Richard Collins

My name is Richard and I was born and bred in Bridgend, South Wales. Got into punk music at a very young age before becoming a member of possibly the least successful pop punk band of all time, we never really had a name (still sounded better live than Blink 182 though). Since that catastrophe I have mainly stuck to listening rather than playing music, safer for everyone but will hammer out ‘Under the Bridge’ and ‘Good Riddance’ when I’m smashed at 2 AM if you ask nicely.

Witnessing Queens of the Stone Age at Reading Festival 2000 changed my musical landscape and became a firm believer that the best music is all about the riff. I moved to London after university and travelling the world in 2006 where I quickly discovered the mind blowing underground rock music scene. This took me on a voyage of discovery of boundary pushing music such as psychadelic rock, stoner rock, doom, sludge, noise rock, post metal, black metal, death metal, grindcore… anything with a pair of nutts basically. I’m very much still on this voyage.

Feel all warm and privileged that Echoes and Dust publish my views, which are created when I’m 100% sober*

I Tweet stuff @colnerd

Rich

*100% lying

Articles by Richard Collins

Jussi Lehtisalo from Circle

Circle’s new album entitled ‘Terminal’ is out now on Southern Lord Recordings, so we asked long-life fan Richard Collins to send some questions over to bassist and singer Jussi Lehtisalo.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt24: Phil Mann from Silent Front

I recently found out Silent Front had been going 20 fucking years, that’s mental! Everyone was in a band in school but imagine you never broke up and just kept doing it, what an amazing story! Here’s what guitarist/vocalist Phil had to say about it all.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt23: Stewart McLachlan of BRITNEY

If BRITNEY were a London based band they’d play every Cosmic Carnage, that is all.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt22: Chantal Brown from Vodun

Vodun have had a fucking insane year! From a sold out record launch at the Lexington, to Bloodstock to a poster in Kerrang! Their busy and jaw dropping schedule doesn’t seem to be slowing down either, they are playing fucking Hellfest next year, AMAZING! In fact, it took ages to get this interview back from Chantal as Vodun were touring the country with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. Here’s here thoughts on 2016 from the road.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt21: Sammy Powell from The Beauty Witch

Sammy puts on INSANE looking nights in Manchester at a night called The Beauty Witch! He puts on similar shit to us but bigger stuff too and we’re well fucking jel! I met Sammy at Red Sun Festival this year and again at CHUNK in Leeds, He’s awesome and here’s what he has to say for himself.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt20: Andy Clydsdale from We Wild Blood

We Wild Blood played the first Cosmic Carnage of the year at the Unicorn back in January. Guitarist/vocalist Andy went fucking crazy throughout and even jumped off the pool table during Death Pedals. I really like Andy, here’s his ramblins’.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt19: Kyle McDons of Zaum

I met Kyle just over a year ago when when Zaum played Cosmic Carnage at the Windmill, it was trippy as fuck. They released the album Eidolon this year which is very powerful indeed, listen to it if you haven’t yet, think Om meets Master Musicians of Bukkake. This Canadian two piece will one day achieve world domination I swear, so here’s what Kyle has to say about it all.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt18: Julia Owen from Casual Nun and Grave Lines

I met Julia a few years ago when she was drumming in Throne, she’s awesome. These days, she’s tub thumbing in two very different acts, Casual Nun and Grave Lines who have both smashed Cosmic Carnage this year. Here’s what’s going on inside her thinker.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt17: Barney Wakefield of Lower Slaughter

Lower Slaughter came and played our SMASH IT OUT all dayer at the Windmill back in August. They were so awesome I picked up Barney the bassist and threw him, we liked them so much we invited them back for headline show at the Unicorn in November which was also fucking awesome. Here’s Barney’s thoughts.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt16: Taz Corana-Brown of Drore and Undersmile

We met Taz two years ago when Undersmile played one of our gigs with Slomatics at the Windmill. We were shocked to see Undersmile broke up this year but this was cushioned by just how awesome Taz and Olly’s new band Drore are, FUCKING HEAVY! Here’s what she had to say for herself on all things 2016.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt15: Russ Smith of Terminal Cheesecake and Melting Hand

We love Russ Smith at Cosmic Carnage, he lives in rural France and only comes over to the UK to fucking rock! He’s the axe man in both Terminal Cheesecake and Melting Hand, who’ve both had busy year releasing albums and touring so I thought it would be good to check in with the man himself and find out what the fuck is going on.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt14: Ruadhan O’Meara from No Spill Blood

No Spill Blood have become a cosmic carnage institution, they headlined one of our gigs in 2015 and absolutely blew the roof off the Windmill at this year’s SMASH IT OUT all dayer. They’ve had a busy year, touring with Baroness, another UK tour and not to mention Ruadhan’s solo project Magic Pockets. Next year they are playing Roadburn, which will be fucking amazing! I checked in with Ruadhan to check out what the fuck is happening over the Irish sea.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt13: Kevin Morpurgo of Casual Sect

Between Supernormal and Baba Yaga’s Fun House, Casual Sect have had a great fucking year. This London punk outfit have acquired a reputation for severely rowdy performances, so I had a quick chat with London’s favourite yank, Kevin Morpurgo to learn more about the mayhem,

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt12: Kunal Singhal from Chaos Theory

I met Kunal about 4 or 5 years ago when the Echoes And Dust writers met for drinks. I then hung out with him for 3 days at Desertfest and haven’t been able to shake him off since. In all seriousness, Kunal is a righteous dudes and puts gigs on under the name Chaos Theory, which is now going into its seventh year! The boundaries of Chaos Theory are constantly smashed with different styles of music and he’s working with more venues than ever. He’s a bit of a master of discovering underground bands so I thought I’d check in for a nice chat with my good pal.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt11: Matt Rozeik of Necro Deathmort and Extreme Ultimate Records

Necro Deathmort have had an amazing year! An album released on Rocket Recordings, a performance at the Electric Ballroom at Desertfest and much much more! They also headlined the gloomiest Cosmic Carnage ever at the Windmill last April. If guitarist, Matt Rozeik is not busy enough with that, he also runs his own DIY label called Extreme Ultimate. Here’s what he thinks about all the stuff that went down in 2016.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt10: Guro from MoE

We met Guro when she was in Arabrot and we put the them on in the Windmill back in 2014. MoE snuck onto the bill last minute as all the members were in Arabrot at the time and they were absolutely fucking amazing. This year saw the release of Examination Of The Eye Of A Horse which is also fucking amazing! With all this in mind, we thought it would be great to check in with Guro to find out the method behind these Norwegians’ madness.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt9: Steve Myles from Cattle

Steve Myles is in the bands Cattle, Groak and Clenstch as well as being part of the collective that runs the CHUNK! venue in Leeds. We grabbed a few of his precious minutes to talk about the year he’s had.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt8: Jonas Halsall of Inverted Grim-Mill Recordings

We met Jonas back in October, when he came down to Cosmic Carnage with Lovely Wife to sell merch. He’s fucking cool guy, he puts out great recordings and the gigs he puts on in the North East look fucking insane. Here’s a quick chat we had!

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt7: Aleks Wilson from Ghold

Ghold have had an insane year, touring with Bongripper, a performance at Incubate and we were so fucking chuffed when they agreed to headline one of our shows under a church in Camberwell. Let’s find out what’s going on in Aleks’s mind.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt6: Jason Stoll of Mugstar and Sex Swing

Between Mugstar, Sex Swing, Bonnacons of Doom, God Unknown Records and probably loads of other projects that I don’t know about, Jason Stoll is the busiest scouser in rock. I thought it would be best to check in to find out what’s going on in that brain of his.

Cosmic Roundup 2016 Pt5: Kunal Nandi of Art of Burning Water and Superfi Records

Kunal not only plays in one of the the most ferocious bands on the planet but also runs killer DIY label called Superfi Records which continues to churn out intense release after intense release. Here’s what he has to say for himself.

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