The Discord of a Forgotten Sketch

BY Sam SutherlandPublished Sep 25, 2007

Since releasing the spastic blast of noise that was the band’s self-titled debut EP, the Discord of a Forgotten Sketch have gotten weird. Their full-length follow-up wasn’t the same Daughters-esque cluster fuck of tightly wound songs but a looser collection of alternating heavy and jazzy compositions that featured some of the most bizarre vocal performances ever committed to tape by a band generally considered to be "hardcore.” Now, it appears that Discord are preparing for an even greater left turn as they enter the studio to produce an improvised free jazz record before embarking upon a tour. Wholly uninterested in trends in the current hardcore scene, Discord certainly aren’t worried about winning over any new camo short-ed fans, but just who will follow the band into the sonic unknown remains to be seen.

The last time you and I spoke you were just about to put out your last full-length. What’s been happening since then?
Drummer Julien Paradis: We didn’t practice a lot because we didn’t have much time. We only practiced when we played shows. Then we tried to book a tour and Exclaim! came and offered us a chance to do the Aggressive Tendencies tour, which is perfect. So now we’re going to release a new EP, an experimental free jazz one [with] less vocals. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard Black Flag’s The Process of Weeding Out?

Yeah.
Yeah? It’s our biggest influence for the new EP. It’s going to be very improvisational. We’re going to record that in three weeks and it will be released in time for the tour in November. We didn’t really do a lot of things since we talked.

What was the reception to the last record like?
Because the recording is very weird, many people didn’t like it at first but I’m very proud. It seems like the kids liked it less but we managed to reach some new fans that liked it a lot more, some old-man jazz fans, less hardcore kids. It’s very cool to see people wearing shirts and ties at our shows. It’s another kind of fan and I’m very proud of that. I think, in the media, the CD was reviewed very well. It’s pretty cool.

Has your audience really been shifting?
Yeah, it’s not the same. At shows, it’s not the same. It’s just not the same vibe. It’s cool to have a lot of different people come to shows and not just hardcore kids.

Do you think you’re going to find yourself even further a field of those hardcore kids with the new EP?
Yeah, I think we’re going to reach more musicians. It’s going to be jazz, but noise jazz. It’s going to be weird, and noisy, and free jazz, and our style, but I don’t know if it’s going to have many vocals. I think the people who are going to enjoy it are going to be real jazz or experimental fans. I don’t know how it’s going to work for the future. With our first CD, it was kids who liked the big breakdowns and the screaming.

You mentioned there not being a lot of vocals, so what’s Simon [Herbert, vocalist] doing?
He’s going to do some vocals, but more like an instrument. We didn’t write lyrics at all for this CD. He’s going to do that "ahhhhhh” stuff in the background. We’ll see what happens when we get in the studio. I think it’s going to be great and I’m excited to hear what he’s going to do. Simon will always be in the band but he has a new role.

Does he play any instruments?
We’ve got a keyboard and I think we’ll use it for the CD. I think we’ll bring it to shows on the tour to make some extra noise. Simon’s going to sing but more like an instrument — less lyrics, more sounds from his mouth.

What are the shows going to be like? You’re going on tour with a lot more structure-based metal and hardcore bands. Are you going to play free jazz stuff or stuff from your old records?
We’re going to play mostly songs off our last LP and one or two songs from our first EP. We will not play free jazz for this tour because the kids who will be at these shows will not be fans. We want people to like us. We only have 30 minutes, so we can’t play a lot of songs. Our songs are pretty long. It’s going to be old material.

When you’re doing shows around Montreal now are you doing more experimental stuff?
We basically play old stuff but we try to incorporate experimental stuff. We have to see how the shows are and see how the vibe is.

Where did the idea come from to just go in and produce a free jazz record?
We’ve had the idea for a long time but we didn’t have the resources. We didn’t have the money or the time to practice or rent a studio. And now Jason from New Romance For Kids said it was cool and that he would release it. It was perfect. We’re going to try that. With the upcoming tour, it’s good motivation to release something. For the tour we’d like to have new merch and new stuff for sale because it’s pretty huge. We wanted a new CD and we didn’t have time to make new songs, new real Discord songs, so we’re going to be releasing the free thing.

Do you think after this you’ll want to take time to go back and write new, proper songs or is this the direction the band’s going to head in?
I think it’s going to be a mix of the old songs and the new free jazz songs. Maybe for the next LP, I don’t know when, it’s going to be jazzier, but real songs that we’re really going to work on. And then make the old songs a little more like the kind of music we want to play.

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