AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED's Jay Randall was interviewed this week by Justin M. Norton of About.com. He discussed the upcoming new album Agorapocalypse, new co-vocalist Katherine Katz of SALOME, the cult status of Altered States of America and what he thinks about basement drum machine grind bands. Excerpts follow:

On Agorapocalypse's thrash roots:

"Scott (guitarist Scott Hull) and I have been big fans of that era of thrashcore for a long time. Throughout the whole recording we were listening to Corrosion of Conformity’s Animosity, DRI’s Four of A Kind. Those are classic records. I know there’s a thrash revival going on but we’ve been steadily listening to this stuff for years, even when we were doing the grind-style material. We just wanted to stay a little closer to home and we were listening to all that stuff when we were recording this record and deciding what direction to take it."

On how the band changes something with each release:

"That wouldn’t work for a lot of bands, but it’s an accepted thing that we can pull off a complete 360 in our sound. The Domestic Powerviolence split was so loved by people and such a complete turnaround of what we’d been doing. People accepted and loved it. That record had a higher replay value than stuff in the past. Before, people would approach an Agoraphobic record as an absurdity."

On new vocalist Kat of Salome:

"Scott played me Salome’s material when he was thinking of asking her into the band. I was pretty blown away. When she applied vocals to our material, she comes out like a person that’s been singing in a hardcore band for 12 years. I thought Richard (vocalist Richard Johnson) and I would be out of a job."

On the 'porngrind' trend:

"I feel kind of pigeonholed with the whole scene and I certainly don’t want to be lumped in with it. I write lyrics with my own selfish intentions. I find them funny and a good read but I wasn’t trying to force us into one particular genre of anything."

Read the whole interview at this location.