OCHC. Four letters that anyone involved in hardcore knows exactly what they stand for. The acronym made a name for itself because so many people back it and put on for it every day. Some of those people are the guys from the soon-to-be-almighty STRUT.
Previously covered by No Echo, the Orange County troop has released their newest EP, aptly titled STRUT. With seven fast, punishing songs clocking in under 12 minutes, the guys bring back what 2000s bands like Internal Affairs and Right Brigade brought to the hardcore world, but with a refreshing touch.
I bugged my good friend Zach (aka ZachyFlay), STRUT's vocalist, about the new release. Here's what went down.
No Echo has already covered you, but for new readers, who is STRUT?
We're a fast Southern California hardcore band, mainly from OC (me, Noah, Eric), LA (Jon), and the IE (Rigo).
How did the link-up with From Within Records come to be? I'm glad you guys are there now, since the label has been putting out nothing but good stuff.
Oh, dude, credit 100% to Jamie Orque (editor's note: shout-out, Jamie!) for the From Within link. When we dropped the demo a year ago, he sent it over to Carter, and I guess he liked it—just a homie "What do you think about this band?" kinda thing.
When we wrapped recording for the EP, Jamie sent it over, and Carter liked it enough to want to put it out, which is a huge honor for us. Personally, I've loved From Within for many years. Burning Strong, Envision, Seed of Pain, and newer bands like Stand Tall and Frothing Mad are bands that we love and look up to a lot.
From Within represents just real, no-bullshit hardcore, and to be doing stuff with Carter is honestly more than I think any of us thought was going to be possible with this band. Shout-out to Jamie, Carter, and From Within Records, man. Incredibly blessed.
I love the artwork. Who was responsible for this?
Once again, major thank you to Alex Allen for doing the art for us. I think he's someone who's captured what this band is visually, and he absolutely nailed all the concepts we've given him, so major thank you to him.
For the cover, it's an homage to Downpresser's Perverted Justice cover. We wanted to represent California hardcore with an homage and add our own spin on it, and I think Alex did an awesome job capturing the feeling of the concept.
The cover art was actually the first thing done for the EP, while songs were still being drafted. I think there was a consensus that we wanted to do something slightly darker and more aggressive with this one, so the art fit the music as it was coming together. But the art means a lot to me personally. It's how I'm feeling these days with all that's going on, whether personal or with what's happening in the world. It's a madhouse, and you've got to carry this weight or you're going to sink.
What was the recording process like? Seven songs in 12 minutes should be a standard for hardcore!
I can't speak for the other guys, but the main recording was pretty smooth for the most part. We came to the studio with the songs mostly built out and prepared structurally, so the bones of these tracks were ready to be laid down right away.
Small things that were written in the studio, for example, included the solo during "For Us Only," which Noah banged out pretty quick. I split my vocal sessions over three different days, doing half of the EP over the first two days, then doing gang vocals with our friends on the last day.
What were you guys listening to while writing? I hear the 2000s influence on this.
Depending on who you ask in this band, you're going to get completely different answers [laughs]. But yeah, big 2000s influence on this. I like to tell people this band makes no sense because we all bring our own influences and perspectives on hardcore, and it ends up sounding like it does in weird, full-circle ways.
Here's an example: During the blast beat parts in "Penalty Kill" (which was the second song we wrote for the EP), Noah said he pulled that influence from listening to Infest a lot. I love Infest too, but I was listening to the track and thinking, "This sounds like Internal Affairs when you put it all together." And IA is one of my favorite bands of all time, so it ended up working out with structuring the songs.
So for me, the big influences musically were bands like Rampage, Right Brigade, Internal Affairs, No Warning, Kids Like Us, Stop and Think, and Down to Nothing. We just love all these bands, and this EP is the result. But for vocals, I was listening to tons of Unified Right during the writing of this, so there's massive inspiration from how Branden writes lyrics and the vocal rhythms. "Winner Takes All" is probably what I'd point to as the clearest example of that inspiration.
What made you choose to cover the Cro-Mags? Sick choice.
That came from Noah initially, to cover the song as a part of our sets. I mean, it's the Cro-Mags, so covering them just makes sense for any hardcore band. As to why "Show You No Mercy" specifically, it started as just being a fun song to do, but it weirdly tied into the general themes of the music we were writing.
So, we decided to record it either as a bonus or something we'd release as a promo or single. We went back and forth on what to do with the cover, then Carter gave us the advice of leaving it on the EP.
What's next for STRUT? I see you guys are playing For the Children in LA later this year. I know you go every year, so I'm glad to see you on the flyer (remember that End It set a couple years ago?).
[Laughs] My knee is still recovering. Many things coming up for us as a band. First off, major thank you to Xavier, Nate, Conrad, and the entire SOS booking team for putting on For the Children and doing something special for the community. I've been going to the fest for years, so I was surprised and excited that we got asked to play.
Honestly, I'm really excited to see bands like Desperate Measures and Death Threat play, so us being on the fest is a privilege and a bonus. For other stuff going on, we're playing Mosh For Youth in LA at the Regent on September 26th with a bunch of friends and legends (be there early for Manifest X!). We've also got a small run we're doing in early October that will be announced soon with some of our close friends.
Otherwise, I don't think we have crazy ambitions for this band currently. We've all got day jobs and obligations outside of this band, and the biggest draw of doing this is seeing our friends singing along and having fun. That's the core of this band. So, just playing and going to shows with our friends. And who knows, maybe a TJ show very soon...
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about the band. Love ya, Isaac. End of Time coming soon. Listen to the new Life Stained Red, Enkased, Bloodshed, Eliminators, and Contract Killer.
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The self-titled EP is available on cassette via From Within Records.
STRUT on social media: Instagram
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