Interview with Bryce August of Belonging by Dave Wolff
Earlier this year, you released your most recent work, “Hollow Cells”. When it first came out, what formats were available, and why did you choose to re-release it on vinyl some time later?
When we first self-released “Hollow Cells” it was a digital-only release, so streaming and download from Bandcamp which is pretty in-keeping with the DIY ethos we have had since the beginning of the band. We actually didn’t intend to re-release “Hollow Cells” but as we were working on our next release we connected with Kevin of Dipterid through a friend of a friend and he was so stoked on “Hollow Cells” that he proposed the remaster and vinyl press. I feel like it’s pretty much any band’s dream to have someone come to you and say, “Hey, I see what you’re doing and I think this deserves a little more juice.” And Kevin is the genuine article, someone who really does it for the love of the game. That really resonated with us and it has just been an absolute blast working with him. It was his idea to take some inspiration from the album cover I designed and do the limited gold run of the vinyl which looks so incredibly cool and he is already getting the ball rolling on our next release.
How do downloading and streaming align with the band's DIY philosophy? Did you feel it would allow you greater creative control over your work or more freedom to market and distribute it?
Great question. There's no question that the internet revolutionized the way bands are able to connect with fans and the world at large. When I first started playing in bands in the late 90s the landscape was so different. Physical media was a requirement. CDs, tapes, etc. were necessary even if they were self-released and that was certainly a barrier to entry for a lot of artists whereas now you can pretty much put anything you want up on Bandcamp or get it on the streamers for a relatively low dollar amount. I don't know that streaming necessarily allowed for greater creative control, mostly because I think we have by-and-large self-released albums across all of our musical careers, even before streaming was commonplace. What I will say is that, for us, we start with the music and move from there. All other creative and marketing decisions from artwork to touring to sending out review copies, etc. flow out of the music. So when we started talking to Kevin and Dipterid, we realized we were talking to someone who also not only maintained that same DIY ethos that we have, but also was a genuine fan of the music, so I think that was what was most important to us.
Do you believe that the emergence of internet streaming was a reaction to Metallica's dispute with Napster in the late 1990s? In other words, was it a means for bands to manage their own releases?
Hm. I think streaming was coming no-matter what. Advancing network speeds and peer-to-peer connectivity were driving media consumption habits whether or not Metallica was mad about Napster. I do think that the direction that it went had less to do with bands managing their own releases and more to do with corporations wanting a piece of the pie when it came to filesharing/online music. For better or worse, artists have had more of a hand in their releases over the last twenty years which is kind of a double-edged sword. While it affords more creative control, it also requires musicians to become their own support system with regard to marketing, production, etc.
Did you look to streaming services other than Bandcamp to advertise “Hollow Cells” prior to its re-release?
Yeah, we were on all of the other big ones, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. It's just a necessity these days. Certainly Bandcamp being a (relatively) independent entity makes us feel more at home, but so many people are using music streaming services that we felt like we wanted to have a presence on all of them.
Social media platforms are currently broadcasting videos for musical groups. Could this be an even more advantageous strategy for artists seeking to promote their brand?
This flows pretty nicely from my last answer. Social media obviously has the potential to provide artists with a huge platform and there are tons of examples of artists blowing up after making a viral video but again I think it's worth recognizing how it is shifting the creative process. Because social media can provide a shortcut to success, the temptation is there to focus on content that might hit instead of creating something that speaks to what the artist is actually trying to say. Also because social media is so immediate, there's a shift toward constantly pumping out individual singles instead of building a holistic framework to connect a larger project. In addition, I think it can draw focus away from the creative act because the artist now has to be their own hype-man, their own influencer/marketer, they have to feed the constant content machine and I can see that becoming a detriment to the joy of creating to create.
Do you think that platforms such as TikTok could assist bands similarly, or are they mostly intended for other internet users?
Again, I think there's no question that bands have blown up on TikTok, or there are groups that have seen a massive resurgence because their song got used in some TikTok meme. So the potential is there, but I think it's important for artists to understand that social media can be a tool, but it shouldn't become the focus. We all, and I include myself in this, need to know when to unplug and spend time in our own heads or creating with people who are actually in the room.
How long has Dipterid Records been in operation and where is its headquarters located? Were you familiar with the label before you were contacted regarding the re-release of “Hollow Cells”?
I actually just texted Kevin to see how long he's been doing it. October of 2021 so coming up on 4 years pretty soon. Headquarters are in the Chicagoland area. We were not familiar with Dipterid, although an old friend of Jeremy's is on the label and that's how we got our name passed along to Kevin. I think there is some good spiritual continuity there, though, as we all originally cut our teeth in the same kinds of Midwestern punk/hardcore/emo scenes as Kevin did, so it feels very natural to be on a label based in the Midwest.
How much effort was exerted by the band in writing and composing the songs for “Hollow Cells” on a physical/one-to-one basis?
Musically, 100% in-person. We wrote all of the songs together in several cramped and sweaty practice spaces down by the Willamette River. That's pretty much exclusively how I like to write. Lyrically, I wrote almost all of the lyrics while stuck in traffic or sitting alone in a bar or some other such nonsense.
Because of your songwriting process, does “Hollow Cells” possess a more organic quality next to other albums on streaming platforms?
Ha, I mean... that's a pretty broad thing to say. We're certainly more organic than the AI bands and manufactured pop music. I'll say this, we are the same amount of organic as all the bands we like to listen to and from whom we draw inspiration.
-Dave Wolff
