It's been a minute since No Echo last covered a band from the Indianapolis punk scene. Today, we're focusing attention on D.R.L.N., a quintet from Indy that will be releasing a 5-track EP called Old Ways, New Language later this week.
The band pulls from punk, noise, metallic hardcore, and heavier sounds, never settling into a single style. That same resistance to straightforward categorization shows up in vocalist Maxwell's lyrics, which confront American power, imperialism, capitalism, propaganda, and violence, but leave space for listeners to make their own connections.
"D.R.L.N. is the first band I ever tried to actually be in," Maxwell tells No Echo. "I'm a fully non-traditional musician." Maxwell joined D.R.L.N. to test themself as a vocalist and performer, while their bandmates brought experience as multi-instrumentalists. Maxwell sees their lack of traditional musical background as an advantage.
"That rawness has molded itself into the current, front-facing, what-you-see-now facet of this band," the vocalist says. "I think all of that mashed together creates a really unique zone of expression."
Old Ways, New Language focuses on old ideas reshaped in new forms. Maxwell says the EP's title ties its message together. The artwork uses two lasting American symbols, Christ and the flag, while the music refuses to pledge allegiance to any single style of punk.
The lyrics on 'Old Ways, New Languages' look at patterns that seem historical but keep resurfacing in new forms. "Maybe we see these same actions disguised in modern language, online culture. Coded language," the singer explains. "It just was like the perfect title for this relatively swift piece of music."
Maxwell writes about systems and their consequences, not just politicians or news cycles. Much of the EP addresses American attitudes toward the world, but they leave interpretation open. "Sometimes it feels important to make lyrics malleable to people's personal experience, struggles, emotions," says Maxwell. "That doesn't mean you can't, as the musician or writer, guide where the area of thought goes."
Maxwell's writing draws from poets and fellow lyricists as much as hardcore itself, with Hart Crane, Mari Evans, Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, Sly Stone, Iggy Pop, Lydia Lunch, Alan Vega, and Frank O'Hara among the writers they consider important.
"Words have always been very interesting to me, and the paths you can take with language," Maxwell says. "In music, you're allowed to play with how you want to broadcast something. It doesn't have to be a formula."
D.R.L.N. approach hardcore by resisting boundaries. On Old Ways, New Language, punk and noise mix with metallic hardcore and heavier sounds. Maxwell says this is just the natural outcome of the band's lineup.
"We have always been this kind of band, where we just write what we want to write. What we want to hear," the vocalist says. "Our influences bleed together and coagulate into strange forms. It's both natural for us and intended, at this point."
On the subject of Indianapolis, Maxwell believes the city has been overlooked, even compared to other Midwestern scenes. "It's just about workin' hard and havin' fun when you're making music in this city," they say. "No shame in taking yourself seriously and wanting to make stuff you're proud of, whilst simultaneously trying to support friends, colleagues, and mutuals around you."
Maxwell sums up the Indianapolis ethos in simpler terms. "It ain't a competition," the singer states. "The love of the game. It's the most important pillar of the whole idea. If you don't have that, it's going to collapse."
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Old Ways, New Languages is out August 21 via Find A Way Records.
Tagged: d.r.l.n.
