Die Young certainly hasn't been a prolific band in recent years, but when the Texas outfit releases something, they make it count. The last time we heard from the Houston metallic hardcore unit was the 2019 "Defective Machines" single, but they're gearing up to drop perhaps their best work yet.
Entitled Wanted to Believe, the 5-song EP (one-sided LP with etched B-side), finds Die Young collaborating with several labels, including Immigrant Sun Records and Dead Truth Recordings. The latter was founded by "Mean" Pete Kowalsky, the late vocalist of such bands as Remembering Never, Bishop, and Ether Coven. Pete was a good friend of the Die Young guys and when his buddy Shane (bassist of Ether Coven, Bishop, now in Domain) decided to restart the label recently in Pete's honor, they connected with Death Truth Recordings for Wanted to Believe.
The hardcore friendships don't end there for this project. The guitar and vocals on Wanted to Believe were recorded by Scott Crouse of Earth Crisis, who Die Young vocalist Daniel Austin previously worked with in the band Tooth and Claw. The rest of the EP was recorded by Die Young, mostly by their guitarist, Rogelio Vigil.
I spoke with Daniel about figuring out how to balance Die Young with family and career commitments, the making of the EP and its lyrical direction, and his feelings on the current Texas Hardcore scene.
At this point, what is the status of Die Young as a functioning band? How busy do you keep the schedule and is everything contingent on your respective career and family commitments?
We’re at a “do-it-when-we-can” level of operation these days. Ever since we came back in 2014, we’ve never done more than a 9-show run, and we were able to do that maybe twice. Most of the time it is a one-off or weekend of shows, so the potential for the band to be in everyone’s faces on a regular basis is now very much the opposite of the old days when we would go out for 2-3 months at a time.
That’s just real life happening, and it even happened to us, no matter how much we tried to avoid it. Sometimes it is impossible to get everyone confirmed just to do a single one-off show or fest we get offered, and I regret having to pass on various offers over the years because the band just didn’t have available members or things didn’t make enough logistical sense, but when things line up, we are still very grateful for the opportunity to play when we can.
I know you and Scott Crouse both played in the band Tooth and Claw, but what is it about his approach that inspired you to bring him in to this new Die Young project in the studio? Is he a taskmaster or does he take a more relaxed approach to things in the lab?
On one hand, Scott’s just a great dude and I feel lucky that he’s a friend who supports my projects. We had a ton of fun collaborating on that Tooth and Claw release several years back, and we really connected conceptually on it. Listening to that record now, damn, he made it sound heavy. He recorded everything but my vocals and drums on that one. He mixed it and mastered it, too. So on the other hand, I think he just does a great job and has a great ear, and despite his smugness in those old Earth Crisis home videos [laughs], he is a super chill dude–believe it or not! I would say he is very relaxed to work with.
I went to his house to record the vocals and guitar tracks for this new Die Young material. We hung out and killed a lot of time shooting the shit and getting off task. It was a good time. We discussed the vibe we wanted to go for on this record. He asked me, “Are you looking to make this sound like it has the energy of a hardcore band playing live, or super tight?” I said I wanted to sound tight, of course, but not so tight it sounds mechanical. He goes, “Okay, so as tight as Fear Factory or no?” I laughed, as Fear Factory is way too tight and mechanical sounding for Die Young’s vibe.
Obviously, we went for the live hardcore vibe. Scott’s a much more skilled and tighter guitar player than I am, so I was a little worried he’d tear me apart to get better takes when I was laying down the tracks, but he was super open to letting the “human” or imperfect elements stay on tape, and I think a hardcore record has to have that human touch of imperfection to be good.
I also enjoy that I got to record this record with the very dude who wrote the records that got me into hardcore, and that’s still something I smile about. Hearing old Earth Crisis tales of recording albums like Destroy the Machines, Gomorrah’s Season Ends, and Breed the Killers is always a little bonus to working with Scott. I definitely use Earth Crisis albums as reference for tones and mixing, and no one knows those details better than him.
I'm including "Messianic Age" in this interview, so I was curious to get your thoughts on the lyrics. Reading along to the lyric video, religion's history of divisiveness and cruelty is clear. What is your personal experience with religion?
My parents divorced when I was 5. When my parents split, I lived with my mom aside from the weekends or holidays when my dad got me. My mom comes from a southern protestant background, but I would say she’s agnostic. We never went to church unless it was with my grandparents on Christmas or Easter, and I think that was more for them than it was for my mom.
My dad is from a German Catholic family in Ohio, and I think his ideas on religion were a lot more rigid when he was younger. He’s since loosened up later in life, thankfully, but in my teen years we had many disagreements, and I do think those disagreements pushed me more towards atheism or non-conventional views of spirituality, and it pushed me more into the arms of punk/hardcore, too.
I never liked the obedient, authoritarian, or organized aspect of religion as I had experienced it–what I considered the cult-like aspects of it. At this point in my life though, I don’t begrudge anyone for having their own spiritual relationships or practices. There have been many massive social and economic experiments in history which tried to eradicate religion, and it just could never be eradicated. Not only that, but the efforts to eradicate religion were often as anti-humanitarian as religious conquests themselves. In many instances the religious impulse comes back stronger when secular forces try to destroy it, so I believe societies (and people) simply have to find a healthy balance between belief and secularism.
Keeping the religious or spiritual aspects of our lives at a more personal level is what makes pluralistic society possible and ultimately livable. All the parts of the world clinging the most steadfastly to fundamentalist interpretations of religion, and the parts where they are trying to expand the scope of religious rule are the most violent and unstable.
The song “Messianic Age” is about the people who think they have the answer for everyone. These are the most dangerous and destructive people around. But please understand that I am not merely pointing a finger at others. In my younger years, I think I was guilty of believing I had the answers to nearly everything, at least sometimes. Hubris is a symptom of the young and/or immature.
Growing up has taught me some grace and humility, and I can see what the world often needs most is the ability to listen and gain perspective, as well as the will to forgive and let live.
What other topics do you tackle on the Wanted to Believe EP?
As the title of the record suggests, a big theme on the record is belief–not just religious belief, but other types of social beliefs that make up a sort of secular social religion we are born into, like belief in the goodness of our fellow man, and the possible naivete that often goes with that. We like to believe in the year 2025 that the world should be a peaceful place and that people are capable of getting along, but look around…it’s just not the case.
Some of the songs deal with a person or possibly even a culture that has been wounded by another, and they struggle with the disillusionment that comes from the shattering of trust. In both cases, I am portraying someone who becomes a monster because of what was done to them, and even if someone might theoretically be justified in retaliation, it doesn’t make for a pretty picture at all. I think we have a duty, a social responsibility, to do our best not to become monsters when we attempt to rectify the damage that has been done to us, but doing that is usually much easier said than done.
Then some of the other songs, including “Messianic Age,” deal with a person (or again, a culture) that naively believes it is entitled to utopia or recreating the world in their own image, and these songs also explore the arrogant and destructive nature of belief…the hells we make of our lives or the world by having good intentions.
As an elder statesman of the Texas hardcore community, what are your thoughts on the current state of things there?
There’s so much going on in Texas Hardcore right now. It feels like things are on the rise again, and I just feel grateful that the guys and I have been invited to play shows and still be a part of it at this point in our lives. Mike and I also play in the band Will to Live, which is a Texas hardcore band that pre-dates Die Young even. We were going to Will to Live shows and moshing or singing along for close to a decade or more before joining the band.
Will to Live put out a new record a little more than a year ago, and we’ve also been fortunate in that band to get opportunities to keep playing and be embraced by a new generation of hardcore kids. I’ve been shocked when kids approach me at Will to Live shows to ask about Die Young and if we’d ever come back, make more music, or play more shows. It’s happened quite a bit in the last couple years, and I won’t lie, it certainly got me more amped to write some new Die Young material and make things happen.
So now we’re here to ride the wave with this new record. There are so many good bands active right now that we can play with: Liberty and Justice, Bullshit Detector, Realms of Death, Concrete Elite, Born Savage, Virtue, Black Mercy, Soul Exchange, Inner Self, Mugger, Sheer Force, and tons more I am excited to be playing with soon. Gotta love a new dawn!
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Wanted to Believe will be out soon via Immigrant Sun Records (purple/yellow ripple vinyl pre-order) and Dead Truth Recordings (purple/light blue/red splatter pre-order). The tape will be on Coreruption Records (TX) and CD self-released by the band.
The European vinyl pre-order is also live at CoreTex.
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