sydney deathstyle merchants deficit

1. Would you please introduce yourself and what you do in the band, where you guys are from, and how you would characterize the music you play?

We are Deficit from Western Sydney, Australia. Nath on Vocals, Mac on guitar, Michael on guitar, Blake on bass and Zak on drums.

We are influenced by our roots in metal and metallic hardcore and fusing it with our favourites from that Roadrunner Records era mid-to-late 90s period. We call what we do "Deathstyle." If I had to sum it up into a sentence, it would be if you took someone like Limp Bizkit and instead had James Hetfield and Dimebag Darrell on guitar.

2. Can you tell us a little about the band’s origin story—how you met, when you formed, et cetera?

We formed back in 2019 in Sydney. We all come from the same scene, and Nathan was writing some riffs and putting a band together with Blake (who was on drums at the time.) Mac joined and brought Zak with him. Nath moved to vocals, Blake moved to bass and the band was formed. Michael joined a few years later. He started as our producer and we hit it off so it made perfect sense.

3. What was your initial vision for the band? You guys first came on my radar in 2020 with the Window of Pain trio of tracks, and in many ways you don’t really feel like the same band. Your current approach reminds me of what Monsters was doing in the late-2000s—I guess you’d say they were nominally deathcore, but they brought serious bounce and groove—and in the same way you have crafted your own distinct sound. How has that vision evolved?

Like any band, you don’t nail the exact sound you want to create right off the rip. We are very proud of every release we have done but that being said, it just takes time to find your "sound." That requires regularly writing and releasing music to hone your craft, whilst ensuring you aren’t affected by trends and stay true to your authentic self.

 Our sound is an amalgamation of every member, condensed into a form of a band we’ve always wanted to hear. That is an ever-evolving endeavour, and with every release we get closer to that.

4. What bands served as your gateway to heavy music and are there any bands or artists in particular you are particularly influenced by?

There’s no short answer in terms of our gateways to heavy music. The list would be 1000 bands long. It’s incredibly varied between all of us. It ranges the entire alphabet - from Anthrax to Zao. To sum it up we all just love heavy, authentic music. There are no artists we are particularly influenced by. It’s one of the exciting things writing in Deficit - the songs can take any direction and still feel like us.

5. Australian metalcore and really just heavy music in general is pretty much the envy of the globe—how does a band stand out with not just so much great music per capita but just so many bands on the scene period?

Being a good band that writes good music is just the ticket to entry these days. You have to have a unique and authentic vision that encompasses EVERYTHING you do. That comes from being brave enough to be vulnerable -  to allow your own voice to shine through, take that where it naturally leads and not be influenced by trends or others.

6. Who are some of your contemporaries, either in Australia or beyond, you think are doing great work?

There are honestly so many, and once again the list would go forever. There are so many bands here doing incredible things and really raising the bar globally, especially from our hometown. Locals like Speed, Justice For The Damned and Polaris just to name a few. The drive and determination those bands have are very inspiring to us.

7. What have been some major highlights of the band’s existence so far?

Getting to tour with Alpha Wolf and Malevolence has been a big one. As well as releasing the Deathstyle EP. To see how positive the reaction has been to it after all the hard work we have put into it is very fulfilling.

8. That Deathstyle EP just dropped and it is outstanding. Can you walk us through the writing and recording process a bit, as well as the finished product? What was the inspiration behind the tracks, what were you going for, and what is the meaning behind the EP’s title?

The writing process is very collaborative. We are all involved in varying degrees from song to song, we’ve all written riffs, lyrics, vocal patterns and drum patterns and we all support each other without ego, so it’s always pretty pain-free writing music together.

When it came to recording the EP we wanted to pay homage to some of the biggest albums of the late 90s/early 2000s. Albums like Significant Other by Limp Bizkit, Iowa by Slipknot and White Pony by Deftones are just some of many we discussed. They are all great sounding for different reasons, and are all very unique.

We wanted this EP to sound huge and polished, but also still feel like you’re listening to a band in a room, and have a level of "rawness" to it. So we made sure to adopt that mindset at the start.

It meant deciding upfront the kind of tones and vibe we wanted to accomplish, making sure we got the source tones right and committing to them. It’s all real drums and real amps. The only drum samples used are of the actual drums we recorded.

The meaning of Deathstyle is a summation of who we are. “Death” refers to our tastes in the extreme end of metal and hardcore combined with “Style” that refers to our tastes that's centred around really strong grooves, big hooks and catchiness.

9. Going back in time just a bit, what was the inspiration behind the First Blood/Stallone-esque Jingle All the Way Schwarzenegger sound clip in “Original Criminal”? It’s very advanced.

We are all big Arnold fans. The sound clip wasn’t meant to stay in the song- it was only in the demo as a joke but after recording the song, we realised we couldn’t live without it so it had to stay.

10. Last question: You’ve been granted magical powers to bring five bands or artists past or present, living or deceased, together, at their peak, for a one-night show only. What’s the lineup?

There’s only one answer to this, and it’s Great Southern Trendkill-era Pantera ripping a 2 hour set.

PHOTO CREDIT: EMILY ROLLES