Drowning Season

 Formed in early 2000, The Drowning Season is a guitar based gothic rock band based out of Baltimore, Maryland (USA). The current line-up consists of Matt Slowikowski (vocals/programming), Michael "Chewka" Marchewka (guitars), Brendan Tobin (guitars) and Sideshow (drums, bass, synths, etc.). With it's strongest line-up to date, emphasis during the upcoming year will be on promoting our second full length CD, CURSE. Obviously, live ventures will continue to be the norm as well so look for The Drowning Season at a venue near you.

 You were formed back in 2000.What was the main reason that pushed you to form the The Drowning Season?
Matt: The Drowning Season was the name of my former band. We formed in the late 1980’s and produced two cassette demo tapes in 1991 and 1992. I stayed in touch with our guitarist over the years and in 2000, I asked him to play on a few songs I had written. We wanted to write original songs that were heavily influenced by our favorite gothic rock bands, namely The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission (UK) and Fields of the Nephilim. Things just went on from there.
What is the current line up of the band and what is the role of each member in the music composition?
Matt: I’m the vocalist and I write the lyrics as well. I’ve written most of our songs except for the guitar parts, which I’ve always left to our guitarists. I program the drums, bass and synth parts too. The guitarists are Michael (“Chewka”) Marchewka and Brendan Tobin. Chewka has been in the band since 2002, while Brendan joined only a few months ago. Sideshow is our long suffering drum machine and a distant relative of Doktor Avalanche.
Tell me more about your new release "CURSE."
Matt: “CURSE” is our second full-length album, behind “HOLLOW.” We collected some of our best songs that we had written over the years for this CD. Like our other releases, it was recorded and mixed in a professional recording studio, but it was mastered by Chewka in his home studio. We loved the results so much that we’re now beginning to record songs for our next CD in his studio as well. “CURSE” was released in February, 2009, to great reviews. Many of the songs from that CD are played in our live set today.
What was the strongest emotion when you started recording "CURSE?"
Matt: That’s a tough question. Many of our songs deal with anger and betrayal, usually involving a former love. In the title track I sing “Curse my eyes for having ever seen you, curse my mouth for the promises I swore, curse my heart for having ever loved you, curse my soul forevermore.” We’re definitely not a “feel good” band, but I guess that goes along with the band’s name!
How is the gothic rock scene in US? Are there any new bands that you admire?
Brendan: As a form of music, the gothic rock scene has been getting smaller in the U.S. in recent years. There are very few bands that still play this style of music. The club scene is almost entirely EBM and industrial. The good news is that the goth scene itself is still very strong, and open to the music if you bring it to them.
Matt: Brendan’s right, there’s really not that many of what I call “old school” gothic rock bands in the US today. I still love listening to The Wake, but as for new bands, I enjoy The Daughters of Bristol quite a bit. If we were talking about bands from Europe, I’d definitely include NFD and Star Industry.
Tell me about your live shows. What is the feeling on the stage?
Matt: I’m usually sweating, nervous and waiting for the drugs to take effect. No, I’m kidding, the drugs kick in way before I go on stage. We love to use lots of fog, so we own two high powered fog machines with wireless remote controls. On a good night you will never see us. We have been doing this for a very long time, so I feel that today we are as good as we’re ever going to get as a live band. The feeling on stage is very intense. We are very professional and give every performance our all.
What makes you different than the other bands?
Matt: I believe that we possess whatever it was that attracted us to gothic rock in the first place. It’s not easy to put into words. Some old Sisters or Mission songs made me feel alive inside, like electricity was coursing through my veins. Listening to some old Nephilim tunes was like having a religious experience, like I was listening to God and His angels speaking directly to me. I think that we have that same effect on people. We speak in a language that most bands have never heard.
How difficult is to find a contract with a record label?
Brendan: The record industry is going through a lot of changes right now. It's difficult to find a label that can actually help you in any way. They have very limited financial resources to put into bands right now. There are very few record stores in the U.S. that will carry Gothic music anyways, so physical distribution of CDs doesn't translate into a lot of sales. Fortunately the internet makes it easy to distribute music online through sites like iTunes, ReverbNation and FiXT, and that money can go right to the artists.
 Are there any plans for a tour or something?
Matt: We would love to tour, but it’s not financially possible for us to play in Europe right now. A US tour also seems unlikely since many US clubs that play dark music either do not have live bands or are not interested in bands that use real guitars. We would have more luck if we jumped around onstage while pretending to play keyboards.
Do you have a message to all the people that support you all these years?
Matt: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We do not take you for granted and we promise to keep delivering the best old school guitar oriented gothic rock we can. One day I hope to see all of you in person and shake your appendages.

Kostas Sotiriou