Matriarchs started in 2011 as the solo project of old-school hardcore head and entrepreneur Ben Levi. They were a straight-ahead metallic hardcore band much in the vein of All Out War, who dropped a record in 2015 before winding down. As the world became engulfed in the rolling disaster of the COVID-19 pandemic though, Ben was able to take a step back from the mill wheel of his various endeavors and began playing around with the idea of resuscitating Matriarchs in full. Prior to 2020, Ben had released a few singles with friends like Neil from Cutthroat and Frankie Palmeri of Emmure, but the project really didn’t feel like it could fly on its own again until Ben had more time to devote to it. More pressingly though, the band needed a singer. As if by fate, the missing piece turned out to be K Enagonio.
K comes from the world of post-hardcore and melodic metal. She makes her living as a videographer and content creator and is best known for belting out covers of songs by some of the better-remembered scene bands of the past decade. At some point, Ben discovered K’s videos and reached out to via Tik Tok to see if she wanted to be featured on a single track. That track became two, then three, then four, and pretty soon a full album. They first started talking over the summer and by fall Matriarchs’s second album Year of the Rat was rolling on Upstate Records.
Now well into 2021, Matriarchs seems unstoppable, releasing new singles and videos almost monthly, and covering artists as varied as Hatebreed and Florance and the Machine. There aren’t really any other bands out there at the moment willing to play around with the stone and iron pallet of metallic hardcore in the same way that Matriarchs are, so we wrangled them into a Zoom call to see how they do it.
Interview was held via Zoom on December 3, 2020. The transcript has been edited for both clarity and brevity.
How’s the reception been for the new record?
Ben Levi: Mostly positive reviews. I’m in a couple of other bands and the word kind of spread through them about the new record and the fact that this project was coming back. It’s been pretty dope.
K Enagonio: For me, this was my first full-length record. I’m in another project called Chasing Satellites, but I’ve only ever put out Eps, and the band that I was in Australia, we only put out an EP as well. So this was super exciting for me.
What’s the difference between working on an EP and a full length?
K: We didn’t really talk about it when we started. I was just really excited to dive in. Ben basically found me on Tik Tok during the summer and hit me up and was like, “Hey, do you want to feature on a song?” And then that song turned it into a full length. But as far as vocal strain, I mean, I took adequate breaks and stuff between songs. It’s not like I recorded them all in a day or two. We did it over a couple of weeks. And I had lyrics that I’ve been saving up for something like this. It was easy to jump in and get to writing. Ben’s had some of these songs written for… How long?
Ben: Some are really old. Some are about 10 years old. I knew I had to test the water with them though. I had to plan the whole time. To see how she felt about each. And over time it turned out she liked them all. I knew from the beginning that I wanted her to be the singer. I didn’t want to overwhelm her right away though. I had 20 tracks backed up. But when I realized she could just pump stuff out I would send her 3-4 tracks at a time to work on newsworthy stuff for, like lyric videos, and things like that, and she would just do it. I would tell her that I’d need something for these songs, like, tomorrow, and she could crank it out. So we became a kind of content factory for a while. We’re constantly making new content to promote ourselves.
K: With COVID we were kind of blessed because we had the time to create all of this content. I mean, if you’re not making content right now, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
It sounds like a lot of these songs were almost finished by the time you started working together. How did your collaboration change the nature of some of these compositions?
Ben: K’s very flexible. In adapting this material to her, she kind of melded into it and made it her own. That was no problem. And now we’re working on new stuff. We’ve already got another full-length pretty much done. Now that I know how she works, and what her goals and interests are, musically, we know how to do this all to fulfill everybody’s ambitions. But the original material, she was just down and did everything we needed
So K, what was it like to work with Ben through that process? Did you feel like you were able to make these songs personal?
K: Instrumentally, no, I didn’t want to change anything. This is Ben’s baby and I wanted to respect that completely. When it comes to lyrical content though, I write a lot about mental health. Like, we have a song about sleep paralysis. I have a lot of friends in my life who have experienced sleep paralysis and I actually experienced it for the first time recently. Which has now inspired even more music. But I didn’t want to change anything instrument-wise. I thought the songs were great. And this was my first time working within the hardcore genre. I come from post-hardcore, so to go into something that was a little heavier was kind of a challenge for me. But it was fun! I love being challenged. That’s the exciting part about working on music for me.
What is the difference between post-hardcore and metallic hardcore in your opinions? These genres don’t seem like they should be that different, but they really do have different scenes.
Ben: I think we’re experiencing that right now. When Matriarchs started we were a kind of by the numbers hardcore band. Now, that K is in the mix though, it’s become more of an artistic endeavor for me. She kind of inspired me to do more. She just has more range than a typical hardcore singer and it’s challenged me to be more experimental. Even though we come from different backgrounds, I love post-hardcore, I love screamo, I love all kinds of music. I have a lot of different influences and I’m totally fine with pushing the envelope. And where we’re going there’s not going to be a lot of bands that sound like us, because of the way we came together and developed over time. Because we do have traditional beatdown parts that can sit well in a dirty club atmosphere. But we can also play, you know, larger theater-type shows, because K’s got the melodies and the range. So we have to match that. This record is a big step up from the last one because of her. So we’re experiencing right now what people are gonna think about the project’s direction.
K: Yeah, like Ben said, it’s exciting! It’s an opportunity to not only play with traditional hardcore bands but all kinds of bands. I think the crossover is a really cool. And having more opportunities is obviously better.
You both have your own businesses, several businesses, as I understand, how do you manage your schedules and stay on your grind?
K: I think I can speak for both of us. We don’t have an off switch. We just work, work, work. And when we’re not working, we’re trying to find more work to do. He’s working on music every day. He also runs a business. He also just started a new little side venture, which I think he’s super excited about. And then for myself, I don’t like taking breaks. I don’t like taking days off. I feel guilty. I feel like I’m fairly financially driven. I always have been.
Ben: Yeah, also I have a little one and he’s autistic. So there’s a lot of work that is involved in that. He’s up at two in the morning running around, full of energy. So sometimes, we’re doing the same thing.
So naps, right? That’s the secret. You don’t actually get sleep at the night.
K: Yes! Take naps. Even if it’s only 20 minutes.
How do the both of you deal with burnout? Do you have any advice?
K: I’ve been making YouTube videos for the past 10 years. And at one point, I did 1000 daily vlogs and wrote every single day for 1000 days. And at the end of it, I definitely hit burnout for the first time in, like, 2016. I was doing daily content. I was also making content for Escape the Fate and New Year’s Day while they were on tour as a videographer, and I was also selling merch for them as well. At the end of that tour I made a video and I was like, “Hey, guys, like I can’t do this anymore. I’ve never experienced anything like this. And that was the first time I hit burnout.” Ever since then I’ve made a conscious effort to take some breaks or a day off here and there because it is something that is necessary for not only your mental health, but for your physical health as well.
Ben: I kind of just let it come. I am one of those guys who’s just driven and will go until I pass out and then I’ll sleep for like 20 hours.
So you’re perpetually in that Seinfeld episode where Kramer sees how long his car can go without gas… but the car is you. Is that is that healthy?
Ben: I highly doubt it. I do not recommend it to anybody.
That was gonna be my next question, is there too much of a culture of hustle for business owners and musicians?
Ben: You know, that’s kind of like the one way that I consider COVID-19 a blessing. Because I think everybody had to ease up a little bit and had a moment to get off the wheel. But yeah, like, there’s a culture that perpetuates this stuff. Everybody’s making money. Everybody’s selling stuff. If you don’t, you’re going to die. There aren’t that many ways of making money. Even if you’re a blogger, you’re selling something, yourself. You’re trying to get traffic to your blog and monetize that somehow. It works because everyone thinks that way. They have that desperation programmed into their brains. It’s just that simple. I mean, is it too much? Yeah, but do I see an alternative. I don’t. People would have to abandon their need for material things. I don’t see that happening. It’s hard but I want to get my message out there to people and you have to stay on your grind if you want to do that.
K: You have to hustle. That’s how you make it in these streets.
Oh, one more thing. How did you settle on the name Year of the Rat for the album?
Ben: A couple of things. One, I was born in 1984. That was the year of the rat. This year, 2020, was also the year of the rat. Rats have a reputation as being snitches and bad dudes, so 2020 is kind of the year that the bad guys won, you know. Also, we had a global plague, which rats are also associated with. They’re seen as carrying diseases. So we thought there was a lot of symbolism there.
And the cover art?
Ben: We wanted something that would meld the diversity of the band, showing a mixture of Latin, Native American and European heritage, combined with the Chinese Zodiac. I think we got the vibe right.
Image courtesy of Matriarchs.
You can follow Matriarchs on Facebook.
Read our review of Year of the Rat here.
Buy Year of the Rat via Upstate Records here.
