George Hammond talks Hardcore, DIY, Acolytes a​nd Nailbreaker

Hardcore is a thriving and active scene with people all around the world being involved- that’s one of the reasons why its so special. An individual I have stumbled on in the hardcore scene is a man named George Hammond, known for being the vocalist of Acolytes, based in Northampton.  George  has recently released new music under the name Nailbreaker and I was curious to know how George has been involved in the hardcore scene and all about Nailbreaker and this ever growing trend of online DIY hardcore.

George, how have you been involved in hardcore?

I think I would’ve started being properly involved in mid-2016, when Acolytes first started playing regularly and I started getting out to gigs a bit more. I started putting on gigs of my own not too long after that and haven’t really dipped out of the scene since then. I’ve been pretty consistently putting on and playing gigs for two years now. I’m really grateful for all the friends and based people I’ve met in that time.

How did you get involved in hardcore?

At the age of 12 I got into punk and hardcore pretty hard, I spent a lot of my early teens listening to 80s hardcore bands like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, etc and being really angry at the world. I spent a lot of time time observing the scene instead of being actively involved in it, I guess I became more active as a part of the community once Acolytes started up and I started playing/putting on gigs.

You’ve been involved in the Northampton music scene for many years, would you say it is a thriving scene?

It’s up and down honestly. There are periods where there’s loads going on and periods where it can get a bit dry. I think right now there are a lot of younger bands who are just starting up and aren’t really gigging too much and don’t really know what they’re doing; that’s definitely something I would’ve related to a couple of years ago. In the near future, I wanna set up more local shows with those bands on the bill and give them the opportunity and space to figure their shit out. Not enough promoters take on younger or less experienced bands and I think that would be a cool thing to see (having said that, if there’s any bands who fit that description reading this, I’d highly encourage getting into setting up your own shows).

How you would you describe the state of the hardcore scene at the moment?

Like most great things in the world, it features a lot of good and bad. The hardcore scene features some of the best bands in the UK right now and has provided me with a community where I’ve been able to make a lot of mates with like-minded and interesting people – I normally find being sociable with people pretty difficult in day-to-day life but the scene has given me a platform to improve my social skills way more. At the same time, there are a couple of things I take issue with in the scene that just aren't being addressed. Nobody seems to want to address stuff like casual sexism or homophobia or transphobia that a lot of HC dudes participate in. I can’t help but feel alienated as a gay guy when I go to a gig and hear someone throw words like ‘faggot’ or ‘battyboy’ around like it doesn’t mean shit. No-one seems to want to bring this shit up because, I don’t know, they don’t want their mates to think they’re an SJW or they don’t want to lose scene points, or they’re participating in that kinda thing themselves.

On a less serious note, I think there’s been an issue for a while now of a lot of bands just doing the same thing. This obviously doesn’t speak for the whole scene because there are shitloads of great bands doing something very unique and forward-thinking things with their music and presentation (shout out SickOnes, Sharkteeth Grinder, Dead Hands, Worry, Street Soldier and so many others), but if I had a quid for every macho toughguy beatdown band writing two-note spinkick songs about CUTTING SNAKES OUT THE GRASS and INEGRITY or whatever, I wouldn’t be on benefits. I could talk about how these bands and their super-serious trying-to-be-badmen demeanour does nothing to help the issue of toxic masculinity in the HC scene but I guess that’d make me a pussyole who can’t hack hardcore, right? If there’s one thing the scene needs right now, it’s to embrace variety, be that musically or personally. Lighten up lads, don't take yourselves less seriously, it’s just music.

Just to clarify, I do love the scene, but there’s so many unaddressed issues that people just don’t wanna talk about.

You spent a lot of time doing Acolytes, what has been your favourite moment with them so far?

Probably releasing our first EP, Pounding Dance Music, earlier this year. We had been playing shows without any recorded music out there for fucking ages, not even a demo or anything. We spent a solid year getting checked out by people or getting booked for shows either because someone had heard of us through word of mouth and was interested, or because they’d been to a show and liked what they’d seen. The EP was made up of songs that had been written for about a year and half, but had only been ever played live. It felt like a huge accomplishment when they finally came out on an actual project, especially being that it took so long to get round to recording them. The reception was really positive and I’m so, so proud of how it turned out.

So tell us all about this new project  Nailbreaker?

Nailbreaker is essentially a project I’d started in the meantime of Acolytes being slightly inactive due to everyone getting busy with other things going on in life. I was getting frustrated with not doing anything musically, so whatever music I’ve made for it so far feels really urgent and immediate. Nailbreaker is me fusing elements of hardcore and punk with electronic, industrial, noise, and dance music. There’s a lot of synths and drum machines and samples and that. I guess with what I was saying earlier about getting frustrated with some of the musical homogeneity in UKHC, it’s so sick seeing the project receive such a positive reaction so early on from that community, considering it’s not a style that many people are playing around with in the UK scene. It’s also given me an opportunity to play around with video-making, something I’ve always had a bit of an interest for. The best thing about having no money is that no-budget approaches to making music and videos often produces much more creative and experimental results, and that’s definitely something I’m enjoying doing as Nailbreaker right now.

Do you think online DIY hardcore is the future for the scene?

It has to be. The internet is currently the present and future of everything. The internet plays such a huge role in every part of human life now, and in regards to music it’s made things like labels/booking agents/PR/whatever else obsolete for some bands because it’s easy to communicate with so many people. There are so many bands now, especially in hardcore, who are booking UK and European tours by themselves entirely on the internet. I think any band who isn’t embracing the full extent of the internet is really missing out – I stuck the first Nailbreaker music video in a few meme groups and shitpost sites because I thought people there would fuck with it and they were really into it. There are so many people who you can communicate your music and thoughts with it’s unbelievable. The internet is great (and shite (and great))!

What is the future for you musically?

Sitting on a lot of Nailbreaker stuff at the minute so expect more noisy synths and dumb song titles soon. I released my latest single called 'Why I Left Buzzfeed'. Gonna start gigging with it soon, won’t reveal too much right now but the live shows are gonna be really intense, it’s gonna be a bit of a visual show as well as just the music. First gig is gonna be with Bailer and Sharkteeth Grinder in Northampton on 30th November although the venue for that hasn’t been confirmed yet, playing at New River Studios in London with a wad of sick bands on 15th December after that. On Planet Acolytes, there’s not much happening right this second because like I say, we all got busy with other shit, but we are writing new stuff very soon and will be playing gigs again not long after that. We’ve not forgotten about it just yet! 

By Sam Hennerley

Photography by Amy Demidow