Music

Jeff Clayton of Antiseen

February 10, 2024

Photos courtesy of Dave Norton & Jason Griscom

“You can care all you fuckin’ want. We’re still gonna do it.”

Jeff said it at a live show at Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, NC over ten years ago. It stuck with me. Antiseen. One of the few groups out there who stayed true to the raw, genuine attitude of what rebellion through music truly is. They’ve never been successfully labeled in any genre, and they never will be.

Back in 1990, they were putting out ads for drummers in actual newspapers—remember those? They existed before Craigslist, and sometimes the ink rubbed off on your hands at breakfast.

Antiseen has played with the Ramones, recorded with G.G. Allin, and lived through a time in music that is never coming back. This band is unapologetic pure grit and sovereign southern angst. And they know how to fire up a real experience at their live shows. Antiseen, a derisive and critical play on “Anti-scene”, is still going strong after 50 albums and 40 years. Recently, I was fortunate to have a moment of conversation with Jeff Clayton.

You’re a veteran of the music business at this point; you know how not to get ripped off. A lot of people who want to get paid for their music are reading this right now. I’ve seen the changes in personality and social attitudes over the decades, and I’ll be frank—a lot of younger artists don’t know how to ask for what they deserve, and most don’t have much experience with confrontation. It’s a new age.

Is there anything you can suggest new artists do to reduce their chances of being taken advantage of?

Well, it’s a much different business now than when we started. There are new avenues in which new bands can be ripped off or taken advantage of. The things that still remain the same are to never sign ANYTHING on impulse. Always have someone who knows a lot more than you to look things over.

Honestly, as far as being ripped off by promoters, it wasn’t a problem for us anymore after a certain time, because our reputation preceded us everywhere. We have stormed into promoters’ houses and pulled them out from under the bed they were hiding under before, and blocked the exits from clubs to keep the slime ball from leaving with the money. So word traveled fast. Although I don’t think I’d advise those kinds of cowboy tactics in today’s society. To each their own, I suppose.

In the beginning, you start playing music because it’s fun. Along the way, and after you’ve already built an audience of like-mind who love what you do, someone’s gotta stick their nose in your business and try to change you. How have you dealt with that? Because you have kept control over who you are and the music you put out.

Yes. There have been band members who thought they could change the course. They quickly became “former” band members. I, in most cases, made people like that no longer welcome in our camp.

The 80s were dark—we didn’t have a connection to the world through the internet, and the news we did hear was a mix of Catholic priests exposed for indecency, the Satanic Panic, and the late phase of the Cold War. That was our world. And the music that came from that was brutal and real. It was something that just had to come out. A lot of bands from that era eventually gave up that initial spark that created such heartfelt, genuine emotion in their music. Antiseen still bites down on it and holds onto it like a pack of wolves out for blood. Your shows aren’t lacking at all. What drives that energy when you hit the stage?

We always had a “us vs them” mentality. Even when we considered the establishment of the sub culture (and there always is one) to be THEM. We still have that mindset as men in our 50s & 60s. Speaking for me personally, it’s just always been part of my genetic make up.

You guys released Great Disasters last year, and you have an upcoming show with Eat The Turnbuckle in April, am I right about that?

Yes—on April 4th we will play the farewell show of EAT THE TURNBUCKLE in Philadelphia. Along with Fang , Ringworm & others.

Are you recording anything for 2024? And if you are, will you have vinyl releases?

We are always recording. The line up we have now is as prolific as we had in the early to mid 90s.

Everything we do comes out on vinyl. It’s our preferred format although we’re making sure that everything gets a CD release too, as that format seems to be making a comeback.

The lifelong perseverance of Antiseen comes from a culture of headstrong people that expands the state of North Carolina from the Appalachians to the coast. Rooted in an attitude of independence, this place has historically produced music artists and storytellers who know how to stir up some drama. So much actually, that it’s created some trouble over the years and possibly kept a lot of people off the mainstream, or capitalistic/Hollywood culture. Propaganda has swallowed up the artistry and traditions here forever, and the people’s response to that has been a satirical cynicism that conventional audiences cannot comprehend and is always getting wrong. This is where real angst in music is born. Antiseen is an attitude. They are, and always have been, the real deal.
Check them out live in Philly on April 4th at The Underground Arts (look for The Final Battle Royal Bloodbath). They will be playing along with Eat The Turnbuckle, Ringworm, Fang and Ground.