On their new four-song EP Burning House, Berlin-based Drink Deep strip hardcore down to its emotional core and rebuild it in the image of early-to-mid ’80s Washington, D.C.—urgent, melodic, and deeply human. Clocking in at just six minutes, the record wastes no time delivering high-energy, emotionally charged hardcore that nods to Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, and Fugazi without feeling trapped by reverence.
Recorded back in May 2024, the EP marks a sharp step forward for a band that has steadily refined its voice since its first demo, balancing raw speed with vulnerability and intent. As vocalist Phillipe and guitarist Lucas explain below, Drink Deep isn’t about recreating a sound as much as channeling the feelings and values that made that era of hardcore matter in the first place.
Drink Deep — with the name being such a big giveaway — seems to be a band that had a very clear mission and concept right from the start. Is that the case? Who started the band, and how hard or easy was it to find the right people for it?
Lucas (guitar): Mutual friends and chance encounters in Baltimore and Berlin brought us together years before Drink Deep ever materialized. “You’ve got to meet Chill Phil,” my friend Carlos (of Police & Thieves) used to say. Once it became clear that Philippe was moving to Berlin, we knew for sure that we would be starting a band together.
We shared a love for a relatively niche period of hardcore, so that was an obvious jumping-off point. But so what? We like the same bands. Big whoop. What made it special was that the music awakened the same raw feelings and values in both of us, and that’s what ultimately became the true concept for Drink Deep: emotion, melody, earnestness, awe, simplicity.
Finding the right people is something I credit to Philippe: he has a special ability for pulling on threads and connecting with people. It turns out that finding the right people for the band didn’t mean finding people who liked the same music as us; it meant finding people who liked the concept. Without this last element, I think Drink Deep would be stuck and wouldn’t be evolving the way we are today.
Philippe (vocals): The mission was always very clear in terms of repping D.C. (Lucas is from there) although in my mind I wanted it to be something fast and raw like Skewbald. With Lu’s playing style and Praise background, it turned out to be a little more polished and melodic. The two of us started with this idea shortly before the pandemic because I knew I was moving from Chile to Berlin in 2020.
It was hard to get things rolling during those two strange COVID years, but finally, we met another American expat, Andrew (drummer of No Longer At Ease), through an acquaintance and hit it off. Months later, we found the missing piece of our puzzle: a German scenester named Marcel (drummer for many bands) who wanted to try bass and nailed it quickly. Things took off once the four-song demo tape came out, and we played our first shows in late 2022.
The evolution from the demo to the first EP and now to the new Burning House EP feels very organic, with the band just getting better and packing more energy into the songs. How do you think the band has evolved, and what were some of the focal points for Burning House?
(Lucas): It feels glacial when you’re in it and somehow, looking back, you can appreciate how much things change. Our evolution has been a constant learning and relearning that our medium is not “early DC hardcore” but rather the feelings inspired by that music. We’re slowly realizing that we aren’t abandoning ourselves or our identity by experimenting.
As a result, on this record we’ve allowed ourselves to become maybe 20% more audacious in our songwriting. That audacity has meant asking questions in search of new sounds: “Is it still a hardcore song if it begins with a 55 second bass intro?” “Would it be blasphemy if we played Bad Brains with dive bombs?” “Can you write something that sounds like if Fugazi and Minor Threat co-wrote a song?” Every time, we find that the sound of Drink Deep is still there.
(Philippe): I feel our evolution was organic as well. After a while, the song writing became more collaborative and we got to know each other better as friends and musicians which always helps the process. Some different styles were brought into the mix this time, less intentionally and more at random. For instance, take a part that sounds like Bad Brains but throw in some Rites of Spring or Fugazi in there too.
People compare the Drink Deep EP to Minor Threat and they’re not wrong since there’s a very evident influence of theirs on us but the great thing about 'Burning House' is it’s harder to pinpoint obvious comparisons. Structures and combinations are more varied, we managed to beat the 55-second mark and enabled more room for creativity and vulnerability.
Every lyric is very personal so when it came down to laying down vocals, the results were pretty much first take and felt extremely emotional. I’d never yelled like that before or felt things so intensely during a recording.
Hardcore has become such a broad umbrella that covers a lot of different sounds. However bands like Drink Deep that are clearly inspired by early — mid-'80s DC hardcore are few and far between. How do you feel about that, and what do you think your place is in hardcore 2025?
(Lucas): It’s true, Drink Deep is heavily inspired by a sound from a really narrow slice of time and space, a discography you could probably listen to in its entirety on a single summer Sunday. However, there’s a counterintuitive freedom that comes from playing a genre that is so firmly rooted in the past and was only ever played by a handful of bands, who themselves were outliers in the longer history of hardcore.
Whenever you have a small sample size, you’re more likely to get weirdness and randomness, and that’s what we see in the sounds that came out of DC in the early days: these bands were weird, not just within hardcore but also with respect to one another. What I see in common across the weirdness is a shared approach to music: an unrelenting curiosity and a stubborn hope that informed how they evolved the genre.
This means, we’re not shackled to Minor Threat or Rites of Spring nor are we sentenced to ghost-write their B-Sides in perpetuity. Instead, we are encouraged to explore and to be weird, to be curious and hopeful. I think this is exactly what we need in 2025, both in and out of hardcore.
(Philippe): It feels cool to be one of the few bands heavily inspired by mid-'80s DC hardcore and at the same time I don’t think about our place in the scene or in hardcore. I never have, I just do what feels right with my 3 friends. We don’t play too often which makes every gig special, regardless of the venue or fellow bands on the bill.
If people who recognize our sound dig it or if those unaware of it become curious about our influences and manage to learn about the musical history that impacted us then great. Maybe our place in hardcore is to push forward by redefining an underplayed style of the past.
The new EP’s closing track, “For," might be my favourite. The bass build-up, the desperation in the vocals, the melody. What’s the song about lyrically, and what inspired it musically?
(Philippe): Mine too, both musically and lyrically it’s my favorite. It all started with Marcel’s bass riff (probably fueled by Embrace or Fugazi) and the rest of the song writing from the others’ contributions became so melodic and cohesive. The guitar riff that plays through the verses is the main motif, which then rings alone after the breaks into an explosive bridge. I think it’s where the Rites of Spring inspo shines through the most. It’s just the kind of music I needed to channel all my pain.
The lyrics on "For" are about my 10-year relationship collapsing, putting an end to my marriage and what I thought was an everlasting love. Those words of reassurance offered a strong release after being emotionally drained for months trying to fix and hold on to something incurable. We’ve ended our live set with that song many times and it becomes a moment to lose it, jump around and yell in a catharsis. It’s hard for me to breathe or move after “For” ends.
If you want people to take away one thing from listening to Burning House, what would that be?
Philippe: Simplicity with a touch of complexity in hardcore punk is a beautiful thing. Hopefully this EP captures that in the ears of the listener and it leaves them wanting more.
What’s next for Drink Deep? An album seems like a logical next step?
(Lucas): While preparing for the release of Burning House, we actually wrote a 6-song EP. These songs, which we finished recording in July, will come out next year on Thirty Something Records, from Berlin. Musically, this EP pushes boundaries and draws on influences we never thought we’d mix into hardcore.
What we found in the writing process is that the sounds of DC’s Revolution Summer are incredibly resilient and compatible with all kinds of melodies as long as they are emotional and urgent. The newest material takes that process of exploring influences even further and does so more confidently.
Our one weird trick has been to take a style that everyone vaguely remembers and start to swap out the parts. It’s like the opening scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones attempts to switch the golden idol with a bag of sand. Will anyone notice? Will everything come crashing down?
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Burning House is available on vinyl via Control Records.
Drink Deep on social media: Instagram
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