Connecticut noisecore weirdos Intercourse, return with their new album, How I Fell In Love With The Void, for new label Brutal Panda. On it, they do what they have always done: deliver twisted noise-rock influenced hardcore, shot through with a self-deprecating sense of humor.
But, this time they’ve changed their approach a bit.
This included taking more time with the new album’s recording, once again enlisting the aid of producer Chris Teti (The World Is A Beautiful Place And I’m No Longer Afraid To Die).
“We always recorded in a hurry to keep our studio bill cheap, but this time around our band account was as fat as it had ever been and we loved how our last EP (Egyptian Democracy) recorded at Silver Bullet sounded. Chris Teti really gets us. Besides, it was time for us to nut up and actually put some time into crafting songs,” vocalist Tarek Ahmed says.
In addition, Ahmed also took extra-care when writing the lyrics.
“I’m honestly just writing my intrusive thoughts down, my only real talent is taking things out of context. I also read as much as possible. This time around I wrote a-lot and read even more, particularly fiction which is pretty new to me. I’ve favored true crime and social science books for most of my life, so it was a welcome change. I def pushed myself, I rewrote my shit like 3 times,” Ahmed says.
Even the album cover, which features a photograph of exotic dancer Clementine, shot by Sherilyn Furneaux (Portrayal Of Guilt), marks a change for the band.
“We had illustrated covers for all of our LPs and really just wanted to do something different. We met Sheri when she came to the Sinclair in Boston to shoot our set along with press photos and we hit it off, plus we really liked the cover she shot for Portrayal of Guilt. We decided to go with a cheerful image because we thought something somber might be too much,” Ahmed says.
But one thing hasn’t changed, their love of grimy, low budget, classic B-movie, influenced music videos. The clip for the song, “The Ballad Of Max Wright” offers ample evidence of this affinity for these kinds of movies.
“(It was) probably from growing up on shit like Troma films during the vhs boom!! Those low budget films just had this grimy aura that can’t be recreated, but dudes like us are gonna try. This one was done by our boy Nathaniel Shannon who exceeded our expectations in every way,” Ahmed says
All this adds up to another killer release from this underrated Connecticut band, which also features guitarist Sean Prior, drummer Caleb Porter, and bassist Pete Stroczkowski.
It also must be noted that the band is from Connecticut. Usually, when you think of loud, aggressive music from the Nutmeg State, you don’t think weirdo, outsider, hardcore. Also, when one thinks of Connecticut the thoughts often go to images of preppies, Ivy League colleges and Stepford Wives. They seem like an anomaly.
But, maybe they couldn’t have come from any other place.
“Well the taxes are high as shit and there’s fucking nothing to do, so it can be pretty bleak here. We didn’t see the sun for half the year and then it was automatically 95 degrees and humid for most of the summer. CT can influence you because there’s so little here you need to make your own shit to do,” Ahmed says. “Lots of bands skip over the state to play NYC or Boston, which sucks but it’s also cool to be so close to the major cities at the same time. I can’t imagine living somewhere with sunshine and shit to do but being the same person,” he finishes.
Though, maybe he still would be the same person.
“I dead ass have no hobbies, this is all I do. If it wasn’t this band I’d start another. Why even start another band or for that matter do anything else? What else is there?,” he says.
He has very “modest” plans for the band’s future.
“We’ll probably start working on new music next year cuz wtf else we gonna do? In the end the goal is to make rock and roll until we die or kill each other,” Ahmed says.
How I Fell in Love With the Void is out on Friday and you can preorder it from Brutal Panda Records. Follow Intercourse on Instagram for future updates.
Photo Credit: Sherilyn Furneaux
