Friday, August 5, 2011

Diskreet Interview

1. Can you introduce the band to our readers?

We're a Topeka, KS based Death Metal band that's been actively performing since 2003, founder and drummer Andy Taylor and guitarist Gerren Andres have been the core of this band from that period of time, while Stephen Babcock and myself have actively been in Diskreet since right around the release period of Infernal Rise. We've recently acquired a young, shredding guitarist from CO named Jake King.

2. How would you describe the musical style that you go for and how do you achieve yet?

We're all fans of Death Metal and have a particular fondness for Suffocation, Odious Mortem, Decapitated, Deeds of Flesh, and that style of the genre, but we've never made attempts to really 'emulate' bands that we're influenced by, and try to write Death Metal that we personally like and sound good to us. Many of us live by a writing style of "would we like this and regularly listen to it if it were written by someone else".

3. What are some of the lyric topics that the band likes to explore with the music?

Stephen, and to a lesser extent myself, wrote the lyrics to our new album - the themes really deal with the downfall of humanity, feel the crushing of the hoof on your throat and overthrowing the tyrannical powers that be - from the perspective of a post-apocalyptic future, but really they tend to more reflect on the state of current world affairs.


5. What are some of the best shows that the band has done so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

We've ran some pretty successful tours over the last three years, particularly with Burning the Masses, Necrophagist, Brain Drill, our hometown friends Origin, and Oceano among others. When we're performing we just try to be aggressive; there doesn't need to be a lot to it when you're up there to us, just be honest - you see so much choreography and yeah, it looks cool and brings more of an overall performance, but it seems a little dishonest to us. So we just get up on stage, get pissed, and do what we feel like doing.

6. What are some of the touring plans for the future?

Right now we're currently on a long trek with Wretched, Antagonist, and The Breathing Process. We're working to pull in another short US run before the end of the year, and are also securing our first European tour in 3 years early 2011.

7. How has your music been received so far by death/grind fans worldwide?

It's a lot harder to be recognized today than it was a decade ago in underground music based on how much of an over-saturation of music there is, but despite that we've been received pretty well by people around the world, and we've made a lot of incredible friends on the road as well.

8. How would you describe your musical progress over the years and what direction do you see the music heading into on future releases?

When we released Infernal Rise, we've had a real play fast, play aggressive, riff-riff-riff sort of demeanor in our writing style; when we added Malcolm we were able to refine ourselves based on his need to creatively compose, rather than just write random shredding, and it's helped us to write more constructive 'songs'. While we believe in the notion of 'evolving', per se, we have somewhat of a core feeling to our sound that we don't want to stray away from, and I think Malcolm did a great job in helping make Engage the Mechanicality sound like an evolution from Infernal Rise.

9. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

As far as Diskreet generally, we all subscribe to a musical influence that includes the likes of Odious Mortem, Hate Eternal, Deeds of Flesh, Suffocation, a lot of older straight Death Metal. Everyone in this band listens to a lot of different music, which for some of us isn't primarily Death Metal. Gerren is currently jamming Al Green and Michael W. Smith, we deal with Jake jumping back and forth between George Strait and Decrepit Birth while we're driving between shows, Stephen is mostly listening to Hank III, Trolodyte and Shudder, lately I've been enjoying Outbreak, Transatlantic and my very good friends Vedera, and Andy hasn't been really shredding much new, just a lot of old death metal favorites, most of which I've already mentioned. We develop really odd playlists that gets on everyone's nerves, our merch guy only jams 80's faves and hip hop.

10. Are there any side projects besides Diskreet or is this a full time band?

For the bulk of us, Diskreet is our primary band, Jake originally comes from a couple death metal bands, "Carcinoma" and "Suppress the Delusion", back from where he's from that is probably more a primary band for him. I started an occasional side deal recently that I'm playing guitar and writing for called "Renouncer" that is more hardcore oriented, a bit of Cursed influence. Malcolm, who helped write Engage the Mechanicality, has a project called "A Loathing Requiem" that he just previously also released an independent album entitled "Psalms of Misanthropy" that is absolutely worth listening to!

11. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Well, generally we're into spending time with family, being outdoors, watching movies, working out, going to shows, general things like that. We all have separate things we spend our time with, like some of us are into photography, arms, audio engineering, gaming, cars, and electronics - we really are all pretty separate people in a variety of ways when it's not coming down to just hanging out, writing music together, or going on tour.

12. Any final words or thoughts before we close this interview?

While you're out buying Engage the Mechanicality, go snag World in Decline and Beyond the Gate!

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