix of those two bands, so it’s appropriate.”
Hopefully, then, there's some left, because without this slab of wax to keep you company, the next dose of Ramming Speed action might be a lot further off than you're used to.
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