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Teodor Reljic talks to Dripht, our aggro-punk darlings, as they get ready to invade the UK with their “militant funk”
Nick Morales, Dripht’s frontman, picks me up from by the Tal-Qroqq swimming pool, and takes me to the band’s nearby garage. The floor of his car is strewn with fliers, and there are fading band stickers everywhere: nu-metallers Mudvayne, industrial rockers Pitchshifter, the local ska-punk band ISkandal (in which Dripht’s bassist Fredrick Abdilla plays guitar). Nick’s diminutive frame and beady, bespectacled eyes will have you thinking of Weezer sooner than Rage Against the Machine (to whom Dripht owe some stylistic kudos). Indeed, the band is hard to categorise. Their “militant funk” fuses rock, punk, ska, reggae… “Each one of us has different musical tastes,” says drummer Mike Briguglio. “Sure, there are bands that we all listen to, like The Clash, Rage Against the Machine, Gang of Four…but on the whole, our tastes are very varied.” The band’s history is equally amorphous. Dripht have been through a whopping six bassists since the band’s conception in ’98, and Nick was to take up drumming duties until Mike took over in 2000. Apart from co-founding Norm Rejection, Mike drummed with Filetti and Friends between 1994-2002, and Nick was a member of Noetic, Oblong, the short-lived but popular hardcore metal outfit Lynch, among others.
Dripht keep their songwriting organic, and the variety of styles works to their advantage. “It’s something that strengthens the band – we’re always learning from each other and integrating different elements in our sound, which I think is crucial – the ‘band’ feeling would collapse if one person controls everything,” says Mike. “One of us would come up with a riff, for example, and we would build on it and see what we can get out if it,” says Fredrick. “We don’t really discuss anything beforehand, which is why lots of different styles emerge, I think.” Although they’re usually lumped into the ‘punk’ scene, “our music is so broad that when people ask me, I just tell them we play rock and roll,” says Mike. Experimentation is a natural part of their writing process; they don’t do it for the sake of it. “All that interests us, at the end of the day, is that we have a good song. Now whether that means adding a solo, or removing something, is beside the point. It’s important for us to remain honest – we’re not going to write something just to get on the radio, or to win a Bay Award, for example.” Which they did achieve in 2004: for ‘Mark Barsley’, the single off their self-titled debut EP. They released their second EP, ‘Global Warning’ last year – it features the singles ‘Rockin’ to Resist’ and ‘Old Times Gone Astray’, as well as a cover of the Riffs’ ‘Dance Music For Depression’.
What direction do they see themselves heading in? Again, they’re leaving it to chance: “After the success of the first EP, we inevitably veered towards a ska/punk style, so maybe now we’re looking for something heavier and more riff-oriented,” says Fredrick. “But these are just the impressions I got while we were jamming, we’ve never actually spoken about it.”
They’ll be playing in London in early July, an opportunity that came by due to “lots of hard work, and lots of hours spent online…” according to Nick. “We just looked at whatever bands might be related to us and got in touch with them.” This may be a dream come true for many local bands, but Dripht are far from dismissive of the Maltese scene. Guitarist Daniel (aka El Flambo, who, according to his online bio, was raised by chimps on the Canary Islands) points out that there is a very broad spectrum of genres on the island, “from the most extreme metal to punk, to indie…” who are very tightly integrated, according to Nick, since you can’t help but mix with other styles due to Malta’s size: “you’ll find punk bands playing with death metal bands, and so on…”
“Obviously, certain things are annoying – like the government spending thousands on the Eurovision while giving next to nothing for other genres,” says Mike. “But we’re not going to waste time brooding over being ‘trapped’ here…if you want to achieve something, you have to fight for it.”
Dripht have a political edge to some of their lyrics – but I don’t ask them about it. I don’t know, I don’t want to fall into that cliché of a journalist looking for a provocative angle to expose – and it seems especially pointless with a band that clearly has few pretensions and is happy to just wing it. It does bare its head however. After the interview, Fre gets indignant as his bandmates dedicate time to discussing the World Cup: “umbaghad it-tfal imutu l-Afrika…”
www.dripht.com
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