Band of the Day: Dark Habits

Dark Habits just dropped their first evil track on us via Bandcamp (check it out below). I managed to snag drummer Matt Adamson for a quick round of questions and answers…

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

We’re from Glasgow, Scotland. We’re super lucky that Lewis (guitar) runs an amazing recording studio (Glassworks Studio Recording) in the south side of Glasgow, so that’s our HQ, our riff dungeon.

How did you meet?

I met Lewis when an old band of mine went to record at his studio. We immediately hit it off and became close friends, and when my band ended, it so happened that Lewis was wanting to start a fast, aggressive band. He asked me if I’d be up for it, and I jumped at the chance. Matthew (vocals) plays in another really cool band called Slow Walkers. When me and Lewis were looking for a vocalist, he got in touch, and we knew straight away he was the man for the job.

How long have you been playing as a band?

We’ve been a band for 3 or 4 months, still relatively young and fresh-faced. We’re so excited about getting our first EP out, all of us are so proud of it, especially given how new a band we are.

Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?

The name’s actually the title of an amazing 80’s Spanish movie. It’s about how organised religion morally bankrupts and desolates Spanish society. I’ve wanted to use the name for so long, but it’s never really fitted any band I’ve been in. With us, it just feels perfect. We wanted a name that would give as little about us away as possible, and aesthetically it looks nice written/printed/hastily scribbled.

What are your influences?

Our influences come from a whole range of bands within the spectrum of extreme music. The likes of Converge, Baptists and Full of Hell et al are immediately obvious in what we play but we’re all massive fans of Lord Mantis and we have a lot of influence from them throughout our material.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

Our music is fast, aggressive and straight to the point. No fucking about with twiddly diddly interludes. We just get in, do what’s needed and leave.

Do you have any particular lyrical themes?

As far as lyrics go, we all chip in with our own ideas. We’re very open to criticism from each other so it breeds an incredible environment to write in. Our themes tend to be within the context of “dark habits” themselves; dealings that are enjoyable themselves but not socially acceptable. Our first single, Black Tabs, is an acid trip experience. Our lyrics won’t be as straight to the point as our music. I write poetry in my spare time so I get the freedom to be whimsical yet coherent.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

We’ve not yet played any shows yet, we’re brand new, armed with our latest release so we do have some shows in the pipeline. You can expect a very intense live show, we all get so into it at practice that getting let loose on stage can only bring good things.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

Seeing as our first show hasn’t arrived yet, the craziest thing I’ve seen at a show has to be either a guy losing one of his teeth, a girl passing out from the heat or a bit more gross, a guy’s ear tunnel falling out onto the stage at a Converge show. None of those are that spectacular, although my friend Andy did film Ryan, the vocalist from Trap Them, jump off the PA in the Netherlands, break both his feet and then continue the whole set crouched over!

What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?

Drum-wise we use a Mapex Saturn Series Kit with one of those crazy ‘Demon’ double kick pedals. We usually head the kit with clear Remo Emperors as they’re a bit ‘faster’ and more aggressive sounding than say, coated Remo Ambassadors which Lewis has on his other kit at the studio.

We have a pretty simple guitar setup: a Gibson Les Paul Traditional, into a tuner, into an crappy HM-2 clone called a ‘Metal-Master’ which actually sounds better than the original HM-2s (both are on the record though), into a 100W Matamp ‘Green’ GTR.

On the record we used a Fender P-Bass with an Earthquaker Devices Hoof Fuzz splitting into an old 50W Selmer head and an old solid-state 400W Peavey head. If we can figure a way to transport everything, it’d be great to use the same equipment live.

What are your plans for 2017?

This year I think we’ll just see where our music takes us. We didn’t start this band with the intention of touring the world or making any money from it. It’s more of a social thing that’d be cool if it took off a bit. The whole idea of being so set on ‘making it’ kind of puts us off a little as we all have full time jobs and other stuff going on in our lives at the moment.

If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!

I think there are lots of obvious choices for legendary bands we’d like to open for like Darkthrone and Converge and so on but it’d be awesome to support a band completely different to us but still within the confines of more extreme music. The first band that comes to mind in that case is Clipping. They’re a rap/noise group from LA on Sub Pop and the three of us absolutely love them.

In terms of a band to open for us we’d definitely ask our friends Bed of Wasps. They’re from Scotland but all stay a couple of hours away in Dundee. If we were to describe them briefly we’d say they’re a fast, bleak, metallic punk band. Lewis recorded some new songs for them recently and they’re blowing us away.

Dark Habits: facebook | bandcamp

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