A Listener’s Guide to ‘Pariahs’ by Alienatör

On the eve of the release of their full-length debut, we asked Thunder Bay hardcore-sludge crew Alienatör to give us a track-by-track walkthrough of the fierce new record, ‘Pariahs’ (2019). Check it out…

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This is a little sound collage I put together that sounds like someone flipping through the channels. The voice at the end is cult leader Jim Jones. I have a lot of fun with sound manipulation and noise making, almost as much as writing songs and playing guitar.

False Hope

“Best of luck in your future endeavors.” The opening line of the album is what what you say when you fire somebody. It’s like saying fuck off but more politely. Themes are how people screw each other over to get ahead and how we delude ourselves that better things are coming despite the fact that the deck is stacked against us.

Morgue Bait

This one is about how we numb ourself to the pain and disappointment of every day life. It’s loosely based on the work of Gabor Maté and Johan Hari We overcompensate for lack of human connection with drugs, alcohol, sex, etc. and in the process slowly kill ourselves. Lalala. The crazy low vocals at the end are our pal Curtis Wilson from the band Norris. They rule and you should check them out. Then I made a field recording of a symphonic gong for the drone bit at the end, which I thought added a nice touch.

Wish in one hand…

Another hopeful tune. The full expression is wish in one hand, shit in the other and see which hand fills up first. This is about the drudgery of everyday and the lies we tell ourselves to get through it. The word “factotum,” is borrowed from the Charles Bukowski novel of the same name, if anyone was wondering.

((((((()))))))

I went to a friend’s house and he didn’t tell me that everyone there was going to be injecting heroin. When I came in, there was a needle on the table and a girl was on the couch with her eyes rolling back in her head and she looked up at me and said “it feels like I’m dreaming but I’m awake.” When I recorded the crystal bowls on this track, at a gong meditation I could hear those words in my head, for some reason and this interlude became about a drug trip or out of body experience. If you get this track on iTunes or Spotify it’s called “interlude 1,” cause they won’t allow you to create a title that’s just parentheses, which is pretty ridiculous.

Renovicted

“We’ll make it look nice so we can jack up the price. It’s poverty with a view.” I lived in Vancouver for a dozen years, then got priced out and had to leave. Renoviction is part of gentrification. Land-lords evict people so they can make renovations, then raise the rent. That’s why most people I know with families had to leave that place. The song is sung in the second person.

Drag the River

Thunder Bay is my home town and it’s where I live now. It has a bad reputation nationally for racism and also racism within the police force. Many indigenous people have drowned in a surrounding river and their deaths have been ruled not suspicious with little or no investigation. This song is more about the police and citizens and how we sweep it all under the carpet.

LRH

LRH is what Scientologists call L. Ron Hubbard. This one is about a cult called Scientology and how they brainwash people. I’m interested in cults, which also explains the Jim jones sample in the intro.

Rep Endo

This one is an older tune about the illuminati, the hidden hand, the lizard people and other David Icke theories.

oooo0OO0oooo

A little synth intro. We like to keep it weird and experiment.

Neon Black

This one started out being about phosphenes (those little shapes you see when you close your eyes) and ended up being about the psychedelic experience in general, specifically to treat depression, which I suffer from.

Dead Inside

Another emo tune about feelings. Specifically about my feelings about quitting music or giving up on life in general. It’s a cathartic song for sure. Purging all the feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. Negative tunes are kind of like a cleansing of negative emotions for me and my daughter played piano on the end so I was pretty stoked on that.