💖 DRY SOCKET DISCUSSES MENTAL HEALTH IN THE HARDCORE SCENE 💖

💖 Where did the name DRY SOCKET come from?/How did you set up?

Dani (Vocals): Dry Socket came about so we could play the music we loved when we were young.

Drew, Geoff & I all grew up on the east coast of the US listening to bands like Tear It Up, Paint it Black & Kill Your Idols. We wanted to play fun & really angry hardcore.

I wish we had a more inspiring origin story for the name. We had about ten names on a list & no one could agree. Drew threw Dry Socket out there as a dark horse & if I am honest, I think everyone just was relieved to say yes to something. Fun fact about our logo though: it’s totally a rip off of the Tear It Up Logo. 

💖 What inspires you to play music?

Dani (Vocals): Playing punk music is where so much of my confidence has come from. I feel like growing up I was scared of my own shadow in many ways, just not an overall confident person in myself. Doing bands is what gave me space to find myself, even if it was just for the 15 minutes of poorly played music where I got to completely let go.

I may not be a scared kid anymore, but playing music continues to be how my brain makes sense of myself & helps me not be too angry as I move through this world. 

Doing bands is what gave me space to find myself, even if it was just for the 15 minutes of poorly played music where I got to completely let go.

💖 You touch on mental health issues such as anxiety & other inner turmoils in many songs of yours such as Damn You, Made, Self Hate Care…ect.

Do you find being in a band/playing better than therapy? 

Dani (Vocals): If playing in a band was better than therapy we would have a lot fewer problematic people in music. Putting emotional words to angry music is not addressing your mental health. You get an outlet, an artistic endeavor to put your feelings on a canvas. It is enough to keep you going, maybe even a way to take deep emotions & dump them so you don’t have to feel them, but it is not actually taking accountability or finding help.

I’m not saying music is not really important both for the artist & for anyone who connects to those songs. Community, feeling like you are not alone, can keep us going. When we emotionally dump into a mic with 200 sweaty people around us it is unlocking something. But not feeling alone does not mean we are addressing the reason why it feels so good to yell. 

When we emotionally dump into a mic with 200 sweaty people around us it is unlocking something.

We have so many artists who are obviously hurting if you are reading the lyrics or music they write. They may take their own lives, or on the other end, become really problematic & destructive to people in the scene as they fester in their trauma. We have seen both sides of that in hardcore & punk. We also have people who are struggling that are reading & connecting to those lyrics. By acting like creating music is therapy, & writing songs with lyrics that say that, we are creating a scene where addressing mental health professionally isn’t prioritized.

That all being said, my PSA: Music is amazing, having people connect to my lyrics does make me feel less alone & I appreciate anyone who supports our music & anger. But if you are connecting to my lyrics, many of which are about depression & grief & struggling, real therapy might be valuable & important for you. Listen to our songs on the car ride home, you will probably need it. 

💖 What’s your favourite song to play live, & why?

Geoff- “Damn You” was always my favorite song to play. It burns through a bunch of sections & styles really quickly & I just like the songs that have heavy endings the best. Dani’s vocals at the end I think combine the words & meaning of the song really well with the feeling it gives off. 

💖 For anyone interested in pedals & equipment, what are your individual setups?

Geoff (Bass): For bass, I was using a Rat pedal into GK Backline 600 amp into a Mesa Powerhouse cab for my bass tone on both recordings. On Shiver, I used a fender j-bass but found a wild Yamaha bass that I used on Cessation.

For guitar, Drew always had his Orange Rockerverb & then we pair it with a Jcm800 & Mesa Dual Rectifier. He had an ACAB pedal that I believe is based off of the Rat circuit. The spacier effects were mostly done using the EHX Canyon Looper/Delay pedal. For Shiver he used a custom build guitar. It had many parts on it that slowly fell apart over time. He upgraded to a Gibson double cut LP junior with Bigsby for Cessation.

💖 What bands are you loving at the moment, & what was the last album you all bought?

Geoff (Bass): Last album I bought was the new Jade Dust album at their release show. It has the Embrace post-hardcore sound, & done really well. Other things that I’ve been listening to a lot lately High Cost, Denial of Life, Slutbomb, & Greyhound. 

💖 You’ve recently released a 7” through Dropping Bombs (North America) & Crew Cuts Records (Europe) earlier this year (available on vinyl & cassettes).

In our understanding, the first title Phantom Pains is calling out white supremacy & fascism. 

What are Red & Shake about?/ What’s the feeling to Cessation?

Dani (vocals): Shake is about my body literally shaking. A few years ago I developed hand tremors that grew into body tremors. The first doctor I saw basically told me “shrug, this is your life now. Here are some meds” & did not dig further as to why. Shake was written when I had no idea what my body was doing & really scared of what it meant. 

Red is kind of a weird song lyrically, Drew & I pieced together lyrics we each wrote that really revolved around our mental spaces at the time. I think for me it delves into my feelings on covid deniers & feeling isolated in isolation.

For Cessation, I feel like I took 3 very different songs lyrically & plopped them together. I was just so mad & each song tapped into a different part of my focus at the moment. Cessation as a name connects to being told to stop looking at the news & Twitter. Stop googling what’s going on with my body. If I don’t know then I won’t worry. Like smoking, I knew it wasn’t the best for me to be exposed to all that information. But also like smoking, it’s hard to quit & is calming while it slowly destroys you. 

💖 When you’re not doing band stuff what do you get up to?

Dani (Vocals): I am a massage therapist & love my work. I also like to rockhound (go looking for gems & minerals), be in nature & hang with my very needy cats. 

Geoff (Bass): I play guitar & bass a ton, am an engineer & play ice hockey. I also enjoy hanging out with my cats. 

💖 What 1 thing could everyone be doing to make the scene a better place?

Dani (Vocals): Wear a mask to shows. We are still in the midst of a pandemic. Anyone who is high risk or protecting someone high risk has disappeared from public life, meaning they have disappeared from the scene or not felt welcome if they wanted to join.

A lot of people who are high risk for covid tend to be people with disabilities. Statistically, they are more likely to have a uterus, be queer &/or be a person of color. We have a white, cis, straight & male-dominated scene. Wearing a mask is putting aside your own privilege in order to make sure all people are welcome, included & safe. Wearing masks is part of the work to create a better, more inclusive scene & world.

I can’t think of anything more punk than wearing a mask to protect the most vulnerable when government officials & corporations are telling you not to.

I can’t think of anything more punk than wearing a mask to protect the most vulnerable when government officials & corporations are telling you not to.

💖 Any bands/homies to recommend?

Jade Dust, Hybrid Forms, Yellfire, Tuning, Heavenbound (from OH), Birth Spasm, In Time, & Level (from Chico). 

💖 What’s next for you lot? (please include links to where we can listen to you)

Dani (Vocals): We have an LP we are wrapping up right now, hopefully, by the spring it will be out. I am really proud of it & excited. We also have a few songs, including a brand new one, coming out on some comps. We are hoping to do another EP & a split this winter as well.

Everything we’ve released & all upcoming releases can be found on our Bandcamp at https://drysocketpdx.bandcamp.com/

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