Bruder Des Lichts

Pyrrhon (pronounced Peer-on) are one of the best bands coming out of the New York metal scene these days – this week I spoke with vocalist Doug on tour life, keeping your vocal chords in peak condition and much more – read on!

* So did Mike and Dylan really meet on a subway platform or is that just folklore?
Yes, our guitarist Dylan met our original bassist Mike while waiting for the train after a show.

* How did you join the band?
Dylan is from the next town over from where I grew up in suburban Philadelphia, and I eventually met him while still in high school because his sister had become a friend of mine. We got to talking about music at some party or something and found that we had a lot in common, so we stayed in touch during college. A couple of years later he was putting a lineup together for the band that would become Pyrrhon and hit me up about auditioning on vocals, since he knew I had a background as a vocalist in some other bands. This all transpired between 2006 and 2008, I think.

* You have a pretty powerful voice – when did you find it? In Pyrrhon or one of your earlier bands? How does it hold out on long tours? I remember back in the early 90s Kevin Sharp telling me the key to “finding his voice” was the sound coming from his chest and not his throat
Thank you. I first started trying to do vocals in Seputus, a studio project I started with Pyrrhon’s current drummer Steve Schwegler way back in 2005, but I don’t think I really achieved anything approaching mastery until 2012 or 2013, when Pyrrhon had been going for a few years. There was a lot of trial and error in the years between.

I tend to push my voice pretty hard, and since I don’t naturally have a very loud or resilient voice, it’s taken some learning to figure out how to sustain it on the road. I’ve found that the most important factors for keeping my voice healthy while touring are: practicing good form while performing, reserving my voice when I’m not onstage, going easy on the partying, and getting as much sleep every night as possible. I’m an insomniac, so the last part can be difficult for me under tour conditions.

* If I am not mistaken the Greek philosopher Pyrrho was one of the first skeptics – do you consider the band skeptics? or?
Not in the strict philosophical sense, if that’s what you mean. The band name came out of a very long selection-by-committee process in the project’s early days, long before even Erik had joined. We didn’t really know what the band was going to be “about” thematically, so we weren’t really thinking too much about that side of the name — it was more about finding something distinctive and cool-sounding. None of us were even all that familiar with Pyrrho’s ideas at the time, though I started reading up on him when the name was floated. So Pyrrho’s specific teachings really never had much to do with the band per se, but the name fits well enough with our current iteration’s reflective and (colloquially) skeptical worldview.

* How did the band name come about?
See above.

We have lots of in-band jokes about this subject based on stuff people have called us at shows, such as “rollercoaster-core” and “hate shred.”

* For those of our readers who have not heard your sound before how do you guys describe it to people “technical death metal”, “progressive death metal” or “mathcore” or? What’s your preferred way to tell the uninitiated?
Hah, I generally try to avoid this conversation because our music is so hard to conveniently summarize this way. We have lots of in-band jokes about this subject based on stuff people have called us at shows, such as “rollercoaster-core” and “hate shred.” But when push comes to shove, I usually say “experimental death metal” if I have to do the genre tag thing.

* Have you guys done much touring to date? Who’s been your favorite band to tour with?
We haven’t toured a ton for a band that’s been around for close to a decade, but we became much more active that way in 2013 and have done something like 6 extended tours since then.

The longest of those tours was in 2014, when we did a 6-week North American run with Artificial Brain. As you can probably imagine, sharing a van with another band for that long will result in either loving each other or hating each other, and fortunately it was the former. We’re still good pals with them and are very proud of the success they’ve had with their new album so far.

* What would you say is the best city that you guys have played so far and why?
Broadly speaking, the most rewarding tour experience we’ve had was our European tour in 2015. We only hit a handful of countries, but since we never really expected to even get outside of the New York area with the band, playing our music on a different continent was an emotional experience for us.

The first “real” death metal band I ever heard was Morbid Angel. I was 14

* What was the first band that got you into Death Metal – your gateway band so to speak and do you still listen to them?
The first “real” death metal band I ever heard was Morbid Angel. I was 14. They’re still one of my favorites.

* What you would say is the biggest downfall in the underground metal scene today? What if any changes would you make to better the scene?
There’s quite a lot of dumdum behavior in metal, obviously, so it’s a bit hard to choose what to change. If I had to, though, I’d probably increase the ratio of distinctive bands to generic ones. A lot of really gifted musicians in metal end up slaving away in bands that really don’t have much personality, and I think everyone would benefit if talented players were more inclined to develop their own voices, instead of imitating someone else’s.

* What bands metal or otherwise are you currently listening to that blow you away?
Off the top of my head, a few recent albums that have hooked me include Forced Subservience by No Faith, Succumb’s self-titled album, Post Apocalyptic Human Annihilation by Diphenylchloroarsine, Came Down A Storm by Claire Cronin, and Synchromysticism by Yowie.

New York tends to exert an especially intense power over creative types for some reason

* New York is unlike any other city – would you say you guys have a “NYC” type sound or that NYC plays some part in inspiring your music?
Definitely. I wouldn’t say that the city is the band’s “theme” or anything like that. But everyone’s influenced by their surroundings to some extent, and New York tends to exert an especially intense power over creative types for some reason. Urban life was an explicit lyrical subject for us early on, especially on the first album. A lot of the sounds and bands that have influenced us deeply have strong traditions in New York too — free improvisation, noise rock, and obviously death metal. New York also has one of the most vibrant music communities in the world, in part because it’s so tough to establish a sustainable life as a creative person making totally non-commercial music here. Being around the sort of people who are both talented and driven enough to put up with such conditions certainly lights a fire under your ass and encourages you to push yourself too.

* What goals does the band have that you would like to see realized one day?
I’d say that our foremost goals as a band are to stay true to our instincts and to never make the same album twice. We’d also like to tour outside of the United States more – it would be nuts to play at least one show on every (habitable) continent eventually. But frankly, if we just manage to keep releasing albums that we’re proud of for a while longer, I’ll consider the affair a success.

* Does everyone in the band still live in the city? If so what side gigs does everybody do to make ends meet? (NYC ain’t cheap!)
Three of us live in New York – me, Erik, and Dylan. Dylan’s a server, Erik works for a boutique bass amp manufacturer, and I make a living doing research and writing for a small nonprofit. Steve lives in the Philly suburbs, where he’s currently a student.

* Have the band ever considered relocating to another city so that you guys can spend more time on your music? I have always believed that great scenes come out of towns like Richmond VA where the cost of living is relatively cheap – you don’t have to work 60 hrs a week just to make rent (let alone paying for a rehearsal space) I know a ton of bands from the Bay Area that are moving to LA just because it is so much cheaper.
Yes, we’ve talked about that kind of thing. Everyone but Erik has roots in Philly, which isn’t that cheap but would be an improvement. We’ve occasionally toyed with the idea of relocating there, but it’s difficult to coordinate multiple people relocating their lives to a new city at the same time. It’s tough enough for us to balance all of our various creative projects with our day-to-day labors as it is.

* What more can we expect from Pyrrhon in 2017?
We have a new album called What Passes For Survival coming out on August 11th. You can preorder the CD / digital via Willowtip Records here and the vinyl via Throatruiner Records here. We’ll be playing out regionally as much as possible in the fall in support of the record, with more extended tour plans to follow.