logo Dischord (CAN)

Biography : Dischord (CAN)

The Roots of Dischord started in the ashes of my old cover band called Freedom Militia. In the summer of 2003 we formed Freedom Militia to cover our favorite acts such as Metallica, Slayer, Iced Earth, Megadeth and so on… we were based in the small town of St-Leonard where the drummer and bass player resided. I was living in Grand Falls and the singer and other guitar player lived in Edmundston so we had to travel a bit just to practice together.

Come Fall of that year, the singer and I moved to Moncton. I was majoring in Social Science and I had to do my 4th year of university in Moncton since the course wasn’t given in Edmundston. Adam, the singer, found himself a job at a call center. So we were 2 in Moncton and the other 3 were still back in Grand Falls/Edmundston. So for band practice Adam and I went up every two weekends to practice with the others. That’s a 7 hour drive back and forth for a fuckin’ band practice…. We had 3 bar shows that year playing the Edmunston/Moncton campus’ pubs but by the end of the year I was literally broke for travelling back and forth so much…. so I got myself a job at La Guitare. Instead of returning to Grand Falls at the end of the semester I decided to stay in Moncton and to continue teaching guitar. That’s when I quit the band and that’s when the band broke up. I decided to form myself an original act that would be more extreme than what we were covering…

Joel St-Amand has been one of my best friends for as long as I care to remember. He had also moved in Moncton in the Fall of 2003 and eventually we got his drum kit up here as well. I was living in a house with a few buddies and they didn’t mind that we jammed in the basement. Joel and I had been jamming on and off together for like 5-6 years then, played numerous outdoor parties in the potato fields, had our share of drunken jam nights in clubs and we were well familiar with our Black Sabbath, Sepultura and Slayer repertoire. We always tried to get a full lineup up back in high school and during summer breaks of university/college but had never succeded in finding the right people… after all, Grand Falls sucks. So after I quit Freedom Militia, the natural move was to ask Joel if he wanted to try again to get a full lineup.

I met Mathieu Leger at La Guitare when I started to work there in the Spring of 2004. Crazy Quebecker bass player dude. After getting to know him I told him about the band I was starting and he immediately agreed to join up. Jean-Francois Moreau we met through mutual friends and he was definitely up for playing rhythm guitar. At first, just to develop ourselves a style and a direction we agreed to learn a bunch of covers. I remember that we played Shortest Straw, Eye of the Beholder, Seasons in the Abyss, Desperate Cry and some Death of course. We had a couple of different singers trying out… we finally settled with Frank Landry. So that was the first official Dischord lineup in the Fall of 2004.

In January of 2005, we recorded a 3 track demo at La Guitare, Engineered by David Olenburger. This demo was never for sale since it only featured covers, it’s purpose to introduce the band to the local scene and to get some shows. A friend of Matt, by the name of Casey Shalala, attended our recording process. I had seen Casey before when his band Brandon St. Massacre opened for The End but I was never formally introduced to him before that day. He was the guy responsible to post our mp3’s on such sites as Monctonlocals and MaritimeMetal.
Our first show was the Monctonlocals Birthday Bash 2 in February of that year. We were the opening act and if I remember the set list correctly it went: Crystal Mountain, Territory, Necrophiliac and Empty Words. Mathieu had announced shortly before our show that he had to leave the band due to other engagements but he still played the show.

Bassless, we looked around for some options but Crotte (Kevin Poitras), who was playing bass in Freedom Militia before, was a kick ass bass player and that’s who we wanted. One problem: he was living in Grand Falls…. When we got a of hold of him, he wanted to join the band instantly and we made arrangements that he could move in with Joel. On the 5th of May was our second show, and the first time we played an original: Dysfunctional Conformity. It wasn’t the first time that song was played live since I had wrote it a year before in Freedom Militia (being the only original we ever played live with that band).

When Summer came, Frank had finished college and he was heading back home in Campbelton. We were all bummed because things were going well but we didn’t know any other singers around… So I said fuck it and stepped up to the plate. May 23rd, my 23rd birthday, on a night of full moon, no word of a lie, that’s where I decided to be lead singer. And that’s when Kevin quit the band haha. He wanted to get a singer like Seether he said. Joel and I had a good laugh on that one but we were pissed after all the effort we went through to get that fucker in the band. And Joel was still stuck with him cause they were living together! Crotte, if your reading this, I still like you buddy, water under the bridge.

So for the summer, Joel, JF and I practiced as a 3 piece working on Nukeface and by the end of the summer, my co-worker Casey suggested us a bass player by the name of Matt Maillet. Matt played a few gigs with Brandon St. Massacre but got replace by Mathieu Leger. He’s a funny guy that KC but we took what we could get.

During the Fall of that year, Joel moved in an apartment with his girlfriend, so that meant no more house to rehearse in. And I had just moved in a house of 6-7 people… and it was impossible to rehearse there. And JF was living in an apartment. So we had no choice but to get a room at Brandon St, being the only rehearsal spot in town. But JF refused to pay rent for the jam room and he didn’t like that we were starting to focus more on originals and less on covers so out he went and in comes Patrick Boudreau.

I may be wrong, but I recall Pat wanting to play for Dischord during a time when JF was maybe moving out of Moncton to join the army ( Spring of 04?). But he didn’t get accepted and we opted to keep him rather than have another lineup change. So now that JF was out of the picture the opportunity was perfect to contact Pat again. Our phone conversation went something like: “Hey Pat, were opening for Behemoth in St-John in like a month, are you in?>”

In February of 2006, Joel, Pat, Matt Maillet and I, that was the lineup that recorded our first official demo with Pat’s cousin Phil Boudreau as engineer. I remember calling in sick at work a day or two before the recording so that I could write the solo to Treblenka. I was always the procrastinator in university….

On March 16th we semi-released the demo when we opened for Rammer at the Paramount. I say semi-released because I was talking with a label rep of Great White North Records to re-record the demo, add more tracks and have the label release it as an EP. So knowing that, we cut production/promotion on the demo we had. A couple of months down the road, the label closed it’s door. Why? No room to go into details here, but it’s a classic story in the maritime metal lore.

In late Spring, Casey’s band Brandon St. lost their drummer Nick. He did what a lot of maritimers do, and moved out West… So Casey approached me and asked if he could join Dischord on bass. Now, Matt was a cool cat and all but even my roommates, who were definitely not into metal, thought that he had such a “charismatic” presence on stage. Needless to say, Matt didn’t fit in too much so we decided to tell him after the June 2nd show. We were playing at the Manhattan opening up for a Slayer tribute and the after party was at my place and ouch!… what a fuckin night. Without going in details of the booze, scars, drugs and church (yes, church), Matt found out at the party that he was being kicked out… shitty. One of my co-workers was at the party and I asked him if he had seen Kc. He said : ” No I haven’t, but you know Casey he’s probably home practicing for his audition for you guys!” Matt was right beside him and I was like: Fuck! And then I turn to Joel only to notice that he was taking off. Brilliant timing. FUCK. So I was left alone with Matt, in the middle of all the drunken carnage, to tell him why he was out.

So Kc joined on bass and we played a shit load of shows with that lineup. The biggest being NB Rocks, the 4th annual Undergrowth show in Halifax, Misery Index/Neuraxis, Skinless in St-John, etc. A funny incident was our first time in Halifax. I believe it was on a Wednesday night and the cops were called several times during our set because we were too loud. The venue was on the 3rd floor of a shopping mall and it’s probably some people who lived in the nearby apartments who called the cops. When the second band, Covenance, played, they got shut down. Haha, that’s the only time where we were very happy to play first.

In January 2007, Pat was asked to leave the band right before we started recording our first album. He was more focus more on his solo project Less of a Servant and his playing and mindset wasn’t up too par anymore with Dischord. We had in mind for Casey to replace him on guitars, since he no longer wanted to play bass anymore. After all his main instrument is the guitar. For awhile the band was a 3 piece and we played two shows that way, our first all ages show at the Lion’s Club and the other with Martyr. The recording of Siege of Darkness took place during the Spring of 2007. I handled all guitar duties, except for two lead breaks in AK-47 that KC did. After the recording was done, KC did the switch from bass to the guitar, and Matt Young joined us on bass. Right after our cd was released Diminished Fifth Records signed us on to their label. We kept ourselves busy with shows and songwriting right until the middle of Summer when Joel announced he was leaving. The announcement was made right before we were going on tour. It was too much pressure for him and he didn’t have enough time to commit fully to the band anymore. So we went on hiatus for several months.

Christian Doiron started working at La Guitare a month or so before Joel left the band, and he always wanted to play for Dischord. But the problem was that he didn’t own a drum kit. In December of that year he finally got a kit and we went into rehearsals and in March 2009 we had our first show with him at the all ages MIME Fest. Shortly after this he quit on us for personal reasons. We then hired Mike the Machine for two shows in one night on May 23rd. Shortly after we re-instated Christian (much to our dismay) only to have him quit on us again after the Halloween (2008) non-show fiasco.

In early 2009 Mike (Michel) Mallais joined us on condition that he be a full time member of the band and not a drummer for hire. Norm Robichaud assumed the mantle of lead vocalist. After a couple of shows, Mike decided to be a drummer for hire with Dischord. After a band meeting we all agreed that it wasn’t the best direction for us to have musicians for hire in the band. Why would one member be paid more than the others? How do you think you can make make money while playing in an extreme metal band? Conflict of interest, values and vision. Whatever… a bit later, Casey and Matt quit the band due to personal reasons and later on started a new project with Mike.

Fuck it. Play metal or die !!
Norm and I forged ahead and recruited Gibbs on drums, my cousin Sylvain on guitar and Jimmy Hamilton on bass. With rejuvenated blood in the band, I feel this is the strongest lineup the band ever had and to all of those who oppose us, fuck you all, we are Dischord.

Source : http://dischord.ca/bios/the-biography-of-dischord