Vice Interview: Mob Rules

Here is an interview by the best UK 'hardcore' band I have heard this year. They sound a little like all your favourite powerviolence bands rolled into one. Think Crossed Out, Infest and No Comment with bassy Noothgush bits. In other words: amazing.

NOT A POWER METAL BAND FROM GERMANY

Mob Rules Are Fuelled By Grudge

Leeds is a horrible place. Cold, grey and grim. Both of my parents worked all day every day during the week so when I was a kid I got carted off to my auntie Jane’s place near Chapel Town on the outskirts of the city for large chunks of the summer holidays every year. The drive up the M1 fills me with dread to this day. It came as little surprise to me when I discovered that the MP3’s circulating on punk forums by a band called Mob Rules were the product of the city of Leeds. Powerviolence might have originated bathed in West Coast sunshine but its unrelenting, uncompromising brutality and anger perfectly reflects just how grim and fucking depressing the North of England can be. It has helped make Mob Rules the best punk band in the UK as of right now though so maybe it’s not all bad.

Are you sure that you aren’t the German band Mob Rules hiding out in Leeds after singing one too many songs about barbarians and witches?
Conor Rickford (drums): No. (Thomas) Cambell (vocals) came up with the name. He assured us it was Greg Ginn's 7th favourite Black Sabbath record.

I can’t really make out the lyrics very well because Cambell’s voice sounds a bit like a Morris Minor stalling. What’s are you guys singing about?
Paul Steere (bass): The frustrations that arises from having to write lyrics.
Conor: We practice on a Saturday night in a lock up in the middle of Leeds. Can you imagine the refreshing impetus provided as we fight our way through the fleshy gauntlet of hen-nights resplendent in their blotchy, fake-tanned arms, Persil-white thighs and lobotomized, glazed eyes staring out from their booze-soaked, palsied faces? The fuel for our motor is topped up every weekend, right on our doorstep. Grudge is the most abundant natural resource we have.
Paul I spend a lot of time being pissed off with everyone. If I could kill people by rolling my eyes, all these guys would be dead by now. But so far I've never been seriously tempted to go for a major artery.

Why can no one find you online?
Paul: Well, we don't have a MySpace or a Facebook if that's what you mean. We don't have those things because we don't need them.
Conor: Metering our popularity online is not something I'm that keen on doing. Probably because I'm afraid of what it might do to my confidence.
Paul I'm not big into hanging out anyway. Good fucking luck to the lot of them.

This is the Drawing Issue. Are any of you artistically inclined?
Paul: Conor writes extensive lists of the money we all owe him for various things, then illustrates them with a range of different stickmen, each one signaling a different level of dissatisfaction. I've come to notice that his dissatisfaction fluctuates wildly. This betrays a fundamental weakness of character. I wouldn't vote for him.

Circle Jams

Mob Rules have no online presence. We told you that up there.

They do however have a record out on Superfi in December. It will be a 7".