Joe/Cryptic Inscriptions: I want to thank you Cheddar for taking the time to do this interview. Give a brief history of Recreant? What made you guys choose the name and what does it mean?
Cheddar/Recreant: Thanks for thinking about us. Well last year spring B really wanted to start a band with me, we had been hanging out a lot, going to shows together and were all in all really inspiring to each other. She really wanted to do a Grindcore band, badly. I at the current time, couldn’t really write stuff like that very well (now is a little bit of a different story), but I gave it a whirl. We tried some dudes out on drums and we really couldn’t find what we were looking for. We pretty much scrapped that idea and I moved to Nashville over last summer. While I was in Nashville, I wrote a ton of music, not grindcore, but my own thing. I desperately tried to start a band up there, with really no luck. That town bored me to death and I was suffering through the loss of a friend that overdosed. So all I really did was play guitar and drums for hours on end a day that was seriously all I did. At the end of the summer I had moved back with full intentions on trying to do something else with her. We brought my best friend Jesse into the mix, he is one of the best bass players I have had the pleasure of knowing, so it only made sense to bring him in. We searched for a drummer, for a very, very, long time. We made craigslist ads and everything. Tried many different people, none of which could hang with what we were doing. By the beginning of this year we were pretty much throwing in the towel and saying fuck it. We tried out a lot of drummers, most of which were metal drummers which you would think would be able to do with no problem, none of these people we tried could play a fucking punk beat/d beat, but they could blast and double bass all damn day. Their styles were just fucking whack. I put out one more ad and blew up everyone on the inter webs that I know searching for a drummer. I got a response for an old acquaintance of mine Tristan. He is not the most amazing drummer out of the people we tried out, but stylistically he fucking killed it! He came in after like 4 practices and knew like 8 songs. So shit took off for us pretty quick when we got him and the ball rolling in Feb. We played our first show in May and started recording. The name Recreant, is to be a coward and/or to be disloyal to your master.
Joe: You guys seem to take off of many different genres in metal, punk and adding a violin definitely separates you from what most people would expect. Do you feel that taking from so many genres actually helps in you creating more original music than just sticking with one genre?
Cheddar: For sure, it helps loads!!! The great thing about the 4 of us is that all of us listen to sooooo many different kinds of music and all 4 of us have completely different backgrounds. Jesse is a diehard metal head to the core. It actually took a long time for me to get him to get into any punk/crust/ hardcore he fucking hated it. He couldn’t stand it at all. Eventually with age he came around, probably because most of his friends are punks and we was never really in the metal scene. B was a Christian Mennonite growing up and found the glory that is heavy music. She is obviously no longer in practice and is pretty much anti religion and general. She is really into grindcore and post rock/post metal. She also listens to a good handful of crust and hardcore. She kind of skipped the whole "punk evolution thing" though. She was never into NOFX, she pretty much just skipped all the bands punks listen to for the first like 5-6 years of even being into it. It’s crazy that also has its ups and downs with me lol. Tristan was a late bloomer to the punk scene as well, he didn’t even really know who the holy mountain was until they were pretty much done, which is of the biggest and most influential bands in our scene at least from me growing up.
Joe: Who writes the majority of the music/lyrics? Does someone write the majority of the music or do you guys all get together and come up with material? What’s the lyrical content about?
Cheddar: I write the majority of the music; Jesse called me a "song writing powerhouse!" We have only been a band since Feb. and we have 13 songs now. I was also out of commission all of june and july from a motorcycle accident where I broke my wrist, elbow, dislocated my collar bone, and sprained my other wrist really bad. So we didn’t do shit most of summer. Lyrics are pretty 50/50 between B and I. We seriously sing about everything. Most of the songs that we recorded (not our new shit) is socio political, but we sing topics we have covered as of far is anarchism, feminism, anti classism, death, drug addiction, depression, being over worked/under paid, and wanting/wishing to kill cops or anybody in power that we feel oppresses other people. We have many more things we plan on covering in the future. A lot of it is going to be things from our past that have fucked with us really hard. The 4 of us have all been through some serious childhood shit, b being in a cult, Jesse being born in prison, tristan with his formely drug addicted parents, and me being abused by my first step father and having a drug addict for a father and having a single mom that is only 16 years older than me.
Joe: The material you have posted that’s going to be on your upcoming vinyl LP is pretty impressive when do you think it’ll be released and what other material do you guys have in the works?
Cheddar: You know it really sucks, originally I expected the vinyl to be in by fall sometime, but its looking more like winter. It’s really not up to us, we are not the ones pressing it, we are just in line behind others. We are hitting the studio again in November, no plans for a real release but time will tell. A 7 inch would be really nice. We already pretty much have it written, but we will probably end up writing more knowing us. 1 of our 2 new songs is over 7 minutes though the other being 2. So we will probably be recording much more material than anything that could fit on a 7 inch. We have been asked to be on a lot of comps. We are going to be on the forward to apocalypse comp coming out in November with phobia, fuck the facts, and eye hate god!!! We are very stoked about that. My buddy Floyd who is currently living in savannah right now is putting that out. My buddy Ryan who lives in Tampa is putting out a comp with us on it called "bottom of the bay" and it’s going to be every punk band in the Tampa bay area on that thing. Everything from pop punk to crust it should be awesome. Another friend of mine named Pete Monte who lives out on the Waldo punk/anarchist collective/farm outside of Gainesville is also putting out a comp with us on it, but it’s probably not going to be out till next year because he is out in Cali harvesting weed last time I talked to him. It’s going to be pretty much a Florida hardcore comp.
Joe: I definitely like the fact that you guys are branching off into different territories with your music, when you guys played your first show did you guys get a good reception or were some people puzzled by what was going on?
Cheddar: It was a mixture of both, it still continue to be that way. Everyone either really likes us to the point where you almost don’t know how to take it, it’s almost obsessive, or they are just puzzled and confused and trying to figure out what is going on. I know we are going on tour in September, but we have only played 4 shows, so I guess only time will tell how people judge it. Quite frankly, I really don’t give a shit whether or not people like our music or not. We are doing this for ourselves and if we like it, that is all that matters to us.
Joe: If you could play a show with a band that you haven’t played with yet who would it be with and why?
Cheddar: That is the hardest question in the universe. Probably Tragedy because they are so reclusive, but yet they are super fucking huge! They don’t use the internet and they self release all their stuff, I don’t know how they do it other than the cult following his hero is gone had.
Joe: Do you feel that the internet helps in terms of bands getting promotion or do you believe that the old school ways of word of mouth, tape trading and passing out flyers helps bands out more?
Cheddar: I believe that both are very important. I have found tons of amazing bands both ways. Honestly the best way is to just play your fucking ass off. Get out their and play in as many towns as possible and do it as often as you can.
Joe: I know you’ve been in the scene for quite some time what’s the one thing you’ve learned being in a band? From what you’ve learned how’s that affecting your stint in Recreant?
Cheddar: I could go on all day about what I have learned from being in a band, but I will tell you this, they are all thankful because I got 10 shows in 10 days worth of tour booked which is something typically of a band for how long we have been together fucking impossible. I support my scene as much as possible and book shows constantly. Im always helping other bands and people out so I have managed to make a lot of friends from a lot of different places. I cant wait for our month tour at the start of next year!
Joe: Do you guys have side project besides Recreant or is this the only band you guys put your time into?
Cheddar: None of us currently have a side project at the moment. I am however starting a band with a few friends where I will be playing drums. It’s going to be a grindcore/neocrust crossover. I am interested on how its’ gonna turn out. From the way my friend Sean described it, it’s probably going to be similar to Skarp or Splitter.
Joe: If you could describe your music in one word what would it be?
Cheddar: One word? Fuck man!? haha umm.. Queer. As in strange, different.
11. Anything else for the readers any upcoming shows, releases, and updates?
11. Tour Dates for September:
September
15 Tampa @ the basement house
16 Gainesville @ wayward council
17 Tallahassee @ Pandaconda house
18 Tuscaloosa @ baby house
19 Birmingham @ helms deep
20 Nashville @ world trade center
21 Knoxville @ the poison lawn
22 Greenville @ club Sammich
23 savannah @ sweet Melissa’s
24 Atlanta @ the wonder root
I already told you about the releases, split LP with dawn, forward to the apocalypse comp, bottom of the bay, and the Florida hardcore comp(not sure what that one is called). We are recording again in November. we will be touring again from Feb 24th-mar 24th. We will be going to Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, PA, New York, Mass, Maryland, Virginia, N.C, Tennessee, and Georgia.
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