xTHERE IS ONLY ONE TRUTHx: guilt

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

guilt

The seedling of Guilt was planted in the autumn of 1991 when Christian McCoy, Kyle Noltemeyer, Lee Fetzer and Jon Smith began playing music under the name Step Down. One fall afternoon, i stayed around and watched the band practice. For the fun of it, the band began playing covers and i grabbed the microphone and joined them. The following weekend, Step Down played a birthday party for Ben Lord. They did not have a singer, so moments before their set they asked me if I was familiar enough with their songs to sing with them. The show turned out to be quite a bit of fun. I, without so much as a lyric written, preached about nonsense politics before every ssong. No one could tell that the band was winging it, how would they know, it went over quite well. So at the end of the evening, the band approached me and asked if i would assume the position of vocalist. I, who would never pass an opportunity to shoot off my mouth, gladly accepted the position. The band played feverishly for a year. Stepdown became and emotionally and politically fueled machine, challenging everyone in the scene, especially the Nazi faction which appeared to be growing in the region. Stepdown was fun for us all and we had a good time playing shows together. This remained true until the following Autumn. It was early September when I came into practice and announced that I wanted to leave the group. My depression was beginning to worsen and i could no longer justify playing in a group where I felt that I was talking about politics which the group as a whole did not fully support. I needed to start a band that focused upon depression, a way to express the ambiguity of the condition. I explained my concept thoroughly. Kyle, Christian, and Jon decided that they wanted to be a part of this change, so we began Guilt that day. I presented four songs that I had written over the summer while Endpoint was on tour. Those songs were : Scarlet, Teal, Rust, and another song which never made it out of the writing process. We agreed that we would release the final Stepdown songs under the name guilt with a new label from Orchard Grove called Initial Records. So before i left for Europe with Endpoint, we went into Mom’s studio and recorded the “Empty?” seven inch. Guilt began playing shows, and instantly attracted a very violent crows. For the first two years there was rarely a show where the band didn’t have to stop playing because of a violent altercation. By the following summer, guilt had already expired, Jon did not have the dedication, Kyle and I were beginning to argue about shows, and Christian was losing interest. Kyle and Christian were trying to continue the band without Jon and myself, but couldn’t seem to make things stick. Guilt was asked to play a show with Avail at Tewligans in Louisville. i went to the show and Kyle told me that their new guitarist and drummer did not bother to show. So I called Jon and we decided to play a set with them. The show went wonderfully. We then decided to record the songs at DSL studios the following week. If you listen closely one of the songs didn’t have an ending so we improvised. Everytime I listen to these songs I am still suprised that we sounded together. We hadn’t practiced in almost a year. Things went so well in fact that the group decided to play together again. Dennis and Andy paid for the recording and eventually put the ten inch out on Initial. Christian decided to pursure his new band, Ford, so we asked Ashli State f she would join the group. The dynamic created between Kyle who was a devote christian, Ashli who was an obstinate and wild woman, Jon who was allusive, and myself who was constantly floating between the highs and lows of depression was accurately represented in our music. Guilt never found a home. Crowds were not receptive to our style, for at the time people only wanted melodic emo or barchord mosh. In 1997 Guilt played a reunion/final show and released a final seven inch. - Duncan Barlow from the comprehensive CD.

guilt - empty 7'' (initial records)