"Toxic Endurance"
By Ross Letcher. (posted 20th. February 2004)
The time: September 1988, the place: Ponsonby Community
Centre, the gig: the anarchists un-convention, and the bands: all
punk, all raw, all young. Amongst this particular bunch of punk
outfits playing at this memorable gig was a noticeably youthful
band from New Plymouth called Post Mortem Depression: the first
band for who is now (sorry Nigel) Taranaki punk icon and driving
force behind Demon Nation Music, Nigel Toxic.
Demon Nation has
recently released another compilation of North Island punk and
hardcore, Demon Nation volume 2. A 33-track mix from 27 bands,
with outfits from Auckland, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Wellington,
and even Hawera involved. Not being his first foray into operating
a record label, Toxic started out with Handgun Syndicate, which
evolved into Demon Nation, but that’s another story on its
own.
Toxic himself ("I never kill off a band") plays
on several tracks on DN2 with his bands of both past and present:
Nefarious, Toxic Avengers, Demon Dolls, Fusion Inc (with younger
brother Shaun), Nekrotika, and the highly entertaining Horror
Story.
Horror Story will be releasing their second album on
Demon Nation, Grave Robbers from Outta Space, this Halloween.
Their first album, "Monsterpiece", was released in 2001.
DN2 co-compiler, Craig Gunn, drummer for Nekrotika, Fusion Inc,
and Horror Story, is enthusiastic about the compilation, and the
working relationship he has with Toxic. "DN2 is a really good
compilation. It showcases bands that otherwise wouldn’t have
been released yet.....
Not being solely a product of the
current crop of young(ish) punks, DN2 also contains a couple of
songs by recently re-formed legendary noise merchants, Flesh
D-Vice from Wellington. Eugene, guitarist from Flesh D-Vice, works
part of the year for The Damned in Europe, and Flesh D-Vice was
playing in New Plymouth recently with Horror Story. As Toxic
explains, "We gave Eugene some of our Horror Story CD’s
to give to the singer of The Damned, and they sent back a copy of
their new album on vinyl and a signed set list from a gig they’d
just done."
Apparently, The Damned were rather impressed
with this particular brand of punk from down yonder and Horror
Story got a good airing while they drove around in their hearse.
Brilliant!
And Mr Toxic himself? The passion of punk that is
with Toxic has been part of him for a long time now, with him
forming his first band, Post Mortem Depression, when he was just
13, and playing his very first gig at the Ponsonby Community
Centre, mentioned in the intro.
Now very much a
multi-instrumentalist, things have moved along since before the
PMD days where raw two-chord punk was vehemently thrashed out with
Toxic on bass duties playing an old Gretsch six string with the
bottom two strings removed. "If we could get two chords in
time and tight, then - f**kin’ hell, that was amazing,"
he says.
Toxic soon moved from bass to guitar, with some
drumming thrown in, but plays mainly guitar these days and will
turn his hand to anything if the situation requires. "When it
comes down to it, if the band needs bass, I’ll play bass, or
if they need a drummer, I’ll drum because I enjoy all of
them." He must do, because he owns most of the gear his bands
use including Gibson and Ashton guitars, Rickenbacker bass, and an
ageing, yet classy, Singerland drum kit sporting DX cymbals, and
some equally classy Marshall amps - this bloke means business.
More space would be required to list all of the sound and
recording gear, suffice to say there is a practice room full of it
at the Devil’s Whorehouse (the recording studio at Demon
Nation headquarters), but more on that later. Gibson guitars
feature strongly on his recommendation list, but not exclusively.
I’ll let him explain. "I recently started playing an
Ashton. It’s only a cheap one but I mainly got it because of
its shape. Kind of crazy heavy metal sort of thing, but not like
your usual flying V. It’s got extra frets on it so it
enables more lead and that sort of shit.... Toxic doesn’t
mince words.
Using the guitar for more than chords and notes,
he is not afraid of sound experimentation. "I do a lot of
squealing (now.... you are referring to your guitaring aren’t
you Nigel?) and making a lot of noises come from my guitar. Rather
than playing just the usual bullshit, I’ve got all sorts of
crazy techniques to make different noises. Techniques he doesn’t
necessarily keep to himself either.
Toxic has been around a
while now, a very long while in the punk sphere of things, and is
not reluctant to pass on his knowledge to other musicians. One
example being when he taught bass to Hannah Hell Doll, a member of
New Plymouth band The Demon Dolls, who in turn ended up making the
same transition to guitar. A transition Toxic sees as favourable
to being an effective guitarist. Hannah is stoked with the input
Toxic has put into her playing. "He helped show me basically
how to play punk rock, and showed me how to put together chord
structures etc." All it would take was a - "hey mate,
how do you do this?" and problem solved. Mmmm, I must give
him a bell.
The Demon Dolls’ also feature on DN2, and,
like a number of other bands on the compilation, were recorded at
the Devil’s Whorehouse.
Recording done at the Devil’s
Whorehouse, involves a good degree of technology, as Toxic
explains. "Most people are using computers and that’s
what we’re doing, using things like Pro tools, Cakewalk, and
Q base..... They record through an 8- track mixing desk onto a
Fostex 4-track, and then continue on the computer.
The "live
sound" is something Toxic favours for his bands when
recording, and has techniques to suit. "Sometimes we will
just straight record with the 4-track, setting up mikes for
guitar, bass, drums, and vocals."
And vocalising his views
is something Toxic is not afraid to do when issues concerning the
NZ music industry are concerned. Remember, this guy has been
playing, producing, and pushing his music for more than a good few
years now, and feels the industry could be a wee bit more
supportive of bands and muso’s from niche areas like punk
and hardcore. "No heavy guitar-based band in New Zealand has
made it solely through the help of the industry. They’ve
done it on their own merits and I don’t think anyone could
argue with that."
As we all know, the dollar plays an
important role in all enterprises: be it selling ice creams at the
beach or producing cutting edge punk for release. Toxic is adamant
the upper echelons of our music recording industry should widen
their outlook on what is being created by musicians in NZ. "I
think there’s enough money being pumped into the industry, I
just think a lot of it is being pumped into the wrong
places."
Fiscal issues feature with Toxic’s views on
producing music video’s as well - no surprise there. Take it
away Nigel.... "People claiming that five grand isn’t
enough to make a video, shit, we made one for $100! To me, five
grand would be the budget to put out 500 copies of an album on CD
with a full colour cover, and make 500 posters, and also a couple
of vids and maybe some stickers and ads..... I mean -
f**k!"
Indeed, Nigel. Well..... Screeds more
(understatement) could be written about Nigel Toxic and his
particular brand of horror punk, as well as his songwriting,
recording and production endeavours - but the NZ pulp and paper
industry may not be up to it. But up to it, Toxic is. With a total
of 17 CD’s released through his efforts, you can’t
help but get the feeling there is plenty more to come.
One
recommendation would be to get along and see Horror Story, Fusion
Inc, or Nekrotika when they are next in a town near you and get a
taste of some of this country’s best punk/hardcore.....
well, just plain full on, lets face it, rock n roll.
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