Charlotte, North Carolina's Yamaloka started with guitarist Nicholas Walker writing demos alone after returning home from Hawaii following grad school. The project began taking shape in an unlikely setting: Walker's wedding.
Longtime friend and fellow guitarist Justin Driscoll had agreed to photograph the ceremony, giving Walker an opportunity to play him some of the material he'd been working on. "His response was simple: 'This is solid. What are you doing with this?'" Walker tells No Echo.
That conversation was enough to get things moving. Walker and Driscoll recruited bassist Garrett Garlington and drummer Chad Zerfoss and began writing together, but finding the right vocalist proved more difficult. "After a few unsuccessful auditions, we jokingly asked Garrett to find us a singer at a Hatebreed show we were all attending," Walker recalls. "Sure enough, he met Mark in the merch line."
It worked.
"We took it as fate. Mark was the perfect final piece to round out the sound we were building, and Yamaloka was officially complete." As far as Yamaloka's stylistic approach? "I'd say we have a good mix of hardcore, thrash, and some old metalcore vibes," Walker explains, citing Prayer for Cleansing, 100 Demons, Hatebreed, On Broken Wings, Walls of Jericho, Bane, Incendiary, and Iron Reagan among the band's influences. "There's honestly too many to name. We all grew up with similar tastes in music."
Yamaloka put those influences to work on their new EP, Sermons of the Damned, recorded with Blake Hobson at Sense2Audio in Charlotte:
Despite the aggression driving the music, Walker says there's something more hopeful underneath it. "Although we write some angry stuff, if I had to sum it up, the overall message is believing in yourself while navigating through a fucked-up world and supporting those you love around you."
Yamaloka are also arriving at a particularly active time for heavy music in North Carolina. Walker points to Marked for Death from Charlotte, Wilmington's Root of Evil, Raleigh's Circle Back, fellow Charlotte band Divine Right, and Asheville's Fliora as examples of what's happening throughout the state. "NC has always had a really solid scene, especially recently," he says. "There's too many to name, and that's a good thing. We're very fortunate to have a lot of bands within the state that share our love for playing heavy music."
For now, Yamaloka are concentrating on getting Sermons of the Damned in front of more people while already looking toward their next release. "Right now, we're concentrating on playing some shows to get the word out and writing material for a new record," Walker says. "We have a pretty organic and constructive writing process, so it shouldn't be long."
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