Give us some info about Altered Beast?
We all live in Kansas City, Missouri. We started the band in early 2014. Been chugging away since then. Aren't really built for touring because me and the drummer have a lot of kids and life going on. Haha. We are open to some ideas though if people reach out. We definitely aren't going to turn anything cool down.
How did the band come about?
Max and Dakota (guitarists) approached me about doing vocals. They had a song (Come Clean) off the demo written and threw it my direction. I scammed our drummer Dan because he and I had been working on some other ideas. We started writing songs and scooped Steve up on bass. The cool thing is none of us had any other projects at the time. It is a good energy when everyone is hungry and focused on one project. Since then things have changed. Most the other guys have other things going on. We aren't writing as many songs as I want, but I'm not stressing.
Just recently you dropped new self-titled ep. What was your main goal when writing these new tracks?
We had been playing these tracks live for a while. We instantly kept writing after we dropped the demo tape. The songs were pretty mature by the time we hit the studio the second time for this ep. We still kept it bare bones as far as production. The one thing we did consistent was record in the same studio. It is a super nice modern studio with great equipment and rooms. War of Ages, and Norma Jean had both recorded there. The goal was to keep it natural and raw sounding. No bullshit effects that made us sound like some studio monster. I wanted that live sound. We record the songs live and punch in the fixes for any mistakes we made. I save the vocals tracks for the end, and usually try to nail them with a single take. I don't like reverb or any overdubbing on my vocals.
Who is going to release it on a physical format?
We actually have it pressed on 7 inch now with our friend Sam from Blak Skul Records now out of KC. He lives next to Max and has been super cool putting it out. We have gotten some good responses out of it. Even Maximum Rock N Roll gave us a cool review. I was pretty nervous when Sam submitted it to them. Normally they chew bands like us and spit them out. Haha. We pressed 400 on black, and around 100 on red.
How did you get involved in hardcore?
I got involved in hardcore by just listening to the music. I lived in a very small town and there were some older friends that were part of the early 80's movement that taught me the ways. I didn't understand the subgenres until I started getting older. You gotta understand that I am about to be 41 years old. I began listening to independent music at a really young age. I was exposed to DRI and Slayer when I was in 6th grade. So that was around 1985/1986. I got directly involved by playing in a local band after high school and opening up a lot of the local shows. I was always going to shows though. I was addicted to dancing and having fun. I didn't care if I was solo or going with a group of friends. After all those years I just kept getting more and more involved from running sound at a local venue, to putting on random shows of my own in the city.
What did you find inspiring about that movement?
The first time I understood what the difference between hardcore and other music was when I began to get deep into NYHC worship. I was so intrigued with who was related to who, and what bands they all had before. I had known about most of the bands through the years, but like I said, I didn't understand that Agnostic Front, Slapshot, Murphys Law, etc were part of a sub genre call hardcore. The most inspiring thing that drew me in was hearing AF Last Warning and hearing the in between talking that Roger did. He was talking about unity and caring about social causes that were affecting them in NYHC. That whole positive banter and vibe showed me the reality of their style. After that I picked up on 25 Ta Life and Rick's lyrics were super positive on Strength Through Unity. At that time I was sold on the idea of Unity and Togetherness. That is what initially attracted me to hardcore. How you could sound so tough, and the pits be so wild, and have such a caring and inclusive message.
