There are some things that just make sense. Those things you hear or say and it ends with “of course.” Peanut butter and jelly. Cops and high rates of domestic abuse. A guitar and drums. Doom Beach is a powerful two piece that makes a room feel like there’s 5 instruments crashing into you like an ocean wave, and it just makes sense when you hear it. Connecticut’s dynamic duo have been doing this since 2017/2018, and every release is a new way to hone in on that feeling I get when my blood is so boiled I can feel myself sweating from pure anger. I caught up with guitarist/vocalist, James, to talk about all things that make sense.
It’s been a little over a year since we last talked, and you two are gearing up for a tour and doing a split. I love the way Doom Beach works, silence for a short period then going off like a bomb with a lot at once.
What’s new since last April? How was the album and split response?
Life is a big mallet that crushes slowly. We’ve been good though. Mostly dealing with real life stuff. One of us moved out of the house and practice space we’ve used for the past five years, so we were navigating the move and finding a new space to practice and store all our giant gear. In the meantime though, the reception for Burden and our split with chop chop chop chop chop chop chop has been awesome. It felt good to put both of those out last year and tour on them a little bit.
The Doom Beach/Tina Fey tour came through beautiful Akron, OH and I had a great time. How was the rest of that tour?
Tour with Tina Fey was amazing. Got to visit a ton of dope places, and also Akron. We’ve been buddies with the folks in Tina Fey forever, and usually only see them once or twice a year, so we were stoked to hit the road with them for 10 days. Made it all the way out to Kansas City and met the homie Bobby who heads The Ghost is Clear Records, ate a lot of gas station food, saw that big arch in St. Louis. It was a dream come true.
Tell us about this new split
This new split is with A Monolithic Dome and it came together in about 4 months time. We hit up Bill from AMD at the end of December to see if they wanted to play some dates with us and then the response we got back was “yes! Let’s do a split to support the dates too!!”
We hadn’t actually written any new songs since early 2023, so it was risky committing to release. We work well under pressure though, so we set the April deadline and tried to lock in. These two songs came together smoothly within a few weeks in January and February and by March they were recorded and mixed at our practice space.
What was the basis of these new songs for you two?
These two songs are an attempt at trying new things while borrowing some old ideas we’ve had forever. Mostly they’re about feeling like shit. We’ve always been trying to strike a balance between noise sections and more straightforward riffs, and this split comes close.
How did you link up with A Monolithic Dome?
Bill, Alice, and Conner have been on our radar for awhile now ever since we saw Elizabeth Colour Wheel play New Haven like 6 or 7 years ago. That show blew us away, AND it was free. Amazing. Unbelievable. It’s actually a funny story on how we got on their radar. Seth Manchester, the recording engineer that worked on our last album, ended up showing them some songs from Burden. So thanks to Seth for forcing it all together. After all that we managed to catch AMD at a show and they completely blew us away. We punished them after their set and we’ve been best buds ever since.
I noticed your tour is skipping Akron. Is that a personal thing?
It’s extremely personal. Fuck Akron, and fuck LeBron James. We’d be open to discussing a two-week Kling Thing residency though.
With all these years under your belt as a two piece, has it ever come up to change things? Is a two piece that powerful?
The number one piece of feedback we got when we first started playing shows was “you guys are sick, you should get a bass player” and I think we just felt like, fuck you, you know? In the beginning we stuck it out as a two piece out of spite, but it became natural and we started leaning into it. It does come up every time we begin writing again though, because writing without a bass sucks.
You have to sacrifice a lot, and there are a ton of guitar ideas we’ve tried that don’t work well without the support of a bass. We’ve both considered messing around with electronics but it would take a lot more coordination and maybe take away a lot of freedom. The greatest strength of being a two-piece is only having to navigate two sets of opinions and practice schedules.
What bands do you want to turn Cinepunx readers onto?
Space Camp
Tina Fey
Elizabeth Colour Wheel
Rong
Fred Cracklin
Pulsr
The Knife Kickers
A Paramount, A Love Supreme
Splattered Spine
Trophy Hunt
Malevich
Jimmy Montague
Eunoia
Fed Ash
New Forms
Rear Window
Nuvolascura
Intercourse
As always, last word is yours
Everybody dies.
Doom Beach can be found here
