Xentrix
Something Works When We’re Playing Together

04.04.2013

About 10 years ago, in the early days of ourselves as music journalists, we spent a lot of our time tracking down and interviewing the bands that we had really admitted as teenagers, but that had later fallen out of the music scene and out of the eye of the general metal public. In February 2004, we got hold of Chris Astley, singer/guitarist of British thrashers Xentrix, and had a great 1.5-hour chat about the band’s not-so-long but exciting career. One of the best classic thrash metal acts to ever come out of the UK, Xentrix released three excellent CDs in 1989-92, but failed to keep the momentum when grunge took over, and fell apart after recording a three-track demo, which Chris described as the band’s best recorded work and which, ironically, just a few people got to hear. There was yet another record (“Scourge”) in 1996, but that was a different line-up, different music and basically a different band. Unlike some other cult acts which we interviewed around that time (e.g. Death Angel, Lawnmower Deth), Xentrix never quite tried a full-scale reunion, even though the band did get together for some live action in 1999 and then again in 2006. Thus, you can’t imagine what a great surprise it was to us when the original four-piece (Chris Astley, Kristian “Stan” Havard (guitar), Paul “Macka” MacKenzie (bass), Dennis Gasser (drums)) regrouped in early 2013, promising high-profile shows and even some studio work. It was only natural for us to get hold of Chris again to learn more details about the reunion, the band’s life during the hiatus and their outlook on the current music scene…

First of all it’s really astonishing to see you guys coming back. It’s been almost exactly 9 years since we did that lengthy interview with you. We’d like to quote you a little if you may. Back then you said about a reunion, “It’s unlikely, purely because everybody has kind of moved on so much, everybody’s busy, on and on… Half of me wishes we could do it, half of me thinks I’ll be disappointed. I always said we would never get back together just to play pubs in Preston… Unless we have another very good reason to do it, then I don’t think it will happen.” But now it IS happening! What is that good reason? What has changed over the past nine years?

Over the last few years there’s been lots of bands that we know from a long time ago, reforming and doing lots of big festivals, playing “Download” and festivals in Europe. And we want to do it! We’re not back together to play just a few gigs and pubs in Preston, our aim is to play good gigs that we want to do for no other reason than the fact that we want to do it. We’re doing this purely because we’re not getting any younger, and if we don’t do it now, we’ll never do it. There seems to be a level of interest in the band out there, so we thought we would get back together and just try and do the big gigs that we want to do. There’s not going to be any big tours or anything like that, we all have jobs and lives, so we won’t be going out for weeks at a time, because there’s no point, there’s nothing to gain from it, we’re not gonna get rich, and we’re not promoting a product. But what we are going to do is try to get good-size gigs – be it support slots or festivals, and have fun.

How did the current reunion actually start? Was it a mutual idea, and how difficult was it to talk everybody into it, if it was necessary of course?

It wasn’t very difficult at all, to be honest. It was my idea; everybody had given up on it, because they knew I always said that I wouldn’t do it again. It was me who went to everybody and said, “Look, I think it’s time we do this”. I think everyone was a bit surprised. Stan and Dennis have obviously still been playing, because they’ve been playing with Hellfighter, they’ve still been busy playing metal, so that’s great for them. Macka hasn’t played the bass since the last reunion, and I haven’t played my guitar since the last reunion either, so it represented a lot of work first to get back to where we need to be - to be playing well.

Would you say that now, almost 20 years after the breakup of the original Xentrix line-up, you are still the same persons, just a bit older, or does it feel like there are four completely different individuals in the room?

It’s strange – I think we all worried it would be different. But as soon as we start playing, it’s just the same as it always was. The first rehearsal, we start playing “No Compromise”, and we all have silly smiles on our faces, and it’s just like 1988-1989 all over again. We’re very much just the same people we always were.

In your opinion, what makes the original four-piece so special?

For me it’s the fact that we did it together for so long we have an understanding. Whenever I’ve played with other musicians, no matter how good they are, there isn’t that chemistry that we have in Xentrix. When Stan and I play guitar together, the way we play is the same, and I don’t know anybody else that I can play guitar with where so many things are the same. We learned together, we wrote music together, so between us, everything just works. And the same with Dennis and Macka, there’s something that just works when we’re playing together. We all understand the same terminology - when we’re writing or when we’re just describing sections to each other, it’s a language we all understand. We’ve done it together for so long.

Does the Xentrix reunion mean the end of Hellfighter, as well as of Swearfinger where you have been playing drums for the past few years?

I don’t honestly know the answer to that. I think the Hellfighter situation is what the guys in Hellfighter are discussing now, it’s difficult for me to say. That is all down to whether they have time in their lives for being in more than one band and give 100 percent to all of them. As for Swearfinger, which was my little hobby band – I’ve given up the drums while we’re doing Xentrix, because I don’t have time to be in two bands. There is just one band for me.

How did you start to play drums in Swearfinger? What do you prefer – drums or guitar?

(laughs) That’s an interesting question! I’ve always enjoyed playing around on the drums, so after the last reunion gig I sold all my guitar equipment, bought a drum kit and decided to be a drummer. I enjoy playing in a band, but I didn’t want to be a guitarist, because I would always be “Chris who played guitar in Xentrix,” and I didn’t want to do it. To be honest – and this may sound a little strange – I don’t really enjoy playing the guitar or singing as a hobby. It’s a thing I did with Xentrix, I don’t do this as a hobby anymore. After the last reunion I packed my guitars away and they ever never came out again, I never played the guitar and I had no interest in singing. I wanted to be in a band and I wanted to play metal, but I didn’t want to play the guitar and I didn’t want to sing. Instead, I decided to play the drums. To answer your question – for fun, which do I prefer more? I absolutely love playing the drums, it’s my hobby, and I do that for fun. But Xentrix is a different thing, I don’t do Xentrix because I like to play the guitar and I like to sing, I wanted to do Xentrix because of what happens when the four of us get together and play our songs. It’s not about playing the guitar and singing for me, whereas the drumming is my hobby.

It was announced or rather hinted that you will be recording some new music. Do you already have anything written?

All we’ve done so far is bounce a few ideas around between us. We have no songs finished. We all agree that part of being in a band is writing new songs, and once you’ve written songs, you want to record songs. I don’t think we’re gonna be looking for a record deal, I don’t think we’re gonna do any of that kind of stuff, but when we’re ready to finish off the stuff we’ve started, then we will write some new material, we will record it and probably make it available, but how we do that, I don’t know. Whether that’s through a record company, whether we’ll release it, or we just do it as a free download – we’re really not sure. There’s no pressure from anyone for us to do that. If we decide not to bother, then we won’t do it. But I think we will write some new material, I think we will record it and make it available one way or another. It’s important to us that we stay true to the whole Xentrix sound; we don’t wanna try and reinvent ourselves as somebody new. We want to write some new material, but it needs to sound like Xentrix.

In that interview we did with you back in February 2004 you said you had some stuff written with Stan. You said it was pure fun, but would you consider using it for Xentrix?

The stuff we were doing then has kind of been forgotten about, to be honest. I don’t remember what it was. When we get into the writing mode and try to finish off some songs, it’s quite possible that Stan might say, “Hey, do you remember that stuff we did a few years ago? Why don’t we use this riff or that riff?” It could happen, but it won’t be a conscious part of the writing. We won’t say, “Let’s base this song around this stuff we did a few years ago.”

When bands like yours who have been long defunct and have not released anything for a long time reunite and decide to write new material, some of the fans who grew with the old stuff are very much afraid to become disappointed. For instance your mates from the UK – Carcass – are finishing a new album, first for 17 years. There are two sides of fans – those who anticipate it and those who would prefer their teenage idols not release anything new for the fear of disappointment. But you seem to be willing to take this risk, don’t you?

We will be very selfish about this. First of all, we have not lost sight of the fact that we’re back together to play old material, and that’s what people are interested in. We almost view ourselves as a cabaret act of Xentrix from 20 years ago – we are playing our songs from then and we are not trying to do anything new with it. We know what people want to hear. If and when we write new material, we won’t try and force it down people’s throat, we won’t go and do gigs and just play new material, because we appreciate that people want to hear the old stuff. We’re writing new material for our own entertainment, and if people like it, that’s great, but if they don’t, we won’t really mind. It won’t be the end of the world for us, we’ll still play the old material.

Your first gigs will take place in April, supporting Kreator and Evile. How did you get those gigs, was it easy?

We were very surprised – literally as soon as we’re announced that we’re back together, we had a call to say, “We think you will be good on this bill with Kreator and Evile, are you interested?” I do agree that Kreator and Evile and Xentrix is a good bill, I think we just did it at the right time, and somebody out there said this would make sense. I think we were just lucky in that respect. But it’s been very good for us that straight away as soon as we announced our reunion, there’s been some interest from the people. That’s been important to is, it really encouraged us to be more serious about it. Initially we knew that we wanted to get back together, we wanted to do some decent gigs, but we weren’t sure how interested everybody would be. But to get the Kreator tour as soon as we announce that we’re back together really pushed us into saying, “Right, people are interested, so we need to be doing more, we need to write new songs, we need to be more serious about it.”

Where will you go from there? Do you have anything lined up after those Kreator gigs? Are you aiming at some festivals, or, for instance, Megadeth are doing a UK tour in the summer - will you try to approach their booking agency to add you to the bill?

To be honest, I imagine the Megadeth tour is going to be a week or two, and even if we’re offered that – which we won’t, because it will go to somebody else – I don’t think we will end up doing it. It doesn’t make sense for us to do a tour like that. We do have other gigs in the pipeline, most of which I can’t share with you, because we’ve sworn secrecy until they’re formally announced. We have a couple of UK later in the year, one of which is going to be announced very shortly (It has since then been formally announced that Xentrix will play this year’s “Bloodstock” festival – ed.), and then we have a couple of European festivals booked for early next year already. We have a festival booked in Germany in February next year (Metal Assault IV Festival, February 8, 2014 – ed.), and we also have a festival booked in Athens for March next year (Up The Hammers Festival IX, March 7, 2014 – ed.).

Your Facebook says you will only perform songs from “Shattered Existence” (1989), “For Whose Advantage” (1990) and “Dilute to Taste” (EP, 1991). Why not “Kin” (1992)? Does it mean that even this day you don’t like that record?

The set that we’re working on now does not have any songs from “Kin” in it. Anybody that comes to see us on the Kreator tour will not hear any songs from “Kin”. And the reason is that we think what everybody wants to hear is the early songs. The setlist will mostly be derived from “Shattered Existence”, with a few songs from “For Whose Advantage”, because we think that’s what people want to hear, and we quite like playing it. Don’t think though that it means we don’t like “Kin”. “Kin” is a strange album, isn’t it? It was done in a strange time when lots of bands did unusual things, because there was no metal thing anymore around the time it came out. We’re still very proud of that, and we all agree with each other that on “Kin”, there are some of the best songs we’ve ever written, musically. But the production is a little bit strange, it’s not a very thrashy production, and it’s not really very thrashy and edgy. While we all agree musically there are some good songs on there, they’re not the ones that we’re gonna be playing. When we ask people what we want to hear, everybody says “Balance Of Power”, “Crimes”, “No Compromise”, “For Whose Advantage”, “Questions”. There are always the same songs, so they are the ones we’re gonna do. As I said, we are being quite selfish about all of this, but equally we do want to play the songs that people want to hear, and it’s quite apparent that people want to hear the early material.

Does it mean that you will be playing “Ghostbusters” as well?

(pause) Eh... We’re playing a bit of “Ghostbusters”. We had a big discussion about “Ghostbusters”, because some members of the band didn’t want to do it at all, and there was quite an in-depth discussion about it. My view is that we’ve returned to play the songs people want to hear, and on that basis, whether we like it or not, we will have to do “Ghostbusters”. What we’ve decided is that instead of doing it right at the end of the set like we used to and making a big thing about it, in the middle of the set we will start “Ghostbusters”, but when it gets to the middle section, it cuts into “Dark Enemy”. We decided it would be wrong to not do it, so we do the first two verses, and then it cuts into one of our songs. We do it as a kind of tip of the hat to “Ghostbusters”, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to play the whole thing.

Could you tell us about your impression from doing those three shows as Xentrix in 2006 in Preston, Barrow-in-Furness and Bradford?  How did you like the shows? We assume it did not trigger any nostalgia inside? It was not full-scale reunion – it was more like a prolonged birthday party, right?

What was really gonna happen then - once we’d got back together, we were offered a tour with Testament in the UK. While it started off as just a bit of fun for us doing a few local gigs, those three gigs turned out to be the warm-up shows for the Testament tour we were going to do. But just around the time of the last gig we did, which was Bradford, Testament moved the whole tour back one month, and we couldn’t do it, because Stan was on holiday in the States. The reunion then was meant to be us doing something good, we wanted to do a few good gigs, stay together for a few months, and finish on a high. In the past we just kind of disappeared; we wanted to do some great gigs, and we were very excited about doing the Testament tour, that’s a good thing to say we ended with. “We toured with Testament and that was the last thing we did” – it was a good thing to remember. But instead, we played Preston and Barrow and Bradford, just very tiny gigs, and the Testament thing didn’t happen. It was a bit disappointing, we were all a bit busy, and we kind of felt, “It’s just no fun anymore”. Back then, six years ago from now, there was no big reunion thing going on, people weren’t interested, it was different then to now. Now there seem to be a lot of old bands at festivals, there’s a lot of bands that reformed, it’s kind of accepted now, whereas 6-7 years ago people didn’t seem that interested. That’s why we didn’t pursue it back then, but it feels right to do it now.

What do you think of today’s thrash metal scene? Do you enjoy the new records by classic bands, say, Anthrax or Kreator, and what do you think about the younger generation of thrashers, such as Evile or Gama Bomb?

I’m as big a metal fan as I ever was. When I was a kid, I had a denim jacket and patches on the back, and now I love metal just as much as I did then, so I’m a fan of these bands now as much as anything else. I love going to gigs, I love going to festivals, I think it’s great there are bands like Evile succeeding where we failed. They’ve been touring the States and doing really well, and they’re really nice guys, so it’s good to see a band like Evile doing so well. It’s great that metal is so big again now, I’m still very passionate about it.

Does it mean that your musical tastes have not evolved that much over the past 20 years?

No, if anything, my tastes have gone more extreme. Probably my two favorite bands at the moment are Lamb of God and Arch Enemy.

Let’s speak about your old records, the ones with you on vocals. Metal Mind Productions from Poland re-mastered and re-released them all in the 2006, but those were limited editions, with only 2,000 copies made, so they must be sold out a few years already. With the band back together, don’t you think it would be cool to reissue them again? Especially since it’s almost impossible to buy the albums nowadays except for highly overpriced Ebay items.

I do think it would be good, but as the rights to all of those records were sold by Roadrunner to Metal Mind, it’s really nothing to do with us. We did talk about getting in touch with them just to let them know what’s happening, but there’s no real benefit to us. It might sound silly, but we won’t make any money from it, and there’s no real incentive to get more stuff released. If they choose to re-release again, we’d be very happy with that, because it’s always nice that people are still interested in our material. But there’s nothing really we can do to actively suggest or make more releases happen.

Did you hear the re-mastered versions? We remember from our previous interview that you don’t like the way most of your material sounds – do the re-mastered versions sound better?

I think the problem is that you’re always very critical of your own material, especially when it’s quite old, you know, the production techniques have changed, and compared to the bands that you listen to now, the stuff we recorded 20 years ago sounds quite dated and quiet. The guitar sounds aren’t so great compared to the new stuff and all that kind of thing. The re-mastered stuff does sound better, but you can’t make old stuff suddenly sound amazing by re-mastering it. (laughs) It does sound better – it’s a bit louder, it’s a bit more in-your-face, I quite like the way it’s tuned and everything, and if I do approve of it, it’s good, but it still doesn’t make it sound quite like modern production.

We were quite overwhelmed to see that last demo with you on vocals (“Never Be”, “The Hand That Feeds Itself”, “Silence”) added to the re-mastered version of “Kin”. How did it happen – did you give them the masters, or did they get a cassette copy?

I can’t remember. I think we just let them have the masters. Our view on this was like this: they wanted to release the old material re-mastered, which was good for us - it’s nice that after so long people were interested in us to want to do that - and we could add to that by giving them some more material and make it a bit more appealing. We weren’t gonna do anything with those recordings, so it was nice to get them released. There was no real incentive for us apart from that it was just nice to have those songs there. I still think they’re possibly the best songs we ever wrote, so I was quite pleased to have those on the re-mastered versions.

Did you consider putting early Xentrix and Sweet Vengeance demos on the re-masters, too?

I’m not even sure we have any original copies of those. There is some of the earlier stuff on there, but it was re-recorded. The original recordings – I wouldn’t even know where to find those, to be honest. We did consider that, only because we were asked by Metal Mind, “Is there anything you can give us to make these releases more unique? Are there any recordings available?” That’s why we gave them the last demo material, but we really didn’t have anything else.  

By the way, is there any story behind an instrumental track off Sweet Vengenace’s “Hunger For” demo called “Grand as a Frog”?

Oh, it was a very long time ago… “Grand as a Frog” was something that Dennis used to say. It’s a Northern English term – “grand” is kind of “good”, and to say “grand as a frog” is kind of surreal, a bit bizarre. It’s a twisted term that makes it a bit weird and funny, it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not a term that anybody would really use in conversation, it’s something that Dennis said, and I don’t even know where he got that from. But if you said to him, “How are you doing?”, he might say, “Oh, grand as a frog”. (laughs)

That was written in the days when we were trying to discover who we were really. We wrote an instrumental and couldn’t fit any words on it, because we weren’t so good at doing it then. (laughs) So we just left it as an instrumental and gave it a silly name. There’s no more to it than that.

In your opinion, does the CD as a medium have any future, or will everything be distributed digitally very soon? Do you still play CDs or vinyls, or do you prefer an iPod?

Eh, to be honest – and I’m almost ashamed to say that - I can’t remember the last time I bought a CD. I have an iPhone, I use iTunes, all my music is digital, and if I want to purchase music, I would these days never buy a CD. I feel a bit guilty saying that, but that’s just the way things are these days. I think the days of a real product, I mean a physical format, are numbered, because nobody buys them anymore, there’s just no need. I’ve always said that in the days of the 12-inch album you were buying more than the music, you were buying an experience. It was a package - you go to a record shop, you bring the record home, you wanna look at the pictures, you wanna read what the people put down – the thanks list and all that kind of stuff. All that is so gone now, even with the CD it wasn’t the same. The days of physical media are over really.

But there are still record labels that are releasing stuff on blue vinyl or red vinyl in the year 2013, so there’s apparently a market for it.

I do think it is good, but it’s a niche and more novelty than anything else. I don’t think anyone’s gonna sell huge volumes in that format, you’re always gonna sell more on iTunes. It’s difficult to get that kind of physical media out there. For example, if Xentrix choose to release some new material, it would be hard for us to create a CD and distribute it around the whole world, whereas we can record material and have it on iTunes the following day, and it will be available to everybody globally. Not only is the physical format less appealing to most people, it’s also really hard to get it to everybody anyway.

If you browse the word Xentrix in the web you see some DJ using your name for a long time, there’s an animation and CGI studio in Bangalore, India called Xentrix Studios, the Xentrix crew that dance somewhere in Asia…

You can also get Xentrix skis, and you can get Xentrix network routers as well.

Wow! What do you think about it? Do you think it’s what they call popularity? Or is Xentrix just turned out to be a catchy word?

I don’t know. I’m always surprised by this, because when we talk about Xentrix now, it’s a silly word. (laughs) We sometimes wonder why we ever came up with that word. Why people would then want to use it, we understand that even less. It’s not even a great name! (laughs) We are very surprised that the word “xentrix” seems to be appearing all over the world.

Have you ever thought about registering this word as your trademark? After all, it was invented by members of the band…

I think at this stage in our career it’s kind of pointless. Instead we just think that if it has anything to do with us, then it’s nice that people want to use it. A little bit surprising but nice, and we would never do anything about it. It’s quite interesting that DJ Xentrix did come in touch with us, because he wanted to buy the Xentrix domain name off us. We still own www.xentrix.co.uk.

What do your family members nowadays think about your musical career in general and the reunion in particular?

I think most people think we should know better at our age than go and play heavy metal. (everybody laughs) I find that quite strange – I’m very proud that I’m still into metal, and I’m still part of the whole metal thing. I can only say that you’re never too old for anything. We might just be silly old fools trying to re-live our youth – well, if that’s what it is, then I can’t see how that can be a bad thing. I think in general our families have always been very proud of what we did in the past, but I’m not sure they understand why we’re doing what we’re doing now. (laughs) They think we should be mowing the grass and wearing slippers. (everybody laughs) But instead we’re playing metal!

Chris, do you have kids?

Everybody else in the band has. I don’t.

Will they be bringing their kids over to a Xentrix gig?

I think everyone’s kids will be coming to see us at some point. I think they’re very proud of what we do. I think it’s always a bit embarrassing for kids to get involved with anything that their parents do. But I’m sure they’ll come along to the gig.

When you started a career in music, you obviously had your idols, people you looked up to. What about now - are there still any idols for you in music or in other occupations?

Ehm, let me think. In music, I look up to bands that are very successful now, people like Lamb of God. They’re not young kids, they’re experienced musicians, they have families, and they’re still making amazing incredible music. I admire them. As somebody who plays the drums, I’m an enormous Chris Adler fan, but equally, for me, a lot of metal is about the music, about the way it is played. Again, I mentioned Arch Enemy earlier – and again, they’re not children, they’ve been doing it a long time, and they are the people whose musicianship I really admire. They’re not trying to be anything, they do what they do, and they do it incredibly well. In terms of music, these are the people I really admire. Outside of that, these are the things your average metal fan probably won’t relate to. I used to race motorbikes, I’m still an enormous motorbike racing fan, so I have some heroes in the motorbike racing world, but I’m sure most metal fans won’t be interested in hearing about that.

Does it mean that you don’t participate in races anymore?

No, I gave that up. I gave it up 10 years ago. I did a lot of racing; I had a national race license. Are you familiar with the TT on the Isle of Man?

Yeah, you told us about it last time.

I did the TT and a lot of other races, but, as I said, it’s not something your average metal fan will relate to.

Chris, that’s basically it on our side. Before we round up this interview, would you like to say something to your fans and the general audience in Russia and elsewhere?

Absolutely! Everybody needs to understand how incredible we think it is that people are still interested in what we do. It doesn’t seem to matter how long we disappeared for, when we come back, everybody says how amazing Xentrix were, how influential Xentrix were, and how much they love our music – and we just can’t believe it! We really appreciate it, nobody can imagine how much we appreciate it. To come back after all this time – you know, we’re all in our forties now – and there’s still interest there – it’s absolutely mind-blowing. That’s incredible for us.

Xentrix on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xentrix/354617581311808

Felix Yakovlev, Roman Patrashov
March 4, 2013
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