Band: Beggars
From: Richmond, Virginia
Their formation story:
(Shane Johnson, drums): Beggars started coming together towards the end of 2019. I had just finished tracking drums for the most recent Fairweather record, Deluge, and the first Be Well record, The Weight and the Cost, was in the finishing stages. That’s when the pandemic hit. I knew that the Fairweather record was now going to be a long process and I didn’t know when Be Well would actually start doing anything. So I had some time on my hands.
"I had known Taylor Kincaid (vocalist) for a while and saw that he was starting a band with another guy I knew from around town, Zach Crockett (guitar). Taylor had posted a quick little snippet of them messing around at practice and I was surprised by how heavy it sounded. We chatted a bit about what they were doing and he sent me a practice space demo to check out.
"I realized it was just the two of them and a drummer so, unprompted, I wrote and recorded a quick bassline on top and sent it back. I’d been wanting to play guitar or bass in a band for a while and thought this would be a fun project even if nothing came of it. He called me later that day asking if I was interested in joining, so my ploy worked. After a few failed attempts with drummers who didn’t end up working out, we managed to scrape a demo together.
"Unfortunately, timing wise, that was when the pandemic started loosening its hold on the world and every band ever all started making plans at the same time. Be Well and Fairweather both released records within a month or two of each other and started booking out for the next year. And just like that I didn’t have time on my hands anymore.
"Fast forward a year or so and things started slowing down. The problem was Beggars still hadn’t nailed down a drummer. So begrudgingly I let go of the dream of not playing drums and I became the drummer. It’s fine, I’m over it [laughs]. We brought in Taylors friend, Tony Hacker, to play bass. With the lineup solidified we wrote and recorded the EP, Follow Me.
"We recorded it with producer (and Fairweather guitarist), Ben Green at Ivakota Studios in Washington DC. 'Follow Me' was released last month (September 2023) on new Richmond label Frigid Fingers Records with a physical release coming soon."
Their sound in their own words:
"Describing sounds and influences is tricky because we’re all coming from very different musical backgrounds and upbringings. I joke that you can count on one hand the number of bands that all four of us love. I think that makes writing interesting tho. When I listen to us, and knowing the other guys listening habits, I hear bits of Converge, Terror, Misery Signals, Comeback Kid, Darkest Hour, Majority Rule, Bane, and Trapped Under Ice."
Latest release info:
"The songs themselves are very linear and never stay in one place for very long. They cover a lot of ground in 3 minutes. When recording us Ben referred to them as 'a real mouth full.' They also stay at max heavy pretty much the entire time, which I feel is a very Converge vibe. The dynamics end up coming from parts being stripped back or opened up versus just playing lighter/harder.
"Lyricaly, Taylor likes to write in short thematic bursts, like small concept archs. So I feel like we’re just going to end up only releasing EPs, like mini concept records. According to Taylor, Follow Me is based on a cult and its followers. He uses that as a jumping off point to explore themes like manipulation, confinement, abuse of power, greed, lust, violence, and death. You know, real sunny stuff."
Future plans:
"The band is still very new in terms of being active, still very green. We’ve only just recently brought this out of the practice space. So our immediate plans are to simply play as many shows as possible. However, since we live in a time of short attention spans, my own very much included, we’re all itching to start writing more consistently again now that Follow Me is finally out. Out with the old in with the new, right? Or is that just the commodification of art and I’m part of the problem?"
What other bands from the region should we check out?
"Richmond seems to be in the middle of a big music boom, especially with hardcore/heavy music. There’s new bands every day it seems. Enforced has definitely been doing cool things but since this is a 'new bands' thing I’ll shout out some most fans of this kind of music may not know.
"Killing Pace, Heavy is the Head, Die Today, Terror Cell, Blazing Tomb are all cool bands. Theres also plenty of great non-heavy bands as well like Xed Out (ex-The Bled), The Barbed Wires (Count Me Out, Strike Anywhere), Northeast Regional, and Sea of Storms (which full disclosure: I also play in)."
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Beggars on social media: Facebook | Instagram
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