Ezekiel RodofiliThere are a lot of bands that use heaviness as expression, and many of them do it with a certain kind of intensity that feels relational. Diploid are one of the finer bands that do this.
I was fortunate to speak to Reece of Diploid about the band’s work, and their participation in the upcoming Art As Catharsis fifteen-year anniversary show in Melbourne.
—
Ez: I know that diploid is a scientific term. I imagine that you’ve had to explain this before in interviews, but how does the name represent the band?
Reece: The name is… we don’t kind of like the name that much. It’s kind of silly. We formed the band in high school, and originally there were different members in the band and it was more a punk rock band. I don’t even include this as the start of Diploid, but we were basically a different band and one of the guys was studying biology, I think. He suggested the name and we said “Yeah sure”. That line-up dissolved pretty quickly, so then I got Maz and Scott involved. We were in high school together and they were mates of mine. We kept the name and changed the style to more grind metal, hardcore punk.
So it came from a random dude in school, basically.
Ez: And now you’re stuck with the name.
Reece: *laughs* Yeah. After the first couple of years we were like “Maybe we should change it”, but we couldn’t think of anything. Now it’s almost fifteen years later, so now we’re stuck with it.
Ez: I remember a long time ago Dave Grohl saying something like Foo Fighters was the stupidest band name and he would change it if he could, so I guess when you start playing arenas, you can say the same thing officially, you know?
So Culture Eater’s involvement in anything Diploid-related was my coverage of Glorify, and from what I remember it was not quite a grindcore, but very grinding, abrasive release. And since then you’ve put out I AM YOURS. AND I AM HERE AGAIN and MANTRA.
The title Glorify; you could probably read it as having some sort of intensity, but I AM YOURS… and MANTRA both evoke a very different feel in terms of titles. From Glorify to MANTRA, how has Diploid changed?
Reece: We got a different drummer after Glorify. We our second drummer, Dan playing. When lockdown hit he decided to leave so then we got Scarlett involved. She’s a little older than Maz and I. We used to go see her bands when we were like, 16, 17, 18 years old. When she got involved, the drums got a bit more metal-influenced over the punk that Dan.
I also feel like the riffage became a bit more early death metal and thrash metal influenced. Like early Death and early Slayer. Still got the hardcore punk there, but the riffage changed a little bit, and I feel like we sped up a bit more just ’cause Scarlett’s a really fast drummer.
Ez: Have the themes that Diploid touches on have also changed?
Reece: Not really. I AM YOURS…, that is a bit different ’cause that one was focused more on war and genocide and war crimes, and more like a global-type thing rather than an interpersonal-type release, but done in a way where it’s still kind of interpersonal. Sort of dealing with and knowing these things are happening and knowing you don’t have too much of an effect on them. You can do what you can do, but you’re not gonna single-handedly stop a war, genocide or anything like that that has taken place.
MANTRA was a bit more interpersonal. All the lyrics for that were written by Maz. Usually when we do releases we share the lyric writing a bit, but Maz wrote all the lyrics. I think I suggested a different line for one song, but basically it was all Maz.It’s about their eating disorder they’ve been dealing with, so that one was very, very personal. Probably the most personal release for them that we’ve had. It was quite intense, that one.
Ez: I can only imagine if you’re talking about an eating disorder and other personal things… that shit just on its own is pretty intense, so it’s gonna make for intense art as well.
In touching on these particular themes as well as the more external themes of war and genocide, what is it about more intense music that you feel helps carry these themes forward and make them work?
Reece: I feel like it matches the music itself, and a lot of the vocal delivery’s typically screaming or yelling. You’re gonna be screaming or yelling about something that’s upsetting you or making you angry. Exploring those sort of emotions fit with heavy and fast music, and distorted, noisy music.
If you’re screaming and playing real fast, you’re not gonna be singing about… I don’t know. How adorable cats are or anything like that. I feel like that’s how those two are connected. It’s why I was drawn to heavy music as a kid; it was an outlet for those feelings and emotions. It’s gonna end up in the writing of it as well.
Ez: Looking at the artwork of MANTRA – and maybe I’m looking into this too much – on the surface you have a number of body parts, a lot of hands and arms, and some that a more wholly people, all collaged together, and it looks to me the side of a face where someone’s gritting their teeth.
Reece: Yeah, that’s smack bang-on what it is. It’s meant to be a skull. Maz was the one who made it, and they do pretty much all of our artwork. I’ve contributed a little teeny bit here and there, but they’ve pretty much done everything. It’s meant to be a reflection of the lyrics.
All the body parts, all the people on it are athletes. All very lean people. The skull is meant to reflect exercising and starving yourself to death. That’s why it’s these lean, athletic people but then a skull, sort of meant to represent death
Ez: To me it says something about…
Historically and continually we still have a lot of seldomly-attainable standards put forward on a cultural pedestal, and whilst we’re told we don’t have to attain those, we’re still presented with those as a norm. So in that way I see it as an extra statement.
Glorify‘s artwork is also very collagey but it’s a lot brighter and more colourful. It makes use of a lot of flowers, and wouldn’t be seen out of place in, say, more indie / indie pop work maybe even ten years ago. I guess it’s very misleading in a way. What do you remember about the creation of that artwork?
Reece: That was a collaboration between Maz and I. I painted the canvas and you can see there’s white paint, and a red and black background in the top-right. I also did some of the collage, then I gave it to Maz and they took over the collage. It was meant to represent a wound, like a cut. That’s why it’s got the square taken out and everything’s sort of pouring out of it.
Ez: Oh!
Reece: So like a wound / racing thoughts pouring out of someone’s head. That’s what that’s meant to represent, but we took it in this way of doing it with flowers. I’d been doing a lot of flower collages before that, and I feel like here they catch your eye a bit.
Ez: I’m taking a quick look at it right now and your description makes a lot of sense. It’s a subtle way of priming people. If you’re looking at it on a surface level, it looks like what I said before. Now knowing what it actually is, it makes a lot of sense. I feel like a bit of a fool, really *laughs*
Reece: *laughs* Oh you know, a bunch of flowers on the cover, like *laughs*
Ez: When it comes to performing this sort of music live, my thoughts are that it’s very physical music in how it sounds, carries and the way that it sort of heaves. Would that be an accurate way of describing it?
Reece: Yeah, I guess so! A very physical sort of thing.
We’re all playing incredibly fast, especially Scarlett. I guess we do sort of throw ourselves around as well. We all yell, and I do the samples and things like that. It’s a lot of hurling your body around, playing as fast as you can, one leg flicking on a pedal while an arm’s slapping the sampler while yelling something at the same time. I guess it’s physical like that if that’s what you meant?
Ez: Yeah, but I also imagine that you’d have to be – for lack of a better phrase- pretty match-fit in terms of performing it live. You haven’t performed live unless you’ve made mistakes, but with the kind of music you’re playing, there’s not really any room to be sloppy about it? Even if you’re really technically proficient, you have to really be on point.
Reece: We all make mistakes at points, but I think also making sure we’re always locked in, so even if you do get a wrong note you’re still on the beat and locked in with everyone else. Everything goes by so quick that, even when something disastrous happens like you knock out a lead, you can chuck it in, wait to the next bar and jump straight back in.
I think about how we actually stay together in time and I don’t know how, really. How quick it’s all going and how we all seem to know the pace and when to stop and start, but yeah; You have to really sort of be locked in together and make sure we can hear each other and follow the drums. It can end up a bit of a mess otherwise.
Ez: Do you find playing live, or recording more preferable then?
Reece: I prefer playing live. I think live is really fun, whereas I think recording’s tedious and stressful.
Ez: *laughs* I imagine that part of that is the presence that the songs get live that they don’t quite have on a record.
Reece: Yeah, that’s definitely it. That and we only have a certain amount of time to get everything done.
Going from rehearsal rooms to demo recordings to studio and then hearing how it’s coming together… it can be a bit… maybe not exactly how it was in my brain or how I thought it sounded in the room. Also tempos… when we play together in a rehearsal room we try to play as fast as we possibly can, but then when recording, sometimes it doesn’t quite work that way. Sometimes you feel like you’re playing as fast as you can, but when you hear it back it feels a bit slower than what I’m used to.
Ez: So then moving onto the last thing: How did Diploid become involved with Art As Catharsis?
Reece: It was quite a long time ago so my memory might be a bit hazy or I might get some information wrong here.
Ez: Well, if you wanna completely make it up, that’s fine.
Reece: *laughs* I’ll try my best to remember everything. The first thing we did with Lachlan was our first album, Is God up There? which came out in 2016, I believe. We had been up to Sydney a handful of times to play and we somehow caught the eye of Lachlan and Blackwire Records, which was pretty much where we played when we were up there.
I think Lachlan must’ve reached out to me at some point, maybe via email or Facebook, something like that. He said he was interested in working with us. At the time we were putting together our first album. Once that was done I sent him the record, and that’s how we got involved with him.
It was the first time having someone promote our music. Everything before that we put it out onto The Internet or onto cassette tape or whatever. Didn’t really have someone scheduled to review or premiere it or anything like that. Having Lachlan involved, I think he may have gotten CVLT NATION to interview us. We had a bunch of different reviews. It even got to Anthony Fantano from The Needle Drop. He gave us a shout out on one of his videos which meant us going from a band who people in Sydney and Melbourne know to people all over the world coming across us. A small amount of people, but yeah. People hitting us up from New York and London and all over the place, and then sending T-shirts and records to those places.
Ez: And I imagine it must’ve been a surprise, and a welcome one as well.
Reece: It was a massive surprise, ’cause… I haven’t listened to the record in a long time, but I remember not thinking it was very good *laughs* We did record it very quickly with a friend of ours in my parents’ living room while they were away. Having lots of people say it was good was like “Oh wow, okay”. Originally we just put it online, we didn’t have a physical release of it, but once it was out there, we got hit up by a punk German label that pressed it onto an LP for us, and we released it, physically, six months later.
We never had anyone before hit us up to put something out for us. We’d always hit up smaller labels to help us put out a 7 inch and it was our first 12 inch as well, so that was pretty exciting. And having it released in Germany was also pretty cool.
Ez: You’re on the lineup for the AAC fifteen-year anniversary show in Melbourne, and it’s The Bendigo Hotel which is closing down soon after. That must be a strange sort of feeling.
Reece: I only found out recently that it was shutting down. We’ve played at The Bendigo Hotel like a million times since we’ve started as a band. Also Art As Catharsis being fifteen years and we’re nearly at fifteen years as a band as well, I think. Which is kinda ridiculous to think about.
I’m very happy that Lachlan hit us up. We haven’t worked with him for a long time, but it’s good that he asked us to play and we hold him in pretty high regard, so we’re pretty excited for it.
Ez: So you’ll probably be playing a mix of stuff from your history then.
Reece: We only really play things from our second album up ’til now, and even then we only play one track off the second record. We might bring one back from the first record. We did play a song off there right before we went on a European tour, and it was good but it wasn’t super tight. Hopefully we’ll get that a bit more fine-tuned and get that on the set for the show.
Ez: Why do you think a label like Art As Catharsis is able to keep going?
Reece: I mean, I don’t really know. I know Lachlan has an ear for very unique and interesting music, which is what I really like as well. I like unique and interesting, and sort of out there music. I’ll listen to bands that worship other bands, but I feel like what intrigues a lot of people is that AAC has a lot of versatile releases, but everything does kind of fit under an umbrella. Everyone’s got their own sort of style, and Lachlan as well, he’s driven. I assume he keeps doing it, he doesn’t stop. That’s the vibe I get.
Ez: Hopefully this doesn’t lead to repeating yourself, but what does Art As Catharsis mean to you?
Reece: I guess, for me… I hope I don’t annoy Lachlan for saying this, but I feel like it’s the Thrill Jockey of Australia. I like a lot of the bands they have on there. They’ve got experimental bands like The Body, Big Brave, Thou. I mean, they are kind of heavy, slow bands but they’re also unique bands that are deep in that experimental sound.
That’s sort of what I think of as Art As Catharsis. They’re not exactly the same, but it’s this label that just wants to find interesting music and wants to promote stuff that’s a bit out of the box. A bit different and isn’t just a metal label or punk label or noise label. It’s sort of this mash, and features a lot of really unique artists and sounds and instrumentation.
So that’s what Art As Catharsis means to me. I really dig what Lachlan does and the ear he has for music, and that he wants to promote.