An Interview with a Band Called Death Grip. No, Not That One.

They say you learn something valuable from every mistake you make. Sometimes, a mistake teaches you a life lesson, reveals a solution to a problem, or shows you how to become a better person. Other times, a mistake teaches you about a dope hardcore metal band from Pennsylvania.

Two weeks ago, I published an article about an art gallery opening in LA, a show displaying the works of Stefan Burnett, frontman of avant-rap group Death Grips. In sharing the article to The B Side’s official Facebook page, our social media manager made an innocent and completely understandable typo, accidentally @-tagging a page called “Death Grip” instead of the correct, plural form, “Death Grips”. I commented on the post to bring the mistake to the attention of the page admin, and we quickly fixed the tag. But not before the actual band named Death Grip, singular, caught us off-guard by actually commenting on the post, in good humor.

And the rest is history.

Berkeley B-Side: First of all, let’s just address the elephant in the room, and the reason we first connected. How would you describe your relationship with – and/or your opinion of – the rap group Death Grips? You both started making music at around the same time (2010) so I can’t imagine our run-in was the very first time your names have been mixed up.

Thomas Turner, of Death Grip: Haha yeah, funny how that little mix-up got us to this point, but that’s cool! We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. We both did start around the same time (how convenient) and we have received and still sometimes do get hate and nonsense not even necessarily from fans of that group, just trolls from online on our page from people spamming us with lyrics or asking us dumb questions. We did get some people who did visit our page to troll us, but ended up checking out our music and became interested in us, so it’s a win either way. The name was something our bassist suggested when we were thinking of one for the band. Myself (Tom) and the rest of the guys aren’t fans of that group, we don’t listen to them or pay attention. I don’t understand what’s so great about it. I just see “hype” and edgy kids who attend Coachella who enjoy them, but whatever. I don’t expect kids who enjoy that band to enjoy ours.

Y’all are from Glen Lyon, Pennsylvania, population 1,873. Were you born and raised in the area? Did the town have any sort of live music

scene when you were growing up?

Majority of the band grew up there, while our other guitarist is from Nanticoke which is a surrounding area. The town didn’t really have anything for music, we would have to go to Nanticoke for shows that would happen there, or in Wilkes Barre which has a good music scene. You have bands like Strength For A Reason and Not Til Death (RIP) from Nanticoke, and you have Title Fight, Cold World and a ton more from Wilkes Barre. We eventually started booking shows in Glen Lyon at a local VFW hall in town for shows that we played, or for other local bands or touring bands in general.

Speaking of scenes, your 2016 single/EP, Ascension featured three new songs, each with a different guest vocalist from different hardcore scene around the world. How did you end up working with bands from Chicago, Massachusetts, and even Sheffield, England? What’s your secret to these successful cross-country and cross-continent collaborations?

The beautiful upside of social media is you can find a lot of contacts and meet new people very easily. We like to feature artists that are our friends and also someone who will amplify the part. Our friend Chris sings in a band from Massachusetts called Before I Had Wings who is featured on “Burdens”, and his style really fit the part well. Bryan sings in a band called Drowning from Chicago who we have known for a bit. His part on the track “Inner Turmoil” has a really unique vocal style and we really wanted to work with and showcase him. And on Slave To Life we had Alex who sings for a band from the UK called Malevolence. We were big fans of that band and wanted to work with him. I just simply asked if he would be interested in doing it and he listened to the track, enjoyed it, and did the part.

As a Bay Area publication, I have to ask about our homegrown bands. Oakland and Berkeley have along history with punk and hardcore, with bands like NOFX, Dead Kennedys, and Jawbreaker leading the initial charge, and current groups like Culture Abuse and Happy Diving recently taking up the mantle of those early breakthrough groups. Any bands in particular from our neck of the woods that you would count as influences on your music?

California as a whole holds some of our favorite bands. You have bands in hardcore like Terror, First Blood, Xibalba, World of Pain, Murder Death Kill, and the list goes on and on. The bay area specifically, a band called Lionheart, who recently called it quits was one of our favorite bands in current heavy music from there. One day we hope to make it out that way to play!

What are some Pennsylvania bands that we Californians should check out?

The list could go on forever. Pennsylvania has just a massive scene for heavy music it’s insane. There’s new bands it seems coming out everyday. Just to name a few: Strength For A Reason, Not Til Death (RIP), Six Year Suffering (music coming soon) Third Rail, Enemy Mind, Unit 731, Steel City Firm, No Good Deed, Eternal Sleep, Varials.

The beatdown/moshcore quality of the songs on Atonement seemed to hint at a slightly new direction for the band, compared to the earlier releases that were more tinged with metal or metalcore. You’ve hinted at a new full length to be released sometime in 2017, do you foresee your sound shifting again, towards one direction or another?

We always want to be stepping up our game and progressing our sound, but still keeping it in the vein of us. We’re all influenced by heavy hardcore, beatdown, metal, etc. With Atonement, we wanted to keep it short and sweet, and also to the point. With every release, we try to go heavier and harder than before. Our next release will for sure contain elements from Atonement and we’ll continue in that direction, but as well evolve our sound.

“Band seeks drummer” is nearly a tired cliché at this point, but I heard your live show is actually on temporary hiatus due to your drummer parting ways with the band. What effect has that had on recording the upcoming record, and how’s the recruitment process for a new drummer coming along?

Our drummer Cody’s last show with us was back in November. We have known that he would be leaving for moving out of state for a job opportunity. So since then we haven’t done too much due to not having a drummer. We’re always writing and staying busy. We try to get together just to keep things moving! As far as our “looking for a drummer” situation goes, we recently found someone we’re going to be working with soon, so the ball will be rolling again soon!

Any last words of wisdom?

Once again, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to do the interview. We have some big news regarding our next release and future of the band coming real soon. We’ll be back to playing shows soon and expect a new full length record late 2017! You can check us out on Facebook and find our music at our Bandcamp as well on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Tidal, Amazon and YouTube. And ALWAYS remember, it’s Death Grip, no (s).