Gouge Away

It may not be a die-hard hardcore band but Gouge Away is one of the most interesting bands that independent music has to offer the last years. Having moved from the hardcore / punk sound to a more noisy rock / Jesus Lizard alike stuff and having taken their name from a Pixies song, Gouge Away is definitely a band that you should pay attention to. All 5 band members spent some time and replied to my questions concerning their new 7”, touring memories and the political situation. Read below and find out which are their favorite Greek artists, too!

Interview conducted in late March 2020. Band photo by Angela Owens.

www.gougeaway.com www.instagram.com/gougeawayfl

Hey hey! What’s going on on Gouge Away HQ?

Tyler: Right now we’re all trying to stay home as much as possible because of COVID-19. An extensive tour we are supposed to be on right now has been postponed so we’re trying to come up with creative ideas the band can do to fill that space.

Christina: Right now the studio apartment I’m sharing with Tommy is full of merch so we’re trying to sell some shirts to help alleviate the financial hit while we eagerly await the news that we can tour again.

Who’s in Gouge Away and what do you do in your daily lives? Is Gouge Away a full time band? Is anyone playing in other bands, too?

Tyler: I would say that we are a full time band. We tour a lot and even when we’re home there is always something to be worked on. We still have jobs though and my daily life includes going to work and spending time with my partner

and dogs. A few of us play in other bands but those bands aren’t very active.

Dylan: There’s Tyler (bass), Tommy (drums), Christina (vocals), Mick (guitar) & me; also guitar. I’d call Gouge Away full time. We’re home just enough for us to keep other jobs and side hustles so that we can make rent and feed ourselves. Everyone has other artistic endeavors that don’t get as much attention obviously. Christina & Tommy have made some awesome zines that are loosely related to Gouge Away, most of us take photos, some of us have other bands etc.

Tommy: Since our tour with Circa Survive was postponed, and I was laid off from my dishwashing job, due to COVID-19, I’ve been spending my days practicing drums, and making silly drum videos. Hopefully we will be able to write some more music while we’re stuck at home indefinitely. I also play drums in AXIS with Dylan and Tyler, and Hesitation Wounds with Jeremy Bolm from Touche Amore.

Christina: I definitely feel like Gouge Away is full time. I’m constantly finding something to work on for the band. As we’re stuck at home, I’m trying to get into my own visual art again and maybe learn some guitar.

You recently released the Consider / Wave of Mutilation 7”; both the new song and the Pixies cover sound great, congrats! Give us some behind the scenes info concerning the release. How’s the feedback so far?

Dylan: Thank you! Consider was one of those tracks we tried to over-write for a while, and then one day in the practice space it just fell together effortlessly. The band has gotten a lot of flack from internet wieners about being named after a Pixies song, and covering a different song is our way of owning it. That track is also a slammer anyway so, win win. We recorded that 7” and a couple other things to tape at Atomic Garden

East with Jack Shirley in 1 day. We sandwiched the recording day in between some shows we were doing on the west coast that were put on by Culture Abuse & Vans.

How did you decide to cover a Pixies song? It’s obvious that you are huge fans of posthardcore / noise rock and bands like Fugazi / Jesus Lizard but what’s so special with Pixies?! What else do you enjoy listening to?

Tyler: We had been joking for a while about covering a Pixies song as a fun and silly thing to do. I didn’t realize that apparently many people on the internet hate when bands are named after songs, so this was kind of our way of embracing the criticism. We already had plans to record a few songs so we took advantage of the studio time and recorded the cover.

Dylan: Fugazi & Jesus Lizard are definitely big ones for all of us. We all listen to a ton of different stuff, The Strokes, The Weeknd, Radiohead, Pissgrave, Land of Talk, Andy Stott, Jesu, all get played in the van by most of us pretty regularly. Also, Greek plug: Vangelis is God! Dead Congregation is sick!

Tommy: I love doing covers and we can rarely all agree on a song to cover so this is one that just happened to work out. I love Fugazi and Radiohead, Rancid, John Coltrane, Alan Jackson, Aphex Twin, and this really cool band from Atlanta, GA called Slow Fire Pistol.

Like ‘Burnt Sugar’ LP, the new 7” is out on Deathwish Inc. When did you start working with them and what’s the best and worst things working with a big label like Deathwish?

Tyler: We started working with Deathwish in 2018 after they helped distro an older 7” of ours. The best part about working with them is that they’re so easy to deal with. We talk to them almost every day and they’ve become great friends of ours who come hangout and eat with us whenever we’re in their city. In my opinion there is no bad thing about working with Deathwish haha.

Dylan: The best thing is all of it. There is no worst thing.

Tommy: Deathwish is awesome and it’s super easy working with them. I’ve always loved the label, and it’s an honor to be a part of their roster. They might be a big label but working with them is just like putting out records with your friends.

Give us some info about rescue.org, an organization you donate 25% of the sales of the 7”. What’s your view on the current political situation? We are currently amidst the hardest times after WWII, how do you see music helping people take a positive stance and find an outlet into this worldwide crisis?

Dylan: The IRC’s mission statement is “The mission of the IRC is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future.” Displaced people is obviously a global issue, but with the ongoing crisis with our southern border, places like Syria & Lybia, and undoubtedly future issues with the UK postBrexit, organizations like the IRC need all the help they can get; probably now more than ever with Covid-19. The current political situation is pretty terrifying & bleak. Our country’s issues are pretty well known, our immigration and foreign policies are disgusting and so is the vast majority of our government. Racism, xenophobia and pretty much every other form of prejudice is spreading, the economic crisis your

country just went through, China, the middle east etc. It’s all pretty scary. But music is always a good platform to use to address these issues and it’s beautiful and inspiring when people use it that way. We’ve been encouraged by our peers and bands before us to be socially active so hopefully that continues.

You’ve toured with the likes of Ceremony and Touche Amore. What was your favorite tour till now and why? Which is the dream band to tour with for you? What about post-tour depression, have you ever felt it? People think that touring is like partying and having fun every night, but sometimes the situation is not exactly like this… Touring is hard (depending on the size of the band of course) and can cause fights and mental breakdowns. Playing 150 shows a year is not the easiest thing to do. What do you think about this?

Tyler: I really love touring but it’s not easy. It really wears on you physically and mentally. Rest is the most important thing for us to keep doing it and I think people don’t really understand that unless they’ve toured extensively. I’m usually very excited to get home and sleep in my own bed at the end of a tour. Any kind of depression I develop with regards to touring is due to having to go back to my shitty job along with all the other aspects of life that kind of fall apart because of this. Dylan: It’s hard to pick a favorite and it changes as different memories come and go, but right now I’d say probably the east coast / UK tour we did with Culture Abuse. It almost killed us, but it was the first tour after Burnt Sugar’s release, we did a lot of cool stuff, Culture Abuse gang was incredibly kind, and we met Yoschi who is the second coming of Christ. Post tour blues almost always hit me pretty hard. Touring is definitely not vacation, it’s work and it’s more taxing than any job I’ve ever had, but I love it more than anything and there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. Most of the time. Heh.

Mick: I loved the Drug Church / Seattle’s New Gods tour as well. Had a lot of fun and made many friends.

It’s true that you have mellowed down musically in the last records. Are you going to return to hardcore / punk in the future or you have found the right sound for you? Is hardcore / punk still relevant to the world’s problems?

Tyler: I think that we want to continue to write aggressive music whether that aligns with hardcore / punk or not. I don’t see us writing anything that sounds like our first record because we want to keep trying new things and that would feel pretty unnatural. Some bands do write the same record over and over and it works for them but I don’t think that’s us.

Mick: I’d say we’re always trying to channel aggression in new ways. On the first LP I was the drummer, afterward I moved to guitar. I don’t really write the same way that record was written. I think we collectively enjoy the direction we’ve been going.

Any future plans? Hope to see Gouge Away

in Greece one day. Last words are yours!

Dylan: Lots of future plans, they’ve all just been put on hold and postponed with the current situation. More tours and music and all that good stuff. Would love to come to Greece, hope to meet you there when it happens!

Mick: We just did demos for a pile of new songs and we’re gonna see if we can come up with some more!