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Rust
Belt Blues
An
interview with Larry Gargus of Don Austin
By Bob
Ignizio |
Akron’s Don Austin plays dark and brutal hardcore
punk. Like Jethro Tull (probably the only time you’ll ever see these two
bands compared), there is no one in the band actually named Don Austin. The
band took its name from a local yeti hunting expert and consists of Mike
Stangelo-bass, Sean Spindler - drums, Chris Bott - guitar, his brother Clint
Bott - guitar, and Larry Gargus - vocals. Since Larry and Clint started the
band in 1999, the group has been through a few membership changes, played a
ton of shows both locally and on tour, and released 3 seven inches.
Although Don Austin has been known to play 17 songs in 20 minutes, when it
came to talking about his band vocalist Larry Gargus had no problem taking
the time to give some genuinely thoughtful answers to my questions.
UT: I hear elements of punk, grindcore, and metal in
your sound. Where do
you feel like you fit in?
LG: Don Austin is most definitely a hardcore band.
And when I say "hardcore" I mean that as an adjective for punk. I've said
this a million times before, but it is worth repeating-all hardcore bands
are by definition punk, but not all punk is hardcore. Slow our songs down
and add a more rock-n-roll backbeat and you've got what is a punk rock
band. The shit that passes for hardcore today is nothing short of
ridiculous. It's all a bunch of fret-board gymnastics performed by jocks
who spend most of their time posing on stage like a bunch of hard-asses.
The irony is that these are the same type of people who, had they gone to
school with me in the '80's, would have called me a fag for liking
hardcore-punk. As far as the grind and metal elements, yeah, I guess they
are there. Sean plays ridiculously fast sometimes, but I'm not sure if that
makes it grindcore.
UT: Maybe it's just my perception, but it seems like
you don't play the Cleveland area much.
LG: No, we haven’t played Cleveland much at all. In
the four years we've been playing we have had less than a dozen gigs in
Cleveland. Cleveland has never been kind to Don Austin or any of our bands
that preceded this one, which is why we never really bothered to make a huge
effort to get gigs there. The gigs we've had were put on by the handful of
people from up there who we consider friends of ours from outside the band.
The guys in Amps II Eleven and Stepsister have always helped us out, as have
Jim Konya, Charles at My Mind's Eye, and the guys from Disengage. There are
a small handful of others who escape me at the moment, but we haven't had
much help. We knew that it would be that way from the outset and have
managed to play a lot of great shows in the Akron area with a countless list
of great bands, and have managed to play out of state quite a bit. So,
while we would like to play Cleveland more......we won't lose too much sleep
if we don't. Akron has always been a much cooler place than Cleveland.
UT: A lot of your lyrics seem to be dark and personal. Is it ever hard
singing those kinds of things live? Do you feel any sort of release when
you do a song like "Brief Lives" or does it just bring the pain back to the
surface?
LG: "Brief Lives" was difficult to sing after awhile,
so I asked if we could drop it from the set. I think we played that one for
a few shows before I couldn't do it anymore. I had it in me, had to get it
out, I wrote it, recorded it, played the song live a few times and decided I
had enough. I refused to cheapen the feelings conveyed in that particular
song by "performing" it time and again. That one was a bit too personal,
and I didn't want to whore out the memory of my little girl for attention or
self-flagellation. The other songs are all personal as well, but ambiguous
enough lyrically to where I don't feel as uncomfortable playing them. You
are right, though. The lyrics are pretty dark at times and intensely
personal. But, like I said, I try to keep them ambiguous so that they stay
close to me. I'm not writing them so that people can relate; if they do,
fine. I write them for the release and because it’s what I know most about.
However, when we play we try to keep it kind of light, talk trash with our
friends in attendance, and have a good time. So as hard as we play
sometimes, ultimately the music is what gets us off so it is hard not to
have fun. The release is just simply amazing.
UT: What is the main thing you hope to achieve through your music? By that
I mean, as far as something you either want to communicate to other people,
or whatever you might get out of music on a personal level.
LG: We're selfish in that we are mostly concerned
with pleasing ourselves by writing and playing music in a way that pleases
us. We could give a shit about "communicating". I mean, that isn't our
intention. We're a little bit older than some of the bands out there and we
have no illusions about what we do, so our main concern is to keep doing
this for as long as we can. As long as it remains creative, constructive
and most importantly fun for us, we'll keep going.
UT: So far you've released your music on vinyl only.
It's cool for collectors and all, but doesn't that make it harder to reach
potential fans who might be turntable impaired?
LG: We never did vinyl to cater to the collectors.
That thought alone disgusts me. Collectors made it all but impossible at
times for a lot of people to discover new music, until bands began releasing
discographies and such on CDs. For years, shit decades, vinyl never made it
any harder for hardcore-punk bands to reach the people who would actually
want records. But, in the past seven, maybe eight years, there has been a
trend within the hardcore-punk community to go straight to CDs and only
press vinyl formats in limited quantities. Most kids today do not have
turntables, and for better or worse that has prevented us from reaching a
lot the younger crowd who aren't as familiar with a band like Don Austin.
But, we're looking at releasing our first three 7" EPs with some outtakes,
our demo, and a live set on one CD. We are also going to do our first
full-length on CD before releasing it on vinyl.
UT: What are your goals as far as getting signed, touring, etc.?
LG: Don Austin has no real interest in getting
"signed", not in the way most bands look at it. We have no interest in
being a part of the music industry, at least in that capacity. If we did,
we'd be playing something else. We're going to make records whether or not
we get signed, we're going to tour whether or not we get signed, so why
bother? I'm not saying this to get any punk points or garner any street
cred, I'm just stating a fact. I think it is safe to say that most of us
don't want to be musicians for a living. A couple of us do, but this band
is not the vehicle for that. This is something altogether different for us
and we are getting something a little more substantial out of this than some
empty contract that would promise us everything and give us nothing. We all
have very strong beliefs rooted in what is referred to in certain circles as
a "D.I.Y. ethic", and pretty much adhere to that. At least as far as Don
Austin is concerned. We aren't so narrow minded and dogmatic as to think
everyone should do it the way we do, but for Don Austin this is the right
way. We write. We make records. We play locally and we tour. Whether or
not we get signed. We just don't really think about it.
Visit the Don Austin website.
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