The world’s most ingenious and complex ideas never come when huddled around a conference room table, or in front of a whiteboard, or during a six hour zoom with twelve colleagues– each “raising their hand” to speak in turn. These ideas are usually baked while close to a horizontal position, in pursuit of extreme relaxation, and usually with a frosty beverage in hand. In the case of During, it was on a beach in Puerto Rico with Pina Coladas and a few ice cold lagers.

While The Wilful Boys were on a tour of Puerto Rico in February 2020, their drummer Steven Fisher (also Pyrex) crossed paths with an old friend in Cory Plump. The two met when Fisher helped chauffeur AU favorites CUNTZ around the US as part of a tour, crossing paths with Plump’s band, Austin favorites Spray Paint. The pair found a particularly quiet part of the PR beach and proceeded to rehash old memories and catch up over some cold ones, eventually deciding that they wanted to try and collaborate on a band. By this point, Plump had left Austin and Spray Paint behind, but had conveniently moved outside of Fisher’s homebase of NYC to run revered Kingston, NY venue, Tubby’s. The seeds for the evil genius known as During had been planted.

As recording progressed, a truly original approach to collaboration came about: no idea could be refused and every idea had to be built upon. The result was a chess game between the members, which each forging a challenging path for the next and with an eventual third member Jordan Lovelace (Brandy, Pampers), who originally meant to only produce the record but hopped on adding flourishes with synths and other accoutrements. As recording continued, the unique nature of the release not only increased exponentially, so did the number of songs– with an originally planned 7” ballooning into the “Birds of Juneau” b/w “Big Farmer” lathe cut 7” and a debut LP. Now the addition of Matthew Hord (Brandy, Running, Pop 1280) as a live member sweetens the deal, adding another level of versatility and musicality to the trio. “Fisher sent me these drum tracks and I kind of juiced them up and then sent them to Cory, Cory sent them back and asked me if I wanted to do anything on it,” recalls Lovelace about the recording process. “I had all of my synths set up so I just started to lay things down. I didn't really think about it at all, just went with my gut and this is where we landed– which I never could have anticipated from the get go.”

During’s self-titled debut is a pipe bomb of originality, set to detonate and shake the foundation of the tired post-punk sounds of today when it hits via Chunklet on April 28. And while some more obvious influences show across the ten track LP– like DEVO, Sonic Youth and Gang of Four– its strength lies in some of it’s wilder ideas and influences, creating a wholly new approach as yet unseen in the otherwise very tired genre of post-punk. “I've always been super influenced by post punk stuff. The Fall is definitely up there, as well as WIRE and the Urinals, even the Gizmos,” says Fisher emphatically. “The coolest thing about recording this LP was we didn't know what we were gonna end up with, it just sort of came out the way it came out. So while those influences are there because that's where we come from, none of it is totally clear because it’s jumbled up with so many of our other ideas.”

Starting with a dizzying and frantic base, DURING’s sound can best be classified using the hyper-cerebral approach of DEVO, garnished with touches of their more frenetic speedfreak acolytes Minneapolis’ Uranium Club. It’s from there that things drift into territories unseen, with a cold vocal delivery not unlike Mark E Smith, a quirky and free-spirited approach like the Cardiacs, atonal riffing that recalls Sonic Youth, and a mildly funk-focused bed to tether down the madness ala A Certain Ratio or the Contortions. All that comes baked in with the care in songwriting found in the Wipers and nods to favorites like the Adaptors, Urinals and even This Heat. DURING’s debut is boundary-pushing with limitless potential, visionary ideas and a sound that is ten steps ahead of the current legions trying to recreate The Fall and Joy Division.

Despite all of the serious references and the nods to dizzying originality, DURING are quick to point out that this is a fun record at the end of the day. “I'm not really capable of consciously making fun music but I feel like this record is fun, and much more than I knew I was capable of,” chuckles Cory Plump in response to the overall feel of the record. “It’s just sort of upbeat– that may be the testament to the people in the band or it could just be because I’ve never done anything like this musically before, so I really extended myself in a way that I like.”

Grab some headphones and crack open a coldie down by the beach to create the optimal experience for one of the most mind-bending and brilliant records of the year and in recent memory. A record like this doesn’t come around too often, but maybe a listen or two will conjure a few of your own ideas.


Fred Passaro
Creem Magazine