Track Premiere & Interview: Bandit – ‘Voyeur’

Photo: Nick Martin

If you’re a regular Decibel website reader, you may have noticed the latest addition to the staff: resident grindcore enthusiast Gene Meyer. Gene’s written stories on grindcore around the world and spoken with Enemy Soil, but his involvement doesn’t end there. Meyer fronts Philly grind/powerviolence maniacs Bandit, who have recently released an EP (Self-Inflicted) and splits with Chepang, Test and Pavel Chekhov, followed by a set at Maryland Deathfest. Their latest release is a 7-inch called Warsaw, out soon on Cricket Cemetery.

Bandit shared a new song, “Voyeur,” from the upcoming 7-inch, which we are streaming today. We also spoke with the band’s guitarist, Jack McBride, about the meaning behind Warsaw, Bandit’s chaotic stage antics and broken mics. Warsaw is coming soon through Cricket Cemetery, so stay posted for more details.

Your new 7-inch is called Warsaw. What’s the significance of that title?
The title Warsaw is intended to be loosely based around the traumas Gene’s family faced during WWII and how those conflicts have been passed down through generations and affected the lives of everyone in his family. Gene’s mother was born in a small village outside of Warsaw called Lomza, and both of her parents experienced Nazi atrocities first hand; her father was even taken prisoner and forced into a slave labor camp. Other songs on the album such as “New Rochelle” touch upon Gene’s father’s side of the family, and several of the songs are about how these experiences played a role in Gene’s upbringing and his struggles with addiction and alcoholism. The overriding theme of the album is how human lives are affected by the experiences of past generations and how we are all haunted by the ghosts of history’s horrors, both personal and global.

Photo: Mark Valentino

You’ve been releasing music a lot since last year’s Self-inflicted full-length. Are you just always writing new material?
Bandit is always writing new material in the sense that I am always bouncing increasingly dumber and more difficult ideas off of Michael [Thomas, drums] whenever we practice. Honestly, I don’t know how he puts up with me sometimes [laughs]. We usually don’t take incredibly long hiatuses from writing. That being said, we also never really sit down and say ‘we’re going to take these next couple months and just write and by the end of it, we need to have this amount of material ready. With Bandit, writing is incredibly organic and spontaneous and I feel like our music reflects that in both positive and negative ways. Michael and I have tried to force our creativity before, and it never works out… ever.

Bandit has been around in some capacity since 2013. How has the music or mission changed from then to now?
Well I look at Bandit’s ‘career,’ if I could even call it that, as two very distinct sections: before and after our vocalist Gene joined the band. Prior to Gene taking up vocals and Michael switching from bass to drums, Bandit was just a fun thing that Michael and I had started. Our friend Kevin [Nolan] was playing drums at the time, and we never took it particularly seriously. We released tapes and played shows but it was always just a fun thing to do on the side of high school or work or whatever we happened to be doing.

After Gene joined the band, we started writing the songs for Self-Inflicted. Through that recording process, and the shows we were playing at the time, it just became very obvious to us that the band had sort of finally hit our stride and we had figured out what it was supposed to be. The music we were writing prior to Gene joining the band was a fair amount more influenced by punk, and powerviolence, and was just generally a lot less mature. But Self-Inflicted pretty much shattered every mold we had made for ourselves previously and I think it really reinvigorated Michael and I’s love for Bandit, which we had already been doing for like three years by the time those songs were all recorded.

Your live shows have developed a reputation for being chaotic and out-of-hand. At least one person is usually bleeding, things get broken, etc. Was that always a part of Bandit shows?
I love playing shows, playing shows is pretty much the only reason I play in Bandit. Don’t get me wrong, I love recording, I love creating art with my best friends and setting goals and realizing them. But playing live with Bandit is the single most important thing in my life, it really is like therapy for us. I don’t know if it’s the freedom that comes with knowing that literally anything can happen, or the sense of unity between the band and the crowd just going crazy working out our BS from the previous week. Because when I was growing up, I would go see a band I really liked and I would spend all week waiting for the show, I’d obsessively listen to the bands music, and I’d just know that no matter what happened that week, however shitty, I could go to that show and scream the words and lose my mind and for a short time none of the other bullshit mattered. And even though I play in the band now, I still feel like that goofy 14-year-old who’s probably way too excited about being out too late at a stinky bar on a Wednesday. And the feeling we all get of just going wild and not worrying about our jobs or our personal lives or even our safety, even if it’s just for ten minutes in front of twenty-five people, is truly the most beautiful thing I personally have ever experienced and I think I’m a better, more productive person because of it.

How many mics does Gene go through in a year?
Well we only buy Shure mics… Also, he’s only been in our band for about two years, but for a grindcore band that has never made any money whatsoever… I’m gonna go with too many.”

What comes next for Bandit? You’ve had a pretty big last year or so, but where do you plan to take it from here?
That’s a bizarre question to answer but it’s one we are currently asking ourselves. We just played Maryland Deathfest and that has been a goal of ours from pretty much the get go, so it’s amazing to be able to check that off the list. We are really excited to begin writing a true debut LP, which is a daunting task (and one we’ve been pretty much opposed to for the majority of the time we’ve been a band) but it’s something we think we have the ability to do and do well, so that will start coming together very soon. We will be doing a short weekend with New Jersey hardcore band Sick Shit next month, and I can’t say too much right now but if you live on the west coast and you’ve been waiting to see us, I’d keep an eye out early next year.