By Andrew Bansal
Los Angeles-based progressive thrash metal quartet Desecrate have been in existence for longer than most people in the scene realize. Aside from utilizing their natural abilities to write compelling heavy music, the band has worked tirelessly to stay together and stay relevant. Veterans of the local club circuit, Desecrate are preparing to play at the Troubadour on Saturday March 21st along with Diamond Lane, Delta Rose, BrainDead, Future Villains and The Sahns, for a show put together by Lara Gladstone. For Desecrate, the show marks the release of their long-awaited and well thought-out third full-length album ‘Of Death And Damnation’. Last week, I sat down with Nick Simile (vocals/guitar) and Chase Becker (guitar) for a detailed chat about all things Desecrate. Enjoy the conversation below and LA folks can purchase tickets here to check them out at the Troubadour.
You guys have been around for quite a while. The two of you started the band and kept it together. How’s the journey been over all these years?
Nick Simile: Well yeah, it was me and Chase, and our bass player Hawk. We’ve been doing it since high school, probably 2001. But we’ve always been going through lineup changes, mostly drummer issues. So whenever we start to gain footing, something goes down with the drummer and it sets us back. So we’ve just been kind of dealing with that forever, but we push on. We finally have a solid lineup now with our new drummer William who’s kicking ass and he’s got all the material down. So we’re starting from zero again, putting out the album and getting ready to hit the road. I mean, it’s always been good and we do shows all the time. We’ve done huge shows at the Whisky and House Of Blues, and all the clubs you can name in Hollywood. We just need to hit it consistently, I guess you could say.
Right, and keeping all or most of the lineup together is the biggest challenge for bands like yours, isn’t it? It’s what stops you from progressing.
Chase Becker: I agree. We’ve got a certain sound and keeping the same guys whom we get along with is a big thing. But when we have to find a new drummer we don’t let it bring us down. We just pushing on and kicking ass.
Drummers are a pain in the ass, aren’t they?
CB: They’re all a fucking pain in the ass. I hate drummers. I mean, no I don’t. But I like them when they’re in the band!
As you said, you’ve played all the clubs that people know around here in LA and Hollywood. But I feel that in this city there’s something new to be discovered every day, even if you’ve been here foreevr. Do you agree?
NS: Yeah, there’s always either a new club or they redesign or rename an old one. We’ve got a show coming up at the Troubadour. I haven’t even been there since 2008 or something, and I just went there a month or two ago, and it was like a whole new club. The sound system is different, the lighting too, and it’s almost like a new experience every time. We’ve done the Whisky a bunch, and even that has changed over the years with new management and new sound. It’s always good to keep playing and it gets better and better every time.
Aside from venues, there are new promoters popping up and old ones disappearing. So, all these changes keep happening.
NS: Exactly. For us, it sometimes makes it a challenge because you build a reputation with one promoter, you kick ass, bring a good crowd and put on a good show. Then all of a sudden they’re gone and you’s starting from scratch at the same venue you’ve been playing for years.
You mentioned the upcoming Troubadour show. That’s quite an important gig for you guys, a CD release show. What are you expecting from that one?
CB: I’m expecting it to be packed! Our friend Lara Gladstone is putting it together for us and hooking us up with a long set. We played there once and that’s the only time I’ve ever been there, and now I’m hearing about how it’s remodeled and all redone. So, I’m excited.
What have your past experiences been like at the Troubadour, playing or attending shows?
NS: It’s a really great venue. It’s kind of an interesting floor setup, as it’s rectangular. So there’s this long area where people can mosh and do all kinds of stuff. Every time I’ve been there it’s been really packed and sounded killer. So I think it’s going to be a really good night, and we have the new album coming out for which we’re trying to get the stoke going among all the fans. And like Chase said, Lara Gladstone is putting on the show and every time we do her show, it kicks ass.
Talking of the lineup for this show, there are some other great bands playing as well, including Diamond Lane, Delta Rose, BrainDead and Future Villains. Playing with bands this good must also inspire you to bring your A game because you have to follow their act.
CB: I agree! It’s pretty cool though, because we’re all different styles of metal. I think the night is going to get heavier and heavier. It’s going to be interesting.
NS: It makes you want to perform at the highest level, so that by the time you get on stage, people aren’t bored or feeling like they’ve seen it already. You’ve got to bring something to the table that the other bands haven’t. So we try to up the ante a little bit when we get on stage. We want people to be blown away.
Bands like yours and all the others playing this show are proving that what people in and outside of LA think of the LA scene is completely wrong. They have misconceptions about every band sounding like Guns ‘N Roses. That’s not the case at all.
NS: Yeah, it’s funny because when you’re playing outside LA you get more respect than when you’re playing in LA. There are so many bands and so many musicians here that you’re just another fish in the sea. You’re a dime a dozen. People think it’s a great thing being and playing in LA, but for us, it’s almost better to be outside. People want to see you, hear you and want to know what you’re talking about and singing out, as opposed to here, where people sometimes don’t even care. You’re up on stage and they’re just talking to their friends or are on their cellphones.
CB: When we go outside of LA and tell people we’re from here, they get excited. I grew up here so it’s nothing crazy for me, but we’ve been playing here for years and years now.
NS: The great thing about being in LA though, is there’s so much diversity in the music. Like even just the night we’re playing at the Troubadour, there’s a rock band that does almost sound like Guns ‘N Roses, there’s a thrash band that’s kind of like Anthrax, there’s us, and Future Villians who’re like a mix of pop, rock and metal. So, on any given night you can catch any type of music you really want. So there’s pros and cons. Obviously it’s a great city for music and any sort of art and entertainment.
Coming to this new album, how long did you work on it and how does it compare to what you’ve done in the past? It’s been quite a while since the last album came out, so I don’t know if it’s fair to even compare.
CB: Our older stuff wasn’t as heavy, and we’ve gotten heavier, but I don’t think the new material is as progressive as our old stuff. On those albums we have 8-minute songs, which of course is awesome because you’ve got to have the epic metal songs, but this new is jusy really heavy, shredding, fast and catchy.
NS: One thing that’s really different on this album from what we’ve done before is, in the past we’ve always had the songs ready to go, and it was like, OK, these are the songs we’re going to put on the album. But when we started this one, we were approached by our producer Tom Chandler, who said, “I want to start from scratch.” So we went into the studio with zero material. We had no songs written. We had riffs and ideas that we wanted to lay down, and we wrote about 20 songs which we recorded as demo versions, just very rough. And then from those 20 songs we picked the best 10. So, what we wanted to do was to have the whole album be consistent from start to finish, sounding like one album as opposed to just a bunch of songs put together. So, that’s one of the huge differences, and we’re kind of changing up the style, making it more modern, more cutting-edge, and all the singing, whether it’s clean or growling, is very aggressive and very in-your-face. It’s a really intense and dark album.
CB: It was time to break the mould by recording all the material while coming up with it in the studio, and change the whole song structure compared to what it was on the last two albums that we have. Like Nick said, the album has a dark sound and a certain tone to it, but the song structures aren’t as basic. There are different orders of verses, chorus, solos and stuff like that.
From what I’ve noticed in your discography, you take your time releasing each full-length album. Is that because you want to do every step right, from songwriting to production to artwork, or is it more of a product of not finding the time to do it?
NS: Well, our philosophy since the beginning has been, if we’re going to do anything at all, we’ll do it at the pro level. So anything we ever do, from flyers to shows to albums, it’s a 100 per cent pro, and until we’re able to do something like that, we don’t do anything. So, it is a challenge to find the finances, the time, the resources and even the producer to make what we need to do happen. I feel like when we put our albums out, it’s the natural time for us to do it. It just comes to fruition at the time it needs to. We don’t force anything to happen. We have a high standard and everything has to meet that.
CB: We don’t want to rush or half-ass anything either. You can’t rush perfection.
You mentioned earlier that you’re planning to hit the road. In the past, how much have you done outside of LA and what’s your plan in that regard?
NS: Yeah we’ve done plenty outside LA. In 2013 we did a 15-date tour covering pretty much half of America. It was an adventure for sure. Lot of good stories from that. But other than that, we’ve been to Vegas probably 20 different times, we’ve been to Phoenix and San Diego a handful of times. So, we get out of LA quite a lot and it’s great every time.
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