Search... Search

HomeWho We Are

Album Reviews

EP ReviewsLive Reviews

Interviews

UnsignedNews

Talk To Us

Our Friends

0

Jimbob Isaacs Hark & Former TaintFrontman Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

By

TINAS Guest Writer– January 30, 2013Posted in: Interviews, Music

Tags: Baroness, Bullet For My Valentine, Funeral For A Friend, Hark, Interview, Punk, Skindred, sludge,

Stoner, Taint, Whyteleaf

Interview by Dan Swinhoe.

For a long time, I thought Wales was devoid of good music, Skindred and Tom Jones aside, the only

metal bands from the valleys you heard about were the likes of Bullet for My Valentine, Funeral for a

Friend and Lostprophets. A playlist that brings the same kind of pleasure as listening to nextdoor’s cat’sangrily doing it. But then I found Taint.

Formed in the mid-nineties, Taint were a Welsh power trio that played a unique brand of sludge. The

UK’s answer to Baroness, their two albums, “The Ruin Of Nova Roma” and “Secrets & Lies” werebrilliant; aggressive, mesmerisingly rhythmic and catchy all at the same time. By the summer of 2009 they

were touring in support of their newest EP, “All Beas To The Sea”. Sadly, the band called time a few

months later, playing their last show in their hometown of Swansea just before Christmas that year. No real

Latest Reviews

Jimbob Isaacs Hark & Former Taint

Frontman Talks ToThisIsNotASceneHELKER – Somewhere In The

CircleDarsombra – Climax Community

Hollywood Undead – Notes FromThe Underground

The Recovery! – WhereverNowhere Takes Us

Leaving Richmond – The Bird and

the SubmarineGodflesh – Hymns

Dan Reed – Signal Fire

Asking Alexandria, While SheSleeps, Motionless In White &

Betraying The Martyrs @ O2

Brixton Academy – January 19,2013Humanfly – Awesome Science

Celtachor – Nine Waves From The

Shore

Hatebreed – The Divinity OfPurpose

Michel “Away” Langevin of Voïvod

Talks With ThisIsNotASceneRob Allen Of Encircling Sea Talks

To ThisIsNotAScene

Cult of Luna – Vertikal

Latest News

ThisIsNotAScene & Earsplit PR

Team Up To Stream Debut Album

From My Soliloquy

Antlered Man Announce UK LiveDates

30/01/2013 Jimbob Isaacs Hark & Former Taint Frontman Talks To ThisIsNotAScene - Music Reviews, Interv…

2/4www.thisisnotascene.com/2013/jimbob-isaacs-interview/

explanation was given, and nothing more was heard anyone in the Taint camp.

Fast forward to today and frontman Jimbob Isaac is back with Hark. Featuring former Whyteleaf rhythmsection Nikolai Ribnikov and Simon Bonwick, the look to be picking up where Taint left off and pushingit even further. So far Hark have only released a 7″ single, entitled “Mythopoeia”. Two tracks of angularhardcore sludge, the single manages to straddle Stoner, Punk and Sludge in the way only Taint could.

What happened with Taint? From the outside things looked good- positivereviews for your new EP, a summer tour, and interviews around the time saidyou had plans to record an album after that- for it all to suddenly end.

Jimbob Isaacs (JB): It wasn’t so sudden, I made the decision that I’d been considering forsome time. Chris and Alex’s family plans reduced their desire to tour dramatically, so that wasthe clincher for me. I was also in need of a fresh creative environment, so knew that I neededto seek out new people to write with. The drive to tour more, reach new territories and workwith new musicians has simply been about me answering a few important questions in my life.No matter what happens with Hark, I’ll be able to rest well with no ‘what-ifs’ hanging overmy head.

Why have you come back with a new band now? Have you always had moremusic brewing since Taint ended or is this a very recent thing?

JB: Because I feel as though I have no choice. I’ve been playing music for almost twentyyears now, and still have a few more boxes to tick. Taint’s creative process slowed down somuch, that I really needed a new project to kickstart me into writing again. Hark beganjamming slowly in summer 2010, a few months before the final Taint show.

How hard was it to end Taint, and now start a new band?

JB: It was a hard thing to do, but I was unhappy with Taint’s inherent restrictions for a longtime. Hark has been a pretty painful thing to give birth to, but Simon, Niko and I have beenworking our asses off to connect with each other on all the required levels to make this work.Personally, yes I do feel that I have unfinished business. Hark for me is the continuation of myon going legacy, and I feel eternally driven (cursed?) to take it to more people than Taint wasable to reach.

Does it feel like unfinished business?

JB: Taint had a lot of praise and recognition from musical peers and press around the world,yet we weren’t able to take a lot of opportunities that were offered to us. Nothing’s forcertain, but Hark has every intention of fulfilling that potential.

How did you get together with Nikolai and Simon?

JB: The guys played in a local, South Wales band called Whyteleaf. They opened for Taint afew times, and it was apparent how much of a shared mindset they had with Taint. Theyseemed to take influence from us, amongst other bands, and push their sound even further, indirections that really excited me. So, I felt as though they were some of the only people I’dconsider asking to do this band. The guys have excellent chops, and bag fills of ideas when itcomes to song craft and riffs. So, it’s been challenging and fun to try and make this work withthem.

Have you been in touch with [former Taint Bassist and Drummer] Chris Westor Alex Harries at all? What do they think of Hark?

JB: Alex and I live in the same city, so we see each other fairly regularly. Chris is a bit furtheraway, but we all have a lot of time for each other, when we’re not too busy. The guys arehappy that I’m giving this a go, and gave me their blessings. They know how important it is forme to try and answer some of those questions, just as I know how important their family andwork life is to them.

What was the thought process behind the name?

JB: We spent hours after rehearsals, researching on our mobile web devices, looking at

relevant sources of interest to ourselves. Niko was looking through his stacked tomes of

Mythopoeia

H A R K

1. Mythopoeia

00:00 04:41

Share

Agalloch Announce "Lucifer Over

Europe Tour" With Fen

ABSU Announce European

Connexus Continuation Tour InMarch

Megascavenger & Earsplit PR

Team With ThisIsNotAScene To

Stream "Descent Of Yuggoth" Mad Season's Seminal Album

"Above" To Get Expanded Deluxe

Edition Re-release Alcest Post Album Update

Year Of The Goat Debut Angels'

Necropolis on ThisIsNotAScene

Rammstein Are Set To ReleaseVideo Collection Plus A New Single

Neurosis Declare New Stateside

Live Actions

The Foreshadowing Joins MardukAnd Moonspell For Tour

Skunk Anansie UK Tour

Announced For 2013 Heaven's Basement Reveal

Artwork For Debut Album FilthyEmpire Ghost, Gojira & The Defiled

Announced For Jägermeister MusicTour 2013 Neurosis Begins A New Chapter

Follow Us!

ThisIsNotAScene

Like

1,214 people like ThisIsNotAScene.

Facebook social plugin

30/01/2013 Jimbob Isaacs Hark & Former Taint Frontman Talks To ThisIsNotAScene - Music Reviews, Interv…

3/4www.thisisnotascene.com/2013/jimbob-isaacs-interview/

©2013 ThisIsNotAScene - All Rights Reserved

relevant sources of interest to ourselves. Niko was looking through his stacked tomes ofpoetry, and suggested Hark. I like that after repetition, it ceases to sound like a word, and ismore akin to an animal call. We feel that it’s unpretentious, honest and economic. Just like our

music and overall aesthetic.

How will you approach things differently this time to you can avoid theproblems that caused Taint to split?

JB: Remaining in the present is the best outlook, but so far the plan is to stay flexible fortouring opportunities, and keep writing the best music we can. Avoiding previous limitations is

key, so I hope we can continue to do just that.

Taint had quite a cult following- do you reckon they will follow you to Hark?

JB: I’m hoping that any Taint followers will see something equally valuable in Hark. We’ve

had a lot of great feedback so far, which is been nice to hear of course.

Is Hark’s music all-new or is any of it leftover from Taint? Will you be playingany old songs on tour?

JB: It’s all new. No leftovers, no scraps. Hark is Hark.

Your music style is pretty recognisable, when recording Hark’s music were youworried about sounding too similar to your older albums?

JB: I think Hark has enough of its own identity, and that will reveal itself even more so in thealbum. I’m not worried about that at all.

Can you give us any details on Hark’s debut?

JB: We’re hoping to record in spring ’13, and that’s all we can say at this point.

Can you talk us through the lyrical concept of the two songs?

JB: Lyrically, I’m still weaving in and out of metaphors, word play and purely expressive,stream of consciousness passages. They way I write is so un-defined, with many differentapproaches, that I can’t begin to tell you about any concepts per se. Other than the fact that

‘Mythopoeia’ means the creation of myths, and ‘Sins On Sleeves’ is a paraphrase ofsomething that Doug Stanhope said. Those titles, like most, were written for the sake of theirmechanical purpose alone. I like to continuously blur the lines between something that sounds

like it could be a message, and something that means nothing at all. It would take me all day tobreak down each word and line, and once I did that, it would still probably only give you halfan explanation as to what it all means. The fun part is for you to take what you want from it.

I remember reading Secrets & Lies was your reaction to living in London- Doyou still feel the same way?

JB: S&L was a product of seeing how the infrastructure of a large scene and commercial and

cultural centre works. I’m over it now, I’ve moved on. At the time though, I was deeply

conflicted with striking a balance between believing in genuine friendships I made there, andloathing the socialite mentality that a lot of people have there. It can be a spiritual black hole,

and I saw a lot of casualties there. I do tend to hone in on the negative aspect of things though.

I do find social situations a bit tricky sometimes. I also had a suspicious hand shake at theMasonic gift shop in Holborn once. That was freaky. I couldn’t comply with his codified

gesture. I was glad to opt out.

What about Swansea or where you live now?

JB: I don’t feel as though I’m writing anything that has any overt reaction to Swansea or mycurrent dwelling in Bristol. Other than the ongoing self-reflection that I balance with random

observation, jokes to myself, and other things you’ll never know about.

Plans and Ambitions for the future?

JB: To stay alive. Seriously. To keep drawing my ass off, to tour Europe in November with

Hark and to finish writing the album by March/April.

Hark – Facebook Page

30/01/2013 Jimbob Isaacs Hark & Former Taint Frontman Talks To ThisIsNotAScene - Music Reviews, Interv…

4/4www.thisisnotascene.com/2013/jimbob-isaacs-interview/

Post to Facebook

1

11

1

11

1

11

Post to Twitter

22

2

22

2

2

22

Post to Pinterest

Add to TumblrPost to Google+

Post to StumbleUpon

Add to LinkedInPost to Delicious

Add to Reddit

Send via Gmail

Other reviews, interviews and news items that might interest you:

1. Jonny Davy of Job For A Cowboy talks to ThisIsNotAScene.com2. Jason Bowld Of AxeWound Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

3. Terraformer Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

4. Matt Wicklund Of God Forbid Talks To ThisIsNotAScene5. Wisdom Talks With ThisIsNotAScene

6. Mem Von Stein Of Exumer Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

7. Collin Leijenaar Of Affector Talks To ThisIsNotAScene8. Chris Naughton Of Winterfylleth Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

9. Pär Sundström Of Sabaton Talks With ThisIsNotAScene

10. Mike Scaccia Of Ministry Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

Leave a Reply

Enter your comment here...Enter your comment here...