Interview with DOUR
Rezine: Who plays in DOUR?
Morgan: Dour is B. on (electric and upright) bass and vocals, me on guitar and vocals, and Mike on drums.
Rezine: How did it all start?
Morgan: Mike and I had jammed a few times something like 10 years ago, before going our separate musical ways. We were talking last year and it turned out that his old band Draize was breaking up, and my band Grue was slowing down as well -- both had members moving away from Boston. We asked B. to join because I loved her vocals in Stranger (which was also winding down around that time) and knew she also played bass and cello.
Rezine: What do you guys express with your music?
Morgan: For as long as I’ve been writing songs seriously, I’ve tended to write about things that made me angry or sad. Depending on the band, that might come out as melancholy, sarcastic, abstract, etc. but at the bottom of it all, there’s negativity. I’d been working on a metal concept record where the lyrics and music were fairly convoluted, and it got to the point where there was (and still is) so much terrible stuff happening that I couldn’t keep up, trying to tie things together into this complicated narrative mess. So, I wanted to do something that was more direct.
Rezine: What are the lyrics of your songs about?
Morgan: I always feel a little silly just explaining songs, but on the other hand I’m not writing them to be mysterious or vague, so… “Yesterday Never Comes” is about nostalgia, and how any idealized past has harsh and ugly sides. “Childhood’s End” is about the political and economic power of the baby boomer generation, and the huge impact they have on the entire world. “For the Fallen” and “No White Crosses” are about the asymmetrical war that the government and justice systems are currently waging against Black people in America. Right now we’re finishing up a song about AIDS in the 80s, and how it was ignored and laughed at by people in power from the Reagans on down. Losing an uncle in the early days of the epidemic had a huge effect on my childhood, and years later I’m still learning to put it in perspective.
Rezine: What's coming up for the band?
Morgan: We’re finishing up making tapes of our first recording, and working on new songs for the next one. It was fun to incorporate some upright bass on “For the Fallen,” maybe we’ll have some percussion/upright/cello trio parts next time around.
Rezine: Do you guys have other projects?
Morgan: Speaking for myself, one of my projects has been bugging Mike and B. about getting Draize and Stranger back together but I’m not sure if that’s in the cards. Aside from that, I’ve been playing in a few metal things: Hexer (thrashy black metal), Din (weirdo dissonant black metal), and Grue (black metal two-piece). Hexer and Din are very much other people’s projects where I play a supportive role, whereas Grue has been a really intense creative outlet for me and the drummer over the past few years. All those are more or less studio bands though, because of work and travel issues. Finally, I’ve recently joined Morne on bass. They’re an awesome, super heavy crust-doom band; after listening to their records for years I’m really stoked to be playing with them. Maybe someday I’ll join a band with more than one word or five letters in the name, who knows?