Merging together noisy melodies and abrasive tones and distortions with style, it’s with a skilful thrust in which this experimental hardcore duo attacks the senses. It is thereforemy great pleasure to give you a proper introduction to DEATHDEALER, whom I interviewed a few weeks ago.
Deathdealer is a two-piece hardcore band from Boston, MA that offers much more than your usual duo. Combining various genres from hardcore punk to noise rock, the twosome create a sound all their own providing a breath of fresh air within the Boston hardcore scene. With a sonic reminisce of legends like The Locust or Lightning Bolt, their first LP, Volume One, features fourteen tracks collected from their already incredible discography.
“Volume One” was released on February 27th through Have Fun Records.
Photo by Freddie Ross. Album artwork by Nikita Kaun. Help by Zack from Real Screamo and Have Fun Records.
Hey buds! What’s up? How’s Boston? Haven’t you frozen to death yet?
Hi Karol,
So we’re actually currently living back in our hometown in CT, despite being DEATHDEALER (MA). The snow is pretty miserable here too, though. I’ve definitely had enough of shoveling it.
Oh I sympathise with you guys – there was no real winter in Poland this year.
Ok, so let’s face the facts. There’s only two of you guys, so if you lose one member, you risk losing the entire band, right? Would you consider getting a new member to continue with DEATHDEALER if one of you guys was hit by a blizzard and vanished from this world? How tight are you with each other and what does this band mean to you guys?
There would absolutely be no DEATHDEALER without Dalton. Beyond the fact that he’s one of my favorite drummers I know, we’ve been best friends for over 15 years. If for some reason he couldn’t do the band anymore, I would end it. Besides, I’m not sure who else would want to play weird, trashy piss-punk.
This band is a duo out of necessity; We couldn’t trust anyone else on earth to commit super hard to writing music and playing shows and going on little tours. As corny as it sounds, this band means the fucking world to me. It means having something special and fun and productive to do together. We’ve grown up listening to and writing music together, so this is part of us. It’s really all we know how to do.
Is being an experimental noise /hardcore duo about controlling your legacy? What were some of the fundamental ideas behind this band?
I’m not sure that we’ve ever thought about a legacy or anything that huge. We wanted to make a band that we would be fans of if we weren’t in it. Although there are a few well known bass and drums duos, there aren’t many screamo/punk bass and drums duos that I know of. We wanted to be the first, or one of the first.
In terms of experimentation, we hate anything generic or played out. So many “hardcore” bands now are doing the same shitty recycled beatdown/meat head hardcore thing. What’s the fucking point? Too many clone bands. We just want to make something a little bit different. Anyone can write stupid, chuggy mosh riffs.
Ok, so what’s your ultimate goal for DEATHDEALER?
I guess like a lot of bands, our absurd/unrealistic goal is to be able to make some kind of living at this so we don’t have to work actual real life jobs, thereby having more time to dedicate to this. Even if we’re pretty much broke, it would be nice to have this be our only focus. We just want to play as much as possible. Also, we’d like to open for BLACK SABBATH.
Now that’s what I call a proper purpose! :)
Ok guys. It was a great decision to put out all your previous short releases on one record. Tell me more about “Volume One” and when we can expect “Volume Two”.
We think of VOLUME 1 as the first chapter of this band. Zack (of Have Fun Records) had always been really supportive of our music through his Real Screamo blog, so when he approached us about maybe putting out music on vinyl, it was a no-brainer for us. We didn’t have any new songs ready, so we thought it would be cool to just take every existing song and put it out on pretty colored vinyl. The record has our old release SOULSTEALER on the B side, as well as a bunch of newer songs from splits and singles on the A side.
As far as our next release, we’re going to record with our dude Mike Moschetto at The Office Recording (North Andover, MA) in April. We’ve been writing material for a new full(ish) length for about 9 months now, so it’ll be great to finally get them recorded. As far as a release date for that one, we have absolutely no idea.
Great! Be sure to drop me a line from time to time and let me know how the progress is going
Ok, so how did you end up on Have Fun Records? Are there more labels involved in this release?
Will do! Basically Have Fun Zack just approached us through Facebook and said that he dug our music, and that Have Fun would be into getting something of ours out on vinyl. Like I said, we had no new music at the time, hence the discography LP that is Volume 1.
Have Fun handled this release entirely, which we’re beyond thankful for. We’ve worked with other very small labels in the past, like Heads Up Records, which our old room mate/friend runs with another close friend of ours. SOULSTEALER was released on tape a couple years back by Don’t Live Like Me records.
What encouraged you to release it on vinyl? Are you aware of the freakin’ queues and delays you’re causing by adding more orders to the poor American pressing plants?
Yeah, the delays are definitely shitty. From what I understand, Record Store Day causes lots of these delays, and it’s also kind of dumb. Zack/Pirates Press managed to get ours out really fast though, which is great.
I’ve always been a fan of vinyl. I got a Grand Funk Railroad album and an AC/DC album when I was about eleven years old. A lot of people at shows would kind of laugh at our tapes and say that they wished we just had vinyl out. We would have felt ridiculous coming out with vinyl when we first started out, but some people have been listening to the older songs on this thing for a couple years now. It was about time.
Are there some decent record stores in your area? How do you buy vinyls?
In Connecticut, there’s a really sweet place called Redscroll (Wallingford). It’s good for new records that aren’t just shitty pop albums. Tumbleweeds (Niantic) is my favorite shop in CT for old and used records. I love classic dad rock, like ZEPPELIN and DEEP PURPLE, so that store is a gold mine for me.
In Boston, our favorite is probably Armageddon Shop (Cambridge). It’s mostly all punk/hardcore/metal. I shop for all my beloved stoner metal there. In Your Ear is another sweet Boston spot. I’ve gotten cool noise/grind/punk stuff there.
Honestly, being that’s it’s 2015 and all, I end up ordering a lot of new shit online. Shopping in stores is really fun, but it’s tough to find everything. I love buying old stuff in stores though. I collect BLACK SABBATH records, MISFITS records, stuff like that. When we play runs of shows in other states, we like to stop at stores. I’ve gone on record shopping sprees in random places like Illinois and Georgia.
Any European labels and/or stores you shop at? How well is your knowledge of our punk scene?
Like most dumb Americans, we don’t have a vast knowledge of the European punk scene other than maybe some older screamo. There’s definitely bands we listen to that aren’t American. Being a huge stoner metal fan like I mentioned before, I’m really into BELZEBONG (Poland). I have some of their records from online stores/distros. We both love BIRDS IN ROW, and when we were kids, we used to listen to this weird Finnish band called LODGER (not sure how popular they are anymore). We also have a weird Nintendocore fetish, so we jam DUNGEON ELITE, who are from Italy.
Nice. Ok, so back to the States, are there more local undertakings, bands, labels, venues, or other local scene activities you’d like to promote here?
For all Boston humans: We’re playing a record release show on March 28th in Mission Hill. Check up on Facebook for details.
Also, listen to TRI-STATE ERA (my other band), PAPER SKELETONS, NATIVE WILDLIFE, AVIATOR, TINY FRACTURES, RENA SURRENDERS, WHENSKIESAREGRAY, and LOVECHILD.
Thanks! Thanks for taking some time with me. Feel free to add anything you like and take care!
Thanks for having us!
