Pic courtesy of: Napalm Death "I respect people's opinions, but to say that our later albums don't have 'true' aggression - I really don't know how they arrive at these conclusions in defining 'true' aggression"

CR: Let's begin by talking about Napalm death's latest album, The code is red... long life the code, I know that the fans have actually loved the album (if they didn't they wouldn't be fans after all) but what reviews did this album got from your friends and fellow musicians?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: I'm not sure about fellow musicians - although Jamey from Hatebreed seems to go on about it quite a lot. In fact, it seems that most musicians aren't falling over each other to complement us on a good album. I'm joking, by the way.
Friends are probably always going to tell you've made a great album, even if they really think it's a piece of crap. That's life. Everyone seems to like it, so that's nice.

CR: If I'm not mistaken, The code is red... is your 12th or 13th full length album, how's this record different from all the others?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Small steps, you know. None of the Napalm Death albums sound exactly the same as previous ones, and that's cool, I think. It's got a good mixture of all eras of Napalm Death, with a nice bit of twisted stuff in things like 'Morale'. It's just a good album overall and it's pretty fucking savage.

CR: Some critics (those people that are in love with the old times) have said that the anger and speed from your early albums is gone, and that you guys are just pretending to be fast and angry, what can you say about this?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: We're pretending to be fast and angry, but they're saying the speed and anger has gone? Huh? Make your minds up. They're, like you say, in love with the old times and that's cool, no problem. But, then, whatever we do these days, we would never be able to please them. I respect people's opinions, but to say that our later albums don't have 'true' aggression - I really don't know how they arrive at these conclusions in defining 'true' aggression.
They probably want us to make another 'From Enslavement...', which we could do in 2 weeks, but surely we would be cheating people and ourselves. You've also got to remember that some people make such comments because they've got nothing better to do than try and make trouble just for the sake of it. It's not something that keeps me awake at night, though. If they don't like it, don't listen to it. Simple.

CR: This album (The code is red... long life the code) reminds me a lot to one of your previous releases Enemy of the music business, that mix between speed, anger and groove; would you say that this record is an evolution for the band or simply a normal way of making the best album possible?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: There's never any great master plan when we go in to make an album, which kind of brings us back to the last question in that some people think we go in and say 'OK, we gotta make an album like this or that...'. We just try and make the best album possible based on the ideas that we have at the time. We have certain chemistry between band members that cultivates lots of ideas that are perhaps out of the ordinary, which is where the progression element comes in. So, 'code...' is both the best album we could possibly make and a step forward.

CR: In The code is red... there is only one real short song "Right you are", why is it that you guys so long ago decided to write longer songs, I mean comparing the extension of the songs now with the ones done in records like Scum and From Enslavement To Obliteration?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: As I keep saying, there's no great master plan. Some people are so obsessed with timespan of tracks that they probably time them with stopwatches of something! 'Right You Are' is short because we felt it said all it needed to musically and lyrically in that space of time, and making it longer would have just been for the sake of doing it. We have more songs for the next album which will probably be quite short because they achieve very much the same thing. But then others we might feel just need a bit more development to them. You also have to remember that there probably wouldn't be a Napalm Death anymore if we had just kept making the same album over and over.

CR: How was the recording process of this album, and having a label like Century Media providing the "Intelligence", was it very different than with your previous record company?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: It is a lot easier when you have a label who actively works for you, rather than with some previous situations where support was very minimal. When we can concentrate more on the music and suchlike, naturally it gives us more time to be creative.

CR: All the lyrics in your new album are very political (mainly focusing in the so called war on terror by the USA government), but there is one that really stands out for me, "Diplomatic Immunity" is this song all about George W Bush?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: I guess they always were very political. You know, it's very easy to just single out George Bush right now - and, yes, that song is mainly about him, his ego and arrogance that he thinks makes him untouchable - but there is much to be concerned about how all leaders are allowed to act, murder and oppress people.
The USA is the biggest superpower though, and as such the biggest need to be dealt with first, otherwise we'll never move forward. State-sponsored murder, at the end of the day, is just like anything else that would be defined as murder. I would like to move away from global violence altogether.

	Pic courtesy of: Napalm Death "I guess they always were very political. You know, it's very easy to just single out George Bush right now - and, yes, that song is mainly about him, his ego and arrogance that he thinks makes him untouchable - but there is much to be concerned about how all leaders are allowed to act, murder and oppress people"

CR: You guys visited South America last year, right? If I'm right how was it? You guys are working very hard early this year in many shows, any city in particular you are looking forward to play at?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: South America was cool overall. There were a couple of problems this time with promoters ripping us off or supplying dangerous equipment (yes, really!), but I love going there. All the countries definitely have their own characteristics and we're always welcome.
This year we had been invited to play in Morocco, which would have been a first for us. But we've had to cancel because it will fall right in the middle of the next album recording. It's very important that we get the new album done on time for lots of reasons which I won't bore you with here.

CR: Lets talk a little about your two cover albums Leaders not Followers (love the title) if I'm not mistaken the first one was an EP and the second one a full length, the question is why make so many cover albums, I heard that you guys are already working on a Leaders not followers part 3?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Ha-ha. First people are asking us why we don't do so many covers, then why we do too many. How can we ever win?
Anyway, we will do a third one because we believe there is great, unique value in some of the many songs from the old underground that need to be heard. But no, we are not working on a third one just yet.

CR: Napalm death's first two records help redefined a new movement in rock, I know that because many speak of your band as the founding father of Grindcore, you guys even baptize the genre with that name, how does it feels to be call pioneers or something close to a living legend?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: It's nice, but the only way to be positive with that is forget about the 'living legend' tag and concentrate on continuing to challenge on a creative level with new albums. If you believe your own hype, you then believe you can put out any old piece of crap. That's cheating people.

CR: How do you see the Grindcore movement these days, any special band that you think is carrying the torch in a proper way?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: There are plenty of good bands out there on the underground who are too numerous to list here. A few perhaps more obvious names: Näsum (although I think they're splitting after this final album), Bruce Banner from Sweden (arguably more hardcore than grindcore) and Das Oath from US/Europe.

CR: Today there are a lot of young kids out there that are just discovering Napalm Death’s music, if you had to explain to one of them what's your music all about, with out him being able to listen to you (the music), how would you explain the essence of Napalm Death?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: It's quite simply music taken to the extreme with lots of creative elements. And the ethos generally of peace, tolerance, equality gives it a nice paradox - totally crazy music but with a message of peace.

CR: How did it all happened?... I mean from punk and hardcore you guys managed to mix this sounds with metal, and finally develop such unique music, what was the motivation to create what you guys did on the Scum album? Do you remember how the punk fans react to your music?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: I can't totally speak for the actual people in the 'Scum' line-up, but I was around when all that stuff happened. As far as I can tell, they simply wanted to mix the craziness of hardcore bands like Siege with the chugging metal of Celtic Frost. The songs turned out to be great whatever the mix of the musical genres.
The punks loved it on the whole, apart from the few who thought it was just too fast and kind of stupid-sounding.

	Pic courtesy of: Napalm Death "It's quite simply music taken to the extreme with lots of creative elements. And the ethos generally of peace, tolerance, equality gives it a nice paradox - totally crazy music but with a message of peace"

CR: You guys have pretty much remained true to your political beliefs, since the beginning of your careers, what can you say where the moments that defined the way you guys play and approach music? And if you had to label your approach on politics, what would it be? Liberal, anarchist, socialist...
Mark "Barney" Greenway: For me, although I was inspired by what the like of Crass and Conflict were saying, I was mainly influenced simply by what I was seeing through my own eyes. I mean, I lived through bullshit Thatcher's Britain, where it was a fairy extreme example of the rich being encouraged to get richer and the poor poorer. My views are continually being reinforced by attacks on freedom, by religious oppression, war and violence etc. and are fairly well-documented. On a few occasions I get shit for it from within the extreme music scene, where there is an element of close-mindedness. But there you go - it's to be expected, sadly.
What could we be labeled as? Socialist but mainly humanitarian, I guess.

CR: How important are the lyrics when it comes to writing a song, do you guys have first the idea of the lyrics and then you write the song around it or viceversa?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Well, I have the ideas in short form sometimes for months before. I then get a piece of music from the rest of the guys and expand on those ideas. Sometimes I can write around the music in a matter of hours; sometimes it might take me a couple of days. Lyrics - and the way they are delivered - complement the music and vice-versa. A song as a whole has got to sound like a good song, ultimately, whether it's a crazy blast of noise or otherwise.

CR: Having so many albums and a long career writing music, do you find it difficult to choose the songs that you are going to play for live?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: This is possibly the most calculated part of being in Napalm Death - if there is such a thing. We realize that different people favor different periods of the band, so we always try and assemble set lists to include every era of it. It gets quite difficult the more albums we accumulate, but we always seem to arrive at a good mixture of stuff. Whichever album we're touring on, we'll always throw a few more songs in from that one, of course.

CR: What can the crowds expect from a Napalm Death show? Do you have any idea how many live gigs have the band played truth out its career?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: We just go for it - there's no fancy stage show or lighting or anything like that. It's just pure energy, some songs and some chat about the lyrics. ND is a very serious thing, but I think it's important to also have fun, which is why I tend to play with a smile on my face. Since I've been in the band, I would estimate we've done about 1500 shows.

CR: In a few words describe your feelings towards the Iraq war, what's wrong with that war? (I know every war is wrong, but I just wanted to know what you think should be done about the occupation of that Arab nation)
Mark "Barney" Greenway: What's wrong is the interference that people just don't want. There is justifiable suspicion that the US, with the help of sympathetic countries, are not really interested in protecting people, but infinitely more so in establishing a wide base of control across every point of the world where there has traditionally been opposition to their policies.
Saddam's regime was clearly murderous (and that's bad news however you feel), but people like Bush exert their murderous, despotic nature in more subtle ways. There comes a point where there is little difference between the two. You also have to remember that the number of Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of the military action is huge. Now, that's state-sponsored murder as much as anything else. The US and others need to clear out of that region, to give the Arabic nations a little more faith that people aren't fucking with them.
Down the years, successive US regimes have been responsible for some unbelievable things. Remember the 'Just say no!' anti-drugs campaign during the Reagan era? What's interesting is that, running parallel to this; the American undercover services were keeping the drugs trade alive in certain countries so they could use this as leverage to topple legitimate left-wing governments. So much hypocrisy!
Furthermore, Israel needs to give the Palestinians an unrestricted homeland and in return the suicide attacks on innocent Israelis should stop.

CR: Is there any hope for a peaceful world in the near future?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Not while we have power-crazed madmen in positions of government and a world populace who largely aren't willing to look beyond the propaganda and make peace with each other.

CR: Did you know that our president Abel Pacheco (Costa Rica's president) supported the war against Iraq, and that some Central American nations even sent troops to Iraq? How does that make you feel? (Thank god that fucking bastard is already leaving office this year)
Mark "Barney" Greenway: I didn't know who specifically sent troops. I guess you have to realize that a lot of governments are willing to go as far as supporting such acts because they're terrified of losing subsidies and trade from the world's biggest superpower. I suspect that even those who didn't agree with the Iraq invasion still provided troops because they were so afraid of their countries losing benefits. It's all a big money/power game and of course it fucking stinks because people pay with their lives.

CR: Don't you think that the time to just talk and discus the problems of the world is over, and that we (the people) should take more radical actions against those who do what ever they want, starting wars for all the wrong reasons and steeling from us every day, don't you think its time for us to fight back and stop talking?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Hmm, that's a difficult one. Once you start a chain of violence that big, there is always a chance that one small side dispute between even those holding the same viewpoint can start violence in another direction, which totally dilutes the motivation for fighting back in the first place. But I agree - something big has to happen to stop these fuckers from carrying on like they do. I'd like to see George Bush/Tony Blair etc. in an impartial war crimes court made up of human rights lawyers etc. Saddam and Milosevic were put in the dock, so why not everyone involved in state-sponsored murder?

CR: I honestly first heard Napalm Death just a couple of years ago, my first album was Enemy of the music Business, after just listening to it one time, I was totally blown away and forever hooked with the band, what album would you categorize as the one that really made people aware of Napalm Death?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: I would have to mention more than one album because different albums marked different eras for people who followed the band. So...'Scum', 'Harmony Corruption', 'Fear Emptiness Despair', 'Enemy Of The Music Business' and 'The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code'.

CR: Do many people approach you asking for an autograph or a picture, or your life is pretty normal once you are not recording or playing live?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: People come up and ask for stuff like that quite a lot. I don't consider myself to be somehow more important than anyone else, but being friendly and signing stuff doesn't necessarily mean you are an arrogant rockstar. I'm a regular person because life is easier to live that way.

	Pic courtesy of: Napalm Death "What's wrong is the interference that people just don't want. There is justifiable suspicion that the US, with the help of sympathetic countries, are not really interested in protecting people, but infinitely more so in establishing a wide base of control across every point of the world where there has traditionally been opposition to their policies"

CR: What's the most disappointing thing about the world today? What's the most disappointing thing about the music business?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: The most disappointing thing about the world is the division between those who have enough/ more than enough to survive and those who have nothing. Is anyone in a position of power really doing anything to resolve that? I don't see it.
The most disappointing thing about music is being ripped off, period. And being unfairly criticized by people who haven't bothered to check their facts and know what the fuck they are talking about.

CR: What do you understand when somebody says a band has sold out, what does that whole sell out thing means to you?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Selling out is when the motivation for your music has nothing to do with being creative or whatever, when it has little substance or soul and is purely a glorified marketing device. Referring back to my last answer, we have been accused of it. And my simple reaction to that would be: sold out to what exactly? Not many people say that to us anymore because they know it's a fucking tired old thing to say. It's used as a shit-talking tool in our case.

CR: Just how important do you see the whole DVD music revolution, I mean every band HAS to have a DVD, do you think the whole DVD era was created just to fight piracy and revive the interest in music buyers?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: Music DVD is simply an extension of the CD. People saw what could be done with it and just rolled in that direction. The difference is that visuals don't lie like pure audio can - a lot of music DVDs are pretty boring. I mean, how many times can you do 'the band making jokes backstage' thing before it's unwatchable?

CR: Any plans for the future that you would like to share with us?
Mark "Barney" Greenway: We're going to tour the US shortly and annoy George Bush at the same time, and then we'll be straight back to make the new album. Hopefully that'll hit the streets in September/October and the whole touring thing will roll once again.

CR: For you what was the best album from 2005? Other than the code is red off course.
Mark "Barney" Greenway: 'Octavarium' by Dream Theater. It's not Grindcore or anything, but it's just an album with great songs and lots of good ideas.

CR: Well thank you for this great opportunity I hope my questions weren't too bad, if you have any messages for the Costarrican fans, please do.
Mark "Barney" Greenway: My fingers are falling off from typing too much, but it was cool all the same. Hopefully we'll be able to get down to Costa Rica this year/next year finally. Other than that, I would say keep questioning everything that the government or media tells you. Let's look for the truth and strive for peace.