Released on January 18, 2025, Rudiments by Vancouver’s Dour is a raw and deliberately uneasy introduction to a band that resists comfort and clarity. The three-track EP—Laugh, Call, and Mundies—functions less as a statement of arrival than a fractured mirror, reflecting back ideas of internal distortion, self-reprogramming, and imposed identity under structures of surveillance and control. It’s short, but it’s not simple.
Dour formed in 2023, but the groundwork started earlier. “Gabe and I met at the skatepark in 2021,” said Zak Salehian, guitarist and vocalist. “When I was looking for players, he joined. We went through two drummers before Patrick—he saw us play in 2022 and hit us up after.”
The full formation came together organically, involving poker nights, studio overlaps, and mutual creative frustration. Moksh Amin, known as Mokka, joined after a casual jam session turned into something more. “We both won big that night,” he laughed, “but I didn’t see him for months. Then I saw the Dour Instagram post about auditions and threw my hat in.” The final piece came through Mokka again, when harpist-turned-bassist Bronwyn O’Keefe came to a show. “She played bass really well,” Zak said, “and has a keen sense of determination.”
Photos by @photos.byrobyn
On Rudiments, the band’s sound pulls from post-punk but isn’t restricted by it. Joy Division, Sonic Youth, The Jam, and even Television are clear influences, but so are older cartoons, melancholic stop-motion films, and experimental animations like Fantastic Planet and Neo Tokyo.
The outcome has been labeled “gloomwave” by some listeners, but the band doesn’t attach itself to any one definition. “It’s ways of thinking that inspire me,” Zak explained, “not exactly a specific idea, but more a display of true feeling expressed through art.”
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Zak’s lyrics—often instinctive and only later interpreted—circle themes of suffering, self-awareness, and the slow grind of reprogramming your subconscious. “I write for the people in hopes they can better understand themselves,” he said. “I myself am always in a state of suffering. I write the way I do in hopes that people don’t live the way I do.”
That’s not just a personal spiral—it ties directly into the broader tone of Rudiments, and even more so into the upcoming full-length. “The EP made me realize the concept of what the album is going for—self-actualization, or reluctance of self,” he said. “That’s what was going on with me.”
Mokka added that the full-length pushes further, both sonically and thematically. “There’s a vein that goes through Mundies, Call, and Laugh, but they’re better explored in the upcoming album. From a sonic perspective, there are influences from non-western music that you don’t really get from the EP.” Lyrically, the album expands into themes of institutional fallacy, psychological conditioning, and technological intrusion. “Everyone is watching you, your thoughts are being monitored, this is all by design,” Mokka explained. Zak framed it as a daily battle: “Reprogramming your subconscious mind to break away from new algorithms that are trying to colonize our minds.”
Community, creative vulnerability, and systematic disillusionment form the spine of Dour’s message. “I want people to get to that place—not so they can feel confused or unhappy with who they are—but so that they fully know what’s there and they can strive to be the person they want to,” Zak said. “Social media and new technology is the biggest part of all of this. It’s the soul-siphoning architecture of the internet.”
The band’s attention to control—both external and internal—extends into their visuals. The EP’s cover was a flea market find. “An older gentleman was selling photos from around 100 years ago,” Zak recalled. “I liked the feeling of having that as the EP cover because it’s heavy in subject matter, but we reminisce or aspire for simpler times.”
Their presence in Vancouver’s live scene has grown quickly. Alongside sold-out hometown shows, Dour has opened for acts like Tropical Fuck Storm, DZ Deathrays, and Omni. They’ve also played Goosehunt’s 11th Annual Music Fest and recorded a live studio session with Once More With Feeling.
Zak noted the scene’s evolution: “When we started, the scene used to be very indie heavy. It felt like we were one of a handful of alternative bands.” He credits local fixtures like The Pearl and Zach (aka iamtheeggplant) with offering key support, and names bands like Marry, Lalune, and Piss as fellow artists bringing new weight and purpose to the city.
Looking forward, the band is already working on album two while their debut LP is still in the mixing stage. “The process of mixing with Mokka has been amazing,” Zak said. “He brings the engineering standpoint and I bring the direction of feeling.” Mokka reflected on the DIY mindset behind their approach: “A lot of bands I grew up on took their art into their own hands. I think that’s really special. Through these practices I think we’ll become more refined—not only just engineering, but also in terms of productions, and making songs SONGS.”
The relationship between Zak and Mokka appears to be one of Dour’s core strengths. “Mokka is the only other person, human,… being I’ve met that I can speak with on a level like this,” Zak said. “I feel understood by him, and I feel like I understand him… That’s a pure love.”
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That blend of vulnerability, reflection, and sonic layering defines Dour’s entrance. Rudiments is not an easy listen, but it isn’t supposed to be. It functions as a thematic primer for what’s to come—both a first draft and a warning sign.
Read the full track-by-track commentary below, where Zak and Mokka discuss the meaning behind each of the EP’s three songs, reflect on limerence, dependence, surveillance, and the deceptive nature of modern empowerment.
Mundies
Zak: Mundies is a pseudo love song. It’s trying to explain how much someone can mean to you, yet, relationships in this song, would be viewed as a vice or necessity. You can’t escape from it.. you think you love each other… I guess it feels like you do, but you need it… And seeing it that way almost seems like it’s untrue… instead of a place of symbiotic purity, or feeling whole.
Mokka: I also think, the song itself is really the perfect background for getting lost in thought, there is a sense of limerence, which is really cool.
Zak: It’s almost like it could be hopeful.
Mokka: Limerance is an obsession, a melancholic obsession. Its not necessarily a bad thing, but you’re torn between your reality and your fantasy. Is what you want even good for you? Will your feelings be returned to you? In that moment, it doesn’t really even matter. We pine and know what we want is beyond reach, yet we still enjoy the moment within our minds. When I listen to it, it’s really pretty, more than anything, it’s the feeling I get listening to it, it’s pretty special.
Call
Zak: Continuing that theme of Mundies, On relationships feeling like a vice, Call is being in a state that’s absent from that person, and realizing how dependent you really are on them for you to justify who you are. Without them you don’t know what that is. Noticing that, and understanding that a lot of pieces of you might have left a long time ago. Because they aren’t there to fill what’s now missing.
Mokka: There’s one line I really like “I’m so fooled in chasing the dark, I need your smile.” That really captures the whole feeling of the song.
Zak: It’s actually cool to talk about this, because most of the time i don’t consciously have these ideas in my head and then decide thats what im gonna be writing about, It starts as a feeling, it just sort of comes out that way subconsciously, almost like im in a meditative state, Or tripping. With that heightened Awareness I realize what’s better going on with either myself, or people I care about. With that comes a collective understanding of all people, …or most people, I guess.
Laugh
Zak: Laugh is basically about being subservient, realizing why you do certain things for certain people or remain in a certain state or place when it may or may not be something you wish or care to do. It’s about being present in times when you feel like your most self, and striving for something more.. and doing whatever you need to do, to get there.
Mokka: To me, it feels like the glass ceiling. They’re telling you “Hey try!” but there’s no hope, it’s not necessarily about being subservient, you have no choice. Even if you do want to try, you can’t……and they laugh.
Zak: Exactly.
Mokka: It’s Nihilism, in the fact that they know it’s rigged but they keep trying to guide you. “Dream big” “be less”. They’re all mantras that the system tells us to follow, but it has no use. There are bigger issues and they use this messaging to distract us. “They” being the system.
Zak: And that is up to your perspective, it can be seen as either or. Yes you may think there isn’t a choice for many people… but that is up to you to actualize those things in your life, in whatever way you’re able to. It may not be through your occupation, but it could be certain things you do at home… like self care, or being creative and expressing yourself. It’s all up to your perspective. “A revolution of the mind is the first step towards true liberation” ~ Stokely Carmichael.
