This is the 20th year that Barney grunts for Napalm Death and in January,  a new album will come out (“Time Waits For No Slave”). We at Insider thought it was time for an interview. And during the Persistence Tour, we could talk to the man himself. We met in the dressing room of Sick Of It All...

The legendary grindcore band from Birmingham (UK) has quite a history. Formed in 1982, the band started as a conventional punk-band. However, in 1989, none of the original members were still in the band. Napalm Death continued to grow, with Mark “Barney” Greenway as new front man. The sound changed a lot during years to come (from punk to grindcore to experimental death metal and back to grindcore) but the message always stayed the same.
Barney is the living example that metal-heads aren’t  rude, drunk and ignorant. The very friendly vocalist with a distinctive accent offered me a seat…

Tunnelvision
Barney did not perform in the Persistence tour, but traveled along. He seemed to be in a good mood: “Oh I’m really fine! It’s great to be here. All these people are my friends and I love to hang out with them. Sometimes I even do guest vocals on the shows”.
Even before Napalm Death, Barney used to be a musician. He used to front the death metal band “Benediction”. “Benediction, yeah. Didn’t last for too long though. I mean it was a fun band! Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun band. For a little while I was doing the 2 bands. Napalm spoke to me a bit more about the ways I was thinking.” Fate is a strange thing. What would’ve become of Barney is he weren’t a musician? “I would probably be doing something for the community. Like working in a trade union. Something that helps people socially. I work for a union, but on a voluntary base.” How does one gain interest in heavy music like this, we ask ourselves. “To be honest, I was an engineer at first. But I’ve always been into harder music. I was a real fan of Napalm Death myself. So when they were searching for a singer, I just signed up! I didn’t even have to audition! I just thought I could do it, and signed up. My parents always supported me. They let me be free and never intervened in my musical tastes”.
On the question if he used to be a rebel in his youth, Barney said: “Not really, but I think young people at the age of 14 or 15 have a tunnel vision, you know? They say ‘no’ to everything they don’t really know. But when you’re growing up, you ‘sorta’ broaden your tastes and interests.”

Personal Choices
Besides music, man has a lot of things to do. Barney, for example is a soccer supporter: “Yeah! Aston Villa! I did play soccer myself. But I got injured really bad. Mentally, I can’t  play anymore! What I love doing on tour? I like to read. And absorb all information. I just love it. I also love visiting the countries we tour in. I just go out sightseeing. I’m really interested in exploring other cultures and habits. When we’re in Japan, for instance, I go out to the country-side. Not the high-tech stuff, you can see that on TV, but Japan has a beautiful country-side! And Eastern-Europe, still has a lot of Sovjet culture. And I love it! Not the Sovjet-history, but the culture behind it all.”
Being in an extreme Metal-band is usually very exhausting. Are there any rituals or exercises before going on stage? “No, I just go! I think we have an ‘on-and-off’ switch on the back of our heads. And when we go on stage, I just turn it on, you know?”
While most artists love to party after a show, our interviewee doesn’t drink. He claims to be a vegetarian as well: “Yes, I’m a vegetarian and I don’t drink on tour. I drink a couple of beers at home, but no more than like 3. I don’t like to get drunk. My choices don’t influence my fellow band-members. Let them do their own thing. They ain’t stupid. Mitch (Harris, Guitarist) eats nothing but fish. Shane (Embury, Bass) used to be a vegetarian, but is not anymore . They know the various aspects of it all, so let them choose. The education they had… so now they have to make a decision.”
Barney has been know as Barney for ages. His real name (Mark Greenway) is never used. When we phoned to Napalm’s manager and asked for Mr. Greenway, he didn’t know who we were talking about. So we asked about the Napalm Death interview. “Oh! You mean Barney!”, he responded. We asked Mr. Greenway himself about it: “Yeah. From ‘the Flintstones’. I used to walk to places when I had a couple of drinks and just knock stuff of the wall. I used to make a rubble. You see that radio over there? If I were younger, that thing would’ve gone straight to the ground. No, I was never insulted by that name! I don’t give a shit. I think it’s fine you know? I’m not that sensitive. Never been sensitive.”

Grindcore and its influences
Most people tell that Napalm Death are the originators of grindcore. “That actually is true. The name at least, because Mick (Harris, Drums). A previous Napalm Death member, he came up with the term. He said: “grindcore is extremely fast and frantic music, but also very slow music like ‘Swans’.” You know? Of course, whatever happened to the scene after that, was whatever happened! How I feel about influencing other bands? It’s nice that people say that! But if you’re gonna let it go to your head, you’re gonna believe your own hype, you know? The important thing for me, is for Napalm to be creative: in creating albums, making shows. Hopefully, you maintain your interest, you know? For yourself and for the people that support the band.”
Since Napalm Death was one of the first bands in their genre, they were probably influenced by other genres. Barney starts summing up his favorite bands: “My interests are the sounds of the eighties. Like ‘Discharge’, ‘Death’, all the New York stuff, like ‘Sick Of It All’. What comes next… ‘uhm’…’Incest’, ‘D.R.I.’, ‘Siege’, the more Metal stuff like ‘Repulsion’, ‘Celtic Frost’. And then on the alternative side: ‘Swans’,  ‘Sonic Youth’, I get a lot of stuff from New York actually. Of course I’ve broadened my tastes. Like Motown! If you talk about casual music listening, then yes, I’m a music fan. You name it! Some reggae sometimes or ska! All sorts, everything! There’s no taboo on music for me. I will listen to whatever I want. And if someone doesn’t like that I listen to that, I don’t give a shit. Frankly, it’s my choice.”

Labeling labels
With the coming of the internet, a lot of people are now trying to box music. Napalm Death received a lot of criticism from the fans, being sell-outs when they started experimenting with different genres, like death metal. How does a musician feel about labeling? “It’s petty!”, Barney tells us: “It’s wasting your time, doing something that doesn’t matter. It’s a subjective matter. I mean, if someone has the perception it’s death metal and someone has the perception the same thing is hardcore and someone has the perception the same thing’s grindcore, if someone has the perception it’s one thing and another thing, you know that’s absolutely fine. But when people start to fucking argue about this stuff, it’s so irrelevant, you know. So stupid! I grew out that stuff for years ago. Not interested anymore.”
Napalm Death used to be on ‘Earache Records’. However, things weren’t going too well and the band had to look for another record company. Shortly after, they release an album called ‘Enemy Of The Music Business’. “Yeah, but it wasn’t necessarily aimed at them (Earache). It was reflective on some of the stuff that happened to use, but it was general observation about the music industry, which, quite frankly, we operate quite a bit outside of. We don’t deal with the big, obviously the major institutions on the music industry. We’re very self-contained. We do thing for ourselves. You call it a Hardcore-mentality? Well I think it’s any band’s that gets burnt. You may quickly decide there are other ways of doing things, you know? It’s whatever mentality people want to term it. Freedom of expression. And essence of freedom as well.

Putting food on the table
About expressing. Napalm Death is familiar for strong politic language and anti-religion…. Barney quickly adds: “All sorts of stuff, just open-minded! Free thinking stuff, hopefully. Politics are used often, understandably so, but it’s only a small part of it. If you say politics to people, they draw the conclusion that politics must be the mainstream. But it’s somewhat inaccurate, you know? Depending on the perception. To me it’s all about free thinking from a humane or humanitary perspective. That’s what it is. Seeking quality, tolerance, and generally seeking towards better lives for everybody!”
Napalm Death is one of those bands that can make a living by making music. Illegal downloading is obviously an issue, that even addresses them: “Yeah, see,  if our album gets downloaded before it gets released, that is a bit of a problem. Because those initial sales, if it’s affecting sales that is, aren’t for profit. It’s to recreate money for the record actually. That can be somewhat problematic. But later down the line, if people wanna download the albums, to be honest, I’m kinda resigned to it. I haven’t got much of a problem with it. Because I think, it promotes the band. Don’t forget there are kids who can’t afford to go out and say ‘I’ll buy a CD’ or something. So am I really gonna say ‘you can’t have the album’? No, I’m not! Fucking just download it. Whatever you need to do.” Money-machine and ‘Kiss’-bassist Gene Simmons once said in an interview: “Kiss will only start writing new songs when all illegal downloading stops.” It’s a radical approach. “It’s ‘obviously’ Gene Simmons lives in a certain world. You know, of perception that I don’t, or we don’t. Gene Simmons, to be fair hasn’t denied that ‘Kiss’ is a moneymaker for sure. That’s what it is to him, so his perceptions and mine are always going to be different. ‘Kiss’ is almost a financial institution on itself. So therefore, his concerns are firstly financial. I mean: yeah, of course, I’ve got to put out rent-money and I’ve got to pay for food every week. I’m just the same as everyone else, but his thoughts come in at a different angle. He’s talking about protecting a certain financial level. I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about just survival, you know? There’s no way I would ever do that: ‘no songs until illegal downloading stops’,  well you might as well forget Napalm Death. It’s never gonna do anything.”

Time waits for no slave
As the conversation went on, it was inevitable to talk about Napalm’s new coming album. In Europe, fans will be able to buy it at the end of January. Barney tells us: “It’s a logical progression, from Smear Campaign. I know it’s the real obvious thing to say, but it is! Each Napalm album means a bit of a step. And this one is from Smear Campaign. You can still tell it’s from Napalm Death and you can reference it back to Smear Campaign. But there’s like the alternative elements: ‘Swans’…’Sonic Youth’…, that’s a bit more developed on this album. Perhaps in parts where you wouldn’t have necessarily expected it before. So it’s just a move onwards, you know?”
The friendly front man is responsible for most of the lyrical content. How about the rest of the band? “They just add a couple of songs! Usually they ask me what my general concept, or non-concept’s gonna be on the next album and they go ‘yeah, ok’ and then work on some stuff themselves. They come with some pretty good stuff, actually! I could ever say it’s really difficult to create a new album. I mean, there’s a lot of spontaneity in Napalm Death. And that always helps to be creative. Yes, you get your certain days where you sit, looking at a blank piece of paper and you’re going ‘ok…uhm…I need a lyric’ and scratching your head all day. But that’s the natural way of things. You just have to accept it.”
The album’s produced by Russ Russell (‘Dimmu Borgir’, ‘The Exploited’,…) and it’s certainly not the first time for Napalm Death. “No, actually the fourth of fifth time. He’s just the right man for the job. Because he understands the saying of the band. He knows for example just how much level of distortion we use. And he can really work with that! Plus his techniques as well: instead of having one of those big expensive microphones in the studio, I choose the same mic I would live. And just fucking jump around like a monkey. That’s all I do. That gives its spontaneity! You’re gonna approach it like you do live. You know, you gotta close your eyes and you’re gonna just fucking go for it! And you don’t have to worry about knocking all the shit out in the studio [laughs]. Like imagine doing it with a standup mic, getting ready to do a song, and you fucking charge into the mic and everything goes flying, you know? The studio’s gonna be fucking pissed off that you just broke a 2000£ mic! Which I would, If I charged into it, of course! If we write song to play live? We just write songs.  And them play ‘em live! You know? [laughs]. Yeah that’s the natural way of things. So we just write songs and then decide later on which to play live, you know?”
The new album was named ‘Time Waits For No Slave’. “It’s a very simple concept. We spend a lot of time working in our lives. Like myself, working ourselves into the ground for whatever reason. And I think you sometimes are in danger of not experiencing the fullness of life. Those simple things, like for example: going sitting in the park under a tree and not interacting, just watching the world go by. I mean, it’s the question of ‘where is the point?’ And if you wish to try and choose it, you can. So I think that if you don’t understand the simple beauty then how can you ever hope to understand the more complex things? So that’s the concept, it’s nothing new. It’s even something you, I assume you’re pretty young, at some point you’re probably going to think so far. ‘It’s like work, work, work. What for?’ And then think about all this other stuff… Like there’s a park down my street, I’ve never ever been there. I lived ten years in my apartment , you know? So that’s the main thought of it. But it also runs of in challenging different conventions. Things we are taking for granted. Like marriage, how it’s so moralistic and fucking sacred. Which I don’t think it should be. Or like personal religious faith, which I don’t have a problem with. But I think that, if you only have that much of a life, if you’re dictated by ‘moral-fucking-codes’, than you’ll never see that bit on the outside, you know? There’s another thing, like women, these days, they are still viewed as ‘baby machines’. You know, we’re all striving for equality and there’s been a lot of progress in terms of equality. But I think, still, if a woman chooses not to use her reproductive system during her life, that’s her choice! But there’s still judgment made on women. ‘Oh! she never had children, there must be something wrong with her’, you know? Why can you just not make a choice not to do that? And then just not do it!”
On the question if the album became a concept album, Barney responds: “Oh well, it actually sounds like it! But I try not to make it that way. But that’s how it turned out, you know?”
Barney’s close to 40 and has been in the band for 20 years now. Where does one find the motivation? “It’s just the music, the lyrics, the sense of perseverance. I just always want to carry on doing it. There might come a time when I don’t want to do it anymore for some reason, but until then, just keep at it, you know? Hopefully being creative, hopefully making good points that people could think about. And enjoying myself of course! Enjoying seeing other people’s lives in other parts of the world. I may want to try something else, aside from Napalm Death, in the future. But for now I’m quite happy the way things are!”

The past and future
In the early days, Napalm Death members came and left, however the last decade(s), the line-up is fixed. Napalm Death experienced a death though. Of course, we’re talking about Jesse Pintado, Napalm’s former guitarist, who passed away because of liver failure. “Yeah, he died. But he wasn’t in the band 2 years before he died, actually. Obviously it was very disappointing. I’ve got a lot of good memories. He was a pretty funny guy. But life goes on. You know, I feel bad for his family. In the same sense, he tried his own path. He did what he wanted to do, the things that he did contributed, you could say, to his death. But he did what he wanted to do. He knew the risks, he knew the implications, and he just went with it. And I respect him for that in some way! But life goes on. You see, death for me is just not such a taboo as it is for other people. I’m very ‘darwinistic’ , I have a very open overview of life and death is just a part of it. , I live for today and I live for tomorrow. I just roll.”
To lighten things up a bit, we ask the grunter about the future for Napalm Death. “Just touring…[laughs]. That’s all I can say. Yeah, we’re gonna do quite a bit of touring, once the album comes out. Yeah, that’s really all I can say. I might do some other stuff. I might do some spoken word stuff. But we’re still kind of figuring that out. Like Henry Rollins, you ask? Yeah, along those lines, but not necessarily on life experiences like Henry does. But like more ‘why’. Like why you can’t have freedom and visions if you’re pro-choice and why you should. And that sort of things, perhaps even a bit more deep, like Henry would do. But I’d have to go a long way to equal the level.” Of course, being the main lyricist and a reader, we couldn’t help asking if Barney never thought about writing himself. “Yeah, I’ve written. I thought about writing books, but it’s like everything, I’m not gonna make it concrete for myself until I’m really ready and driven and motivated to do specifically that, you know? Do whatever comes!”

Saying goodbye
The hardworking machine that is Napalm Death has some advice for young new-coming bands: “Do what you feel is right! Follow your heart and what motivates you. If you do a good song and it’s a good song, then go for it, you know? Don’t let other people try and say ‘what you’re doing is wrong’. You can’t do that, usually, that’s just bullshit, or they’ll want something from you. They kinda manipulate you. Of course, take advice! Take good criticism. But don’t be told that what you’re feeling, if you’re really feeling, is crap! Follow what you need to do! If you make a mistake, and you know you’ve made a mistake, so be it! That’s life experience.”
So any last words for the fans? “This might sound cliché, because it’s always the same answer, but thanks for all the support. You’ve always been there, sometimes in sticky situations, you know? So thanks to everyone for keeping enthusiastic about us! That’s the reason why we’re still there.”
As long as they’re enthusiastic, you’re enthusiastic? “Oh, I’ll always be enthusiastic!”
And with those words, we say goodbye to a friendly and motivated man.