Members:
Dan Mannix, Don Tiver, Nolan Walz
Chris Cugliotta, Dan Pilla
Hometown: Medford, NJ
Debut album: V2 - available at
badmask.bandcamp.com
Upcoming shows:
Jan. 22 - Savage Rock School,
Blackwood NJ
Website: myspace.com/badmask,
by Jim Testa
We get a couple of dozen friend requests on
our MySpace page every week, but so help me,
I toggle down and click on the most interesting
looking ones, and if it's a band asking us
to check them out, I'll even do that. And
quite simply, that's how I discovered Bad
Mask, who hail from South Jersey; not far
from Cherry Hill, but miles away from any
sort of scene that Jersey Beat would normally
be aware of. So let's give it up for the Internet,
where every band is a local band, and where
you can sometimes discover music that's so
explosively energetic that you just want to
share it with other people. You only have
to listen to a few seconds of the band's new
album V2 to know that these guys shred, and
they maintain an ear-bleeding level of intensity
throughout the entire album. That said, meet
Bad Mask...
Q: Please start by introducing the band.
Then throw in the story of how you all met and
when you started playing together.
Chris: One of the cool things about this
band is how much history it has. As a relatively
new member, I’m speaking from outside
the core part. Dan Mannix (drums) and Don
Tiver (vocals) have been playing music together
for almost ten years now. What is surprising
to many people is that Dan, our drummer, writes
about 90% of the guitar riffs in the band.
His writing style has evolved over the years,
and consequently so has the band’s sound.
Stemming from hardcore and thrash music, the
band’s sound has branched out and grown
into something we hope is original enough
to avoid a one-word classification. Nolan
(bass) joined the band about five years ago,
and I (guitar) joined about a year and half
ago. After the break-up of his former band,
the Concubine, and shortly after recording
our album, Dan Pilla joined on second guitar.
As for how we met, we all went to nearby high
schools and many of our previous bands played
together. We’re all in our early twenties
now.
Q: You guys play in a very well defined
"screamo" style, with one singer
using a high screamy voice and the other a
low guttural voice (the “voice of Satan”
style, as I call it.) What was your inspiration
and role model in setting up the band this
way? Does each singer write his own lyrics,
and is there a challenge into integrating
the two vocal parts into coherent songs?
Don: This is a funny question. I guess it's
a bit misleading on the record, but I am the
only voice on it. Live there tends to be only
the one main vocal track with the other acting
more of a back-up (for the times where they
are both together). We don't have anyone doing
the back-ups live right now but we've been
talking about it. As far as the inspiration
for the model, it just kind of fell into place
that way. I grew up listening to hardcore
bands like One King Down, Bad Luck 13, and
Shai Hulud, stuff like that, so early on I
did a lot of mid-range stuff. Later on I got
into bands like Love Lost But Not Forgotten
and began to appreciate the very shrill, being-murdered
type of thing. Having gotten used to doing
several different styles I just write each
part according to what I think fits best at
that part.
Q: I’ve always wanted to ask
a screamo band this question: Obviously you
put effort into writing lyrics. Then you sing
them in a such a way that no one can possibly
understand them. Even more puzzling, a lot
of bands in this genre are very political
and the lyrics have very specific messages
– but without a lyric sheet, the message
can’t be understood. What’s the
thinking that goes into that? What attracts
you to this style of performance?
Don: I guess the easiest way to explain it
is simply as a style choice that typically
fits the emotion involved. Something as primal
as screaming has extremely emotional capabilities
that easily fit angrier, politically charged
songs. And you can tell when someone means
what they're screaming. There's a certain
vibe and passion to it
.
However, especially recently, I've tried to
combine the high energy aspect of that choice
with unusual lyrics that deal with things
I'm interested in expressing, like keeping
an open mind with things like science, religion,
and psychedelic compounds.
Some of our newer stuff has been utilizing
a more readily approachable and intelligible
vocal style, but that's only because I feel
it fits the music.
It is kind of a shame that the lyrics get
lost on the majority of people who don't bother
to read along with the song, but that's just
kind of the way it works. The sound having
that aesthetic to it is what trumps the lyrical
message, since it would change the way the
whole thing sounds. It's like choosing a painting
medium in art. When you are painting you are
thinking about how the picture will look visually
when all is said and done, and the message
is there for people who look beyond that initial
visual impression. The people who really get
into us will read along and hopefully be surprised
at finding a new aspect they missed before:
thought provoking lyrics.
Q: A lot of young bands can rip it
up on stage but often find it difficult to
translate their live energy in the recording
studio. I have to commend you guys on the
enormous amount of kinetic energy that his
record has – it’s like you really
captured all the sweat and fury of your live
show. Did you work with a producer, and were
there any things special that he did that
helped you get that energy onto the recording?
Chris: We were really happy with how V2
came out. We recorded it with Dan Pilla at
Bad Lab Studio in Tabernacle, NJ, and this
was before he joined the band. As V2 was something
we cared about a lot, some of us were apprehensive
about opting to go to a local studio instead
of a bigger name place. But it definitely
offered advantages to us. We aimed for a raw,
abrasive, and organic sound while still retaining
the quality of a professional studio. When
we could pull it off, we tried to record a
lot of the guitar tracks in one take. Sometimes,
instead of punching in on little mess-ups,
we’d just keep them there, as we felt
that minor imperfections contributed to the
realism of the performance. All of this in
moderation, of course. Dan was always forced
to hit his drums ridiculously hard. We avoided
fuzzy, processed-sounding distortions, and
instead turned our gain down and hammered
the hell out of the strings. A lot of the
guitar tracks were actually recorded on a
Peavey 5150’s clean channel. We hoped
that with all these factors combined, we’d
emulate a live performance as best as possible.
Q: There was a time when violence
was a huge problem at hardcore shows, not
just in NJ but all over the country. That
seems to have gotten better – kids might
still dance hard, but you don’t see
the fights or people leaving shows bloody
and bruised the way they used to. What’s
your experience been with audiences and how
do you as a band react when a pit starts to
get too violent?
Don: We never have really seen people get
that crazy when we play, except for Nolan,
but he doesn't count because he's part of
the band. He's made several people bleed.
Kids that go to shows to dance usually find
us frustrating because we don't have typical
breakdowns and whatnot geared toward dancing.
You have to be familiar with the song to groove
to it and even then it's more like a grand
mal seizure than an actual dance.
Q: I do not know the area of New
Jersey that you guys are from at all, other
than it’s not far from Cherry Hill.
What’s around there in terms of a punk
and hardcore scene – other bands, places
to play, etc. Do you feel as though you’re
an extended part of Philly’s scene,
or is there enough going on where there’s
a definable Medford scene of its own? Are
there any bands you like from the area that
we should watch out for?
Don: It kind of sucks because we don't really
feel we're part of any scene. There used to
be shows around us but not so much anymore.
Sure they were usually crappy bands but it
was something to do! There was a time when
a second-rate third wave ska band, a third-rate
metalcore band of fifteen year olds, and a
pop punk band that was only tolerated because
they brought 15 year old girls to the show
could share the stage and it was an entertaining
Friday night. But then they started pigeon-holing
genre shows and there was the bout of violence
that closed a lot of venues. We seem to find
small private venues that have regular shows
for a while but we've not been able to really
find much else. We'd like to, though. Book
us! We only play for 20 minutes and usually
not many people get hurt!
Q: Let people know what merch you
have available and where they can find you
on the web.
Don: http://www.myspace.com/badmask
is the easiest place. We're also on Facebook
somewhere though. You can download the album
for free at http://badmask.bandcamp.com.
We should have shirts in the very near future
which is a first for us. The designs look
great so come find them at a show sometime!
