06.03.19
Words by:

For a band so adept at making a racket, Los Angeles-based noise trio HEALTH are especially skilled in retreating back from the spotlight.

With the arrival of 2015’s full-length Death Magic, their first studio output in nearly six years, the band cemented them- selves as one of the most radical experimental bands coming out of the West Coast. Then they went silent again. Now, four years later, they’re back with new album VOL 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR, a wall of artfully crafted sound. With each raw synth, distorted vocal and stammering beat, singer Jake Duzsik ruminates on the hellscape we call modern life. Here, we speak to Duzsik about his own.

How would your friends describe you in three words?

Persona non grata. They wouldn’t say that but it’s the best three-word phrase I could think of.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Don’t eat yellow snow. My dad has literally been telling me that since I was a kid.

What annoys you the most?

Awkwardly carrying things… that and eternal cosmic meaninglessness in the face of certain death.

What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen online?

A video of a drunk guy in a shithole motel room impulsively decides to do a pirouette and it ends incredibly poorly for him. It just keeps on giving. Perhaps I lack empathy, but whenever I feel low, YouTube videos of idiots hurting themselves always buoy my spirits.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

Trite as it may be, I have to say first guitar.

What’s your earliest childhood memory?

Walking into my living room to let someone know I had just shit my pants.

What’s your worst habit?

Easily losing my temper. Fucking useless.

Is there a particular movement inspiring you right now?

90s revival. I can’t help it, I grew up in the 90s.

The best thing about the Internet.

The endless store of worldly knowledge and enlightenment at your fingertips.

The worst thing about the internet.

Doing nothing with the endless store of worldly knowledge and enlightenment other than posting photos of your stupid face.

What’s the weirdest thing someone has caught you doing?

Nothing that wacky. Probably jerking off, something along those lines.

What would you want written on your tombstone?

Shit, I can’t think of anything clever enough. But I do think I’d want them to play The Simpsons theme song at the funeral.

Which city do you have a unique connection to?

Seattle, Washington. I hate the weather, but I grew up there, made all my memories.

Tell us about the happiest day of your life.
First time we played Primavera festival. The whole experience was magical.

Favourite meme?
Where will you be when diarrhoea hits.

What makes you feel nostalgic?
On a pragmatic level, I find nostalgia to be unpleasant and useless, so I try to avoid it. But underground music from the mid-00s really gets me. It represents such a formative time in my life.

What’s the weirdest party you’ve ever been to?
I somehow found myself at a brunch where the majority of the people there were rocket scientists and astrophysicists at the Jet Propulsion Lab. I felt like a caveman so I drank a lot of beer.

Favourite conspiracy theory of all time?
That Stanley Kubrick shot the fake moon landing. I don’t believe it but it’s amusing.

What has shocked you the most this year?
The recent longest government shut- down in US history over a ridiculous and grotesque border wall.

Heavy Metal or EDM?
Heavy metal. No question.

VOL 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR was released on 8 February via Loma Vista Records