Many people wouldn’t associate Hardcore with Salt Lake City, I know I didn’t. However, I had an amazing opportunity to chat with and learn from some of the members of Ape $hit, an SLCHC band. All of which are students of the game. In our chat I learned about the bands interests, sound, progression of style, and they educated me a bit in the history of Salt Lakes punk and hardcore roots.
Here’s a little bit of what we discussed.
Having previously established somewhat of a sound, what caused the change? Follow up: in transitioning your sound, it sounds similar to early 00’s heavy hardcore and some beat down. What influences are you pulling from?
"Ape $hit started off as five members consisting of Tyson Bowles on vocals, Chase Watts on guitar/backing vocals, “Nezzie” Newton on guitar, Ryan Heidt on bass/backing vocals, and Matthew Lloyd on drums. Ape $hit was the precursor to another band, Witchtrial, consisting of the same members on the same instruments playing more metallic hardcore (in the vein of Axis). The intent was to have two separate bands with two completely different sounds to play separate shows where our individual sounds would match one bill a little better than the other or to compile both bands on a bill and gear share.
After we put Ape $hit on the backburner to focus on Witchtrial, the lineup changed. Both Nezzie and Ryan left Ape $hit, leaving the band to decide whether or not we wanted to find new members to continue on or not. We soon added members Johan Gutierrez and Kason Bowles (Tyson’s brother). Our local scene has little interest in punkier hardcore bands and tends to lean towards more metal/heavy bands. The incentive was to maintain the punk factor while adding elements of NYHC groove and early 2000’s beatdown to breathe new life into our songs."
We also discussed the existence of a hardcore scene in a state and city like Salt Lake City Utah, and how well the scene is. The band mentions bands like iceburn, insight, lifeless, xclearx, and decontaminate plus many others. They discuss having waves of interest and growth in hardcore, while also having not such much in other periods. However, the band states very confidently that SLCHC is alive and well. What I found most interesting was the existence of this growth in such a predominantly Mormon (LDS) area, but from what I’ve learned and the band has mentioned, the area has a strong existence of hardcore with new growth coming consistently
We talked about messages and what the band hopes to accomplish with its music. Their answer, support the local scene.
“We aren’t a serious band by any means. The only message we’ve ever wanted to get across is to support your local scene (not just the “cool” kids for scene points), support all bands, welcome fresh faces into our community, and watch out for not just your friends, but everyone in our scene.”
When asked what they’re politics are, or what they believe hardcore bands and politics have to do with each other, the answer was succinct and clear. Hardcore is typically left leaning, political climate changes constantly and bands are being formed to discuss that, but Ape $hit isn’t here to swing the political stick. Instead the band had this to say,
“Ape $hit is fairly apolitical and falls more into the category of fun punk that brings bouncy balls to shows and is a general nuisance for 10-15 minutes.”
The crowning point was that we touched on the most recent release as well, something that I was looking forward to after hearing their Summer Tape ‘19.
Your Bandcamp has three of your four members doing vocals, do you ever find it difficult determining parts?
"Not at all. It’s a democracy on who wants to do what parts with additional suggestions by the members of the band who have prior vocal experience over their time playing in bands. Advice is given as well as taken."
We also spoke on influences from the summer tape and what the band wanted people to hear in the new record. The band stated that they each had specific and different styles of hardcore they loved. Some members like early 00’s beatdown style NYHC referencing Billy Club Sandwich, Everybody Gets Hurt and then some ignorant heavy bands as well as punk and power violence style bands as well. The bands members all are students of hardcore and have a profound respect and love for it. Most importantly they are working on building their scene.
I would also like to discuss my thoughts on the new release. It has three tracks; Pretty Neat, Ape $hit 2, and Baaaaad Attitude. I think this three song promo is very much a promising sign of strength and musical aptitude for the band. Pretty Neat opens with a sound bite that then leads into a decently groove laden guitar rhythm. The lyrics, drums, and vocal mixing were all done well. Each instrument and part is distributed sonicaly so as to avoid one part being overpowered by another. Ape $hit is just an all around fun song, it’s fun from the start with the gang vocals to the ending mosh part. In fact, the whole song is just absolute mosh. It’s upbeat, groovy, and aggressive. It’s all just wonderfully nostalgic while feeling fresh as well. That leads to Baaaaad Attitude, the closing number of this tape. This is just pure anger and aggression. It’s full of anger, but also invokes head nodding as well as some serious ass beating style music breaks. Overall I love this record. It brings me joy that something like this band exists, and is so dedicated to just full blown fun hardcore. I would absolutely recommend anyone check out the band and spend the time to see them if the opportunity arises!
Follow them!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apeshithc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ApeShitHC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apeshithc/
Toss them some money for merch and music!
Bandcamp: https://apeshithc.bandcamp.com/music
No comments:
Post a Comment