Of Feather and Bone put out one of the best records of 2020 with Sulfuric Disintegration, so I was really excited to speak with drummer Preston Weippert.

Like Rats played with Of Feather and Bone in Baltimore a few years back, and I was very impressed with them. Since then, they’ve released two albums and dropped any pretense of being anything other than a death metal band.

Fascinatingly, they compose most of their music through improvisation and jamming, which is not typical for most death metal bands. Of course, I wanted to get into the weeds with Preston and really understand their creative process, and how they hold their output to such a high standard while creating music through improvisation. Hint: they’re willing to scrap an entire album’s worth of material if they think it isn’t up to snuff.

Listen Here

Learn more from Preston here:

Show Notes:

  • [01:54] Is it cheating to do a two foot blast?
  • [04:30] Of Feather and Bone writes their songs by jamming together—which is somewhat unusual for a death metal band. How much is pure improvisation?
  • [12:29] Of Feather and Bone’s most recent record “Sulfuric Disintegration” is a rewrite of an entire album that was scrapped.
  • [19:37] Many bands start strong and get worse over time, but Of Feather and Bone has had the opposite trajectory. And, the interplay between hardcore, death metal, and other extreme genres.
  • [29:10] More on improvisational composition and developing the skill of improvising.
  • [39:28] Denver has an excellent scene for extreme music. Where did this come from? How are bands handling Covid?
  • [48:28] Preston’s electronic project Volunteer Coroner—and learning to appreciate ambient and noise music
  • [01:00:49] Learn more from Of Feather and Bone, Volunteer Coroner, and Trust Collective

Links and Resources Mentioned: