Weather you like it or not, Scowl is coming for your throat. The band caught the hardcore world’s attention with their 2021 LP How Flowers Grow, and is gaining major momentum, through relentless touring. In direct lineage to the incredible Bay Area roster of late, they offer fast and aggressive hardcore that’s custom built for crowds to go wild. Their live performance is high energy and masterfully led by frontwoman Kat Moss, whose barks perfectly match the blistering riffs and beats.
Over the last few months, we’ve seen them alternate between headlining tours and support, for the likes of Touché Amore and, (yes!) Limp Bizkit! Their fall schedule is true to form, and finds them kicking off a tour this week, supporting The Bronx, The Chats, and Drug Church, followed by a headline spot, alongside Restraining Order, Jivebomb, Ghoulavelli, and more! In short, there’s no excuse to miss them!
How Flowers Grow is available through Flatspot Records.
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted in March 2022.
What have you been listening to the mostly lately?
I’m obsessed with this band called AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS right now, they’re so good! I’ve been listening to their record called Comfort To Me, it’s an incredible record. So good. I love it. I want to write more music like that. Then, this one’s gonna be slightly embarrassing but I love LANA DEL REY. I’ve been listening to a lot of her unreleased music, because she has a lot of demos that got leaked on the Internet, like 10 years ago, when she was kind of breaking out and someone stole her laptop. Her leaked demos are all over the internet so I’ve been listening to that a lot. I don’t know what it is but it’s so good. I love how kind of depressing and dark her music can be but she can write such incredibly powerful lyrics that make you really imagine where she’s at, or where the narrator’s at, because she tends to write stories sometimes. I think it’s so fascinating. When it comes to punk and hardcore, I’m really bad about listening to hardcore lately. Well, I try to because I love it so much. It’s what I’m around, all my friends play hardcore music, but I think I just go with the flow with what I like at the time. Sometimes, I’ll be into a lot of hardcore releases, get into something new or new to me, and sometimes I go through a lull where I’ll be listening to SONIC YOUTH nonstop, or Lana Del Rey or something. Some pop, I love BILLY EILISH! She’s one of my favorite artists. She’s definitely a pure pop artist, but I think she’s just really good at writing music. She writes with her brother, who’s a producer and they’re just incredibly talented. They have the formula down really well. I just love it.
Do you go see a lot of shows?
Besides our own shows that I’m playing, I help with the shows that happen in Santa Cruz and San Jose, sometimes so I’ll end up at most of the shows we book. Those are all my friends’ hardcore bands or bands that are touring through the bay. I always go to those. It’s a bummer, because I feel like I don’t find myself at as many concerts of different artists or bands that I really admire, but it would just be more out of my way to do it. I’m so busy now that I just don’t get the chance anymore to see artists that I like.
Who’s on your hit list right now?
I want to see JULIAN BAKER so bad. I love her. I would love to see BILLY EILISH, but her tickets are pretty expensive. I would love to see Amyl and the sniffers…I love VIAGRA BOYS! I love all that garagey blown out vocals. I want to see THE STROKES so bad. I don’t know if I ever will but they’re such an incredible band. I love what they do with their recordings, so artistic and very punk in its own way. There’s a lot of bands I’d love to see!
If you get a chance for Amyl and The Sniffers, don’t sleep!
No! Not at all! They’re gonna blow up. They’re playing Coachella. There’s a lot of really good artists on Coachella this year.
I saw them three years ago (Note: and once more since this interview!) and they were the best! Amy has so much energy! I’m sure you’ve seen footage.
Yeah! I try to rein that in and emulate that kind of energy. I’ve watched all of this footage online when I got into punk of like, Henry Rollins or Keith Morris or FUGAZI, and I just see these really punk artists throwing themselves and everything they have into their performance. I try really hard to do the same thing, but it’s hard. It’s a lot of work. You have to be an athlete, you know? But I love it, so cool.
Do you dig a lot for old videos like this?
Yeah,I think it’s so cool. I love it. I love watching a band from the 90’s or 80’s playing their set in their heyday and see people just freaking out. You don’t always get the chance to access footage. Now, you can look up a current band and find a full set easily but it’s harder to find stuff from even bands from the 90’s, like old SONIC YOUTH footage or PAVEMENT, one of my favorite bands of all time.
Is there anything that comes to mind that you’ve seen dozens of times?
This one’s a little embarrassing, but I actually love this band called THE FRONT BOTTOMS. I’ve seen them four or five times and they’re so weird, I don’t even know how to explain it. Most of my friends can’t stand if I put them on but I’ve seen them quite a few times. Then, when I was a teenager, my favorite band was BRING ME THE HORIZON, a metalcore band, and I saw them like five times. I just loved their live sets, they’re incredible. And then DRAIN. I’ve seen a bunch of our friends’ bands play a million times. It’s cool because they’re also one of my favorite hardcore bands. I feel like it’s a treat every time.
Gulch would be on my hitlist. Hopefully I get to see one of their last shows.
I’m really lucky for seeing GULCH a bunch of times. I didn’t see their first couple of shows, but from early on, I saw the explosion. It’s insane to me because, these are my friends. Totally mind blowing.
Do you remember the first time that music made a strong impression on you? That you realized it was a passion of yours?
Yeah. I remember my first couple of concerts that I went to, and my first general admission concert, not just in a big arena, you know, it was on the floor, and there was a mosh pit, it was a metalcore band called OF MICE AND MEN. It was like, Warped Tour stuff, and that’s the time I grew up in. But the first couple of bands I saw where I was like, damn, this is really cool, I need to do this more, was this band BRAND NEW. I really really liked them when they were active and they’re a very technical band. Then, when I saw Drain the first time and I was just like, “holy shit!” Drain is one of my favorite bands of all time so it was really cool. And the first time I saw CEREMONY. I think that was the first time I stagedove too so I was just like, “I love this and I need more.”
You kind of touched on it already but is there any band or artist that you truly love but can hardly find anyone to agree with you?
Absolutely! So The Front Bottoms is one of those bands because they have really cringy, like teen lyrics and most of my friends just can’t stand it but for me, it has such a sentimental place in my heart. Then, there’s a lot of punk bands I really like that a lot of my friends who are into hardcore, not all have gone through punk phase, but I love CHOKING VICTIM, I like Leftover Crack and stuff like that. I had a brief period of time when I was a teenager where I had kind of a crusty punk phase. It was LEFTOVER CRACK and DAYS N’ DAZE and Choking Victim kind of started it and like AMEBIX and things like that, but people actually like that so it kind of blends.
Is that stuff that you still find yourself listening to?
Yeah, totally. Not like as often, but definitely. I just love twinkly emo music too. I know it’s kind of embarrassing, but I enjoy it. Like LANA DEL REY, right? Most of my friends are like, “why are you listening to this?” but I don’t know, I like junk food music too. It’s easy listening.
So you’ve pretty much kept up with everything that you went through basically? Nothing fell by the wayside?
There’s definitely a couple of those. When I was really into metalcore and the Warped tour kind of stuff when I was a teenager, there’s definitely a couple of bands I couldn’t listen to now. I don’t want to name them because I feel bad but I definitely liked it a lot when I was younger and now, I’ve revisited a couple times and just been like, “why did I like that?” I just grew out of it, I think.
What are some of your favorite lyricist?
Oh, I like that question! To bring up The Front Bottoms again, I love Brian Sella. He writes really cool lyrics. It’s very literal and he uses a lot of very literal metaphors, if that makes sense. There’s this lyric from a song, “Every spider I kill stays inside of my pocket. I am so desperate to tame the beast. I shut the door and I lock it.” It’s kind of ridiculous, I don’t really know what that fucking means, but I love it. And then, he has some really profound lyrics. There’s this song, clearly about a breakup, and it’s called Wolfman. The lyrics go, “I was a bird cage, and you were meant to fly.” I love it so much.
There’s so much I mean, JOYCE MANOR, there’s a song called Derailed. It’s very punk, but it’s still emotionally profound. There’s a song called House Warning Party, one of their earlier songs and there’s a lyric, “To me, you are the Great Wall of China”, just super metaphorical ridiculous shit but, it just hits because of the way it’s delivered. And then… There’s so many! I’m really obsessed with lyrics. One of my first favorite bands when I was a kid was MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, and Gerard Way is a really good lyricist, in my opinion, just incredible. I’ve actually written a couple of Scowl lyrics kind of paying homage to stuff he’s written and I would be so embarrassed to tell most people this but I’m okay with it, it’s fine. But there’s definitely a couple of lyrics where, if you knew that you’d kind of notice in the Scowl songs. And yeah, I love LANA DEL REY’s writing. I’ve already talked about that. But yeah, there’s so many that I could think about.
Does it become a make or break type of thing for you? Can you enjoy a band where the lyrics are bad?
You know, I think maybe that you just touched on something I’ve never thought about my whole life. Usually, when I really like a band, it’s because the lyrics strike me heavily, and I think that’s part of it. Like, CEREMONY, there’s some really powerful stuff on Violence, Violence that I relate to, and I love it. Every time I see them, it feels so powerful. There’s definitely bands I like where I don’t know as many lyrics, and I love them, but I don’t feel as involved, if that makes sense. When I see them live, I’m having a good time but it’s not the same.
It might not be something that you’ll listen to at home?
It might. It definitely is. I like to listen to a lot of music. Like, I love SONIC YOUTH, they’re one of my favorite bands, but I definitely listen to them for the composition. I’m so fascinated by them. But lyrically, it’s in space a little bit. Then, I love PAVEMENT, the lyrics are pretty weird, but I love them. They’re such a cool band. I think it’s the way it’s delivered, and the composition of the song.
What’s your favorite Pavement record?
Oh, that’s a really hard one. I looove all their records a lot, but I think Brighten The Corners probably. I don’t know if I’m correct on this, but I think that was their breakout kind of record? Okay, if we really want to get into it, I think Brighten The Corners is great for like, I’m going to put this on if I’m going to clean the house. I think Terror Twilight is an incredible record because of the composition. Like the song, The Hexx, it’s a five minute long song and it has this really drawn out guitar stuff going on, and it builds and I don’t even know how to explain it with words. Then Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is also an amazing record. Probably, my favorite Pavement songs are on that record. Then, Wowee Zowee has a couple of songs but like, I want to put them in a movie? I feel like I heard them before I ever listened to them, you know?
You touched on something interesting there, on music in movies. What’s a great example for you of a song meshing perfectly with a scene in a movie?
A real life movie, or a song I would put in a movie? (TTL: Oh, very interesting take!) Because there is a specific song by CAR SEAT HEADREST that I’ve always wanted to put in a movie. Since I was a little kid, I always wanted to make movies- there’s all these little things I’ve always wanted to do- and there’s a song off of his EP, How To Leave Town, it’s called The Ending Of Dramamine. It’s like a 10-minute song and it’s just so crazy the way it builds up. It feels like droney 70’s music worship, mixed with this indie artist, you know what I mean? It’s really good.
I remember one of the first times I was watching a movie trailer and a song in it struck me was Donnie Darko. I think they actually picked a different song originally, for the main theme or whatever and it changed a couple times. I discovered that movie and, it was like, Whoa, I so affected by it when I was a teenager. Anyway, there was The Killing Moon by ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, that song I was like, “Damn, this is crazy!” So that was definitely one of those moments. I always felt like music and movies went together really well, as a kid. I like to draw and if I was going to draw, I always put on music. Like, if I’m going to draw something sad, I put on sad music. So I always felt like the imagery was really important.
Is that a tendency in your listening habits in general, to put on music that speaks to how you feel currently, or is it more speaking to how you want to feel?
Definitely to how I feel currently. Like, because hardcore makes me really happy, if I’m kind of going through a depressed phase, there’s no way I’m gonna put on hardcore. I know I should, because it’ll make me feel better but there’s something about listening to really sad music when you’re very sad. It strikes you in a very different way. There’s a couple bands that I love that, I never got into until I reached a certain place. I was like, “Oh, okay, now I get it.” You don’t want to wallow, necessarily, but it’s very comforting to know that whoever’s writing that, you can relate so heavily. And you don’t even know that person. You don’t even know what their experience or what they’re writing about is. They could be writing about something entirely different, but whatever you’re going through that you’re listening to, those lyrics, it’s like, “Holy shit! I didn’t even know this person was in my head right now!”
No Comments