UN: Let’s start from the beginning. How did the band come together? Is it easy in Poland to find like minded musicians to form bands? Have there been any line-up problems with the band over the years?

qboot: I don't know properly the band's beginning cuz I'm not a former. The formers were Klimer (drums) and Sobi (guitar). They were close friend from childhood so it is the best basic to form a band. They found Dæuma on bass and Majo on vocals and started to make music. After a couple years Grela replaced Dæuma, Mumin joined in on second guitar. I think that in Poland it is hard to find open-minded musicians and play something not very popular, but I think our today's line-up is the best ever. Problems with line-up are human problems - sometimes someone decides to leave or must be replaced from the band. It's normal but it shouldn't take place in a good band ;D Today's line-up is: Klimer - drums, Mumin - guitar, Sme - guitar, Grela - bass and me - vocals.

UN: Seeds of Cruelty is actually the bands third full length release, but it was my first exposure to the band. How would you say Seeds of Cruelty stands up against your first two releases? Would you say that this is the strongest to date?

qboot: Well speaking of the band I must hint that I'm the one with the shortest time spent in the band (since august 2002) and I didn't take part in recording the other cd's. But maybe I can say something different than the others would say. Sooo, The first lp (If The Dead Could Talk, 1997) was a big kick of grinding crust mixed with good old punk, fast tempos, political lyrics, good kickin' riffs. But it is heard that this was the first recording of the band. The production is awful, the guitar sounds like a fuckin' pissed off bee or something :D. But I can't deny the power of the CD. Remember that Toxic Bonkers started as a punk band and evolved into some more extreme genre. Later in 2000 the second lp came out, "Blindness". 17 tracks, little bit over 1/2 hour of the music means: lots of blasting punky grind. But the recording has its climate, it's the merit of the sound I think. It's a bit anxious, dark, that's my opinion. I love the sound of drums on the CD, it is an engine of "Blindness", it makes head moshing and body bouncing. The material was most from the early TB's Demo from 1994 in more grindcore formula. I read some opinions that it sounds like polish "Harmony Corruption"... And "Seeds of Cruelty" - it's hard to talk about that one, cuz I had my part in it. But I can say that yes, it's Toxic Bonkers' strongest set ever. Klimer - the drummer (only living former of TB) says that now we have the strongest line-up ever, so maybe it caused the ending effect.

UN: Can you explain the meaning behind the name of the album? Also how do you think it reflects the cover photo? Are the two related specifically or did the photo just seem to fit?

qboot: The meaning cannot be explained; everyone should explain to himself what are his seeds of cruelty. But speaking of the name combined with the cover, it's about the world terrorism, the reign of fear and violence. Seeds of cruelty growing every day in people's heads drives the evil in other people's everyday life. It can be understood like this, or we can say that everyone should think about their own seeds of their own cruelty. It can't be explained I think, I can add that the cover presents three turkish women who were gagged by the authorities for "spreading the inappropriate views" and they were put to public for people to see what they may expect if they would speak something also inappropriate... The rest you can think over.

UN: While many people might assume that you guys play grindcore because of you being on Self Made God, your style is actually much slower then what people might expect. What brought about playing a more mid-tempo style of grind? Would you say that Bolt Thrower played an influence on the bands style?

qboot: Our style comes just from our musical fascinations, we didn't try to influence on some band, we never thought that we could be compared to for example Bolt Thrower, even if we listen to it. We wanted to soar over "If..." and "Blindness" to get some new feeling and style. I think it is simple to play fast blasting grindcore. Simpler than making it slower, heavier, thinking over some flying away riffs and putting some extra sounds like we never did before. We are evolving as musicians and mainly, we are evolving as people. More experience means more ideas, more thoughts and feelings about the music. And the effect is our compromises with ourselves, with our style and abilities. And it means giving something new to the listener.

UN: Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the music you guys play? Do you still consider it grindcore even though there aren’t any blast beats?

qboot: We call our music toxic fuckin grind core (a name given by Pro from our Polish, Silesian band Soulless), because we don't want to fit into some genre. What for? The music should fly above the divisions and live its own life. If someone would be happier, let him condsider our music whatever he wants. We play toxic fuckin grind core and here I'd like to use some polish phrase: "i chuj" (it means something like "hell yeah")

UN: I was actually curious to ask where the band name comes from. Can you explain what it means? Did you guys make it up or is it an expression in Poland or Europe perhaps?

qboot: Well yes, it is an english-polish expression. I heard that a bonkers is in english some weird, funny guy or something, in polish a bonker (it's an english form of polish word "b±k") is a person who farts. Yes, you understood me, Toxic Bonkers means Toxic Farters, ane that's us :D It came to our formers (drummer and guitarist) in early 1993 I think. And explaining the name; we fart a lot, everywhere and all the time an our farts are very toxic. You should check our bus when going to or from a gig. But you have to be tough to live thorugh this :D

UN: How did you guys come into contact with Self Made God? From what I can tell this is the first album you’ve released with the label. How have things been working out? Just out of curiosity what label released your first two full lengths?

qboot: Our manager, Marek Kurnatowski sent our CD to Karol of SelfMadeGod and Karol, after listening, decided to release it. He said that he liked it a lot and that's why. We are very satisfied of the cooperation, besides all the promotions, reviews and interviews all around the world, Karol is a kind and friendly person, he is our friend. We understand each other and help each other. We know that he wouldn't make some shit of the name Toxic Bonkers. And it's definitely bigger promotion that boys had with Nikt Nic Nie Wie (relaser of "Blindness"), which made nothing to promote the band. "If The Dead Could Talk" was released by italian S.O.A. and polish Pop Noise, as I know guys were quite satisfied of their promotion.

UN: You guys have been playing music for quite sometime now. What keeps you motivated to play heavy music even after all of these years? Have there been times when you’ve thought about throwing in the towel or have the years mainly been filled with good experiences?

qboot: It's the love to the music I think. Poland is a country where heavy music is strictly ingored by medias and people (most of polish people listen to some kind of disco or techno or hip hop - these are our popcultural gods now), people with long hair or some band's t-shirts are often treated like some bandits or dopeheads. People have to be strong, mentally and physically to defend their views, loves, opinions. And in the band; guys had some moments of hesitation. First in 2000 when Konrad (Sobi - one of the formers) died of cancer in age of 25... A great friend of Klimer (drummer), a former and music mind of the band was dead. It was a big punch in the face of guys. I hard that Klimer thought of stopping playing the music, stopping Toxic Bonkers. But the band stood up, after a little time they found a new guitarist (Sme) and started to play in the name of Sobi. But two years later they had another problem, Grabaz the vocalist decided to leave the band. Toxics spent some time in finding a new one, doubting once again in the idea of playing music. When I got in, we started to use the maximal abilities of our minds and hearts and keep on goin'. Every band, like every man has its good and bad experiences, both can help to evolve.

UN: I was curious to ask if you guys played many shows? There were a few shows listed on the Self Made God page, but nothing extensive. Have you guys had the chance to play in any countries outside of Poland?

qboot: We don't play much gigs. Some punk gigs in small towns, sometimes some big concerts on some fests. We don't have precised plans of playing shows for example for a year. When someone wants us to come; we get into our bus and we go and play. Certainly, it depends on some conditions but we try not to make problems. We practically don't have any money of playing in the band, but we don't to pay from our pockets for playing the concerts. When the costs are on 0 we can say that everything went good. And playing abroad; in 1997 or 97 guys had a tour on Europe, Germany, Switzerland and something like that, a year ago we played in Czech Rep. with Dead Infection (it was a part of polish tour), in august 2004 we went to Ukraine to Metal Head's Mission Fest (fuckin best show ever! highly recommended!) and we're planning touring on Greece, Romania, Hungary... Great views for future I think.

UN: Would you agree that Poland seems to have a very strong extreme music scene? There are many bands and now quite a few labels helping to release music. Do you notice a difference between when you started the band and the current scene?

qboot: Of course we have strong scene, but for example death metal or punk rock are the most popular "heavy" genres. Only a few people know the word 'grindcore' or 'power violence'. On grind gigs there are uncompareable less people than on the metal ones. Generally last times we can see that less poeple come to gigs, even of the known bands. I don't know why, maybe it's the matter of money. It's hard to say. And the difference? Hm, maybe new trends in music are becoming more popular, we look on the Western countries or USA to have something to learn from, but we are still couple of years behind...

UN: What’s next for you guys? Can we expect any splits in the near future? I’m assuming it’ll be a long time before another cd is released. Are you hoping to bring out the follow up to Seeds quicker? Obviously there were many reasons beyond anyone's control that set this record back, but with the band being back on track I’m sure you want to get as much new material together as possible.

qboot: I don't know anything about splits in the near time, also we don't still know what about the next CD (but we're hardly rehearsing newa material). Hoping to give the best material possibly in the shortest time. That's what we can wish for us and for you. A big thanx for the interview and hope to see you on the gigs. Bye!