Chico from punk band Demand Less on the group’s songwriting and music concepts.
How’d you guys start playing together?
Cannon and I met back in 2019 and the previous bass player and I had been looking for a drummer so about two days after we met we started practicing
We immediately started playing original music
Tell me about your recent album ‘Micromanage’
Micromanage was really fun to make but it was really hard to record cause we gave ourselves a tight deadline.
I tried telling a story with each song, it’s basically about a kid who grows up feeling like people left him and worthless, so at the end of the album he’s trying to decide weather he should kill himself or go on living a depressed life.
Can you tell me about the “Demand Less” wall fixture [featured on your Instagram]?
The wall had always been there.
Originally we were called ‘The Motive’ but We always thought it would be a cool band name for someone someday. Eventually when we decided to change our name we went with ‘Demand Less.’
How did recording No Subject! compare to recording Micromanage?
Recording no subject was really simple, the previous bass player and I recorded in our homes. Guitars and bass were recorded in his garage and drums were recorded on am electric drum kit.
Vocals were recorded in my bedroom.
Recording Micromanage was similar but this time we went to a studio to record drums. Drums were recorded by Brian Rumsey who co-owns Azimuth Recording Co. [shoutout Brian!]
What’s a good entry point for someone who wants to listen to your music?
I think a good entry point is stating with the first album, we tried to make most of the songs sound like they were recorded in the late 70’s.
How do you guys split songwriting duties?
I write all the lyrics myself and then Michael will come up with some ideas for backup vocals. Cannon comes up with the drums all on his own.
Most memorable gig you’ve ever played?
Definitely has to be the August 19th show we had at Queen Bees, we all played really hard, had a good turnout, got some good recording our bass player had people hyping him up throughout the show, even holding him up afterwards for pictures.
Had a bunch of great bands play and even went with a couple of them to Denny’s afterwards and had a really good time.
Are you guys involved in any other musical projects? Do you have any plans or future ideas you’d like to explore musically?
We are going to a release a new album soon, but other than that I don’t think we have anything else going on.
What’s something you want all your listeners to know?
We’re not exactly sure, we make music for outsiders, people who never really fit in, I guess we want them to know that we understand them and that we’re also outsiders.
We’re not trying to be the next greatest band, we just want to make music that’s relatable whether it’s sad and painful or funny and dumb.