Hello, it’s time for another Winter’s Wake band interview!
I’ll repeat once more: with so many people to talk to, I tried to keep these short and sweet — just enough for you (the reader) to get a sense of each band’s history, to learn a little about where they came from and what they’re doing now, so that you can be as excited about seeing all of them as I am!
This time, I exchanged some words with vocalist/guitarist Sharon Bascovsky from Derkéta…
Hey folks, how excited are you that Winter’s Wake is almost here??
I know I really am — there are so many bands I’m really excited about, some of which I’ve never seen before, some of which I’ve been a fan of for a long time, some of which I don’t know that much about yet, but there literally isn’t a single band that I’m not looking forward to checking out.
So when Jon Leone of Allure of the Earth Productions asked me if I’d mind doing an interview with each of the bands leading up to next weekend’s event, of course I jumped on the opportunity!
With so many people to talk to, I had to keep these kind of short and sweet — mostly enough for you (the reader) to get a sense of the band’s history, to learn a little about where they came from and what they’re doing now, so you can get excited about seeing all of them too!
Here is a conversation I had with Karl Simon of The Gates of Slumber…
Well, friends, here we find ourselves in the waning moments of 2012. It’s been an interesting, eventful year that’s had lots of high and low points — a ton of excellent new music has been released and quite a few brand-new bands have emerged that I’d fully expect to be making some serious waves in the near future.
One of the best things about 2012, for me personally, was that I found myself (and my wife) going to lots more shows than in recent years, and as a result I’ve been fortunate to meet a lot of new people — as well as starting to take a way more active role in the local music scene.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I had a suggestion from one of those people I’ve gotten to know in the past year (I won’t say who — he said he preferred not to be given credit for the idea, although I will say that it’s somebody who contributed to this). The idea was to collect top-ten lists from various folks in the Pittsburgh metal community.
So I put out an open invitation for any musicians or other people who are involved in the scene in some way — I was looking for anything, whether it was the traditional “Top Ten Albums” or something totally off-the-wall like someone’s ten favorite sandwiches they ate during the year. Really, the only rules were that it had to be a list, and involve something from 2012.
Folks, if you’ve had your ear to the ground over the past few months you might have noticed that there has been some rumbling coming out of the dark underworld of hardcore. There has been so much hype swirling around the crusty, grimy beast known as Meth Quarry lately, that the band has reached a nearly mythical status — without having played a single show yet!
But all of that is about to change, because these guys are finally ready to come crawling out of the dank cellar of Pittsburgh’s underground and expose the good people of the Steel City to their grim “dirge” hardcore style. Last weekend I met up with the quintet (guitarists Chris Smith and Kevin Hogue, bassist Aaron Kaczynski, vocalist Adam Joseph Bailey, and drummer Brandon “Fluffy” Baker) to talk about the story of the band’s formation and what sort of things they’ve got on the horizon — I joined them at one of their rehearsals, which took place in the basement of Kevin’s house, so when I say “crawling out of the cellar” I actually mean it literally…
What’s up, readers!??
Pittsburgh metal. Good stuff. FREE. Read about it, download it. You won’t regret it, and I won’t stop bugging you until you do it. Seriously.
A whole bunch of the bands who have songs on that comp are playing shows this weekend, along with a whole bunch of other bands. If you’re in the Pittsburgh region over the next couple days, you’ll want to pay attention because here’s your guide to what awesomeness you might have missed if I wasn’t here to help you out!
Valley of Steel 