“Be who you wanted while you have been more youthful.” This quote via Ayesha Siddiqi is the very first thing that involves thoughts once I concentrate to Cockring’s ugly and shimmering debut LP, Altar Name. That is an album for all of the unhealed inner-children in the market, all the ones coping with emotions of trauma and alienation, all the ones weirdos and queer children who can’t appear to seek out their tribe. In different phrases, Cockring is who all of us want at the moment.
Brash, gritty, and artistic, Altar Name is not just musically compelling, however it’s also intensely non-public, fueled via vulnerability and vindictiveness. Through ache and fervour and piss.
With a real ear for compositional nuance, the musicians in Cockring know the way to let a music breathe. By no means resorting to a wall of sound to atone for loss of creativity, they permit Cameron’s thudding, fuzzy bass to jab the listener within the sun plexus whilst Caleb’s drums dance and splash, complementing Jeff’s grooving and outlandish guitar riffs. A ways from any of the boilerplate hardcore subgenres saturating the musical panorama at the moment, each and every piece on Altar Name feels in reality creative, utterly honest, and itchingly catchy. With vocals that may seize the gut-felt rage of Antonio Marquez as simply because the disgruntled disillusionment of Raygun Busch and the incredulous anarchism of Delivan Oswood, vocalist Noah barks with an urgency and a righteousness this is extremely uncommon in heavy track.
This track is transferring, greater than maximum hardcore dares to be. There may be is a freedom to those songs that provides one the sensation of getting been let unfastened after many years of containment. The emotional complexity and intensity inherent to those tracks is not any thriller as soon as one explores the lyrical content material of Altar Name.
An album with a coherent theme and arc very similar to David Involves Lifestyles or Crime and Punishment, Altar Name supplies an intimate have a look at the lived reports of Cockring’s individuals. Constructed on a story framework exploring the trauma skilled via queer youngsters in hyper-religious areas, the album confronts subject matters of disgrace, betrayal, hypocrisy, and, most significantly, redemption. In the course of the specifity in their tales, the common will also be felt, as any considerate listener would possibly deal with identical tensions between obedience and rebel, between ugliness and good looks, between the sacred and the profane.
This paintings, as all excellent artwork, is emotionally difficult as it calls for a lot of itself. Uncompromising in its uncooked musicality and in its subject material, the listener, too, feels uncooked and spent via the albums finish, most effective to really feel similarly interested in spin it once more to re-experience its catharsis.
Cockring spoke generously to Cvlt Country about their implausible debut, Altar Name, which is out now on bandcamp and on No Time Information.
Cvlt Country: I’d like to start out via speaking in regards to the brief adventure out of your demo to this Altar Name unencumber. Are you able to proportion a little about the way you all got here in combination, what made you kindred spirits, and what you suppose led on your fast upward push to being a well-loved band in below two years?
Noah: A tale that comes up so much—and it’s roughly humorous—is how Caleb and I met Jeff. We have been on a hookup app, and we bumped into Jeff there. We have been looking to get at him, you recognize? Nevertheless it changed into one thing else. We ended up getting espresso and speaking about track. Throughout that dialog, we discovered we had identical upbringings—no longer equivalent lives, however identical reports with faith and id. That connection introduced us in combination.
It’s humorous to take into consideration, but if we made up our minds to play track in combination, we have been a little wary. Possibly it was once catastrophic pondering, however we felt like we needed to be on guard, like gazing our backs. We weren’t positive how other folks would react to this sort of challenge. However particularly in Sacramento, other folks actually embraced us. The fellows from Complete Hog, the individuals who run Cafe Colonial—all of them welcomed us with open hands.
A large number of the struggle we expected simply didn’t occur. I believe that struggle power were given transferred into short of to stay it going, stay making track, and benefit from the procedure. It’s been a significantly better time than we anticipated, and we’re simply seeing it via and seeing what occurs.
Cvlt Country: It sounds such as you have been stunned via how little resistance you encountered. What do you suppose made the challenge extra authorised than you expected?
Noah: For me, and I believe for all people, we’re a little paranoid normally. Additionally, we’re all nearing our 30s, and once we were given into punk and hardcore, it was once a special scene. Individually, I by no means felt immediately centered, however there was once this normal sense of what was once “secure” to discuss or specific with no need to protect your self.
I believe I carried that with me going ahead. It’s something to wait a display, however enjoying one—particularly for us since that is our first band, excluding for Jeff who performed in a band in Japan—felt other. Other folks all the time discuss how a lot the sector has modified within the ultimate two decades, and I believe that was once the primary time I actually felt it. It is other now.
Jeff: Yeah, piggybacking on what Noah stated, once we first were given in combination, we have been speaking about pre-COVID displays, the place issues have been far more intense. The mosh calls have been rougher, and slurs like “faggot” have been thrown round freely. Fortunately, issues have modified. However Sacramento, for some time, was once beautiful intense. We would have liked to create a band the place other folks may just really feel at ease being themselves, particularly that specialize in queer people. We would have liked to be a band for the outsiders, the outliers.
Cvlt Country: It kind of feels like the speculation of being for the outsiders, outliers, and freaks is one thing punks have mentioned for generations. However as you identified, poisonous parts from the mainstream ceaselessly infiltrate the ones areas, and also you to find those punk environments an increasing number of such as fitness center magnificence, stuffed with the similar poisonous masculinity punk has fought in opposition to for nearly 50 years. Do you suppose this was once very true in California, or was once it extra of a subject matter sooner than quarantine? What do you suppose brought about the alternate?
Jeff: I’m in my view stunned via the acceptance. I’m the eldest, and when I used to be within the hardcore scene, mosh pits have been stuffed with other folks yelling slurs like, “Fuck you, faggots!” and “Fuck your God!” I all the time felt like I used to be on this bizarre in-between house. However now, it’s other. Persons are open to this sort of stuff. We would have liked to carry the more youthful crowd in, and we did. The Sacramento scene has this superb openness that actually stunned me. I anticipated pushback, particularly since two decades in the past issues have been so other. However the youngsters are queer, trans, and open, and that’s the place it’s at now.
Cvlt Country: As any individual who works with youngsters and has helped create GSAs and queer areas in colleges for 15 years now, I’ve noticed firsthand how hungry younger persons are for this. Now not most effective are they accepting of it, they’re craving for it. Again when I used to be concerned within the scene, there have been towns close to me with this sort of factor, nevertheless it by no means made it to my group. It’s superb how lucky those children are actually to have it, and I believe they acknowledge how particular it’s.
Noah: Yeah, I agree. We’re without a doubt no longer below the impact that we’re the primary homosexual band or anything else, nevertheless it does really feel particular. It’s one thing I’ve sought after to do since I used to be a youngster—no longer simply make track, however be in a band that I sought after to peer in my town when I used to be more youthful. There’s numerous emotion in that for me. It seems like I’m placing my teenage self in the market, like I’m giving one thing again to the universe.
After I began, I anticipated other folks to react negatively, like the way it was once when I used to be more youthful. I used to be in a position for a similar roughly bizarre vibe. However what we’re witnessing now’s so other. It’s no longer like that anymore. Seeing that adjust was once a full-circle second for me. We began doing this for ourselves, however now I see children at our displays, and I’m like, “Wow, this crowd seems to be so other than it did even 5 years in the past.”
That’s been the most productive phase—seeing the whole lot alternate in actual time. It’s no longer even as regards to your band, it’s just like the universe is moving.
Cvlt Country: A pal of mine in a band as soon as described being within the punk scene as being in “Neverland,” this sustained or suspended state of youngster. That concept actually caught with me, particularly as any individual who works with youngsters. You discussed the speculation of being the band you wanted while you have been younger, which connects with the idea that of being the individual you wanted while you have been more youthful. Bands like SSD have been youngsters bands, a part of the “youngsters group,” and now a lot of them are in retirement, however that youngsters mentality remains to be so contemporary. Within the scenes I’m a part of, they’re youth-run and youth-oriented, as they must be. What do you suppose is the position of a band like yours, or any band, with regards to being for the youngsters or performing as position fashions within the scene?
Noah: What that brings to thoughts for me is how I grew up at odds with what the folks round me sought after. I used to be raised in an evangelical circle of relatives, with all that Southern Baptist craziness, so I felt like I needed to depend on myself and create my very own worth gadget. However that’s tricky to do on my own. It wasn’t till I discovered hardcore and began assembly people who I turned into open to different concepts and may just actually increase my very own values.
After I began going to displays in 2010 or 2011, bands like Punch and Loma Prieta from the Bay House would do that factor the place, between songs, they’d give those mini challenge statements. It was once the similar factor each display, nevertheless it was once necessary—stuff like “Be sort on your pals, be sort to strangers, care about animals, prevent speaking shit about homeless other folks.” That formed how I engage with the sector.
I believe it’s necessary for hardcore to be pushed via values and ethos. It may be cyclical—on occasion it’s no longer like that—however I believe it’s nearly cooler to stick with the ones values reasonably than regress to slurs and negativity in mosh pits.
Caleb: I believe it’s necessary no longer most effective that we set a excellent instance as elders, but in addition that we give more youthful other folks the assets and exuberance to stay the scene going. It’s something to place on displays and challenge the values we wish to see unfold, however that received’t ultimate if the youngsters don’t stay collaborating. Such as you stated, it is a youth-driven factor. Youngsters wish to wish to get started bands, move to punk flea markets, and recognize the venues so that they don’t get close down. It’s about adapting to the privilege of with the ability to experience those scenes and conserving them alive. I am hoping that is sensible.
Cvlt Country: Highest sense, completely. In a single interview I learn, you made a difference between punk and hardcore. Ceaselessly in interviews, I exploit the phrases “punk” and “hardcore” interchangeably, however you identified that you simply usually establish extra as a punk band than a hardcore band. Are you able to unpack that?
Noah: Certain. I believe that difference comes from the reports I had rising up. 10-15 years in the past, there was once extra of a transparent divide between punk and hardcore displays. At hardcore displays, I all the time felt extra on edge, like I needed to be on prime alert. However at punk displays, it felt like no person cared about that stuff. There’s a distinction in power for me once I take into consideration punk as opposed to hardcore from again then.
I don’t essentially suppose it feels that other these days, however I do suppose your access level to hardcore influences that difference. For instance, we just lately performed a display with a beatdown band. Sound-wise, it was once the type of track that may’ve made me really feel anxious prior to now—like, I’d be taking a look over my shoulder. However then the band were given at the mic and mentioned trans rights and devoted songs to other folks suffering with psychological sickness. It was once simply other from what I might’ve anticipated again then.
Jeff: Generally, beatdown is like, “kill everybody,” however that one band—we all know precisely who we’re speaking about—was once so candy. They have been the toughest band, however they have been like, “That is on your psychological well being. Let’s move!” It was once so lovely, and I used to be like, “Oh my God, that is the most productive band ever.”
Noah: Yeah, they have been general sweethearts. And it’s no longer that stuff like that by no means took place sooner than, nevertheless it wasn’t commonplace. I believe there’s been a bleed over from a normal fashionable ethos that isn’t confined via style or taste anymore. It’s simply no longer that black and white.
Caleb: I additionally suppose those labels are beautiful fluid and subjective. One particular person would possibly label a challenge as punk, whilst any other would possibly name it hardcore. They’re overlapping umbrellas, actually. In the end, those labels exist to lend a hand us to find track we love via comparability. I’m extra at ease letting others describe what we’re doing as a result of everybody’s coming at it from other angles relating to what they concentrate to and their reports with track. For me, I’m so deep in it that I will be able to’t as it should be label what we’re doing. I believe it’s subjective, and I’m open to listening to what others have to mention about it reasonably than depending by myself monologue.
Cvlt Country: Highest. Noah, you discussed your devout upbringing. I learn in the course of the zine you ready for this unencumber, and I actually attached with it. I grew up in Catholic training from kindergarten via twelfth grade, going to church more than one instances per week. We weren’t allowed to start out a GSA on campus, so we roughly began a pirate one within the hallway as a result of we needed to. The theme of non secular trauma and hypocrisy appears to be a through-line on this album, particularly within the lyrics on sure tracks. That roughly vulnerability is robust. Are you able to communicate a little about how that turned into a focal point for this paintings and the way it’s influenced your songwriting way?
Noah: Yeah, so I believe it’s been there from the beginning. One of the most issues all of us attached on at first was once how Jeff, Caleb, and I all grew up in numerous kinds of beautiful excessive faith. Since I wrote the lyrics for the album, I sought after to present Jeff the chance to inform a tale that numerous other folks may just relate to. And after studying the phrases Jeff wrote for that zine, I noticed that even if our tales glance other, it’s the similar roughly hero’s adventure.
The theme of non secular turmoil actually clicked for me once we have been writing songs for our break up with Fastcase. We wrote “The Cage,” and the lyrics simply got here out of me so simply. It hit me then that I used to be nonetheless wearing this weight with me. Over the last few years, I’ve additionally been experimenting with sobriety, going backward and forward. A part of that adventure has concerned wrestling with ideas of a better energy, which led me to deconstruct my very own historical past with spirituality and what that might appear to be for me now.
Once we began writing the songs for this document, I requested myself, “What if I stayed within the church? What if I wrote a real gospel document?” I believed, “What if those songs have been like surely Christian steel?” Humorous sufficient, I were given into hardcore displays via catching Christian metalcore bands at a church in Sacramento, so I believed, “What if I had saved doing that?” This procedure has finished so much for my very own spirituality—disconnecting from it, then reconnecting and recontextualizing it.
On the identical time, I didn’t need the songs to be too particular to my non-public ride. All 4 people wrote our particular person portions for this document, and I sought after to put across all of our collective reports. That’s the place I used to be coming from in scripting this, and optimistically, that comes throughout.
The instant it actually fell into position for me was once once we have been running at the music “Gospel.” It was once at first going to be conceptually about giving up religion, after which I noticed…
Noah: Yeah, I believe “Gospel” began out as one thing that was once going to be darker, nearly like a rejection of religion. However then it morphed into this concept of rejecting a model of religion and discovering my very own. After I wrote it, it roughly hit me like, wow, it’s in reality so ill that I’m queer. Like, via having this intrinsic a part of myself, I am getting to fulfill individuals who proportion identical reports, and that’s one thing tough. To start with, being queer felt like a deformity, however now it’s my religion. That’s the place the music got here in combination for me—like, I’m embracing my id, and that’s the place my religion lies now. It’s onerous to give an explanation for, however that’s the essence of it. I’d in reality have an interest to listen to what Jeff and Caleb have to mention about it too.
Caleb: I believe numerous what Noah stated resonates with me too. It’s like all of us hang around in combination and proportion those reports, so in fact, we’re at the identical web page. For many people, rising up in environments that have been opposed to an intrinsic a part of who we’re—like being queer—that have is all the time simmering slightly under the skin. So once we get the danger to precise it, particularly in one thing like track, it’s naturally going to return out. It’s a part of who we’re and what we’ve been via.
However what actually moves me is what Noah touched on—embracing spirituality. I have in mind this one band apply the place Noah was once tremendous excited, nearly with a wild glance in his eye, speaking about how we have been now a Christian rock band. To start with, I used to be stunned as a result of my intestine response was once to tug clear of anything else non secular or devout, given my background. However then it hit me: if punk has all the time been about rebel, what’s extra rebellious than rebelling in opposition to the rebel? As an alternative of working from spirituality as it’s what you’re “intended” to do, what if you happen to in reality confront it, check out it, and shape your personal dating with it?
For me, that embody of spirituality is extra punk than rejection as it’s terrifying. And transferring towards one thing that scares you, as a substitute of clear of it, is without doubt one of the maximum tough, empowering issues you’ll do for your self.
Cvlt Country: I really like that. It actually resonates with the way in which drag ceaselessly recontextualizes devout iconography. That have of non secular trauma for queer people can manifest in techniques that virtually really feel satirical or subversive, however deeper down, it’s a part of a therapeutic procedure. Whilst you discussed the hero’s adventure, it made me call to mind that concept the place you allow a spot, to find your long ago, after which reinterpret what “house” manner to you with all of the new wisdom and working out of your self and the sector round you.
For me, the monitor “Gospel” was once pivotal. It’s the only the place the album’s narrative arc actually clicked. I believed I knew the place the album was once going, however then I noticed it was once extra of a cyclical adventure, a callback to the place issues began—however with this new sense of empowerment. There’s without a doubt one thing deeply healing about that.
Noah: Yeah, scripting this document actually did really feel like treatment, to be fair. I saved joking that going to band apply was once like our weekly treatment consultation. However truthfully, I wasn’t even joking that a lot.
Jeff: It’s true, despite the fact that. Like each week, we have been getting nearer as a band, but in addition as other folks. We’d discuss our week, or existence normally, and simply say, “That is what I went via.” And since we all know each and every different so properly now, it felt healing to channel that into the track. It’s nearly like we have been voicing each and every different’s traumas someway. That is circle of relatives now, whether or not someone likes it or no longer.
Cvlt Country: Now not way back, I had a dialog with a chum about how there simply didn’t appear to be any excellent queercore bands anymore. We have been like, “Can we actually want queercore bands anymore?” as a result of, truthfully, what excellent band isn’t queer at the moment? This was once in 2020, nevertheless it nonetheless holds true.
To Jeff’s level about youngsters tradition, I believe nearly all younger other folks these days can establish with punk id in some shape. On account of that, the time period “queercore” has grow to be broader and no more particular. It used to frustrate me as a result of I’d seek for bands like Limp Wrist and finally end up discovering anything else with overtly queer individuals being categorised as queercore. I’m like, “This doesn’t sound like Limp Wrist in any respect!” I really like maximum of the ones bands, however you’ll’t throw Pansy Department, Limp Wrist, House Camp, and The B-52’s all into the similar class and contact all of them queercore. A few of these bands are self-determined queercore, whilst others don’t actually are compatible that mould. So, I’d love to listen to your ideas in this, particularly about what it manner to be a queercore band these days.
Jeff: For me, I’m in order that excited to peer more youthful people of all gender expressions coming to our displays and getting stoked about track. I all the time inform them, “Yo, get started your personal band!” I’ve even given out two guitars to younger children to inspire them. To me, that’s what actually issues—if you happen to’re a tender child beginning a band, that’s implausible!
Noah: Yeah, I believe all of us proportion that sentiment. Particularly once we began this band, we felt just like the time period “queercore” was once just about out of date. It’s no longer vital anymore, and that’s for a similar explanation why you discussed. It doesn’t allow you to to find the track you wish to have to hear; it turns into extra about who you’re reasonably than the track itself. I have in mind how irritating it was once when I used to be in search of one thing rapid and competitive, most effective to finally end up with some acoustic guitarist. No hate to acoustic guitarists, however that’s no longer what I sought after on the time!
So once we began this band, I sought after to make it transparent that we’re a hardcore punk band. I didn’t need there to be any query about that. And it’s attention-grabbing since the instances have modified. We’ve additionally grow to be shut with any individual who was once actually energetic within the unique queercore scene, and listening to their tales has shifted my viewpoint. Again then, it intended one thing other than it does now. I believe for a queercore band to be taken critically now, you’ll’t separate your self from the bigger scene. I’m no longer in opposition to queercore in any respect, however that’s the place I’m coming from at the subject.
Cvlt Country: Yeah, I believe the Bandcamp and Spotify algorithms simply don’t know what to do with phrases like that. That was once nearly precisely my ride too—simply numerous solo acoustic stuff. Now not even folks punk, simply…
Noah: Singer-songwriter stuff.
Cvlt Country: Precisely, which I really like. I imply, unhappy lady track is my favourite. I concentrate to it once I’m no longer writing a few band. There’s quite a lot of it in the market. I imply, Julien Baker is extra hardcore than maximum hardcore musicians, truthfully, however she wouldn’t label herself as queercore.
In any other interview, you discussed the bands that encourage your sound. You’re roughly basing your sound at the track that were given you began, like Scorned, and I suppose early Rite and Saber Teeth Zombie. In this most up-to-date album, I listen numerous what I might describe as energy violence, particularly within the music “Altar Name.” I additionally hit upon some noise rock affect, roughly like Pissed Denims- taste noise rock. So, I used to be hoping it’s essential to proportion who your musical influences are in this one. And in case your favourite bands are all defunct, who do you prefer now?
Jeff: All Beat Up is the most productive band on this planet, and so they affect us so much. They’re like our excursion siblings. They’ve grow to be circle of relatives, and we like them. Their album that’s popping out—Mercy Thirst—is the most productive factor on this planet!
Caleb: Yeah, I imply, that band is improbable and so inspiring. To me, it seems like they do the whole lot that I wish to do with Cockring. I’ve immense recognize and love for what they do, and I believe you’ll listen that inspiration in this document. I additionally drew numerous affect from Greyhound when I used to be writing a few the riffs.
Jeff: However I do really feel like for us as a band, we excursion, we play displays, after which we fall in love with our pals and the bands we play with. We pull influences from that have. Like, “Oh my God, that a part of this band and this a part of that band.” I believe like that’s what’s going down with bands like Greyhound and All Beat Up. We like the ones bands, and we roughly take other portions from them.
Noah: Yeah, I believe that too. I believe at first once we have been simply jamming and writing our first songs, we fascinated by what bands all of us preferred in commonplace, like Saber Teeth and Hoax. The extra we’ve been energetic, the extra our songwriting has advanced. I believe like we play a display or move to a display in combination, and when a band will get off level, we’re like, “We need to do this!” It’s roughly humorous, nevertheless it actually comes from a spot of celebrating the issues we experience.
Jeff: Celebrating Northern California hardcore!
Caleb: Yeah, let’s move—Bay House, Sacramento, let’s do it!
Noah: I really like that you simply introduced up the noise rock affect, too, as a result of that’s perhaps a extra unconscious affect we’re all channeling. Once we first began the band, or even now once I’m writing drum portions, I ceaselessly reproduction and paste from early Bauhaus stuff. It has that very clockwork, inflexible rhythm with loads of call-and-response roughly tom patterns.
Caleb: Needless to say. I believe there are bands in Sacramento doing the noise rock factor that encourage us. _BLOUS3_ simply launched a document, and it’s actually excellent. It jogs my memory of one of the crucial stuff we have been doing within the studio once we have been recording this album. That band additionally stocks individuals with Quinine, which is any other excellent and provoking band.
Cvlt Country: Gorgeous. Smartly, I suppose that covers the whole lot I was hoping to deal with and extra. I’d love to invite my standard finishing questions: What must other folks learn about Altar Name?
Noah: This document acts as a time tablet of our adventure as a band. It seems like a slideshow of all of the superb other folks we’ve met, the cool puts we’ve been, and the issues we’ve finished. I simply wish to specific a large thanks to everybody we’ve interacted with during the last few years.
Cvlt Country: Is there the rest you sought after to mention?
Jeff: Loose Palestine.
