BORE
1. Welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you please introduce yourself, where you’re from, and what you do in the band?
My name is Danny Kopij. I'm from Queens, NY and I'm the guitarist and secondary vocalist in BORE.
2. When and how did you guys form?
We formed in 2018. Our singer Branden and bassist Sid used to be in a band called Mutiny Abroad. When that band was winding down, Branden reached out to me about starting something new. Him and I got together in my studio space and got the bones of a couple songs together (songs that would eventually become Limb, Ashtray/Libido and L’Appel Du Vide). Once we had some stuff we were happy with, we showed it to Sid to see if he’d be interested and the rest of the first lineup followed soon after. Had our first full band practice on 8/1/18.
3. Who would you say are Bore’s primary influences, and are there others that may be personally significant but aren’t necessarily directly manifested/aren’t immediately obvious in the band’s sound?
When we started, we were looking towards bands like Botch, Zao, Every Time I Die, The Chariot, Converge and Glassjaw for inspiration. After our 2nd EP, we started digging into our non-heavy influences more and more. Everything from Cake, to Mr. Bungle, to Can, to Chuck Mingus, to Run the Jewels, to Explosions in the Sky. Not to where we try to write songs where they sonically resemble those artists, but hearing riffs, song structures and melodies that make us feel a certain way and then trying to chase the same feeling within the sound that we do. Sort of forcing us to be more creative inside the box.
4. Let’s talk a little about last year’s LP Feral: what themes and sounds do you explore on it, and what was the writing and recording process like?
We started writing the album in earnest when Dale Luce joined as our drummer in summer of 2020. Because of COVID, we had to cancel what would’ve been our first tour and commit all our time to writing and demoing. Both writing and recording were seamless. Went in to record with our friend Adam Cichocki (who is back behind the boards for our next album) in Bayonne, NJ in December of 2022. We lived with Adam for 2 weeks basically living and breathing the album- and Adam is the type of guy that perks up when you bring in left field ideas. So there was a lot of everything and the kitchen sink energy recording Feral.
Branden and I tend to write a lot of the lyrics together in almost these therapy/pre-production hybrid sessions where we’ll hang out, talk about life/what’s going on in the world, find a shared feeling and viewpoint based on the feeling an instrumental we have will give us and go from there. For Feral, there was a lot of justifiable social unrest, too many people being terminally online and losing all common decency and empathy towards others, and our personal feelings of self loathing and inadequacies towards everything happening in our respective lives at the time. So in its general terms it’s a record that wrestles with hope vs. hopelessness. Do we step up or give up?
5. So not to bury the lead here but I guess burying the lead: you’ve signed to Ferret Music. How did this come about, and why is this so significant to you?
After we put out Feral initially on Silent Pendulum, we got a message from a guy named Jon Sinko sharing kind words about the record. We ended up texting a bit, becoming friends and Jon quickly put us in touch with his old friend Carl Severson from Nora and Ferret/Good Fight, who unbeknownst to us was in the beginning stages of getting the Ferret name back. Carl called me one day and told me he officially got the Ferret name back and if we’d be interested in being one of the first bands for the revival which was the fastest yes we’ve ever made in this band.
Ferret always had the cool, forward thinking and unique bands of the genre. If you asked any of us to name our top 10 favorite heavy bands, at least a quarter of them are Ferret bands. So to get to be amongst these bands that were so important to us- it’s deadass the honor of a lifetime. Also Nora was my first proper Hardcore show in October of 2004 and I wore that zip up Nora logo hoodie every day for years. It literally disintegrated off my body. So for me personally, it’s the honor and also the full circle of it. Also we’ve been friends with Wounded Touch for a bit, so to get to do this alongside our people has been extra special.
6. Wounded Touch released their individual Ferret Music top fives on Instagram, and I thought it would be fun to get yours!
Gotta do 6 because figuring out which one to cut is stressful.
Scarlet-Cult Classic
Every Time I Die-Hot Damn!
A Life Once Lost-A Great Artist
Poison the Well-Versions
Zao-Funeral of God
Madball-Legacy
7. What’s on the horizon for the band/what should we be keeping an eye out for from Bore?
We’re going in to record a new album in late October with our new drummer Fernando Morales. Got a whole ass body of new songs we’re really proud of and can’t wait to share. So that’ll be out in 2027 on Ferret. We’ll also be spending a lion’s share of 2027 and 2028 on the road, so if you see us come to town—come hang.
8. I’d like to close with a fun exercise. I’ll say a band or term, and you say what comes up for you organically in ten words or less. First one: metalcore.
Great when it’s good, awful when it’s bad.
9. Mathcore.
Modern Bebop Jazz.
10. Every Time I Die.
Trailblazers.
11. Barricades.
Gross.
12. A band called Bore.
Fuckin’ nerds.