Napalm Death, by Susanne A. Maathuis
Social issues have always been at the heart of the bands lyrics and at the core of their message, but they are not a politically motivated act. At the heart, Napalm Death is still centered round very human issues.
“I understand why people make that general point, but I think that Napalm is a humanitarian band, in the sense that our main objective is to recognise humanity and to try and promote humanity. I think humanity is really lacking in a lot of areas of the world amongst human beings. The things that, in my opinion, dehumanise people like religion, acquisition of extreme wealth, we wouldn’t do things to human beings that they do. That’s my main point. So, even though I’m the kind of person that comes from a left wing perspective, I also recognise that really what it’s about is taking the politics out. Politics as well can be a great dehumaniser; it can make people do things that they wouldn’t usually do in the pursuit of power.”
“Don’t get me wrong, what we talk about could definitely be linked into politics. I think that my thing is that, lets be honest, when you even say the word politics in a lot of conversations it instantly gets people on the back foot, its such a divisive thing. A lot of politics, don’t forget, can be just about tokenism. If the objective is to have a better world for people and more egalitarian way of life then sometimes the tokenism of politics can be completely useless to that aim.”
Nothing has changed for ‘Apex Predator’. Spurred on by a tragedy in Bangledesh, the band get right back to the heart of the issue, tackling consumer culture and our desire for cheap, disposable goods.
“I know it was mentioned in the pre-release stuff quite heavily but just to say it again. The Rana Plaza event, the sweatshop in Bangladesh collapsed with all those people in it. I find coming up with an album title and a starting point can be tricky for me sometimes, I take several days to mull it over and then I throw it round with the other band members but this time when that event happened I just knew. I said ‘I’ve got to write about this’. The most powerful thing for me was to make an expose of not only that particular event, but the whole process of production, consumption and disposal. The big thing is cheap goods, especially in rich western countries in which the UK is one. This insistence on cheap goods, cheap clothes, cheap food, cheap gadgets, but with that cheapness somebody always pays somewhere down the line. Maybe not us monetarily but someone always pays in far more severe ways and in many respects they pay with their lives. Manufacturing standards in a lot of countries are pretty lamentable so I really wanted to bring that out and make an expose on that triple stage culture: production, consumption, and disposal. People in some parts of the world make the goods and once were done with them, they go back so not only have they suffered possibly through the manufacturing but they’ve also suffered because they’re taking the detritus and the crap, the stuff that goes into landfill and really toxifies the earth or being burnt in great piles of rubbish. China and Southeast Asia is a great dumping ground for that kind of stuff. They’re suffering at all stages and I wanted to bring that out, the way that still now in this day and age there is such a big imbalance between those that manufacture and those that consume. There really is a massive gap in the wealth and also the power.”
Despite their size, there are still places in the world that Napalm has yet to venture. With such divisive ideas however, it’s a little unsurprising that they don’t always have the best international relations.
“I think that on the touring side of things that it would be nice to reach more places in the world. I think it’s worth mentioning we can’t play some places in the Middle East because we are a pro secular band with a very atheistic outlook. We are hypercritical of religion and in my opinion it’s absolutely right for us to do that. Unfortunately that doesn’t always go down well in some parts of the world. Because of what we say and our refusal to dilute those things then we are told we wont be allowed to play so that’s the way it is. I’m not going to change the thrust of what the band says because that would be, first of all, be selling ourselves down the river but also diminishing the very things were trying to present to people so I’m not going to do that for anybody. Those aside there are many places we still want to play. The Indian subcontinent, some places in Africa that we didn’t get to play so hopefully we will get there in the end. Apparently Napalm is one of the most requested bands in some countries round the world so it would be nice if we could spread our wings even more. I’m not naive I know that Napalm is not going to get the world spinning on its axis, but we put our ideas on the table and from an entertainment point of view we certainly try our best with our music to make a certain change to things and we could through our ideas affect change as many other bands have done and continue to do, it would be nice if our music could affect change in that way. We live in hope I suppose.”
CAITLIN SMITH