Opera of the Working Man, a newfound supergroup composed of Sock Goop, Postictal State, and Preta, released their debut single on Dec. 23. “Lowlife”
This experimental ambience builds with an undercurrent of anticipation; it is then cut abrupt by sound - shouts, shrieks, distortion entwined. Dystopian; modern; haunting. Utterly unique and captivating; at times, it evokes terror; at times, it evokes comfort.
It is also simply a cool song.
I spoke to the members of Opera of the Working Man, as to how the band got started and how “Lowlife” came to be:
LP: How did the band get started? How did you all join?
OotWM: Our band was born out of a hardcore band we’re all a part of called Sarcophilia. Justin plays guitar, Tyler sings, Drew plays bass, and Brandon from Crumbs Big Rickets plays drums. We had a practice scheduled, but it turned out that Brandon couldn’t make it, so we decided to just have a writing session with the three of us (Justin, Tyler, and Drew). After working on a new Sarco song, I (Drew) wanted Tyler and Justin to do some screaming on a Sock Goop song that I wanted to finish. So I showed them the song, and Justin recorded some gnarly vocals. Then it was Tyler’s turn. When I pressed record, Tyler made noises that sounded like a mix of a crying baby and a screaming fox. Justin and I were disgusted at him nonchalantly making the sounds that the antichrist would make during birth. We knew then that we had something unique as a group. Justin as a guitarist and vocalist, Drew as a producer and percussionist, and Tyler as the lead vocalist and part time noise maker. We eventually decided to officially start a band and named it OPERA OF THE WORKING MAN.
LP: Who are your influences?
OotWM: The three of us have a wide range of influences that makes each of us bring a unique direction to the music. Justin brings in a lot of metal (especially black metal) influence into the mix. His main influences for this project are The Body, Vampiriska, Lifelover, and Portal. This is evident in the guitar work and his vocals. Drew is inspired by electronic and industrial artists such as SOPHIE, Nine Inch Nails, and especially experimental hiphop artists like Clipping, Dalek, and Vince Staples. These influences are apparent in the strange production and electronic elements like the use of samples, synths, and electronic drums. Tyler’s main vocal influences come from depressive suicidal black metal and powerviolence. Some artists that influence his work on the project are Missouri Executive Order 44, Deathpile, Murmuure, Full of Hell, Swans, Sargeist, Stalaggh, The Men, and Prurient. This smorgasbord of music gives us our unsettlingly animalistic sound.
LP: What are the origins behind the band name?
OotWM: Our project is a dramatization of the spiritual plight of the working people. More concretely, our project consists of sequential narratives that one may understand to be separated into different acts. While ever present suffering is inherent to existing, the anxiety and depression that come from being part of the working class are only amplified. There’s layers of suffering stemming from oppression of the horrors that come with life itself, and from other people in the form of political, financial, and emotional subjugation. We believe that any material understanding of the struggle of working people is rationalization of their oppression. As an alternative to oppressive rational materialism, working people should seek a spiritual solution outside of their earthly existence. Mankind cannot rely on itself to solve its problems. Rather, it is the divine that possesses this spiritual solution. In our case, we manifest this spiritual solution through a work of musicalized theory fiction which we call OPERA OF THE WORKING MAN.
LP: Tell me about your single “Lowlife.” What was the writing/recording process like?
OotWM: Like many songs in this realm, “Lowlife” was created out of pain, but in a very interesting way. I (Drew) first came up with the bones of the track when I was extremely sick. I felt terrible, and was having horrible fever dreams and hallucinations. And the content of those hallucinations/fever dreams are what led me to go down into my studio and try to exorcise the feelings of despair and self hatred that they brought me.
After having made the electronic elements of the song, I took my setup to practice with me, let the others listen, and gave them context about the origins of the song. Justin laid down some very atmospheric black metal guitar. His tone was made in an interesting way by running it through two amp simulations in series and soaking it in reverb. We then had Tyler make his signature nightmare inducing squeals mixed with black metal shrieks. We used a mic that came with a Playstation 2 game to record his vocals, and sent it through a Korg Monotron Delay synth for the vocal effects.
While he was recording, Drew messed with the delay settings. After recording vocals, towards the end of the song, Drew recorded some live drumming while Tyler played the recorder in the background. After this, Drew held up a China cymbal while Tyler beat the crap out of it. This is the source of the random exploding sounds towards the end.
One interesting thing about Lowlife and OPERA OF THE WORKING MAN in general is that there's an improvisational aspect to it. Drew doesn’t usually send the template for the songs ahead of time, so the day of recording is when the others get to hear it for the first time. Nobody has any idea what the other members will do for the song until it happens. And the songs aren’t mixed and mastered afterwards like how most bands do, it happens during the writing and recording of the song.
OPERA OF THE WORKING MAN
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