Question Everything: A Q&A With NO MEN
NO MEN are a booming punk band out of Chicago, IL. With the power of dual drums and a sturdy bass, they’re anything but a boy band. Since they’re not “talkers”, we chatted via email about guitar rock, horror movies, and their new album, Hell Was Full So We Came Back.
photo by Aaron Ehinger
On your website (nofuckingmen.com) you say there’s “no guitar rock allowed”. Could you define guitar rock? Do you feel like guitars are kind of a symbol for butt rock and boys clubs in the music scene?
DB: You answered the first question with the second question! Most definitely. There’s a lot of heavy, noisy music we *almost* love that just has such an aggressively MASCULINE vibe that it’s off-putting. There’s nothing wrong with the guitar, but I get the vibe traditional instrumentation ends up being used...lazily? Why is there the persisting stereotype of a girl bassist and lead male guitarist in these indie punk bands? Question everything!
One of my favorite ways you describe yourselves is “opposite of yes men”. Do you try to make the spaces you play in the opposite of “yes men” too?
DB: To the best of our ability. We’re blessed that there’s so many welcoming and loving individuals involved in the music scene in Chicago that we don’t usually have to worry about bad vibes.
Pursley: I think that kinda happens on it’s own. The people who really *get* us tend to share our mindset.
Seeing you play live is a very visceral experience, in a sense it’s very satisfying. Does NO MEN provide you with a lot of catharsis?
DB: Does catharsis mean sweating a lot? If so, then yes.
Pursley: Oh yes. Love to rock. 10/10 would recommend.
Eric: Without a doubt. And a lot of bloody fingers and broken drumsticks.
You’re a very succinct band lyrically. How do you think you’re able to convey so much emotion instrumentally?
Eric: I think when you strip things down to just drums and bass, your left with a rhythm your mind and body can latch on to easier. The beats demand your attention. Less instrumentation feels less restrictive and allows us to be more creative and emphasize what we are really good at. More noise would only get in the way.
Pursley, you sing “I’ll tell the truth/I always do” on the new single ‘Sucker’. Could you speak a bit more to that line and just the idea of controlling your own narrative in general?
Pursley: To me it’s a taunting request of like “hey buddy i am being truthful, now it’s YOUR TURN”, as to demand accountability. Sometimes you gotta check someone, y’know? You can never truly force anyone to be honest, but who cares really. All you have at the end of the day is your own truth. Keep on truckin’.
Your lyrics are mostly pretty personal, they seem to speak to the same person or at least the same kind of person. Who are you usually talking to (if you’re comfortable answering)?
DB: This may not even be a conscious thing really, but our lyrics may be general so that a lot of people can relate to it. We’re almost never like, “fuck this particular thing!” We want our music to be an ally to whatever your struggle or frustration is. The themes are universal.
Pursley: Yeah I like some room for interpretation. There are definitely *many* things in life that I’m like “i do not like this”, but they are all sort of interchangeable and similar.
At least in your music videos, you confront horror pretty literally with summoning demons on ‘Sucker’ and some horror film homages on ‘Stay Dumb’. Are you pretty drawn to themes from that genre?
DB: Definitely! A large part of the vision comes from our friend Greg Reigh, who wrote and directed those videos, and is very into Dario Argento and the like. Mandy was also a big influence recently. We just honestly love metal and Black Sabbath and motorcycles and shit so much.
Pursley: Hell yes, big horror fans over here. Greg is a visionary and always comes through with some killer ideas. Literally.
You have a new LP Hell Was Full So We Came Back out this Friday, and I read that your first LP was recorded in only two days. What was the recording process like this time around?
DB: Spread out over a much longer period of time, about a year from the first day we laid down some tracks in the studio to the end of mixing, in bits and pieces. The oldest song that made it on this album was written in probably like early 2017, and the most recently written one was from like, this May. We do all the basic tracks live, so it hardly takes us any time to actually physically “record”, but then we had several sessions with our good friend Doug Malone, who recorded us at his studio JAMDEK, tweaking the sounds and trying crazy effects and overdubbing stuff. In hindsight we may have spent a lot of time on parts that ended up not mattering - the things we like most about these recordings came about somewhat accidentally, organically. Doug really helped us keep tracks stripped down and to the point when we needed it.
Is the album title indicative of what the band has been through in the past three years since your first LP?
DB: Let’s just say we’ve all been through a lot in these last three years in America.
Pursley: Goddamn right.
photo by Aaron Ehinger