Interview with Septic Bath at Ruba Club

Ryan Harris, Brendan Rider, and Lazarus Magill of Septic Bath

Septic Bath is a noise-punk band local to the South Jersey and Philadelphia music scene. Starting as a two-piece side project with bassist and vocalist Lazarus Magill and drummer Ryan Harris, synth player Brendan Rider was later added to the mix. The band made their official debut last fall with their single, “Pedophile Crucifix,” which is included as the final track on their new EP, Meeting Of The Mounds. This is Septic Bath’s first extended release, and it is only a sneak peek of what’s to come for the band. Blending classic electronic synth sounds with the grittiness of garage and noise punk, the EP is a downright dirty (complimentary) display of the band’s original sound. Constantly striving to make their music nastier, Septic Bath is on a roll, continuing to spread their music to a wider audience. I got to dive a bit deeper with the band and discuss the process of Meeting Of The Mounds and how they continue to maintain their uniqueness.

This interview took place on August 1, 2025

How long was the process of making this EP? I know you guys released “Pedophile Crucifix” back in November of 2024, so how long has this been in the works?

[Laz] Gee whiz. Brendan got us on board that Fooly Cooly thing (FLCL Reanimated) in September [2024], and that was the first song we recorded.

[Ryan] I mean, generally speaking, it's been over a year because the songs that are on [Meeting of the Mounds] we've been playing for a long time. The actual recording process was probably around February or March.

[Brendan] I would say that we started recording in March because we had a time period where we didn't play anything up until basically June. 

[Laz] Oh yeah, that March, April lull. 

[Brendan] So, I’d say the end of March, and then April was when we started recording everything. Laz probably had everything edited about two months ago.

[Laz] Yeah, I think it wrapped up in May. Production wrapped up in May, and I was trying not to leak everything from excitement. Brendan, we should have asked you about the dates because you cracked the whip on us. You were like, “Guys, let’s get to it.”

[Brendan] It was May when we pretty much had our first round done, and then by the end of May, everything was finalized. We were waiting to have a good date to release it though, and we wanted to get the merch, CDs, and artwork going. We probably had everything finished by mid-June. Friday the 13th was when I got the confirmed date for here, and I was like, “Hey, we have August 1st at Ruba Club. Let’s release the same day and celebrate it.”

The cover art has red clouds, and there are two figures -

[Laz] The meeting of the mounds.

Yes! Tell me more. What’s going on there?

[Laz] It's just some art that my “twin” made. He lives in Omaha, and we have the same exact birthday. We have a lot of eerie similarities. I love Dev; he's an excellent guy. I seek out art and artists that fit the sound. I tried out shit and it didn’t work, so I was like, “Dev, can I get some art for this?” He said, “Yeah. Absolutely.”

Did you give full creative direction to him? 

[Laz] It was already done, and he was like, “Do you like this?” Originally, it was two little play figures, so the fact that he had made two grotesque little men fit the title that I already had in mind was excellent. 

Live visuals by Diabolical Enemy AV

You have custom visuals at the show tonight, and back at your single release show, you had a live jiu-jitsu set. What’s the importance of keeping things original and interesting at your shows?

[Brendan] I've definitely been the driving force of all those ends. As someone who's never really been in a band before, prior to this, I've always thought it was important to really give an actual show if you have the avenue to do it. It was always cool to be able to put things on before being in the band, and those were always my creative outputs of being able to do cool shit with cool people. Now that I’m in a band, I can book these places and include these things. I want to make things special and make them monumental for a reason. I think the idea of being bougie and celebratory over something holds more memory when you make a bigger deal out of it. 

I still think about the jiu-jitsu set.

[Laz] Brendan just has a crockpot of such crazy ideas that he’ll just shoot out, and we’re like, “Yeah, dude. Go for it.” We would be playing very standard shows with no crowd if Brendan weren’t with us. What an incredible force this young man is. Every show we’ve played with Brendan has been one for the books. We haven’t had a dud with our boy. 

What do you guys hope people take away from this EP? Is there a message you're trying to send? 

[Laz] I guess when writing music, I don't try to limit myself. I would hope that eventually it would inspire more people to just do whatever the hell they want. I understand being inspired by bands and emulating bands and whatnot, but I think you could be pushed a little further. I think we could just make something gross, nasty, new, and I think that's the main goal as far as I'm concerned. I want to inspire. I want to make people happy with what we make. 

[Ryan] Yeah, I feel similarly. We try to be original, but stick to what we enjoy doing. If it resonates with people, that’s great, but if it doesn’t, we’re still having fun. 

[Laz] It is an audience comes last mentality. When it was just a two-piece project with Ryan and I, we were playing together in another band, and I was like, “Let's start a side project where we just do whatever we want. Let's get nasty. Who cares?” And here we are. 

For this EP specifically, what did the drawing board look like for you guys? 

[Laz] It was originally an album. It was going to be LP number one, but we didn't have synth parts for the rest of the songs. Instead of making the wait last longer and longer, we cut it in half. It was originally four songs, but during recording, we improvised a few more. Needless to say, I'm really excited for the next one. 

When can we expect the next one? Are you allowed to share that information? 

[Laz] I don't know when it'll be out, but we're hoping to record in September.

For each of you, what is your favorite track off the EP? 

[Brendan] That’s a little hard because Meeting Of The Mounds has a wide variety of different things. It really depends on my mood. I know it’s one favorite, but “Static” is it when I want to get the energy flowing. That one hits the hardest in terms of just fucking rocking. In terms of an overall package, “Pedophile Crucifix” really wraps everything together in a nice bow. Then the sort of simple synth stuff like “Erotomania” is also really cool and has more electronics. 

[Laz] I love “Living A Stain.” That one we kind of just threw together before recording a track we already had ready. The more I mixed it, something about it made it my favorite track on there. I listened to it a ton, and it just kept growing on me.

[Ryan] I think my favorite to both listen to and play is “Static.” It just has a lot of energy, and I think it still brings something interesting. There's a bizarre element to it. It's just a good song.

[Laz] Shout out to “Static.” It is a cover from a 2004 Austin synth band called Zom Zoms. I sent it to them recently, and they were very ecstatic about it. We try to keep our covers still our own, you know, sort of the Devo “[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction” mentality. 

Your music is very noisy, very experimental, and very original in its sound. How do you guys keep your creativity flowing when you're writing songs? 

[Laz] Don't listen to music.

[Brendan] Unironically, that’s what Laz does. 

[Laz] I like taking breaks for music. I work on a farm during the day, and even when I'm alone, I don't want stuff in my ears. I don't listen to music. I'll listen to crows. I’ll listen to the wasps flying by my head. I’m not trying to make it seem like listening to music is a bad thing. Sometimes that's what you gotta do, but I avoid genres that are typical to my own. I listen to a lot of Brazilian jazz. I listen to a lot of pioneer synth people. Shout out to Hermeto Pascoal. He's an incredible composer. I love what he does, and I like picking little things from these weird genres and putting them into this noisy crap we make. 

[Brendan] Since I'm still raw with the synth, it's kind of hard for me to input what I have in my head at times when we jam. I'll go to Laz and be like, “Hey, here's something I really like. Maybe we can incorporate eventually.” A lot of my inspiration comes from bands like Powerplant and Big Fun. I'm a really huge Crystal Castles fan, so I love all of their synth, twinkly, little noises. I've always been big into electronic punk. Going back to some of that music now, I pick up things I didn’t hear or catch on to before. I’m like a one-year-old trying to articulate what I want, but I don't know how. I’m like, “Ahhhh,” and they’re like, “Use your words,” but I don't know how. We're getting there though.

[Ryan] A lot of our music happens organically, just through jamming and seeing what happens. Being surrounded by musicians who listen to a lot of music, or who don't listen to a lot of music, just sparks something in me organically. It doesn't require as much thinking as you would initially think.