A new hardcore music project has emerged, adding jumpy, energetic beats and lively vocals to an aggressive and brutal sound.
Day of Peace is the latest product from local drummer extraordinaire Sean McCune, who has wowed audiences with his hip-hop skills in AEIOU, and his intense mania behind the drum kit for Killfloor, Destroy Nothing, Analog Lab and other projects. With all of those projects in the rear-view mirror, McCune has debuted a new sound that mixes styles from all of his previous works, while handling all of the songwriting, performing and producing himself.
Way Down, the debut EP from Day of Peace, was released on May 15. While the songs obviously bang, the mosh-pit moments are mixed with bouncy breakdowns. McCune’s rap flows and melodic vocal tones add an element of fun to the hard-hitting sound.
This first release is all McCune, but the Day of Peace live band is rounded out by Kai Evans, Andrew Cole, Holden Warzecha and Sebastian Waggoner.
“This is a style of hardcore that I’ve always wanted to pursue, something that was kind of fun while still being heavy,” McCune said during a recent FaceTime interview. “That was the main goal that I had in mind when I approached Kai, is I wanted to write something that was fun and also heavy and meaningful. I was lucky enough to find some people who were willing to play the music I was writing. It differs from the other bands I’ve been in, because it’s not as heavy, but it’s still hardcore. It has some older influence on it, and it’s heavy in the heart.”
In true hardcore music fashion, the lyrics dive into deep emotions. Notable passages include, “Can’t breathe with the curse weighing down on my life / Makes my heart break a thousand times” on “Chokehold,” and “I can’t sleep, the world reflecting inside me / Can’t let it tear me apart piece by piece” on “Reflection.”
“I wasn’t necessarily going for a theme so much as I was just trying to write about how I felt in the moment, or how I felt from a period of time in my life,” McCune said. “I wanted to write about my personal struggles and how they made me feel. There is one song on there that kind of has a little bit of a straight-edge vibe, called ‘Me First,’ (about) taking responsibility for yourself and choosing a better path in life. I was basically just trying to write through tough times that I’ve been having, and trying to relay those messages of anger, grief and just general sadness in how I see the world, and how it affects me personally.”
Day of Peace has offered McCune a welcome opportunity to work through his emotions.
“Writing these songs has been very helpful, and I haven’t really felt that way before about music,” he said.
McCune is used to putting songs through a number of revisions—but this was not the case with Way Down.
Although Sean McCune performed all of the drum, bass and guitar parts on the EP, he only handles vocals in the live setting.
“Anybody who’s worked with me musically knows not to fall in love with the sound or with an idea that I have, because I’m bound to change it, and the more I listen to it, the more I want to work on it, and the more I want to perfect it,” McCune said. “With these songs, I didn’t have any of those feelings, and I was ready to just put them out. … I feel really satisfied with them. Everybody else in the band digs it, and that’s all I can really ask for, especially since I didn’t have all the members. I had to write the music, and I felt like I was casting a line. I was like, ‘Here’s all these songs I wrote; do you like them? Would you want to play them?’ Our next project will probably be a lot more collaborative, but as of this one right now, I wrote everything.”
Although McCune performed all of the drum, bass and guitar parts on the EP, he only handles vocals in the live setting.
“I’ve always wanted to do something like this, and that’s kind of why I made the band in the first place,” McCune said. “I wanted to do vocals, and these guys just freed me up to do it. They’re all so solid. They’re just holding it down for me, and I don’t feel worried at all that we’re not going to sound good. I’m just free to let go and act really crazy on the mic. It’s been very cathartic.”
The Day of Peace features others who are also taking on new musical roles. While Sebastian Waggoner (of Built to Break) remains on guitar, local photographer Kai Evans will be playing bass for the first time live. Andrew Cole jumps from being the frontman of I Lay in Static to the guitar, and Holden Warzecha is performing for the first time outside of his school band.
Warzecha said he’s enjoyed watching McCune “act like a fool, running around, doing his vocals.”
“These are really fun parts,” Warzecha said. “He has given me some breathing room, but the actual grooves are pretty creative for hardcore stuff. There’s a lot of kick displacement, and the snare and the kick play together a lot of time during two step parts and stuff like that. Those are things you kind of don’t hear, and it’s really fun to play.”
Evans said playing in the band is “an interesting change” for him.
“I’ve been at shows and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m not holding the camera this time; I have to go do that thing,’” Evans said. “It’s definitely something I’ve always wanted to do, and … this one feels right. These songs are fun; I’m having fun doing it; and I’m learning a bunch of new stuff. That one singular show with Palkia (the first iteration of Day of Peace) was the first time I played bass standing up. This is definitely fun.”
Said Warzecha: “This is my first band. I play in school, but this is my first hardcore band. This is my first time behind the kit in this setting, and it’s a blast. I can’t wait to start throwing my sticks at people in between songs and shit.”
Cole said he’s excited to be in the band, because the “music is amazing.”
“If I wasn’t playing in the band, I’d be the biggest fan, and I’d be at every show,” Cole said. “To be able to play in the band is really amazing. It’s a shift from my previous band as a frontman, to now on guitar. It’s honestly more fun in a way, because I’m hidden, and I get to do whatever I want instead of having to be the face of the whole band. Now they all get to have their eyes on this handsome man over here, Sean.”
