Australian hardcore band, Day Of Contempt have just inked a deal with indie punk label, Epitaph Records home to the likes of punk royalty NOFX, Rancid and Bad Religion - making the them the first Aussie band to sign to the label! DOC have made ripples throughout the US and Canada with their hard-hitting live shows to support their US debut EP, The Will To Live which features special guests, Marta of Bleeding Through and James Hart from 18 Visions. I caught up with vocalist Ben Coyte about their relocation to the US and the new EP.
BIANCA ROSE: Where are you at the moment and what's happening there?
BEN COYTE: Where at our home base in California. We just got back from tour a week and a bit ago. We were in Canada. We went from the West coast across to the East coast and drove all the way back down here on a fifty hour marathon.
BC: Wow! That's a fair slog. Day Of Contempt relocated to the US last year?
BC: Yeah, May last year.
BC: How has moving to Los Angeles influenced/affected your life and your music?
BC: It's definitely been the craziest, taxing thing any of us have ever done. Personally, it's been really good. It's been really rewarding. It's like starting again for us because we haven't really had any releases out here before. There's a lot of things that are coming together for us now. It's really good.
BC: You sound as though you've picked up a bit of an American accent with the way you pronounce some of your words.
BC: Really? I was just doing an interview with Stu from Short Fast Loud (an Australian nationwide punk radio show) and he got me to do a station ID and I said 'I think I sounded Australian in that, didn't I?' 'cause some people say I do and some people say I don't. He was 'No you definitely do sound Australian'. Seriously the last time I was over there (in Australia) I was told both a million times and I'm like 'Well, I don't know how I sound both?' It's up for contention right now (laughs)
BC: You guys did a tour with Good Charlotte here early this year, d you find when you come home things are different at all?
BC: I don't know? That tour was rad. We had the world's best time! Every day off though we had one of our own shows with The Bleeders and our friends' bands there. I seriously got to see my family for like twenty minutes and then it was like, 'See you later'. The scene is pretty much the same as I remember.
BC: I don't think that ever changes! You have a new EP out, The Will To Live. What's the title all about?
BC: We thought that it was pretty fitting where we are at and what we're doing. Just trying to do whatever we can to keep going and properly live. I guess it sounds kind of cheesy but we thought it just described where we're at and what we're doing as a band right now. It also sounded kind of cool.
BC: Day Of Contempt have really evolved since your first release is there any theory or thought to the bands evolution?
BC: Not really. Our first proper CD was recorded in 1999. We were seventeen then and now I'm the only original member. We picked up a bunch of new dudes and have traveled a lot and managed to get around the world once and being based over here and getting inspired by new music and just keeping things fresh.
BC: How is it being the only original member?
BC: It's cool but it's definitely weird in some ways. Dan has been in the band for years now. Him and Scraggs I've been friends with the two of them and toured with their old bands years before that. I have two of my best friends in the whole world in the band so it's cool.
BC: Tom's left the band?
BC: Yes, three or four weeks ago.
BC: Has it been difficult without him around?
BC: It's definitely been weird. We've been playing in bands together since I was thirteen or fourteen, ten/eleven years ago. He's still here though. He did the Warped show tours with us in California. They were his last shows with us and then we sorted out what we were going to do. We still hang out.
BC: Day Of Contempt are on Epitaph now and with all the other crazy stuff that's been happening is it all kind of surreal for you all?
BC: It is when we stop and think about it. You just have to get on with the next thing you have to do. Sometimes we're just like 'Whoa!' When we started to play instruments ten/twelve years ago, all our favourite bands were on Epitaph. If you went and told that kid that they were going to be putting out a CD on Epitaph when they were in their twenties you wouldn't even know what to say to that... stuff like that... and Brett Gurewitz has been really behind the record. Just hearing him talk about it to other people and stuff like that it kind of really hits you that these people are really into what we are producing. It's rad to have that.
BR:How did the Epitaph hook up happen?
BC: They came out to a couple of our shows last year. We talked with them a bit then, then our producer (Josh Abraham) got on board and he wanted to sign a production deal with us and then it was like 'We're doing an EP with Josh Abraham, do you want us to be on board Epitaph?' and they were like 'Yeah we do. Let's get it going'. That's how it all fell into place.
BC: Also, I have to say congrats on the new album. I have all your records and I think it's the best so far.
BC: Thank you. We definitely feel it is. At the end of the recording we couldn't believe that, that was actually what we came out with. We don't really have a lot going on here. We don't have a stable life situation, like family and there's stuff going on and you just have these things you're trying to do. Doing something that shocks us and just knocks us of our feet is good.
BC: Do you think not having stable things like family there has an affect on your creativity?
BC: I think there's definitely been enough hard times that we have a lot of stuff to pour into the record. There's enough stuff from over the last year and a half, hopefully there won't always be that stuff.
BC: What were the challenges in creating the new EP?
BC: The recording was a pretty good experience. We talked about how cool it would be working with our producer four or five years ago and then here we are in 2005 recording with him. His engineer he works with is awesome. We had a chance to get really creative and do some weirder stuff and experiment with the recording. We pumped everything we could in there. It was definitely a cool experience to be able to do all of that. It's not something you always get to do in the punk and hardcore world.
BC: At the start of the song, Shattered Dreams and Broken Hearts there's piano, what's that all about?
BC: We listen to a lot of different stuff and we wanted to have piano stuff in there. We had keyboard strings on there as well. We wanted to bring in different elements. Our friend Marta from Bleeding Through plays piano really well and we had been talking for a while and just through out the idea of her doing some stuff on our record.
BC: How have you influenced each other in your growth as musicians?
BC: Just mostly being stuck in a van with the same people for hours and weeks on end and whatever you're into and excited about tends to rub off on everybody else. We'll be into pretty similar stuff for most of the time. None of us are classically trained or anything like that. New bands and new music will just inspire us more. For the stuff that really shines for us we try to bring that into our stuff.
BC: From your experience what is your general feeling of how Australian punk and hardcore is perceived?
BC: If you get the kind of kids that know a lot about international stuff people definitely have good things to say about bands like Prom Queen, Shot Point Blank... stuff like that/ Most of the time though, people won't have any idea at all. People will say they didn't even know there were bands like that over there. People don't have any idea what's outside of the States most of the time. They'll be like AC/DC is from Australia and they're one of the forefathers of rock.
dayofcontempt.com & epitaph.com
By BIANCAROSE
BIANCA ROSE: Where are you at the moment and what's happening there?
BEN COYTE: Where at our home base in California. We just got back from tour a week and a bit ago. We were in Canada. We went from the West coast across to the East coast and drove all the way back down here on a fifty hour marathon.
BC: Wow! That's a fair slog. Day Of Contempt relocated to the US last year?
BC: Yeah, May last year.
BC: How has moving to Los Angeles influenced/affected your life and your music?
BC: It's definitely been the craziest, taxing thing any of us have ever done. Personally, it's been really good. It's been really rewarding. It's like starting again for us because we haven't really had any releases out here before. There's a lot of things that are coming together for us now. It's really good.
BC: You sound as though you've picked up a bit of an American accent with the way you pronounce some of your words.
BC: Really? I was just doing an interview with Stu from Short Fast Loud (an Australian nationwide punk radio show) and he got me to do a station ID and I said 'I think I sounded Australian in that, didn't I?' 'cause some people say I do and some people say I don't. He was 'No you definitely do sound Australian'. Seriously the last time I was over there (in Australia) I was told both a million times and I'm like 'Well, I don't know how I sound both?' It's up for contention right now (laughs)
BC: You guys did a tour with Good Charlotte here early this year, d you find when you come home things are different at all?
BC: I don't know? That tour was rad. We had the world's best time! Every day off though we had one of our own shows with The Bleeders and our friends' bands there. I seriously got to see my family for like twenty minutes and then it was like, 'See you later'. The scene is pretty much the same as I remember.
BC: I don't think that ever changes! You have a new EP out, The Will To Live. What's the title all about?
BC: We thought that it was pretty fitting where we are at and what we're doing. Just trying to do whatever we can to keep going and properly live. I guess it sounds kind of cheesy but we thought it just described where we're at and what we're doing as a band right now. It also sounded kind of cool.
BC: Day Of Contempt have really evolved since your first release is there any theory or thought to the bands evolution?
BC: Not really. Our first proper CD was recorded in 1999. We were seventeen then and now I'm the only original member. We picked up a bunch of new dudes and have traveled a lot and managed to get around the world once and being based over here and getting inspired by new music and just keeping things fresh.
BC: How is it being the only original member?
BC: It's cool but it's definitely weird in some ways. Dan has been in the band for years now. Him and Scraggs I've been friends with the two of them and toured with their old bands years before that. I have two of my best friends in the whole world in the band so it's cool.
BC: Tom's left the band?
BC: Yes, three or four weeks ago.
BC: Has it been difficult without him around?
BC: It's definitely been weird. We've been playing in bands together since I was thirteen or fourteen, ten/eleven years ago. He's still here though. He did the Warped show tours with us in California. They were his last shows with us and then we sorted out what we were going to do. We still hang out.
BC: Day Of Contempt are on Epitaph now and with all the other crazy stuff that's been happening is it all kind of surreal for you all?
BC: It is when we stop and think about it. You just have to get on with the next thing you have to do. Sometimes we're just like 'Whoa!' When we started to play instruments ten/twelve years ago, all our favourite bands were on Epitaph. If you went and told that kid that they were going to be putting out a CD on Epitaph when they were in their twenties you wouldn't even know what to say to that... stuff like that... and Brett Gurewitz has been really behind the record. Just hearing him talk about it to other people and stuff like that it kind of really hits you that these people are really into what we are producing. It's rad to have that.
BR:How did the Epitaph hook up happen?
BC: They came out to a couple of our shows last year. We talked with them a bit then, then our producer (Josh Abraham) got on board and he wanted to sign a production deal with us and then it was like 'We're doing an EP with Josh Abraham, do you want us to be on board Epitaph?' and they were like 'Yeah we do. Let's get it going'. That's how it all fell into place.
BC: Also, I have to say congrats on the new album. I have all your records and I think it's the best so far.
BC: Thank you. We definitely feel it is. At the end of the recording we couldn't believe that, that was actually what we came out with. We don't really have a lot going on here. We don't have a stable life situation, like family and there's stuff going on and you just have these things you're trying to do. Doing something that shocks us and just knocks us of our feet is good.
BC: Do you think not having stable things like family there has an affect on your creativity?
BC: I think there's definitely been enough hard times that we have a lot of stuff to pour into the record. There's enough stuff from over the last year and a half, hopefully there won't always be that stuff.
BC: What were the challenges in creating the new EP?
BC: The recording was a pretty good experience. We talked about how cool it would be working with our producer four or five years ago and then here we are in 2005 recording with him. His engineer he works with is awesome. We had a chance to get really creative and do some weirder stuff and experiment with the recording. We pumped everything we could in there. It was definitely a cool experience to be able to do all of that. It's not something you always get to do in the punk and hardcore world.
BC: At the start of the song, Shattered Dreams and Broken Hearts there's piano, what's that all about?
BC: We listen to a lot of different stuff and we wanted to have piano stuff in there. We had keyboard strings on there as well. We wanted to bring in different elements. Our friend Marta from Bleeding Through plays piano really well and we had been talking for a while and just through out the idea of her doing some stuff on our record.
BC: How have you influenced each other in your growth as musicians?
BC: Just mostly being stuck in a van with the same people for hours and weeks on end and whatever you're into and excited about tends to rub off on everybody else. We'll be into pretty similar stuff for most of the time. None of us are classically trained or anything like that. New bands and new music will just inspire us more. For the stuff that really shines for us we try to bring that into our stuff.
BC: From your experience what is your general feeling of how Australian punk and hardcore is perceived?
BC: If you get the kind of kids that know a lot about international stuff people definitely have good things to say about bands like Prom Queen, Shot Point Blank... stuff like that/ Most of the time though, people won't have any idea at all. People will say they didn't even know there were bands like that over there. People don't have any idea what's outside of the States most of the time. They'll be like AC/DC is from Australia and they're one of the forefathers of rock.
dayofcontempt.com & epitaph.com
By BIANCAROSE
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
ericparadox:
great, another bad generic girlpants metalcore band.
neverdie41:
it was good to log on today and to see my pals on here getting interviewed...great group of guys and a great band 