Interview with Nigel Brand of Nefarious, Toxic Avengers and more….
Please introduce yourself, what bands you have been a part of and can you tell us a bit about the bands?
I’m Nigel Brand, got the name Toxic as a member of Toxic Avengers & then later Von Toxic as a member of Horror Story. Also known as musical comic Dick Fuxz at one point. I played my first gig New Years Eve 1987.13 years old! Radfords bass hanging at my knees & trying to sing, my band The March, barely made it through 3 songs. That night we opened for Toxic Avengers,Sticky Filth,Casualty & Whazzo Gotti (Wgtn). By my third gig The March had a new line up,name & set. Post Mortem Depression (PMD) would be good enough to take Sticky Filths unwanted slots at the Anarchist Unconvention over 2 nights at the Ponsonby community center in Ak. PMD became more crossover. After recording the PMD album I left to join the more hardcore Toxic Avengers as a guitarist in 1990. By 1992 i started Nefarious with the remains of Toxic Avengers & Sticky Filths Craig Radford on vocals for half the songs. He would leave in late 94 & for the next 6 years the band transformed due to a strong Danzig/Misfits Influence. During the 90s I also created Dick Fuxz who was like a punk Rodney Rude. By 1994 this would turn into an x rated punk band Goat Fucking Nun Rapers or G.F.N.R. Around this time I played drums with BrainBiter who were like Godflesh on acid. That turned into HC band Blood by 95. Also in 95 two studio projects were recorded in Ak. First was The M.G.s single with Celia Mancini of King Loser & Bobbylon from Hallelujah Picassos followed by the Psycho 66 single with members of Evilis. There was a short lived black metal band around this time called Dalkeil. Also I had a more HC band called Wolfsblade (who opened for Brutal Truth) and a band called Horror Business. I joined 1080 as bassist in 98. In 2000 Demon Dolls started with me on drums.Horror Story started in 2000 also & is still going. Late 2002 i started singing for Flesh D - Vice. That year I joined a rapcore band with my younger brother, Fusion Incorperated would turn into HC band Evil Dead Crew (E.D.C.). In 2005 the very HC band Nekrotika came about as did the more punkabilly sound of Dead City Rockers. I played guitar & vocals in both bands. In 2006 I started Cyclotrode X, a horror punk band with a HC influence via Misfits HC opus Earth AD and not unlike like Shut Your Mouth & Open Your Eyes era AFI. There was a Ramones tribute & Misfits tribute band along the way. In 2011 i started playing drums in death rock/horror punk band called Dr.Monster. 2013 would see the start of the more straight forward punk band Suicide Junkies, back on guitar & vocals, likewise for the more HC band Hateseeker formed in 2014. From 2015 - 2017 i was drummer for Black Chrome (Palmerston North). In 2016 studio only band Slavething was put together, with me on guitar, it has a early Danzig vibe with music recorded in NZ & vocals recorded in USA by ex pat Jason Virus. This would be the first album I released in USA. Currently finishing a second album with Jason on vocals. This time the HC/horror punk of The Pumpkin Kings,another studio line up of locals. Another studio project was Electric Dead, an industrial, cyberpunk sort of thing that I did vocals for. I joined blackend rockers Souls of Hades as rhythm guitarist in 2017 to fatten up the sabbath like doom bits & heavy up the Motorhead meets Venom sound. Most of the bands mentioned made & released one or more albums. In some cases many albums. Im sure I have left some out but this is the main list.
Tell us a bit about the New Plymouth hardcore/punk scene growing up, what bands were around at the time, has it changed much over the years, and how would you compare it to other towns in New Zealand?
When I was 13 I went to my first Sticky Filth hall gig. We had regular hall gigs with Casualty or Sticky Filth headlining with The Warners & Bygone Era coming from Ak. Manson Family, Nazgul, Wazzo Gotti and T.A.B. from Wgtn. Flesh D - Vice would come through now and then. Migraine came down from Ak & that is how we met Stefan who i think was already doing Balance. We had a lot of good local bands & between that, the mushrooms and cheap rent many punks came here in the 80s to live. This added to an already strong local scene. People doing zines & scene reports.PMD had our photo in Maximum Rock n Roll when i was 14! In 1988 Brian Wafer (who put on alot of gigs & released albums on his Ima Hitt label) hired a concreate warehouse to use as a practice room. By 89 we had turned the place into a venue. This would be the first of many "Private" punk dives. There were great bands in the main centers with important bands when it came to gig connections.NZHC was very healthy music-wise, with the already existing waves of punk before us & a almost built in audience in some places. It was all DIY & underground but the country was full of cool people making good music in that environment. When Nirvana broke in the 90s it was a good time to be in a punk band & things grew to excess. One Mushroom Ball Brian told me there was 2000 people in the bar! Things were pretty good for a long time with up to 500 showing up to see Nefarious & GFNR on a Saturday night. We had a tour circuit set up & even before the internet bands were in touch & there was a solid movement. There was a kinship & brotherhood between many of these bands that helped build on the tour circuit. Things remained this way for years. When the price of gas went up around 2009 it became too expensive for a lot of bands to tour & this resulted in the breakdown of the tour circuit. With many of the long-standing bands having split already, things became worse when the remaining bands stopped touring. Combined with venues closing & bars that no one wanted to go to, even if you did drink it was no longer affordable. By the end of 2012 things were not looking good. It seems things are in a bad way with most bands just playing their own town and it has been a long time since we have been asked by a band in another town to come & play. That said I haven’t brought many bands here in recent years because even with a good turn out it can be hard to cover costs. Misfits support kept Horror Story going for a few years each time we played with them. Now we are lucky if we can play a gig due to the crazy time we live in.
Describe Demon Nation, who is a part of it, and how many albums have you released over the last 20 plus years?
Ok my first album (PMD) came out on tape from Ima Hitt in 1990. From 92 - 95 we released tapes under the Wasteland Records name. Releasing albums by Tension, Hideously Disfigured,Warp Spasm,GFNR & Nefarious. In 1996 i moved to Ak and put together a compilation cd with Toxic Avengers/Evilis guitarist Richard Davies. Released on his Handgun Syndicate label in 1997 Twentieth Century Animal was the first of many cd releases. That year I started Demon Nation to do a more HC compilation & release Nefarious & local bands on cd. For the most part, I am Demon Nation. In 2003 - 2008 Horror Story drummer Craig Gunn would be the digital side of the label until he left to do his own thing. For the most part it is done by me. We have released 46 albums on cd with around 20 digital-only releases & last year we did our first vinyl release and are waiting for the second vinyl release now. We intend to focus on putting the best of our back catalogue out on vinyl. Most of the stuff I release is my own, in a lot of cases I am the main or sole writer on these albums, or if I’m not in the band I might of mixed the album or done backing vocals.I try and fill the space where it’s needed. If I can help a band do it themselves that is just as good as signing them.
The poster lineup for the 10th Mushroom Ball was amazing, can you tell us a bit about the event, how it started, how long it ran for, what was your favourite year and why?
The idea came from Victoria Singh. Brian made it happen. The influx of punks to NP to pick mushrooms saw many stay and with all the extra people around Brian saw a way to connect the two. I believe the first ball was in 87 with Sticky Filth & the Nod at the local railway hall. No ball in 88 but in 89 it was back. Cops shut down the hall that morning & by lunch, Brian had found another venue. The place was packed, my band PMD got to play last as Sticky filth did not want the spot. In 90 & 91 I was playing out of town but from 92 on i played them all. Usually Nefarious would play & then Brian would get us to do a surprise Toxic Avengers set at the end of the night. It Was in the early 90s when it became a two night event. These were the stuff of legend, two nights of the best bands in NZ. In 93 the ball found a home at Stage 2/Section 8, a big old night club. The place was the local venue till it closed in 98. These were my favorite balls. Good lineups, killer art on the posters. The last ball was in 2000. The people no longer came for the mushrooms as they had spreed around the country and were growing in most towns. The ball had run its course and big lineups of great bands were now a regular thing at gigs. With the magic gone so to was the Mushroom Ball. A bygone era!
For those who are unaware can you tell us about bands like Misfits, TSOL, The Damned, what makes a horror punk and how did it become a thing in NZ?
When the Damned first went to America as UKs first full-formed punk act they made a big impression, as much for Dave Vanians ghoulish image as the music. The result was a big influence on Social Distortions "Mommies Little Monsters" debut Lp & TSOLs "Dance With Me"Lp, with many other ghoul, faced bands in their wake this was the unofficial first wave of Horror Punk. Both bands would lose the horror theme by their second album.
The exception being The Misfits who already dabbling with a horror theme would open for the Damned on part of the tour & even play a few shows with them in England. Dave Vanian is ground zero for goth & horror punk when it comes to image.
The cult popularity of the Misfits exploded with the reformed band. I think by then so many of us had grown up on Misfits, horror movies & comics that without knowledge of each other new Horror Punk bands were manifesting all of the planet & by 2003 we became connected via the internet. Horror Punk has a deeper connection to pop culture than the average genre. It’s the love of what has come before that informs the sound & look in most cases with the 1950s being the starting point. There really is no horror punk scene in NZ. Horror Story are the first HP band in NZ. Before that, the closest thing was Flesh D Vice. Other NZ horror punk bands have all been my creation until a few years ago when a friend in Ak started Die Gruwel. The first Horror Punk band here that i’m not in. I love that band! Horror Story have got by on a crossover of punks, death rockers & goths when it comes down to local fans. Being a very healthy international genre the biggest support & offers/deals are coming from out of NZ. I use the term "genre" loosely as it is less a sound and more the horror concept that connects many of these bands. To some horror punk is trying to be The Misfits but there is much more to it. The best bands have their own vibe going on, some of the stuff is more metal, some more industrial or more goth or death rock so it is not so much a sound as a concept.
What happened in New Plymouth when Nefarious played with Sick Of It All in 1995, I hear some drama went down with the locals, would love to hear about that etc?
Ok, the whole tour was a strange one. Nefarious were there to bring a drinking audience to the bars, most S.O.I.A. fans being straightedge. Bars were not selling water yet. We were into Agnostic Front & Cromags but S.O.I.A. was not a band we would normally be billed with. We were bentedge it was ying & yang. We didn’t make it to a few shows as we had no money for gas after not being paid for the first Ak show. It was lucky State of Hate were on that part of the tour as we had no money to get there. They were big S.O.I.A. fans & I believe when talking on the NYHC podcast earlier this year they had confused us with State of Hate when talking about the drummer being in hospital for a year. That did not happen to us, thankfully.
Ok in New Plymouth you had Nefarious & Sticky Filth opening & the place is full but the only thing most of the audience know about this US band is they had to pay twice as much as usual to see Nefarious & SF! That said everyone is keen for a good mosh to get their moneys worth. Me & our bassist Semp are backstage when S.O.I.A. start & it’s going crazy! All good until the beer in a pogoing punters glass ends up on guitarist (Pete?), this was not done intentionally, beer wont stay in your glass while jumping in the pit! For some reason this accident is taken as an act of war & he leaves the stage...the music stops. Backstage he tells us if he was in the States he would of pulled a gun & that NP was the Texas of NZ. Meanwhile, the crowd want music. Semp & i do our best to convince him that no one would waste an expensive beer that way on purpose & that he should get back out there before everyone that didn’t spill beer on him riot. He thanks us for the advice & rag to wipe his guitar & returns to the stage for a killer show. It was a case of culture shock.I’m sure the legend is better than the reality.
What was it like meeting Glen Danzig and can you tell us about that experience?
Meeting Glenn was cool as hell. I am a huge fan of Misfits,Samhain & Danzig. Ak Misfits tribute Hatebreders were playing at Bob bar the night before the Danzig concert in 1993. Myself & then Nefarious bassist Semp were being thrown out of the bar (for unkown reason) when Glenn arrived & came to our aid. I hung with him most of the night & helped clear the way to the stage when they got up to do a short set of Misfits & Samhain. This has become an international legend. He hooked us up with as many tickets as we wanted for the Danzig show & we got to hang at the after-party. I first met Martin Emond backstage at Danzig, he was giving Glenn a bunch of art. Of course Marty & Simon Morse would go on to work for Danzig's comic company "Verotik". During this time he would send boxes of merch to them, including a package for me a few times. Once I had to sign a Nefarious poster Simon had done to send to Danzig!
Top 5 bands or albums that influenced you the most over the years?
I hate these sorts of questions. So many bands, it should be top 20 at least. Ok, The Misfits, Danzig, Dwarves, GG Allin, Cancerslug. I did have AFI & Tiger Army in the list but took them out because I am not a fan of the recent albums.
Is it true you have released the most albums in NZ, and what keeps the fire burning after all these years?
I don’t know what the current number is or who is listed with the most albums in NZ, but being I never get any acknowledgement from the industry, no one would know.I may have the most albums out. Keep in mind on most of these albums I am the main & sometimes only songwriter. I pay for the recording & mix it. Then I release it on my label with no help from NZ on Air or any of the local music media. It has been this way since I started.
I made my first album at 16. There have been 46 different albums released on hardcopy & a bunch of others that are only digital. We did the last Horror Story album on vinyl. I have a bunch of vinyl releases planned with Nefarious being next. Being part of this for over three decades I have seen highs and lows. Playing with my favourite bands to playing in some of my favourite bands. Over the years the people you work with on the journey & the response from the audience can go a long way. I have been lucky to of worked with some cool people and been in bands that people have liked. Then there is the internet and the international fans to connect with, that is why video is important. It is getting harder now. Less gigs, smaller crowds, dead friends, less travel, new rules, Crazy times.
Any words or advice for the up and coming bands in NZ and is there any youth bands we should look out for?
Pray to the hardcore gods that this does not die out in this country! If you sing put a mic cover on your mic so you don’t end up with smashed teeth!
Stay true to what you feel. No compromise!
Would you like to give some final shout outs to end the interview?
Cheers to everyone who has supported me & my bands over the last 35 years! Thank you for coming to the gigs & buying the albums!