Distant: Pushing The Boundaries
It’s no secret that last year LORNA SHORE brought huge attention to the deathcore scene with their latest album, Pain Remains, arguably, however, one of the greatest gems gifted to us by Will Ramos was his love for a certain five-piece downtempo deathcore collective hailing from the lands of both The Netherlands and Slovakia, a certain band that goes by DISTANT. It’s insane to think they’ve played well over sixty shows alongside the aforementioned; both feeling synonymous with one another and we were briefly teased that this certainly isn’t the end of this lucky streak between the two. Speaking of luck, we were able to catch up for a chat with Elmer Maurits; the bassist and business-brain behind DISTANT, to discuss all things Heritage, DIY Culture & what the horizon holds for them.
Whilst they’ve been around in the scene for almost a decade – albeit, two years short of such a title – they have been causing a storm, fast tracking their way to become something of a hot topic in recent months with their pulverising album, Heritage.
Elmer briefly clarified that the reception for Heritage had been nothing short of “amazing responses. It’s been a while since we started recording and releasing the singles; we dropped such a diverse range. It built up the anticipation and expectations for the album,” and for those of us who felt a very distinguishable DOOM influence would be right in thinking that as he briefly mentioned, “that’s one of the biggest inspirations for this. We really love DOOM. We worked through ideas to see how we could match the aesthetics and music with DOOM and you can notice it,” (at this rate we need to give Mick Gordon his flowers).
Since the release of Heritage, Argent Justice seems to have caused quite a stir with its bold decision to include sixteen guest features – all of which DISTANT have shared stages with at some point in their career. They wanted to create a sense of unity despite the entire world being thrust into a state of delusion and panic, caged inside their own homes, for some a blessing, a chance to reset and re-evaluate their existence and others? An absolute horrid nightmare, facing their demons, their unhealthy coping mechanisms and the one thing that brings them unimaginable joy being taken away albeit the introduction of livestreams was a stroke of genius. It brought communities together from across the world in favour of their favourite bands and artists.
Though what originally began with Argent Debt (Aeons of Oblivion) featuring five guest vocalists, receiving praise by those whose ears graced the song and the band finding joy in bringing unity from across states soon turned into “OK on the next album we need to do something similar to this” and thus Argent Justice was born. Elmer stated that the band’s vision for the song was “to have sections in which these guest vocalists appear to be recognisable with their own style of music. We had to write sixteen parts that were perfectly matched with their vocalists, still giving it that DISTANT flavour whilst making it one track; not just sixteen random parts glued together. This track had half of the attention of the whole album because we put so much time and effort into making it one complete track. It actually sounds like a song and not featuring random cut and pastes which we’ve noticed some other people doing and we didn’t want to go down that route.”
It doesn’t go without mention that whilst this year seems to have been a wild ride in the best way possible, a brief scroll through their socials and you can see a bunch of dudes living their best life and soaking up every last drop of the reality that is their life, it has come with it’s changes as they dropped from their previous label and followed suit in exploring ways that they can have more independence and control of their own music and input in their strategies. “We do everything ourselves. Of course we have a record label and we have a manager; but they’re there to support and collaborate with us but all the ideas, the things that happen behind the scenes are mostly credited to ourselves. That’ll be the DISTANT and creative aspects that’re in our hands.” Between the lore, the music videos, expanding their horizons as producers, and their general presence; it’s a breath of fresh air seeing more bands get involved in all aspects of their bands, whether they are completely new to it or not, seeing so much potential and growth in what makes the underground exciting and appealing. There’s no major corporations milking the money cow, it’s just hardworking, passionate individuals ready for a taste of success and satisfaction.
Elmer even went as far as to divulge into how his management and business approach has been influenced by other bands he’s toured alongside. “every band we’ve toured with we learnt something from them, incorporated it in our own music, style of management and grew from it.” And in light of this he has even announced plans to release a management course specifically tailored to his style of management with DISTANT, allowing others to follow suit and gain the insight and perspective needed to push their own musical careers forward.
Close to wrapping up we couldn’t keep ourselves from the important question of ‘what’s next?’ With a fully booked schedule for DISTANT, they’re currently hard at work on the lore that’s set to be released as a companion alongside the album, whilst writing some new tracks post release and have some more exciting announcements remaining but a mystery for the foreseeable (though we’ve heard their collaborative streak with LORNA SHORE is far from over). In the meantime we can tell you they’ve announced a tour across the pond in May; though the nerves seem to be digging in Elmer’s heels. “It’s insane that we can now go out on such a big headline tour for the first time. It’s quite scary for us, we’ve been supporting a lot of bands in the past and the pressure was more on them whereas now the weight is on our shoulders and we have to carry this tour.”
Though we’re sire that both ourselves, and the hundreds upon thousands of fans, can agree that DISTANT have nothing to fear and will bring their reign of terror and prove why they are headline worthy, especially if Heritage has anything to say about it.
Heritage is out now via Century Media Records.
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