First Slice 8-10-16: Rest in Peace Diamond Lil

A Q&A with the city’s darkwave darlings about finding a niche in the land of nod

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ATL punk/post-punk band goals: form, preferably with drummer. Convince poetic goddess to sing with you. Within a year, record an album, play one show in a smaller DIY setting, then score an opening slot with Wax Idols and King Woman. Go on tour. During this time, practice only once or twice a week in what is essentially a metal box on Ponce.

Maudlin, featuring Jessica Knight (voice), Sara Slick (bass), Tony Kozera (guitar) and Ryan Fetter (drums), released the group’s self-titled cassette in May. Now the group is on tour with New York punkers Pawns, and return to Atlanta tonight, Wed., Aug. 10,  for a show at the Drunken Unicorn.

It’s Maudlin’s third show ever in the land of nod, and while the group may seem like the odd guy out of the fast-paced punk scene, their music is far more accessible for fans of droning synths. From the metal box comes a glittering post-punk reminiscent of the ’80s that has eyes, internet or otherwise, on every darkwave revival in the nation.  

In everything online about Maudlin, “goth” is always the first word used. Like it’s not just punk — it’s goth punk.

Knight: I think we’re mostly post-punk in my opinion. I can see why we’re labeled as goth punk but to me it’s just dark punk, we sound darkwave in another way but we don’t have keys. It’s just really what you wanna compare it to. I let other people pick the genre. I think we have a dark, anarcho-feel. Post-punk-y, but still dancey.

Do audiences in Atlanta even dance?

Fetter: Well they don’t move but I’m not going to tell them what to do.

Knight: I’ve always heard that though. It’s the land of nod, and it doesn’t matter what genre it is — it could be hardcore punk it could be post-punk it could be some minimal wave project with two dudes no one’s gonna dance. I’ve been to other cities and I think a lot of the punk scene here has moved out and gone to the east coast or to the west coast and I think it was a little bit better here three years ago, can’t you agree?

Fetter: Atlanta has only known change really.

Knight: It’s always in a transitional state.

How do you see the group fitting into that? If you’re one of the punk bands that formed here, stayed here, and continue to keep the scene alive.

Fetter: We don’t really fit in. We like all types of music and playing all types of music and playing with all types of music.

Knight: And we’re gonna play with touring bands, mostly. So it’s not really a concern of ours fitting in anywhere. It does help that my bandmates play in other bands who do fit maybe into their scenes like Nag.

Is it weird just playing with touring bands and not having anyone “fit the bill” per say?

Fetter: Well we’ve played with local bands, GHB and Nurse.

Knight: La URSS, but they’re from Spain.

Kozera: When Damon Hare, who books at the Earl, got the King Woman and Wax Idols show, he instantly knew he wanted to put us on. I feel like we’re one of the few local bands doing this kind of thing.

What are some of your favorite lyrics that you’ve written?

Knight: I can’t say that I’m proud really of any of my lyrics. A lot of times they’re actual poems I write. Before I was doing hair I was originally going for creative writing. Poetry was my biggest passion next to music, so a lot of the music is already written poems I’m taking and using half of and adding more stuff at the end. So some of them I like, and some of them I’m like eh it’s okay but it works lyrically.

Slick: I really really like “Crooked,” speaking as a woman.

Jess: Yeah, the end of “Crooked,” the last stanza in that for sure: “I am a steamroller/I am a woman/Washed up and weakened/Am I a memory/Or am I feeling?”

The delay that you use for your vocals; have you always been partial to that or did you just start using it with Maudlin?

Knight: I did in my old band, lots of delay, lots of reverb. I think that’s something in general that a lot of ’80s darkwave bands did with vocal effects.

Slick: My dad’s boyfriend got three videos of us playing at the Earl. And it was great sound quality and I was listening to it — because onstage — I can’t hear Jess’ vocals because I’m behind them. And I got to listen to what it sounded like in front of them and it sounded great. The reverb was ridiculous, the repeat was intense but it sounded good and creepy.

Fetter: The sound dude asked us: “Do you guys want it in the mix or out front?”

Kozera: And then we gave him the most confusing answer ever. We were like “Yeah dude, we want them out front but not like too much but like also in the mix with just a little more out front.” 

And he said “Cool!” and made it happen.

Fetter: He didn’t, I said “No, out front.” That’s the focus point of this band: the vocals.

Slick: Jess, your voice in recordings is so pungent and so forward that I think when we play shows they need to be louder.

Kozera: That was really cool for us because that was our second show, our first was at Murmur. It was very DIY and it was on somebody’s tiny little PA, you know? No stage, no monitors.

Slick: The speakers were above and around.

So you had no idea what it sounded like.

Kozera: I could pretty much just hear my guitar or the drums. So that was really neat for us at the Earl that night, it was the first time we’d played with professional sound. Because we practice in a metal storage shed on a little PA and so we’ll do a song and we’ll say, “Ok, well now we wanna hear the vocals so Ryan you play a little softer and we’ll turn down a bit so maybe we can hear.”

How long did it take to make S/T Cassette?

Knight: I have recordings from back in December. There were lots of periods of like, “Hey everyone’s gone for the holidays.”

Fetter: We recorded in March, we only have about five songs for that cassette, about fifteen minutes total.

Knight: That’s pretty good timing considering we were practicing about once a week. And some weeks not at all.

Kozera: So then Ryan did the drums, I did the guitar, and Sara was incredible. She did everything in like one take. I was blown away by that. And then when Jess came back and did the vocals, I was also blown away. Like I said, where we practice you can’t hear the vocals or anything, and we hadn’t played a show yet so hearing it like that was a treat.

What’s more likely to destroy punk, the internet or very intense mohawks that take four hours to complete?

Slick: I think nothing really kills it. I think it just evolves, like any genre. The sound will totally change, for example, proto-punk. A lot of people still consider that punk, which it is. And then you see the evolution to ‘77 punk and so on. It’s all punk. It’s just a strange evolution of it. It’s never gonna die it’s just going to fit into the generation.

Where did the name Maudlin come from?

Knight: I invited Sara over for a sleepover and we were drinking wine in bed and I was like, “How about this one? How bout this one?” I was taking them all from different poets I like. Maudlin came from Sylvia Plath which means to be overly emotional due to drunkenness. Plus the fact that a lot of people don’t know what it means and have to look it up. I like it. It’s a strong word.

Maudlin plays with Pawns, Entertainment, and Ian Deaton tonight. $7. 9.p.m. The Drunken Unicorn. 736 Ponce de Leon Ave. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.






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