UN: I was curious to ask how the sickness started. How did the band come together? Have the two of you known each other for a long time?

Anthony: Yea we have known each other for over 10 years. In the mid-late 90s we were both in different black metal bands from our local area. Back then it was very uncommon for there to be any metal bands around us, especially doing extreme music. When I really started to hang out with Michael he was just graduating high school and almost got expelled for littering the ENTIRE school with hardcore pornography as a senior prank, it even made the news! Good times.

After doing various bands together we ended up working at the same job and sat next to each other, so all day long we would just say the most fucked up stuff. We were selling a ton of crappy grind CDs mainly because they stole an image from rotten.com for their cover and put what seemed like 0 effort into their music, song titles and imagery. We knew we didn’t have to try at all either but could do something light years beyond what they even attempted, so we did.

UN: XXX Maniak is definitely one of the best bands I’ve heard in quite sometime in this genre. Do you feel like things have come together quite quickly for the band? It seems like you guys have quite a few releases out for a band that has only been around for a few years.

Anthony: We have only been around for 2 years. The reason we pump stuff out so fast is we don’t spend any time fucking around or changing anything. Usually what comes out in the first or second take is always the best so we never have to go back and rethink things musically. For this kind of music it is about raw aggression and just doing what seems natural not forced. This is the first time we actually planned out a bands direction before we started it, almost like a marketing model to see how it would do. There is a set formula that the band uses and it makes things really easy and fun to do at all times! When it starts being a hassle and annoying to do we know it will be time to end this mess.

UN: Harvesting the Cunt Nectar was recently re-released by Selfmadegod. Are you guys excited to be working with the label? I’m somewhat assuming that the label will mainly be handling the album for Europe. Do you think it might be a possibility for a full length album to be released by them in the future?

Anthony: We are totally excited to work with SelfMadeGod. Karol is a good friend of mine for a few years now so it made sense to hook up with his label. He is doing more than we could even ask for so we are really happy so far. Dave from Earsplit PR handles all North American promo for us and has also been doing a great job. Keep in mind this album was self released by us well over a year or so ago and we did our own promotion for it. So it’s like a really delayed heavy one-two punch from a slug of doom. As for a debut full length from XXX Maniak, a few other labels are trying to seduce us now so we are really picky for this one. We may have another special split mini release with some Polish grind legends coming out on SMG sometime next year.

UN: Would you say it is important to have the bands material available on vinyl? The LP version of the album looks amazing and for some reason I have always preferred having grindcore albums on vinyl. The format just seems to fit the style better.

I think it is really important because I hate CDs and buy vinyl only. Everyone should just make CD-Rs of their original CDs, sell those, and then use them to buy vinyl/drugs. We spend more time on the art direction sometimes than the music, so to see it on vinyl format always looks amazing and is well worth it. I think our music sounds way better on that format considering the programmed drums and the way we have our guy Dan O’Hare mix the music. We also want to have like 457849 split 7”s like Agathocles.

UN: You guys must be excited to be releasing a split 7” with Gut. Gut almost started the more perverse style of grindcore and the two bands are a perfect match although you guys hardly sound alike at all. Are you guy’s big Gut fans? Yes, I realize I just said big gut.

Anthony: Big Guts Vs. King Hippo! We are still in the process of recording material for this but it will be our most cohesive and best sounding to date. Since it is going to be on Relapse it is going to expose us to a much bigger audience. We are using this as the perfect opportunity to “preview” a new direction in sound the band has been going for and what people should expect on our upcoming full length.

I chose to do the split with the band Gut because it made perfect sense to me as well. They are one of the first bands to do this style of music with the programmed drums, porn samples, over the top song titles, etc. Those guys influenced us in some ways so it really is an honor to share a split with them. Sick minds really do think a like and there is no other band we would rather share a split with ever than Spermany’s own G U! G U T! G U T! FOREVER!

UN: I was curious to ask what your thoughts on the current music scene is. I would say that the grindcore and death metal undergrounds are quite strong, yet there are noisy bands that claim to be grindcore that just seem to be emo bands with a blast beat or two and irritating riffs. Women’s jeans and white belts have no place in grindcore, unless a woman is wearing them I suppose.

Anthony: Even so she has to be really hot like the chick in Fuck the Facts or something to do Grindcore! So many bands are popping up like this; basically they came from emo bands and were sick of being called total faggots by as I like to say “the cool”. So they think by adding blast beats and screaming like a woman for the opening of a new MAC store in the mall is grind. These dudes have no balls…just really nasty, greasy vaginas so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. They will eventually clear up and go away just like their nasty musical yeast infection.

UN: When do you think we will see a new full length album from the band? Do you guys have a lot of music written for it? With all of the releases you have planned you guys must write a tremendous amount of songs.

Anthony: Sometime in 2007 would be really nice, we haven’t really tried to market ourselves to any labels but we will soon once we have enough material to show people. We are going all out art direction wise, it is going to be one of the slickest/sickest looking layouts anyone has ever seen. Imagine a visual mix of the usual XXX style with 50 Cent and you can get a little idea of what is in store for the full length. Musically we just got new equipment which is light years beyond what we have done to date, we are doing an upcoming tribute to Mortician and Bulldozer which will showcase some newer sounds we are going for.

UN: You guys have only played live a few times with XXX Maniak. Are any live performances planned for the future? What sort of stage show do you guys have? I would assume that you could do quite a bit given the nature of the band.

Anthony: We are in the process of securing/coordinating both a European tour for the summer of 2007 and South American tour for the fall of 2007. It is a lot of logistics to work out considering we aren’t even a signed band, but a lot of friends from there are helping us out. To date we have only done 3 live shows and practiced maybe 6 times as a full live band. Even with such minimal effort like that, our shows have been absolutely devastating, even for us physically. I have no idea how we are going to survive those tours with the amount of delights we indulge in constantly.

At a typical XXX Maniak performance you can expect 15-20 mins of hyperblasting grimy grind mixed with live transsexuals on stage, inflatable sheep, mannequins, huge 14” black dildos being smashed on your head, tons of porn magazines and DVDs throw at you…along with a bunch of nasty condoms and tampons for all the really slimy perverts. This really is just a small sample of the total live experience. We are actually going to be practicing for those tours and taking our time the rest of 2006 to write way better songs so it should be even more enjoyable.

UN: You guys run both 3XM Productions as well as Red Candle Records. Even though you don’t need a label to release XXX Maniak material, are you guys looking for possible labels to release albums in the future? It must be awesome to basically be able to do whatever you want musically and always have a way to get it out.

Anthony: I run 3XM Productions and Michael ran Red Candle Records which is now defunct. We have a ton of splits coming out soon on different labels, but for 3XM Productions it is our split 12” picture disc with Coffins (Japan). It is always great to have total control of what we want to do musically and visually, we are obviously a band that will make no compromises whatsoever. 3XM can finance, promote and sell our own releases just as good if not better than any upstart metal label. An analogy that makes sense to us would be like cumming in your woman’s panties and then secretly returning them to the drawer, that’s how awesome it is.