Interview with Septic Bath at the Brittin Banger

Septic Bath photographed by @hobohead

This interview took place on November 2, 2024

I’m here with Septic Bath. You guys played a great set, if everyone wants to introduce themselves.

[Brendan] Hi, I’m Brendan Rider. I play the synth.

[Ryan] I’m Ryan Harris. I play the drums.

[Laz] I’m Lazarus Magill. I play the bass and sing.

I just want to say, all the bass parts were amazing. Everything was amazing, but I could not stop –

[Laz] Thank you, thank you. I try.

Yeah, of course. I really enjoyed your set. You guys have a very distinct sound in your music; how would you describe it?

[Laz] I guess the title is like - we call it noise-punk or septic-punk, because it just like, I don’t know. It’s gross. We try to keep it nasty.

[Brendan] Yeah, it’s a little – I consider it bastard-sound. One of the main things we’ve discussed in the past is that we want to keep not doing the same genre of punk. We like having a wide variety, so in the future we are trying to incorporate a saxophone and do some more, like, traditional stuff. Sort of putting different sounds into our sounds.

That’s cool! Do any of you play saxophone?

[Ryan] Kind of.

Kind of – what does that mean?

[Ryan] It’s been a while.

You played when you were younger?

[Ryan] Yeah.

[Laz] We’re not looking for a virtuoso or anything.

[Ryan] Yeah. It’ll do.

Poster made by @milkyfuel

Obviously, this is your single release show, what’s your favorite part about playing a show like this? Except for the fact that the cops were here.

[Brendan] Well at least for me, it’s really cool to just see the appreciation of music. You know, something organized bringing a lot of cool people together, there is a lot of cool stuff. I’m a Muay Thai practitioner so my coach is always like, “When can I come to a show?” And I was like, “You know, why don’t we get a Jiu Jitsu set?”

Yes! That was very cool. Never seen before.

[Brendan] It’s fun to be original, and that’s kind of how I feel about music. It’s cool to be able to express with one of my other expressions, but what about you Laz?

[Laz] I mean, it’s just nice that people like what we’re doing.

[Ryan] It’s fun to have friends here, and people that appreciate the music.

How do you guys prepare for a gig?

[Laz] Sometimes we don’t.

I’ve heard that a few times tonight.

[Laz] We try to get at least one or two [rehearsals] per week, or before the show. I guess also practicing in free time. Brendan and I hung out with a drum machine once when Ryan couldn’t make a rehearsal. We’ll just practice like, “Ooh, let’s try and get this on tempo.”

[Ryan] I mean, I like to practice independently with our recordings.

[Brendan] Yeah, I mean at least with me, sometimes you just can’t prepare for it completely. Tonight, we did a cover of “Feel Good Inc.” and that was our actual first run of it together. We all worked on that individually, except Laz and me. I didn’t really know how to walk away for it though. I was supposed to have a couple synth noises in the middle of the first chorus, but I just got enthralled into the act itself. I wasn't able to actually do the things I was practicing, but because I was at least practicing in my head of how I would walk around, I was able to fall back on that option.

Obviously, you guys just released your first single, correct?

[Brendan] Yeah, this is the first single.

Well, I have a couple of questions. I would like to know more about the name. It's “Pedophile Crucifix?”

[Laz] Yes. It is both crucify pedophiles and talking about pedophiles in the church. In the production of it, the lyrics are about how [pedophiles] can be in your family, they can be in your church, they’re online, they’re everywhere. They can look like everyday people.

[Brendan] It’s funny because this one Discord I put the song in, this guy was like, “This picture makes me uncomfortable. The lyrics make me uncomfortable. The band name makes me uncomfortable, but it’s head-banging, so you get a thumbs up.”

Where did you guys get the cover art from? Did one of you draw it?

[Laz] I just took a bunch of stock photos and mashed them together. I was trying to find photographs of pedophiles in history, but all I could get was Jared Fogle’s scalp. You don’t really get side profiles of criminals. Only mugshots. So, I was like whatever we’ll just leave it as the scalp as an easter egg.

Do you guys have any other plans for releasing music that you could share?

[Laz] We are in the process of recording a bunch of stuff. When it’s going to be out, I have no idea. We have to find time to do everything. We are very DIY, so it’s hard.

Nothing wrong with that.

[Brendan] We’re also on the Fooly Cooly Reanimated project. So, it’s like a new animator every 5-10 seconds to recreate an episode. Fooly Cooly has a complete Japanese punk soundtrack. There is a completely remastered album with a lot of big artists. Thankfully, I was able to message the guy who runs it, and they needed something punk-adjacent, so we’re hopping on that project.

That's very cool. That is so cool.

[Brendan] They have almost 100k followers, so it’s going to be a really big release. Some bigger artists on there, and that should be out by the end of the year. So, they say. So, they say. I have access to the special Discord, and he says there's a big announcement.

The special discord doesn't lie. Did you sign an NDA?

[Brendan] No I did not.

So, we're good, we're good.

[Brendan] Exactly, and then even Ginger Root followed the page and talked about maybe even hopping on too. It's a really good opportunity. It's like the second single to be on. Yeah.

Well, I'm happy for you guys. You guys played a really great set. I look forward to listening to more of your music.

Thank you so much.

Septic Bath will be releasing a cover of “Advice” by The Pillows in collaboration with the FLCL Reanimated project. Support Septic Bath through Instagram, all streaming platforms, and by heading to any of their shows.