Sunday 13 March 2011

D.R.U.G.S- DO YOU HAVE YOUR PRESCRIPTION?...


Kick back a decade or so and the bands at the top of pretty much everyone’s playlist screamed out “Story of The Year”, “Matchbook Romance” and “From First to Last”. Fast forward to 2010, to those three bands add a little “Underminded” and “Chiodos” and you get a large dose of D.R.U.G.S…



Est.1987 gives you the low down on the biggest band to hit UK shores this season…
L-R Matt Good, Nick Martin, Aaron Stern, Adam Russell, Craig Owens

Record Label: Sire, Decaydance
Album: Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows
And finally, guitarist Nick Martin talks us thorough the bands controversial name;
“DRUGS was what we would label the demos. We want to push the boundaries a bit and at the end of the day people remember the name no matter what. But the Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows part of it is ultimately how everything came to be with this band-destroying what we had before and then rebuilding it into this brand new project.”


Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows have had a whirlwind year so far; their debut album came out three weeks ago, they have just completed their first UK tour and they are currently gracing the cover of Alternative Press Magazine. Est. 1987 hung out with Adam and Nick at Leeds Cockpit on the second night of their UK tour.

Hey guys..So you were in Manchester last night – How’s the tour and album going down so far?
ADAM RUSSELL(bass): Awesome! It’s cool for us to be able to play songs that the kids know now. Now that the full record is out, they’re singing everything as loud as shit – it’s just awesome.

Is touring the UK very different from back home in America?
NICK MARTIN: I mean I guess the culture shock of it of course! But I think fan wise and response wise it’s very similar.
AR: I think the vibe of the kids at the shows is different though because here in the UK it’s more like a party.
Album Artwork, Mark Brown
Did you have a clear goal for the album or did it just seem to fall in to place piece by piece?
NM: I think that we actually tried to go into the project as goalless as possible. We just wanted to make sure that we wrote music that we enjoyed and we didn’t want to think in genres. We didn’t want to have to please any outside perspective; we just wanted to please ourselves so that was the fun part of it.

Mark Brown did the album artwork – how did that collaboration come about?
AR: Through Craig- it is straight out of Craig’s brain. I remember the night that he described all of that to us, he was writing shit on paper and just rambling- “there’s going to be this hippo but his mouth is a bridge.”
NM: It’s brilliant. I mean at first we were like “uhh…” but it ended up being an amazing masterpiece of art that’s involved with the music, it’s all very intertwined.

As a band and on a personal level do you feel pretty much at the top of your game right now?
NM: We’ve all been doing this now for ten plus years so we wanted dudes in this band that could handle their shit and are seasoned veterans, so I think we are definitely at the top of our game. I think we are all at the pinnacle point of where we are as musicians and artists, and to be in band with a bunch of dudes who are at that level raises the bar completely.



You have all previously played with other bands- are your fans a kind of hybrid of loyal fans from your other projects?
AR: Definitely. Another fun thing about being on tour is getting to see the turnout because we obviously communicate a lot with the fans and it’s cool to see fans of our previous bands. In the States a lot of our fan base is Chiodos fans that Craig brought, but here I think in the UK it’s a little more evenly dispersed.

With the growth of Facebook and Twitter do you think this marks the death of MySpace as a way to promote music and connect with fans?
AR: What’s MySpace?!!
NM: I think that’s the evolution of the internet and social networking. I think MySpace paved the way for these other things that have sprouted out and I think MySpace fell behind. I never go on my MySpace.
Alternative Press Cover

What are your plans for the rest of 2011?
AR: Hopefully a lot more international stuff but definitely a lot in the States so far already booked. Some stuff we can’t announce quite yet but we’re really excited about. The Alternative Press tour is coming up right after this in the States which will be awesome – Black Veil Brides and a bunch of other bands.

And finally…what music have you been listening to that you would recommend to our readers?
NM: For me I love the new Adele record. I was a massive fan before and then when I heard her record I was just like “she sings to my heart”. And also a band called Let Live – they’re kind of a post hardcore Glassjaw type band.
AR: A lot of hip hop for sure. Nicki Minaj is my top artist right now- I’m basically obsessed with her. And also a band called Greek Fire who is made up of a couple of the guys from Story of The Year. They’re amazing – they’re one of my favourite bands of all time so check them out.

 Thanks guys.



D.R.U.G.S - Official Site
Catch DRUGS on the AP Tour and the Vans Warped tour.