Well, what can I say... One of the greatest goregrind acts out there. If I didn't interview 'em I'd be the disgrace of the grind scene!
We did the interview by e-mail between the 4th and 10th of April.

Hi there Ben! I�m glad you decided to do this interview as I wasn�t too sure if you were interested or not since you�ll be switching band name, but we�ll get to that later on. Let�s just start by you introducing the readers to the band members.
Bile is a three piece neanderthal sludge-gore outfit comprising of: Loek Voorhees / Bass, Ben Voorhees / Guitar and vocals, Rob Voorhees / Drums and Vocals.

The fact that the three of you�re brothers is quite unusual. How�d you all three manage to end up in the grind/metal scene? And when did you decide to start a band together?
We started BILE at the end of 1997 or maybe early 1998 simply because we felt there where almost no bands in the ultra brutal gore and grind scene making the kind of crap all three of us like.
You really should check out "The Shed" and look closely at the line up and then compare it to the line up of "Camp Blood". . . you'll find out we are only Brothers in Gore haha

Ahh� So the whole brother thing and last name is just concerning which theme the album�s about. On The Shed it was Sawyer and on Camp Blood it�s Vorhees. Hehe, have to admit I hadn�t thought too much about it before. Have I been the only one to make the assumption you�re biological brothers?
On "The Shed" it was "Sawyer" and on "Camp Blood" it is "Voorhees" and you are not the only one who asked us if we are real brothers indeed haha, we even have people ask us if there is a meaning or a link to maybe a horror movie with the "Camp Blood" album cover(???) � makes me wonder if these people do get the idea behind the BILE releases at all! (know your horror classics I would say hehe)

The Shed MCD was released in 2000, and quickly sold out, and it didn�t get repressed until 2006. Why�d it take so long?
At first we just did not feel like having more then 500 copy's but they sold out in about no time so we agreed to have "So It Is Done Records" do another 500. Our idea at the time was that with these 1000 copies there should be enough copies to go around in the gore scene. (most people are not into grind and gore anyways so why have thousands of cd's when nobody is gonna buy them). In the end when we got the chance to have "Camp Blood" released by these aussie maniacs from "No Escape Records" they came up with the idea to do a reissue of "The Shed" on their label since apparently there still are people who like to trade in their burned cd-r copy for an original, which is fucking cool of course.

And if I�m not mistaken you had some form of co-operation going with the American label Primitive Recordings. I�m not sure whether or not it was concerning the re-press of The Shed or a new album. But you ended up on No Escape instead. Why�d you leave Primitive Recordings?
Primitive Recordings was planning on doing a double release of Camp Blood and The Shed as a bonus with it indeed. Somehow things did not work out so we ended up looking for another label and we could not have been more satisfied then with "No Escape Records!" These guys did even more then we could have hoped for with the ultra limited shirt/slipcase/poster first edition of 50 pc's and shit like that!

In late 2005 Camp Blood got released, and again it took a number of years. Why the wait in between albums?
It took more then a year after recording "Camp Blood" for it to be released since we recorded it somewhere in may 2004 (I think) but then found ourselves without a label. After we got in touch with No Escape things just took some time with the album cover being hand painted, release schedule, album layout, contact with the one and only original Jason Voorhees actor and all that kind of stuff. In the end it doesn't really matter, the album is out and to us it is just a logical continuation of BILE and what we stand for. We have time so why rush? If you release an album every year I think they will all be quite similar since you will already be in the process of writing songs for the next album while still recording another.

Did you meet up with Ari Lehman or did he just receive the CD? And what did he think of your salute to Friday the 13th? In the CD it definitely seems like he likes it, hehe.
I just got in touch with Ari by email and he totally liked our idea about doing this tribute.. I think he liked it so much he even got his own project "First Jason" going on right now. (Ari is a musician as well but more into rock and reggea kind of music I think and he is ofcourse the first actor who played the Jason character)

You still did a lot of gigs through the years in between the albums, and you played a lot of festivals. When can we expect to see you on stage again? And when can I hope to see you on stage here in Sweden?
Most people know with BILE we actually don't do much gigs at all (in the past 8 years we maybe did a maximum of 30 shows which is an average of almost 4 gigs a year! including two (3or4 day) minitours hehehe) We only want to do gigs for people who do enjoy this kind of brutal shit and for instance even take the trouble to come out and drive for a bit to get to a show and see us. So if we started to do gigs at every local town around here people would get bored with our band very fast and then won't show up next time. The gigs we have done over the past years have almost exclusively been totally cool festivals all over europe as well as some shows in the US. Besides BILE all of us do play in other bands as well which keeps us busy all of the time. We have done some minitours over here with Sweden's Gorebastards Regurgitate and now we're planning to do you Swedish people hopefully a favour and setup a small swedish/scandinavian minitour with them later this year! I think over there in scandinavia you guys must have a great scene with all the monstrous fests and even grind bands winning awards and shit. You don't see that happen over here man!

What�s the response been like from the fans now that you�ve finally released a new album?
The response has been incredible, it is very cool to see there actually are a lot of people who dig our own kind of sludgy gore all over the world. We will be trying to release some new crap a lot sooner then we used to haha so next up is a split 7" with Regurgitate which we'll be recording within weeks from now hopefully. After that we'll be working on the new album (which will be released under a new name and slightly different musical direction=even more brutal) as well as a split with Blood Duster and another one with Electric Wizard!! So you can see we'll keep ourselves busy with that and hopefully some great gigs/tours come along as well.

You�ve got a number of releases coming up � Splits with Regurgitate, Blood Duster and Electric Wizard. But from what I�ve heard you�ll be changing name. Will the planned releases still take place but under a different name?
Aaah shit, that's what you get when you don't read the intie before you start answering hehehe. To make the answer complete: We will be releasing all new recordings (all of them will happen) under the new name!

Are you planning a new fullength album already? And if so, do you wish to continue to work with No Escape Records for that one?
We do have tons of ideas so a new album is indeed in the works (writing stuff), it will take time though since we, simply put, need a label to help us out in anyway possible with recording costs etc. We sure as hell would love to continue working with No Escape Records but any other major label like Sony or Warner, EMI will do as well.

What made you decide to change name? All I�ve heard is that there�s been some form of misunderstandings and affiliations that you don�t like, but I�ve got no clue what�s really going on. Will there be any changes musically or is it all about the name?
There where way to many mix ups where people would ask about which Bile they where talking about on for instance internet forums etc. We found out there are or have been at least 5 or 6 bands with the name Bile so to us it was very easy.. change our name and get on with the brutal bashing! We are gonna change our musical style a little but only for the best (in our humble opinion that is). Check out the upcoming gore compilation on "Power It Up Records" for a small preview of what direction we will be taking.

Well, have you decided on a new name or is it yet to be decided? Maybe you accept suggestions from fans? Hehe�
Up to now we still haven't decided in a new name yet, send your suggestions to

You�re pretty strongly against the homophobic/porn/rape side of goregrind from what I understand. Have you had offers for splits and from labels that you�ve said no to �cause of that reason, that you don�t wanna be associated with that form of goregrind?
We haven't had that many request for splits or whatever but with the stuff coming up with these great bands already we did decide to not do some of the splits we have been asked for. With our rate of recording songs we will be busy until after 2010 hehehe but we are quite alright with that. Still it is absolutely cool people do ask us though!! There is actually also a band called Blood Bastard from over here who just recorded an album and they even recorded a BILE cover! How cool is that! To us brutal music should just be all about brutal music, if you want kentucky fried children or whatever on your album cover that is fine by us but it does not mean we have to do the same right?

When listening to your music you instantly think �goregrind�, but I�d say the music�s not all about grind. There are also slow and churning bits, almost sludge-like at times. What else influences you when writing for Bile, except of course the obvious ones grind and horror flicks?
I don't know really, I think it has to do with the fact all three of us have been in bands for more then 15 to 20 years and thus a lot of influences creep in of course. At first all we wanted to do is make some brutal gore together without recording or playing live to much but when we did our first show "So It Is Done" immediately came up to us and ask us to do an album! This obviously led to "The Shed" which we recorded in no time (we even did not have more tracks at the time) and after that things slowed down a little until we got the chance to another album (ridiculously expensive over here by the way). BILE inspiration comes mainly from the horror movie series we want to do a particular album for at that moment. We still have lots of ideas so who knows where they will lead. The biggest musical difference you are likely going to hear is more variation in vocal styles and so on. I get a feeling not to many people actually hear all the shit goin on in our songs with us being downtuned to a G and on top of that the pitch shifted vocals and so. But you are right and I think it is a good thing you actually hear more then just goregrind in our stuff.

And horror/slasher movies seems to be a big thing for you as the two CD�s have been themed with Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now that you�ll be changing names will the upcoming albums still be based on horror movie themes?
Good question.. even for us. I think with the splits coming up first we won't be doing these based on horror themes but we are still thinking on that one. We want to take things to the next step and do more shows and so since all three of us love to play live and blast all over the world.

But if you won�t do themes for the splits, what last names will you use?
Haven't thought about that yet, maybe "Sawhees" or whatever, who knows�

You, Ben, and Loek are both in Inhume. Are there any other projects and bands that we should know of? And does the other band/s take time away from Bile, as Inhume is fairly well known?
Rob and Loek have another band called Grizzly Adams as well as some other shit i think, Loek and me are also in a "righteous pigs style" kinda project with one of the vocalists from inhume and the drummer from legion of the damned. Rutger from Suppository and me are gonna do some brutal/weird shit as well soon so all of us are quite busy hehe. We'll be releasing our 3rd Inhume album "Chaos-Dissection-Order" this summer which means we'll be busy touring etc. to promote this album but in the meantime don't be afraid to book BILE ha!

Well, in all honesty I don�t think I�ve got any serious questions left for you, so all I�ve got are the standard ones.
Latest record you bought?
Latest album I ordered (didn't arrive yet, but I hope to get it soon) is "Cretin - Freakery". (heard a track and it sure sounds like it's gonna be awesome!)

Latest record you listened to?
This morning while driving to work "Inhume - Chaos-Dissection-Order" and "Morbid Angel - Heretic".

Latest book you read?
Euh� a real book? Hmmmm ages ago I read "Stephen King - Misery" besides that I usually only read comics or big crappy study books for my job.

Latest show you went to?
Last Thursday: Impaled, Vile, Deeds of Flesh and Monstrosity

Crappiest record you�ve bought?
I don�t buy crappy records or at least can�t remember.

And if you ever decided to commit suicide, how do you think you�d do it?
Suicide is for losers so I wouldn't. Life sucks, get over it and go on.

That�s it. Anything I should�ve asked that I�ve missed? If not then I�d just like to say thanks a lot for your time, and I hope Bile (or whatever it is you�ll be calling yourselves in the future) will have a long and gory career!
Alright man, thanks a lot and even if we will change our name, we will continue and we hope to be on a stage near all of you soon!
Beers
Ben / Bile




Related links:
Bile
No Escape Records
Inhume

For a closer look at Bile's discography please click here