Sheraz: Jamat Al Maut is kickin' shit up! The tapes from Grindfather are already out and up for sale. We also had a CD re-release from Southamerican label, Engendroproducciones.
Hassan: Grindfather along with Extreme Terror Productions co-released it, you can get it from either one of them. And I encourage Sudamerican grindfreaks to get the CD re-release from Engendroproducciones as well.
I like to find new and interesting music. It was pretty surprising to find a grindcore band from Pakistan. Tell our readers about what else you got there on your underground scene.
Sheraz: A lot of cool stuff has been popping up lately in this region, if you're looking for more good stuff from Pakistani underground, check out Karachi Butcher Clan (Death metal), Tabahi (Thrash metal), Irritum (Funeral doom), Dionysus (Doom/black), Foreskin (Hassan and mine Crossover thrash band) and the legendary Dusk as well.
Hassan: There has been new interest in grindcore music lately, hopefully some bands pop out and we can start calling it a "scene." Apart from the typical metal stuff, we have some good noise/experimental stuff like Bigotry and 6LA8. Also, check out the Pakistani Punk vinyl "Nevermind the Taqwacores" on Tam89 Records.
Well, time to fill this information gap, your band isn't much old, so you need to be shown to the world. How did you come up with an idea to play such music and how Multinational Corporations started?
Sheraz: Multinational Corporations first demo was recorded back in '11. It was just Hassan and me fucking around, 3 track were written in a time span of about some hours and it was totally non serious bullshit for us. Lol. it was named Equality, we managed to get a couple of good/bad reviews on that shit. Then multicorp was on hold since we were busy working on our other more serious bands, (Foreskin and Dionysus). It was not until '13 that we decided to write some new songs for Multinational Corporations. We recorded 2 songs, Salaab and Advertisement overdose and they turned out pretty well so we decided to release a whole and that's how Jamat Al Maut came into existence. I am glad it has got such a great response from all the grinderz/crusties from across the globe. More motivation to write some angry grindz. haha
Hassan: There was no other real grindcore/crust punk band in Pakistan. And as Ian Mackaye once said "Do It Yourself" so me and Sheraz initiated this thing and here we are now haha.
Sheraz: We've a new song ready, its called Ehsas E Jurm. Its gonna feature on a compilation tape along with some other killer grind bands. We write whenever we get free time. There is no specific time/schedule for us to write music, it just comes out naturally. We've played 2 shows till now. Both in Lahore, one at an indoor show called Unsilent Death in April and another indoor show at Lounge act in May. It has been totally fun playing the new songs live. You can check out the videos on the bandpage if you want to witness how we play grind in pakistan.
What are you listening to lately? What is your most anticipating album? I'm waiting for new album from Looking For An Answer, for example.
Sheraz: I listen to a lot of different stuff. My playlist can switch from Cancer to Dissection to Camel to Neun Welten and Empyrium and then go back to Napalm Death and Brutal Truth. In short a lot of DIFFERENT STUFF. I've been listening to a lot of Vanilla Fudge lately.
Hassan: I was looking forward to the new Cripple Bastards, Triptykon, Skinfather, Gridlink, Thou, Indian, Eyehategod, Trap Them, and Teitonblood records and they all delivered upto expectations. Safe to say it's been a good year for heavy music. But as for what I'm listening to recently, it's been mostly classic 80's Gothic Rock/Post-Punk along with Industrial/Electronic/EBM stuff. Stuff like Skinny Puppy, Sisters of Mercy, Nitzer Ebb, Einsturzende Neabaten, etc. Those types of music are what I relate to the most on a personal level.
Sheraz: As I said, we listen to a lot of different music. For Peniless Pride, I wrote the riff alone and showed it to Hassan and we thought of having different kinda vocals on it. Hassan had a poem he wrote long time ago and he tried singing it on the song and it sounded pretty good, and then I came up with a really emotional solo to put in the end. The basic idea was to write a song that could give us goosebumps whenever we put it on, and that song fucking delivers everytime for me.
Hassan: We wanted to have an atmospheric, introspective closer to the album and Sheraz made these riffs, it sounded brilliant. The solo was really emotional too. I wrote the lyrics as a poem some time ago, when taking the bus to university and observing the urban decay around me. I think it's a really cool track, a lot of people have asked us to play it live as well... and we probably will!
What is the most important idea/subject that you regard in your lyrics?
Sheraz: Hassan writes the lyrics and most of his lyrics are based on the things that he's pissed off about in real life. haha
Hassan: I just write about what pisses me off in real life. Stuff that's a reality in Pakistan, which no one bothers to write about, but yet everyone can relate to. Whether it's talking about the Balochistan situation, the Punjabi supremacists, the Taliban islamofascists, the rich landlord elite, or just getting pissed off by immature TV programming. There's a lot of stuff to hate here, it's a gold-mine for grindcore lyrics.
I wonder how many fans of yours comes to underground gigs and all that? Is there a point to make something like Obscene Extreme in eastern countries?
Sheraz: Don't know about something like Obscene Extreme, but there are a handful of people who are into extreme music. Its gonna take some years and some constant shows to reach the level of having proper festival kinda' shows in our part of the world.
Hassan: India, Nepal, and Bangladesh have solid scenes with some festival type gigs happening. Pakistan is just lacking behind in South Asia. Our scene's mentality also developed a bit slowly compared to the other South Asian countries, who have killer bands like Abigail and Wormrot coming in at festivals, whereas Pakistanis were still stuck on covering the same Iron Maiden songs. But with some hard work and a new breed of dedicated fans things may improve. Let's see.
What kind of superhero is worthy of attending your merch?)
Hassan: Punisher.
I don't mean no offence, but is it hard to play grindcore with all these religious environment, I mean, how people react on grindcore there? As I know, Islam is more strict and rigorous than Christianity.
Sheraz: Crowd response has been really good everytime Multicorp played lives. Our songs are based on things that affect normal people in real life, and anyone with a rational mind living in this country can relate to the lyrics. We've never faced any kinda trouble cause of our music. Maybe, bacause people who are capable of causing that kinda trouble don't exactly understand what our music means. hahha
Hassan: A lot of people think that because we come from an Islamic society, we'll have problems with this music. Fuck no. Indonesia and Malaysia have one of the biggest DIY Grind/Punk/Metal/etc scenes in the world and they're both Muslim majority states. No two places are the same, even if they share a majority of the same religion. As far as Islam being more strict and rigorous than Christianity, you just have to look at how crazy the Christians were in the dark ages hahaha. A lot of the muslim countries actually have a fantastic heritage of art and music, and much of the strictness has been done in recent times by preachers trying to control the masses. Iran wasn't always like this, for example. In the 60s, hippies used to come to our part of the world to smoke hashish! But yeah, compared to Iran or Saudi Arabia, Pakistan is still less strict in the religious terms, though there are places like the North West region where there's a lot of Taliban influence, but it's also contrasted by the mostly secular Sufi societies in Sindh, the South-East province. It's a varied country with a lot of different stuff going on. We're not some bandits riding camels and raping women at random, don't believe the propaganda.
Who is the biggest fan of walking in underwear at home with ice cream and beer from your band?)
Sheraz: We're all crazy motherfuckers on different levels.
Hassan: Ice cream and beer is tame. Try walking into your classroom drinking vodka and eating gulaab jaaman (a sweet dish in Pakistan) hahaha.
What can you tell about eternal stupidity of humankind? All these religious and political systems. Why do people want to be controlled by others so much?
Sheraz: Religion has been used to control people since ages and its still happening. Its a tool that makes it a lot easier to control a big group of people, mainly cause people attach a lot of sentimental values with it. But I think if you just turn off your fucking tv and for once take a look at what's happening around you. You'd know how you're being fed with lies at every step of life. Its the sheep instinct of the majority of humans that makes them want to be controlled by others.
Hassan: Taking religion out of the situation too, even when religion is played down, people will find new ways to control through other ideologies. The atrocities commited by the Soviet Union in the name of communism, for example. This is the way of humankind since the beginning of time and nothing will change. There will always be a mass majority of sheep, and then there will be outsiders who resist what is fed to them from birth. I just hope maybe we manage to achieve some sort of secular democratic society sometime in the future where people of all faiths, whether Atheist or Muslim, and all races whether Kurdish or Albanian, can live together without stepping on each other's toes.
Thank you so much for this interview and telling us about underground scene from Pakistan! Would you like to write couple words for our readers?)
Hassan: Thank you for reading this. Check out our music and if you enjoy it, buy our stuff. Hope to tour in your part of the world some day!
Contacts:
M.C. fb
M.C. bandcamp
