Above photo: Colin Kmiecik
2) Does being from upstate New York, or the East Coast in general, inform your sound, and if so, how?
While we started the band in upstate central NY, we actually are all from different places. There was no proper 'grind' community in Ithaca, so we played mixed bills, toured, and created a more inclusive extreme music scene in the college town we were confined to. Kris [Morash, guitar and bass] and Katerina [Economou, vocals] are from the western Massachusetts/Albany area, but they are from two different music generations, so they were lucky enough to experience vastly different scenes on the East Coast. Jason [Balthazar Eldridge] is from Syracuse, and is the closest to where we started the band. It does seem like that upstate area, in general, was influential to all of us though the Hellfest DVDs growing up. Jesse [Fuentes, drums] is from Dallas, Texas, which has a much more diverse musical landscape, with favorite bands/artists like Insect Warfare, Kill the Client, Power Trip, DJ Screw, True Widow, Pinkish Black, Hatred Surge, Mammoth Grinder and Mr. Pookie. In general, we have been so lucky to have played alongside amazing East Coast bands, but our music tries to be nomadic in the sense that we pick up inspiration wherever it strikes us.
3) You guys obviously have various other projects under your belt -- is there something you can do with Escuela Grind that you couldn't do in your other bands?
In the bands before, writing was limited to specific constructs. Whereas this band limits itself at first with constructs, and then we tweak it and include different elements that aren’t from grindcore, powerviolence, or even heavy music as a whole. In Escuela Grind, death metal, hardcore punk and fight riffs are written over Prince and Nirvana drum beats. They tend to happen alongside traditional Terrorizer and Immortal-style blast beats, and then switch up with odd time signatures and change-ups that you’d hear in fusion jazz. That unlocks the crowd to dance the way they feel at the time, and the blastbeats allow for indulgence in a constant build-up. We’re able to write mosh riffs combined with blastbeats in this band, and you better believe that whenever we have a metalcore crowd, they kick super high on those parts. We don’t have to take ourselves too seriously, or put on a front with Escuela Grind, so shows are like a party, but with a mental safe space. It’s insanely therapeutic.