Let's just do an introduction thing.

Mike: I play drums, keyboard and I sing on one song.

Hugh: I mostly sing and play bass and I play percussion on one song.

Daniel: I play guitar and I sing and I play percussion. And I think that's it. Yeah.

Dan: I play drums, some bass and one vocal part.

Jacob: I play bass and saxophone and percussion.

So how did you guys come together and decide on this type of band setup? It's not exactly usual to have 5 percussionists and 3 bassists.

Jacob: In different sort of groups, we've been in bands together for a number of years now. Mike, Hugh, Dan and I were in a band for a while and then Hugh left DC for a little bit. And then Mike, Daniel and I and another friend of ours were in a band for a year. Then Hugh came back and the other kid that was in that band left and the five of us were all like, "Hmm, let's be in a band." So we started playing, first practice was just two guitars, one drummer, one bassist and a singer setup and it was like none of us were really feeling what was happening. So, in Daniel's parents' basement where we practiced we just had a bunch of stuff-we were like, "Eh, let's try stuff out." That's sort of how it began, and then we all either had a bunch of other instruments or had stuff we wanted to try out that other people had. That's how it's sort of grown, just starting with the idea of 'let's see what we can do with what we have.'

Dan: I had never played drums in a band, but I played drums like … a little bit. So we kind of talked a little bit about Mike and I playing drums on a song, but it wasn't necessarily going to be like 'this is what the band lineup is.' We were just trying it out and then it worked. We started with that and wrote a couple songs like that.

Mike: That sort of set the tone, the idea of this flexibility of us playing different things. I think we all feel that there's a point where we need to play something that's not what we're playing-or if there's something lying around-I think we all would probably feel pretty comfortable picking up whatever, even if we don't play it.

So less like a band where everybody has set roles and more like a collective?

Daniel: We were talking about this in the van the other day, where it's not so much seeking out specific instruments, like 'bassist needed call this number' but more just like playing with your friends and kind of like whatever works.


How'd you guys get hooked up with Dischord?

Dan: Well it was as simple as Ian saw us play at our first real show. I think that night he was like, "Oh that was awesome," I didn't talk to him that night. But a couple months later, he called Hugh, I think, and was just like, "Don Zientara and I do free recording sessions sometimes, would you like to do one?" and we were obviously like, "Yeah definitely, that's awesome." So then we did our first 7", we just did two songs and we put it out on Hugh's label, Ruffian Records.

Hugh: With Ian's help. He helps a lot of people. He and Dischord help a lot of people out, put records out and stuff.

Dan: So anyway, then we kept playing and he would come to our shows sometimes and we would talk about recording. So we were talking to him for a while about recording a full-length. We talked about it for a good while, we sat down with him at one point and talked about aspects of doing the album, sort of gave us advice, which I think was helpful.

Mike: This was after we gave him some demos.

Dan: We did some demos, and then eventually we recorded the full-length. We didn't even know actually if it was definitely going to be on Dischord when we were recording the full-length with him. But we kind of thought it would be

How do you guys feel that you fit into Dischord? Cause there's kind of a progressive, year by year, moving sound to the label. Do you know what I mean?

Jacob: Yeah, yeah. I think at least for a while-a long while-going back to even some of the hardcore stuff but definitely like the early emo or whatever, like Rites of Spring, sort of like the aesthetic with Dischord has been very artyish punk rock. And it's like that is really what Dischord, to me, is aesthetically about in a lot of ways. Obviously that's not just what Ian puts out but it seems to be what he likes. And it's sort of like what is arty in punk rock in DC has sort of evolved but I think we fit into that continuum very clearly, you know? Rites of Spring, Nation of Ulysses, Q and Not U, us, whatever. None of that sounds the same but it's all very much-if you listen to it-it's not like the ideas are that different.

Daniel: Yeah I mean I think like he said it's just the labels entirely comprised of bands that Ian likes so I think there are certain … not necessarily certain things he listens for but it makes sense all the bands are on Dischord.

Jacob: Yeah I mean, there's one or two people choosing all the bands on the label so there's going to be certain aesthetic things that tie them together for the most part. That's not a hundred percent thing but …

Hugh: It seems there's a continuity.

I wanted to ask how you make all that guitar noise. Cause there's hardly ever any notes actually played on the album.

Daniel: No there's a lot of notes … they just go by real fast. [laughter] I don't know, I have a real simple guitar setup, I have a delay pedal but I only use that on one song, so it's mostly just distorted guitar. I play my guitar with a lot of metal and other stuff, like on one song I have a kickdrum beater, so part of the song I hit it with the metal end of that. Another part of the song I hit it with the batter, so it just holds notes without plucking them. On one song I have a tuning fork and I hit it and the tone goes through the pickups and sounds cool and I hit the strings and it makes noise.

Just whacking it with different shit?

Daniel: Yeah, I have a bass bow now that I've been using. I don't know. I mean it's not just whacking it with other stuff. I've been definitely figuring out how different sounds work and stuff. But it is to a degree, largely just … I mean, that's like a lot of what I do. But I'm trying to develop a system, I guess.

Jacob: I think it's pretty obvious that you have a system, you know it's not just banging on stuff, it's just not a traditional way of playing guitar. But it's not just random nonsense going on, I think.

Daniel: No, I mean that's true. That's just how everything happens. Do you have the record?

Yeah I do.

Daniel: Throughout that record, everything was mapped out.

Dan: It wasn't improvised guitar parts.


I wanted to ask about a specific lyric, it's the closing line of "Deformative." Do you know which one I mean?

Daniel: Yeah, 'a loneliness no fag could comprehend?' Well that song focuses a lot on pedophilia and how that seems like it'd be a fairly difficult thing to deal with. Not fairly, I mean insanely difficult to deal with because you can't act on your sexual desires without making your partner some sort of victim. So, that is the voice of the pedophile, talking about how that is beyond just having a sexual identity that's deviant in comparison to society. That is hard to deal with, but even harder is having a sexuality that is actually harmful to your partner.

Hugh: The idea being that people who belong to other sexual minorities can act on their sexual preferences ethically and with complete mutual consent-without there being an inherent problem in acting ethically and morally on your sexuality. If you're just queer, it's like no problem-

Daniel: Well, it's not no problem.

Hugh: It's not no problem but in terms of a grand moral scheme of things… It's not as demonized, but the thing is that's not the issue. The issue is that it's not something that's natural and normal. Not that people who have pedophilic desires, not that those desires themselves are immoral, but acting on them necessarily presents a moral problem.

Do you have any kind of goal for shows or anything? Like what the show is supposed to be?

Daniel: Um, I don't know if we have any kind of goal. There's certain things that we like.

Hugh: We like it when Daniel doesn't hit his head really hard and fall off the stage. [Laughter]

Daniel: I mean, my favorite thing about shows is when we're playing and people come up and either are dancing or singing along or like come up and play our percussion, there's some sort of direct interaction. We're on tour obviously but we're playing some shows in DC too where we're just standing and playing, and it's fun to play but like it's hard to feel whether or not people are responding to it at all. Sometimes you feel people responding to it even when they're not jumping around, I think it's awesomest when there's visible communication, especially when people come and play our instruments with us. That's the best for me, because people are like playing with us and it becomes this collaborative creative process instead of just like 'here's our stuff' it becomes this communal event, which is so cool. And I feel lucky that it's happened a couple times with us.