If noise metal is supposed to be dangerous, unhinged, and a little gross, then Squid Pisser are already lapping the field. The duo — guitarist Tommy Meehan and drummer Seth Carolina — don’t so much play songs as they weaponize them, ripping through sets that feel like a high-speed chase through a sewer tunnel filled with medical waste. Equal parts grindcore precision and cartoon vomit humor, Squid Pisser are loud, fast, and very much in on the joke. We caught up with Tommy between gigs to talk tour stories, new releases, and what it’s like to try and cram this much chaos into two human bodies.
Racket: Before I saw Squid Pisser open for GWAR last year, my best friend caught the show a couple days earlier. When I asked him what to expect, he just said, “They’re unsettling.” Do you think that’s a fair description?
TM: Totally. That’s kind of the goal — to make people uncomfortable. Rock and roll has always been about that, but somewhere along the way a lot of bands forgot. I’ve always loved the feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next.
Bands like Fantômas, Mr. Bungle, Dillinger Escape Plan — they showed me early on how thrilling controlled chaos could be. You follow the rabbit hole of “what’s even weirder than this?” and it just keeps spiraling.
That’s what excited me about GWAR too. The first time I saw them, it felt like the stage itself might come alive and bite me. They dream up the most insane ideas and then actually make them real. I’ll always respect that.
Racket: Now you’re in GWAR and Squid Pisser has toured opening for them. Has that changed how you approach live shows?
TM: Absolutely. I grew up seeing wild shows and that always inspired me to put everything I had into whatever band I was in. With Squid Pisser, the mission is the same — throw all of ourselves into it, whatever it takes.
That’s literally why I was sweating before this call. I’ve been sprinting around town trying to track down DMX cables for our lights. We’re about to hit Alaska, then I fly straight to Oklahoma City for more shows. It’s nonstop chaos, but that’s the fun part.
Racket: After Alaska, you’re also playing the Gathering of the Juggalos. What are you expecting there?
TM: Honestly? I have no idea. I’ve heard stories about bottles of piss, Faygo flying everywhere… but from what I’ve seen, the ICP crowd is actually pretty wholesome. People just need an excuse to let loose.
As long as no one’s being a dick or trying to spread pain, it’s all good. Life’s hard. If you need to rage in the mud with your face painted, go for it.
Racket: Ever thought about bringing your own bottles of piss to launch back?
TM: You know what… thank you.
Racket: Squid Pisser’s sound has been described as “mutated riffs and corrosive noise.” What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done to capture a sound?
TM: I’ve always been into pushing limits. In another project, Chum Out, my buddy Jimmy and I would set up a whole room full of microphones, get intoxicated, and just wreck the place — breaking glass, smashing trash cans, lighting guitar strings on fire. Total chaos.
Analog, like this Moog matriarch and shit. Like, this stuff’s really fun and just kind of connecting different parts to different holes and stuff and seeing what happens. But like, I have a shit ton of pedals and stuff, but I’m always fucking with and, but you know, nothing too crazy, just kind of like, altering our state sometimes to, like, get in a different place and and see what happens. Sometimes it’s not even the gear, it’s the state of mind. You alter your head a bit and suddenly the same instrument feels like an alien machine.
Racket: With a band called Chum Out, I was half-expecting you to literally punch a bucket of dead fish.
TM: That’s very accurate. Yeah, it’s exactly the kind of vibe we’re going for, just like, gross, smelly viscosity
Racket: It reminds me of painters like Jackson Pollock. Some people say, “Anyone can splatter paint on a canvas,” but others see genius in it. Noise music seems similar.
TM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Experimenting is like, you know, not knowing what it’s going to be like is part of the fun. It’s like a little Christmas present at the end of it all. And sometimes it’s going to be cool and sometimes it’s going to be like lackluster or something in my experience. So it’s kind of a gamble and it’s a crapshoot.
It just depends on your mood and your feelings and how your ear is working that day when you’re if you’re recording or writing something. And so like, yeah, but like on the on the on that note of like splatting paint on the wall or just anybody can do noise. It’s like, yeah, there are a lot of people out there that just kind of throw shit together
Racket: You recorded the new Squid Pisser record with Toshi Kasai, who’s known for working with the Melvins and Big Business. What was that like?
TM: Oh, man. Toshi is a weird guy, and there’s all kinds of weird tricks up his sleeve, so, like. But we do too. So I think we just kind of show each other weird stuff. And we’re kind of like the yin to the yangs in the weird yin-yang. I don’t know. I’ve known Toshi for like over years, almost 20 years or something, and I just see him at shows and stuff back in the day, and like, there’s Toshi.
He’s worked on so many cool things and and we would chat and stuff and I was in my early 20s or whatever and just always respected him so much. And then I had this band called The Manx, which is like very, experimental too. And we had banjo and accordion and all kinds of shit.
Racket: GWAR has this whole elaborate mythology. Do you see Squid Pisser building that kind of lore?
TM: Yeah. It’s interesting. It’s like I think the, Squid Pisser stuff is, at least for me, like lyrically and conceptually and stuff is more like esoteric in a way where it’s like GWAR will sing about having sex with a dead dog or a fish, or a specific instance of like a, a cat, licking a hole through an old lady’s head or whatever it is
Racket: You’ve had some gnarly injuries on stage, right?
TM: Oh yeah. Last fall with GWAR, first song of the tour, I dove into the crowd wearing platform boots. On the way back I landed on the barricade, rolled my ankle hard. I had to finish the set basically frozen in place, then go backstage and put on the massive Grodius costume.
My ankle stayed swollen for months. And then, yeah, I think I did a Chum Out show a long time ago and gave myself a hernia because it was there’s like specific movement, I remember, and it was like and it just felt like my abdominal wall had opened up.
Racket: I’ve got one right now. My PT leaves me covered in fingerprint-shaped bruises.
TM: Brutal. Our drummer Seth went through the same thing — touring nonstop, finally had to schedule hernia surgery literally two weeks before we were supposed to record with Toshi. His drumming’s so physical, but he pulled through.
Racket: Getting older makes it all worse. I cracked my back sneezing the other day.
TM: Same. I once threw my back out for three months just picking up a sock. Sneezing, socks — bullshit. I’m 39, about to be 40. Your body betrays you in the dumbest ways.
Racket: A-fucking-greed. Who are the bands that really shaped your compass?
TM: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Fantômas, Dillinger Escape Plan, Nuclear Rabbit. Those bands sounded like nothing else.
There are a million hardcore or death metal bands that all blur together. That’s fine, but it doesn’t excite me. I want originality — a unique look, a unique sound. Otherwise, what are you contributing? Are you adding something or just imitating?
That’s what I’ve always chased with Squid Pisser, even if it’s tough.
Racket: If you could curate your own festival, who’s on the bill?
TM: Definitely a weirdo fest: Buckethead, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Fantômas, Dillinger, Nuclear Rabbit, Prurient.
And then everyone from my label, Sweat Band Records: Human Fluid Rot, Melted Bodies, Caddies Resort, Cunts, DJ Embryonic Petite Sac, Hurt Hawks.
DJ Embryonic’s my partner in starting the label — he’s this anonymous noise/performance artist who dresses like an amphibious swamp creature. Hurt Hawks are this Americana “drunk-wave” band, really gruff but sensitive.
It’d be some kind of swampy freak festival. I don’t know the name yet, but I can picture it.
Racket: What’s your go-to snack?
TM: Movie theater Goobers, Dots, and nachos with pickled jalapeños. Always nachos.
Racket: I’ve actually got a nacho tattoo. First grade, we all had to write down our favorite memory from kindergarten. My classmates wrote stuff like “We made papier-mâché fish.” Mine said, “We made nachos.” Years later, I got it inked on my calf.
TM: That’s incredible.
Racket: Last one — what’s your favorite Bible quote?
TM: Genesis and Revelations are always fun. But my favorite Bible isn’t scripture — it’s an art piece I found in Europe. Every page of the Bible had disturbing photographs pasted over it — self-harm, surreal images, unsettling stuff. It turned the book into this haunting artifact. That feels right to me.