Since 2009, Population have been making some of the most immersively moody postpunk music out there. Although they hail from the hardcore punk scene’s reclaiming of the roots of postpunk, deathrock, and gothic rock that was kickstarted last decade by bands like The Estranged, the Observers, Deathcharge, and the Spectres, Chicago’s Population have more of a traditionally gothy postpunk sound than many of their contemporaries. There are echoes of bands like Tuxedomoon (early “No Tears”-era), The Wake (the band on Factory Records, not the awful other Wake), The Sound, and, especially in Population’s more recent stuff, the Sisters of Mercy and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.
“I’ve always just thought of us as a punk band,” bassist Benny explains below. “[M]ost of the first wave of Post Punk and Goth bands were comprised of punks. I definitely see a parallel to what is happening in the DIY scene, with this dark brooding sound, and what happened in the early 80’s. I’d rather be lumped in with this scene than some cheesy mall Goth, cyber dark rave, cartoon Goth. […] [W]e are a Punk band playing post punk music.” And vocalist Keelan agrees: “I’ve only ever been a punk as far as I’m concerned, so it’s that or nothing. Genre-wise we’re whatever people think they hear. But when we tour I’m still sleeping on floors – there are no velvet capes swaddling THIS guy. Yet.”
Population’s new LP, Beyond the Pale, is due out any day now on Mass Media Records, home to fellow Chicago dark/postpunk band Cemetery. Below, I interviewed Population about their new LP and the direction their music has taken.
Population at the Empty Bottle. Photo by Erick Jimenez.
Population was interviewed by Oliver in April, 2014.
Oliver: First of all, to get this out of the way, can you give readers the lowdown on when Population started, where you are from, and who all founded the band versus who is in it now?
Benny (bass): We are from Chicago. Swave (Gabe) & I started the band mid-2009. We tinkered around with a Moog and a Korg, trying our hand at a cold wave or minimal wave band, but just couldn’t get it off the ground. It’s something Gabe & I still talk about revisiting. In addition, Gabe and I were still playing in other Punk and Hardcore bands that toured quite a bit. By late 2010 we decided to start a darker sounding punk or new wave band, after all both he and I have always loved new wave, Goth, and industrial music as much as punk and hardcore. However, things did not really start to take form until we invited Julian, Keelan, and Jessica to join the band. After 2 seven inch records and three tours with us, Jessica decided to leave the band to pursue her other project, Split Feet, full time. Jim from Black Math was kind enough to join us last summer (2013), and he wrote and recorded our upcoming LP with us. We couldn’t be happier.
The current line-up is comprised of: Gabe-Guitar, Julian-Drums, Keelan-Vocals, Jim on Keyboards and myself, Benny, on bass.
Keelan (vocals): I think things started way before 2010. It was all sort of predestined. I met Benny over a decade ago. He was in a band in Chicago and I was in a band back in my hometown of Rockford, about an hour west. I’d helped book his band and put them up when they came through town. Soon after I met Gabriel, saw his band play, etc. They had a cool scene going on at the time with Southkore, and I’d make treks into the city for shows. Two things stuck out to me about these guys: I liked their bands and I appreciated how vibrant their scene was at the time, but on a personal level I could really relate to them about music. I mean, they didn’t just talk about hardcore, their knowledge of punk was extensive, and they liked all kinds of ‘other’ music – new wave and goth and so on. They liked Morrissey. Their tastes weren’t one dimensional. So eventually I left my hometown for Chicago, and it wasn’t too long before we were throwing around the idea of starting a post punk band.
Gabe (Guitar): We are from Chicago. We started a little over four years ago. Benny asked me to start a band like the Tubeway Army. After deciding that a two person, minimal synth band was not working out for a very inexperienced pair I returned to my guitar and Benny picked up the bass. Benny brought everyone else in. Jim joined the group last year and here we are.
Jim (Keyboards): I knew the guys from playing gigs with them in my old band Black Math. I joined up last spring.
Julien (Drums): Benny & Gabe wanted to start a post punk band and at the time I didn’t know who Gabe was — only Benny. I was asked later to join. Apparently the drummer they had in mind moved away. (Thanks, Skeletor!) We started working right away on stuff and Benny suggested we get Keelan, who I met at a show once before. And Benny also suggested Jes (original member) play with us. Once we all got over the initial hump of getting used to everyone’s style, we wrote the demo. Through playing shows we met Jim (current member), who played in a great band called Black Math. After we played a few shows together Jim and the other band member became good friends of ours. Once Jes left we asked Jim if he wanted to play with us. After the first practice it just felt right to have him in the band.
Q: What is the new album going to be called, and when will it be out? Where can folks get it (i.e. what label will it be on, websites, etc.)?
Keelan: ‘Beyond The Pale’!
Julien: It’ll be out on Mass media Records based out of Santa Ana, CA.
Q: About your name: It’s a simple and unfortunately a fairly un-Google-able name, like “Part 1.” Type it into Google, etc., and a thousand unrelated results come up. What’s the story behind the name, and why did you choose it? What meaning does it hold?
Keelan: I wish I could say the idea came to me in a dream, that an un-Google-able moniker was a brilliant marketing ploy set on engaging disenfranchised youth, but the reality’s a little more mundane. The guys made fun of me for this back when we were sorting things out, but the truth is I had piles of paper with potential band names scribbled all over, scrap after scrap. Most of which weren’t any good, mind you, but that wasn’t the point – a decent band name is important, especially when you’re starting out. So that’s more or less how I do things: I write down whatever ideas come to me, I sketch, I take notes, and afterwards I sort out the good stuff from the crap. I learned a very long time ago that ideas have to be transcribed as soon as they arise – because all too often they’re irrevocably lost, otherwise. So yeah, the guys laughed at my list, but then we picked a name out of the scraps, decided that it wouldn’t do, and finally settled on ‘Population’. I like how simple and direct it is, and indeed it does hold meaning, at least for me. There’s a population in every city and village on earth, it’s a very non-descript and abstract concept, at least as far as individuality is concerned. It’s a reduction of human persons into census figures: sort of like the capstone to a great existential crisis in that way. What do our minds make of fleeting blurbs on the news or in history books about the manifold “populations who died” – or the increasing lack of resources and space? I’m reminded of Stalin’s remark about the “death of one man [being] a tragedy”, while the “death of millions is a statistic”. So the name’s evocative, I suppose, but oblique. I like that.
Gabe: The name Population was part of a page of possible band name titles Keelan kept in his journal. I liked the word and voted to keep it. I feel it speaks to demographics, history of migration and the necessity of numbers. Yet, I did not come up with it — but that is what it means to me.
Julien: We were having a little trouble getting to a name. At one point we were calling ourselves Red China and stopped after we found out a band in Michigan (I think) had the same name. After that, Keelan compiled a list of names and that one stuck out to me. And I think to everyone else, too. I don’t think we talked about a meaning behind it, but if we ever break up and do a reunion tour in the future we’ll call ourselves RE – POPULATION. Haha!
Population flyer
Q: Has Population ever been confused with Pop. 1280, the band on Sacred Bones that is also sort of in the same scene? Any strange stories about that?
Gabe: We played with Pop. 1280 in Chicago like four years ago. They are a good band and it was a fun show to play as well.
Jim: No.
Benny: Not really. We actually played one of our earlier shows with Pop. 1280 here in Chicago, back in 2010. Nice guys. Good band.
Julien: I don’t think we have. We once played with them in Chicago and I remember liking them a lot. But when we were going to play a show at my house we got billed as “Pollution” on the Pitchfork site. I thought that was funny.
Population flyer
Q: You all are a Chicago band, and I think many people think of you as being in the new “dark punk”/deathrock/postpunk scene that includes bands like Cemetery. And, nationally, I think folks think of Population as belonging to the same broader phenomenon that includes bands like Anasazi, Lost Tribe, Arctic Flowers, Pleasure Leftists, etc. But, sonically, to me, Population actually sound much, MUCH more in the vein of traditonal gothic rock bands — the genre tag of which “trad goth” was created to denote not too long ago — and not quite as punk rock (in sound) as many of the other bands in the scene. I guess what I’d like to ask is, do you consider yourself to be a Goth band, a punk band, something in between — both? Where, in the big scheme of things, do you think Population fits? For a band rooted in the punk subculture you have a much more straightforward dark/goth sound.
Julien: Thanks. I think we are a little bit in between. I mean, I like that we aren’t just playing straight punk songs. I like that we have our slow songs, and fast songs.
Benny: I’ve always just thought of us as a punk band. That’s all I really know (in terms of scene I’m used to playing in). The fact that we are not playing straight forward punk, or hardcore, can be considered a mixed blessing. We have had the chance to play with other bands, some very good bands that we would not have gotten the chance to befriend. However, it also means running into other bands from other scenes that “just don’t get it”. It’s very disheartening to play with bands who genuinely think they will be signed and become the next big thing. Experiences like those reinforce this whole DIY thing to me. So from that perspective, because I have this almost primal urge to play, and because my bullshit detector is always on, I consider us a punk band. But musically, we are consciously trying to do something darker. Were we trying to sound “trad Goth”? No, not at all. If anything, I feel as if we sound very Manchester-meets-Chicago. At least that is what our music sounds like to me.
But it’s interesting and flattering that you pick up on something else. Perhaps you are correct? I certainly do enjoy the “Trad Goth” bands quite a bit. I do feel comfortable being lumped in with the new crop of dark punk/post punk/Goth bands you mentioned because those bands also come from the same DIY punk/hardcore scene we came up in. We all go back quite some time within the punk scene. I’ve personally booked shows for many of these peoples past punk projects. So I feel a strong bond between us, a deep camaraderie. Plus, not to mention, that most of the first wave of Post Punk and Goth bands were comprised of punks. I definitely see a parallel to what is happening in the DIY scene, with this dark brooding sound, and what happened in the early 80’s. I’d rather be lumped in with this scene than some cheesy mall Goth, cyber dark rave, cartoon Goth. To answer your question, we are a Punk band playing post punk music but we definitely don’t just limit ourselves to that sound.
Jim: We draw from all of those things but I think what makes us good is we’re not gonna be in one land or the other, we’re swerving all around. Population has moods more so than genres.
Gabe: I have always brought a somber tone and melody to our music with my guitar playing. I guess I might be guilty for adding this idea you bring up. Additionally, starting out, I had contributed with fiercer writing which almost always speaks to my DIY punk background. I enjoy minimal approaches as well and this combination of ideas form what your hear coming from me.
Keelan: We’re a punk band in what I hope is the truest sense of the word. Most of us grew up in the punk rock scene, and we’re still a part of that community. I guess I subscribe to the old days when TSOL could put out dark music and Christian Death could still be considered a part of the “scene,” sharing members with Adolescents and DI throughout. Our sound’s developed, and I think it’s a good thing – I mean I still love hardcore, but at 33 years old screaming into a mic and shaking my fist just isn’t going to do it for me anymore. I’m still full of anger and disillusionment – of course. It’s just that I don’t want to sound redundant expressing such outrage and fear. And I love this music, I always have. I mean, you get into punk rock when you’re a kid, and bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division – they’re right there with you. It’s all inextricably linked, in the history and the sound. Those bands ARE punk rock, more so than the bands who’ve never learned to expand beyond parodies. It’s like, the first wave – then hardcore – never died – its components just began sounding different. They’re still the same people, just older and more developed. I’m still me, I’ve only ever been a punk as far as I’m concerned, so it’s that or nothing. Genre-wise we’re whatever people think they hear. But when we tour I’m still sleeping on floors – there are no velvet capes swaddling THIS guy. Yet.
Q: I’d like to ask about band influences. Folks listening to you (especially the new album, Beyond the Pale) for the first time might think the influences are bands like Rosetta Stone, Sisters of Mercy, The Mission. Would they be right? The upcoming 2014 LP sounds especially “trad Goth”/80s gothic rock. What influences went into the crafting of your new material?
Julien: Sisters of Mercy definitely, but also Paralisis Permanente, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and Joy Division. I just remember listening to a lot of Minimal Wave & Espasmodicos.
Gabe: Andres Segovia, Liberace, Jaco Pastorius and Keith Moon.
Keelan: Ha! I don’t own albums by any of those bands. I mean, I dig all three, but I’m more influenced by other sounds, the punker or the prettier, in different manners of speaking. I’m definitely a bit averse to the ‘rock heavy’ stuff that bands like Sisters or The Mission propagated. It has its place in our set but I’m partial to the lighter, haunting stuff, which I feel is just more honest – at least to me, personally. Either way I love a good hook, and the electronic sounds of minimal wave and synth pop get their dues also. I think we all connect pretty well on influence – we all enjoy a lot of the same music and we’re always sharing and introducing new stuff to each other. Tour’s fun in that regard, sharing playlists and everything. As far as the work on the new album’s concerned, I think we just wanted to chase whatever was coming out of us. Personally I wanted to expand vocally, to do something different and focused for each and every song, to compliment the music in ways that weren’t obvious. I want these songs to stand up to my own tastes and time, but all the same it’s a development – you can’t plan where things end up.
Benny: I definitely listen to all of the bands you mentioned (I was really into those and similar type of bands in my teens and early 20’s during the early 90’s), but the inspiration for this LP probably came more from bands like Section 25, The Wake (UK), Chameleons, The Sound, etc. If pressed, I may be inclined to say that what you describe as a traditional Goth sound may come from our desire to try and make the LP a bit more menacing, moody and atmospheric. We spent quite some time layering keyboards, guitars samples and vocals. Some of these layers you won’t even notice because we really tried to create soundscapes that would intertwine with the main guitar and keyboard tracks. But we never really set out to record a purely gothic album. We even dissected and desecrated a reggae beat and layered these heavy reverb vocals and keyboards over it. There was no overt effort to try and sound Goth, just dark and brooding, and a desire to capture the moment.
Q: Some people have remarked, in a pretty dismissive way, that the current “trend” in the punk scene towards making gothier projects is just that – some sort of “trend.” with the implication it is a superficial, and not “real,” passing phenomenon. My reply has been that there was “a trend” in punk in the early 80s that included punk bands making faster and more aggressive songs, and this “trend” came to be called “hardcore punk.” So, thank god that “trend” happened among bands, as it produced a lot of timelessly great music. What are your thoughts on a lot of DIY punk bands’ rediscover of the darker forms of punk and postpunk, why it is happening, and what it might herald for the future?
Keelan: “Trend” is a cheap word. Like you said, some folks are dismissive of whatever’s going on at the time, but then that’s always the case. This is just the zeitgeist – we decided to start a band along these lines and suddenly there were dozens of others doing similar stuff aesthetically. It’s magic the way that happens. I mean, I remember living in Madison, Wisconsin right before moving to Chicago, and there was so much crust there. The scene was alright but there wasn’t much variation, most of the punk bands sounded like metal. A band like The Vicious comes through and it was like daylight pouring in! Something familiar in the historical sense, sure, but something different within my current experience at the time. I remember getting the first Spectres singles around then, and I got the same sort of thrill. Here’s a band going right now, I can go see them sometime. I don’t have to dream about some comparable old band from my record collection reforming and charging me buttloads of money for a subpar show. This is ours. Either way one looks at it, this stuff is new. It’s derivative on varying scales, sure, but a lot of these bands have entirely fresh takes on the sound; and I mean, come on – as if hardcore isn’t derivative? Punk needs new fuel from time to time, and this stuff is speaking to a lot of people. Punk is dark. It always has been. I think we’re actually riding on the waves of punk rock’s supreme survival in the digital age. The underground is vast, and the kids know their history. When I was 15 it was REALLY difficult to find records by certain bands, you had to scour dusty record shops or wait months to find out if Dr. Strange actually still had that old Dicks 7” in stock by the time your money order arrived. Punks today have the world at their fingertips, and a kid can find music by almost any band almost immediately, on the internet. The scene isn’t as exclusive as a result, but then it’s a lot less dangerous, too. And people are savvy. I think that punk can actually develop in ways unthinkable before, because the potential inspirations are so manifold. We’ll see.
Jim: A lot of goth came out of the punk scenes from the late 70s and early 80s and then mutated onward. So it’s not necessarily a new trend. The sounds capture a certain angst and longing I think most people feel at one time or another. The sounds and moods just pull people in.
Benny: I’ve had this conversation over and over with many people. Is it a trend? Probably, but why is the complete infiltration of metal into punk acceptable, but a return to dark punk sounds not? Listen, I’ve had to sit through many grind, crust, and metal bands disguised as Punk (many who were not very good), at so many basement and DIY punk shows. So now they will have to sit through our racket. However, to pass this sound off as superficial or derivative is lazy and complete bullshit. It’s ok to not be into this this type of music, but to dismiss it as not punk enough or not authentic is unfair. Even the first wave of Crass type bands had, musically, much in common with dark punk and post punk bands. Have you ever viewed early Discharge footage where Colin looks, almost completely Goth? He dances and moves like he’s fronting The Virgin Prunes! On the other hand, I’m already listening to a bunch of up and coming “Dark Hardcore” and Post Punk bands that are boring and just going through the motions. But that’s to be expected. It happened in the 90’s with the street punk revival, the 2000’s with the straight edge and 80’s hardcore revival, and the early 2000’s D-Beat revival. Some very good bands came out of everyone single one of these revival scenes (Amdi Peterson’s Arme? Gorilla Angreb? Disclose?), but we also got a ton of garbage bands. I’m sure the same will happen with this dark trend.
Nonetheless, I think it was only natural for DIY punks to rediscover this sound. It was ours before it morphed into this bastardized version of modern Goth bands. Moreover, things go in cycles. Even 80’s bands like TSOL gravitated towards a Goth sound eventually. I can’t speak for other people playing or listening to this type of music, but I’m a bit older. I’ve always listened to this kind of music. Before I got into punk or hardcore I was listening to New Wave, Industrial and Goth. Wax Trax had a huge influence on me. I really did not start listening to, or attending DIY shows until my late teens and early 20’s. All through high school I was listening to dark music. I always knew that I would start a band that would play this type of music, but I could never find people within the Punk scene that would be willing to play this type of music with me. I know this will sound like a lie, but I had no clue this sound was going to have some sort of resurgence when Gabe and I started this band. We just wanted to play music we had enjoyed since we were kids. That this sound is getting popular is just a coincidence to us.
Gabe: Siekiera was a Polish hardcore punk band that evolved into a great post-punk band and released “Nowa Aleksandria,” an awesome record I still want on vinyl. A lot of their fans hated them for turning from HxC to post-punk, but they produced an exceptional artifact. Their HxC recordings are really good but that LP, at least for me, will become a record for the ages for Polish punk.
Also, I currently enjoy Belgrado from Barcelona. They are a dark punk band. They look the part, sound the part, and play the part very well. There are many bands out there that have tried or currently are trying to contribute with resurfacing this awesome sub-genre. Yet, you are right that many are part of a trend and most of this trend are not former punk band members or were part of a scene that nurtured the ascension to this sub-genre.
I think it is awesome that it resurfaced and I love to hear what is being played out there. I also feel that like most trends, it will pass in general but being dark, brooding, gloomy, sludgy, etc. is has always been a part of punk rock. It is just labeled differently depending on the way it is being presented. Here we have post-punk, dark punk, after-punk, etc.
Julien: I love that there are bands like this now. I’m always excited when a new band pops up. I don’t know why it’s happening again but I’ll take it.
Population photo by Zack in Vancouver, BC.
Q: Is Population a political band? What political beliefs do you, or the various members, hold? Is this reflected anyway in the music?
Gabe: Does the politics of dancing count?
Benny: I have very strong political opinions. That is one of the things that drew me to DIY punk. However, I do not think that this band is overtly political, or even political for that matter. Even if Keelan is going to write political lyrics, we all agree with him that they should be done in a much more clever way than your typical fuck the police, fuck the state, sloganeering.
Jim: The way we divide labor (booking shows, putting out releases, producing art), the way we relate to each other, the venues we play, helping other bands book shows, all can relate to a personal politic within the band.
Julien: Population is definitely not a political band. I’m pretty sure we are all liberal in a sense. Does it come out in the music? I don’t know. I hope it doesn’t. I mean, we are not trying to do that.
Keelan: I’d say no, not directly, and not as a band. As a lyricist, however, plenty of what I write has social and political overtones, but not in any overt way. At this point in my life, I don’t feel that screaming about my convictions will turn anyone’s tide outside the converted, but I have convictions nonetheless. I spent a lot of my youth indignantly pointing out the minutiae of everything that was wrong with our society and on every level. Nowadays I like to think that I have a well-formed sense of justice. We know what’s right and wrong if we take the time and care enough to look. It’s sort of a waste trying to pigeonhole oneself in what can never be THE complete answer. Honestly, too, I’ve found that many of the diehards are blowhards who’ve embarked on crusades for very self-centered reasons. Whether those crusades are righteous or not seems irrelevant when these same people abandon truth, justice, and good people when it really matters. But yeah, plenty of what I write about can be read as commentary on how fucked up everything is, even if written in an allegorical context. ‘On Rubicon’ is about the endless and possibly fruitless quests we embark on as a species, that things are always better just over the next hill. We’re a work in progress, but in the end we’ve still such a capacity for hate and bigotry. It’s as much a plea for optimism as it is a burning desire to call it quits. ‘City of Dead’ addresses the modern city and how it suffocates us even as it inspires us to hope. And so on. But then some of these songs are about love, or isolation and regret. The thing is, I don’t think any of these issues are mutually exclusive as topical songs go, because they’re all issues indicative of the human experience. I mean, you love because you’re human – but you’re outraged because you give a shit. It’s all rooted in the same place.
Q: I’ve noticed the songs on the new LP are very atmospheric: Echoey vocals, warbly and flangey guitars, tribal drumming, layers of production. Still compelling, but in an outright gloomy and mournful way. A past song of yours, though, like “Waltzing a War,” which is one of my faves, has a clearer, more directly “postpunk” sound. The new stuff is very gothy compared to that. Was that a conscious direction in sound? What led to the sound you have aimed for on the new LP?
Gabe: Somewhere along the line the somber approach took over for the straight forward approach. I did think about making the record more atmospheric but the process to get the record went on longer than expected and that gave for more and more room to add layers to the recording. I think it is very post-punk. It is reflected in the song writing and the way things are tied in. Yet yes, as an aural experience, it does offer pleasures for the headphone user as well.
Benny: Again, I don’t think we are a Goth band at all. But I don’t mind if other people hear something else. The layers of production were definitely intentional. We did intend to try and capture something atmospheric, but the foundation is still the same as what we have always done. I can’t speak for my bandmates, as we all have different experiences. But when I’m writing a song, or my part of the song, I always think about them as soundtracks to my experiences. I grew up in, and live in, a very violent area of the City. There are several factories at the end of my block. I think about these landscapes and experiences and write music to them. That’s what I used as a guide on this LP. Jim joining the band has also changed our sound (for the better in my opinion). Perhaps his synths are adding a darker, moodier element? Whatever it is, it’s not fully intentional.
Jim: The sound is just what happened. Who knows what will happen next?
Julien: I don’t think it was a conscious decision. But we really wanted certain songs to have more of a wall of noise to them or sounding more “epic,” which is a dumb word.
Q: Fave question to ask bands: If you were stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life, and somehow had the means to bring vinyl and make a record player work, what would be the 5 LPs you would choose to have with you for the rest of your life?
Keelan: The Smiths – ‘The Queen Is Dead’ / Adolescents – ‘S/T’ / Siouxsie & The Banshees – ‘Juju’ / Blitz – ‘Complete Blitz Singles Collection’ (A little bit of ‘Voice of a Generation’, a nice chunk of ‘Second Empire Justice’. It’s a two-fer.) / Phil Ochs – ‘I Ain’t Marching Anymore’
Jim: Siouxsie – Hyena; John Fahey – Blind Joe Death; Alice Coltrane – Lord of Lords; Stereolab – Refried Ectoplasm; Velvet Underground – White Light, White Heat
Benny: I absolutely hate this question. Honestly these lists make me tense!!!! How can you possibly choose only 5?!?!?! And how do you choose? Punk, New Wave, Hip Hop, Power Pop, Soul, Jazz? What about 7” records?
Anyway, off the top of my head: The Smiths, The Smiths. Paralisis Permanente, El Acto. Big Boys, Where’s My Towel?/Industry Standards, New Order, Substance and Reagan Youth, Volume 1&2.
Gabe: Right now in my life: Dead Can Dance– Into the Labyrinth, Vicente Fernandez – Personalidad, Screeching Weasel – My Brain Hurts, The Sisters of Mercy – First, Last and Always, G.R.B Demo+7” reissue LP.
Julien: Not in this order but: The Stone Roses, Self titled / Ride, Nowhere / Paralisis Permanente, Los Singles / New Order, Low-Life / Xeno & Oaklander, Sentinelle
Q: Will you all be doing any sort of tour for the upcoming LP? Where can folks go to purchase your stuff?
Jim: Yes.
Benny: Absolutely, we are heading back to East Coast this summer and are looking into Touring Europe next spring. We just came back from a small stint in the Caribbean and may do a trip to Mexico this fall. Our LP will be released on Mass Media Records out of Santa Ana California this summer, and we are in talks with a German label who is interested in doing a Euro release.
Also, we failed to mention that we have a 7” coming out on Nostalgium Directive out of Seattle, this spring. Two unreleased tracks with beautiful packaging that our friend, Asa, at Nostalgium is letting us indulge in.
Gabe: ———————–
Julien: We’ve been talking about a tour which will happen but haven’t hammered the details yet. But we’ll keep everyone posted.
Q: Thank you so much!
Jim: Chitears!
Benny: Thank you, Oliver. Thanks for taking an interest in our little band. It means a lot to me.
POPULATION has a Bandcamp page here.
They also have a Facebook page here.
Related interviews from Oliver Sheppard:
An interview with Chicago deathrock band Cemetery.
An interview with Vancouver dark postpunk band The Spectres.
An interview with Portland’s Bellicose Minds.
