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Practicing surgery with Bobby Maggard (Regurgitated Stoma Stew)

Bobby Maggard is a legend and that’s no overstatement. Obviously, the majority of music-loving folks have probably never heard of Bobby and very probably never will. But that’s gonna change – right here, right now.

For Bobby, dear readers, is one helluva guy in the music underground. No, not that level your usual bands and artists are. He’s thriving in the basement level of the underground, in the farthest corner not many people usually frequent. But some are. Some indeed are and among those is yours truly, fearless and determined, as always, to bring the fame of Bobby and his label, the (in)famous Regurgitated Stoma Stew, to the masses.

Get your aprons on, get your instruments ready, it’s gonna get messy…

Well, hello, Bobby, and thanks for your time! Although you are quite famous within goregrind/gorenoise circles, the general population is probably not very aware of your existence and work. So, if you don’t mind, can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Bobby Maggard

Thanks and hello to you, as well, Rudolf. Thanks for taking the time to ask me these questions; it’s greatly apprecaited! But, sure, I’ll do my best to provide a rather appropriate yet abridged introduction as a long drawn-out one from me would be super-boring, HAHA! My name’s Bobby Maggard (obviously), and I started my “claim to fame” through projects that are supposed to be fairly well known; Infester, Urinary Tract Infection From Severe Pus Clots, Clit Disassembly, and Enterorrhagia, to name a few. That was back in 2004/2005 when I grew a set of balls and started making music/noise on my own, simply because I couldn’t find anyone reliable enough to really help me out, you know? I began running a label around the latter part of 2008/early 2009, simply because I had stuff that needed to be released and, again, nobody was available at the time. So, inadvertingly, RSSP began. I’ve helmed well over 100 projects in the last 14 years or so, and now I’m down to a small handful, those being Gangrene Discharge (goregrind), Clumps Of Flesh (raw death metal / goregrind), Endopraxis (goregrind/gorenoise), Snuff Victim (HNW), as well as the revival of Infester (pathological goregrind). I also have a couple of “in-the-works” things and stuff at the moment (namely the revival of Vomitatiehaematomophilia (gorenoise/noisy goregrind), and Double-Ended Dildo (groovy goregrind/porngrind)), but the totality of the current list really pales in comparison to the list I USED to have, right? Haha! Outside of that, I’m a weirdo, a nerd, a certified Star Wars junkie, a butcher in a grocery store, a life long, long-term practicing connoisseur of cheap beer, and…yeah, I think that about covers it, hahaha…

Before we embark to discover the world of Bobby Maggard, can you tell us something about your journey into the underground? One usually doesn’t start with goregrind and gorenoise as the first choice of music…so, what stuff has started you to get into extreme music?

As for many…it’s started with Slayer…

I come from a family of musicians, so music was always something that was there from the get-go since the time I came along. Good thing, too, because in my preteen years it served as a catharsis from having been picked on in school a lot by bullies, jocks, douchebags, and stuck-up preppy fucks. As far as being serious about making music goes, however, there was a time when I was seriously considering being a hockey player when I was younger (9 or 10), but when I saw Slayer playing “Reign In Blood / Black Magic” for the first time live on MTV (long before it became the Mickey Mouse Club), I said to myself, “THAT’S what I want to do when I grow up!” I literally threw the hockey sticks and pucks in my closet, got my practice guitar, and forgot all about hockey, haha! As far as the super-extreme stuff goes, I was, like, 13 or 14 at the time, and I was into the thrash, punk, some death metal (ala Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, etc) and hard rock stuff at the time and saw a dude on the bus who was wearing a Carcass “Reek Of Putrefaction” shirt. I asked if they were any good, he called me a “fucking pussy”, and that prompted me into begging my dad to buy me their first 2 albums on tape. Also, at the time, I was pretty much getting into grindcore, too, so listening to Carcass’ ‘R.O.P.’ was a nice change for me and, basically, my first initial reaction was “Holy shit! This is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life….I need more!!” HAHAHA… From there on in, the rest was history.

…until this classic was found.

Before we talk about your bands/projects, let’s concentrate on the Regurgitated Stoma Stew, a famous (or infamous, depending on which camp one depends on) underground, DIY label dedicated to goregrind and gorenoise stuff you are the owner of. When did you started it and what was the main reason to start with the label in the first place? Actually, I have found that apparently you started back in 2009, but the CDr release of Infester’s “Carnage, Garbage & Anatomical Treasures” shows the release date of 2007. How to understand those discrepancies?

I started it around the latter part of 2008/early ’09 out of necessity, more than anything else. I had recorded 2 demo CDr’s and needed a label as I didn’t want these particular demo’s to be self-released. The problem was, most (if not all) of the friends I was with at the time who had labels were either too busy, going on break, or ending their labels, so, well…I was in a rut, right? So, I decided, “OK, fuck it; just for these 2 demo’s I’ll slap a quick logo together, call it something totally ridiculous and disgusting, throw it on a disc inlay and say, ‘OK, this label released these demo’s'”. Only problem was, it didn’t last for those 2 demo’s and it, in fact, started generating interest. So, again, very inadvertingly and completely by accident, I had started a label. I wish I had a cooler story, but, well…that’s it, hahaha… And you’re absolutely correct on both points, man. Actually, BEFORE 2009, everything I had done back in 2006/2007 were all self-released (namely that first Infester demo, the first Clit Dissasembly demo, the first UTIFSPC demo, the first Enterorrhagia demo, and even the first Bundled Bowels demo). But, thanks to Steve Pekari from the long-defunct Splatterfuck Tapes, he was cool enough to mass distribute and re-release for me, and that got me into really relying on others to release my stuff for me. Well, up until RSSP came into being, that is, haha… Hope that clarifies things.

Any idea how many releases did you put out since the start of the label? Discogs page shows currently incredible 698 releases… would you go with that number or it’s lower/higher than that? Given that most (if not all) of your releases are limited, what would you consider the best seller?

Hydrocephalus – Obscene And Violent Acts Of Drunken Pathology (CDr)

My “Releases” folder on my external hard-drive shows approximately 1,018 releases, so that’s more of an accurate number than what’s on Discogs (sorry, haha!), with the full-promise of more on the way. Crazy, right? Currently, it seems that (oddly enough) the best sellers are actually the projects I’m currently actively involved with now. I don’t really have a top seller as far as a release goes, but projects? Yeah, it’s definitely the main ones these days, even though people still show interest in the Hydrocephalus (R.I.P.) releases from time to time…

The total DIY attitude towards the releases is only commendable and amazing. What’s your view on DIY ethos in the underground? Did you go DIY because of necessity, or it’s your stand against “commercionalism”?

To me, honestly…doesn’t really matter. It’s kind of the same when I get asked “Which I prefer – vinyl, tape, or CD?” Pro or DIY? Doesn’t matter so long as it reaches my ears, you know? Now, as far as what I do with my label, well…I don’t own any kind of fancy printing press here at my house or anything like that, so that’s mainly why it’s DIY as all hell, hahaha… I’ve just got the laserjet printer, my stock of blank CD’s, and a CD-duplicator…that’s it! Nice and simple. It certainly isn’t a statement of any kind, haha… Besides, I’m not a millionare and can’t afford to go pro-this and pro-that all the time, hahaha… I still do have a full-time job, man, haha…

Although I am familiar with work of ziner/website editor, I am always intrigued to learn more about people running their labels, and I am sure our readers would also like to know more about the operation of the label. How much time and resources do you devote to run your label, say, on monthly basis? What would you say is the greatest thing in this operation and what are, in your opinion, the setbacks? What would you mark as the greatest achievement of yours in connection with the label so far, and what was the lowest point in its existence (if any)?

Honestly, I think I’m more of a musician/noisician more than a label-owner, to tell the truth; I spend more time recording than actually running a label, you know? But, you know, as far as the aspect of ordering and such, goes, anyone can shoot me an email at anytime and I’ll get to it as promptly and as soon as I can, as I really hate making people wait for their shit. As soon as payment’s made, I’ll get the package together and, again, mail it out as soon as I possibly can. Usually there’s a small wait time (which I hate, personally), but I’d like to think that there’s a great deal of honesty and trustworthiness coming from my end to hopefully let the person on the other end that I’m not going to fuck them out of their money (and I won’t and never will). As far as new releases go, well, I usually have a good list preplanned ahead of time, and once the list is finished, then I usually get everything ready in one setting (printing and cutting out inlays, disc duplication, final editing, etc.), and that usually takes about a weekend or four days, and then I announce the releases after I get everything 100% finished. But, honestly, about a good 80% of my time gets devoted to writing, recording, and putting together new material; 20% of it’s the label. I used to release stuff monthly, too, honestly, but here the past year I’ve been applying the breaks and the brakes on how often I release, and that’s simply because I’m not fronting as many projects these days. Greatest achievement? Well, simply that I’m still able to do this, honestly, haha! Low points? Well, everyone gets in a slump every now and again, man. It’s whenever nobody’s ordered from me in, like, 3 solid weeks that kind of sucks. But, then again, you got to look on the bright side of things: gives me more time to do life stuff as well as record new material, y’know?

Apart from the label, you are active also with your various projects. I assume they are quite a few, but still, can you list them (you know, for us, the completists)? What are the active ones? Actually, as I see it quite often within the gorenoise circles – why so many various projects? How varied are they?

I really think that you don’t want me to list EVERY thing that I’ve done, man, HAHAHA! That list is WAY too fucking long! However, if it helps, you can check the full list at this link here: https://regurgitatedstomastewprodsgorelabel.blogspot.com/p/projects_25.html. That should more than cover it, I think. I would love to discuss the active ones, however. There are Gangrene Discharge (goregrind), Infester (pathological goregrind), Clumps Of Flesh (raw death metal / goregrind), Endopraxis (goregrind/gorenoise), Snuff Victim (HNW), Vomitatiehaematomophilia (gorenoise/noisy goregrind), and Double-Ended Dildo (groovy goregrind/porngrind). As far as the past gorenoise stuff that I did, I must admit I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking when I did that many projects, haha! I almost kind of wish I hadn’t, to be honest! But, hey, that’s where my head was at at that time, and, well…can’t change that, man. And, well, each one had it’s own little sound and own little vibe about it, while a few were more “concept” efforts than anything else. As far as the stuff I’m doing these days, well, you listen to each one and you can definitely tell these days that each is it’s own animal. Gangrene Discharge is largely minimalistic, pretty simple goregrind while Infester (especially these days) has a more varied, structured, and somewhat technical approach about it. Clumps Of Flesh is just everywhere, man; anything goes and anything can happen with that one, man. Songs are a lot longer (most of the times) with that one, too. Endopraxis is pretty raw stuff, especially the new stuff that Pol and I are planning now, and it might be more akin to GxDx only with an added member. The new stuff’s more in-your-face and will, hopefully, make you shit yourself. Snuff Victim is HNW, so, well…no music involved there! Vomitatie… is just it’s own beast altogether, and Double-Ended Dildo is about as straight-forward and stripped down as GxDx is, but it trades more blast beats and d-beats for more mid-tempo and groove. I hope that answers everything.

You’ve mentioned that you are not doing much gorenoise anymore. Why such a decision? Do you think gorenoise as a genre, so to speak, “has ran its course” and it’s finished?

Eh, I just got burned out with performing for the genre, man, and things really just simply got ridiculous overall. I mean, I still enjoy the genre to a certain degree with certain projects, but, these days, I’d rather focus on other things and stuff, particularly on the more musical spectrum, rather than just keep making noise continuously (even though I do run Snuff Victim and consider it one of my main projects these days, which, again, is harshnoisewall….so good luck trying to figure that one out, ha!) But, yeah, that pretty much sums it up: burn-out and the fact that I got sick and tired of the whole mess of making gorenoise. I do plan on possibly returning to the genre one of these days, though, with a single project…but, we’ll see. Don’t hold your breath, haha…

But luckily, you’re still musically active. What can you tell us of your goregrind projects Gangrene Discharge and Infester? When did you start with those and what are the differences between them?

Infester’s “Anatomical Plastination Of Cadavers” from 2019

Infester I’ve had the longest between the two, as it originally started back in 2002, shortly after I graduated, and was meant to be a full-band. Instead, I only found one reliable member in Hector Aartiquez, and we recorded our first demo together in 2007, with him on bass and myself on guitar/vocals/drum programming. That line-up lasted until 2012 when he wanted to focus more on family life and other life-stuff, and we recorded our (at the time) final album, ‘A Fitting End To The Present Pathological Practices: The Final Pathologist’s Report’. After almost 2 years of inactivity, Hector and I started Infester back up as a 2-piece again and, well…that lasted about 2 new sessions in 2014 and we ended the project again. Last year in 2018, I had some solid ideas for what was going to be a new pathological goregrind project, but after recording the first session for it (which ended up getting used as the split CDr w/ Dubble Bobble), it sounded a LOT like a new and improved Infester. However, I didn’t want to do Infester without Hector, at least without his approval because I don’t fuck people over. So, being as how he had moved back to California to be closer to his family and had more or less retired from making music, I called him up on the phone and told him what I had planned. He not only approved, but he requested the first copy of everything I had released for the new Infester, hahaha! So, well, Infester continues on as a one-piece project.

Gangrene Discharge’s 2016 cassette tape release of “Acrimonius Anthems Of Musical Torture”, released through Mental Diarrhea label.

Gangrene Discharge started out as an idea back in 2008 for a project that was originally going to be called Brains Meet Concrete (horrible name, I know…). The project didn’t start up then because my main project that I served as vocalist at the time, THECORPSEINTHECRAWLSPACE, played goregrind, too, and I was afraid people would confuse the two. When TCITCS looked as though it was finally running out of steam in 2014, that gave me enough time and drive to go ahead and start Brains Meet Concrete under a different moniker. So, Gangrene Discharge finally came into fruition.

Infester (especially these days) is more structued, diverse, varied with it’s style of writing, and, even sometimes, more technical, more melodic, and experiments with harmonization here and there compared to GxDx. Gangrene Discharge is more simplistic, minimalist, stripped-down, and doesn’t take as long to go for the jugular of the listener. Both are goregrind, though, but, yeah…GxDx is the younger brother who drinks cheap beer and even cheaper whiskey, while Infester is the older brother with a preference for the fine wines and cognacs, haha…

Also quite new is your deathgrind project Clumps of Flesh. With quite a few releases already under its belt, what was the impulse to start it and what bands (if any) would you consider the influence for it?

The impulse originally came from my Autopsy-worship project I had back in 2008 or so called Bundled Bowels. It carried over with a pathological-themed Mortiican-worship project called Dr. Butcher, which I got bored with, but the impulse and drive to do a brutal-as-fuck, heavier-than-a-sack-full-of-clubbed-infants death metal/deathgrind project still stayed with me. Well, when it was becoming apparent that I was going to basically quit gorenoise altogether, and that I was in such a good spot with GxDx and Infester, I decided, “OK…NOW’s the time!” So, Clumps Of Flesh quickly took off and got started. And, so far, it’s definitely going to be a project that’s going to be with me for a long, long time. So, love it or not, it’s staying, haha! Influences for CxOxFx range from Mortician (obviously, HA!) to early Exhumed to Suffocation and Obituary to Chainsaw Dissection to Autopsy to Carnivorous Vagina to Disgorged Foetus and everything in between. Anything and everything goes when it comes to Clumps Of Flesh, too, which is great, as there is no set formula. Write whatever you want, whenever you want, which is the way it should be anyways with solo projects, y’know?

And last, but I am sure not least, to mention is your current HNW project, Snuff Victim. Judging by the name, this is still oriented towards more “gore” themes, right? And talking about it, I’ve seen the notice about releasing the 10 CDr boxset (with the barf bag as bonus) of Snuff Victim material. Can you briefly tell us something abou this particular release?

Limited to 20 copies only, Snuff Victim’s 10 x CDr box with extras.

Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say that, to be honest. Snuff Victim’s themes generally gravitate more towards pornography, sadism, kinky sex, BDSM, bondage, sadomachoism, and that type of stuff. There’s a little bit of gore/murder stuff there, too, from time to time, don’t get me wrong, but, yeah…you were close to being right, man, haha… And, yep, that finally got released recently, which I’m more than happy with the results. Well, it took about four days to record for, and about a couple days to put together. It’s the ultimate SxVx release to date, for now, as one of these days I’d like to go completely nuts and release a 20-disc boxed set. But, we’ll see.

As an super-active person, I am sure you are already working on a new material. What can we expect from the RSS label for the rest of 2019 and beyond?

Absolutely! Right now I’m doing a compilation disc for a really awesome gorenoise project out of Italy called Corpus Luteum Cyst, as well as 5 new EP’s for Clumps Of Flesh (“Defleshed Prostitute In The Outhouse”, “Dismemberment Cult”, “Selling Corpse Parts Online”, “Obliterated”, and “Murdered For Fun”). In the works, also, is the final Hydrocephalus release which will be a split with a really killer goregrind band from the US called Spewtum, and then there’s a really killer split that’s being finished up on between 2 even killer projects, Decomposed Birth and Fetus Demersus. I also have a couple new splits w/ GxDx, CxOxFx and Infester in the works, too. There’s about 13+ new Snuff Victim albums I’d like to get released fairly soon, but we’ll see. Also, there’s the first official GxDx full length, which I’m looking to release next year in an official pro-format (something “special”, y’know?). There’s more Infester EP’s on the way next year, as well, and, sooner or later (more than likely later), I’d like to release either an 8- or 10-CDr boxed set for Clumps Of Flesh, but, again, we’ll see how that works out. Other than that, I hope to get some new stuff off the ground, too, with a couple of projects that I’ve been trying to get started for a while, but we’ll see how it works out. You never know what might happen, afterall…

Considering all this stuff, I’d be surprised if you have any time left for other activities (I know it only so well myself). Any time spent reading or watching movies? I know that gore frieks are usually horror and gore movie lovers as well… any favorites here?

Haha, well, I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, but I do pick up the occassional book every now and again. Here lately it’s been serial killer biographies and true crime stories. I’m also a big affectionado of classic horror (50’s, 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s, mostly), sci-fi/fantasy, film noir, true crime, cheesy action, 80’s comedy, and sleaze/slasher flicks, too. I can’t really name off a lot of favorites off the top of my head, but I do always end up going back to the classics whenever I do have some time alone, and even that list would be somewhat cliche and probably could be anybody’s list, honestly. However, John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Alien Factor, the original George A. Romero’s Dead trilogy, (the original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the early works of Dario Argento (especially Creepers, Deep Red, The Bird With The Crystal Plummage, and Suspiria), Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, Forbidden World (aka Mutant), Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, and (the original) Black Christmas, as well as classic film noir-type cinema such as Double Indemnity, M, The Killer Is Loose, Without Warning, The Big Combo, Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker, Too Late For Tears, D.O.A., The Big Heat, and The Killers for sure remain top of my list of all-time personal faves. There’s more, for sure, but it’s late here, hahaha… I’m also a big fan of porn, too, but I’m pretty sure that’s a give-in, HA!

Slowly coming to the end of this interesting interview… you were and are dealing with a lot of people and projects/bands. For those new into the goregrind/deathgrind/gorenoise/HNW genre (and I hope there will be a few after reading this and related interviews), what “starters” would you recommend?

The classics, for sure: Last Days Of Humanity, Dysmenorrheic Hemorrhage, Regurgitate, early Carcass, Mortician, Autophagia, Vomir, The Rita, Werewolf Jerusalem, The Cherry Point, Liver Mortis, Biocyst, Anal Birth, Regurgitated Corpse, Faces Of Gore, Urine Festival, Bowel Fetus, S.M.E.S., Dead Infection (especially the “Chapter Of Accidents” album)…stuff like that, and I could go on. Underground acts? That’s easy: Vomitoma, Ptoma, Decomposed Birth, Mononuchleosis, Sadistic Performance, Hyperemesis, Spewtum, Wormclogged Blisters, Decrepit Artery, Aortic Dilatation, Ruptured Fetus, Rancid Cerebral Tumor, Chainsaw Dissection (actually, just about anything Bob Macabre does), Boneache, anything and everything ever done by Tim Cumdivision (an even longer list of projects here than mine, no doubt!), Melanocytic Tumors Of Uncertain Malignant Potential, Cannibe, Gruesome Toilet, Dubble Bobble, Human Pancake…and the list goes on. Hope that helps.

Well, thank you, Bobby, for your time doing this intie. Final shoutouts to fellow musicians and readers? Any final message?

No problem; my pleasure and thank YOU! You ask really good questions, man – keep it up. And, overall, just huge thanks to everyone and anyone who’s ever supported and continues to support what I do, all RSSP clientele, and…yeah, man, thanks again! I appreciate it…cheers!

Rudolf Schütz

Kreatívny mozog skrývajúci sa za webmi Indokult.com a RubberAxeZine.com, horlivý connoisseur kultúrnych pokladov, s neochvejnou vášňou pre grindhouse filmografiu, filmové poklady z minulosti a ázijské filmy a hudbu.

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