1.  Eye Licker - a strange name for a noisy band.  Give us a brief history, how you came to be together and a brief low-down on your personal musical history?

Buggs (Vocals) and myself used to be in a band called Sadistic A.D. which was a very thrashy punk/metal hybrid that came to an early and abrupt end with the sad and untimely death of a dear friend and bassist Tony Donnelly, 
It was nearly 2 years before I even looked at a guitar again and it was Buggs who got in touch and asked if I fancied going to a practice room to mess around and see what happened, everything just clicked really well right from the off and by 2008 we had a band, a dodgy setlist and were looking for gigs, 
With regards to the name,  we got the name from a song by Norwegian death metal band Blood Red Throne, we met the drummer from BRT while he was filling in for the injured Susperia drummer while they were on tour and he was really made up that a punk band had used one of their song titles for a band name.

2.  How do you get on as a band and are you all singing from the same influential hymn sheet and do you all have the same goals?

There's a lot of love, loyalty and respect for each other in the band and we all come from different musical backgrounds and influences which we use to exploit each others strengths to make this band what it is, highly enjoyable and extremely entertaining, being in the band is our way of closing the door on the world and just getting all the crap out of our system, purifying or purging the soul if you will, the fact that we're able to share it with others who come to see us at gigs makes it all the more worthwhile.

3.  What are your greatest inspirations in life and music and what are the things that really gripe you in this murky pit of noise?

My inspirations come from my family, I always try to be a better person as an example for my kids to give them the confidence to do whatever they set their minds to with an open mind and a positive outlook to life in general and the same can be said for music.
I don't get into the politics of the music world, I don't have the patience or time for it, music is there to be enjoyed whatever style of music people are into and because of that I generally take things at face value, I know there is a lot of bitching, sniping and backstabbing in the music world but there are more great things going on that surpass the shit so I generally avoid the shit side and concentrate on the real down to earth take it as you find it part because that is where the real people playing real music are, 
Not much irks me really, pay to play gigs, why not just book a room in a pub? The landlord/lady would be happy for the extra revenue and people wouldn’t have to pay to get in, simples.
Another thing that irritates me is people who say "my band" it's more of a pet hate I suppose but I find that really disrespectful to the other members of a band.

4.  Vaughan 'VD' Todgetwister the 3rd has started breeding wooden rockin' horses and clockwork harvest mice.  Occasionally he hybridises both species and comes up with a novelty item to tickle the jaded senses.  If you could cross breed two people you know who would they be and what would you expect the outcome to be?

I think Adam from No Decorum and our David (Drums) would make an interesting species, they're both hyper people, I think they would end up like the Taz, I’d get a giggle out of that for sure.

5.  As per - describe they fellow minstrels in 5 degrading words one of which must relate to a toy!

This is difficult, I don't have a bad word to say about any of the lads to a point where I can't think of anything without being or feeling like a twat, even in jest so I’m going to chicken out of this one.

6.  What would be your ideal gig on which to play - 8 slots to fill, what would be the door charge be, the people on the guest list, the people barred and the venue?

The Crescent in Salford is a great place to play and while we've played in a lot of well set up, well organised and friendly places there is something special about the place, I think it helps that we practice there as well so it's a bit like playing at home, Mike on the desk loves what he does, that venue is his baby and it shows, Steve the landlord is just a wonderful human being, it's a pleasure to know them both, they hold punk weekends there 2 or 3 times a year and always go down well, but I digress ... to the bands, in no particular order...
No Decorum (played with these chaps regularly, top band and great people)
Manifest (superb band, again great people)
The Crash Mats (the first time I saw these lads they blew me away and they've only gotten better since)
Brace For Impact (they hit the happy part of my brain, nuff said)
Buddhist Anarchists (saw these recently at Star & Garter, wow!)
Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man (I haven’t seen these lads nearly half as much as I’d like to)
Flat Back Four ( awesome, that is all, great, solid all round band)
Mafafi (I haven’t seen these Scottish mentalists for a while, are they still going? I hope so)
I've only known of one person to get barred from The Crescent, I think it's considered quite an achievement to get turfed out of there

7. The song writing process for Eye Licker - tell us all about it!

As a band we're quite lazy when it comes to making songs , we might finish it on the first week, change it by the second week and by the third after yet another change then we decide that it's time to draw a line under it and move on, most of our stuff comes from pissing about at practice.

8. Samuel Scrofula is flaking away.  In fact his recent bout of dermatological terror has created a skin based cloud so large that several Maltese wholesalers have recently gone missing. Give us a solution and mention Pears Soap in the answer to win a weekend away with David Dickenson.

My solution to this conundrum would probably be a quarantine bubble half filled with a well measured amount of baby oil and bars of pears soap ... then push him down a hill to make sure saturation is consistent.

9.  Best Eye Licker song to date - the details, the reason why you rate it so highly!

'In Extremis' I would say is our best and for several reasons, first of all it was our first proper song, rather than our earlier more generic songs. 'In Extremis' came along and changed the way we wrote songs,  it has a nice build up intro,  good structure and a nice lead to go with it and I hate playing leads in general, mostly because I’m shit at them, people used to ask us if we did any covers and the way 'In Extremis' is set out we could add our little tribute to other bands in a vocal way without actually doing the whole song before IE snaps back into action,. For us it has been a very inspirational song.

10.  How are you finding the music scene at the mo and what are things like locally?  

I don't get out as much as I’d like to so to me one of the best things I like being in a band is that I get to see a lot of other bands I normally wouldn’t see and there is a great bunch of bands around at the moment all making their own mark like No Decorum, Crash Mats, Manifest and Brace For Impact for example who all have their own style and sound and are a pleasure to watch and are great people. The problem with some gigs is that there isn't a great deal of variety, whatever the style, rock, metal, punk or whatever genre people go for, so to see a line-up with a variety grabs my attention and makes me want more and that is what things are like at the moment which is great.

11.  Turnip Tosspots - good, bad, politically invigorating - one paragraph please on your thoughts!

While growing up I often wondered on subjects and consistently mentioned the word "why" to my parents. Eventually my dad would say "go ask your mother" or "stop asking why to everything", as the years went by the words why became "what the fuck" which promptly brings me to the ponderous question at hand, What the fuck are Turnip Tosspots and what is so political about them?

12.  And now - encourage us to lick some eyes - to get all orally ocular and to titivate a few seeing organs.  Push and promote thy cause!

We like our music to be fast, heavy, raw, loud and to the point, with a punk, metal, hardcore and ska loving influence you're bound to hear all of the afore mentioned in all of our  songs, 
We don't have a message to sell and don't care for politics, just that anyone who takes an interest and the time to listen to us enjoy themselves as much as we do.

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