ATROCIOUS MADNESS interview

Here's another old interview I did a long while back. This one originally appeared in U.G.Z. zine from Oakland. I think you can obtain a copy from http://www.wethepunx.com

Atrocious Madness are proving to be a prolific band. They have a nice number of releases behind them, as well as ahead of them. Their first LP is now out on Wicked Witch Records, and everyone who’s heard it have nothing but positive things to say about the record. No surprise, they do what they do well. Noisy hardcore punk with some of the most interesting lyrics and song topics out there. Outspoken against animal experimentation, the state, and the like. But they also bring to light secret histories and more reasons why you shouldn’t trust those in power.
This interview was conducted over the internet.

M.Avrg : When did Atrocious Madness begin? Have you been in bands prior to this?

Chanel : Atrocious Madness started a little over 4 years ago when our old guitarist Saira and I decided that we didn't need to learn how to play guitar before we made a band. About two years ago she moved to Germany, then Minneapolis, and we got Hopper to play second guitar.
Frank- Saira was in Detestation and Joel, who played drums, was in Axiom at the time and Indignity and Discontent before that. Hopper was in Starved and Delirious, Landfill, and Detestation. We now have Dominic playing drums who was in Yankee Wuss, Detestation, Family Counciling, and New Day. No one else had done anything before.

M.Avrg : Do you think the comparison to Confuse is accurate?

Frank : Not really. The name definitely implies that we think we do, but I wouldn't listen to us and think of Confuse otherwise. I think we fit into the general noisecore style of Confuse, Acid, Gloom, Gai, Disorder, Chaos UK, State Children, etc... and of course we steal plenty of stuff from all those bands. It seems it's an easy comparison to make, but not entirely accurate. That's just the music side of it though. A lot of people have said that we're different because of our lyrical content. But all those bands had political songs as well.

M.Avrg : What do you think a band gains when they throw musical proficiency out the window?

Frank : You don't have to be expected to impress anyone with your next 5 minute epic. You don't need to put any pressure on yourself to write a fucking punk song. A couple notes (or one note!), verse, chorus, verse, chorus... there's a song. As long as there is some energy behind it... It makes having fun playing music a lot easier rather than concentrating on what you are doing. Of course I don't actually know how to do much on any instruments, so maybe it is a lot of fun playing complicated songs. Rush sure liked it.

M.Avrg : Many of your lyrics seem to be based in conspiracy theories and secret histories. Is this a fair assessment?

Frank : Yeah, a lot of them are about what people consider conspiracies. But that's just a way of not taking them seriously. All the songs we have that deal with those topics considered on the fringe are things that are actually happening or have happened. The HAARP project really does exist and is capable and being used for things like weather control, and mind control. The official HAARP propaganda even admits that it could be used for that, but of course says they never would. And people believing what the government tells them is the really scary thing. Everyone knows about CIA mind control experiments on unknowing victims and it is public knowledge, if you look for it, that Nazi scientist were brought to the U.S., Russia and Britain and were behind the creation of the CIA, NASA, training of South American death squads, and mind control "cults" like Jim Jones's Peoples Temple. They are only theories because they aren't accepted by mainstream media machines which use terms like "conspiracy theory" to push facts and ideas into the realm of laughable nuts. Shows like the X-Files help to defuse information that comes to light by letting people think of it as "that stuff on TV". Just like accusing someone who says that fluoride in the water is being used to weaken the minds and bodies of the population as being paranoid and right wing. Secret history is more accurate. The connections between corporations, political dynasties, banks, intelligence agencies, "think tanks"(Tavistock Institute, Rand Corporation, Club of Rome, Committee of 300), gatherings like the WTO, and G-8 and secret societies are not something that those involved want to be known. All media surrounding wars and terrorism, including what is happening now, is meant as diversion from what is really happening and who is really pulling the strings behind world events. Who is gaining from the attacks on the World Trade Center/Pentagon and these Anthrax mailings? If you think that these "civilized" governments wouldn't murder thousands of innocent people, take another look at the history of British and US imperialism and it's dealing with "undesirables" in their own countries. But not all of our lyrics could be placed in the "conspiracy" box. True, we sing about these things, but that should not be considered some gimmick, which takes away from the fact these are serious topics. And we also cover what the usual political punk territory: animal rights, environmentalism, sexism, homophobia, religion... things just as important and relevant as anything else we sing about.

M.Avrg : What is HAARP?

Frank : HAARP stands for High frequency Active Auroral Research Project and is located in the remote area of Alaska in the Gakona region, owned by the Department of Defense. It's basically a huge antenna array and research facility tucked away where it can operate in almost secrecy. What the government/military claims is that it is to be used to study the upper atmosphere and communicate with submerged submarines that could not otherwise be reached. It is a joint Navy, Air Force operation with academic support from the University of Alaska. The official HAARP website, maintained by the Air Force, has a long list of further uses (oceanic mapping, finding hidden bunkers and underground cave systems, which is of course very useful propaganda nowadays etc...) and goes on and on about what a safe and wonderful tool it is in predicting weather patterns. What they don't say, and even deny, is that it can be used to alter the weather in specific areas by "lifting", or punching holes in portions of the Ionosphere in order to create heat waves, floods, snow fall etc... This not only effects the specific area targeted but creates a reaction in world weather systems. The facility uses electro magnetic waves which disrupt the magnetosphere causing confusion in migratory animals whose natural guidance systems are effected, either causing them not to migrate, migrate in the wrong direction, and in the case of a number of native Alaskan wild life, to wander straight into the antenna array. The more frightening uses that are not mentioned in the official propaganda are those that are actually claimed in the original patent. Not actually the original, because the designs used for this type of radio transmitter were created by Nikola Tesla. A lot of his patents were stolen after his death by intelligence agencies or simply refused by the patenting office and confiscated. But some of the other possible uses are a land bases Star Wars type defense shield, destruction of satellites, altering the weather for military and civil disobedience purposes, negatively impact the health of human and other biological systems (including inducing heart attacks), taking control of air craft guidance or melting engines, altering the mental state of large groups or singular people, and if implanted with a receiving chip, actual physical control. The list goes on and on and the science and secret history behind the development and uses could fill a book. Actually there are a number of books on the subject and plenty of places on the internet.

M.Avrg : Do you know if the government has actually experimented on populations with HAARP?

Frank : Definitely. This type of technology has been used in different capacities since World War I when John Hettinger modified beam power weapons to radio wave power weapons. Sounds ridiculous, like something out of a sci-fi film. But who do you think controls the film studios? The banking/military cartel who produce books and films as a way to defuse and make unbelievable secret science and conspiracy theories. During the 80's the Greenham Commons Women Peace Camp in England, who held a constant vigil outside the Greenham military base to protest the placement of U.S. cruise missiles there, were subject to radio frequencies emitted from the base that caused headaches, nausea and constant menstruation. The USSR used something called "The Russian Woodpecker" to bombard the eastern United States with radio waves that caused an increase in suicides and murder during the times it was turned on. Similarly was the use of these signals to cause disruption in the mental state of employees at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The Montauk facility on Long Island was home to some of the most horrific human experiments on U.S. soil. Including the mental torture of homeless and kidnapped victims via low frequency radio waves and "shock rooms" in a sort of MK Ultra mind control experiment and creation of split personalities. The Montauk base would also aim their antenna at New Jersey, New York and even at the housing units on it's own grounds which resulted in the same effects as the Russian Woodpecker. During the WTO protests there were reports of people being effected by the same symptoms as the Greenham Peace Camp women. There are people who have mapped out storms and strange weather patterns that coincide with when the HAARP facility was activated at the frequency needed to cause such things. The school shootings over the past few years can also be connected to HAARP being active on the frequency to control human emotions and thought. But a moveable radar dish is no longer needed to transmit. They are simply bouncing signals off the upper atmosphere, using it as a mirror, to directly hit a target. Now I have read some reports of transmitters being reduced to hand held targeting devices for used in civil unrest (WTO, Genoa...) to incapacitate protesters. Most recently is the under reported link between the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the fact that HAARP went online to satellite communication frequency moments after the planes were in the air. This is also the frequency used to take control of a vehicles guidance system, which has been a useable technology, as admitted by the government, so who knows how long it's really been
available, since the late Eighties.

M.Avrg : In the song “Terror Technology of The Conspiracy” you mention something called E.L.F. waves. What are they, and how are they used in mind control?

Frank : E.L.F. waves are Extreme Low Frequency waves and were being researched during World War II by the RCA company to aid in the communication with submarines and a way to avoid disruption from naturally occurring electro magnetic pulses in the atmosphere. The EMP's are now being artificially produced to cause earthquakes, destroy communication systems and disrupt vehicle engines. It is the same thing that happens when a nuclear missile would enter the atmosphere. But, with the ELF waves, they soon discovered the negative side effects of there use. Which to the military means positive side effects. One frequency on this wavelength is the same as that which human thought travels on. Again, this is not science fiction. The human body and mind produce electrical charges which translate into electronic waves. Emotional and mental derangement were noted in the early test subjects exposed to ELF waves. Alone they cannot actually cause physical control without an implant of some sort. And they cannot be aimed to pinpoint specific people from long distances. Whatever is sending the signal needs to be ground based. Which is where the hand held devices come in as use in effecting small groups in a riot situation. The main use of mind control is the injecting of thoughts or emotions into someone's head. Even to the point of "hearing voices". This is usually detectable by a constant humming sound. Like those emitted from electricity boxes.

M.Avrg : When you say implant (in reference to answer about ELF), are you saying that something physically has to be implanted in the subject?

Frank : Yes. It doesn't have to be something incredibly sophisticated though.
In 1965, Dr. Jose Delgado of the Yale School of Medicine (and funded by the Office of Naval Intelligence, U.S. Air Force 6571st Aeromedical Research Laboratory and also linked to Spanish Fascist groups) had a working "stimoceiver" that received a radio signal, implanted into animals, specifically a bull, that could force them to stop on command. His work was actually an extension of the research done by Walter Rudolph Hess, who is acknowledged as the first person to conduct experiments into direct brain cell stimulation by inserting wires into the brains of cats. This was almost 40 years ago, just think how much has progressed since then. And look at what is being put into animals now! Implants that will monitor the location of pets. This has been happening in animal shelters for years and people are now willing to accept the next step, which is the tagging of their children and criminals. Delgado was able to prove that a radio signal via an implant in the brain could override natural motor function and eliminate the freedom of movement in an individual. The army has been implanting soldiers for at least 30 years. Just ask some notorious government patsies like Timothy McVey or Lee Harvey Oswald. Whoops, he's dead. There are many, many documented cases of people having implants removed that they have no recollection of how they got them. Just wonder what some doctors and dentists are up to, even outside the military. This last year a news story was released that there are now available computer chips that are so tiny over a hundred could be inserted using an average size syringe. So how long has this technology really been available?! And what the fuck is really in those flu and anthrax vaccinations?

M.Avrg : The song “Inquisition” brings attention to the money driven pharmaceutical industry. What’s your opinion on people in the Bush cabinet having connections to drug companies, and the recent “anthrax scare”?

Frank : I don't think that it will ever be admitted that entities inside the U.S. government (who are just puppets to the same masters as governments all over the world) were behind the spreading of anthrax. The way things are looking though, it seems someone is going to have to admit that it was manufactured in this country. I think this goes way beyond George Bush part 2, his cabinet members and his business interests. Of course they are the ones to gain from a massive rush on any vaccines, which are only made by two companies in the world, one of them only for military use, and both of them with stock held by Bush 1 and 2 and friends, but I think this is more a case of keeping us in a state of fear. Where the hell have all these anthrax attacks gone? I haven't heard anything for a while. Keeping populations in a state of constant, underlying panic about what will happen next, and looking to world governments to save us from these threats, that is what I think the real motivations are.

M.Avrg : Staying on the subject of the song, “Inquisition”, part of the story is about Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and the harassment he dealt with at the hands of the FDA. What threat did he pose to them?

Frank : I'm not a totally familiar with a lot of Wilhelm Reich’s work and don't know all about his research. But that song is mainly using him as an example of the lengths that the FDA and governments will go to to keep the money coming in and crush any science or health methods that might put more control over ourselves in our hands. Basically he was claiming to have an invention, the orgone accumulator (later the subject of a great Hawkwind song), that could cure all sorts of ailments, including cancer. He was also a strong proponent of homeopathic medicine and often wrote about sexual repression creating the urge to live under a tyrannical ruler and in a restrictive society, which creates a continuous cycle of repression. This was in the 50's and was definitely not what mainstream science and psychology was promoting. During one of his tests with the orgone box, a group of assistants placed a tiny piece of plutonium inside which exploded, giving cancer to all those who were present. It was then that he realized that radiation could give people cancer, which wasn't being let on by the Atomic Energy Commission and which I'm sure they wanted kept quite. It seems pretty clear that after years of harassment and working on the fringes of science that he started to lose his mind. He built a Tesla lighting ball generator and drove around with it threatening to blast various government types unless the public was informed of the dangers of radiation and atomic energy. So it was more than just the FDA, but of course the same people who have control of the drug companies control power and weapons manufacturing, so...

M.Avrg : In what ways was he harassed?

Frank : At first I think it was just cutting him off from the rest of the scientific community by making him seem like a nut case. Later though it became the seizing of his research, raiding his experimental lab and destroying his equipment and burning of his papers. In the end, garbage trucks full of his published books were hauled off and burned and he was put in jail, although I'm not sure on what charges, where he died of a heart attack. Before he died he was having his lawyer smuggle out letters to his wife where he claimed he was being denied his medication, forced to take a strange pill and that he was being murdered. Induced heart attacks and fast acting cancer are two of the ways the Feds get rid of unwanted people without arousing much suspicion.

M.Avrg : What is orgone? What do you know about the machine he built, the orgone accumulator?

Frank : This is where I'm a bit fuzzy with the information. As far as I know, Orgone is the energy emitted from all matter. The Orgone Accumulator was a sort of large box covered inside and out with decaying plant matter, that if you sat in would revitalize you. Because he was demonized, he has become another figure in conspiracy lore and the center of a lot of controversy. There has grown a small community of people who still study his work. Actually, there is a doctor named James De Meo who received his masters degree conducting experiments that proved some of Reich’s weather research and has lists of other doctors who have been able to confirm other aspects of his work. The Orgonomics Institute that Reich started is still around today. Somehow I got on their mailing list too. I get all kinds of brochures telling me how to make an orgone blanket and invitations to their yearly seminars.

M.Avrg : In the piece following the lyrics to “Sadistic Dreams” you say that NutraSweet “causes mood alterations, depression, and erodes short term memory and intelligence.” Could you give us more information on this?

Frank : What causes the effects is actually aspartame, which is one of the ingredients in NutraSweet. In addition to those listed above, it also causes brain lesions, headaches, mood alterations, skin polyps, blindness, brain tumors, and insomnia. Obviously not from one dose, it is an accumulative thing, much the same as fluoride. Aspartame is officially classed as a food additive, so adverse reactions are not required to be reported to any federal agencies (not that their say means anything) nor is it required to have any safety monitoring as it would if it were classified as a drug. It was once listed by the Pentagon as part of it's inventory of biochemical weapons that could be used to poison an enemy population. The current patent holder is the infamous Monsanto Corp. known mainly for it's push towards genetically engineered food and crops and it's patenting of seed varieties in order to eliminate farming competition. They are under control of the I.G. Farben company who were the main funder of Hitler’s regime and one of the suppliers of Zyklom B, the gas used in the death camps. NutraSweet made its way to market under the guide of the G.D. Searle company (whose chairman ,W.L. Searle was an officer in the Army Chemical Corps in the 50s when they were testing LSD on unwitting human subjects in conjunction with the CIA) who bribed researchers and investigators and faked lab tests in order to get FDA approval and beat any other artificial sweeteners coming up. In fact, it's main competition was saccharine, found to cause cancer. Pepsi was the first company to use NutraSweet in their products and was one of the funders behind the research that buried saccharine. Once ingested, aspartame breaks down into amino acids and methanol, which degrades into formaldehyde. Numerous groups have tried to halt production and usage of aspartame but are always crushed by the multinational pharmaceutical and soda giants in control. Probably also backed by the same people in government forcing fluoride into our water supply since a lot of speculation points to this being part of a massive destroying of the health and immune systems of the population and dumbing down of our minds.

M.Avrg : Do you believe the world will end up like you predict in the song “Give Warning To the World”? Also, is this title taken from the John Brunner book?

Frank : Yeah, it is definitely from a John Brunner book! No one has caught that yet. The song actually has nothing to do with the book, I just though it was a cool title. I do actually think that is where we are headed. Governments have been secretly testing chemical and biological weapons on populations for decades. As well as the UN, NATO, and US military practicing tactics of urban control and warfare in "third world" countries in preparation for "homeland security". Actually John Brunner wrote another book called "The Sheep Look Up" which has some of these types of scenarios in it.

M.Avrg : In an e-mail you once told me of some current activity in the Antarctic that concerns cover ups going on there. You also mentioned it has been Nazi territory since World War 2. Please give me more information.

Frank : That's actually something I'm interested in and not really related to the band. What I was talking about was an Antarctic research team that had uncovered something that started making them all sick and some of them died.
The entire thing was really hushed up pretty quickly, but one scientist refused to be evacuated even though he was dying and felt he needed to continue the research. Sounds like the movie "The Thing" and some HP Lovecraft stories, which is what was interesting. Especially since Lovecraft’s father was a 33rd degree Egyptian Freemason and supposedly imparted all manner of knowledge and secret history to him before he died. Who knows... But the Nazi part refers to Hitler’s belief in a hollow Earth and that the main entrances were at the poles. All through the war, and especially near the end, Hitler was sending U-boats to the Antarctic region to set up a base and stash their looted goods and religious relics collected by Nazi archeologists around the world. Apparently Antarctica was originally claimed by Nazi Germany and there is still a base there somewhere. This obviously contradicts explorations that have occurred and seems quite improbable. But who knows! Most reports of polar openings have to do with tropical areas around the poles that lead into the hollow earth. Admiral Richard Bird, who made a number of ground breaking polar expeditions claims to have flown into each polar opening and is reported to have led a US Air Force group to the south pole in an attempt to oust the remaining Nazis. Sounds pretty heavy huh? This is speculation based on facts, but is quite interesting nonetheless. Again this is mainly an interest to me and not the band. There are a lot of books written on this subject, and if anyone is interested you should check out "Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival" by Joscelyn Godwin.

M.Avrg : What are the five most important books you ever read?

Frank : Fuck, I don't know... The books that were important to me aren't necessarily my favorites and some are only important because they led me to other things. Ok... "and the truth shall set you free..." David Icke, "Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre" HP Lovecraft (the first Lovecraft I ever bought), "The Dispossessed" Ursula K. LeGuin (probably the best book you will ever read about anarchist theory and what it would be like to live in that type of society... and it's a sci-fi book!), "Illuminatus Trilogy" (and related books) Robert Anton Wilson, and all early William Gibson stuff.... Most of those don't really seem important now that I think about it...

M.Avrg : Okay, we’ve been talking mainly about secret histories, which are heavy subjects. Switching gears, what do you do for mindless fun?

Frank : I collect stuff: punk records, anything related to Iron Maiden/Hawkind/Discharge or Antisect, books, H P Lovecraft shit, X-Files cards.... I'm kind of a geek... I like to read a lot, put out records, put out zines. Other members take care of all the drinking.

M.Avrg : Is there anything you want to say about the upcoming LP?

Frank : Thirteen songs of raw and noisy punk. I'm not sure how well it will be like by people who were interested in our other shit because it is really fucked up sounding. It took us all of 45 minutes to finish, if that gives you any idea.

M.Avrg : Final comments?

Frank : Of course thanks for the interview! There isn't always a lot of space to fit in everything related to each question and I'm sure a lot of shit slipped my mind. Feel free to write about anything discussed here or for lyrics, records, shirts etc... Cheers!