Joe Casey, frontman for Detroit’s Protomartyr, possesses a modest sing/speak voice that’s as agitated as it is evocative. His singular delivery is complemented by an ominous Post Punk clatter that is as claustrophobic as it is often epic, as if the listener is falling into an all-encompassing vortex of sound and emotion.
Protomartyr’s fourth album, Relatives in Descent, which hits streets Sept. 29, again features taut, mood-altering grooves courtesy of Alex Leonard’s insistent, tribal drumming, Scott Davidson’s nimble bass lines and Greg Ahee’s corrosive guitar, which moves from swirling slabs of noise to righteous riffs, often within the same song. CityBeat recently connected with Casey — reached via cell phone as he was ordering a “No. 2” meal at one of the Detroit area’s many fast food establishments — to discuss the band’s evolution from complete musical novices to one of the most acclaimed acts of its kind.
CityBeat: The first time I saw you guys was at MOTR Pub in Cincinnati. The last time I saw you, which was a little more than a year later, was at the Pitchfork Music Festival. That’s a pretty radical shift in terms of crowd and venue size. How do you approach such different types of crowds and contexts?
Joe Casey: You’d like to say that it doesn’t affect you but it does. I remember at Pitchfork I could see the stage next to us. They had my face on the Jumbotron thing, and that was disconcerting. I think we’re at our best at smaller places, but you don’t really want to say that because then you’ll never play a larger place. If I’m being honest with myself, I think we’re better at nighttime and not during the day, and we’re better (in) slightly smaller confines. It’s not necessarily a stadium sound that we have. (Laughs.) As far as the crowd goes, we were amazed when people we didn’t know came to see us, so anytime there is more than five people, we’re amazed.
CB: From the beginning you guys have had this ominous, tension-laced and atmospheric sound. Where does that come from?
JC: When we started, Greg was the only one who had musical talent. He had played guitar for a while. Alex had played a little bit of drums, but very little. I had never sung in a band before. Scott, I think, had played some guitar but had never played bass before. So we kind of developed our own styles that maybe were at cross-purposes with being in a band and somehow the four of us kind of fit together. That kind of adds tension. And I can say this now after four records — I think Alex is one of the most original drummers around. I think he’s our secret weapon. I’ve heard other drummers talk to him and ask, “What the hell are you doing?” He’s doing something that’s not right but it somehow works. I think that adds to the tension. I think the fact that I have to bark over everything adds tension. I don’t really know how to do a melodic resolve, so there’s no resolving.
CB: The new record seems to employ a slightly crisper sonic approach. What was your goal this time for the production side of things?
JC: The last two were down by Bill Skibbe in Benton Harbor (Mich.), and we were very happy with the outcomes of those, but it’s one of those things where we wanted to try something different and just kind of push ourselves and see if we’re a band that can survive different people recording us. Or is it just one guy can record us and we sound like shit with everyone else? That does happen a lot.
Domino (Records) suggested Sonny (DiPerri), and in my mind I was picturing a very Hollywood producer with gold chains and sunglasses, but he’s a studio rat. He just really is a genius with recording sound. For us it was exciting. You never know working with a producer if it’s going to be terrible, but it ended up being very smooth. Greg had some ideas about what he wanted to put on this record as far as weird new sounds for us, and Sonny was able to capture that for us, so we’re all happy about it.
CB: I’ve read that you never write lyrics prior to the band writing the music, that you kind of mumble to the music until you have actual lyrics. How does that work?
JC: Yeah. This time Greg and Alex worked pretty hard. They took it like a job. They went to the practice space every day and worked a couple hours on drumbeats and sections that Greg would bring in. And then I was able to come in in the afternoons and listen to what they had done. I would mumble over it — I don’t have any prewritten lyrics — and it has to sound where it fits into the music. In our practice space we have a little P.A., but I wouldn’t be able to hear myself anyway because it’s so loud. We record these practices and work out the songs, and then I would go back and listen to them later and say, “Ah, that song gives me this mood and that mumbling I did sounds like these words, or I can force them into sounding like these words.” That’s kind of how the songs are written.
CB: I read a piece the other day where the writer described your appearance as being basically frumpy professor types and how he was surprised by what the band sounded like when you started to play. That said, before seeing you guys live I also had a preconceived idea of what you’d be like based on the music…
JC: When I was young I remember seeing a picture of the band The Cult and being like, “Oh, wow, they look like Native American Punk rockers.” And I listened to the music and I was like, “Huh, what the hell is this?” So, yeah, I know that feeling. It’s funny; I do think that happened to us. People who heard the first couple of albums, if they didn’t know what we looked like, probably imagined us to be like the band Iceage — young guys who looked like sexy vampires. I’ve seen people online who say, “Oh, that band isn’t Post Punk because they don’t look Post Punk.” Like we have to look like people in a German Expressionist film or something.
PROTOMARTYR plays Northside Yacht Club on Sunday. Tickets/more info: northsideyachtclub.com.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 6, 2017.