Interview: Matt Goodrich (Water Torture, Inerds, Deciever, Bestower, etc.)

Most people might not know the name, Matt Goodrich. But I'm sure plenty of you have heard at least one of his bands. Over the last few years, Matt has been a member of several Buffalo, NY based hardcore/grindcore/powerviolence and noise bands. playing bass for such bands as Inerds, Water Torture and Bestower. last year, Inerds became the band in the Grindcore Karaoke roster everyone seemed to talk about, and is now leading the pack again with the devastatingly heavy Water Torture. I caught up with Matt to check in and see what we can expect from his bands in the future. 

Operation Grindcore: We'll get the boring questions out of the way first. Tell us who you are and what bands you're involved in.

Matt Goodrich: My name is Matt also known as Phil Collins. And I play bass in water torture,Inerds,and bestower. Also I do deceiver which is solo noise stuff. pacing which is me and moezes of all the same bands doing harsh droney stuff. And my newest project is breached hull which is with Justin of Pusdrainer it is SCI-FI PE based on event horizon.

OG: The first band of yours to get large acclaim was Inerds, after being featured on Grindcore Karaoke. How did that band come to be?

Matt: Me and the drummer, Moezes started hanging out and he was in some crappy pop punk band. He got me all whiskey drunk and we went to his practice space and we started to jam. From there we decided to ask Jessika if she wanted to do vocals and we had also talked to Corey and they were both down to do vocals and it just went from there.

OG: How did the relationship with Grindcore Karaoke start?

Matt: Jay got ahold of us on the Inerds myspace and asked if we would be down to do a free release on his new label. Of course we were down right away.

OG: Inerds pretty much become one of the most popular bands on the site. Was this surprising to you guys at all?

Matt: Yah, deff. We never would have guessed people would like it so much. I think it helps a lot that we had a pretty good sounding recording. We go to the same guy for every band we are in. John Angelo is the man.

OG: I have noticed the consistently good recording quality your bands have. Is John the guy to go to in Buffalo?

Matt: Yah, we record everything with him other then noise. I was in a band with John before Inerds so I have been recording with him for awhile now. He knows what we want sound wise so it is really easy to record with him. We are recording next week and we are going to a new studio in Buffalo and John will be with us so I am really excited to see how it turns out.

OG: Moving on to Water Torture, who I think I can safely say is the band that most people talk about now in the GK roster. How did this band come to life, because at it's core, it's pretty much a stripped down Inerds.

Matt: Moezes and I have been trying to do a lot of touring and we were having trouble getting our other bands out of town so we decided we would do a band that was just the 2 of us.

OG: And just like that, Water Torture was born, huh? So then you definitely wanted to keep the drum/bass powerviolence/grind sound, but just be more freed up?

Matt: Yah, we are in a much lower tuning then Inerds. We hoped that would be different enough, hahaha. And just being 2 people always makes it easier.

OG: I've seen videos of you guys playing with an addition bass player. Is that a permanent part of the line-up now?

Matt: No, we have our friend, Ian playing with us a bunch and we are going to be doing some recordings together but it is not a permanent thing. We also had our friend, Justin Pusdrainer do noise for us on our last tour.

OG: Speaking of recordings, I hear Water Torture has a few splits in the making. What can you tell us about those?

Matt: When we get back from tour in May we got a bunch of stuff to record for. Split with Witchcult from the UK, Anthophobic from Pittsburgh, Ultra//Negative from Mass, and Happy Birthday from Ohio.

OG: Will we being seeing any Water Torture on vinyl?

Matt: Yah, the split with Witchcult will be a 7 inch and we are recording next week for a 7 inch on Diseased Audio from Chicago.

OG: Fuck awesome, I can't wait to get those. Wrapping up here, what's the current status of Inerds, and can we expect any releases from any of your noise projects in the future?

Matt: As we speak the Inerds/Bestower 7 inch is being pressed and should be out In the next few months. As for noise stuff I got a lot of stuff coming out.

Deceiver has a split with Lost Appeal as well as a split with (<o>). Also working on a 4 tape 4 way split wall box with Scant, Discretion, Oblive. Breached Hull has a few releases coming out soon as well one being a split with Blessed Sacrifist.

OG: Awesome, I'm super glad to hear there will be more Inerds music released. In closing, off the top of your head, if you were stuck on a desert island, which 3 albums would you bring with you?

Matt: First would be, Discordance Axis - "The Inalienable Dreamless", J Dilla - "Donuts", Moss - "Eternal Return"

OG: Thanks for the interview!

Matt: Any time man.

~VII

Bandcamp Artist of the Week: Water Torture

     I loooooooove bass/drum grindcore, as I'm sure a lot of you know, which is why I had an instant attraction to Water Torture. Their debut EP was released on Grindcore Karaoke yesterday and it's fucking awesome! This duo(featuring Matt Goodrich of Inerds on bass/backup vocals/noise) deliver 9 tracks of instantly lovable, heavy, distorted grind jams, 2 of which are noise n' drum blasters. The recording is excellent, super dirty and distorted with a very full bass sound and very good drums. I don't really have anything else to say, so just head on over to Grindcore Karaoke and download it for the awesome price of zero dollars. 

~VII

Labeled: Grindcore Karaoke

J. Randall's label Grindcore Karaoke has only been around for a few months, but they have already released 35 albums, ep's, demo's, etc. All of GK's releases are awesome ,but here are some of my favorites:

Romero-Solitaire

Romero may not be a grindcore band, but they still rock. Romero are a doomy rock band(their sound kinda reminds me of Torche's first album), both of these two songs are excellent and Romero are an awesome band!

Cloud Rat-S/T LP

This album is amazingly awesome. Cloud Rat play a style of grind that is melodic, without losing any of the intensity. This is one of the best things I have heard from Grindcore Karaoke. Cloud Rat are a breath of fresh air and they are one of the most unique grind bands I have heard. The vocals are very emotional(in a good way), and unlike some grind bands whose albums just sound like a blur, where all the songs sound the same, all of the songs on this album are unique and they standout! I really love that Some of my favorite songs are "Yama", "Canine", and "Pill Birth". This album demands repeated listens and if you haven't heard Cloud Rat you need to download this right now!

Robocop-Robocop II

If you read Operation Grindcore, you know I love Robocop, my love has been documented here and here. This album is awesome 'nuff said!

Inerds-Choice Cuts

Inerds are a grindcore band, who have a lot of influence from early powerviolence. This six song e.p. that comes from a split with the band Coworkers, is a fast, all out attack on the ears. Much like Cloud Rat, Inerds are a breath of fresh air in the grindcore genre. My favorite songs off of Choice Cuts are "Bebo", "Counting Seconds", and "Humans Being".

Death-Cult Jock-West End Blast

Death-Cult Jock are a grindcore band! They play a style of grindcore that has a lot of influences from other cool genres such as death metal and doom metal, which I think is really cool. Even with all of these unique influences they probably still are the most straight up grind band on my list, which is not a bad thing. The thing I love most about Death-Cult Jock are their great riffs/guitar playing, which makes this album very memorable. My favorite songs are "Fast", "Virus/Plague", and "Numb".

~Andrew Lipscomb