Band: Axe Collector
From: San Diego, California
Their formation story:
(Mikey, vocals): "This band started as a solo project by me in mid 2023. I was going through some shit and wanted to make something angry to channel that into something productive. I approached our drummer and my soon-to-be label mate Bryan with the first Axe demo basically written. We fleshed it out in the studio with me doing all the string instruments/vox and Bryan recording and playing drums.
"Bry liked the end product, so he offered to play drums full time. After putting the demo out, friends who fucked with it asked to join the lineup and Axe unintentionally ended up as kind of a 'members of' band. Mario (guitar) and Sebastian (bass) joined for the first Axe gig opening for World Peace in August of ‘23. After that, Derek and Matt also learned the guitar parts just so we could have a roster of buddies to pull from for any given show.
"Every Axe member is in other bands and have pretty busy schedules, but we had so much fun playing together that everyone involved expressed their desire to be in the band full time. Derek was supposed to be a one show fill in, but we all ended up at the same practice and rocking 3 guitars felt like we were truly 'collecting axes' so we just ran with it. Instead of cutting someone we decided, 'fuck it, we’ll just be loud.'
"Once that became our schtick, we couldn’t not play with three guitars so now we have Jeremy and Dylan as backup guitarists. Also, Bryan blew out his ankle skating so we borrowed Jack from Genestealer for a gig. It’s a lot to keep track of, but the core members are: Mikey on vocals, Bryan on drums, Sebastian on bass, Derek, Matt, and Mario on guitar."
Their sound in their own words:
"I have a horrible time describing our sound. When people ask I usually just say 'blast beat hardcore.' Some people call it power violence (I wouldn’t) and that’s fine too.
"We’re a hardcore punk band through and through but each of us come from different niches so the end product feels a little all over the place, but we like it that way. We have punk parts, blasts, breakdowns, fast songs, slow songs. We’re definitely not a genre band. A few people have told me we sound like a mid-'00s Deathwish band, which I see for sure.
"I was listening to a lot of Protocol, Admiral Angry, and Black Sabbath when bringing some of the initial riffs to the group but I wouldn’t really say this sounds much like any of those bands. Listen and decide for yourself."
Latest release info:
"The new Axe release has been a work in progress for a while now. It was much more collaboratively written than the demo, every member of the band contributed at least one riff or song into the mix and we workshopped them together from there. We definitely knew we had something cool going on and wanted to make sure the end product was as heavy as possible without totally blowing out the mix.
"We’ve been gigging on these songs for some time now and the reception to them live has been nuts. Bryan recorded it at Sunsick Studio in La Mesa and mixed it himself. We got mastering done by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air and he did a great job as well. Physicals of the 7” are being put out as a split between Extinction Burst and me and Bry’s label, Human Future Records."
Future plans:
"We’re playing the 4 years of Human Future Records anniversary show in April with Violencia, Genestealer, and a bunch more buds. We’re locking down dates for a CenCal/Bay Area run in May/June with GOLD from Bakersfield (who fucking rip, go check them out) and we’re planning 2 more runs for later this year; probably one in the PNW and one closer to our turf.
"We’ll also be doing a proper release show once we have the 7” in our possession. We already have new songs written and our sights set on a full length next."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
There’s too many good SD bands to name so I’ll just rec 10; Tourist, Therapy, Intermission, Human Resources, Sangre, Bayonet, Philistine, Se Vende, Rival Squad, Blinding Glow
"And I’ll do 5 non-punk bands for some variety: Band Argument, Neutral Shirt, Auto Technik Service, Trit95, Kan Kan Also, Axe members are all involved in some way with other active projects including: All Beat Up, GRUNTWORK, Genestealer, Big Blue World, Major Pain, Department of Education, About Face, Shadow Pass, …and today it was you.
Also, check out: Human Future Records, Reanimated Records, Heartwork Coffee, Sam’s Bread, Burn All Books, The Print Shop, Tower Bar, Red Brontosaurus Records, Make Belive DIY, The Brown Building, Standards, and the motherfuckin Padres."
The Axe Collector 7" is available on vinyl via Extinction Burst.
Axe Collector on social media: Instagram
Tagged: axe collector
