Nick: So how did you end up in Fayetteville?
Nate: I moved there in August 2006 to go to school. It took me a long time to figure out where the music scene was, where to go, and what kind of bands were around. I started meeting people at a Dirtmother show. I met Craig, their singer - I had on a Sleep hoodie so we talked about them for a while. They played that night with Lethal Red. Queen Beast started with two of their members - Andy and Jonny - though now we have four [laughs]. I kept going to Dirtmother shows and one night had a conversation with Craig. I’d was sitting on some riffs, but had no one to play with. He lived with Andy and Jonny from Lethal Red, so I went over there and played for them. They knew a drummer, Jed. And from there we added members. We’ve been through a few lineup changes since then. Jonathan [the second guitarist] moved away.
Nick: Do you write the music then?
Nate: Pretty much. I write the majority of the riffs, what I consider to be enough for a song, bring them to the rest of the guys, and we play with the structure, adding here and there.
Nick: Did the Lethal Red connection help you get off the ground?
Nate: We got together in May 2007 and played our first show in July 2007. We only played two songs then, but they were ten minutes long. That was a house party - it took us a little while to play real venues. We haven’t had trouble lately. There are some newer venues that have opened in the last six months that are really hospitable to what we do. There’s lots of places to play here. In the middle of town, there’s The Old Post Office. It, obviously, used to be the post office. It’s in the basement. Upstairs is a really swanky restaurant that closes at 10 on weekends. We get to load our stuff through the side door and walk through a room full of yuppies. I’m sure they wonder what goes on down there.
Nick: Do some of them come down and check you out?
Nate: Oh yeah. Some people wander down. You know, college shirt wearing middle aged professionals. They have a good time. Drinks are cheap there too.
Nick: You guys play a lot of different genres. Where do your songs and arrangements come from?
Nate: I played in bands all through high school. The first one was a punk rock band, kids attempting to imitate their idols. The next band was more like Black Sabbath, some Clutch too. I listened to a lot of Southern rock, stuff with pentatonic grooves. My favorite was Black Sabbath though, period. I got up here when I was 18, a couple of years ago, and had been listening to a lot of hardcore punk. I was attempting to write 45 second riffs - think Operation Ivy and Black Flag. All I had was an acoustic. I tried really hard, but it didn’t come out that way - what did come out was Queen Beast. Some stoner rock with a little bit of treble. I listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd a lot, so some of that’s in there too. All these riffs came out, but none of them were in the same vein. There would be Southern rock, doom, thrash, then hardcore. After I found these dudes to jam with, we just threw everything together. At first it didn’t flow, but after playing for a while the transitions got tighter. I’d saw our influences are Sabbath Skynard, Black Flag, Darkthrone, and Sleep.
Nick: Was it hard to bring all of that together?
Nate: Definitely. When we were first jamming it took us a while to get our chemistry down. We weren’t symbiotic at first. Now I bring something in and everyone helps smash it together. After a while Jonathan would speak up. He was more into the Melvins, the Pixies, the weird grungier stuff, and would come up with these bizarre chords and little licks. He was responsible for the more tripped out spacey parts. It’s too bad he left.
Nick: I have to ask about the old band name. It was Pile of Dead Women, right?
Nate: [laughs] I didn’t realize I’d be in a band here; it took me almost a year to find people to jam with. I didn’t think it would be anything too serious, but I was stoked. So I came up with a list of the most offensive and ridiculous names I could think of. The first version was Trunk Full of Whores. I realized that if you refer to females by a derogatory term in the band name it was less offensive. “Whores” weren’t necessarily innocent - if it’s “women” it’s ten times more offensive because they haven’t necessarily done anything wrong. Trunk Full of Dead Women wasn’t quite right either though. I was thinking too hard about it. So we went with “pile” - straight to the point. Very offensive. No one was real into it in the beginning except me. Now it’s the opposite. We’ve gone through several line-up changes though, and aren’t the same band. We’re not booking any more shows under “Pile of Dead Women.” I didn’t think the name would ever be serious. It doesn’t really describe our music or mentality. It sounds like a grindcore band. We’ll finish out these shows though. We had a contest on our MySpace for a bit with free stuff as a prize for a new band name. There were a few good suggestions from that. We need to check into a few of them, make sure they’re not taken. Two of the sillier ones we had were Dankenstein - that’s Andy’s - and Cows on Fire. We can’t really do that one because of High on Fire though.
Nick: So what are the shows you have left under your current moniker?
Nate: August first is a battle of the bands. August tenth we’re playing with one of my favorite bands of all time: Auger. September 6 we’re playing in Little Rock with Seahag - they’re sick as hell.
Nick: So how did you connect with Seahag?
Nate: I went up to Little Rock by myself early on, ‘cause I didn’t know anyone into good music. I met Metal Dave [bassist], who also plays guitar in Circle of the Black Thorn. It was at Downtown Music. That place has the only PA that can hang with Torche’s amplifies! Anyway, the guy is behemoth of hair and wild noises. I met him, but I don’t think he remembered me - he was pretty fucked up [laughs]. I saw him open with Circle of the Black Thorn. Then Seahag opened for Dirt Mother. June 14, Deadbird played with Dirt Mother and Seahag in Memphis. Me and Craig went there and talked about playing a show with them. I used MySpace to talk to them. That’s pretty much how I do all of my booking and networking. I don’t even email as much as I use MySpace. I’m a like fucking fiend on that thing. I go on every band’s MySpace and try to find a lead or connection.
Nick: Speaking of MySpace, you’ve got some bondage pics on the Queen Beast site. Who’s the girl tied up on the bed?
Nate: There are three of them! We had a group shot up too, but have had some lineup changes since then. One of the girls is Shelby, one of my best friends, who’s dating the guitar player from Auger and Friday Maybe Saturday. I okayed it with him [laughs]. The Craig, his girlfriend Hanna, she did another one. Then the third girl, Stephanie, was Auger’s bass player’s girlfriend. It was nice of them to let us take picture of them in their skivvies [laughs]. It’s a very incestuous scene here. I think that’s a sign of a good scene, a few people playing in a shit ton of bands.
Nick: And as far as recording goes…?
Nate: We recorded in December of 2007. The demo was out last April. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be recording with late October with Sanford Parker. He’s in Minsk and Buried at Sea - he’s recorded both of them - and Pelican, Bible of the Devil, and Yakuza. Oh yeah, and the last Rwake album. As far as production goes, that might be my favorite album of all time. It really blew my mind.
Nick: How did you get his attention?
Nate: We played a show a while back with Yakuza from Chicago. It took a little bit of time for them to approve us on their MySpace page, but when they did, I was checking out their top friends and saw someone named Sanford. I sent him a friend request on a whim, saying that we were considering options for a full-length debut and were open to advice. He sent me a message back in less than thirty minutes, said he really dug our music and wanted to know what we had in mind. I was shocked he got back to me at all just from a MySpace demo, but he seems to really dig it.
Nick: So back to Fayetteville. What’s it like playing there. It seems like there are a lot of hot bands around that area.
Nate: Fayetteville, it’s a phenomenon. I hear it also had a good scene back in the day, when Deadbird was playing a lot more local shows, I guess six or seven years ago…apparently it kind of petered out. Right after I moved out here, Dirt Mother was getting together, Lethal Red too. Auger was playing shows. It blows my mind: so many of my favorite bands of all time are in this tone. There’s an energy here that draws talented, forward thinking people. I can name 20 bands from here. There are great shows every night. Last night and the night before there great shows with band from all over the country. I just saw Bolth, a band from Indianapolis. I got sucked into a Black Flag show, totally 1983. It was the best hardcore punk I’ve seen in forever.
Nick: Name 20 bands from there.
Nate: Deadbird; Dead Eye Jack - I play with them now; the Inner Party - a great band with programmed drums, kind of industrial punk; the Sinking South; Auger; Friday Maybe Saturday; Swamp Donkey, oh yeah Dirt Mother…there are so many, I know I’m leaving out some.
Nick: What kind of a crowd do you draw at shows? How many people?
Nate: We usually play for 50 to 75 people. There was a Halloween show I’m sure had over a hundred. There was one show that we had less than 24 hours notice and we played for six people. I’m used to that from my first band. It was actually strange coming out here and packing out smaller places. One show with under ten people was refreshing in a weird way [laughs]. We rocked out twice as hard as if there had been more people there. It was a lot of fun.
Nick: And where are you from?
Nate: Bartlesville, Oklahoma, though I was originally from Florida. It wasn’t very much fun. Fayetteville is a fucking Oasis. I was so bummed when I found out I was I going to the University. Arkansas, really? But it’s the most amazing place I’ve ever been.
Nick: So what’s the projection of the band?
Nate: That’s the question isn’t it? We’re stoked about recording with Sanford. There’s a dude in town, John Moore (www.enki3d.com), he’s a talented photographer /graphic designer/artist - he said he’d do a four panel booklet for us. Once the album is complete and mixed, we’ll do that… we’ll print up a thousand copies with artwork. The goal is the same as it is with anyone who’s playing music seriously: to get to the point where we don’t really have to work - where we can tour nearly every damn day of the year and have enough money to eat and lie down every night. It’s tricky man.
