Rob caught up with Wez from Dripback before they took to the stage to support Biohazard at Birmingham Institute to talk about their debut EP, current tour and plans for the future.

Can you give us a brief history of how you came together as a band and came up with the name Dripback?
Wez, Vocals) Yeah me an lee used to live together, we used to play in a few different bands, we did some teching for Luca s band, and we knew we wanted to do something together, we wanted originally to do a grind band, when we got hold of higgy, he wasn't so just into grind, we took all the old stuff we listened to, put it all together in a bit more of an honest way I guess, rather than going down the whole paint by numbers thing, then I moved to Sweden, then we got Adam in on bass, then I started doing vocals. As for the Dripback thing, from day one it was always gonna be called that,

Who would you say your main musical influences are?
Personally for me, it was the good life hardcore stuff from the late 90's, more hardcore bands from the early 2000s, also stuff like biohazard, roadrunner bands, a lot of death metal, we come from different backgrounds.

You are currently on the road doing a small tour supporting Biohazard, how did this come about? And how have you found supporting them?
We grew up listening to the band. All I think Adam did was give the right amount of buzz and we got it, everyone has been super nice so far, it’s a good package, and it’s a pleasure to be playing with a band that has made a difference to this music genre.

What can someone who has never seen you live expect from your live show?
Fucking Racket, everyone does their own thing, the guitar boys do their thing, the man of the moment Adam, the magic rat, I don't see myself as demanding showman front man, I drop my eyes in the back of my head and roll along to the riffs and listen to the tunes I wanna listen to.

What do you have planned once the Biohazard shows come to an end on Friday?
Hammerfest should be pretty cool, they've got a ball pond so the gig can fuck off(laughs), Im hoping were gonna go back to bloodstock, we had a good time last time.

Your EP ‘Inhaling The Ashes’ has been out for over 6 months now how did you find the whole writing and recording process for it?
The first half of it we maybe wrote 3 and a half years ago, when we were all in other bands, me and lee were getting tired of what we were doing in our band, so we wrote the first 3 tracks over 3 years ago, then it sat there as mp3s, then later on in 2010, we called up Russ Russell, recorded an EP to send around, to people, he's the best guy ever, a month later, century media said we'll take that, the day we got our first box of records was the day we played our first show.

What themes and stories do you feature within the EP?
To be honest with the album I'm working on now, I've got a proper plan on how I want to put things across, mainly because Luca wrote a lot of the lyrics last time, he had an idea of what he wanted and I was living so far away, so we split it 70/30, I only wrote a little bit, it was weird playing bloodstock, people singing along to these lyrics, I'm hoping that people don't think that it’s my opinion (laughs), so I'm taking a more educated look at doing this album, which were recording later this year, is more coherent rather than just a bunch of songs.

What would you say your favourite tracks from ‘Inhaling The Ashes’ are and why?
Dilapidated soul, I was writing for my other band, for me it’s got bit of harmony, but still grotty,

You latest video ‘Kick Out Time’ is about mindless idiots who pick on people for looking and dressing different, how did you find writing the song and filming the video?
It’s the first song we wrote, we wrote it in a few hours, leathered, in the basement of a church, we got a friend of ours a talented guy Carlo love, but when we came to do it he couldn't do it, but he randomly said, go on the net, go on this site, put your info up and within a few minutes he got back to us on twitter saying he'd do it, turns out it was an old friend who I used to be in a death metal band in the mid 90s with. We found a location a squat that hadn't been cleaned, the people were nice enough to let us do what we needed to, it was a basic process, can imagine what it would be like if we had some more money, I'd like to make some stupid videos for sure.

You all have jobs and projects outside of Dripback so is Dripback more of a part time project at the moment?
Yeah, it depends on how you look at it, for Luca it’s a full time thought, when he's at work he's thinking about dripback, when he's having a wank he's thinking about dripback, my in-box on my phone and email is devastated by random ideas from him. Really we have jobs were heavily attached to, we can pick em up and drop them if we want but it’s hard to do that as a unit, its why were doing these 5 day tours, every few months to tear it up, it’s gonna stay like that, were not here to change the world or else we would have written an album that sounded like nothing else.

Where do you hope to see Dripback in a year’s time?
Sandwiches on top of that fridge instead of 12 Carling, 24 Carling in the fridge and a couple of baps (laughs), curly wurlys. I think we'll be floating along like this, hopefully with an album out, we don't have hopes and aspirations, most of what we wanted to do has been done, playing Donington was one, you can cut my legs off after that (laughs)

What’s your opinion on the whole anti piracy laws going on at the moment and how it will affect the music industry?
I don't really use computers much, not much of a downloader, how I see it, if some things out there and made enough money from it, leave it the fuck alone and let someone have a go, you've made your money, people forget especially in metal, if people aren't buying your record, when I was young, all I had was a copy of a copy of a copy, tapes, that's all I had, that's how death metal got big, it was all tape trading, that made bands. Without piracy a lot of bands wouldn't be where they are now, I think people should stop being tight and get on with it.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Zebra because I think it would have a better chance of skinning up or having a wank.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Listen to local music, support your local scene, hardcore was built from nothing to smash the mainstream, don't mug anyone else off, love the scene love the music, buy vinyl, buy a dripback CD.

Interview by Robert Lawrence