Interview: Narrows
Chances are, if you’re a fan of hardcore, you either already know about Narrows, or you’re about to get stoked once you find out who they are. Among their ranks are vocalist Dave Verellen (Botch, Roy), Rob Moran (Some Girls, Unbroken), Ryan Frederiksen (These Arms Are Snakes, Nineironspitfire), Jodie Cox (Tropics) and Sam Stothers (Makeout Boys, Quarantine).
Given most of the members’ output in the last few years, you’d be forgiven for expecting a curveball. Verellen’s alt-country outfit is the farthest thing from Botch’s masterful mathcore, and Frederiksen’s Snakes are surely not dabbling in the same well as Nineironspitfire. So what, then, are we to expect from a group of seasoned hardcore veterans?
The answer to that is simple: sheer brutality. The material band’s self-titled three-song EP is utterly crushing in a way that transcends hardcore, moving beyond breakdowns to a realm of constant bombast. Verellen certainly hasn’t lost his touch behind the mic, and Frederiksen’s put away his delay pedals to whip out some surprisingly searing riffs. The Snakes’ axeman recently spoke to Signal about the formation of the group as well as their intentions to teach today’s hardcore kids how to do it right.
“Rob and Dave had been talking about it for quite a while,” the guitarist begins. “Dave wanted to sing again and Rob was all about it, so they started getting people together as they could. Through Some Girls touring, that’s how Rob met Jodie. Jodie is also our European booking agent, and he’s come on a few tours with the Snakes.
“We weren’t even sure if it was going to work out, but we wrote a few songs which ended up being on the EP that is coming out. We weren’t sure if we could keep doing it, our lives being what they are, but we said, ‘Fuck it, let’s just do it.’”
Anybody who thought these guys would get soft in their old age is in for a rude awakening. There is nothing in the way Narrows sound which would indicate that the guys are all in their 30s. If anything, they’re just better informed on how to efficiently and effectively kick your ass.
“In some ways it was a conscious effort to make something brutal, but not too conscious,” the guitarist continues. “We wanted to make it as natural as possible, and I think what came out of it is pretty honest to everyone’s ideas. It was fun because I wanted to get out of something that sounded kind of too Snakes-like.
“You can definitely hear everybody’s personalities before they start playing, and where they’re coming from. What came out of it was really kind of unique. Some of it sounds really brutal and other parts sound just fucking weird and out of nowhere. Everybody’s personalities shine quite a bit but it all worked together in some weird kind of way.”
The band isn’t a throwback to a bygone era, but rather it tries to update a sound its members helped pioneer. This is not a rehash of your old Deadguy records, but a take on heavy music that isn’t clouded by youthful naiveté. In many ways, it’s picking up where some of the boys left off.
“That’s what makes us a little bit unique in our own way,” Frederiksen explains. “There’s definitely some weird, 90s hardcore moments in the band, but there’s a bit of an update with our own personalities. All of us grew up with that stuff, so it was kind of fun to go back and maybe change it and make it fun for everybody now.”
Though the full-length is still in the works, the EP hints at some seriously devastating things to come. It’s as if the guys all rediscovered their love of heavy music and came back to it with a renewed, matured perspective. In a nutshell, it’s heavy music by and for older people.
“That’s pretty much right on, actually,” Frederiksen agrees. “There’s still a lot of heavy music that I listen to. Boris, Sunn O))), it’s a different kind of heavy. It’s not ‘hardcore’ or anything like that. That just gets so watered down after a while. All of our previous bands, we just toured and heard the same bands over and over again, and you just get tired of it after a while.
“Look how many versions of Botch are out now. That started right around the time they were calling it quits, we all started to see a lot more of that. It was like, ‘Really? We wrote that riff a few years ago. What are you doing?’ You get really tired of it after a while. This is us coming back and saying, ‘This is how it should be done.’”
