UN: Earlier this year you had a new vocalist come into the band. Does he bring a different approach with him? Punk Sugar had a lot of different vocal styles, can he replicate all of the sounds of the album well?

Fazi: Jarek is at the moment busy with old songs and He doesnt change much in them. He tries to retain former divisions and melodic lines but he sometimes tends to do something different to that done previously which is cool coz it proves he thinks about what hes doing. Generally speaking he doesnt have any trouble to emulate the sounds from the Third Degrees records.

UN: How long was the writing process for Punk Sugar? Was it important for you guys to write a record that wasnt a typical grindcore record? Was it conscious to break a few rules of the genre or did the songs just come out this way?

Fazi: The record was written pretty quickly. There were a lot of other problems that caused the CD was issued this year. But coming back to the question - I think Outstay wasnt a typical grindcore record either. But ok, weve never thought the way we have to record our material that wont be mono - genre. We start writing our composition from the scratch during rehearsals and we join the ideas the way we feel it screwing all trends and conventions. If the song , in our opinion, punches you right in the face we try to work on it and polish it. Thats all.

UN: I was curious to ask if you could explain the meaning behind the album name, Punk Sugar. It definitely has an interesting ring to it and is far removed from what people might expect from a grindcore album name.

Fazi: The record title was invented during one of the rehearsals and Gonzo was the author. During working upon one of the songs he said the song was punkish as fuck and the mid part of it sweet as a candy, thus Punk Sugar was spawned which soon became the record title. Whats more, the whole record has a lot of punk inside and the fact you have a few nice melodies makes a title very suitable for its musical content. And can a potential listener be surprised.Ive no idea..

UN: Would you say that Brutal Truth is one of the bands biggest influences? In particular I hear Need to Control coming through in the sound of the band from time to time. I still think this record is one of the best grindcore albums ever written. I love the debut as well but Need to Control just rules for so many different reasons.

Fazi: Wow, gosh, youre probably the first person asking us about Brutal Truth. Mostly everyone find Napalm Death here. And the truth is we have worked out our own style of making music several years ago. Surely Brutal Truth beside Napalm Death and Disrupt was and still is one of our favorite bands ( especially first record and Need To Control) so its rather natural one can hear some BT legacy on our records. All I can say it isnt done on purpose.

UN: What are your thoughts on the current grindcore scene? I think there are a number of good bands but a lot of newer bands are somewhat missing the point. They are throwing in flashy elements like sweep picking and trying to call it grindcore. To me grindcore has always been primal and doesnt need any flash.

Fazi: I find it kinda difficult to Express some wise opinion about gXc scene. I listen to a real lot of different music , dont restrain myself to blasts only, but I can say youre right to some extent - theres a lot of bands that try to be original quite inexplicably for me by breaking the rhythm or introducing technicality and still remain gXc. For me gXc is about kicking in the face and making the adrenaline flow and not creating a feeling of disaffection. But on the other hand I cant listen to bands that try to play like it was 10 to 15 years ago. Sounding shitty to cover musicianship deficiency makes me wanna throw out equally as those overcomplicated songs.

UN: You guys have been releasing albums with Selfmadegod for a number of years now. Is it safe to say that the band gets along really well with the label? It definitely seems like the perfect match for the band as Selfmadegod is one of the few labels that has a clear focus on what type of music they want to release.

Fazi: If you want to know if we develop in the good direction you should ask Karol - SelfMadeGod boss and not us /hehe/ Our cooperation has been continuing for quite a long time now and everybodys happy. So there was no point in looking for another company to release our music. Karol has been doing a fine job , we try the best to do our stuff, in result both side are pleased. What else can you say.

UN: How often does the band have the chance to play live? Have you guys had the chance to travel outside of Poland for any lengthy tours as of yet? Any plans to ever try and make it over to North America for some gigs?

Fazi: More and more rarely lately. The situation is caused by huge transportation costs and generally low attendance during the concerts. Up till now, weve played a tour in Germany, 3 tours in Poland, quite big number of separate gigs and we played at Obscene Extreme in Trutnov and Giants Of Grind in Germany. As of coming to America , we cant afford such a tour unfortunately. Such trip includes huge expenses and a long period of time away from home. Every band member works so its rather impossible we could get a month break from work to do it.

UN: Does the bands sound translate well to a live setting? Im assuming that you guys wouldnt have much of a stage setup, just the band up on the stage playing as loud as humanly possible I would say. Do you guys ever throw any covers into the live sets?

Fazi: Weve been playing for a long time. Third Degree isnt the first band we play in so we have a bit of the experience. Wee dont have a slightest problem with setting the sound and proportion during the concert. And besides were in good situation Szymon works in the recording studio, he was a sound engineer at a lot of gigs so his knowledge and experience allow us to obtain the best possible effect during the concerts. And speaking of covers played during the livesets we play none. We used to play Terrorizer song in the past and planned to cover Slashing Death but the plans backfired.

UN: Being that you guys are a smaller scale band, does the whole downloading music from the internet thing bother you guys at all? Do you guys take the time to search online and see if the albums have been posted for download?

Fazi: After a certain period of time Szymon checks if the record leaked into the Internet, that doesnt bother me. And if we speak about downloading I think that if someone does it only for the familiarization as if to speak purposes its ok, but if someone builds their phonographic collection on illegally downloaded files , thats a failure. Apart from this, if everybody would do that whod try to make a record.

UN: Does it bother you at all that a lot of people consider grindcore to be just noise? Obviously there is a lot more to the genre and especially with your latest album you are incorporating melody into the sound so it is far from even just being only speed driven and heavy.

Fazi: We dont give a shit, you can equally presume contemporary classical music , hard core, death metal or punk as noise. We listen to different kinds of music and divide it into that which we like and which inspires us and into that which doesnt arise any emotions. We dont restrain ourselves to grind core only. Quite honestly I gradually start to listen to less gXc than a few years ago, old classic gXc records just suit me fine. As for the development of the genre its rather natural therere bands that push that kind of music to the new lanes. If everybody played in the same way no one would listen to that kind of music.

Thanks for the interview and the interest in the band, take care.

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