MIKE THOMPSON - WITHERED (08.02.06)

Hi Mike Im Gino from Rockumweb.com let me send you my congratulacions for you Withered´s debut Album is a great work !.


Who put the name of Withered and why ?
- Chris and I came up with it when we were throwing ideas around. We wanted something that would sum up the feel we were going for with our music. Since our music has a dark nature with a feeling of hopelessness at times, we felt that withered was a very appropriate name.

Your current line - up?.
- Withered is Me (Mike Thompson) on vocals and guitar, Chris Freeman on vocals and guitar, Greg Hess on bass, and Wes Kever on drums.

Tell us a little more about beginin of Withered
- Well, Chris and I have played together for the past decade in a grind/crust band called social infestation. In 2003, SI had slowed momentum down a bit because our bassist became very busy with his other band. So, we decided to start another project of our own. We wanted to do something dark with black metal overtones and on a personal level. So, we formed withered. I have known Wes since high school and at the time, we had been looking to work together again. After he came on board, we wrote a couple of tunes to get a grasp on where the music would go. Then we decided to find a bassist. Greg had come out to a social infestation show around that time and I told him about withered. He jammed with us and joined a few days later.

How do you describe the Withered musical style?
- It’s just a culmination of all the things we love about extreme music. we cover black metal, grind, crust, sludge, and some early Swedish style death metal. Lyrically, it’s all personal subject matter so we take it all to heart and it means a lot to us.

Your fave bands ?.
- Some of my favorite bands are Neurosis, Immortal, Grave, Entombed, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest just to name a few.

What memories do you have about your former band Social infestation and what do you think ABOUT the Punk Rock Scene of the 70’s?
- Technically, it’s not a former band……yet. We still have plans to finish SI’s 3rd album one of these days . Man, there are a lot of memories from our active days. We had the opportunity to play at some great venues with some amazing bands. Some of my most memorable shows would be when we played with Assuck, Phobia, Spazz, Grief, Damad, Man Is The Bastard, Neurosis, Pig Destroyer, Disassociate, GodStomper, and a bunch more shows that don’t come to mind at the moment. Lots of good times. Shit, I don’t know much about the 70’s scene besides what I see in cheesy movies or hear from time to time. I’m too young for all of that stuff. I got more into the Napalm Death, Doom, Discharge, etc. type of stuff.

What do you think about extreme music of today ?.
There’s lots of good and lots of bad. I guess it’s always that way to some degree. but there were times when there was way too much bad out there. I’m optimistic about metal these days. There is a genuinely good offering of band now. hopefully new bands will follow suit and write for themselves instead of directly mimicking other popular bands on the market.


Tell me about your "order born from chaos"EP (not released yet )
- It actually became part of “memento mori” we were originally gonna release the EP but lifeforce wanted to do a full length. We were definitely cool with that so we went back into the studio to record a couple more songs to finish the album.

What topics do you consider in your lyrics?
- Most of our lyrics to date deal with the emotional strife experienced when you deal with death. We took a look at it from all perspectives and wrote our album. That’s why we named it “memento mori” or “remember death”.

Tell Your TOp 10 Albums for all the times?.
- Wow, that’s tough. There are too many good albums out there. I’ll name some of my favorites in no particular order.
1.…and justice for all – metllica
2.Sons of northern darkness – immortal
3.dead as dreams – weakling
4.times of grace – neurosis
5.…you’ll never see – grave
6.clandestine – entombed
7.somewhere in time – iron maiden
8.killers – iron maiden
9.pain killer – judas priest
10.Houdini – the melvins

How is a gig with Whitered ?.
- It’s usually a good time. Well, for us it is. We’re told that we are quite loud and intense. We really love to play live so that’s where we try to really shine.

Your future plans?
- we’re looking forward to touring in support of the album release and playing as many shows as we can manage. We hope to pull off a European tour as well later this year and just about anything else we can manage.

Do you want to say any words to the Rockum readers?
- Thanks so much for taking the time to read the interview. If you have the record, thanks again for giving us a chance. We hope to meet all of you on the road one day.