HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR036- BLEAK, "No Light, No Tunnel"

Bleak were churning a path of destruction across the country, constantly on tour, taking shows wherever and whenever they could.  And through it all they were continuously writing and coming up with more apocalyptic sounds to destroy the world with.

At a point between the “We Deserve Our Failures” LP and what would become their next full-length, “No Light, No Tunnel” vocalist Scott Thayer left the band to move to Egypt.  The band was without a vocalist for a short period of time (a time which included playing a few shows with fill-in vocalists- myself included- as well as recording the Dialysis/Bleak split 7”, which also relied on contributing vocalists to fill the space), but soon found themselves pairing up with original vocalist Mike Watson once more and getting back on the road.

At this point original drummer Nick Shelton officially exited the group, as he could not commit to long stretches on the road.  The band had already worked with a few other drummers to tour with as needed, including former The Chariot and Architect drummer Mark McGee, as well as former Tombs drummer Andrew Hernandez.  Both would continue to play with Bleak throughout this time before eventually finding a permanent member in Ithaca resident Cam Meyers, who stayed with the band until their dissolution.

With Watson re-entering the fold on vocal duties he brought a different vocal style than Thayer in terms of larynx-shredding torturous screams versus Scott’s sturdy and gruff bellow.  It was a chaotic and genuinely painful bloodletting on the vocal front and it completely fit the idea behind ‘Bleak’ in a different way than what was presented on “We Deserve Our Failures”.

And things went pretty smoothly for the band for awhile as they got on the road and wrote the record.  The writing for this album was quite a bit different as the music became more chaotic, crazy time signatures swirled around, and a bit of the mosh-y tendencies of earlier material were replaced with truly violent sounding music.  Jeremy Lorenzson, a friend from the Philly area, started coming out to play second guitar with the band to fill out some of the sound and ideas that guitarist and primary songwriter TJ Calandra was putting together.

And then, after the record came out and the band went on tour in support of it a major blow came to the group when TJ was injured at a show, which sidelined him for basically the remainder of the band’s existence.  TJ had always had a number of health issues that had affected him since he was a kid.  Not to get too into detail (I’ll leave that for TJ), he eventually required needing a full heart transplant.  It’s nuts. 

So with the main musical drive of the band exceptionally restricted in terms of being able to play out Bleak slowly burnt out, playing only occasionally for the next several months before finally packing it in.  Honestly, it’s a pretty crazy ride and I caught up with TJ Calandra- who’s doing surprisingly well these days- to recount some of that wildness that was the later-era of Bleak and the record they made “No Light, No Tunnel.”

Chair-mosh

OK, let’s get it out of the way first- describe the injury you sustained on tour that kind of led to Bleak slowing down a bunch because you physically were unable to play out.

Well, It is sort of two fold: Somewhere on tour I developed an Inguinal hernia. This, of course, was due to lifting heavy things, most likely our gear in a horrible fashion. I think somewhere at the beginning of a spring tour, however it wasn’t, at the time, that bad. I have had one before that was repaired surgically back in 2006. So after that tour was over, it got worse and worse. I went to a general surgeon to see if could get it repaired, and they said that before he could operate I would need a Cardiac clearance from my heart doctor.

I was born with a congenial cardiac defect called L Transposition of the Great Arteries and had numerous surgeries throughout my life, including one when I was a week old, and an open heart surgery when I was seven, which resulted in me getting a permanent pacemaker placed inside me. So before I could this hernia surgery, they need a clean bill of health slip from my Cardiac doctor. Seemed easy; other than my hernia I felt like I was in excellent health. The doctors hooked me up to this machine that allows them, through a magnetic device, to get information from the pacemaker, run diagnostic tests, and make changes or adjustments to it. However, they saw something very wrong: I was in Atrial Fibrillation (A Fib) and had been in it for 88 days straight.

I have been in A Fib before many times, however I was able to feel it, and notice it due to my heart beating tremendously fast and losing breath very easily. So I was shocked. Being in A Fib is dangerous because unless you are on blood thinners, a blood clot could form in the heart that could eventually break off and go into your lungs or brain, to where you’ll have a stroke if you’re lucky, and if you are not lucky you’ll die.

When the doctor said I had been in A Fib for 88 days, I went back to see what I did 88 days prior, and it turned out it was on a previous Bleak tour at a house show in Tallahassee, Florida. We had unloaded the van and I was setting up the merch table. After I finished, I started doing inventory of some of our shirts. There were these two guys nearby that were friends but they were high or drunk or both. They started play-fighting, then wrestling, then actual fighting and threw themselves right into our merch table. I was pissed; I don’t let the other Bleak guys put their drinks or anything on it. And worst is that these two guys were still fucking around with each other as if they didn’t notice or care that they just messed up all of our stuff. I then grabbed both of them and literally picked them up and threw them off of the table and on to the floor, trying to separate them. Matt Jaime (Bleak bassist) came over then to stop the ordeal, but that is exactly the incident that could and did raise my heart rate to a level which would bring on sudden A Fib.

The only weird thing was that I didn’t feel it happening. I got my hernia fixed with surgery, however the doctors could not get me out of A Fib. Normally, they do what is called a Cartioversion, which is a controlled defibrillation under anesthesia; in the past I had this done numerous times and it successfully worked. Yet, the doctors did this on 3 different occasions with no luck. They tried bringing me out of it with medication, but again no luck. My heart slowly deteriorated due to the A Fib for so long, and I needed a heart transplant. There is no doctor in Syracuse, NY, nor any transplant center, so I went to New York City to New York Presbyterian Columbia on October 17th of 2016 (my mother’s birthday) and stayed there until I got a transplant on December 3^rd, 2016 (the 49th anniversary of the first Heart Transplant).

So, “No Light…” is quite a bit different than “We Deserve…” in terms of it being a more musically complex record, definitely more chaotic, and I recall you describing the writing behind it to me as being more as a response to Mike’s vocal style.  Also, it seems like that record came together pretty fast after Mike rejoined.  Had you already been working on new music for it before he rejoined the band, or was it just a spurt of creativity?

Yes, it is different and it definitely is more frantic and trashy, while the songs off “We Deserve Our Failures” (WDOF) are mid-tempo groove, maybe one could call an Arrhythmic sludge. Funny enough, almost all of the songs on NLNT are older than those from WDOF; some were pre-Bleak even. And that is the reason why the record seemed to come together so fast after Mike rejoined the band. The first track off of NLNT, “Teeth” and later on “Crowley,” “Roses” and “No Time” were all songs we did as Bleak with original Bleak lineup of Nick, Matt, Mike and myself.  However, when Skot joined we stopped playing them. Side note: when a band I am doing has some significant member change such as a singer, I try to make the music fit their voice/singing style, as well as give them a fresh start so they feel as though they are creating something and not just learning 5 or 6 songs of someone else’s creation.

So we dropped those songs and worked on ones that were new at the time and Skot was writing lyrics for. But, when Mike rejoined the band, we decided to do those songs again. However, we added a thrash element to “Teeth” to make it coincide with the fast thrashy feel of the rest of the material on NLNT. The rest of the tracks pretty much were material I had for awhile that I didn’t think fit well with Bleak at the time of the band’s inception. Some of those riffs and structures I had for years.

For example, the riffs for the songs “I Can Not Die” and “Fuck Your God,” I was messing around with while my other band Architect was recording their second record in 2008. It wasn’t until Bleak at the time of “No Light No Tunnel”, where I felt the material could be Bleak songs done right by the band at the time, if that makes sense. Mike has a percussive element to his singing, that adds accents to what you are hearing: it is like an extra punch in a fistfight. Skot’s singing adds a counter melody to the music; it is like an extra set of hands strangling you.

When Mike got back on board, the I was able to use those older songs with the faster, chaotic, more complex rhythms, tempos and arrangements, because Mike’s voice, I thought fit perfectly with them.

"Give it up for Mr. Michael Watson, and his band Sexual Chocolate!"

What led to the decision to bring in Jeremy on second guitar, or how did you get to know him?

We met Jeremy on the first weekend we did with Scott singing for us. It was a show in Philly and Jeremy was in a band called Sovereign. For Bleak and Sovereign, it was love at first sight. We played so many shows together and even did a split 7 inch. So when my health problems arose, and I said I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of touring or playing out, Jeremy was who We went after to fill for me. However, there were two local shows that I was semi healthy enough to play, so we had both of us on guitar. There was a time when I started having lots of health problems and Jeremy was on board filling for me, that Bleak figured that when I got better, we would then do the band with two guitars. Especially after the show we played as a 5 piece with Pig Destroyer in Ithaca, and another show with Crowbar in Syracuse. I played the Crowbar show almost dying, and went into the hospital a few days later. My health diminished tremendously and I needed the heart transplant. Once I got it, and health got better Bleak dis play a benefit show for a friend and we played it as a five piece with Jeremy. It was a lot of fun. Looking back, I wish we brought him on sooner.

Mike is a pretty musical guy as well.  I know you have pretty much written most of Bleak’s material, but did he contribute at all to the music?  Conversely, did you contribute at all to any of the lyrics?

Mike is a very musical guy. Extremely, in fact. However, he didn’t really contribute to the music aspect of the band, and I didn’t contribute to the lyrics. When it comes to the songs on NLNT, a good chunk of the stuff was already written for awhile. I made some demos and sent them to Mike. Seriously within a day Mike would send me back a demo with a vocal arrangement on top of what I just sent him. With Bleak, if I did anything it would be a “don’t sing here, sing here” type of thing, but I don’t even know I did that for NLNT. I think perhaps maybe more so with our EP “Songs for Cowards.” Mike has a good sense of what is going with a song in general and what I am doing structure wise for a song. When I write, I definitely have vocals in mind when arranging, in terms of how many times some part is played, and sometimes how vocals will feel as it carries over some complex structure. For example, on NLNT, in the end of the song “Crawl” it is a very jagged, almost stochastic sounding rhythm over a simple 4/4 guitar, all of which is intended to crescendo in a beat with the whole band in unison. All I needed to tell Mike was to start singing a straight vocal pattern over top of it, and he got it. It was better than I could imagine. I didn’t even need to tell him to switch to a different time signature once the stochastic section was over. So he can know what I have in mind going for in vocal structure, without me telling him. And this even applies to music with enormous complexity.

Matt (Jaime, bassist) had mentioned previously that when it came time to record you recorded all the guitars and bass for the record and Mark McGee played drums.  Since Mark lives in Canada did it make rehearsing with him to get him ready for the recording tough?

It wasn’t difficult at all working with Mark long distance. He has been the drummer of Architect for a decade and we have been working on stuff over long distances for a long time. When it comes to working on NLNT, I made a demo of each song and sent it to Mark. He would then learn what I had programmed, add his own flare, and then record a video of himself playing the songs, so I can see and hear what he is doing. I loved it. He actually prefers this means of writing. Mark thinks that it is just not using the band’s time optimally learning a song part by part, instrument by instrument while all the other band members are standing there waiting. This makes sense because, at the time of recording NLNT, Mark was living in Iqaluit, Canada (to give you some reference to how far north this is, it is a city father north to New York City than Cuba is South). So flights out of there were scarce, and therefore time in Syracuse was both valuable and pressing. So we prepared months in advanced, and Mark knew the songs front to back like he had been playing them for months, because he had in fact been playing them for months. I think when he got down here we rehearsed for two days. One of them with Mike running through the songs with us, then we went to record. Mark got all of his tracks done in 8 hours.

A busted ticker cannot stop one from playing with their favorite band

OK, so I get the title and it definitely sounds like one Mike would come up with.  But I have to wonder- you almost died on more than one occasion.  Did you have any input into that title?

I have died on more than one occasion, in more than one country; and I can assure anyone who thinks knowledge is attained via subjective experience that when your are on the brink of shuffling off this mortal coil, that you see no light, walk through no tunnel, nor will you find yourself in some celestial appellate court combing through your transgressions like it’s your Facebook memories, but instead that death is more like the loss of definition; absorbed into what paradoxically, yet comfortingly can be called the substance of nothingness, as if you were a dewdrop placed in black lava. However, the title of the record was ultimately made up by Mike.  However he originally had “No lights, No tunnels,” but I suggested it be singular. At first Mike had a single word title, but I had a two-fold problem with it: first, it wasn’t strong enough (I can’t recall what it was now). The first record, “We Deserve Our Failures,” was such a strong, pessimistic title, the second record needed one of the same caliber. Second, I have an issue with single word titles when the band's name is one word. I know this is just an eccentricity of mine, but I don’t think it is aesthetically pleasing to have see just two separate words on an album cover, floating around as if it were the end result of someone playing around with their alphabet soup, nor do I think single word titles give one any sense of content or imagery. A band’s album title should on its own invoke an extremely vivid picture of what you the listener are about to be in for, and leaves no room, no gaps for the vagaries and the junk context the human automatically mind fills in on it own. A band’s album title should be more like a treatise on getting punched in the face, and less like a Rorschach test. But that is my thing. It has nothing to do with Bleak or any particular word Mike or Scott made up. I just have an aversion to single word album titles.

A drum cam on Cam, drums

So what did eventually lead to Bleak splitting up as a band? 

I probably could say with confidence that I think when it comes down to it, the reason why Bleak is not together anymore is because of me and my post heart transplant situation, and that would be a good portion of the truth, but not all of the truth. After any organ transplantation, the receiver has to take a number of immune suppressants because your immune system thinks the new organ is a disease, a tumor, or a parasite. Your body does get used to the organ which makes it so you can gradually decrease this medication, but never be off of it. This means I can get sick very easily, and when a heart transplant patient gets sick, no doctor wants to touch the patient, because there are so many factors that have to be taken into consideration anatomically and pharmacologically. This makes my condition not suited for touring or punk rock in general. Not just because of dingy venues or crusty punk houses, but also the need to be in relative proximity of a hospital with a transplant center. There is a cliché belief of someone who just had a heart transplant getting out bed, running marathons, playing basketball and coaching soccer, but this is a delusion. In reality, you are more like Howard Hughes isolated in a room, wearing gloves, and angrily asking people if they thoroughly washed the vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, I have played shows since my transplant with my other band Architect, my new project with Mike and Cam called Serial Sleepers, and as I said earlier one time with Bleak. However, the occasional show is not really Bleak's style; we are very much all or nothing. When I first came around after my operation, and came to terms with all the new lifestyle changes now forced upon me, I said to the other Bleak guys that the band can continue, but it would have to be without me on the road, much like how the band was operating at that time with Jeremy playing guitar. But they said that it wasn’t the same, without me and that I was an important character to the band as a live entity. So that is another aspect of Bleak's all or nothing philosophy. It’s either an orgy or abstinence.

Possibly one of the best flyers for a show ever

What was the best thing about Bleak and what was the worst?

The best and worst thing about Bleak were the same thing: playing out live. I write a lot of diverse types of music, and have been in bands that are all different genres. However, I really only like playing out live the heavy angry kind such as Bleak or Architect. I don’t know why exactly this is the case. It isn’t that the heavier stuff is my favorite songs I have written; those vary greatly. I can’t say that heavy music is more visceral, but I can say it is more fun. All music is hypnotism to the listener. You as the songwriter or band have cognitive and emotional control over those listening. So with Bleak, performing live, playing the songs, and crushing it was like bringing the audience to the brink of violence, and you could feel it. It is like controlling an army. And on tour, right in the middle of the tour, where the sweet spot is; where you are a killing machine, and every band member is carved out of wood, that is when it is the best. You could see it in the faces of people. They make that face where you see them grit their teeth, flare their nostrils in scorn, and lower their brow in anger; their shoulders clench forward and their necks bend downward as if they are pulling a plow. That is a person who is about to fight something, and that is what we did to people. At least that is what I thought we did, and what I enjoyed the most.

The worst part is, of course, playing out too: it is so exhausting, it is so hard to organize, it is so costly in money, it is so consuming in time, and it is so detrimental to anything else in your life that you value. Driving to a show in a snowstorm that any moment you could crash and die, you constantly ask yourself “why am I doing this?” This of course, I guess, isn’t specific to Bleak, but applies I think to any full time band. However, maybe it is just me. I have a love-hate relationship with playing live and Bleak of course did a lot of playing out.

And if you act now (or for the next week for that matter), if you go to the Hex site you can score one of the above records for just $5.  You can also get the CD for $4.  You can also get the digital for $4 as well.  Take your pick, but I think it best to just throw money at me and see what you get. 

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR035- GRIZZLOR, "Cycloptic" 7"

There isn’t a big story to tell with Grizzlor really.  They are a group somewhat shrouded in mystery, but it’s not some marketing gimmick.  They’re just exceptionally anti-social people in the truest sense of the term.  I mean, they have released their own recordings under the name Hermit Cave Records if that begins to give an indication.  Typically, instead of using band photos they rely on retro sci-fi art of space monsters and bizarre horror scenes.

But what drew me to Grizzlor, which was quite randomly at that, was the simple clunk and thud of their monstrous brand of noise rock.  It was spiteful and mean, but with a sort of blunt directness to it that just distilled that salty, bitter East Coast curmudgeon attitude of being pissed off at everything into a laser-focused, 90-second beam of irritability.  I loved that they got in, honed in on one singular awesome riff, played it for a minute while going on about snow, or bad drivers, or space; then got weird for a second, and then got out.

At first I found it to be kind of funny, but bad ass at the same time.  And then I just couldn’t stop listening to them and decided I ought to track down these obvious weirdos and see what their deal was.

Their drummer at the time, John, was actually quite approachable and let me know that they were always writing music.  He figured that they had, at any time, probably at least 7 or 8 songs just lying around.  Additionally, they just recorded themselves for everything, as vocalist/guitarist Vic Dowgiallo operated his own studio when not furiously writing more and more riffs for the Grizzlor canon.  Pretty soon after the idea was born for the “Cycloptic” 7”- 7 quick songs packed onto vinyl and ready to go.  The band worked extremely fast.  They had an artist they worked with to create more of that weird sci-fi art of monsters and desperate situations involving beasts crushing puny humans in some dystopian future.  It was really the only part of the process that involved any money outside of pressing the record.  At this point I’d still never met these guys.

Finally, though, right after the record came out I saw they were playing this really kick ass show in Providence at one of my favorite venues- AS220.  It was a chance to not only see them and finally meet them, but also to kick it with friends in the Central Massachusetts and Providence areas.  It was a very brief and simple exchange.  They really were actual anti-social people as we exchanged some pleasantries, and then they went about their business of setting up, and getting ready.  I mean, there was no false pretense there.  I respected that.

Once the band played they were definitely one of those groups that sounds exactly the way you hear them on record.  Yeah, their stuff is relatively simple, but everything was dialed in perfectly and tight.  Kind of like the only thing they did was practice.  In a cave.  Maybe in the dark.  Away from humans.  They also had this wild microphone set up where instead of using a regular mic Vic used an old telephone on a stand, which gave the vocals that sort of static-y buzz and reverb that you hear on the records.  It certainly added to the anguish in the vocals.

The record was met with a great deal of praise and people seemed to like it.  I was happy to continue to carry on the relationship I had with the band if they chose to.  I mean, despite them being pretty reserved people for the most part they were an incredibly easy band to work with.  They were very self-contained.  They went out on the road pretty regularly, wrote a lot, recorded all their own stuff, and arranged artwork for their releases.  They just needed someone else to release it for the most part.  Done and done.

So for this I reached out to Vic as he has been the constant within the group since their inception and takes care of most everything associated with Grizzlor.  I pried him out of his cave for a chat and I wonder if he uses the same telephone to talk to others as he uses for a microphone?  In true Grizzlor fashion he kept things very brief and to-the-godamn-point.  It’s probably best if you just listen to their records, or watch live video, or stare at pictures of aliens blowing up astronauts instead and then question your existence and why you’re probably working a stupid job.  Grizzlor would want it that way.

So tell me how Grizzlor started?  You sort of just came out of nowhere.  And by nowhere I mean Connecticut.

Grizzlor started with me writing a few solo songs and then showing them to John, the original drummer. He said, "Yeah, let's do this." So, then we needed a bass player. We got Wade to join and we started playing in his basement.

Had you played in bands in the past of a similar ilk, or did you have an idea you were going for with Grizzlor?

There was somewhat of a basic idea in the beginning, of course, but you just keep doing it and then it progressed into what it is now.

I’ve noticed you never really use live photos, or rarely use band pictures, and instead just go with crazy sci-fi art for most things to promote yourselves.  Why is that?

Because band photos are stupid, but you have to do it. So, we did it and used them when necessary. Sci-fi photos are cooler.

 stupid band picture

I feel like “Cycloptic” came together really quick.  Were you sitting on stuff that you didn’t know what to do with?

No, we always kept pumping music out, so we would stay ahead as the projects came along.

 So listen, you got through all this in like two minutes.  For that you get a reward- "Cycloptic" is on sale for the next week for $4.  I have some white versions, some red versions, and you can even choose which one you want.  That's 7 songs for $4.  It's like just over $.50 a song.  Or go even cheaper and get the digital tracks for $3.  Seriously, just do it.  GET IT HERE.

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR034- EX-BREATHERS, "Past Tense" LP

Alright, in the last bit regarding Ex-Breathers (see the 4-way split compilation 12” piece) I’d sort of got my foot in the door with working with the band.  They were coming off of the compilation LP that featured three new tracks from them.  Additionally, they had cut a 7” simply titled “EXBX”, which featured 12 very short songs in a significant departure from their self-released debut LP “Collision” that came out before all of this stuff.

I was left wondering what the band would go for next.  If “Collision” erred more on the band’s metallic/thrashy side, the 7” emphasized their adoration of groups like ALL and Minutemen, while the comp songs fell somewhere in the middle.

The band was headed out of their home of Florida for a U.S. tour and I offered them a show up in Syracuse, which fit their routing and proceeded to have them stay over after the show.  We talked quite a bit that night and discussed what would be happening with their next LP.  I was fully on board to release it if they wanted and they tentatively agreed.

Later on, as things got more firmed up, they asked to again do the record as a split release.  This time the far more indie-leaning Exploding In Sound Records (Pile, Kal Marks, Ovlov) would split the pressing and I thought that was a pretty good idea.  After all, I feel like Ex-Breathers was a combination of sounds that my label had been known for (generally on the heavier side of punk music), while Exploding In Sound released a lot of wonderfully interesting indie bands.  In my opinion, both labels release music that is not the standard of any particular genre and I thought it was a great plan. Plus, I was already an admirer of bands on Exploding In Sound.

This time around the band went around the route of recording themselves, or even remaining in their hometown of Tallahassee for that matter.  They ended up recording out in Massachusetts at Sonelab, where records by Dinosaur Jr had been cut.

The result was “Past Tense”- a record that quite perfectly captured that space that Ex-Breathers had sought out between their hardcore-punk tendencies, their contemplative and left-of-center melodies, and a growing sound as musicians and as a band.  Imagine if the early roster of the SST Records stable crossed paths with Fugazi and NoMeansNo as they were just gaining momentum, and then gene-spliced in a dose of modern punk.  It’s an easy record to grasp because it’s fucking good.  It gets more difficult as you take a deep dive into the songs, the influence behind them, and the band.  They were a trio that, for a short time, created an interesting sound that was hard to exactly pin down, but it rocked.

And so I caught up with them again to take a look back at “Past Tense”.  I interviewed the band before that record ever dropped so I had to come up with some questions that reflect more on the later era of the band.  Bassist/vocalist Jack Vermillion was down to talk shop and catch up after a long day learning about physics.

I had to re-read the interview I did a few years back and make sure I didn’t ask the same questions I did back then.

I honestly don’t remember anything about that interview.  Although I do remember we talked about ‘Forida man’!

But I remember I asked a bunch about the changing sound of Ex-Breathers.  So the band went through a few different sounds and I think a lot of that had more to do with how the records were recorded versus the ‘sound’ of the band.  Did you find that more to be getting better at recording, or a conscious decision to try different recording techniques?

I think it was definitely that latter because when Ex-Breathers started we did a demo and our buddy Paul recorded it.  I don’t think that David (Settle, guitarist/vocalist) had even started going down that path of learning how to record bands.  So we did our demo and everything we recorded after that, up until “Past Tense” David recorded.  So he basically started with not knowing anything, but he did live sound so he understood live mixing. 

I think there was a broad idea of what we wanted to sound like, or what sounds would serve our songs.  But there was definitely a lot of learning going on.  When I listen to “Collision” (Ex-Breathers first LP) now I realize we spent a lot of time trying to make it sound like we wanted it to, but it just sounds a little too blown out and bottom heavy.  But David learned a lot just by making that record.  Some of the stuff we did when making that record was kind of ridiculous and I’m surprised it sounds as good as it does.  I don’t think it’s anything amazing.  We were definitely doing some weird shit that no one would advise us to do now.

Like what?

We were taping the microphone and converting the XLR to a quarter inch and plugging the mic right in to guitar pedals, and those right into the board, and recording vocals like that.  We recorded the whole thing in our 10x10 storage unit.  It was basically a metal box so everything was just bouncing around like crazy.

But that’s how you figure it out, by just fucking around.

Yeah, yeah!  Exactly.

Talk a bit about the time leading up the recording of “Past Tense”.  It seems you were touring a bit more, the band seemed to be making some inroads in different places and with various bands and people.

Well, it’s hard for me to remember what was going on exactly right off the top of my head, but we did make some really good connections in different cities like New Orleans, Nashville, Richmond, and Birmingham.  And once we met Dan (Goldin, Exploding In Sound Records) in New York, and then you in upstate things came together more.  The more we were a band, and the more we became involved, and the more we toured it was just easier for us to book a tour.  We had been in touring bands for a few years before Ex-Breather started.  Plus, me and David had run a venue here in Tallahassee called The Farside for a few years.  So we just built up a pretty good catalog of people we knew that we helped out that we could cash in favors from.  But the longer we went, the more we played, it just became a little bit easier to tour.  The last tour we did before we recorded “Past Tense” we toured up to Western Mass to record it.  We were able to pay for the whole 5-day recording session with money we had made pretty much just from that tour.

Really?  Wow!

Yeah.  We had booked a recording fundraiser gig in Tallahassee with just local bands and it was like $5.  It was just to help us raise money to go record.  So we had a pretty good head start just to get going.  And then we also did a little loop around Florida because the drives are short, we knew people, and doing a little week around Florida can be pretty lucrative if you know you can get good shows.  So those two things combined with the few shows we played on the way up were able to cover the whole thing.

That’s awesome. At this point it seems as if you all had become pretty familiar with recording yourselves.  What led to the decision to go up to Massachusetts and record?

At that point we were not putting out our own records anymore, which we had done up until that 7” that came out right before “Past Tense”.  We recorded that 7” ourselves too, but that 7” was more like a concept.  We did that ourselves and when it came time to record “Past Tense” we thought to ourselves that we had always recorded ourselves, let’s try to get into a studio.  Our first choice was to go to Kurt Ballou at God City and record with him.  But we had some friends that we knew who recommended Sonelab, because we had never heard of it, and then we looked into that and talked to Justin, the owner.  We hit it off with him and he liked what we were doing.  Kurt did get back to us, but it was a bit after we had already been talking to Sonelab.  Plus Kurt was going to be a little more expensive, certainly not a lot, it was still a very reasonable rate. But hearing some of the stuff Justin had did, plus with it being a little cheaper, we decided to go to Sonelab.

I think we were just ready to take that step.  We wanted to just go somewhere and really have faith that it was going to come out in a way that we’re going to be really stoked on, and maybe a little different than what we could create on our own.

How did the relationship with Exploding In Sound come about?

We were just aware of Exploding In Sound because we liked a lot of the bands on that label.  I think we knew some people who knew him as well.  I think the Gnarwhal guys knew him.  But we didn’t really have too much of a connection with him at all.  So when we put out “Collision” we sat down and made a list of people we respected, whether it was people who did blogs, or people who ran labels, or just people who we just wanted to be aware of our existence.  So we put maybe 20 records together and just gift-wrapped them with a hand-written note like, ‘hey, we’re this band and here’s our story, here’s what we’re up to, here’s our record, we just wanted to put this in your ear.’  We just wanted to make more connections.  Up to that point the only connections we really had were just touring bands that were coming to Tallahassee.  That was our primary source of any connection to other people in the scene.  So this was our way of just branching out.  So we sent out all these records, one of which went to Exploding In Sound, and out of all these people Dan was the only person to write us back and say ‘thank you’.  We thought that was awesome.  And at that time Exploding In Sound was me and David’s favorite label.  They put out Pile, and Grass Is Green, and Ovlov, all these awesome, killer bands right around that time.

So that’s how we first came into contact with them.  He was super nice so we just kept in touch with him and we then did our next record, that 7”, with this label called Texas Is Funny.  That label ended up hiring Dan from Exploding In Sound to do publicity for the record.  So we started having a working relationship with him at that point.  So when it came time to start thinking about the next thing we began talking to Dan.  Before that, though, we did that 4-way split, which was a good step because it got us talking to you, so we got to work with you.  And Ovlov was on that split, they were on Exploding In Sound, so it all came together even more.  So he hit us up about putting out the full length.  We had sent him some demos and I think he booked us in New York, and he had chilled out with him when we played there.

So he offered to put out “Past Tense” but said he couldn’t afford to release it on his own and then you were literally the only other person we asked, and you agreed.  It was a perfect situation, everything fell into place, it was so cool!

I think it was really advantageous all the way around.  I think you guys hipped me to that label and I ended up liking them quite a bit.  And I could see that Dan had some connections that were outside my realm because he dealt with more of an indie crowd and my label has been known more, mostly, for heavier stuff.  So just having both labels to put the record out there to probably two different audiences was a good idea.

We got a good perspective of working with labels through doing that 7” with Texas Is Funny.  I think the guy who ran it went to school for music business.  Everything about what he wanted us to do, and how he operated was kind of foreign to us because we were pretty strictly DIY.  He wanted us to sign contracts and set up all these weird promotional accounts on these online services and play these conferences, like SXSW.  We ended up doing that and playing there and it was great.  But it was a different kind of world that he was operating in and what we were used to.  I appreciate it all the work he put into it, but that was one end of music that people are into and when we met you and Dan we thought, ‘this makes more sense!’

I don’t think Dan uses contracts at all, and I know you don’t.  It’s all very streamlined, like ‘this is the deal, let’s do it.’  You guys want to do it because you’re excited about music.

And as far as Exploding In Sound being an indie label, that’s one of the main reasons why we wanted to work with them because when we would tour and play local shows the hardcore scene did not care about us at all.  They knew us, and I’m friends with a lot of those guys, but they did not give a single shit about Ex-Breathers.  Or, really any band that you could describe as ‘punk’.  The hardcore kids like hardcore and don’t want to listen to anything else.

We would play to whoever, we didn’t give a fuck.  I know I’d rather play with indie rock bands instead of some macho mosh band or some shit.  So when we started a lot more indie kids liked us as opposed to hardcore kids.  So we thought going down that path made sense, even though we didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a band that plays to it’s genre.

Discuss the situation around having two drummers.

OK, so Adam (Berkowitz) was the drummer for the entire life of the band.  But me, David, and Adam had always played with different people during the course of Ex-Breathers as well.  Me and David had another band together.  I think me and David were in like four different bands together for about a decade straight.  But Adam joined this band The Mongoloids, from New Jersey-

(laughs) He was in The Mongoloids?!

You didn’t know that?!  Yeah, they were not good.  But Adam sort of came from that hardcore scene.  So The Mongoloids just cycled through members like crazy.  I think the singer was the only consistent member.  So Adam was playing in this hardcore band from here and met The Mongoloid guys through that when they played here.  And they were going on tour all the time.  They were going to Europe and going everywhere.  Ex-Breathers was active too, just not as active as that.  We would do two or three tours a year for a few weeks.

But there were a couple things that led to us having two drummers.  The first was that Adam was touring with Mongoloids and it was sort of holding us back a bit from touring and playing.  So we thought we would just play with our friend Ronnie and he could fill in.  But the way that Ronnie ended up playing on one of our records was that we had gotten the songs together for that 4-way split, and I remember they were the first songs that we had solidified after “Collision” had come out.  And Adam wasn’t really all that into them, he was just sort of down on them.  Plus he was on tour all the time.  We didn’t want to stop playing with him so we were thinking of how we could make this work.  So we started playing with Ronnie a little bit, just to record demos of these tracks so we could get them down.  So Ronnie played on some demos and then we started touring with him.

To be honest I can’t recall how we decided to officially record those songs with him, but we ended up touring with him, plus he is one of me and David’s closest friends.  And I don’t think Adam has any hard feelings about it or anything like theat.  He was super busy touring.

And then Adam came back.

Right!  And Adam would play with us while he was in Mongoloids too, like when he wasn’t on tour with them.  I remember there was one tour we did with this band Direct Effect from Orlando.  We started the tour with Adam and then dropped him off in New Jersey, and finished the tour without him.  We didn’t have Ronnie either!  We had the drummer from Direct Effect play drums with us who was a pretty good drummer, but Ex-Breathers songs aren’t exactly the most straightforward things in the world.  So we finished the tour with this other guy playing drums, which was maybe three shows or whatever.  But we only practiced one time.  It was the day after we dropped Adam off.  We practiced for a couple hours in a basement in Philly.  It was pretty shaky playing those songs, not because the other drummer wasn’t good, but because there was so little time to get it figured out.

That whole tour was sort of doomed though.  There was a lot more going on than just that.  The day before we were supposed to leave Direct Effect came up and we were hanging out at our house.  David comes home from work- he worked at some blueprint-printing shop- and he’s got his hand all bandaged up!  He said, ‘man, I sliced off my fingertips at work today.’  The day before we leave for tour!

We still went though and at the first show I think I played guitar and David just sang.  It was a disaster!  That tour was scraped from the get-go!

 Ex-Breathers playing Gainesville Fest with Ronnie on drums

Around the time the record was released you all did a U.S. tour to support it.  How did that go and was there anything particularly interesting about it?

We went out West with Gnarwhal and I can’t remember if we did another one after that.  We did the West Coast and some of the Midwest, it wasn’t a full U.S. tour.  But that was definitely the last tour that Ex-Breathers did.  We did do some final shows as well.  We did a hometown show and we played Gainesville Fest, and then that was about it.

Not too long after that tour the band decided to part ways.  What were the reasons behind that?

By the end of the band I had been working at this vegan restaurant for around five years.  I was pushing 30 and the owner was in the process of moving and offered me a stake in ownership of the business.  So I decided to buy in and I told David and Adam that I was going to do this so I wouldn’t really be able to tour.  I was still down to do the band, it would just be part-time.  But David and Adam both also really wanted to get out of Tallahassee, and if they couldn’t do Ex-Breathers in a full-time capacity then they didn’t really want to stay in town.  Adam ended up moving out to the Boston area and going to school for music.  David moved to Philadelphia.  Both those guys wanted to pursue music full-time.  It seemed for a bit that Ex-Breathers would do that- be a full time band. I was having a great time with the band, but me deciding to take on owning a restaurant didn’t really fit in with being in a full-time touring band.

I’ve always been curious about the cover of the record.  I had assumed it was just a silhouette of the band, but there’s only three of you in the band and there are four people on the cover.

The cover is a picture from when we went to Massachusetts to record the album.  We stayed with our friend Adam Reed, who lived in the Northampton, or Western Mass, area.  We were crashing with him the whole time we recorded.  The day before we went to record he took us up to a park on a small mountain and it had this elevated platform.  The sun was behind us and our shadows were on the ground below.  David took a picture and put it on his Instagram.  When I ended up seeing the picture I said we ought to use it for the record cover because it’s a nod to Ronnie because he was like our forth member.  But he’s not in the picture.  It’s me, David, Adam, and our friend Adam we stayed with.

So even though it’s not Ronnie it’s an ode to the four people who were a part of the band, even though you were a trio.

Yeah.  I mean, you can’t tell it’s not him because it’s just our shadows on the gravel.

Video from Gainesville Fest 2013

So what was the best and the worst part of being in Ex-Breathers?

The best part of the band was towards the end and being able to put that record out.  I mean, music-wise I love all of our stuff, but looking back I think the “EXBX” 7” was my favorite.  But getting to work with you and Dan was great.  We toured with Pile for like a week out to Texas, which was awesome.  We had known them a bit, and we had put on shows for them in the past.  And then we just reached out to them randomly and asked if they would ever want to play together and they replied and just said, ‘you know, we’re actually headed down that way pretty soon, why don’t we do some shows together’.  It was awesome.  The story of our band just seems to be, ‘hey, let’s Hail Mary this idea’ and then it just ends up working!  The last tour we did with Gnarwhal was fantastic.  It was just the five of us- because they were a duo- hanging out every night.

The worst thing was probably that we played some really bad shows.  There were a few bad shows on that last tour, the kind where the promoter doesn’t care, or doesn’t pay you, or has nowhere for you to stay for the night.  That tour we did with Direct Effect was just doomed from the beginning.  We played in Champaign and no one came.  The opening band left before we played.  I think it was just a guy and his girlfriend there.  I almost died before we even played because I got electrocuted from the mic.  We toured in cars so I couldn’t bring my regular bass cab, and I had to use this smaller thing and I think something was wrong with the electrical.  So when I went to check the mic I feel like I had gotten punched in the face.  I blacked out completely and when I came to I was just leaning on my amp!  I was out for a few seconds there.  So I ended up putting a coozie over the mic or something and still played to no one.  Afterwards the promoter had no money for us and nowhere to stay.  But that tour was just doomed with obstacles.

But overall, the band was fun to do and we’re all still friends.

And there you have it.  So these days you can catch Jack studying physics and still booking some shows in Tallahassee, or take a listen to David's podcast Under the First Floor, while Adam resides in Western Mass and plays with bands here and there.  But if you want some Ex-Breathers in your life I still have copies of the LP and you can get it for 5 measly bux.  That's it.  Get it HERE cheapo.

REVIEWS OF PUMPKIN SPICE AND SWEATERS. I MEAN, RECORD REVIEWS FOR SEPTEMBER...

For fans of black record covers with minimal art I give you a bunch of stuff that coincidentally looks very bleak.  I mean, just look at that mashed-up cover selection!  We got a mixed bag here.  Generally, I enjoy extolling the virtues of stuff that I like.  But sometimes stuff comes my way and I'm just not feeling it.  I try to be positive, but, well, I'm an honest person.  So here's a bunch of stuff that is both good and not-as-good.

CASUAL BURN, “Mean Thing” LP

Casual Burn kind of sound like what would happen if acid casualty hippies into Black Sabbath caught wind of punk ten years before it actually became a thing and tried their hand at it.  The first half of this record is lo-fi garage punk with sung vocals that have a bratty edge to them and a scrappy recording.  The B-side opens up with a lost Pentagram riff buried under piles of used heroin baggies, and honestly, it’s really the only part of this record I’m feeling (not because I’m into heroin or Pentagram, it’s just a solid riff).  The B-side kind of continues in that vein, so it really sounds more like two EPs of different styles thrown onto one record.  I get why band purposefully roll with semi-shitty recordings in order to create a certain vibe (because in 2019 there’s no reason why a band can’t get a decent recording with just a smidgen of effort), but in this case I feel it kind of hinders the band.  I can’t say I’m really into this overall, but if this description gets yr gusher flowing who am I to stop you from checking it out?  (Handstand Records) 

CHILD BITE/ BRAIN TENTACLES split 7”

What a fantastic pairing.  A couple of heavy music’s most interesting weirdo rockers team up with a song each in a package that really goes all out with fancy printing, detail, and originality.  Speaking of originality, Brain Tentacles is a band comprised of uber-drummer Dave Witte, Keelhaul bassist Aaron Dallison, and avant-garde saxophonist Bruce Lamont making some wild noise.  On their track “Yes” Lamont lays down an incredibly hummable (and effects-ladden) lead and some reverb-y vocals while Witte supplies a super trippy off-time beat and Dallison keeps the whole thing moving along with a great pace.  It’s weird, and you gotta expand your palette a bit, but it sounds fucking awesome.  Brain Tentacles rule.  Now on to un-originality.  Child Bite is on the other side and I only say their track is unoriginal because they didn’t write it.  However, their choice to cover “Nerve Quake” by Lubricated Goat is musically in line with Child Bite’s already proto-punk/rock n’ roll/noise rock/ slightly metal rollercoaster.  Accentuated by spazzmodic vocalist Shawn Knight’s quivering howl it’s really the only major deviation from the original.  Child Bite’s been a on a roll lately with new offerings, which is always great.  Brain Tentacles needs to get back in action and wreck minds.  (LearningCurve Records)

EYE FLYS, “Context” EP

If Wrong is a perfect rip of peak-era Helmet, and Eye Flys sound a lot like first-EP era Wrong, what does that make Eye Flys?  I don’t want to reduce this new band to anything minor because their sound is like instant gratification of heavy noise rock goodness.  But this project of members of Backslider, Triac, and Full Of Hell seemed to set out with the intention of having fun playing riffs completely based off the Melvins, Helmet, and Killdozer back catalog.  And there’s nothing wrong with that!  That’s what side bands are sort of for- scratching that itch of other interests their primary bands don’t quite get to.  However, Eye Flys got a little more attention than they probably bargained for and here we are with their debut EP “Context”.  And, yeah, I get quite a bit of instant gratification listening to this because it’s what I like.  But I’d also love to see this band branch out just a bit and develop their own identity.  (Thrill Jockey)

MONOLORD, “No Comfort”

Relapse already has Windhand doing great things for them, so maybe they thought they’d roll with a second-string European version of that just in case something happens to the Americans?  I mean, this is a sort of more folksy version of Windhand, but with more boring vocals.  In fact, most everything about Monolord is pretty boring.  I have a pretty limited tolerance for sludge-y doom metal, with only a few bands really doing it for me, and a vast ocean of others doing absolutely nothing.  Monolord are one of the ones that do nothing.  (Relapse)

SECT, “Blood Of the Beasts”

Multinational hardcore conglomerate Sect went and surprise dropped their third LP on us out of nowhere and to be completely honest it sounds exactly like their last two records.  They really are running with a theme here- short, fast songs balancing hardcore, grind, metal, and riffs revolving around the misery of human existence, animal liberation, and that ‘ol punk chestnut of sticking it to those in power.  If you dig that HM-2 riff accelerator as perfected by the likes of Entombed, Trap Them, and All Pigs Must Die this is in that exact same ballpark.  Musically it does kind of run together for me, and that might be because I have heard a number of bands follow this play book.  Sect remains interesting in part because I always appreciate the design aesthetic of their records, as well as Chris Colohan’s eloquently penned missives that can tie together vegan straightedge, how it relates to power structures, human and animal issues of subjugation while still remaining clever and insightful.  No sing-alongs here, just a lot of misery that makes you think.  Live it sounds like a sledgehammer to your face.  (Southern Lord)

SPRAY PAINT, “Into the Country”

After a years of quiet as the members spread out across the globe to do whatever it is they’re doing Spray Paint have reconvened again to offer “Into the Country”.  I used to be able to count on getting one or two full lengths from this Austin-raised trio each year.  So when this finally dropped I was pretty excited to see what they had been up to.  Well, if their goal was to be unsettling, disorienting, and discomforting Spray Paint still have it. But the sound on this is quite a bit different than all their other material, often using drum machines and synths, along with their well-worn ultra-reverb’ed out guitars (no bassist) to get the music across.  I’m definitely far more partial to their weird attack of dual guitars, dual Texas-drawl vocals, and simple beats, which they only offer up on a couple of the later tracks on the record.  But I can understand that having done that for 6 other LPs they might be interested in trying something else.  I get it.  I’m just not as into it.  (12XU)

TEETH TO YOUR THROAT, “A Life Without Pain”

Some noisey boys from Vancouver, British Columbia return in a new form after previously operating under the moniker Black Pills (who put out a hell of a demo a couple years back with a different singer).  A couple of these cats also play in about-town stalwarts Taxa, as well as the exceptional Silver Chains.  They’re just veritable renaissance men of punk, all playing together in a variety of bands with different sounds and really nice gear.  Teeth To Your Throat may be the most directly hardcore-leaning band of the bunch (that I am familiar with anyway), even though it does venture into the noisey and chaotic side of things, maybe even slightly ‘metal’ at times.   Shades of Rorschach, Deadguy, and even a few riffs that could have found a home on early Rollins Band records show up here with hoarse, shouted vocals leaning heavy on the socio-political end of things.  In a unique twist, there are 5 songs here, but 10 tracks because the same songs are present- once in English and again in Spanish.  So, you know, international punks can scream along too.  (self-released) 

TRVSS, “Absence”

I didn’t know what to expect here because the artwork doesn’t tell you much and neither does the band’s page, plus I have no idea what their name is supposed to mean, or how it’s pronounced.  But I gotta say, nice work TRVSS.  You get yourself 10 tracks of kinda noisey, kinda spazzy durable rock from Pittsburgh with just a little bit of sass (mostly in the vocals, I’ll allow it).  There’s a quality to the guitar sound that is very reminiscent of Midwest rockers Call Me Lightning, whom I’m sure no one remembers or cares about, but believe me, that’s A-OK.  At their most out-of-control they could have even had a record out on GSL in the late 90’s.  And at their most direct it’s chugging along with a good post-hardcore vibe like on “Late Night Monologue”, which shows up later on during the record.  Whatever the case, TRVSS get a nod for surprising me with a great sound far off the mark of anything I thought it might be.  (self-released)