INTERVIEW: TEAR DUNGEON
TEAR DUNGEON at the Holiday Hootenanny by Elina Carrasco.
HOLIDAY HOOTENANNY | AUSTIN, TX| DECEMBER 2024 | BY RACHEL JOY THOMAS
TEAR DUNGEON doesn’t really care what you think about them regarding genre, labels and begrudging music identities. Instead, they’re often described by ill metaphors. The band’s like a bloody body dragged across asphalt—thrash metal meets go fuck yourself, with simmering belligerence that embodies some of the best of the Austin music scene.
Known for their arguably vulgar live performances, incredibly wicked vocal delivery, and strong discography, TEAR DUNGEON simply is one of the great acts of Austin when it comes to “reckless endangerment.”
Euphonic reporter Rachel Joy Thomas had the opportunity to interview TEAR DUNGEON ahead of their Holiday Hootenanny performance, which illuminated a little bit more about the band’s unyielding anarchic spirit.
I know each of you have different projects. TEAR DUNGEON’s music has that proto-punk and then a little bit of thrash metal inside of it. So, what is TEAR DUNGEON allowing y’all to explore genre-wise that perhaps you might not explore in other places?
Prorock: It's definitely more aggressive than my other band. And so having that outlet to play music that gives me (a channel to express myself).
Cashen: We’re in the process of writing a new album. I was just like, I don’t really want parameters on genre. There’s a theme, though, and it’s anger. Let’s just run with that.
Dowey: Yeah. When I joined, I definitely had to alter some things that I'm used to doing, like tapping (on the guitar) and things like that. It’s a little more aggressive (on the guitar).
Prorock: Yeah. It's also kind of a philosophical thing too, where it's like nihilism. You have the id, the ego, and the superego. This is like the id group, where all of whatever impulse you have, you can just kind of do that.
Cashen: Dumb is a thing. (We’re) trying to strip something down to its dumbest and most universal ethos.
Prorock: Especially live, I want the performances to be unpredictable. I wouldn’t say dangerous is the right word, but unpredictable. Like, what will they do next?
Of course. It has dangerous energy, but no one is in danger.
Dowey: A lot of people get doused in blood, (and) there’s a little back and forth of consent. If we’re gonna spit on you, you’re gonna know it or be up there asking for it. It’s not like we’re gonna go out and be malicious to people.
Cashen: We've had people start wearing ponchos to shows. People who are wearing white, you clearly know that they're there (for it).
Your album Carl features interesting imagery of Jim Morrison covered in tattoos. It was the first thing I noticed because Jim Morrison historically … did some interesting things on stage to say the least. What drew y'all to that imagery for that album?
Cashen: Just dumb. Just being dumb. He's the worst. He's a buffoon. He's an alcoholic buffoon. Let's put him up on a pedestal! No… I think it was one of my friend's birthdays, and someone literally (said) it was a free gift they could give him. They were just like ‘I'm never going to listen to this record ever again. Let me draw all over it and give it to my friend for his birthday.’ And I was like, ‘that's great. Let’s get sued.’
Prorock: We’d go on tour with them.
Cashen: Or The Doors cover band.
How did Carl evolve upon Gory Hole, if at all? Is it just a continuation of y’all’s mythology, or more of a sonic evolution for you?
Cashen: Sonically, we did (Gory Hole) in a practice space on a tape machine. It was supposed to be loud and have a bunch of feedback, and we kinda… the band was composed of really good musicians, so Carl, we were like, let’s actually do this and have it sonically be more intricate. There are some weird time signatures on there. It’s better recorded.
Dowey: We might do the new album in the same space that the first album was made in on the same tape machine.
Cashen: Maybe, well, that was like an Atari 5050. But yeah, we're gonna go back to dumb.
Where was Gory Hole made?
Cashen: Sonance Studios, up north. It's just a practice space. It wasn't even a recording studio. We had to record really late at night because the space was shared with other bands and we couldn't have bleed. So we had to record it at like two or three in the morning when it was quiet. I used the bathroom as a vocal booth.
Prorock: Really demystifying the whole process there. You know, there's not people coming in with trays of champagne. It's a little more primitive than most people would probably guess.
No hate on that garage-y, fuzzy sound, though, which you’ve definitely kept throughout your work. In terms of the songwriting process, it sounds like you try to twist things into their most... I don't know, you said dumb, but maybe a funny, nihilistic version?
Prorock: If you're thinking about something for longer than 20 minutes, it's probably not worth doing. Your first impulse is usually the best one, at least in a situation like this, I would say.
Dowey: It’s kind of a knee-jerk reaction to ourselves and everything around us. Reactionary.
Cashen: I mean, even the lyrical content: most of the time, I don't even write two verses. I'll just write one and say it three times.
Prorock: I watched him write words the other day in like 90 seconds, and they were great.
I watched an interview with you, Andrew. I’m pretty sure you mentioned that you try to write a song a day. Does most of your songwriting follow a knee-jerk reaction, or is it more specific to this band’s energy?
Cashen: Well, I don't know about a song a day. Like, a riff a day. Sixty percent of those will just never see the light of day. But that's just my process—pump out as much as you possibly can and ditch the bad stuff. It works for me.
And then, when y'all bring each other work, how does that evolve collaboratively?
Dowey: Like, kind of on this new (album), we're all sort of contributing, you know? So, we'll have a song that I wrote, or that he wrote, or that Will, our guitar player, wrote, and then we'll all just kind of play it a few times. If it's not working, we'll forget about it. Usually, if it's gonna be good, it's good right away. That's kind of the ethos behind it—just be fast, don't think too much about it
Prorock: This new one we wrote just came together so fast. It was almost surprising to me. I was like, ‘Whoa, like, okay, that was easy, you know?’ But we've also all just been doing it so long that we can kind of just tell pretty quickly if it's going to work or not.
Yeah, of course. So with this new album, do you have a planned release date or anything you'd be willing to share?
Prorock: We have nothing planned.
Dowey: We have like four or five songs?
Cashen: It would be nice. I'm talking with (bookers) to book a tour in maybe March or April. It'd be nice to have something online. I doubt we'll have physical copies of something. But that's about all we have planned. So we're going to tour again.
I guess that leads into live performance. I know you have the Holiday Hootenanny coming up. When you're preparing for live performances, how do you formulate your approach to performing in front of an audience?
Dowey: I mean, you can change it recently, but like on a tour we'll decide on one and just go with it.
Cashen: Yeah, when you're playing to new people every night, it doesn't matter if you—I mean, you can be one of those bands that changes it up every night, but we're not that band. No, we're not great for that. Our set's only 20 minutes, so the only thing that matters in our set is the first song and the last song.
Prorock: Do we start off with a band and end with a bang? If you go and buy a beer and use the restroom, you might miss the set.
Dowey: You don't want to have downtime. It's not a setlist that has any downtime. Like, there's not a slow one where you go and get a beer.
Prorock: But also, sort of performance-wise, you kind of... I never know what (Andrew’s) going to do, and I'm in the band. You know what I mean? There are times where we've played shows and I'm like, oh, Andrew's hanging from this pipe over there. I'm like, okay.
Cashen: Our bassist just bought a wireless (plug-in), and I'm scared. What's gonna happen at the next show? He doesn't have a leash now. He jumps in the crowd all the time with (And You Will Know Us by the) Trail of Dead, and he does that in this band too. Now, that he's wireless, he's probably gonna disappear. Sometimes I look around and it's just Will and I. Everyone (else is) gone.
Prorock: I think the goal is a certain sense of unpredictability for the audience. Like I said, even I don't know what's gonna happen sometimes. I mean, we've had live shows that were truly razor-sharp, awesome performances, and other ones that were complete chaos but just as much fun. You never know what you're going to get.
And when you’re performing live, you wear the Gimp masks. What led you to that aesthetic?
Cashen: We played one show at Hotel Vegas without masks because we were just formulating it. Then we played the one show (with them) as a joke. I was like, ‘yeah, we should all wear Gimp masks.’ At the time, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot and all that shit—people thought that was out. Like, no one was doing that, no one. It wasn’t nostalgic; that was lame. And I was like, ‘let’s piss people off. Yeah, let’s do the lame thing.’
Dowey: Now everyone wears masks. There's so many bands that wear masks.
Cashen: It’s come back into fashion. We're specifically trying not to be palatable to people. Once we did the mask thing, we realized it scared people, and I was like, ‘let’s one-up it. Let’s spit blood on them. Fuck them.’ It’s definitely subversive.
Prorock: I think that's just how we are as people. We're just crazy.
Dowey: We’re sort of contrarians in that way. I have only been in the band for like a year or two. I saw them play outside of Hotel Vegas, and I just heard it through the front. I walked out and I was like, ‘what the fuck is this?’ Then I (came) out, and there weren't that many people there, but I'm trying to figure out who this is. I see him, and he just looks at me, and I’m like, ‘that is Cashen.’ I just thought, ‘that’s so awesome’. The fact that no one knows who you are when you're playing also gives it another sense of freedom. You don’t have to be yourself. You can completely step outside of yourself and become whatever that is.
Cashen: I think all of us turn into a character (when we put on the mask). It's like method acting.
Do you cover yourselves in blood before the performance, or do you just pour it on during the show?
Dowey: Yeah. If venues don’t want us to make a huge mess, we have to douse ourselves beforehand. But usually, it’s part of the act. In Austin, it’s not an issue. Well, actually, it was an issue at Sagebrush. We played there, and I don’t think we’ll ever be allowed back. Not like we want to.
Cashen: When we played in New York, the venue sent us a contract over email that said if we spit blood, we wouldn’t get paid. So, we said ‘okay.’
Dowey: In Chicago, (at the) Empty Bottle, same thing. They didn’t want us to spit blood, so we had to go outside. We were spitting each other’s faces in an alleyway, and then we walked on stage, shaking. (We were like) alright, we’re ready.
So, has the Holiday Hootenanny given the go-ahead for the spitting?
Cashen: We did a Pooneh (Ghana) gig with Snooper about six months ago (or so), and yeah, they know what's up. Pooneh is a good friend of ours.
Dowey: They saved the rug from the last time we played, and they're going to put it down when we play again. It obviously gets trashed.
So for the holiday Hootenanny specifically, is there anything you're specifically looking forward to? I know Font's playing and I think y'all have played on the same bill as them.
Prorock: (I) can't wait to see Danny Brown play. I think it'll be great. Yeah, I’m just happy to be there. I think it's just gonna be a lot of homies.
Dowey: Pooneh’s rad, she books rad shows, so it's great to be a part of anything she does. She just knows all the good bands.
Cashen: Even of Montreal, I've never seen them. Which is surprising.
Prorock: Voxtrot are friends of mine. I think it's just gonna be a really cool little two day fest. I'm hoping it's successful enough that it can kind of make it a yearly tradition.
What is something that you wish interviewers would ask you about your band and about what you've been doing?
Prorock: I guess you sort of touched on it. When I talk about philosophy, it’s kind of... I don’t know, it’s all just...
Cashen: On the way here, he was like, ‘I think it’d be funny if I fought an interviewer.’ Like, if they came up and were like, ‘Why are you guys fucking idiots?’ Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever had an interview like that. It would be super interesting if the interviewer was just like, ‘Yeah, you guys suck. Why does your music suck? That would be a fun interview.
Well, I nearly got in an argument earlier today if that’s close enough.
Cashen: Oh really, why?
I stopped at a red light driving here, and this guy was walking by with a plant. He looks at me, I look at him, we give each other an up-and-down look, and then he just flips me off and spits on my car. I was like, ‘what the fuck?’ I passed him and tried to honk at him, but by that point, he didn’t care.
Prorock: Does he play an instrument? Get him in the band, I don’t know.
Cashen: Sounds like our type of guy!
Dowey: That was the universe just preparing you for this interview!
I guess it did prepare me for this interview. I guess this is the question then: What’s the philosophy that you want to spread in the world?
Dowey: It’d be cool if someone realized that you don’t have to do all this thinking and work to start a band. You know, you can be a kid in your room and just start doing something. It doesn’t need to be polished and perfect—just go do something.
Cashen: I think we are probably the best band in the world, and if you don’t already know that, you should kill yourself.
Prorock: Just push the envelope. Whatever you do, push the envelope.
…
Cashen: Also, I don't (actually) promote anyone killing themselves.
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