What's up everyone. How is everyone doing?? Everything somewhat going back to normal somewhat and still werid..My band has the 4 way split out (Carousel Of Death Split) if anyone wants to pick up one. This week interview one of the sickest drummers around and was in some cool bands I dig so. Was in a cool Sludgeviolence bands around here is the interview enjoy....
State your name and what bands are you in or were?
Hey, this is Patrick. Previously, I played in I HATE THIS, BACKSLIDER, and CALLOUS. Currently, I play in EYE FLYS, and BLACK GAFF.
How are you doing?
Doing ok! Got alot of life stuff happening currently but getting through it. The Covid situation has been making everything a shitshow lately obviously also.
How did you get into punk?
I think I had a pretty normal trajectory into "punk". I was kind right in the pocket of age for grunge to hit. I would look at records, articles or just see bands wearing t-shirts of other bands and look them up. That's how I heard FLIPPER, although I definitely wasn't ready for it at the time. Ha. I had hand me down SEX PISTOLS, RAMONES and BLONDIE records from my Uncle and my Mom, so I had a little bit of an idea.
When I was fifteen, a friend moved back to town I had not seen in a long time and he came back with a mohawk. He gave me a copy of Punk O Rama II, ha. After that, I bugged anyone that seemed to know what was up, and grabbed anything I could get my hands on.
How did you get into Drumming?
When I was in about 5th grade I was super into Metallica and Guns N Roses and stuff. I thought Lars was awesome. Then when Nirvana hit, I was blown away by watching Dave Grohl beat the shit out of a four piece kit. Ha. Lars was the shit, but that definitely seemed like some unattainable rock star shit at the time. Seeing Dave totally cave-man a small kit, hair flying, sticks over head was like an "hey, I can do that!" epiphany even before I got into punk. Then, when I did come around to it, it was just kind of reinforced. I took drum lessons for a bit as a kid. Once I got a hold of a drum kit when I was about 12 it's all I wanted to do.
Justin of No comply told me you were in the band for a minute... How did that happen???
Yea. I've known Justin for a bit. He's the OG. He was kind enough to put one of my old bands on his PRODUCT OF SIX CENTS II comp CD he did a while back (even though I quit the band before that, ha!) and ever since we stayed in touch and would talk a bunch about music and skateboarding. We also had a BACKSLIDER / NO COMPLY split 7" that was never fully released (long story, only a few test presses exist) At some point, we were talking and I mentioned I'd be down to track some drums for NO COMPLY. Justin said he was down. While I was tracking a CALLOUS 7", I did a quick freestyle and sort of spontaneous drum tracking of some ideas I had at the time in between recording sessions. I sent them to Justin and, long story short, they got lost in space and time and nothing ever came of it. Last year though, Justin and Will of To Live a Lie hit me up and said the tracks had been found. I believe he did a little more tracking and mixing, and the tracks will be used for an upcoming split 5" with THEY LIVE and a split 7" with SIDETRACKED. So I'm super stoked on that.
How did Callous get started?
I was still doing I HATE THIS and BACKSLIDER at the same time back then. Maybe some other short lived projects too. Once I HATE THIS stopped playing, I started CALLOUS with my friends John and Brian, who played in CHAINSAW TO THE FACE and DOOMSDAY MACHINE SCHEMATIC. At the time, all our bands were "fast." So, we started CALLOUS as a way to change it up and play mostly slow, heavy, and get weird with guitar pedals.
What were some of the influences?
We all liked GASP alot. That was for sure a driving influence. CAVITY, and some AMPHETAMINE REPTILE stuff also for sure.
How did you get the name Callous??
I honestly don't remember, ha. I think it was just in a list of band names and we eventually just agreed on it.
How did you get into Backslider?
I started BACKSLIDER with Logan in late 2008 when he first moved to Philadelphia. My current band at that time, I HATE THIS, had done a split 7" with his band RAW SEWAGE. We talked about starting a band prior to him moving out here. He later ended up playing bass in I HATE THIS also.
Backslider is sick. when I heard you guys, I was tripping out that it almost sounded like Lack of interest?
Ha. Thanks, I appreciate that! Yeah, we were for sure heavily influenced by LACK OF INTEREST, NO COMMENT, and SLAP A HAM stuff. Especially early on. It was funny later as we did more releases to get LACK OF INTEREST and SLEEP comparisons in the same review.
After that what bands did you start??
After I parted ways with BACKSLIDER in 2017, I more or less just took a much needed break for a while. I had a bunch of stuff I was demoing myself just before that, and I sort of sat on it for almost two years before I used it to eventually put together what would become my current band, EYE FLYS.
I checked out Black Gaff. That shit is sick.
Thanks so much! I appreciate it! Yeah, that's a new project I have going on with a few of my stagehand union brothers. Sort of a sludge project with songs about skateboarding, stagehand work, and unionism. For fans of CORRUPTED and AGENTS OF SATAN.
Any future projects or releases??
EYE FLYS just had an EP titled "Exigent Circumstance" come out on CLOSED CASKET ACTIVITIES. Also, the BLACK GAFF
"Dead Hang" EP was released just before that. Both bands are currently working on new material. The NO COMPLY split 5" with THEY LIVE will be out very soon on 625 THRASH / TO LIVE A LIE, and the NO COMPLY / SIDETRACKED split 7" shortly after that also on TLAL.
May have a few other things in the works, but nothing to bring up just yet.
Any shout-out you want to give??
To you! For doing this interview. Thank you
Thanks for your time
