When I downloaded this bands MP3s of their site I was blown away. I kept on listening, and listening to it until I finally decided to contact the band for an interview. I had to find out more about this extreme and excellent band.
It was done by email. I have no idea when we started it, but I received the last answer on the 14th of July.


Hey there, Alex!
I�m glad you wanted to do this interview. To get things started I�d just like you to introduce the band to the readers. Not an entire bio, but just a small presentation of who�s answering the questions, and why� hehe
Hi Kristoffer. Thanks for giving us the chance to do this interview.
First of all, I�m responsible for the guitar parts in Ripped 2 Shreds. Our whole line up is: Dirk (vocals), Alex (guitar), Tommy (bass) and Ingo (drums). Our goal is to create real fast and brutal music in the vein of technical Death Metal- and extreme Grindcore bands.

I was just wondering about your first release, Straight Hate. Was that a demo, or a pro-printed CD?
It was a self-financed demo, which we recorded last years November after just two rehearsals with Ingo. "Straight hate" was recorded and mixed in three very busy days in a local studio by two friends of us. We weren�t prepared very much for the recording session and we still worked out some ideas while we were in the studio. We think, that makes our release sound very spontaneous, haha.

Your sound seems to have developed quite a lot from Straight Hate to the upcoming split with Poostew. Did you feel the need to change anything you weren�t satisfied with on Straight Hate? Or was it just a natural progression of the band?
I think it was a kind of natural progression. We all worked very hard on our technical skills and the result are the songs on the upcoming Split CD. This time we recorded, mixed and produced it on our own. The sound is different to "Straight hate", but it�s o.k. to us. We wanted to try another guitar and drum sound and we�re satisfied with the result. We�re also still satisfied with "Straight hate". The demo was sold about 200 times and it�s always cool to play the songs live. Needless to say, that some of them are a little bit faster now...

I haven�t read on any other site, or in a zine or anything about who�s releasing the split CD. What label is it, and how did you go about getting the deal for the CD?
There�s no label. It�s also a self-financed CD. The idea for the Split came up, when we played a gig together with Poostew. We liked their stuff and they liked ours. That�s all about it.

Ahh, I see� Well, have you had any interests from labels? Have you sent out promos to try and get their attention?
We sent out a promo to Obscene Productions to try to be a part of the legendary Obscene Extreme Festival and we gave a CD to Morbid Records on this years Fuck The Commerce Open Air. We got a quick answer from Obscene, but the billing was already filled up. Until now, we didn�t get an answer from Morbid. Our other promos were sent out to get some gigs or to get the attention of people who organize shows with local bands.

And about the fact that I haven�t read about it anywhere else. You�re quite a low-profiled band; at least you haven�t gotten the attention you fully deserve. You�re not a very well known band; do you have an idea of why? Or is it just over here in Sweden that we haven�t heard about you, and you�re fairly known in Germany?
It�s true, that we�re not very well known. The band was founded about 1 year ago and we had just a few gigs since then. I hope this fact will change very soon, haha. We�ll see what happens when our Split CD is ready. Maybe we can play more gigs and get more attention. Last weekend we were invited to play a show in the Netherlands. It was very spontaneous but cool. We sold a few CD�s and some people were interested in our upcoming release. Maybe we have the chance to play there again. Who knows ?!

Really, well then that�s a positive response from the audience. What response do you usually get after a gig (the few you�ve had, haha)?
We usually get good responses (after the few gigs we had :-P) and it�s always cool to talk to people who like our kind of music.

What do you think the response will be when the CD is released? Or should I say, how do you hope the response will be like?
Of course we hope the responses will be great and we can play more shows. It�s always easier to get gigs, when you could present a (new) CD. And I really think our Split CD with Poostew will be absolutely satisfying. At the moment we�re planning a release party with a great local old school Death Metal band and Poostew (of course). Throughout our new mp3 files on our homepage we�re able to play two "bigger" gigs this year. Both will take place in autumn. On September 18th. We�ll be on stage in Berlin and on October 23rd. we�re ready to destroy Bremen. But we�re still looking for gigs everywhere at anytime.
So, if you know a place to grind, just let us know and we�ll be there, haha.

I just have a couple of questions now that I try to remember to ask everyone I interview. I tend to forget to ask, but not this time, haha!
If you could release a split with any band, dead or alive, which would it be?
That�s a difficult question, but I think our selections would be Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse and Nasum. But as long as a band plays cool stuff and shows interest in its music and the scene, everyone�s welcome.

If you could erase any person from the history of our planet, who would it be?
Hitler, that fucking piece of shit. He was simply the worst asshole in history !!! On the other hand, if you don�t erase anyone, you could learn from the past and try to avoid mistakes.

If you could just smack, or beat anyone up, without any repercussions, who?
My very first idea on this one is George W. Bush. I�d also like to smack a few other politicians for being so dumb like the American president. The "producers" of Techno, Hip Hop and all the other crap also deserve a punishment. It�s no music at all ! Everybody could be a one-hit-wonder, if you own a software to create such sounds. Get a life !

Many grind bands today sing about various stuff concerning them (and not just gore and rape stuff), sometimes extremely political lyrics, and sometimes just semi-political lyrics. Are politics something you write about, are influenced by for the lyrics? I mean, some of your song titles are �The Sweet Taste of Gore�, �Destroy Destroy Destroy�, �Need to Kill� etc� So my first guess would be no to that question. Your lyrics seem to be more hack-slash-kill, but they could also contain some sort of a message.
You�re right. Our lyrics contain very gory stuff without any political message. It�s ok, if a band writes political lyrics and we also talked about it in the beginning, too. But we decided to express our hidden fantasies, haha. We�ve also got a few humorous songs like "Penguin No. 5" or "Slaves". So, it�s not just blood and gore. For example "Princess of pain" is about S/M Sex and the need to be punished and humiliated. Very sensitive indeed... ;-) The lyrics for our new songs also aren�t very different from the old ones.

Oh, so you talked about it. Are you guys politically active?
No we�re not. We�re just against the system, haha. In my opinion, it doesn�t matter, whom you elect, simply because nothing will ever change. When it�s time for an election, it�s always the same: the politicians put on their masks and that�s it. All their promises will be ignored later. Our Split CD partners Poostew are a political band and they wanted to create an appropriate cover, but we disagreed. Now it�s more neutral and each band is happy with this solution.

What about side-projects? Are any of you involved in another band, or are you dedicated solely to Ripped 2 Shreds?
Me and Tommy are just in Ripped 2 Shreds, but our drummer Ingo also plays in a brutal Death Metal band called Fetocide and in Diaphragma, who create a real Grindcore inferno. Our vocalist Dirk is also in Fetocide.

Ahh� Since Ripped 2 Shreds is a fairly new band, and still low-profiled, I suppose it hasn�t caused any problems with recording and gigging with the side-projects. But do you think it might cause problems in the future if Ripped 2 Shreds gets an album-deal or whatever? Or maybe it�s already been a bit hectic with rehearsing and stuff� I don�t know.
I don�t think, that there�ll be any problems with that. If one of the other bands is about to play a gig, R2S can�t play. That�s it. The only thing, that�s been a little bit hectic sometimes is the fact, that Ingo lives about 120 km away from the others of R2S. So we can�t rehearse every week in our complete line up. But until now it�s o.k.like that.

Some less serious questions now.
Latest record you bought?
Blood Red Throne "Monument of death"
Latest record you listened to?
Divine Empire "Nostradamus"
Latest book you read?
Michael Moore�s "Downsize this! Random threats from an unarmed American"
Latest show you went to?
Fuck The Commerce VII Open Air
Crappiest record you've bought?
Sadistik Exekution "We are death... Fukk you"

Well, you know what. If I were to be completely honest I would say that I haven�t got anymore questions to ask, I think I�ve asked all that I wanted to know. Anything you�d like to ask me, anything you think I should have asked? - Whatever. This last space is yours.
I just wanna thank you a lot for taking the time to answer all of my questions, it�s been great fun! Thanks a lot, and say hi to the rest of the band.
It�s my turn to say THANK YOU. This was the first interview in the short history of Ripped 2 Shreds and it was very cool indeed. I also want to say THANKS to everybody who supported us, to all our friends, to our fans and to the whole scene. Keep it fucking brutal ! Please check out our homepage _www.Ripped2Shreds.de_ to get all the latest news, updates and anything else you like to know about us. Take care !



Related links:
Poostew