Interview DAHMER DUCK

Interview with Owen of Grindcore Band from Belgium DAHMER DUCK

1. Can you tell us about your childhood ? Do you remember when you first came into contact with loud music and what were your first concerts ?

I was lucky enough to have artistic people around me growing up; my oldest brother got into punk and hardcore in the late eighties/early nineties and he passed on his knowledge to the younger siblings. Jasper, another brother of mine who provides guitars for this band when we play live, got involved with bands when I was around ten. The first gig I ever attended must’ve been organized by him. I remember seeing Born/Dead when I was fourteen, some local bands like Ekzeem-a and The Furious when I was maybe a year or two younger. It’s mostly through him that I got into fastcore and grindcore eventually, when I came across the Bruce Banner/Sayyadina split 7” on Soulseek around that same period. I’ve been in love with fast blastbeats ever since and started practicing drums intensively from that point onward, solely for the sake of learning blastbeats hah.

2. Can you describe the local scene where you grew up, what bands and venues were important to you and can you share some of your greatest memories about these bands/places ?

Those first gigs I went to all happened at a youth club in Diest, Belgium called Tijl. Small, dirty yet charming place next to a church. The first gigs I ever played were there as well. There’s not much of a scene in Diest itself, but it’s relatively central to the country so people from all over used to come over for some of these shows. It has two main spaces, one has better sound than the other, but the coolest gigs were when we used the basement as well. I started volunteering and booking gigs there along with my brother and other people. Occasionally, that still happens, but I had to prioritize different things over time. Nowadays a buddy of mine runs it, there’s more life to it again these days. Mostly indie and softer punk stuff, but it’s cool. Getting to see and play with bands like Mass Grave, Attack of the Mad Axeman and PLF are still some of my favorite band memories from growing up into my early twenties.

3. Did anyone play in any bands before Dahmer Duck ? If so, can you tell us something about them? Were there any releases ? Can you share some good memories about those bands ?

Jasper and I started Days Of Desolation in ‘07/’08. We had some other projects running at the time, too many to name at this point! Our first vinyl release was in 2011, and that was definitely a milestone for me. I’ve always been obsessed with home recording but we had literally no money for gear, so couldn’t record properly till 2016. Releases did happen before that, but the convenience of having a home studio pushed the frequency of releasing records. Femke has been with us since 2023 as our vocalist. Me and her also used to do Ikea Mutilation Manual and Zorro))), and played in some other bands together as well. She’s in Ekzeem-a, Barren Of Shape and Cutt Hairy these days. The best times are when we’re working on songs and recordings. Staying up into the weird hours of the night to track guitars or vocals, coming up with ideas that would probably sound bad in the morning, the eureka-moment when it does come together, that sort of thing. Besides that, meeting new people in the scene is always very invigorating, especially when abroad. All of the folks in the DIY punk scene and especially in my bands are family to me, hanging out and even some of the harder moments make for good memories to my recollection. I learned a lot from being in bands on so many levels.

4. How did you come up with the band name Dahmer Duck , do you describe your musical style ? And can you tell us briefly the history of your band’s creation ?

The name and concept for the band was all Femke’s. She had the idea to try out the Donald Duck-type vocals on some leftover grindcore tracks I had lying around, “maybe one day if you have some to spare”. I thought the idea of hyperkinetic grindcore with an angry duck on vocals was so funny that I recorded ten really short new songs on drums and guitars in a couple of days. Femke wrote lyrics to it pretty much immediately and we recorded it. Femke had also sketched out the idea for artwork, which Jasper reworked. “Dahmer Duck” felt like a nice play on words; it draws a parallel between how messed up ducks can be in their natural behavior, and how we see that too in humans too. From a duck’s perspective, we’re just as fucked. That became the first EP we recorded in 2020 during quarantine. In October of 2022, we got asked to play Freaky, Fast and Weird Fest in the US, the only problem being that we never had a guitar player to do this band live with. We asked Jasper to learn and play the guitar parts and settle for a small package run in California together with Days of Desolation, since we share most of the members anyway. We played one gig in Belgium before going on tour for that festival last May. We don’t play with Dahmer Duck often but we have some more gigs coming up this Summer and beyond, the earliest one is with Trucido at Tijl, Diest! Full circle.

5. Why did you want to play this genre ? Who or what inspires you to write songs. What bands have inspired you the most ?

It’s just this unique blend of punk and metal that transcends the sum of its parts. The music breathes a certain lack of ego, can be both serious or a channel for tongue-in-cheek satire, and it offers a broad palette when it comes to sound and experimentation. Spazz, for instance, will continually influence me in how they pushed those boundaries. In that regard, some other bands that influenced the musical side of DxDx would be Quattro Stagioni (check out their split 5” with Iron Lung), early Magrudergrind, Kill The Client, Machine Gun Romantics and Knuckle Scraper, xBrainiax and basically every band on 625, Slap A Ham and Sound Pollution Records. This DIY punk/hardcore/crust/grind scene is where I feel at home, ethically as well.

6. Can you tell us more about your new Album “Weaponized Waterfowl” streaming at Grindwar Channel? When I listen to your new album you also hear the Donald Duck or Dahmer Duck voices for you, sounds from your songs. What is your story behind your Album Title ?

This album is basically our debut full-length, and came together as the result of turning into a live band last year. When we got back from our short stint in California, I felt extremely inspired by all the bands we played with, the vibes and people, the locations as well. I started writing and recording during July of 2023 and finished the record in a couple of weeks. All lyrics and vocals were done about a month after that, with some of the concepts being centred around some of the samples we found. Other themes were Femke’s ideas, I wrote lyrics for two songs too. The artwork took a little longer to complete, and we only came up with Weaponized Waterfowl a couple of weeks before releasing it online. Most of the lyrics and the music itself sort of represent a volatile state of aggression, and it felt apt when having a duck with tank treads on the cover destroying civilisation.

7. Which places to play were important to you and why ?

Definitely Gilman in Berkeley, California. Our entire stay in the US was memorable, every place was great (except for customs). But Gilman especially was an honor to play, seeing as how many of my favorite bands spent their lifetimes there. I used to watch videos from the Speed Trials obsessively when I was sixteen. When we played there with Dahmer Duck, so many of my favorite teenhood musicians were attending the festival. We played a Dystopia cover and the guitar player was there. I genuinely felt like I could’ve died happily after that.

8. What was your Weirdest show you’ve ever played and why ? feel free to mention more than one, and don’t hold back on the details ?

There’s this bar we played once with Days of Desolation in a town called Tienen. It was a pretty shoddy place to play, it wasn’t a legal bar either, I think it’s been shut down since. People were snorting lines all over the counter, everybody was pretty drunk. Mostly old people too, which made it surprising to see the amounts of speed everywhere. There was a small stage in the back but the vocal amp was installed by the door, so it had this weird directional cacophony to it. There was this one guy after we played, a big dude who was pretty drunk, but the weird thing was: he had a friend who was a lot smaller that was always by his side. At a certain point, the shorter one comes running outside frantically. The tall one followed after him, crashing through the front door. He grabbed the little guy by the shoulders and yelled “you’re not going home yet”, and he took him inside again. He looked scared. Afterwards, the tall dude got pissed at me for no reason, a friend of mine was able to fend him off. The general vibe there was just extremely off and weird, but it felt as if these two guys had an abusive relationship of whatever kind and it was strange to witness in any case.

9. What is a Dahmer Duck Show like ? What can somebody expect when they go to one of your concerts ?

It’s basically the same sound you hear on the record. Jasper uses a splitter and octaver pedal to a bass amp so we can get the full instrumentation you hear on the record. The vocals are audible through a mic live too. I do drums and the backing live myself, I try to keep the blastbeats as fast or faster than on recordings. We do little duck-themed acts occasionally, and we also have outfits now. No spoilers.

10. Are there other types of music you would like to play with a band ?

It’s getting to a point where I feel like I mainly want to focus on grindcore, though I’m tempted to do an oldschool hardcore punk band after helping out my friends in Colère on drums for a couple of gigs. In the not-too-distant past I’ve made instrumental/technical fusion or prog metal, whatever you want to call it, under the moniker of Frequency Eater. I like messing around with other things too but I never get around to finishing or releasing it, haha. Femke is making a lot of trippy avant-garde stuff infused with punk these days, she wants to do sludge really badly as well.

11. Which Festivals would you still like to play ,and Which festivals do you have the best memories ? Can I imagine that Obscene Extreme in the Czech Republic is on your bucket list ?

Very bummed that we couldn’t make it out for Zesta Grande in California this year, it’s the final edition too. The line-up is outright insane. Obscene Extreme, sure! Dräsch Feschd in Germany, Play Fast Or Don’t and Chaos In Tejas if they ever return, are bucketlist material with Dahmer Duck. We got told about a powerviolence/grind fest in Vancouver, up on a mountain in the forests. That seems so sick to do.

12. How can fans and future fans locate, ,listen to and buy your music & merchandise. Is there anything else you would like your fans to know ?

Hit us up through our Bandcamp page, you can find us on socials too but we rarely post anything unless we have something to announce or whatever. I run my own label and distro together with Jasper and Bart (from Days), called Halenoise Records. You can find us everywhere too and get in touch with Bart when our LP drops on vinyl and CD this August! Pang Pang Records from Belgium are co-releasing this with us. People in the US will get a CD release by Vault Of Horrors.

13. What were your best moments in 2023 as a band ? And are your plans for the future ?

2023 was our first year as a fully functioning band. If it wasn’t for Damian (Violent Opposition, Mormon Mincers, etc.) and his invitation for Freaky, Fast and Weird, we wouldn’t have accumulated all of the experiences that eventually gave birth to our new record. I’m extremely proud of what we came up with. The humor aside, I really like this as a genuine grindcore album. We don’t have any concrete plans for the future but we’ll continue to play gigs and make records as long as it’s fun. Jasper might make some songs in the future as well, he’s a great songwriter so we might get more creative on the next record, as to not repeat ourselves too much.

14. These were the questions, thank you for taking part in this interview and all the best to you and your band! Something to add yourself ?

Thank you for the questions! I don’t have a lot to add besides: always do it yourself, and always do it for yourself. Fuck ego-freaks, swindlers, and keyboard critics. Keep your records and merch at affordable pricing! Nazi punks can still fuck off. Thank you, on behalf of all ducks. Quack!