Emerging from Westchester, New York, Distopia are one of those groups capable of both punchy, raw power and melodious riffing. After debuting in 2021, the American talents were able to build a series of singles clearly showcasing their artistic identity.
‘Distopia’ is their homonymous debut album, a concentration of everything the band stands for. Grunge moments meet laborious alt-rock, with the occasional mellow episode. Eleven tracks of pure rock goodness.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with Distopia to find out more about their project and future plans… Interview below!
Hey guys, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
Distopia is an alternative band which I guess would have a rock focus…but I hate classifying us in any way. This first album is more so a tribute to a lot of the sounds and writing styles that were very nostalgic to us, but adding our own twist on them. It came out to be a very Rock based album, with a mixture of writing styles ranging from hard rock to pop.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; How did you get together?
I formed the band with Jason in 2020. We have since then added another guitarist (Max) and a new drummer (Jordan) into the mix. I just left college and had so much material that I had all planned out in my head. My goal was to get it out into the world somehow, and we found the perfect combination of players to make it happen. Everyone contributes something which to me is the objective of a good band.
If you had the opportunity to pick any artists in the world for a collaboration, who would be your first choice? (and second choice, perhaps?)
That’s a tough question. Maybe a band like Muse would add something really cool to our style. I could also deviate from that genre completely and choose Snarky Puppy or Kneebody. I like simple writing that is subject to experimentation, and I think those groups have such an experimental style that I think we’d all agree would be really cool to collaborate with. If it was a question just based on writing with someone, I’d probably go with Nirvana, RHCP or The Beatles (some of those may be hard to get together nowadays).
You have just released an eclectic and punchy EP, ‘Distopia’. It’s interesting to observe your style, distorted yet still quite groovy and friendly. Does the record represent who the band is today?
I’d say so yes. Right now I think we are all into that really raw sound that was produced on this record. My biggest goal with writing music is to have the demo be able to stand completely on its own. The rest of the layers and the instrumentation we choose will grow as we do, but for right now I’d say we are still on that same wavelength. I could see us adding more electronic experimentation at some point, but not enough to deviate from the organic sound we really all love.
Do you feel more confident writing music alone, or all together?
I think we all start developing the base ideas on our own, because a lot of times those are very personal. With a lot of the new stuff we have (not on this album really), we help each other grow each other’s demos. The Beatles always did that. If you listen to how Strawberry Fields sounded when John Lennon wrote the demo, it sounds completely different than when the rest of the group got hold of it. So I’d say we like a mix of both, because good things come out of writing on a personal/solo level and also in a group setting. I don’t think we’ve ever really limited ourselves to one style of it though, whatever happens happens.
You are based in New York State – has the local scene helped you in your journey towards greatness? Have you had any experiences in NYC?
We have gotten involved in some really cool Brooklyn and Manhattan scenes, and have had some incredible gigging experiences doing so. There’s an underground scene and it’s coming to the surface… just watch. Distopia will be a part of that.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
Honestly, I think the hardest thing was getting our album perfectly mixed and mastered…..and then finalizing a promotion schedule/album release party. I had a whole plan in mind for how the rollout for this album would go, so I wasn’t letting this release until that plan was set in action. There are a lot of moving parts….marketing, playlisting, gig schedules, photo shoots, content creation, etc. I wanted to put us in a good place with all of those aspects before releasing this album because it means so much to us. We had to do it right.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Oh, we will be getting right back in the studio. We already have so much material written….at this point it is just about finalizing all of it creatively, recording it and then starting the planning process again to ensure our music reaches the people who want to hear it.
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