WASTED SPACE – DIPSOPHILIA
Wasted Space are an energetic, highly original post hardcore band from Buffalo, NY, somewhat rooted in the nostalgia of similar bands who were prominent in the early 2000s like Glassjaw, Saosin, Senses Fail, Thursday, etc., but also akin to heavier acts like local staple, Every Time I Die. They just released their latest LP, Dipsophilia, and it's everything we were hoping for. These guys have truly come into their own and are taking no prisoners on this erratic, emotional rollercoaster of an album. Here's our October 2023 interview:
1. I know I've asked you this before in past interviews, but walk me through the transition from Squatch to Wasted Space.
Matt: we lost our original bassist and it just didn't feel right going under that moniker anymore, and sonically we wanted to go in a more straightforward direction (well at first lol)
Lee: Losing Erik was a huge blow, they never thought they'd find someone that likes bass and psychedelics as much as him. It was dicey to say the least, but here I am.
Collin: It was a strange thing. We went into a period of limbo, not really sure what we wanted to do. I'm not sure how the conversation started, but we got the itch to make music again. It was a deliberate decision to make much more straightforward music that didn't delve too deep into the realm of weirdness like we did with Squatch. It took a few months to work out the kinks but we eventually found ourselves and became Wasted Space.
Jer: Honestly the transition was kind of out of circumstance as Collin and I didn't want to continue the project without Erik. Originally it was our plan to be a little more beat downish and violent but ended up writing songs with a lot of groove to them. We still have a lot of squatch elements just less slap bass... (for now)
2. Talk about your favorite post hardcore bands and if anyone specific influenced you to adopt Wasted Space's current sound.
Matt: honestly I don't really listen to much post-hardcore at all, I take influence from a lot of different genres, hip-hop to pop to grindcore I'm all over the place
Lee: Personally, I'm a big Thursday/Glassjaw fan though I didn't learn much on Bass. Maybe the song structure has impacted my approach? Everything is on a subconscious level for me.
Collin: I'm not too familiar with the post-hardcore genre, but Spite for sure.
Jer: It's a mix of a lot of great bands but we take a lot of influence from ETID, The Chariot, Poison the Well, etc.
3. Walk us through the recording process for Disophilia. Don't hold back. I'd love to know as much as you're willing to share about prepro, the initial writing process for the songs, which songs are your favorites, some challenges you faced in the studio, what went well during track, etc.
Matt: the original writing process started pretty much right after never odd or even came out, usually starts with jer and his riffs then we will feel things out in the room. As for recording it's always smooth sailing with Jay Zubricky over at GCR but of course frustrations can arise when trying to get anything perfect. Funny enough the opening to Kriechercore is me actually letting the frustrations out after not hitting a part over and over and jay decided to keep It and start the attack with it.
Lee: For the most part it was all Jer to start, he'd share a demo track and we'd go from there. Having files to loop can be really beneficial for me as far as writing to the riffs. A couple of songs were pulled from the back burner. One or two were written in person.
Collin: A lot of it was done through sharing files through our Drive. For the most part, Jer would send a riff and we'd build from there, with a few exceptions. A couple tunes were written together as a group but a majority of it was done via file sharing. Don't Be Rude and Where Are The Bodies Garth are my two favorite tunes. We recorded with Jay Zubricky at GCR and he's always so great to work with. It was a lot more streamlined than our time spent on the previous EP, but we allowed ourselves a few extra days to ensure that we could make it exactly how we wanted it to be.
Jer: Honestly it's a mixed bag of everything. We write in a room together we write/demo track from home, we write in the studio, etc. A lot of times it starts with a whole song with one good riff in it, then we take that riff out and branch off of it and write around it to make a better complete song.
4. It looks like you guys had one banger of a CD release show. Tell us all about your surreal night at The Pit @Timeless Babez and how the basement atmosphere may have even enhanced everyone's experience, band and crowd alike.
Matt: yah that show kicked ass, I feel like at our core of a band we have that punk rock energy so a cramped space with a bunch of people partying and all the drywall I can smash on my face is a recipe for a good time.
Lee: BYOB
Collin: It was an incredible night. They were so incredibly accommodating for us and I'm infinitely appreciative of that. The crowd was great. Rowdy and itching to throw down. The movement was something to behold. I couldn't imagine having it anywhere other than a basement. Basement gigs always are a blast.
Jer: As performers we like to create a party atmosphere and that night the crowd did an exceptional job of creating that for us. All we had to do was play. There was no shortage of brewskis and doobies and it honestly felt more like a family reunion with all our friends from the scene than it did a show.
5. When it comes to the "rivalry" with Shallow Teeth, the mutual respect between bands is obvious. What are some takeaways you think about after catching a Shallow Teeth set? I'll eventually ask them the same question about you guys.
Matt: as the frontman I love watching Devin preform, dude can really own a crowd and he has a great presence and confidence and stage, every time I play with them Im like "well shit now I gatta go even harder tonight"
Lee: Off the record I have a lot of respect for every single member of ST. Henry's always had my back, he's incredibly knowledgeable about gear and is an absolute godsend in that regard. Also institutionalized was a favorite of mine growing up. On the record they're all pussies and I'll fight every one of them.
Collin: So before the show started, I went to a local restaurant with the peeps in ST and they are such a good hang. They're so friendly and between the four of them, they are a wealth of information of some of the most random stuff you could think of. As far as their live performances, they're so much fun to watch. Wasted Space likes to go HARD for our sets, and after watching Shallow Teeth play before us we realized we had our work cut out for us to outperform them! But they're the homies.
Jer: Bring just as much if not more energy to the stage as we do and have an exceptional talent for writing and performing music. Could be a lot better though if they weren't such candy ass Jabronies.
6. I also detect a hint of those nostalgic, early 2000s indie esque rock or hardcore bands in your sound. Do you guys have any thoughts on say Glassjaw, Thursday, Fall of Troy, etc. when it comes to all things Wasted Space?
Matt: I know those are some of the guys favorites but to be honest I haven't really dived into those bands, not because I don't like them I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Lee: Glassjaw set out to kill Adidas rock, we're here to revive it. Seriously though, the bands mentioned I have a lot of respect for. If we can have half the instrumental dynamic of those bands, we're doing something right.
Collin: I'll defer to the other guys on this one because I know of Glassjaw and The Fall Of Troy, but they're not groups I've spent much time listening to.
Jer: I know Lee and I both have influences from that Era. I would say for myself though I dig into the realm of The Blood Brothers, Fear Before the March of Flames, and Heavy Heavy Low Low a little more from that Era.
7. Talk about something you learned in the studio making this new album that you'll be applying to your next studio experience.
Matt: I definitely feel like I found my clean voice so much more this time around, I feel very at home in harsh vocals but cleans were definitely a new beast and I gained a lot of confidence for them after this release.
Lee: Straight edge people generally get annoyed when you offer them intoxicants.
Collin: I can't speak for the other guys, but next time I find myself in the studio, I'm going to transcribe my drum parts and read them as I play. It's something I can use as a crutch to help as I record because I try to record my parts in as little "full" takes as possible.
Jer: If anything when I'm in the studio I try to learn as much as I can on the engineering side and lear more about producing. I think it's all our end goal to be self sufficient in producing our own material some day.
Jer: If anything when I'm in the studio I try to learn as much as I can on the engineering side and lear more about producing. I think it's all our end goal to be self sufficient in producing our own material some day.
8. Talk about an album that came out this year that really took you by surprise and got you excited about writing something new.
Matt: I was in love with the new portrayal of guilt this year along with a band called abrupt decay who put out a stellar ep earlier this year called "As it came for me, So shall it come for you."
Lee: God Made Me an Animal was refreshing to hear from Better Lovers, they definitely distinguished themselves from the previous project with the thrash elements. It really pushes some introspection on what you could do differently, what's something out of left field to be brought in?
Collin: It wasn't an album, but when Kublai Khan TX released their single "Theory of Mind", it got me jazzed up to write an ass-beater of a song. That and Periphery's newest album got me interested in trying to put grooves together that I normally wouldn't have.
Jer: was thoroughly impressed with A Eulogy for Those Still Here by Counterparts. I can't say it had a direct influence on the EP sonically but definitely inspired me to come out of my comfort zone a little with my playing.
9. How do you think the album has been received by fans so far?
Matt: Unless they are lying to my face they say this our best work yet and I'd have to agree.
Lee: We haven't gotten any CnDs or death threats so, pretty good.
Collin: So far so good! No death threats yet!
Jer: As far as I know it's been well received. Love hearing what everyone's favorite songs are.
10. Finally, walk me through the music video shoot for "Jazz Massacre". It's a great song and the video production is top notch! More people need to watch this so tell us about your experience making it!
Matt: Sooooo we had a birthday party that day for our boy misky in Pale Hell so I think we started drinking that day at like 3pm and we didn't get to shooting the video till about 9pm that night. So In true wasted space fashion we showed up and blitzed and had as much fun with it as we could. Tyler white from red owl media always kills it. Go to him for all your video needs!
Lee: I focused on looking as dumb as possible. I was also pretty high on painkillers I had from a previous surgery, I had an accident the night before and was playing on a sprained knee.
Collin: I was a cranky bitch the whole time. Playing the song at least a dozen times made me want to unalive myself. It also didn't help that I had spent 12 hours at work beforehand and hadn't eaten all day. It was worth it though! Tyler made us look so cool.
Jer: well Matt, Lee, and I spent the better half of the day at Alex Miskells 30th Bday Party drinking and we bought more beer for the shoot so we were honestly pretty drunk while filming. Overall 10/10 fun time.
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