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Tuesday 23 October 2018

Tashme Interview

Tashme play Vevlet Underground at Not Dead Yet. Photo by Angela Owens
Tashme are a hardcore punk band from Toronto. They're trebly and fast, but with enough crunchy parts to keep the dancers entertained. Their lyrics are angry but thoughtful; evoking a spectrum of political and emotional imagery in a few sharply chosen words. Tashme just dropped a self-titled EP on Bandcamp, and the accompanying 7" will be out soon through High Fashion Industries. I recently spoke with them at local hardcore festival Not Dead Yet about the fest, their new EP, and some other stuff. Enjoy.

You guys wanna introduce yourselves?
Lautaro: I'm Lautaro, I'm the vocalist.
Matt: I'm Matt, I play drums.
Campbell: I'm Campbell, I play bass.
Jackson: I'm Jackson, I play guitar.
You play a twelve string!
Jackson: I play a 12-string. I got it to be a softie. It works out pretty well for the hard stuff too. It thickens it up nice for a four piece. It's hard and fun.
Matt: Rather than having two guitars, we have one with 12 strings.
Jackson: That's the better reason. Yeah. (Laughs)
 So how many years have you guys played Not Dead Yet so far?
Campbell: So with this band, it's been two or three now, but I've played Not Dead Yet every year in different bands, and I think everybody's kind of in the same boat there.
So what's your favourite memory of Not Dead Yet?
Campbell: Shit 
Matt: I've got a good one. So, I think it was the first time I went out to Not Dead Yet, and I would have been about 15 or so? I was taking antidepressants and drinking, and I ended up putting a bunch of pins in my face during Gag. No one was moshing. For some reason the show was like completely empty, there was two other shows happening the same night. By the end of that show, I think a couple a big group of people were heading into that venue saw me, and were like "what the fuck happened to you?" I was like "hey man, it's a punk show". That kind of set off my vibe for Not Dead Yet. 
Campbell: I think in general, kind of what you were saying in terms of us being younger and in high school, us getting to see bands like The Rival Mob, or getting to see Omegas play at Soybomb at three in the morning, were very formative punk experiences. And it's been great the older we get as well, but I think those first few years were like a really big deal for us. Especially playing those years and being on the fest was a really big deal for me when I was like 17. 
Lautaro: In recent memory, my favourite set was Una Bestia Incontralble playing Soybomb at an after party. It was like the craziest thing ever. But I guess Not Dead Yet's best memories are about hanging out with your friends and seeing people that you know from out of town come through, and just hanging. 
You guys just dropped an EP on Bandcamp. Can you speak about the recording process?
Lautaro: Yeah, so we recorded at Boxcar Studio in Hamilton. We just did it in one afternoon, and rushed and played a show in Kitchener that night. 
(Laughter) 
Campbell: I forgot about that!
Lautaro: We had the songs written for a long time, and we just kinda got there and ripped through it really quickly. I think that urgency shows in the sound. I'd hope so anyways.
I know there's rerecorded songs on it, are there new songs too?
Lautaro: The rerecorded songs were songs we released to promote the 7" on a cassette. 
Campbell: We didn't have anything to release for Not Dead Yet last year, so we kinda slapped together a promo tape with three of the songs from the 7" and a Discharge cover, just real quick in Matt's basement. But the plan was always to record those songs properly for the 7". So rerecorded in a sense, but only out of necessity, because we didn't have enough prepared for the year before. 
So the first song on the 7" is a politically charaged song, but it's also a personal matter, I think, for Lautaro, because his family's from Chile. 
Lautaro: Yep.
Can you speak on what the song means from a personal and political standpoint?
Lautaro: Yeah, so basically, the song is about the coup d'etat in Chile, and the dictatorship that lasted after for 15 years. It's about what my parents went through, having been exiled from Chile and growing up there -- where my dad was exiled and my mom grew up there -- and how their traumas impacted my identity. That's the gist of it. It ties into kind of the same thing with the name of the band, Tashme, and Campbell's grandfather being held in the internment camp. 
Thanks for sharing. So you guys are political, those kinds of things impact you. I'd be interested in getting your take on this. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that lawmakers don't have to consult indigenous groups when they're making laws.
Campbell: I was talking about this the other day. Somebody said, "what the fuck is happening?" and it's the same thing that has always been happening. It's unfortunate and it sucks, maybe it's callous of me and maybe I'm jaded. But I don't think it should come as a big surprise. They're doing the same thing they've always been doing, right? Like I think it's a big deal and it's something people need to keep being aware of and pushing against and fighting against. But, the status quo remains the same at the end of the day, and you gotta keep rolling with the punches and pushing back against that kind of thing.
 Cool, alright, thanks a lot guys.
Campbell: Thanks a lot, buddy. 
Lautaro: Thanks.