The recent split between Italy/UK based DISCOMFORT and Southern Carolina’s FALSE LIGHT marked one of the meanest, sickest and most intense offerings in the world of grindcore infused, noisy, metallic hardcore this year. The record serves an incomprehensible, ferocious ride, casting its own, deep and long shadows and leaving the listener wanting more. Please do not sleep on this one. Play it and learn more about both bands through our interview below.
DISCOMFORT / FALSE LIGHT split is available now via Epidemic Records (Italy), Assurd Records (Italy), Eastrain Records (France) and Headfirst Records (USA).
After their late Summer American trek, both bands will be joining their forces once again for a European tour starting January 5th (see the details below).
Top photo: DISCOMFORT.
Photo: FALSE LIGHT.
Cover artwork by Ethan Lee McCarthy (PRIMITIVE MAN).
Hey guys! Thanks so much for taking some of your precious time to chat with us here on IDIOTEQ. Let’s start off with the inevitable question about how you got together and teamed up for this split. What’s the story?
FALSE LIGHT: Tom from DISCOMFORT emailed us about a year ago and asked us about doing it. We were pretty dormant at the time and saw this as a good opportunity to pick things back up and start touring and releasing music again. Plus we thought their band was badass. We felt like they made sense to do the split with since they’re in the same realm as us but are pretty different, so you’re not getting the same thing twice.
Lyrics-wise, please tell us more about some of your sources of inspiration for these tracks.
FALSE LIGHT: My lyrics are always half personal bullshit and half global/political frustration. Nothing new. But I try and hit a lot of these topics from a unique angle. The song “Eternal Agony” is about the Dylann Roof trial. Most people want him to get the death penalty but I think that motherfucker needs to be tortured relentlessly or thrown in solitary confinement forever and let his brain fucking rot. Death is the easy way out.
DISCOMFORT (Netti): I was living a weird life phase and 2 on 3 songs relflect, in a not so abstract way, what i was living at the time. “Submission” is different, the lyrics try to point out the void this new virtual world has created in everyday life.
Photo: DISCOMFORT on their American tour in August 2016.
Do you plan on merging your strengths and hitting European roads together sometime? By the way, how was your American trek?
FALSE LIGHT: We’ll be doing 11 shows in Europe with DISCOMFORT in January. None of us have ever been over there before, so we’re super excited for that. We became very close with DISCOMFORT on the US tour and had a blast with them. Those dudes are nuts. The shows were great, especially considering it had been a long time since we had even toured. 8 of us were packed in the van for three weeks, so luckily we all got along haha. We couldn’t ask for better hosts for our first time going overseas.
DISCOMFORT: Our USA tour with FALSE LIGHT was an amazing experience, so much fun that we’re gonna do it again, in the Old Continent this time, from the 5th to the 15th of January. We’re looking forward to this, for some of the boys in FL this will be their first time in Europe so we’re a bit exited for them as well!
Upcoming European tour / Flyer by Francesco Goats.
05/01 Tetris, Trieste -ITA-
06/01 Kunstverein, Nurnberg -D-
07/01 La Zone, Liege -B-
09/01 Bambara, Groningen -NL-
10/01 Alambra, Oldenburg -D-
11/01 ZGK, Berlin -D-
12/01 Klapperfeld, Frankfurt -D-
13/01 Eastrain Fest, Lille -FR-
14/01 Cafè Decentral, Insbruck -A-
15/01 Circolo Quadro, Cittadella -ITA-
What other bands would you like to work with in the future?
FALSE LIGHT: Good question. I love touring with people that we are already good friends with, but after doing this split with DISCOMFORT and trading tours I would love to find more opportunities where we can work with totally new bands that we aren’t familiar with.
DISCOMFORT: There are a lot of bands out there we would like to work with, I think one that we can all agree on is VERMIN WOMB. Ethan designed the artwork for our split record and we had the pleasure to meet him on the road with his other band PRIMITIVE MAN: he’s such a great guy (they all are)!. We would definitely love to do something together in the future.
With your records so far, you introduced extreme hardcore listeners to something quite unique and pushed to the extremes. How do you feel your work has been received so far?
FALSE LIGHT: Our first 7″ got us a lot of initial attention, but the one after that (Forced by Flame) kind of flew under the radar. These new songs are an improvement so I think some more people are paying attention. We move at a pretty slow pace and our attitude on writing is pretty laid back. We just record whatever comes out and we don’t stress it too much. We’re always stoked when we get positive feedback because we never know if people will like it or not.
DISCOMFORT:I think we’ve seen good feedbacks on our releases, but we had some issues with our last EP “Worst”; Our guitarist left the band, and we lost the opportunity to go on three different tours, so we didn’t have the chance to promote it as well as we planned it at first.
Photo: FALSE LIGHT live, by James Byrnes Photography.
How long have you been pursuing heavy music? Can you tell us a bit more about your backgrounds and other project you’ve been involved in?
FALSE LIGHT: We all started playing in shitty local bands in high school. Two of us used to play in a band called DISCOURSE that started around the same time that FALSE LIGHT did. Brian used to play in this doom band COMPEL. Three of us currently play in a band called RIOT STARES. Where we are from, there aren’t many people trying to start new bands so there’s a small group of people who play in everything. Which in a way is nice because everyone I’m in bands with I’ve played with before, so the chemistry is there.
DISCOMFORT (Ferra): We’ve been playing together as a band since 2013, but every member of DISCOMFORT have been playing in bands for 10/15 years. We’ve got other side projects going on. Me and Netti play together in DANNY TREJO (thrashcore), and Luca plays with HOBOS and ORGAN. Netti also books shows with his collective in Padova, Swamp, and we are all involved in several ways Venezia Hardcore Collective.
Do you recall a period in time when you first discovered hardcore?
FALSE LIGHT: I feel like when you’re young and hearing “heavy” bands for the first time, it all sounds the same. It took me a while to weed out the bullshit. I wasn’t really involved in the actual hardcore scene until I was like 18 or 19. I do miss that time when everything was new and exciting. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate hardcore even more and figure out what it really means to me. It’s the coolest thing in the world and I’m very grateful that I was able to find it.
DISCOMFORT (Ferra): Speaking for myself I’d say I discovered HC when I was 18, joining the events and live shows organized by the Free Mosh Team in Vicenza. Luca got into HC when he was younger thank to his friends and band mates that were a few years older.
Photo: DISCOMFORT by Martinezz Photography.
Was there an early experience that demonstrated the importance of metal and hardcore in your life?
FALSE LIGHT: I can’t think of a specific experience, but I feel like it makes up most of my identity and gives me purpose. I am pretty poor at communication in general, so if I didn’t have this as an outlet I would just have all of this frustration bottled up and then drive myself insane.
DISCOMFORT: Well, I think that when you’re a kid, music it’s fundamental to save yourself from the bullshit given to us from tv, school, people and society in general. I think it shapes you in a really strong way. Than you grow up, you start playing in bands and you get the chance to travel the world, getting to know amazing people and see new places every night. This is just something that music can give you; to us it’s a lot about that.
How has your local scene impacted you as a band? How thriving is it? Also, has it embraced your style?
FALSE LIGHT: Every scene ebbs and flows but we’ve always had a particularly hard time having bands to play shows and people who stick around. But things are at a high point right now and I’m excited about that. There are a bunch of new bands and shows have been well attended. Attitudes have been good for the most part and that’s what keeps it going. We’ve always felt supported by different ends of the spectrum in South Carolina – between hardcore, punk, and metal.
DISCOMFORT:I can say our local scene has never been this huge, full of good bands and people supporting them. Consequently it has been fundamental for the growth of our band as well. All the band’s members are really close to each other, we’re all really close friends and there’s no competition between us. The Venezia Hardcore collective, and Trivel in particular always pushed for us.
However, since our style is rough to play and to go through, in some occasions we had to figure it out on our own, without external help.
Photo: DISCOMFORT.
Ok guys, so lastly, what do you think are the biggest challenges for bands in general these days? Were there any specific challenges you’ve fced with your bands?
FALSE LIGHT: I think the biggest challenge today is how saturated the scene is. The internet has made it so easy to be a band in so many ways. There are thousands and thousands of people trying to do what we’re doing and so the struggle is to do something different so that people actually notice. No one wants to hear a copy of a copy. Well, maybe some people do, but that’s ultimately unsatisfying.
DISCOMFORT: Our main concern is to keep on writing quality music and keep on touring. But touring is not easy when you’re employed with a full time job. We started this band at the end of the university years, so after a short period of time everything changed drastically, we had to figure this out and it took a year.
Now most of us work freelance, with the pros and cons of the situation. Luca and Tom moved to the UK as well, but now everything seems coming back together and I think we’re doing good despite the distances.
What plans have you got for 2017?
FALSE LIGHT: To be honest, we put zero planning into this band. We sort of just take whatever comes our way and it’s worked out thus far. We’ll keep writing for whatever our next release ends up being. Because of some of the guys’ work and family situation we aren’t able to tour much, but we’d like to make it out to the West Coast of the US since we have yet to play out there.
DISCOMFORT: Recording and publishing our new record, we’re already working on it. Then of course touring as much as we can.
Cool! Do you mind droppin’ us your best-of lists for 2016? I mean all noteworthy art related offerings you discovered this year, music, books, movies. Please share some recommendations.
FALSE LIGHT: NEUROSIS & ANGEL DU$T
DISCOMFORT (Tom): To be honest I believe in 2016 we’ve all being mainly listening to old records, but a few new ones we’ve enjoyed are GATECREEPER, PLEBEIAN GRANSTAND, MESSA, COUGH, VERMIN WOMB and DARKTHRONE.
Great! Thanks for your time! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
FALSE LIGHT: Thank you! Check out Wvrm from South Carolina.
DISCOMFORT: I think that’s pretty much it, thank you!
Thanks so much. Cheers from Poland!
