Scraping the Divine
A conversation with Dylan Walker and Spencer Hazard
Sometime in 2010 or 2011 I got an e mail from Dylan Walker asking me for feedback on his band’s noise tape and some questions on how my recently broken up band did the electronics live that he’d seen in youtube videos.
Almost 15 years later and they’ve done more with noise laced grindcore adjacent music than anyone thought was ever possible.
I’ve been lucky enough to sit in the backseat for minor parts of their journey; Column of Heaven touring with them (2014), filling in on bass for a show when Brandon couldn’t get in to Canada (2014), guest vocals on the song Ashen Mesh (2017), remixing the song Trumpeting Ecstasy (2017), Full of Hell/ Intensive Care split 7” (2018), live electronics for five shows (2024). There may be more that I’m forgetting. The bottom line is we’re all close friends and in 2024 I’m the one asking their opinions and advice on things now.
Our collaborative album, Scraping the Divine is out November 15th on Closed Casket Activities and is the result of several years of trading material back and forth until an album came out of the mire. Officially it started in 2019, but the vast majority of the work was done in 2022 and 2023.
How do you approach the balance in your writing? I’m thinking of the balance between noise freak outs and more traditional playing, and the balance between genre limitations (being a grind band) and opening up to new influences.
Spencer: I always tell everyone I just write what I think sounds cool to me. Most of what I listen to wouldn’t be considered mainstream even something pop/indie oriented like Dinosaur JR. Just because something is extreme doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be catchy and vice versa. I always just keep in the back of my mind “does this fit for Full of Hell and does it not sound too similar to something we done before.” So why not make a noiserock song with death metal influence; as long as it makes sense to me.
In collaborations how do you know decide when to take charge and when to relinquish control to a collaborator
Spencer: With collaboration records they should be collaborative but not necessarily everything can be at all times. If that was the case none of these releases would have ever been completed.
Sometimes you need to put ego aside and serve the record and that’s when giving up control works best. Not all of your own ideas work and maybe the other person does know more than you.
Dylan: The entire point of a collaboration for us is that outside voice, so I find it extremely important to know when to step back, especially as I get older.
It's like touching the wings of a moth, and it's different with every project, it really just depends on who is involved. Doing a record with The Body is very free flowing and open, whereas doing one with Primitive Man is much more focused and structured and definitely directed by a couple people.
I need to know my role, know what I can offer the project, and just look for the best openings.
Three favourite pedals/ noise making devices.
Spencer:
Death by Audio Levitation delay (hasn’t left my board in years and is perfect for overdubbed background noises).
Boss bass overdrive-perfect for heavy blown out tones or nasty feedback.1
Death by Audio Evil Filter- rarely use it on guitar but I love using it on drums or other dubs. Also can get extremely harsh and bass heavy.
Dylan:
Soma Laboratory’s The Pipe is definitely my current favourite. Since my primary wheelhouse is vocalisations it's a priceless piece of equipment. It lets me create a huge variety of sounds, from huge soaring horn like soundscapes to really harsh on the ears modulated screams.
Organizer by Earthquaker Devices, It pairs really well with any kind of mic output (The Pipe or any kind of contact mic especially). That "church organ" chord sound is a really cool addition to a voice.
Trogotronic synths are my oldest and firmest favourites. I've had a fair few of them over the years. They're extremely fun and unpredictable until you practice on them for awhile. They just sound so iconic to me as a huge fan of Man is the Bastard/ Bastard Noise/ Amps for Christ, I can't put them down. The newest Trogotronic collab with OFF! is called the Antidote and it's absolutely amazing and the easiest to use to date.
When we discussed the lyrics neither of us had any interest in writing what was essentially purple prose about how life is shit.
Dylan: As I get older, I think it's easier to truly be myself through my art. As I attempt to grow and truly know myself, it has gotten easier to let it all be laid bare in a way. This kind of writing has always been the best way that I know how to communicate perspective, especially through descriptive metaphor. I'm not trying to sound pretentious at all but it always reminded me of painting something, or collaging. You can start with a very small piece (for me it's always titling) as a central theme and build off of that, and then strip away where it needs to be stripped away once you put it to music. Just like you, haha. 3
As far as the change goes, like I said at the beginning, it's gotten easier to be transparent, thus maybe it's easier to read where I'm at personally in my life. I've been confronting some deep existential dread over the past few years and trying to navigate my way through it and accept my place in the universe.
I think that the older you get the more you realize everything is essentially a shade of grey and there are no objective truths. It's freeing and proves a need to manifest a reality you see fit. It's been much more interesting for me to not be stuck in the same static "humanity sucks" phase forever. 4
What does the future of genre based guitar music look like to you?
Spencer: This is a very tough question because now that guitar music is making a comeback it’s becoming very contrived and boring especially in punk and hardcore.
No one really seems interested in trying something new. I’m hoping more heavy music takes different approaches like I described earlier like why can noise rock be influenced by death metal or vice versa. I think it’s cool a band like Blood Incantation can go from Morbid Angel worship to seamlessly combining it with Krautrock or ambient.
Short answer just more creativity and less genre worship.
Recently Read (Dylan)
The Three Body Problem Trilogy - Liu Cixin
There's a netflix adaption now too, I enjoyed it. It's a science fiction series that touches alot of things that I'm really interested in... theoretical physics, Fermi Paradox, Dark Forest theory etc.. It's definitely got the existential dread in spades.. Essentially humanity accidentally ends up connecting with an alien civilization that lives in a system with 3 suns, making it very unhospitable. They decide to migrate to Earth and take the planet for themselves, prompting humanity to accelerate all of it's tech forward to defend itself/escape. I'm always going to be a sucker for theoretical astrophysics, quantum theory etc, even if I don't necessarily understand it top to bottom, haha. I want to know the mysteries of the universe, but all I have is fiction.
Recently Listened To (Spencer)
Poison Idea-War all the time
Bone Awl-Meaningless Leaning Mess
OLD-Lo Flux Tube
The Comes-No Side
Nuclear Death-Carrion for Worm
This is also my distortion of choice.
Full run down: Boss PS3 (all time favourite of mine), DBA Evil Filter, Traumatone Contact mic (the only contact mic you should use unless you build your own), Mackie 802VLZ4, Boss DD7, Make Noise Strega, Roland SP404SX, grip tape (on the contact mic and a corner of the mixer).
Dylan is referring to the fact that I intentionally write more lyrics than Intensive Care songs need then in the studio improvise around the parts that work the best in the moment, like a cross between Burrough’s cut up method and chanting slogans. For Scraping the Divine we did something similar.
I asked this question because we’ve discussed it privately and I went through two similar phases in my own writing. The first after The Endless Blockade split LP with Hatred Surge (2006) where I decided I didn’t want to write about the same old topics from the standard perspective anymore, the second where I intentionally made the decision to write the most negative set of songs I could in order to not have to do it ever again (Column of Heaven split album with Suffering Luna, 2012).
Will this (and Intensive Care) will be available somewhere in Europe?
Shipping with bandcamp to Belgium is insane.
Cheers