Good afternoon kiddies I have a little interview here for you to read that I did with Christopher Ahkao frontman for the Brooklyn band Disparager. Today we talked about some things that well why don’t you look and see what we chatted about…..

EE: Good Afternoon how are you? Thanks again for taking the time to call and chat with us.

CA: no problem thanks for having me.

EE: So growing up what were your musical influences? What was your favorite?

CA: Growing I guess uh, oh wow, and when you hear this question its like woah. but all of us like Deftones and we bonded over the, its just like heavy and a lot of clean singing you know really big thick walled sound a lot of screaming and then shortly after that a lot of popular bands I guess, whatever bands that would get me going to shows, mostly heavy progressive music, and after I started going to shows I got turned on to the hardcore scene I guess, and then from there it was just metal.

EE: Speaking of live shows what was your first concert? The one that made you want to be up there on stage?

CA: that was definitely a Deftones show, I believe it was Deftones, Incubus and Taproot back in 2000 when they were touring White Pony. The singer came out into the crowd and was standing on people’s shoulders. They threw him around 

EE: What Do you listen to today?

CA: Umm one of my favorite artists today is Frank Turner, definitely really cool,

CA: Have you ever heard of Gaslight Anthem 

EE: Yes I have.

CA: it’s like Europe’s response to gaslight anthem and its like Frank Turner and he is really good, that just him in a nutshell. He is just a genius singer and songwriter and I really like what he has been up too! 

EE: So being from Brooklyn how did you four meet?

CA: That first EP was kind of the result of me going through a break up, I was like engaged and a completely different persona then that fell apart and I was like FUCK THIS and turned to music. Then I demoed those songs and put them up on a private link and pretty much met those guys on Craig’s List. I was hoping those demos would attract the right people that were serious about music and serious about metal. Then after meeting a bunch of different people these guys were the ones that were most interested, and they are honestly amazing, and I couldn’t be happier….

EE: What made you decide to become a band? And get into the music industry?

CA: I think we all just really wanted to play metal, and that EP from 2014 really might have been the best thing available at the time for everyone, for me it was a spiritual endeavor or a Therapeutic endeavor and for them they were bandless and it was inevitable that we met. 

EE: In 2 days your first LP Existential Dread is released. how are you feeling at this moment?

CA: IM FEELING GREAT, I cant wait to get it out there on one hand its like a long little check list to get out and done without help from a label doing it completely ourselves. So to have it out and have that burden lifted. But also when it comes down to the music its nice to put something out that we are really proud of and see the people identify with it  and see how far we can take this thing. 

EE: What is your favorite song on the album?

CA: Ah! I would say my favorite song is Bring me to Bellevue I believe it is track 5. It wasn’t apart of the single that we selected because someone struck a nerve and said it builds to slow and you want the single to blast them rite in the face. 

EE: How hard was this to do independently?

CA: It was actually really hard, like we recorded this record back in 2016 and then we booked a few tours and we were you know when you out on these tours your out there doing it meeting a bunch of different people and behind the scenes we were pitching to different labels. We were hoping that they would see our press kits and come back and say wow this band has done so much on there own and they would be a good prospect for us but no, you know the music industry, so I don’t know! It honestly just all boils down to time and money.

EE: Are you happy with the outcome?

CA: Yes! I believe we are all pretty happy. 

EE: So is there anything you want to say to your fans? Any advice you want to give?

CA: I guess, this record at times is incredibly dark, its about like anguish depression and its also like a perseverance story, I mean for me it just feels good. When I am screaming my head off on stage. It releases endorphins and it feels good. But I would say when someone is like the end of their rope or if they are feeling like they have no sense of self anymore and life is so overwhelming. In whatever way I would encourage to find something positive if it means listening to your favorite album. Music can help it helps me. 

EE:Thanks again for your time and I appreciate the call, whenever you are on the west coast I would love to sit down and chat and maybe get some snap shots of you guys playing live! 

CA: My pleasure.. that would be cool.

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Anthony Bernardi

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