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Interview // 2023-02-26

Begotten

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My fellow Canadians - fellow Ontarians - Begotten! If you haven't heard them, check them out - a three-piece from Pickering, Ontario. If you like melancholic black metal and aren't afraid of purged emotions, this band brings a downcast atmosphere with a good pace.

Putting out their first album in 2018, and some EPs since, I wondered what they were up to now. Here is my conversation with Dave, the band's guitarist. 

The name, Begotten, where does it come from?

DAVE SHERK: I wish we had a great story behind it. It's from the movie. I think like probably most bands that have used begotten in any way, it has probably come from that movie. So, I don't know if it was me or Bobby that heard about the movie, saw clips of those famous scenes, or whatever. And it just stuck in our heads.

You know what? I haven't even seen it.

DAVE: I have never seen it. I have seen those famous parts of it, the guy in the chair and stuff, but...

And how did you guys meet?

DAVE: We have known each other for a long time. Bobby and I played together in a death metal band with Tom's brother in the middle-to-late 2000s. Tom and Bobby were friends before that, so when Bobby started doing black metal, I came along with him. And then we thought Tom would fit well into this, and it just came together.

What got you started with music, to begin with?

DAVE: As a whole, I think all of us were just avid listeners of music; we all grew up in musical households. My dad was a guitarist, Bobby's parents were big into music, the same with Tom. So, it just naturally flowed for all of us. When there was a chance for me and Bobby to start playing guitar, we were like, "This is the coolest thing ever!" We stuck with it, and here we are, so many years later. 

Did you know that this sound was the direction you were going to go with the music?

DAVE: For this project, yeah. Bobby was the main songwriter for Begotten. He got really big into depressive black metal and started writing it, and we just stuck with that same vision all along. There haven't been any disagreements or deviations from that.

You were just saying that some of you listen to this style, but do all of you listen to this style or is it just something you create?

DAVE: We all listen to it. Between the three of us, we have an incredibly wide range of musical tastes. We do listen to extreme metal, death metal, and black metal, and specifically downing and depressive metal. 

How do the songs come together for you, as a band?

DAVE: Bobby is our main songwriter, so he will write demo stuff at home, and then he will send it off to Tom and I. We will just kind of go over it and listen and give our two cents. Bobby and I will get together at some point and record all the instruments at my house, and over the next while we get Tom and do vocals. Yeah, that's how songs go. We are really lucky. We do everything on our own. We don't have any timelines or any pressure, really.

Do you think everyone has a part of them that is discouraged, discontent, and distant, or will only some people get this atmosphere? 

DAVE: I think everyone will have these feelings at some point in their life, whether they choose to take art as the outlet for it is different for everybody. No one is happy all the time. As well, I would like to believe no one is sad all the time. With what we play too, two people could listen to the same song and could take a totally different meaning out of it. 

Are you more likely to sip and drink and relax while listening to music, or blast it as loud as you can and actively pursue something? 

DAVE: I will relax, but blast it as well. I will relax while listening to it very loudly. 

That is something I am learning to do. I did the relaxing part, but my body actually sitting and relaxing part...

DAVE: The pandemic kind of taught me that. I was always the go, go, go, do, do, do person. To lock down for so long, I learned to appreciate sitting around and just hang out with my cat, listening to music. 

That is good. It is good for mental health.

DAVE: Yeah, it's good. You need it, especially during the pandemic, something to just ground you back to what life was and will be. So yeah, listening to music. I have probably listened to music more in the last three years than any time before that, combined.

Has there been support from loved ones, in pursuing this style of music, or did you have to decide to do it on your own, so to speak?

DAVE: We have always been very fortunate growing up in a death metal band together. We always practiced and jammed at my mom's house, in her basement. I am sure she was annoyed by it but we never got any grief about it. We jammed every Sunday religiously and it was death metal, so it was all GRRR GRRR GRRR! Great support. Bobby's parents are supportive; Tom's as well. So lucky for that. My mom used to drive us when we played shows. She would drive us to downtown Toronto, drop off all our stuff, and pick us up later. I am sure she bought more than half the tickets for the shows, at the end of the day. The whole pay-to-play days.

My dad used to drive me to concerts and stuff, too. Is there ever anything too negative to write into music?

DAVE: Probably not. I don't think too negative. We play depressive black metal; what's more negative than suicide, right? We touch on that. Obviously, there are bands that touch way more on that. Maybe there are things that are taboo, but I wouldn't say there are things that are too negative. I guess that is kind of the style of music, especially black metal, especially in some spheres - the more negative you can go, the more people will like you.

It's cathartic, right?

DAVE: Yeah, it's a great outlet for anything. All of us are very positive people, but having this outlet for the negative parts of our life is fantastic. 

I often go to music for different moods for example if I am excited or upset, can you give me a song you might go to for a specific mood yourself

DAVE: I am not much of a mood listener. I will jump between. I will listen to Spectral Wound and Lizzo right after it. I jump all the way around. My girlfriend is very mood-oriented with her music. Me, I just see something and I am like, "Oh, I want to listen to that." That's how I go. I just jump around so much. It confuses my girlfriend a little bit.

Tell me about fans. Have there been any special moments when you knew your music had touched someone?

DAVE: Over the years we have had quite a few people message us, saying they listen to us through dark times in their life, that we would help them through dark times. That is probably the most flattering thing you can get as an artist or musician, in general, to know that you were there for somebody, I guess, when they needed that. Which is really cool. And we also have a lot of those, I guess you could say, die-hard fans that every time we draw up something, they are immediately on it. They have all the merch and there's a bunch of people that we have all started talking to outside of music, that we talk to personally and stuff, which is really cool. So we have definitely made some friends through this whole thing, which is amazing. I know it is cliché, but every time we do something and release something we are blown away by the reaction we get from people. You know, with people reaching out to us and reposting us, buying stuff, streaming. When we released our first album, we made 100 copies. We expected to take like ten years to sell that off, and that would be it. We immediately had a good reaction, and every album is just more and more and more. Exponential growth every time, and it's great.

Do you ever wish you were a live band, or does studio music do it for you?

DAVE: We all did the live thing in the past, and I am pretty sure I can speak for all of us when I say that we don't want to do it again. We are a three-piece band, so we would need to bring at least two more people to play live. And guitar amps are getting heavy. I don't want to carry those things anymore. Then you have to go downtown Toronto on a Tuesday night to play an 11pm set to get home and wake up at 6am for work. You have to move your gear around. It is just a hassle, and we have the ultimate freedom doing this. When we go to record something, when we do anything, it's not like we are on a time crunch. We can just do anything on our own time, which is great. That is the beauty of a studio project.

So, what is on the horizon for Begotten?

DAVE: Right now we are about 75% done recording our next album, I think. All the instruments were tracked well over a year ago. Now we are about halfway done the vocals. So, I am hoping that it will be out this year. Work schedules and traveling and stuff has made everything get really difficult. Tom and I, because I have to record Tom's vocals, we work on opposite schedules and it's really hard to get together. We are working our way through it. Hopefully, it will be out this year. We are really excited for that. We have been holding it back for a while.

Great to hear. That was one of the reasons I reached out - I was hoping I would hear something like that. 

DAVE: Yeah, that is cool. Thank you.

Let's get Canadian for a minute. What would you prefer: poutine or Beaver Tails?

DAVE: I am unfortunately lactose intolerant, so I am going to go for Beaver Tails. And I have a sweet tooth, so, yeah. Beaver Tails for me.

Maple syrup or ketchup?

DAVE: Maple syrup. It is so much more versatile. I had pancakes for breakfast today and I made sure I bought the real maple syrup. None of that store stuff.

A pet peeve only a Canadian can understand?

DAVE: Guys in the Tim Horton's drive-through that take forever to order anything. They don't know what they want when they get up there. They are like, "Can I have a... Uh... Uh..."

For sure. Snowshoeing, sliding, or skating?

DAVE: Can I choose none of the above? I am very much an indoor person in the winter. The older I get, the more I dislike snow. I live in the suburbs, too, so I am sure you get winter way worse than we do here. I loved it when I was younger, but now it has just become a hassle to me in every way. 

So, what do you go without on a cold day? Jacket, mitts, hat, boots, or nothing (you always wear them all)?

DAVE: I will leave the mitts at home every time, and about halfway through the day I will regret it. I will wish I brought them. I always think the pockets are enough, but they never are.

Yeah, I do that too. A lot of people don't even wear boots all winter, just shoes. There are so many people, even here. 

DAVE: I try that. Again, I try to hibernate in the winter, so if I am going from my house to the store to my house, I will just wear shoes, but if I am going everywhere, I will pull the boots on and everything.

What's the most beautiful place in Canada you have been to?

DAVE: From coast to coast, Canada is so varied and beautiful. So far, probably Jasper. I think it is kind of very much a go-to answer for a lot of people. It is just such an ideal-looking place. It is just beautiful. Yeah, I love that. I love the mountains. Maybe it is a cliché for black metal, but the mountainous areas and everything is all cool. 

I have been there, too. It is for sure. I took a train through there. 

DAVE: I was pretty young and I was with my parents, so I didn't get to experience the whole thing, but I still have vivid memories of just getting in there and seeing everything. 

Well, thank you very much for getting together with me. I wish you guys the best. I am looking forward to your new release when it comes out. 

Dave: Thank you very much.


Playlist Pick

After interviewing Begotten, I decided to add the song Useless to my playlist.

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