WARGASM are spitting venom

WARGASM appear in our Winter 2023 Issue with cover stars Green Day, 070 Shake, Militarie Gun, and Arlo Parks. Head to the AP Shop to grab a copy. 

On a fall night at the historic Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, singer and guitarist Sam Matlock is doing pull-ups while his co-vocalist and bassist Milkie Way is finishing her makeup with curlers in her hair. There are suitcases open, a pair of cowboy boots poking out, in the legendary green room. Tonight, the London duo who make up the nü-metal-meets-hardcore outfit WARGASM are preparing to open for one of their heroes, Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor. 

Though it might be assumed that a tough British punk band on their U.S. leg could thrash a room pre-show, save for the cowboy boots, that’s not WARGASM’s style. Matlock and Way have an attention to detail that is carefully balanced, with an inherent punk ethos that is reflected in their music, and the band aesthetic — a quality that has certainly helped get them this far. “Fuck it, let’s do it,” Way suggests with curlers in tact while Matlock reassures me to “do what you gotta do.” The level of substance and confidence they hold themselves to triumphs over what may be on the surface; nerves or panic.

Read more: 15 greatest supergroups across rock, punk, and metal

“If you’re going to do anything that you’re about to put your heart into, just take a deep breath and stand still for a second and let everything leave you and let yourself fill up with whatever you need to do to get the job done,” Matlock expresses. They exchange motivation along with witty banter, effortlessly demonstrating the closeness and understanding the duo share. We stop for a few photos along a narrow pathway behind the venue before hitting the stage, where they explode before the audience with a tenacity that rumbles throughout the theater.

While most of the audience wore Corey Taylor shirts or stood with arms crossed for the beginning of the night, plenty were bouncing to the riffs of Way’s bass and Matlock’s shrieks. WARGASM thrashed around to an 11-song set, featuring many tracks from their debut LP, Venom, that would be released into the world in a few weeks after the shows. At one point, Way sat atop an amp, urging and waiting for fans to open the pit. And after a rendition of N.E.R.D.’s “Lapdance” that mixed in snippets of Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff,” the pit was certainly open, and in full swing. After the show, the band sat down with AP for a glimpse into touring, completing their first record, and perceptions of the music industry. 

How does it feel to open for Corey Taylor in a city like LA?

SAM MATLOCK: It was good. Playing with Corey is a dream come true. Getting that kind of validation from one of your idols growing up is awesome. In Los Angeles, crowds need to learn how to mosh. [Laughs.] However, in the U.K., London is like a bloodbath. It’s just strange at the major cities here, all the mosh pits will be all right. Whereas the major cities in Europe are the best place to get in a pit. Odd correlation that is.

It was a sight to see you take charge of the venue, introducing the fans to yourselves and your music. How do you approach captivating an audience and trying to win them over?

MATLOCK: I don’t think we treat our gigs like an objective. I don’t like this mentality that exists between bands these days of, “We have to do this on social media. We have to write some more songs. We have to drop an EP because that’s how you get big.” As cliche as it is, a lot of bands used to be like, “It’s about the music, not about being famous.” I think we might have lost a lot of them. I feel like too many people are focused on the grind.

When we play gigs, we are there to play the gig. We’re just playing the show because we want to play the show. We want to have fun, and we want to share our music with people. If people aren’t vibing out, I’m not trying to win them over — just offering them something that they can enjoy. We just put it out there. If you like it, that’s cool. If you don’t like it, you don’t. That’s also cool.

MILKIE WAY: Sometimes they bite. Sometimes they don’t.

It’s definitely more of a rare thing to see people prioritize the actual music, as opposed to the stats and numbers related to streams and views. 

MATLOCK: We just had the traditional age-old argument with the label about online stuff, trying to build a viral moment and all that. When did everyone stop investing in getting a nice studio with a big set of speakers and just writing some songs?

WAY: When did that become the least important part of the entire process? When did TikTok become the reigning supreme, all-important tool to discover music and to promote your artists? People in the industry are getting lazy, and I’m not afraid to say it. People just go on TikTok and scroll, instead of going to gigs and doing the grind and actually investing in young artists.

MATLOCK: That doesn’t mean you can’t still do those things. You can have an amazing song and be like, “Fuck, this song is sick. I want to make a little bit of content for it.” That’s fun. That’s healthy. We just want a bit of magic back. So we don’t really care if you like it, but if you do like it, welcome to the family. Come on board and there’s a whole world that awaits you.

You’ve both spoken in the past about the redundancy of the typical business model for releasing new music. You drop singles and maybe an EP, then comes the album. Did you still feel this way leading up to the release of your debut LP, and if so, do you have any methods to releasing that could substitute the rather standard model?

WAY: Now that you say that actually, people do focus on the single format. It’s a good way to experiment with your sound, and to drip-feed things without committing to one thing. I do think long-form media is important. I do think albums are still important. I don’t think they’re redundant. But people always say, “People don’t want long-form media. People just want this. They want quick. They want snappy.” But the amount of people that have been saying to us for the past two years, “Where’s the album?” There clearly is demand for it. I don’t think it’s redundant at all, you know?

MATLOCK: Milk, what’s that stat you say?

WAY: The average watch time of a video on Instagram is nine seconds. People will only watch your content for nine seconds.

MATLOCK: Here’s the problem with your stat. The word you’re using is “average.” Now the good bits of the music scene, the alternative music fans, the people who buy AP, the people that come to shows, the people that keep this thing alive in a digital age, they’re not fucking average. They’re different. That’s why it’s alternative, you know? That’s why they want an album because their brains still fucking work. Their brains haven’t turned to fucking mush yet.

Speaking of the album, Venom is your debut full-length. Were there any differences going into creating this record as an LP compared to when you released your EXPLICIT: The MiXXXtape EP?

WAY: It wasn’t really two separate entities. We didn’t sit down and say, “We’re gonna do an EP. That’s finished. [Now] we’re going to do an album.” We went into the studio when we decided that we wanted to do the EP and then the further album, and we said, “Right, let’s make a pool of songs. Let’s just start writing because we don’t really have an end objective.” We don’t really have an overarching concept storyline or anything yet. So let’s just see where we go, see where it takes us.

Some songs ended up being pulled into the EP realm, and some of them ended up being in the album pile. “D.R.I.L.D.O” and “Fukstar” both ended up on the EP because we felt like those fit in more with the “Salma Hayek”s and the “Pyro Pyro”s that came before, and then there’re things like “Venom” and “Death Rattle,” which are clearly a step forward. They were more distilled versions of us that had been filtered down more and just felt like they needed to be on an album.

Were there any tracks that posed some difficulty to polish and complete where you kept returning to them and adding or subtracting ideas?

WAY: There were a couple of tracks where we had to debate whether it was going to go on or not. There’s one track that I really liked that didn’t make the cut in the end. So it’s not so much going back and revising songs, even though we do go back and visit them a lot. Because like Sam said, it’s never fucking done. You always think of something else to add or to take away, but it’s more so deciding what goes on and what doesn’t go on.

MATLOCK: Yeah, and we’ll do that. But I mean, it’s a good argument to have, isn’t it? There were a couple [of songs] that needed revisiting for the lyrics. I know everyone thinks we’re fun and stuff like that. But there’s a lot of thought that goes into the lyrics; a lot of honesty. So, you know, we might not be a band that people think is super intelligent, but I would like people to read the words. That was important. There’s one called “Sonic Dog Tag,” which is as close as we can get to a ballad, because I thought an album should have a ballad. And that was an ex trashing me in songs, so I was like, “All right, it’s my fucking turn.” [Laughs.] But we ended up with that song, and I’m concerned, Milkie, that it might be a bit too mean. 

WAY: Nah, fuck ’em. 

MATLOCK: Thanks, baby. [Laughs.] There’s lots of going back to the drawing board and making sure your feelings are in the right place when you start shouting at the microphone.

One of the singles featured on the album includes Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, “Bang Ya Head.” How did that collaboration come about? Was it from opening for Limp Bizkit on tour?

MATLOCK: We kidnapped his dog and said, “If you ever want to see this puppy again…” 

WAY: That didn’t happen. Don’t print that.

MATLOCK: No wait, print all the things I say. [Laughs.]

WAY: We were in LA writing, trying to finish off the album. We were with Jason [Aalon Butler] from FEVER 333 and letlive., and Sam brought this idea because he didn’t want to come empty-handed. It was the basis of “Bang Ya Head,” and it was actually meant to have Jason on it originally. But then we thought, “You know what? We’re gonna go on tour with Bizkit. Let’s see if Fred wants to jump on it as well.”

So we left a little space and sent it over to him. But when you send a song over to Fred Durst with an empty space on it, he just fucking fills the whole space, and you can’t really be mad about it. We said, “Sorry Jason, but there’s not really room for you anymore.” And he was like, “You know, I’m not even mad about it. This is fucking great. This is golden.”

MATLOCK: I think maybe we were just a bunch of people that like fucking about. He’s a very creative person. He’s an incredible lyricist, incredible talent. Very smart guy, and he’s been very kind to us, helping us out on the journey.

You hold yourselves to high standards, stating how “if you can’t release something as good as Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, it’s probably not worth releasing.” What did the moment look like when you felt Venom was complete and could share it with the world?

MATLOCK: Milkie, I wish you hadn’t said that.

WAY: I wish I hadn’t said it, too. [Laughs.] It wasn’t for anyone else. I don’t want anyone else to hold us to that standard. That was purely for me to push myself to try and make something as good. 

MATLOCK: An artist’s work is never done. That’s the saying. If you leave an easel up, an artist will keep going back and painting on it for the rest of his life. It’s the same as that. Fortunately, WARGASM is like this duality: There’s two people. Because if you left me alone with the album, I would rewrite it for the rest of my life, and it still wouldn’t be perfect to me. But luckily, we have Milkie Way, who goes, “This shit is sick. Fucking drop it.” And I’m like, “That’s right.”

There were just a few songs that started popping out like “Venom,” being one of the best ones I’ve ever written, and “Death Rattle.” There were a few things that started popping out that I think just felt really fucking good. And we were like, “Yeah, it would be really cool if other people heard this.” I think that’s as far as the full process went on. Tying the knot and releasing it, you know? I think for those angry kids that want to mosh and shout, they’re really going to like it. The angry people are really going to connect to it. Milk, are the sexy people gonna like it? 

WAY: Fuck yeah!

MATLOCK: There you go. You got sexy and angry people. I hope people think it’s special because it feels special to me.