🎀 Body Farm chat with us about people with uterus rights, working from home & taking up space 🎀
📸 : @thedumbpunk
Hi, Ocean! It’s nice to have you at KNM for a little Body Farm interview.
Congrats on your first 12” LIVING HELL released earlier this year on So This Is Progress… ! 10min30sec of power violence fury, spit & vinegar vocals, & ferocious riffs.
🎀 Where did the name BODY FARM come from?/How & when did you set up?
In 2010, Erek (guitar) was starting a band with some friends & they were coming up with a list of band names & that was one that ended up not being used.
When we were first jamming with Steven (drums) coming up with a name, the list came out again & I had just recently been obsessed with documentaries about body farms for science.
The moment he listed that name I was like, “that’s IT!”
That was in winter of 2018. We had our first 4 track demo in January of 2019, Alex (bass) joined shortly after & our first show was in March of 2019.
🎀 Who are your main influences in music/life?
When I was younger my first obsession music-wise was Bjork. Her vocal range & creative lens have always been impressive.
Around middle school age, my dad gave me The Ramones & Sex Pistols which lead to X-Ray Spex. Poly Styrene has had such an impact on me.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, & The White Stripes were also heavy hitters as a teen. I wouldn’t say all these artists inspire everything I do, but they made me want to make music & create.
🎀 You advocate human rights & feminism & you bring up hard-to-swallow topics in your lyrics such as sexism, police brutality, white supremacy & classism. Seems like abortion is a recurring subject in your songs:
“a handmaid dies when she denies to bare the fruit rotten fruit,
blessed be the fruit” June - Demo (2019)
“Forcing motherhood onto me, beat down by this patriarchy.
Just accept the abuse like how you’ve been trained to” I.O.U - Living Hell (2022).
I see having a platform as a privilege. What better way to wake people up than by loudly & aggressively putting it in their faces.
People resonate with righteous anger.
🎀 Is Body Farm a tool to raise awareness? Is it a form of getaway in which you can let out of the anger/frustration from personal experiences? Or both?
Both, for sure!
I see having a platform as a privilege. What better way to wake people up than by loudly & aggressively putting it in their faces. Having that healthy release of anger & taking up space has power.
People resonate with righteous anger.
I see having a platform as a privilege. What better way to wake people up than by loudly & aggressively putting it in their faces.
🎀 Do you find bringing up about these topics to the table regularly: Empowering, Draining or a bit of both?
Not being afraid to talk about “the elephant in the room” can stir emotions in people. To speak to a supportive, cheering crowd of people it does feel empowering.
It’s when people make threats, attack me, or try to argue in comment sections that things become draining. It can also be overwhelming at times to be so aware of everything bad in the world.
🎀 Are you ever considering singing about unexplicit topics (like love) for Body Farm?
We do have a couple not so serious songs in the mix already, but I’m not sure love would be in the mix unless it’s brutal :')
🎀 For anyone interested in pedals & equipment, what are your individual set ups?
Ocean (Vocals): TC-Helicon Mic Mechanic, Audio technica AT814A (vocals) & akai MPX8 (sample player).
Erek (Guitar): EHX Metal Muff, EHX canyon through Peavey Musician 400 & Acoustic 6x10 on a 20 year old Epiphone SG.
Alex (Bass): Boss DS-1 distortion through Peavey Mark 3 & Acoustic 8x10 on Sierra mini bass.
Steven (Drums): Pacific 4 piece with mixed paiste cymbals - 14" high hat, 20" crash/ride, 20" Ride.
🎀 You touch on mental health issues in several songs of yours like in 1984, Poison, Living Hell & Towel of Babel:
“This place is feeling like a prison cell
Mental health makes me feel like hell
Don’t even ask me if I’m doing well
I’ll just shout into the void & turn into a shell”
Living Hell - Living Hell (2022)
“Shut the fuck up/sit back down/& listen to me scream
it’s not lady like/to speak with out permission
but I always refuse to bow down in submission
I have the mic now.”
Towel of Babel - BODY FARM (Debut 7")
🎀 How does that feel to you, Ocean, to be on stage with a mic? / Do you find being in a band/playing better than therapy?
I was in therapy for the better part of 2020 into 2021 & I’ve been playing music since I was 13.
Both are excellent ways to release what doesn’t feel good.
🎀 What's your favourite song to play live, & why?
Right now it’s “Living Hell” for me because of the dynamics of the song, the lyrics, the backing vocals.
I wrote that song in during pandemic shut down but that feeling hasn’t ended for me. Working from home & being isolated from the public changes how you interact with people.
Purging those big feelings that come with it feels really good.
🎀 When you're not doing band stuff what do you get up to?
Seeing live music as much as I can, working a whole lot, taking care of my house plants.
Since the shut downs happened I started doing my own nail art & manicures which have gotten really elaborate recently.
I spend way too much time on social media but part of that is because of the work I do.
The struggle to find balance between work & personal space seems like a hobby at this point :')
🎀 Any bands, collectives, activists from Ohio you would recommend?
Band wise folks should check out what’s going on in Ohio lately!
Everything labels like Blind Rage & Delayed Gratification are involved in are great.
For Your Health, SlutBomb, Crime Light, En Love, Forest Fucker, Minority Threat, Butcher’s Dog, Primitive Impulse, Pillars, & Griphook are just a handful of other bands we love from here.
BQIC, Abortion Fund of Ohio, & Sex Militant are a few organizations/collectives we love.
🎀 What 1 thing could everyone be doing to make the scene a better place?
Boost gigs that are happening in your local area!
Facebook isn’t where promotion stops. When we first started playing shows as TRASH no one was really handing out paper fliers.
Paper fliers surprise people now & are an archive of a scenes history down the line.
You can’t keep a healthy scene without inviting people in.
🎀 What's next for you lot? (please include links to where we can listen to you)
We will be working on new music & hope to have something new to release as soon as possible. All members have other projects with things in the works & are very excited about that as well.
Baby Chico Records just released an amazing compilation we added a track to called Abort The Supreme Court: Noisy Music for Reproductive Rights!
We finally released our cover of Naked Agression’s classic anthem "Killing Floor."
x Listen to BODY FARM on Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/2CrOyOd77L8wT5soBBsqY1?si=fKOsqrhBRkelkar_9Vh_XA
x Listen to BODY FARM on Bandcamp: https://sothisisprogress.bandcamp.com
🎀 Links to any social media :-)
https://allmylinks.com/bodyfarmohio
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodyfarmohio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodyfarmohio/
📸 : @thedumbpunk
