Brains, speed and volume
“We like our doomy sludge yet are compelled to grind, grind, grind,” says vocalist, Mark Skwarok, on the topic of influences such as Eyehategod, Phobia, Insect Warfare and Noothgrush.
Disworship evolved from the ashes of Cathar with Freya Giles on drums and vocals, (Nun Un, Cathar), Greg Dinardo on guitar (Strain, Write Off), Scott Bartlett on guitar (Nun Un, Destroy All) and Kavan Cronin on bass (Memorial, Night Terrors, Brains). “We went through some member changes and our music began to change,” says Skwarok. With that, came a new name.
“To us [Disworship] means stop worshipping all these gods and idols and get out and experience something real, like live music,” says Skwarok. “There are a lot of worship themes in the culture of consumerism; it's language, use of imagery and media that continuously saturate us to the point of mass hypnotization. Take a look at any YouTube video of 'Black Friday' and you get the point. All of this makes for good topics for song content [and] that's what inspires me to write lyrics about it. Other sources of contention include greed, political corruption, bigotry, etc. Seems like there is a lot to yell about these days!” explains the vocalist.
“One of the biggest mass brainwashing techniques is worship. We have disdain for the ideal of inequality. Nobody is more, holy, sacred or special than each other. This is a lie,”Freya, chimes in.
The heavier genres appear to get a bad rap, but there is a common denominator here beyond style. “Yes. I think it is always important to look past styles and see into the content of what music and bands say and or stand for. I think heavy music has always been kind of looked down upon to a degree, as a bunch of rejects [that] want to be angry and wasted. But it's the exact opposite for me. I find it almost meditative when we get together to create something that makes us feel good, even if the content is dark. Don't get me wrong, we're angry too about the issues but we choose to manage that anger with our use of art and expression,” says Skwarok.
“Funny, we have talked about this a lot. We have to have this band, we need it, all five of us. We jam a lot, cause we can, and cause we love it. It is as close to ‘holy’ as I could ever compare,” adds Freya.
Freya recently started Women's Musician Network Vancouver, a resource to share knowledge, experience and answer technical questions. (Find it on Facebook). “As well as society, this unconscious expectation as a woman - keep yourself together, presentable, and not look over emotional or ‘crazy,’ so the thought of playing grindcore or screaming your eyeballs out may seem intimidating, but for me it has been very liberating,” she says. “Once I let go of the judgments and male comparisons I opened up to my drums and my music because I didn't care what anyone thought anymore.”
Disworship expects a seven-inch out later this year and has recently hit the studio at Rain City Recorders with Kevin Grindon from Burning Ghats and Write Off. “Kevin has been there since our first show and we will always record with him. He understands us as people and understands our music,” explains the drummer.
With live shows on the floor, being surrounded by your audience is an intense way to experience a gig over the traditional audience/stage boundaries. “We are a raw group of people who like to connect with our audience, we almost always would choose the floor … Live shows are an alchemy of [their] own,” Freya describes.
Disworship plays with Dead Again, Dungeons, Azodanum on January 18th at the Astoria.
- More Betty
