EMQ with Vocalist Jarret from Destroy My Brains

What is your name, what do you play, and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?

Hey, I’m Jarret, the vocalist and one of the guitarists in the Canadian Doom/Sludge metal band Destroy My Brains, and I’d love to take you on a trip and talk about the band’s history. So we formed as a two-piece recording project originally with Jadan Paluck on drums and me doing the guitars and vocals back around 2014. It wasn’t a serious band or anything at that time, just two guys learning to record and hash out how to write and structure songs. We recorded, I think, about 5 songs before we decided we wanted to actually make a real band out of it and find some other members. So we picked up a guy named Jeremy Seery on bass guitar after trying out a few other fellas, and then the party began. We went hard on drinking and other things for a long time together, and it was fun, but it led to Jeremy being in and out of the band. Jadan and I continued even if Jeremy was there or not and kept writing and recording.
Jeremy was there on our 1st demo album and missed an album and came back on InsignifiCan’t, but during the being in and out, we found another person for bass, Chase Shorter, who replaced him on the low end. Jeremy moved to second guitar on that album and also helped write some of Lifeless, but we ended up actually parting ways with him. After Jeremy was gone, we actually took our practices more seriously, quit drinking (most of the time) at practice, and then we actually started playing live shows. It took us a lot of years to get to that point, so we were all very happy we finally started to get to play our 4 albums’ worth of material for people. We’ve done house parties, dive bars, bush shows, festivals, and met a ton of cool people. We wrote Tormented back as a three-piece band, but we really missed having a second guitar, so Chase moved to second guitar, and we got Rob Hayman, who is actually a drummer, on bass. He works at the music store in our town, so he actually still plays guitars a lot. Rob’s first time recording with us is on this new album Wilt, and he did a killer job on it. That basically brings us up to speed with today.

How did you come up with your band name?

The band name was an idea I had when I was 15 and really diving into drinking, partying, girls, drugs, and other things that were leading me down a bad path in life. I was a metal/punk kid and kind of had the GG attitude from it. A big giant middle finger to the world, and a lack of caring about myself. I felt like drugs and drinking were destroying my mind, and one morning I woke up hungover and was listening to Sepultura’s Chaos AD album, and the band name just came to me. I literally said to myself one day I’m going to have a band called Destroy My Brains and I’m going to make songs about ruining the world. I was right, but it took like another 12 years until I was in my garage smoking weed with Jadan, who I used to jam with, and he said we should start a band. I was like, “Let’s do it,” and he straight away said, “Ok, what should we name it?” I told him I always wanted to have a band called Destroy My Brains, and he was down for it without even another suggestion. That’s basically how it came together.

What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?

We are from a town called Lloydminster, which is a town that is built on the border of 2 Canadian provinces. Alberta and Saskatchewan. There were only two metal bands in Lloydminster, and Rob and I are in both of them, DMB and Ashes of Yggdrasil. But now we have a 3rd band in town called Terrasix. So let’s just say the metal scene in my town isn’t strong. But when we put on shows, we almost always get a good turnout, so there are lots of fans here, which is nice. However, we are very close to Edmonton, Alberta, about two and a half hours away, and they have an amazing metal scene there. So we have a nice big city and are close to go check stuff out and play at.

What is your latest release? 

So our newest release is a full album titled Wilt, and it comes out August 14th. It is our 6th studio effort and is actually part 5 of our last four albums. We had this crazy idea when we were writing one of our oldest albums called Worthless that we would make 4 albums and the 1st letter of each title would end up spelling Wilt. Worthless, InsignifiCan’t, Lifeless, and Tormented. W.I.L.T. We had pre-picked these album names that day way back then, and this latest album is the wrap-up album, Wilt! This album is coming packed with all of our signature sounds and also will have a music video shot by our friends in Shadowscape Pictures for our song Downgrade that comes out on August 5th.

Who have been your greatest influences?

For me, I have a lot of great influences, way too many to name, but the bands Acid Bath, Crowbar, Mudvayne, and Sepultura are for sure the top bands that have influenced me the most, especially when I was younger. Mostly just because I’m a major music fan and I absolutely loved and worshipped those bands. I’ll even tell you exactly what from each band I took most of the influence from. When I was a young guitar player just learning guitar and writing my own stuff, I kind of had a weird style that I would play: I dropped tuning. I would fly up and down the fretboard and use so many bends, and I just had slimy riffs that I didn’t really hear from other bands. I was doing my own thing. But then I discovered Crowbar. Their riffs are obviously so much better than mine, but their style reminded me of the way I played. I was absolutely obsessed with them. Very soon after I discovered Crowbar, I ran into Acid Bath. Mind absolutely blown. Dax’s vocals and song themes had me playing their only two album endlessly on repeat. The weird time signatures and time changes they used just floored me. They were so fucken heavy. Mudvayne was a big band when I was young because I loved how hard Chad would scream. I needed to do that. I do, do that. My voice has paid dearly. And the most important pivotal band for me was Sepultura. I kind of liked heavy music, but really wasn’t into the real hard stuff until the 1st time I heard Sepultura. Igor’s drumming sucked me in so hard. I didn’t care about the riffs. I didn’t care about Max’s screams. I only cared about the drums. His drumming turned me into a full-time metalhead, and led me down the path to everything else. I went deep down the metal rabbit hole after. Also, I like horror movies! (super influence)

What first got you into music?

My dad plays guitar, so I kind of was always around it growing up, and I tried to play his acoustic guitar, but I don’t know what the hell he was doing with the action on his guitar. The strings were like a mile off the fretboard, and I could barely push them down. He would try to teach me, but my hands were too weak, and I sucked. When I was, I think, 14 or 15, my parents got me a beginner’s Fender Squire Combo amp deal for my birthday, and I would play the shit out of it. It sounded like trash, and I both loved and hated it. I always wanted to be a rockstar growing up, so I never gave up on it. I bought a DigiTech Death Metal pedal at a pawn shop one day, and it made that shitty Fender garbage amp scream. It was life-changing for me. Later, a friend of mine showed me how to tune to drop D, and my life was over. I was 100% in. I still play dropped. Haha

 If you could collaborate with a current band or musician, who would it be?

A. That’s an easy one for me. Kirk Windstein (Crowbar). If I could ever get over being rockstar shy with him. You want to hear something kind of funny? I’ve seen Crowbar 3 times and met Kirk 2 times after going to the show, and my friends both times were like Come here, Kirk wants to meet you and both times I could barely say anything at all like a total idiot. I wasn’t cool. That dude is like my god, and I could not talk to my god. But ya, I’d die if I got to make a song with him.

If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?

I really would just like to play on some of the bigger Western Canadian fests like Loud as Hell, or Armstrong Metalfest. That way all our friends could come watch us lay a major sludge beatdown on my metal family. Any time I get to play a festival, it is kind of like the pinnacle for me. I feel like that’s the biggest thing you can do as a band playing live. All the fests around here are great, and they are growing. It’s usually more fun than I can handle, whether I’m playing or just there to experience them. Festival shows are something special.

What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?

I haven’t received a lot of gifts. But we had a girl ask us to sign her butthole… does that count? None of the band members did it though, that’s kind of nasty, but we still appreciated the thought. Oh, and we had a tweaker dude eat his money in front of us instead of buying our merch that I was trying to sell him one time too. Ate a whole handful of plastic Canadian bills. Not a smooth move; I bet he was sorry the next day. He could have had a sick hoodie and some CDs.

If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?

Well, since we are a very dark band and deal in a lot of themes and some of them are of depression, self-harm, and suicide, I would have to tell them that no matter how down you get or how low you think your life is, know that other people have been there before too. Most of everyone in our band has been there, more than once. Don’t keep to yourself; reach out to friends, family, or even us. There really is always someone out there who will help. Especially in the metal community. We all listen to heavy music for a reason, and a lot of us listen to it for dark reasons. Come out to a show and see that there is a whole metal family out there that you might not even know yet that will accept you and be your friend. Don’t hurt yourselves.

If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?

Audie Pitre, the late bass player from Acid Bath. He was killed in a car accident, and after he died the band broke up. His bass lines were so sick, and if he had never been killed by that drunk driver, there would be more than 2 Acid Bath albums. I don’t think I will ever stop thinking about that. I’m still a fan of the surviving member, and I saw a video where Sammy said they had a demo for the 3rd album, but then the accident happened. I hate that so much.

What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?

Mostly all the partying and passing/ blacking out. Just kidding. If I wasn’t a musician, my life wouldn’t be anything. It’s basically everything I am and always have been. It’s all I ever wanted to be. But it has its downsides. At my level of it, you definitely make zero money doing it. Most shows don’t pay enough for the gas or a place to stay. Most merch I end up giving to people or wearing myself. Most albums I make all sit in boxes in my garage. It costs a pile of money! But I do appreciate every single person who has ever come by the merch booth or stopped by my house and wants CDs and shirts and stuff. It’s a cool feeling to go to a show and watch some bands I like, and a bunch of people there are rocking DMB hoodies or AoY shirts (my other band). The coolest part, however, is just jamming out with my brothers in the bands, though, and making songs that I want to hear.

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

Kinda like I just said before, it would be so cool if you could make a real living doing it. It takes up so much time, and people are so passionate about it, and I feel like it is something that is actually so important to people’s lives. Why can’t we make money doing it!? It’s rough.

Name one of your all-time favourite albums?

That is such a hard one. I’m a huge music fan and consumer. I would just have to go with Equilibrium by Crowbar. It has the song that got me into them. I Feel the Burning Sun was the song that turned on a light inside me at a very low and dark time in my life. I was thinking about suicide a lot, and was very deep into drug and alcohol abuse at the time I heard that song. It helped pull me out and get back into playing guitar and writing more. Inspiration can do a lot for a person. Plus, on a happier note, Sammy from Acid Bath played guitar in Crowbar on this album, so it was like mixing my two favorite bands.

What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?

They are all good because they have music on them. None are better… (vinyl sounds best)

What’s the best gig that you have played to date?

With Destroy My Brains, I think our biggest show was headlining a bush party fest called Aggrofest. We played a well-over-an-hour-long set. Maybe even an hour and a half. Chase accidentally got drunk before we played but killed it; my voice blew out so hard, but I kept going and pushed harder to keep it sounding good. I was chugging Jagermeister to try to keep my voice (probably made it worse), and we played so hard we blew the power out. It was so epic. The power got fixed, and we crushed it for another 4 or 5 songs, and then partied our faces off. I think Jadan was actually 100% on a sober kick, though. But it was a fun time.

If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?

I’m not going to lie. I wouldn’t be around. Music has saved me more than once from myself. It’s a grim reality, but it’s true. Sevas Cisum. Do you know what that means?

Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?

Ok. I like where this is going. What can we do that adds the most carnage? GG, Varg V, younger Ozzy Blizzard of Oz days, Keith Moon, and some Karen telling them all to be quiet or she will call the police. Imagine what would happen!

What’s next for the band?

After we are done with the Wilt release, we plan on closing the year out playing some shows, and then it’s going to be straight back to writing new stuff and completing some demos I already have in the works. This is an endless Sludgetrain, and the wheels are going to keep spinning. We are going to hopefully have another release next year, but we will see what happens. DMB is pretty unpredictable.

What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people? Please include any
links

Please follow us on our pages. We try to pump lots of stuff out when we have releases and have news for all our shows and stuff on there.

https://www.facebook.com/DMBdestroymybrains
https://www.instagram.com/destroymybrains/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCChrWTNNEMrdgF9zzP74-Xw
https://destroymybrains.bandcamp.com/

Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll, or a Tea Cake

I’m completely not familiar with very many British words for things, but if I had to guess I’d say all of them. What about a crumpet? What the fuck is a crumpet? I know I’ve heard someone say that before in a British accent. Do I win?

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to say?
Yes! Be sure to check out our video on August 5th for our sludge anthem Downgrade, and dive in deep when the full album Wilt comes out August 14th. It’s our finest work to date, and we want to hear what everyone thinks of it. Keep an eye out for show posters with our logo on them and get your ass down to one of our shows to see what it’s really all about. Thanks for the good interview, and turn it the hell up!