Deathflesh Fanzine interviews Aidan
March 1998
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Tell us about Pathogen
Pathogen was never supposed to be an original band. The founding members Floppy (vocals) Gavin (drums) and myself got together in '95 our 11th year of high school to perform a cover of Pantera's "Walk" for a competition. At our first rehearsal, it became clear that we had no chance of pulling it off, so we just jammed for a bit and ended up coming up with our first song, Denigrate. It just went from there.
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Explain Pathogen's music
It basically reflects who we are as people, the emotions which we feel. Our music mainly consists of melodies and harmonies as well as some very groove orientated parts. As far as our musical influences goes, we try to stay true to ourselves and not follow any trends. We write music for ourselves, not for the masses. We want people to appreciate the music we create, not what we replicate.
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What goals do you have as a band?
To create music which instils an emotional response in who ever listens to it.
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How do Pathogen fit into the Perth music scene?
I've been told on several occasions that we are the most original sounding local metal act around at the moment, but I'm sure some people would love to disagree with that. We do try to sound original, and we take a lot of care when it comes to constructing our songs. We're fucking picky cunts, that's why it takes about two months to complete a song. We've been kicking around the local scene for a couple of years now, which is longer than most other metal bands that are still performing. Things haven't changed that much, although we get a lot more praise and recognition than we used to.
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What themes do you base your music on?
Our music isn't so much based on themes but emotions, often representing how we were feeling at the time when the song came together. Some songs a driven by sadness caused by a personal experience, others are driven by rage and some just gives us a good feeling when we play them. The lyrics are often based off themes which in no way relate to the music, for example, a cow who runs away from its milkmaid, who happens to be a prostitute, and becomes a feral cow in the wild "My Little Cow". Despite the humour within the lyrical themes, they are written in a very poetic manner, it would be hard to work out the themes behind them just from reading the lyrics but our old vocalist/lyricist has parted ways with us so the lyrical integrity of our music is soon to change.
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What do you think of the colour pink?
Pink Barbie-Doll houses, pink fluffy bunnies, pink dildos, all these things which are artificially pink annoy the shit out of me but I like the things in life that are naturally pink. To me, natural pink represents a safe, warm embrace. Things which are un-naturally coloured pink look fucked.
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Describe a typical Pathogen gig
A typical Pathogen gig is pretty much indicative of the Perth metal scene......Fucking lazy. When we play support for reputable bands (Downer, Kin, Samain etc.) There's generally about 70 to 80 people that come to the show if we're lucky, but everyone would have an allright time and the headlining act wouldn't lose money, so everyone's happy. We headlined our first gig back in February to launch our latest demo "Nightfall". I was blown away when over 420 people paid to come and give their support. (Less people went to see Entombed when they toured here earlier this year)
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What are your future plans?
I want to do one last demo tape and I want it to be fucking insane. I'd like to put out a full length CD but there’s no rush, our music is getting better (at least in our heads anyway) so the longer we wait, the better our debut will be. I feel that too many shit bands are putting out crap CD's for the sake of putting out a CD and flooding the market with shit. A band putting out a CD used to be a pretty big thing, now every fucker with rich parents is doing it, often before they even release a demo. Not that the bands that put out crap CD's don't have any potential, most of them do, they just haven't taken the time to refine their music and realise what they are really capable of. That's just my opinion though.
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Who is your favourite character in "The Music Shop"?
I'd have to say that the crow is the best. He is a dreamer and all he wants to do is follow his dreams and do what he wants. That stupid fucking giraffe/dragon thing never wants to do anything cool. If I was that crow, I'd beat the shit out of that stupid dragon/giraffe thing. (1. The crow's name is "Cromby" 2. It's a goanna, hence the name "Goanna" 3. Goanna would kick your ass any day Aidan! - ED)
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Any Last Words?
Never forget the integrity behind metal. It may be cool to be pure evil 'n stuff but it's always been the music that counts. That's what makes metal. Don't get sucked in by the image laden bullshit that surrounds it, unless you want to see your favourite style of music go commercial.

 
 

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