an interview: Seven years of struggle and persistence poured out in less than 15 minutes

For screamo band Kid, Feral, the truth finally comes out

The song “Substance” has a lyric that captures Kid, Feral’s sound—a burning-at-both-ends sound, always changing, always shifting: "I'm trying to fill the gaps, changing shapes like they ask while I'm breaking.”

But later in the song, singer Vile Hartman screams, “This year is the same, just like the others / I'm scared I might just not grow old after all.”

I hear a story about somebody with an unstable identity struggling in a destabilized reality—and seeing only repetition.

Swedish screamo band Kid, Feral debuted with “Live and Let’s Die!” in 2018. And to hear the new album, you’d wonder if the band might not grow old after all because they still sound like mid-2010s-era screamo.

The album has that era’s fragility, and it has less guitar distortion and fewer hardcore vocals than today’s screamo bands, like Blind Girls and Portrayal of Guilt.

That’s partly because its recording started in 2019. The drums were recorded in October that year; the rest of the album, though, was rewritten, reworked, and rerecorded more than once since then. Those years were hard, personally, according to the band. But they did not let the album go.

Kid, Feral talked to me about the new album.

Damon: Hello, and congratulations on the album! I like it. The music has that cathartic quality that good screamo has. There’s a quote attributed to French poet Paul Valéry that says, in short, art is never finished, only abandoned. After almost 7 years, does it feel cathartic to release this album? Or does it feel more like you’re abandoning it? Or a mix?

Kid, Feral: Very, very cathartic. It's been super very weird to finally, FINALLY be done with the album. It took so much work. Just imagine—we've listened to these drum tracks from 25 to 32 years old.

I can say that we are all in the band 100-percent happy with the result. It definitely feels like a completion. I think all of us in the band are happy to never, ever work with these songs ever again ... ahaha!!

We're more looking forward to making new songs and not looking back so much after this debacle.

Probably releasing more often now. Seven years is not too hard to beat!
 

D: Had the album been released around 2019, what might be different? What would sound different?

KF: It would have been a very different album. Our old bassist, Ossian, was more of a punk guy, so there would have been a different bass sound for sure.

It might have sounded a bit less melodically intricate because guitars and bass were rewritten and refined a couple of times. That's probably the biggest difference.

It almost might have been less well mixed since we've gotten better at production, and our taste has evolved since then.
 

D: Here’s the obligatory question about influences. What screamo bands were you listening to in that 2016-2019 time? And which screamo bands, if any, were you listening to when you were finishing this album? Did your tastes change in that time and, if so, what effect might that have had on the final sound of the album?

KF: Jeromes Dream, mostly. It's our favorite screamo band, definitely. We've had the pleasure to see them twice live now—once in Gotheburg and once in Canada at New Friends Fest (NFF) in '24. Since we played our show at NFF the same day as them, we went backstage and shook their hands after they played their show lmao. It sounds corny, but, to us, it was like meeting Led Zeppelin, so we just had to do it.

Also saw Raein at NFF, which is a huge inspiration. Ran up after the show and talked about mic positions on the Stratocaster. They have such a lovely guitar sound, and yeah, I was like, Damn it's just Stratocasters on the neck position. I was stoked because that's also what I love. They're also very cool dudes and very friendly to nerds bugging them after the show about gear. It was cool and inspiring.

But to answer your question, I think our "schtick" is to try to not emulate anyone and have a unique sound, for better or worse. It's a lot of just plucking things out of the ether during song-writing time and going for it because we literally can't do anything else. Like, we really, really wanted our band to sound like very hard-ass normal screamo, but obviously we just can't do it!!! hahaha
 

D: Please talk about the lyrics to “Puddle Jumper.” In particular, I’m interested in this part: “And I’m accepting the fact that you’re never coming back / I’ve come out stronger.” And this: “Then it hits me that you want me to do better.” These lyrics are nuts.

KF: So, I had a best friend in University that got brain cancer and died unfortunately! It's what the Firedragon3651 song from the first album is about. This song is kinda like the final addendum to that whole experience. The dude's gone now for a while but he's still flowing through my fingers, helping me remember. And you gotta stay positive and move forward—that's the human spirit. 😊

Thank you to Kid, Feral, for taking the time.

I enjoy the album, starting with “Funeral in a Grocery Store,” which offers a furious start, a cathartic onslaught of noise and emotion. The bass guitar hits like a ram. The song includes backing harmonies and a few screams bordering on terror. I like the vocal at 53 seconds—“I don't want to die in a grave I dug with my own hands.” Oh, that deeply felt sense of alienation: "And sometimes I look out the window and everything's normal / It confuses me greatly / When will it all connect?"

“Medieval Poetry,” my favorite song, mellows at 29 seconds as the bass drum pulses under looping chords. The vocal strain against the earworm melody works because it contrasts with the rougher parts. This is the album’s most rhythmically consistent song.

On “2019,” Kid, Feral plays like it has a total lifespan under 15 minutes. The album’s long-ass song is “I Want to Be Your Canopy.” It’s almost two and half minutes!

My second-favorite song, “Puddle Jumper,” starts with guitar notes chiming out a sun shower of well-played pull-offs and hammer-ons. Naked self-deception and truth battle in the lyrics, “And I'm accepting the fact that you're never coming back / I've come out stronger / Love! It's stupidly strong / Tears! When they come / I'll try / Pain and loss can be so scary / I'll try / How can I even start to describe something as awful as you leaving." Then this baffling ending: "Then it hits me that you want me to do better / LOVE! / I want to live, so let's acknowledge these changes."

What choice does one have but to spin awful heartache into motivation?

 

 

Kid Feral released “2019” on May 29th, 2026, through the Oslo-based label Backpack Records. The album was self-recorded in the band’s rehearsal space and self-mixed and mastered.

 

Interview date: Aug 21, 2026

a review of a noise rock EP by Coilguns

I wrote about this band’s 2021 EP. Now comes “Peace Trader,” a new Coilguns single about testing a country’s values and you not seeing that most people don’t care to live up to them.

The song starts with an octave chord and quieted drums. At 10 seconds, the sound goes big, raw, and passionate. It feels like good Deftones. A few chords swing back and forth to screams of “Tell me, what have we done with our history of peaceful force? Yet, we still have hopes!” Then the bass and a guitar drop out, the intro is recalled—the octave chord and drums pushed back in the mix so the almost spoken message can be heard, "Still thought that our land would export dialog instead of weapons / Still naive enough to support what we thought was our main goal / International help and solutions for a solidar world / But you’ve traded it all and pretend to be forced now to cope."

Then the sound explodes again. The most effective part comes at 2:40 with a falsetto mourn followed by the realization, however fleeting, that "No one’s land here, but a place to die; we will mourn them all, we will mourn them all.” Then belief in life after death returns.

Unlike migration flows, Coilguns runs tight.

 

about a tired-sounding punk/hardcore band

Industrial Puke’s second album, “Alive to No Avail,” opens with a serrated guitar riff, then comes the whole shebang.

The band plows ahead with its volume-equals-good ethos and centers a maxed-out vocal. The loudest part is always the vocal—chorused layers of it parading machismo.

The Swedish band’s second full-length tries to squeeze a few more miles out of the sound first heard on its 2022 red-blooded crust EP, “Where Life Crisis Starts.” The whole thing was seven minutes. Soon followed the band’s full-length debut, 2023’s “Born into the Twisting Rope.”

I wrote about the first one, “Where Life Crisis Starts,” here.

The band insists on one speed, one volume, and one trick. Its monotonous sound stumbled across the finish line of that brief four-song EP.

It was okay then, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go very far.

 

another review, this time of a punk band from Sweden

Fast, dirty songs give you that little kick in the ass you need

Maybe try some fast living vicariously with Spøgelse and these speedy elbow-throwing songs. The Swedish hardcore punk band advertise a lifestyle of motion, momentum, and attitude.

Of course the first song is titled “Who Cares,” but it shortly introduces the band and singer’s confident, chin-out sound—“No, I don’t want that attitude, I don’t want to love you, No, I don’t need that shit from you, I guess I don’t.” It’s a good fuck-you of a song with fuzz-busted guitars and mind-made-up tempo. “Terrible Head” offers more of the same, but Spøgelse at least sound like they’re having fun.

The production throughout leaves instruments muffled and buried, for better or worse. And the drums, which run a little ahead of the rest of the band, sound buried under the distortion and noise.

Most of these songs are barely a minute long, but “Kick Them Where It Hurts” manages almost two and a half minutes of okay stuff, starting with a chunky little riff that beckons the rest to come jam. The song even makes space for some hot licks. The playing on this song outshines the vocal. Everywhere else, that voice is the album’s strength.

If you’re looking for a RIYL, it’s probably Motorhead. Listen to “East Coast Nightmare” and try not to hear that influence.

Spøgelse debuted with a self-titled album in spring 2023. This follow-up, “Spøgelse II,” came out via Welfare Sounds & Records on October 24, 2025.

song lyrics by one of my favorite bands, Today is the Day

Rape my country again. Over and over and over again. No. I got a hand. I can use it. You could be the one. Running from my gun. Running from the bad man. Running from the gun man. Running with your life at stake. Taken. Broken. Homeless. Heartless. I'm not afraid. I got my guns. Now you're the one. Running from my guns. Running from the bad man. Running from the gun man. Running now your life's at stake. How's it feel to be my target? I won't miss. I totally promise. When you shoot at me don't be afraid. Justice will be done. Victory will be won. Life will be good again. Wipe away the blood. Shake away the pain. Live your fucking life. That's a good philosophy. Get yourself a brain. Break the fucking chain. Put the knife away. Be an honest man again. Mean what you say. Say what you mean. Try some self respect my friend. Paint that black word. Tear down that church. Look within. Try to find. Fly away. Heart and mind. Look so deep. Deep inside. Fade away. Heart and mind. Cross the sea. Far away. Cast the spell, this I say. Count on me. I'm your Glock. Rack the slide. Gonna rock. Better watch what you say. Better watch what you do. Better learn how to live. Get ready to move. Can you change? Brand new name in a rage, violent race.

about friends sending links to shitty music

Good aggressive music has some passion. The drummers are supposed to have a swing, barely perceptible variations of volume and pace. They aren't metronomes. Varying guitar strums, an improvised accent here or there, a quick adjustment as the music moves the musicians. The music has to move the people, not the other way around. Parents worry about their children, some bleach in children’s hair, some court dates replacing violin lessons.

a review of an album I liked—“Fear of the Plow" by noise rock band Haraball

Haraball make the raw, resentful sound of years squandered

Haraball deliver ugly defiance from the pulpit, and its hostage flock, having listened to the band’s unwelcome homily, so exhorted, have neither the time nor energy to hope for the best, for they expend their reserves steeling themselves for the worst.

Six years have passed since last we heard from Haraball, but this Norwegian noise rock band just released “Fear of the Plow.” The sound wears the spit of punk and hardcore and exudes a lack of reverence and dismal determination forged by life’s hard training.

Song structures are simple, but the music brims with texture and tension. For example, “The Squatter” stews in frustration. Having bottled it up too long, the lid bounces over the hiss.

And I like “Prison Cheese,” with its customary reverb and echo on vocals that pronounce and admonish, the bowling drums, the bass like a rolling slicer, and guitars full of subtle noise.

“Fear of the Plow” follows 2019’s “Hypno” and was released September 19, 2025, on the label Fysisk Format.

 

a quick review of a crossover punk band from Salt Lake City

Deathblow’s new EP offers more tall-guzzling thrash metal

I reviewed Deathblow’s three-song EP “Rotten Trajectory” in 2023. Those denim-and-high-tops songs sounded mosh-ready. The new EP, “Open Season,” tries to pick up where they left off.

The title track starts with some head-nodding hardcore, then steps into a fast punk-rock chord progression 40 seconds in. A textbook sound.

My favorite song is “Tormentor.” It attacks from the get-go with a rapid-picking riff. The song has a little of the old, nourishing energy heard in much of their 2023 release. And thrown in for the bargain is a hot little lead after the first verse.

But, man, the singer falls on his face trying to hit a high note at 50 seconds. I’d hate to hear the vocal tracks that didn’t make the cut.

The good news is “Open Season” includes some tidy thrash and punk compositions.

But the effort overall lacks inspiration. The music too often sounds rote.

The Salt Lake City band released the EP June 16, 2025, on Sewer Mouth Records.

about Linkin v Dillinger

In my freshman year, I went to a guy's dorm to play guitars. I was pretty good. I played Slayer and Ozzy. A few years later he asked if I wanted to start a band. He wanted to sound like Linkin Park, but I was into The Dillinger Escape Plan by then.

He had never heard Dillinger, so I played "Calculating Infinity" on my car stereo for him. He didn't like it: "Who wants to listen to this?"

I asked the same question about Linkin Park: trend-chasing commercial music for idiots, I thought.

Since then, I shed some snobbery and learned to see his side of it. It's fine if you care whether people like your music. Like, when I listen to music, I usually decide within two minutes minutes, asking, "Where is the bite? What's in this for me?"

But on the merits of sounding like Linkin Park versus The Dillinger Escape Plan: Dillinger was an admirable success for over 15 years. Its audience was loyal, and the band's influence continues. Linkin Park changed nothing and shed fans rapidly after a few years. The lead singer killed himself in 2017.

Note:
- Success in the music industry is the Holy Grail, anyway.
- Funny, all the little details of these two moments.

a draft of my all-time favorite albums list—a list that constantly changes but includes constants

Top-Tier All-Time Favorite 10 Albums"

"The Wall" by Pink Floyd

"The Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd

"Reign in Blood" by Slayer

"Aja" by Steely Dan
"For Emma, Forever Ago" by Bon Iver
"Jane Doe" by Converge

"Calculating Infinity" by The Dillinger Escape Plan
"Metamodern Sounds in Country Music" by Sturgill Simpson
"Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys
"Badmotorfinger" by Soundgarden

Second-Tier All-Time Favorite 10 Albums
"Sadness Will Prevail" by Today is the Day
"A Sailor's Guide to Earth" by Sturgill Simpson
"Appetite for Destruction" by Guns n’ Roses
"Grip It! On That Other Level" by Geto Boys
"Picture This" by Do or Die
"Blizzard of Ozz" by Ozzy Osbourne
"Malady" by Malady
"Seasons in the Abyss" by Slayer
"The Satellite Years" by Hopesfall

"The City of Caterpillar" by The City of Caterpillar

Honorable Mention
"Roots" by Sepultura
"Weezer" by Weezer
"Dirt" by Alice In Chains
"Above" by Mad Season
"The Bends" by Radiohead

 

 

Note: With endless caveats and prefaces about how I appreciate and care about the important bands, like the Beatles and Black Sabbath.

 

a review of a decent hardcore band that has some screamo and post-rock stripes

Demersal tries to capture the sound of everything happening to us

Demersal’s charged brush casts multicolor strokes of hardcore, post-rock, and screamo in all directions. Abrasiveness and harmony occupy background and foreground on the band’s new self-titled sophomore album.

It captures the turbulence of a world steeped in crisis and inequality, a world needing relief. With ideals and aggression, the band rebukes dominant ideologies—and with cloudy eyes, signals empathy for the disheartened. The band says, “It serves as a counterpoint to modern capitalist ideals of self-sufficiency—the notion that one should be a strong individual who’s able to stand up for oneself and one's own values alone—and it encourages to share one’s vulnerability with caring people and to reach out when the world feels the most incomprehensible.”

"Demersal" opens with vulnerability—the song “Flakkende Som Tusind Lys” approaches quietly, adding piano notes and synthy atmospherics to an anxious guitar and vocal.

But most of what follows is metal ricocheting around avalanches of sound—scream-singing, layered guitars, and fueled drums and bass. It’s dynamic and vivid.

Arpeggios open album single “Lys I Natten” and chime into a tight cadence. The song gets mathy, then melodic, with layers of low- and high-end guitar. From moment to moment, this band soars or menaces.

 

“Something” is a journey. A tension-shaping bass follows a subdued opening, then the volume swells into a hardcore onslaught succeeded by a shoulder-bruising breakdown at 1:40. Next, everything hushes and rebuilds with modest orchestration that pushes and draws air shapes.

I also like screamo song “Vakuum” and its fevered drumming and dream-captured bass guitar. Demersal comes up with some fantastic guitar arrangements, but those would be greatly diminished without the strong bass and drum performances.

Demersal, from Denmark, released its debut EP, “To Mend a Yellow Wound,” in 2017 and its first full-length album, “Less,” in 2020. The band’s new release, "Demersal," was released just May 10, 2024.

 

about another hardcore band's debut

French hardcore band Cleaver wreaks havoc on debut

The chaotic and crude-sounding "No More Must Crawl" debuts the hard-shove hardcore of Cleaver. Songs grind and scrape by in an Adderall-fueled turn, switching impatiently between sludge, choppy heavy metal, dissonant sidesteps, and chord-rolling hardcore.

The sound is a spasming relapse of American hardcore from the late 90s, like Botch and maybe early Converge at a time when Converge's epic album "Jane Doe" floated still on the hazy horizon.

The title track of "No More Must Crawl" echoes the eponymous closer of "Jane Doe." I liked “The Plight,” which opens with loud, dissonant detonations amid chunky power chords before slowing to a bleary slog. And the album’s eruptions of grindcore, like on “Thudding Stares” and “Kyg,” add vitality to these hastily stitched-together episodes of frustrated sonic violence.

Cleaver formed in France in 2018 and consists of Franck Fortina (bass and vocals) and brothers Mathis Garelli (guitar and vocals) and Léo-Paul Garelli (drums). The music shows a lot of promise amid the debut’s rough edges.

Note: This is from a while back.

about a loud band that sounds good

Hazing Over sounds fantastic on "Tunnel Vision," the band’s new EP. Hardcore, mathcore, grindcore, metalcore—all those cores fly like musical shrapnel.

“Gushing Wound” intends next-level wreckage beginning at the 30-second mark with the vocal “Corrosive connection, it wore me down.” Then a writhing riff at 1:30 folds melting beams into a mechanized monster—one of the most devastating sequences to hit ears in a while.

“Disavowed” razes in melody. The track with its clean vocals is an outlier in the young band’s small catalog. I hope the band tries more of it. The melodic turn starts 45 seconds in with the lyric, “Gutted prey swallow rain in neglect," the vocal melody summoned somehow from a gory parade of inspired hardcore. At 1:25, the song transitions into some weight-throwing chords and the lyrics, "Strangers in motion see through on their own the changes that no one seems to undergo / Disavowed, they wait it out / It weighs us down!" What a song.

"Tunnel Vision" was released July 7, 2023, via 1126 Records. All six songs run under 3 minutes. “Pestilence,” the first EP from the Pittsburgh-based five-piece, was released in early 2021.

 

Note: I started writing music reviews in June 2006. The first site I wrote for was taken down by the owner after years and years.

about an EP from some former members of aughts metalcore bands

New music from former members of Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan

 

Whoa! Here is an EP by Better Lovers, a group combining former Every Time I Die members Jordan Buckley, Steve Micciche, and Clayton “Goose” Holyoak with former The Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato, plus producer and member of Fit for an Autopsy and END, Will Putney.

 

The four-song EP, "God Made Me an Animal," opens with “Sacrificial Participant,” and immediately Puciato’s manic, veiny-neck vocal fills the room. At 1:10, the song spins melodic with a fretboard-tapping, cymbal-riding passage under Puciato’s rubbery and subtly R&B-influenced vocal, "You got manipulated, told lies behind my back / I’m not the one you hated, you’re just looking to unpack.”

 

At 2:13, the song downshifts, freeing reverb-heavy notes and splashy cymbals to run with the falsetto—“You’re losing time to move, outcomes keep you second guessing / entombed still inside the womb, and I’m not sure you’ll get the message.”

 

Every Time I Die and Dillinger toured together years ago, but in 2022 Buckley saw Puciato performing in Las Vegas, and one thing led to another. Puciato says, “We’ve all hung out, gotten to know each other, and it’s all fire now. Everyone has already been through shit. You know yourself better. Your ego isn’t as big as it used to be. You can share your opinions. It’s a cool dynamic.”

 

Buckley says likewise: “This is my life’s work. I learned all of my lessons, passed all of the tests, and took all of the right turns and the wrong turns. It turns out what I thought were wrong turns got me here, and that’s all that matters. I have no regrets. I know this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

 

In April, Better Lovers put out a single, “30 Under 13”—right away, you hear an aughts-era breakdown move into a glazed-thicc riff. At 2:08, the song drops into speed metal topped off with a virtuosic little guitar solo. Puciato often dominates songs, but the rhythm section gets time in the spotlight on this one. The finalé crushes with breakdown-style riffing and the attention-seeking vocal, "How far are you willing to reach? You can’t become like this fucking machine! Oh, you shouldn’t hold onto me, hold onto me, let go of me, let go of me, try to hold on to me, hold on to me, try to let go of me, let go of me, of what you’ll never be!"

 

It shows lots of Puciato’s nose in your face, but the video looks good. The dark background and red and warm-white lights burn and reflect off instruments and faces, all stars in a dying galaxy.

“For some reason, this song got me,” says Puciato. “Once that happens, you have the toe of the dinosaur skeleton in the dirt. You start brushing it away, and soon you have a fucking T-Rex.”

 

Drums hop ahead as the guitar and bass move with wild agility on the EP’s title track, “God Made Me an Animal.” At 1:25, the song hits fault-line-grooving riffs. At 2 minutes, a melodic muted-metal sequence jets, the vocal crooning, "Deny your skin and bone, pretend the flesh hides stone / I’m sitting here, we’re talking, but we know we have to go / and I’m afraid there’s nothing that can make this clearer / I wish that we could be nearer / anything to get you here or closer—anything to get you closer, anything to get us closer, anything to get us closer!"

 

Puciato describes the project: “Better Lovers definitely feels like its own thing. I’m in so many lanes right now, so it was important that one lane didn’t step on another. However, nothing I’m doing is this vicious. This is full-on scathing. It’s been really fun. I forgot how much I liked that.” Buckley also comments on what the project means to him: “Greg and Will rejuvenated me and made me even more confident.”

 

Putney mixed and mastered the EP; it sounds crisp and clean. "God Made Me an Animal" was released July 7, 2023. Better Lovers are about to tour, sometimes headlining, sometimes backing.

 

a review of a noise rock/mathcore band

Lower Automation’s newest album, Strobe Light Shadow Play, is an experimental, dissonant mishmash of noise rock, hardcore, and mathcore. The music has such a sense of motion, of nervous energy, sounds can seem like randomness overtaking the system. The band tests and tries things, and the noise is barely contained—but it is not chaos. “It’s the most experimental and noisiest release we’ve ever put out, but also probably the most melodic,” the band says.

Among my favorite songs is “Information Entrepreneurs and Their Lipsynching Choirs,” which opens with a piercing, shaky, manic vocal. At 15 seconds, the buzzy bass buzzes into a punchy dance beat while the distorted echo- and reverb-tweaked guitar bounces off the walls. Drums fritter and snap out.

“Acolytic” opens with little discordant riff that features a subtle lift at the end of each series of strokes. The bass rumbles and yawns, and the drums motion frantically and then pause and punctuate a desperately prayerful vocal. The energy grows, but then, at 1:25, the band pulls back into a bad-attitude bass riff, the drum marking time more evenly while the guitar still noisily sparks off around the room. The album captures some very good moments, and this song is a great example.

Another exciting moment is the what-the-hell-is this? opening to “End Scene”–a fast-picking classical guitar with softer emotive singing. This gives way to noisy, raw hardcore—the guitar is nuts. At 1 minute, cello strings sift from behind bass-drum hits before the song dives back into the fray.

The songs are short, hovering around 2 minutes each, and sound a little like The Locust with bits of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, and At the Drive-in. Strobe Light Shadow Play will be released November 22nd via Zegema Beach Records. Lower Automation, a trio from Chicago, has two previous releases—an EP titled Maps from 2016 and a self-titled full-length from 2021.

and posts an interview with some hardcore band

Brass guitarist talks lyrics, inspiration, and Canada.

 

BRASS released a new EP, Look on the Bright Side, on October 21st. The sound reflects the band’s influences—The Bronx, Alexisonfire, At the Drive-In, IDLES, and Refused. Sounds range from hard-charging hardcore to moody and dynamic post-hardcore. Last week, guitar player Tristan Milne took a moment to respond to a few questions.

 

Damon: I just heard the new album. The song “Milestone” sticks out for me. I liked the sense of tension, the dynamics, and, of course, the breakdown at around the 2-minute mark. The song lyrics include the line, “The ground moves right out from under me now / Does anybody else in here feel that?” I like this lyric and the phrasing. Was there a time in your life when an event suddenly seemed to change everything?

 

Tristan Milne: No. When we look back at the dynamic changes in our lives, the thread of what stayed the same is what becomes important. The milestone markers happen, but the crucial aspect is staying on the road.

 

D: What non-musical works or forms of art and media influence you and the band’s music?

 

TM: Painting and photography seem to be the two that we refer to the most when constructing songs. The combination of the immediacy of the recording process, which is like a snapshot of time, while creating on a canvas that has no ties to the physical reality of life is part of what makes music so fun.

 

D: The band comes from East Vancouver. “Bad Neighbours” is presumably about the U.S.A. Tell me a little about Vancouver and East Vancouver from your perspective. And talk a little about British Columbia and Canada. In your view, how does Canada’s proximity to and relationship with the U.S.A. affect Canada?

 

TM: While the band formed in East Van, we all came from different parts of Western Canada. East Van is great because it's been a melting pot that for decades has housed a lot of creatives and progressives. Canada still has its share of backward idiots, so the U.S. scenario isn't surprising to us. Devon has lines in that song about the States, but you can call someone out without denying your own faults, which I think he does effectively.

 

D: What makes you feel good?

 

TM: Sunsets, live drums, great headphones, good weed.

 

The EP, Look on the Bright Side, was released October 21st by Early Onset Records. The band lineup changed a little going into these recordings. Previous albums by BRASS are No Soap Radio (2015) and For Everyone (2018).