I always feel
kind of lame to be doing an online-only, blog version of a zine, because coming
up in punk and hardcore when I did, actual physical zines were such a critical
element of the subculture. One of my favorites was called Status, and if I remember
correctly it was run by a kid named Seth, it was based out of a town called
Thousand Oaks, California (not sure why I remember that) and I think it was
given away for free. Anyway, it totally
ruled! Great design, cool bands, it was simply very well done.
At a
certain point Status started releasing music as well, and one of the first
records they put out was called “The Only Good Bug Is A Dead Bug” by a band
called Curl Up and Die. I still remember sitting on my mattress, opening up the
mail, popping the disc in my CD player and rocking the fuck out to some bad-ass
metal-core, haha. CUAD quickly became a favorite of mine, especially as they
got weirder, noisier, and more interesting over time.
After
they broke up I assumed they would go on to form new bands as most musicians
do, but in this case, it seemed like the members just vanished. Fast forward to
a couple years ago when I hear about vocalist Mike Minnick doing a new project
called Puig Destroyer, quickly followed by the formation of Less Art alongside
members of Kowloon Walled City and Thrice.
To say I
was amped would be an understatement, as I knew this would be pretty awesome.
The bands’ sound definitely makes sense given their collective resume; heavy
but not overbearing, smart but still accessible.
I never
had any sort of personal connection with Mike when CUAD was active, but when I
reached out he seemed more than happy to chat. Here goes.
I always
like to learn about people's backgrounds in trying to get a window into what
makes them tick, so talk a little bit about your family and your childhood. How
would you characterize your household and upbringing, particularly as it
related to the presence of music, art, etc.?
I grew up in a pretty average family setting. Mom and dad that
stayed together until I was a teenager. One sibling. A younger sister. Born and
raised in Las Vegas. No one in my immediate family was musical or sang or did
bands or anything like that. Though I was close with my uncle growing up and he
got me into punk and skating. He was in bands and I would tag along and go to
their shows as often as I could. At that time I had no interest in singing.
Loved drums but they were too expensive. My uncle played guitar so I followed
him in that pursuit. Though I was never very good.
At what
point did you get turned onto punk, metal, hardcore, etc.? What bands, shows,
venues were you first exposed to and what kind of impression did they make?
High school is where I branched out and started listening to
other types of music besides punk and grunge and popular alternative stuff on
MTV. That's when I first got into hardcore. I remember my friends showing me
tons of more metal hardcore but a lot of it not clicking with me at first. I
had that teenage mindset that if I started liking metal, I'd be turning my back
on punk. This totally made-up either/or scenario. It was ridiculous.
But bands
like Endeavor and Chain of Strength were the ones I first loved because they
played a more punk style but had more intense vocals. I remember my friend Matt
(from Curl Up And Die) showing me the Endeavor/Envy split and I was blown away
by how punk it was musically, but Mike Oleander screamed over it. The vocals
were the most intense thing I'd ever heard. After hearing that, I was like
damn, I want to do that in a band and sound like him.
That's
crazy that you mention Oleander because when I think back to the most intense
vocalists from late 90s/early 00s hardcore two of the people I tend to think
about are BBTS-era Oleander and your work with CUAD, especially on “Robots”. How
did you start to experiment with your voice/realize you could pull off some of
the stuff you were wanting to emulate?
I loved vocalists that screamed with tons of power while still
understanding what they were saying. People like Tim Singer, Karl from Earth
Crisis, Dave from Botch. Oleander too. But I never had that much strength so I
went in the other direction. Just hide all the words and bury the vocals under
the song and use my voice almost as percussion, and hope the emotion of the
vocal gets the lyrics across since there was no way the listener would
understand the words. (That's what a lyric sheet is for. Though I don't know if
that helped much either.)
Another major factor early on was I was scared and
had no idea what I was doing. I'm a pretty shy person and it sort of doesn't
make sense that I ended up singing in a band. So covering up and obscuring and
hiding behind the music as much as possible was my initial approach.
Talk
about the origins of Curl Up and Die. How did you guys all meet/how did you
wind up playing together?
CUAD started out when we were in high school. We knew each
other from going to the same school or seeing each other at shows and becoming
friends that way. It was a side project for most of us and the idea was to be
more chaotic and heavier than the other bands we had at the time, which were
more punk and almost youth crew style hardcore. We wanted to play more aggressive
music live and didn't think too much beyond that concept initially.
One of
the things that always stood out to me about CUAD was the sense of humor you
guys always had (I'm thinking the "demons from fucking hell" shot on
the first EP, the ridiculous song titles, the quirky designs, especially “The
One Above”. etc.). Was that coming as sort of a push back against how serious a
lot of hardcore was at the time, was it more related to the personalities of
the people in the band, maybe a little bit of both?
We did push against some of the seriousness, I think
intentionally and unintentionally. We weren't tough or cool. We were nerds. We
liked fucking around. I think about punk and hardcore the same way I think
about comics and movies and video games. It's something I'm drawn to because
it's a subculture away from cliques and posturing and acting cool. A way of
escaping without escapism. Where you can hang out with people and have fun
while also exploring different ideas that are outside of what's normal or okay.
We definitely went the silly song title route as a way of
injecting humor into the band. Since the music and lyrics were serious, it was
a way of showing a different side of us. Also, I remember Simon from Drowning
Man thinking we stole the song title idea from him like he invented that shit.
Not true. Like most of my early musical ideas, I lifted the idea from Endeavor.
The artwork was another element where we tried different things. We weren't
into skulls and dark imagery and wanted to have artwork that was more
representative of what we were trying to express. Even if it was jarring and
didn't land every time.
As much
as I love "Robots", your final LP "The One Above All..." is
definitely my favorite. I've always been
struck by how moody and reflective it seemed as compared to the more chaotic
material of your earlier work. What sort of headspace were you guys in when you
wrote that record?
We started pulling from some of our influences outside of
hardcore while writing the last record. I think, while flawed, it's our
strongest album. It's where we figured some things out and came into our own.
Definitely for me as far as lyrics and vocal style. It was frustrating at the
time to feel that way after breaking up.
I also
remember being so stoked when I saw that Alex Newport produced that record....
mostly because I loved Fudge Tunnel but also because I didn't even know he
produced records at that time. How did you guys hook up with him and what was
it like working together?
We wanted to branch out and try something new. Alex was one of
the options we considered. We liked the experimentation on some of the records
he worked on. It was a plus that he was located in L.A. too, which was closer
to Vegas. He was less into experimenting than we expected, but we were on a
pretty limited budget.
The thing I learned the most from that session was that
it was okay to not cover up my vocals and hide them with indecipherable
screaming. He really made a point to focus on the lyrics and the performance of
each line. Which was harder to do than I thought. I had to unlearn a lot of bad
habits. But I think that was where I started to be more confident and feel okay
about my lyrics and voice.
So as far
as I know, after CUAD there was almost a decade of radio silence from you until
Puig Destroyer and now Less Art. Were you doing music at all during that time
or focusing on other life stuff?
A year or so after CUAD broke up, I moved to Chicago. I didn't
do music during that time. I had the itch but never tried to start anything
with people in the Chicago music scene. That was until Riley recruited me for
Puig Destroyer. I was overjoyed that he asked and while I knew it was just a
fun joke band about baseball, I took it very serious and approached it almost
as a last chance audition. Something I could show to any potential future bands
I wanted to do. And I secretly was hoping this would lead to a non-baseball
band with Riley and the other members.
It worked out well that all of us got along and we seemed to
write well together. As soon as Puig Destroyer was finishing up, I reached out
to the guys about continuing, but in a more conventional way. A band that
writes music and plays shows and exists and functions in the real world. That's
how Less Art came about.
So talk a
little bit about starting to work with those guys. Not to demean the musicians
in CUAD at all, but those were people you had grown up with, whereas the guys
in Puig/LA all have pretty extensive musical resumes. Given that gravitas, as
well as the fact that you had not done music for a while, were you at all
nervous when you started working together, or did you feel like you had enough
rapport with them that it would all go smoothly?
I was definitely nervous. I think the other guys are really
talented and I didn't want to be the weak link in the band. So that nervousness
ended up being a benefit. It provided a good kind of pressure. It forced me to
push myself and work harder than ever. Also, I've wanted to play music with
these dudes for a long time and I feel lucky to get this chance. I wasn't going
to let my nerves get in the way of that.
In terms
of the writing process, what sort of influences were you guys drawing from, and
what type of mood/vibe were you trying to achieve with "Strangled
Light"?
When we set out to write these songs we weren't sure what the
band was going to sound like. We have a few shared influences (i.e. Quicksand,
Drive Like Jehu, Unwound, Cave In) but everyone just did what they do and
brought that to the table. I like that everyone in this band writes and
contributes. There isn't one songwriter steering the ship. It's a very
collaborative process.
We didn't set out for a specific mood either. We let the songs
take shape on their own and grow naturally, with some refinement as we
finalized them. Lyrically, I had ideas I wanted to write about and explore, but
I didn't force them into specific songs. I let the feelings I elicited from the
music as I listened to them guide the direction.
You guys
recorded at Antisleep/Sharkbite with Scott from Kowloon Walled City, with whom
you share two members. I imagine for Jon and Ian the process was quite
natural/comfortable since they have worked there before; for you how would you
say it compared to your previous experiences working with Newport, Ballou, etc.
Scott is amazing. It was a pleasure to work with him. He makes
great sounding records and works well with people and knows how to get good
performances out of them. Which is a good skill to have when working with other
humans and helping them capture their songs in a recording. He worked closely
with me and helped me achieve what I was going for. He also pushed me to try
different things, which helped me grow as a vocalist. It was a rewarding
experience and I can't wait to work with him again.
Lyrically,
the recorded is book-ended with songs about death, the first song chronicling
loss in your own family, and the final song about dealing with it. So while
it's an emotionally heavy and depressing record, I was struck by the glimmers
of hope in lines like, "What I can’t
control won’t keep me down, I use optimism as survival" and "I know I
must keep living, Though there will always be, Something missing". You also reference that family history,
"I can't help worry is that same blood in me?"
Talk a
little bit more about sort of living in the shadow of death while seeming
intent on beating those demons.
Lyrically, a lot of the record does deal with death and loss.
I'm getting older and at an age where my friends and I are losing more people
in our lives. I'm also getting closer to my own death. That realization was
making me anxious about life and I became sort of death-obsessed and
increasingly afraid because of it. I used this record to reflect on that and
write my way through it. The good thing is it worked and after finishing the
record I can say I feel easier about death and its inevitability. I'm not as
scared of death and dying.
Aside
from a lot of very personal content, there's a lot that seems to touch on our
current social and political moment. What would you say most disturbs you about
the kinds of things we are seeing right now?
I'm pretty disturbed by the all the bigotry and fear. People
endlessly outraged and using mob tactics to censor or shame other people bums
me out. Also, the 'if we don't completely agree, then we disagree' mentality is
disconcerting.
Towards
the end of the record in the song "What Is It In Man?" you talk about
how religion is so often twisted and used to justify horrific things. You ask the question “What is it in man, That
takes the idea of God, Turns it into something it’s not".
As a
hardcore kid who has managed to hang onto my faith over the years, I always get
excited when I see people addressing these issues in a way that's more
interesting and nuanced than your typical "No Gods! No masters!" sort
of sloganeering; so for you, if the idea of God is so often turned into
something that it's not, what would you say it is for you, and what role (if
any) does spirituality play in your life?
Yeah, I kind of roll my eyes at religious people that know for
sure that I'm going to Hell because of x, y, and z. I'm equally baffled by the
type of atheist that is absolutely certain there's nothing after this life. I
don't know how religious I am, but I am somewhat spiritual. I like the idea of
God and faith and looking into what different religions are all about. I like
taking some of their ideas and absorbing them into my belief system. I like
questioning the parts I'm not as into as well. It's mostly all stories to me
though. I think of God the same way I think of Spider-Man. It doesn't matter if
it's real or not. It exists in my head and that's good enough.
Less Art’s debut full-length “Strangled Light” will be out
July 28th on Gilead Media.
A couple songs are currently streaming on their bandcamp: https://lessart.bandcamp.com/releases
You can pre-order the record here: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/strangled-light
The following live performances are scheduled:
August 4th-San Francisco
August 5th-Oakland
August 6th-Santa Anna
September 14th-New York
September 15th-Boston
September 16th-Washington D.C.
September 17th-Philadelphia
Photography by Less Art, Scott Evans, and Chris Barmonde
Photography by Less Art, Scott Evans, and Chris Barmonde