Asylum 213 has evolved from Dylan’s solo project to a dynamic band with a unique sound. In this interview, the group discusses their journey, debut album Malpracticioner, and the stories behind their music.
1. Can
you tell us about the journey from Asylum 213 being a solo project to becoming
a full-fledged band? What prompted the transition?
Dylan: As a young music nerd, I (Dylan) hit a bit of a stand-still, so to
speak, with where I wanted to go musically versus what I was actually
accomplishing in projects I’d been in up to that point. I’d join up with
different bands and they were fun, but I always felt like ideas would be ‘too
heavy’ or ‘too light’ for whichever way they were intending to go stylistically
speaking. It got to a point where, sometime in 2009 and/or 2010, I was writing
stuff that fit more of the style of some of my favorite artists at that time –
Buckethead, Mr. Bungle, Tub Ring, Pinkly Smooth, Faith No More, etc., in that
the sounds and styles we’re getting more and more varied. I’m the type that can
go from listening to something like Modest Mouse, Beth Orton, Steely Dan, or
something like lounge jazz to something more akin to Opeth, Pig Destroyer, or
even Exotic Animal Petting Zoo in the same sitting. So, it only made sense to
kind of try and follow that with what I wanted to write. I never intended
Asylum 213 to perform live, originally, but around 2015 or 2016 when I wasn’t
really doing much with any other bands and had kind of taken a small hiatus
from music in general between 2014-2015, I decided I wanted to give it a try
(with backing tracks). The name went from my very not-great-at-band-names
naming of Altercation (from about early 2009 up to only a month or so later)
and eventually became Asylum, too, up until a really awesome and well-known
grindcore band of the same name from here got tagged by mistake on an event page
for a solo show I played. That’s when it became clear that I needed to heed a
few warnings I’d gotten from friends of something like that happening, and it
was time for a change, so per a friend’s recommendation, I slapped ‘213’ at the
end because that was the apartment number I lived in at the time. That happened
all in about 2016 or so, I only did two shows around then, and didn’t play live
again as the name until about once in 2018 and then A LOT in 2019. Backing
tracks and being a solo performer is fun, but I like being in a band and I
loosely met Dexy, Hunter, and Marvin all around a similar time frame, with
Hunter having been through Dexy’s recommendation. We eventually got together
around August of 2019, played our first shows from September to October, went
on tour with TVLPA (whom Hunter also drums for) in December, and have been a
lovely, dysfunctional family ever since. Well, up until we changed drummers and
got Ben in the band this past year, but, still a lovely dysfunctional family
all the same!
2. The debut album, Malpracticioner, is described as both fun and perilous.
How do you balance those contrasting emotions in your music?
Dylan: Malpracticioner is, in fact, what I’d consider the band’s ‘debut’ album
because it’s the first to feature the full band all across the record as well
as each’s own ideas composed, whereas older records were mostly or all my own
compositions, and that just seems boring when you have 3 other super talented
people in your band that can bring fresh energy to the table. For the album and
dealing with contrasting emotions, I feel like that’s just life in general for
most of us; Every moment we’re alive presents a new kind of juxtaposition of
sorts. You can be having the best day of your life and something extremely
cruel can still just happen to you out of nowhere and totally change that. Art
imitates life, as they say, and art is an extension of the artist for sure, so
every intense feeling and how it affects me (as well as the rest of my band I’m
sure), and just whatever events that impact us enough to where we feel we’ve
got something to say about it – it all translates into what we create. People
typically use creative avenues to help endure the various life experiences and
feelings they encounter. While you don’t need anything too fancy to say what
you need to say, sometimes it doesn’t just fit into one particular mood or
sound, and calls for an adventuring of sorts for what properly expresses what
we have to say, no matter how sporadic that may be. I think the music we create
often ends up mirroring that.
3. Dylan, as the mind behind Asylum 213, what was it like sharing your
vision with the rest of the band? How did Marvin, Dexy, and Benjamin influence
the sound of the album?
Dylan: Getting to finally turn Asylum 213 into a full band was one of the
coolest things ever for me. I genuinely never expected this to leave my bedroom
or go past the fairly low-quality home-studio recordings I was doing just
whenever I had a new song idea I absolutely had to jot down. Finding people who
were just as enthusiastic about it and building the kind of trust as well as
dedication to what Asylum 213 is, was, and will become is like a
one-in-a-million. Malpracticioner’s conception goes back as far as 2021,
technically, and even though we changed members during it, I can absolutely say
that it would never have turned out as it did or been something I’d be quite as
proud of if not for what Dexy, Marvin, Ben, and even Hunter brought to the
table with it. We were touring these songs before we even had them finished,
too, and every night it seemed like each of them felt more and more into it.
You can’t pay any dollar amount for a feeling that awesome.
4. The album’s message revolves around finding light amidst darkness. Was there a particular moment or experience that inspired this overarching theme?
Dylan: Malpracticioner really just encompasses (as do any collections of songs I write it seems) everywhere my head was at during the best and worst moments of my life, as well as those around me. We have songs about depths of depression, being too broke to live or enjoy even the basic necessities of your life despite working a decent 9-5 with good pay, how corrupt and in need of change our political system and its jurisdictions are and always have been, how growing up you were taught to more or less suppress or ignore your emotions and never find a healthy way to cope with them, and even a song about my car’s engine exploding during a tour we did in 2022. I could sit down and talk all the specifics for each song all day, but as much of my own meaning is applied to any of these songs, I try to keep things a little vague and open because I always default to experiences and how we grow from them is much bigger than me, and I just want the takeaway for anyone paying attention to themes like that to be, more or less, ‘hey buddy, you got this, things can suck and usually will, but we’re gonna get through it somehow’!
5. Marvin, the addition of a keytar is not something we see often in modern rock bands. How did you incorporate it into the band's unique sound?
Marvin: I really think bringing your personal instrument(whatever you’re good at) and full sending it into any genre, just makes ya happy; ya know? Conforming to the normal standard of guitars or keys and occasional keytar is so limiting I feel. I’m a darn performer too, and standing on my 2 feet and running around on my wireless truly feels “free” to me. Incorporating it into music I have 2 minds for it one, writing with the mindset of leads and a mind of layers to accompany all the missing pieces, whether ambience or rhythm, etc.
6. The tracklist spans ten songs. Are there any that stand out as particularly meaningful or that were especially challenging to create?
Dylan: “Subi”, “Memory Box”, “Malpracticioner”, and “Ida Kay” are all very particularly special songs to me personally…but the beautiful part of this album is that all of these songs were carefully curated to being some of our most favorite ones we’ve had by far, especially so for myself. “Wakai” was all Marvin, and I genuinely think it may be my favorite on the record personally. “Ida Kay” was about a close friend of mine who almost died and I wrote it up a day or two after I had what I thought was gonna be my last conversation with them ever. Thankfully, they made it through and are still alive to this day (and probably have no idea that song is about them, at least not yet), but it is a particularly heavy memory for me and if I remember right, that was actually the very first song I demo’d for the album, honestly a bit before I even really confirmed a new album would be in the works. You could almost say the album was built around that track. Also, every single song on this record was a pain in the ass for us to get finalized where we wanted it.
7. Your lyrics blend literal storytelling with metaphors. Can you give us an example of how a personal experience was translated into one of the tracks?
Dylan: I may have already answered this without meaning to, but, “Subi” has lyrics directly about the mental lows I went through after the engine failure I experienced on our last day of tour in March 2022. Being broke down, having to get towed to the venue, and then spending your entire next day figuring out how to tow your vehicle back to Richmond, VA from Savannah, GA is not fun in any capacity – but it really made me kind of wonder if I was being given a sign to give up music again and was ‘beating a dead horse’ so to speak by going on these runs especially given there was a lot in my life I felt I was neglecting. I had to really sit with myself as a person and figure out who I was and what life even meant to me all over again and it felt embarrassing because I had just turned 30 months prior and felt like I didn’t have a single thing in my life figured out. This isn’t a sob story, of course, or one of self-deprecation, I just realized I had some lessons to learn and had to get a better grip over myself especially if I wanted to continue doing something like music for the rest of my life. “Subi” is one of many songs on the album that serves as a reminder that we need to always be working on ourselves and keeping ourselves in check. It’s not just about something bad happening to you, but more so about not letting yourself stay infected with negativity and then subsequently causing harm elsewhere because of how broken you feel. That’s a lesson I personally keep in stride daily. I’ll never be perfect, and I’m absolutely no saint, but I’ll always continue to work on myself and do better in my own life, I feel that’s a responsibility we all carry.
8. The Richmond music scene is known for its diversity. How has being based in Richmond influenced your music and creative process?
Dylan: Richmond is awesome, generally speaking! Lots of talent to be found in all corners of the city. We’ve had a lot of great acts show up over the years (and not just talking about the obvious ones like GWAR, Municipal Waste, Lucy Dacus, and/or Lamb of God), and I feel as though the idea of mixing up sounds has become more and more normalized within the acts, even with the ones that lean more punk, metal, and hardcore. Some of my personal favorites that we’ve both played with or that I’ve just gotten to see live include legends like GULL, Dumb Waiter, Drook, Lobby Boy, Terror Cell, Circle Breaker, Possum Den, SLAAT, Bananaslama, Doll Baby, Prisoner, Glossing, and so, so many more…could probably talk all day about all the bands I love that come from this town. But for what I did name? That’s at least a decent start. Check them out ASAP. Each one of them and others have inspired me whether they realize it or not. Just gotta find an elusive enough way to copy off their homework for future material…(I’m kidding, unless???)
9. The themes of coping and recovery are universal but deeply personal. How do you hope listeners will connect with the album?
Dylan: My only hope is that someone listens to this record (Malpracticioner) and realizes that it’s okay to feel what you feel and be realistic with where you are due to those feelings and the circumstances life has thrown at you, but that working at a better, brighter day is always worth it. Take the joyful moments and simple pleasures exactly as they are, you wouldn’t be granted them if you didn’t deserve them. It’s hard to sit with yourself and realize you’re worth more than the temptations that lead to self-destruction, but it’s absolutely a truth (no matter how cliche it sounds) that we are both capable and deserving of better lives, so long as we intend no harm towards others with our existence, and remember to accept the work it takes to get there.
10. What was the creative process like for Malpracticioner? Did it come together as planned, or were there any surprises along the way?
Dylan: This album took way longer to finalize than any of us wanted. Lots of hair-pulling, changes, moments of excitement, doubts, discouragement in our own abilities, and then relief once it all started to pan out okay; Almost as varied and chaotic as the album’s compositions themselves! All we knew was we wanted to do things differently than what was done on NOT HOMELESS/JUST HOPELESS (2021), but it seemed like every time we made plans for specific release date, who would be producing it, whether it was gonna be self-recorded or passed off, or what the songs would be like, some sort of change would end up happening. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2023 that I think we finally had a clear, everybody-on-the-same-page sort of thing going on. Even by then, we decided we were going to record with Joey Woodard of Fisher King Records, essentially scrapping the home-recordings done up to that point, and not all the songs were going to make the album. We also decided we absolutely, positively had to have “Wakai” on there somewhere. The album came together, for the most part, in a manner that mirrored as I’d hoped…but just like anything else in life, we had to roll with a lot of different punches and obstacles that did actually help shape it. It’s kind of a good thing, really, you learn that almost everything in life is bigger than you and while it’s good to have plans, sometimes things have a way of shaping themselves in their own way that ends up better than what you’d even planned; I, myself, also have learned to respect the process of weathering through changes and challenges to end up somewhere much more well-rounded than I was before. It’s like being on a rollercoaster; You’re anxious as hell because you have virtually no control over where this thing is going, but you have that little bit of faith it’s going to end up somewhere safe and good at the end of it all. Maybe that sounds good or bad depending on how one reads it, but…yeah!
11. The band emphasizes sonic intricacy and storytelling. How do you approach balancing complex instrumentation with making the narrative clear?
Dylan: Writing the music (instrumentally) tends to be just going with what we’re feeling and keeping what we like best, what sticks with us most. You have to really like the thing you’re gonna play back 100+ times over and over again for potentially the rest of your life if you expect it to be something you want to keep and be proud of, and I think all of us usually aim for something we just feel most strongly towards. We try to keep at least a little bit of continuity/consistency to our sound these days just so describing it makes at least a little more sense, but generally the music just comes about as whatever melody, tune, rhythm, or idea we can’t get out of our heads, whether it be collectively or individually. For lyrics, I tend to let the subconscious takeover, just let whatever words spill to page that I’m thinking at the time, then come back later and try to piece together what my subconscious was trying to say in a manner that makes even a little sense, almost like an emotional puzzle. I can’t say I’ve personally paid much attention to how that message and the instrumentation line-up, but somehow it seems to work out alright for the most part, so I think when you just kind of let that subconscious take over (as opposed to overly intently trying to make something happen), it tends to come more naturally and in a way you wind up most satisfied and fulfilled with. It’s almost like a weird form of meditation that results in some noisy, weird music you hope more people than yourself will maybe listen to once or twice.
12. With Malpracticioner releasing on December 13th, 2024, what’s next for Asylum 213? Are there plans for a tour, music videos, or other projects?
Dylan: We don’t intend to tour in 2025, as we’ve got a lot of plans we want to sort out for bigger plans in 2026. But, we do intend to release more new music, particularly a few splits and singles, maybe an EP or two. We feel like we never got enough time to do all the necessary work for music videos and other promo on various songs for the album, so we’re going to try and catch all that up, too. We also intend to play lots of shows, out-of-town-weekenders, maybe a couple fests if we’re able to land them, and perhaps some other surprises. Ultimately, we’re making promotion, production, performance, planning, and fun stuff with friends of ours (hence the splits) the main priorities of 2025…but we’ll see what the future holds. I believe there’s a quote that goes something like “Life is what happens when you’re in the middle of other plans”…or perhaps the classic Mike Tyson one, “Everybody thinks they have a plan till they get punched in the face.” Either one is suitable here, for better or worse. Just know we’ll be doing things!
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