Interviews: Pythonic

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Metal band Pythonic from Canada. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it or come out just like that?

The band name was something we mulled over for a while. Everyone had a lot of suggestions but Pythonic stuck. It was thought up by our original drummer AJ Rettger and we decided to go with it moments before we took the stage for the first time.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

Metal music has been a core foundation for everyone in the band growing up. Metal is a very inclusive family and tends to draw a lot of the loner kids to it. I was influenced at a very young age into metal. I remember lying under my bed listening to Judas Priest’s British Steel on cassette through my Fisher Price tape recorder. The community around going to shows, the energy of the crowds, the die-hard fans. how can you not want to be a part of that? Watching people mow to your music in real-time is so surreal, a feeling not found anywhere else.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

The original synthesis of the band no one knew beforehand. Vince came from a farm about an hour outside Saskatoon. Dustin is originally from Melfort and was found through a Kijiji ad by Vincent, and Ryan was born in BC but grew up in Saskatoon and crossed paths through a shared guitar teacher Jared McRorie. As we needed new members then we would get people we knew to join. Our original drummer AJ was from bands Vince tried starting before. The original Bass player Alyxx Frayne was a high school friend of Ryans. Jordan Gall the EP drummer is a high school friend of Vince’s. Current rhythm section brothers Jayden and Morgan Warriner were also high school friends of Ryan’s

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Dustin - Devildriver

Morgan - The Black Dhalia Murder

Jayden - Rise Against

Vincent - Metric

Ryan - Cannibal Corpse

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Life is my greatest inspiration for writing music. Anytime I need to process some stuff or have a lot of emotions I will sit down with my guitar. I will noodle around and usually, some kind of riff will come out. Sometimes I'll be able to just sit down and crank a whole song in 30 minutes and sometimes it's a long stew that I'll come back to later down the line to finish. Every riff I have personally relates to something that has gone on in my life and it can be as serious as a breakup or as dumb as just being pumped to have purchased a freezer.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our last gig was July 4th at The Black Cat Tavern in Saskatoon in support of Dying Remains touring through. We normally will not take a weekday show but we are friends with Dying Remains so we thought it would be fun to play a show with them. We had quite a decent turnout for a weekday in Saskatoon better than we have ever had. We have a video of the full setup on YouTube @pythonicband.

7. Where would you like to act?

Any stage with a decent crowd is where we like to be. The real dream though is to play some of the bigger local festivals and get on a tour with some bigger bands. Loud as Hell has been a festival we have had our eyes on playing for a while now. 

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

The band I think would be very attainable for us to tour with and I think we would do very well together would be Cancer Bats. We have covered a few of their tunes over the years. Their original guitar player Scott Middleton was a huge inspiration to Vincent growing up. We are both bigger dudes with a thick rhythmic playing style. I grew up going to many of their shows and watching their music videos for the Hail Destroyer album on much music. Mudvayne would also be a super sick band to tour with along with Devildriver everyone in the band loves Devildriver. Dez is an amazing vocalist and one time at a show in Saskatoon he pulled Dustin onto the stage thinking he was Rob Flynn from Machine Head and their likeness is quite uncanny.

9. Whom not?

I don’t believe there are many acts we would not work with. obviously any act with negative connotations associated with them we would not be as keen to work with.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

Vincent used to get stage fright a fair bit for the first few years of shows. His remedy was downing about 2 to 3 beers before hitting the stage and having a few cigs. These days we all try to perform as sober as possible but the inside joke among the band is “show smokes don’t count” so a good chunk of the band has a few smokes to level nerves before the shows. This is what the band does but do not recommend anyone else following what we do.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

Probably our most notable inspirations would be a lot of the bands we have done covers for. We have covered two Cancer Bats songs Lucifer's Rocking Chair and Hail Destroyer, Devildriver Back With a Vengeance, System of a Down Science, and Alice in Chains Them Bones.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

I had one person ask me for my used guitar strings at one point. I never did give any strings though it seemed weird to me. I also had a request from a fan to play America F*** Yeah from the Team America World Police Movie since we were playing on July 4th.

13. What do you think of your fans?

Our fans are awesome! Very supportive and always seem down to mosh!

14. What do you think of our site?

The site is very well put together and easy to navigate. It is nice seeing a site not super overrun by ads. The articles are also nice snippets of each band written by the bands.

15. Something to add?

Watch out for our future releases. We have some amazing tracks in the works and this is only the start!