ROBERT: I’ve always had bursts of creativity when dealing with stress. For most of my life, I’ve either been depressed or angry; between people, circumstances, or the state of the world, something heavy’s always happening. Those constants have been my biggest triggers for writing.
THE DARK is a punk band with metallic tendencies from Compton, California. After attempting lineups with more intensive instrumentalists, Robert (guitar) brought the project to long-time friends Gaby (bass) & Irvin (vox) who had honed their skills in other bands through Chuco’s Justice Center, a youth, family, and formerly/currently incarcerated people’s movement and space to challenge America’s addiction to incarceration and race, gender and class discrimination. Corrina (drums) travels from Orange County to practice and record at the same home studio in Compton where everything began and continues to operate. Echoed & anguished vocals reach out across venomous, black, cutting riffs, each track driving you further down the deep end in jolts & waves only their most seasoned listeners can anticipate. Throughout 10 years of playing, the band hasn’t put a single track on major streaming platforms. Contrary to their enigma, THE DARK never set out to destroy the light – they define it. And it’s the fear of THE DARK that casts joy into our shadows...
Music helps me feel like I don’t need to act out. My parents taught me in subtle ways how to be introspective, they were sort of figuring their lives out openly to their kids. It sucks to imagine others having thoughts like mine. But I attribute my survival to the hard work it takes to cope with mental illness, and not falling on escapism for guidance. That all goes hand in hand with wanting to do what you love.
There’s something in me that feels like how these riffs sound. I just see myself as lucky enough to be able to express that on a guitar.
GABY: Robert’s been very trusting with us, as bandmates & close friends. He shares thoughts behind tracks and where he’s coming from mentally. THE DARK can be an outlet for some of us, at least for Irvin too, being our lyricist. But all of us understand the foundation for this project and relate to each other in our own ways.
ROBERT: I definitely wanted a heavier sound than the other projects I’d been in. Metal riffing & strumming was just more dynamically aggressive than what I could find in punk. But I knew I wanted there to be melody in the vocals, and Irvin found a balance that continues to evolve our sound.
We also have a fifth member, the artist who’s done all of our designs since inception – Guillermo Millán. Mémo and I have been friends since we were 15. He was always aware of me struggling back then, so when the time finally came to put out a tape, he was very receptive.
We bonded over all the things we could do and get good at ourselves. I think it was growing up with him and seeing how good of an artist he was that made me want to put everything into being a better musician. He even started learning to play bass, we took photography classes together. Both of us were learning things you could only really do at that age because you had that kind of time and spunk. We were in a mindset where you wanted to learn anything and everything that has to do with punk and letting you f*cking make your art. I think all that time spent helped us create THE DARK this many years later.
GABY: I still haven’t gotten used to the way things are now. COVID had a bigger impact on the scene than I thought, things seem to happen differently now. Having to book a show or tour months to a year plus in advance boggles my brain. We usually plan at the last minute, still on punk time from the early 2000s <haha>. That and how there are a lot of promoters now… I don’t remember that being in the scene when I was really active, especially when I first started. That was something more commercial, I guess. Not in the realm that I was in.
We booked our own shows when we began playing. The group took a hiatus and when we tried to book ourselves like we used to, people would tell us, to our faces, “No. There are promoters for that. Hello? Where’ve you been, are you new to this? And you pay them. They’re the middleman sometimes.” Like, What? What’s happening?
I think it’s cool that THE DARK tries to DIY it still. We try to find spaces and work with their people to just throw a good show. And keep it all ages whenever possible, we’re all big advocates for that. I get really excited and happy when someone really young comes up to us stoked about our set. And even more when it’s a girl that’s like, How do you even play? <Hahaha>. It’s happened to Corrina too.
Change is always going to happen. But when you think of what the roots of punk are, what it should be about – I feel like that’s the scene that shouldn’t change. There should be no masters, nobody above anybody in these spaces. No rules, because there are people who think both commercial and DIY gigs are the real thing. That’s a reality now.
ROBERT: We’ve been a band for 10 years but people don’t really know who we are. And I kinda like that.
The norm these days is to have an Instagram page – you want to get contacted. You want everybody to know your face, your art. For the longest time I felt like we would be too exposed to the world being on social media. I like the idea of people finding out as they do, like there’s a little mystery. It’s something you maybe went through as a kid, the process of finding out. And I mean, Mémo has an Instagram too, but he doesn’t use it to showboat or anything, you know? He’s just working, doing his own thing, humble about his talents. Just super into art and puts his craft out there to let it speak for itself.
We’re not prioritizing opportunities, we’re prioritizing having fun. And doing so within everybody’s time frame, because we all have full-time jobs and separate lives. We’re all a little older and with that comes different responsibilities. The first 5 or 6 years of this band we were super active locally but also thoughtful about picking the shows we played so we could have fun. We’ve gotten lucky enough to get put on a few bigger events: Manic Relapse, Not Dead Yet (Toronto), Desert Destroyer (Arizona)… All of that happened organically. We try to keep mindful of each other and what we do within and beyond the band. Sometimes we turn offers down but I’d like to say yes to every ask when it’s the right time. If we can, we’ll be there. And if we can’t, that’s okay too. I just hope they have good weed wherever we go <haha>.
