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| Image courtesy of We're Trying Records |
And that's basically how all the interviews happen. I get some sorta notion and then direct unsolicited questions to people who have better things to do than provide details, at length, about things that are easily open to interpretation, and then spill whatever I've squeezed out of these poor souls onto the internet.
For your benefit and mine, Harrison Lennertz (vocals/guitar) of Armbite was willing to talk to me (on behalf of himself, Marin Duff (vocals/bass), and Matt Guardiola (drums)) about the band's origins, the literal underground odyssey involved in making their debut LP, Dawg Rock Vol. 1., and even broke down the songs off their album, track-by-track, with analysis and deep lore for those who are perverted enough to want that sorta thing (like moi).
While Armbite are pretty upfront about their influences and what they want to sound like (basically Glocca Mora with a hard, Sweet Pill coating), what first attracted me to the band was not the obvious, but rather the subtextual stock from which they spring. To me, they are a band with a very classic, indie-rock vibe, one that is effortlessly fun yet insightful, stone-solid and serendipitous, devotional while still slightly droll in their approach to songwriting, reminding one of groups that are as soft yet dependable, hard-edged yet easy to love, and comforting but not coddling as Lemuria, Mixtapes, and Spraynard. They're in good company as far as my head-canon is concerned, as they are in real life, being signed to We're Trying Records, a label with one of the more consistent discographies in the whole of contemporary DIY and emo-oriented underground.
Hopefully, Armbite will be welcomed into the shelter that separates your ears (and you won't want to leave them out in the doghouse) after you check out their interview below. Dive on in! They don't bite... ok, so maybe they do... but it's like in a nice way, like a cat after you give them some really good scritches, or a brisk autumnal breeze that coolly caresses the tip of your nose while you sip a hot, spiced cider... You know, the kind of bite that's more of a kiss than a snap, of the sort that makes you feel less alone in this world, that kind of bite.
The following interview was conducted via email from October 12th through 14th. It appears in its original form, annotated but not edited.
Where does the name Armbite come from?
When we started playing together we started a groupchat, of which we made that drawing of the guy biting his own arm our groupchat picture. Eventually the time came around where we had to come up with a band name because we were about to get ready for our first gig; we were throwing around a bunch of names left and right, then Matt said something like "wait, hear me out. armbite," like the picture from our groupchat. That name just like instantly clicked for us, and it was pretty set from then. The only quandary we had was whether we do one word or two words, but it's just one word. For the record.
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| ...cute, yeah? |
If you were to sum up the Armbite ethos in three words or fewer, what would it be?
Fun, energy, instinct.
Fun, energy, instinct.
[Editor's Note: I honestly thought he was going to say "gotta have fun." Really throwing a curveball here.]
How important is maintaining an element of chaos in your dynamics as a band?
I think that the "element of chaos" comes a bit more naturally to us when we write stuff we think is fun and energetic – like when I write for this band, I want to write stuff that makes you go "hell yeah. This is crazy." We can't just do that all the time though, we need some quiet parts to make those ones stick out; we're not even really doing that super intentionally, it just feels right. I'd say our element of chaos isn't so much that we have the most absurd riffs and polyrhythms and lack thereof or whatever, we just like to keep people on their toes.
Dawg Rock appears to be a bit of an overview of your career as a band so far. Is this a correct assessment? How do you frame it for yourselves?
I'd say so! A lot of the songs on the album stretch back to as early as our first show, with probably the most recent one being written and put together last summer. We thought pretty extensively about if we'd rather have our first release be something shorter like an EP, but all roads came back to us wanting to put our first foot forward with a project that felt more complete.
Tell me about the recording process for this Dawg Rock Vol. 1. It sounds like quite the odyssey.
I think if it felt like an odyssey for anyone, it would have been Bridget*, who we actually tasked with recording the album. Her studio flooded on Christmas 2024, which was awful, and harder on her than it was on any of us. In spite of having to deal with insurance and whatever troubles with that, she was really determined to get us started on the recording process, and had secured us a couple of days at Hidden Fortress near the beginning of January for Matt to track drums, and they managed to record the entire album's worth of drums in that two day timeframe. What then followed was a long tedious process of weekly recording sessions, working around work and school schedules, done in various locations; we did guitars at The Meadow (R.I.P., shoutout Pru for letting us use your guitar amp), my vocals in my basement, Marin did bass at Bridget's apartment, and Marin and Matt did some additional vocal and auxiliary percussion recording in Matt's old basement (R.I.P. The Underworld). I even got Bridget to drive us out to my old college so I could get into the concert hall and record piano. It ended up taking us five months to record the album, and pretty much every session we did independently of each other, but Bridget really stuck it out for us and did the most to actually make this album happen. I'm really glad she has since also managed to get a new studio together, so for the love of god, if you want to record your music, hire her.
* Bridget's not in the band, but she was the recording engineer for this project. She also recorded our first version of "catsitting" like two years ago, our very first show was the last show for Bridget's old band and she said "I want to record you guys and I'll do it for free" so we took her up on it. We've remained very close to her and were very enthused to work with her for this project.
How important is maintaining an element of chaos in your dynamics as a band?
I think that the "element of chaos" comes a bit more naturally to us when we write stuff we think is fun and energetic – like when I write for this band, I want to write stuff that makes you go "hell yeah. This is crazy." We can't just do that all the time though, we need some quiet parts to make those ones stick out; we're not even really doing that super intentionally, it just feels right. I'd say our element of chaos isn't so much that we have the most absurd riffs and polyrhythms and lack thereof or whatever, we just like to keep people on their toes.
Dawg Rock appears to be a bit of an overview of your career as a band so far. Is this a correct assessment? How do you frame it for yourselves?
I'd say so! A lot of the songs on the album stretch back to as early as our first show, with probably the most recent one being written and put together last summer. We thought pretty extensively about if we'd rather have our first release be something shorter like an EP, but all roads came back to us wanting to put our first foot forward with a project that felt more complete.
Tell me about the recording process for this Dawg Rock Vol. 1. It sounds like quite the odyssey.
I think if it felt like an odyssey for anyone, it would have been Bridget*, who we actually tasked with recording the album. Her studio flooded on Christmas 2024, which was awful, and harder on her than it was on any of us. In spite of having to deal with insurance and whatever troubles with that, she was really determined to get us started on the recording process, and had secured us a couple of days at Hidden Fortress near the beginning of January for Matt to track drums, and they managed to record the entire album's worth of drums in that two day timeframe. What then followed was a long tedious process of weekly recording sessions, working around work and school schedules, done in various locations; we did guitars at The Meadow (R.I.P., shoutout Pru for letting us use your guitar amp), my vocals in my basement, Marin did bass at Bridget's apartment, and Marin and Matt did some additional vocal and auxiliary percussion recording in Matt's old basement (R.I.P. The Underworld). I even got Bridget to drive us out to my old college so I could get into the concert hall and record piano. It ended up taking us five months to record the album, and pretty much every session we did independently of each other, but Bridget really stuck it out for us and did the most to actually make this album happen. I'm really glad she has since also managed to get a new studio together, so for the love of god, if you want to record your music, hire her.
* Bridget's not in the band, but she was the recording engineer for this project. She also recorded our first version of "catsitting" like two years ago, our very first show was the last show for Bridget's old band and she said "I want to record you guys and I'll do it for free" so we took her up on it. We've remained very close to her and were very enthused to work with her for this project.
How did Dawg Rock Vol. 1. end up being the title of this album?
We've leaned into the whole "dawg rock" thing since early on, at least since I made the band Instagram and put "philly dawg rock" in the bio. So when it came time to think about a name for the album, it just felt like the most natural choice.
Is there a Vol. 2 in the works?
One thing at a time, please. We do have some songs I've written that we need to actually work on though – next project might be a quick, more emo-driven EP. Then after that we want to do a heavy EP, call it "harmbite" or something.
Were you ever worried that there were too many obstacles in the way of finishing this album or that the recording process would run out of steam?
Personally, no. Did it take a lot longer to record than I expected? Yes, but that's on my own naivety. Everyone involved was really committed to seeing this album through, and if anyone had the right to run out of steam while working on it, it would have been Bridget. She put in more recording hours and stuck through it harder than any of us. Like I said, hire her.
How did you get connected with Jack Shirley, and how did his work on the album help it become the best version of itself?
I just sent him an email. I reached out, he responded, we talked about working on the album, and he agreed to do it. It then took us several months to actually get the songs recorded and sent to him, but he did it. We took a page out of Haunt Dog's (also a Bridget project) book and tried to get someone experienced involved on our project who really could grasp the sound we were going for – for Filbert, Haunt Dog got the guy who did Ghoul Intentions, and we really liked a lot of artists and albums Jack Shirley worked on (Jeff Rosenstock, awakebutstillinbed, the last Gouge Away record, Greatest Hits by Remo Drive, etc. etc.), so we figured it would be worth a shot. I initially just asked if he could just master the album; he said he'd only do mixing and mastering at minimum, but he agreed to work within our budget, and he really helped us make it happen. He was great to work with throughout the process, provided a lot of great advice and much needed reality checks, and he really made the album sound awesome – we told him what we were going for, and he responded accordingly and exceedingly. Incredibly grateful that we got to work with him, and incredibly grateful for what he put into this album.
Do you have any strong influences outside of emo and pop-punk? If not, why not? If so, who?
For sure! At least personally, I listen to predominantly guitar music, and lately I've been really trying to delve into realms outside of the emo-sphere (that isn't to say there isn't an incredible amount of diversity within that scene – fifth wave emo is a beautiful hodgepodge of influences spanning far beyond emo revival). I've been enjoying a lot of more angular genres like math rock, mathcore, brutal prog, art rock, art punk, sass, and no wave, but I also grew up on classic rock, have learned a lot from jazz, and still enjoy genres like indie rock and ska (of course). Some bands that I've gotten into over the past year and have really stuck with me include Yucky Duster, The Callous Daoboys, black midi and Geordie Greep, P.E.E., Tera Melos (and pretty much anything Nick Reinhart), Black Eyes, Grocer, Wince, Black Matter Device, Ruins, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Dismemberment Plan, Fugazi, The Blood Brothers, Sajjanu, Charly Bliss, BCNR, Desparecidos, Fashion Tips, Glenn Branca, Koenjihyakkei, The Gerogerigegege, John Zorn, Lahnah, Marnie Stern, Mclusky, me and him call it us, Palm, Ski Club, The Great Redneck Hope, God Is My Co-Pilot, The Wicked Farleys, Basil's Kite, Show Me The Body, and Zeta. Less so me, but I know other influences in the band come from less guitar-heavy places too, some prominent ones being Kesha and spellcasting.
(I know I just dropped an insane list, feel free to editorialize)
[Editor's Note: I wouldn't dare.]
Explain to me what Dog Math is. I only made it to geometry in high school.
Yeah, it's a damn shame more people don't know about it. The American education system is failing, so a lot of kids don't reach these higher level math courses. I'd say it falls close to the level of AP Calc BC, but leans a bit heavier even into the philosophical approach of conceptualizing how the world works when you have the brain and body of a dog. It's a niche subfield but it's really interesting stuff, I'd encourage you to look more into it.
Explain to me what Dog Math is. I only made it to geometry in high school.
Yeah, it's a damn shame more people don't know about it. The American education system is failing, so a lot of kids don't reach these higher level math courses. I'd say it falls close to the level of AP Calc BC, but leans a bit heavier even into the philosophical approach of conceptualizing how the world works when you have the brain and body of a dog. It's a niche subfield but it's really interesting stuff, I'd encourage you to look more into it.
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| Image by Ruby Goren, Instagram: @rubyjgphotography |
Do you have any pets? What can you tell us about them?
I do! Back home I have a yellow lab named Stella and a siamese cat named Cleo (I don't think she's actually siamese, I think she's just a seal point domestic shorthair. She's got some subtle striping to her, and her head isn't weird enough for her to be a true siamese.)
Have any of you ever been bitten by an animal in a serious sort of way?
Yes actually! I work as a vet tech, but I've surprisingly only been really bitten once. It was when a client brought in what was essentially a feral kitten; I tried getting it out so I could weigh it and whatever, and the cat, being feral, rears around and bites me square on the finger, and its little canine goes deep. I'm like "okay, great. Hopefully this cat doesn't die in the next couple days." A couple days later, I get a text from my coworker telling me the cat died with neurologic signs. So now I'm thinking "great, that cat might have had rabies." I start freaking out a little, because rabies is lethal if it's not caught before symptoms appear, and it was taking an inordinate amount of time for my vet to get the cat sent out for rabies testing. I ended up being halfway through my post-exposure prophylaxis vaccination series when they tell me the test came back negative, so thankfully we were all good. I am now fully vaccinated against rabies, however.
What are the best DIY venues in Philly right now, and what makes them so great?
Philly Style Pizza has gotta be my favorite. I'm a bit biased, sure, because our drummer Matt runs Fortress, a booking group whose main operations occur at Philly Style, and I have helped out with, played, and attended many shows there (the first couple armbite shows were at Philly Style), but it's genuinely one of the best spaces. Mike is really generous to let us use the space as often as he does; he's no nonsense about it, but he really cares and wants to support the scene. Basement shows are definitely what Philly is known for, though, and I'd say my favorites right now are Greenhaus, Luigi's Mansion, and Dead Birds, because they're all run by people who honestly care about the scene, the bands, the space they create, and I actually enjoy going to shows there. If you asked me this question a couple months ago, though, I would have told you The Underworld, because I think that's like the platonic ideal of what a basement venue can be. It was Matt's old house, and whenever they had a show there, the planning was incredibly well thought out, there was always someone filming the set to document it in the DIY history books, and admission was typically ten bucks, always NOTAFLOF, and always a portion of proceeds going to a charity. It's not that these things are uncommon for DIY shows, but very rarely do you see a place that has all these features incorporated into a venue's operating model. Running a venue so selflessly isn't always feasible economically, I know, but I have a 2000s Jeff Rosenstock financial idealism towards music, and I think doing DIY isn't about making money, it's about making space for the music around you to thrive.
Where are your favorite local places to grab a bite in Philly?
Dear god here we go. My favorite cheesesteak is from Woodrow's, but if you don't like the truffle whiz, go down the street to Angelo's, which is also phenomenal. My halal guy is Rahim, who's at 37th and Spruce right now, but the Chicken Maroosh from Saad's Halal is incredible. The best fried chicken is at Doro Bet, for good hot chicken I go to Asad's or Hangry Joe's, and the Crown Chickens in North Philly are really good if you want a lot of food for cheap. My favorite breakfast spots are either Fresh Donuts or Texas Weiners. My go-to Ethiopian is Abyssinia, which also hosts DIY shows. My favorite Mexican place is Blue Corn, but Prima, South Philly Barbacoa, TacoTaco, and Cafe y Chocolate are also good picks. The best burger I've had in Philly is at Fountain Porter; it's not super big, but it's only six bucks, and you can get some great fries with it for four more bucks. I'm a fan of Famous 4th St Deli, but Herschel's in Reading Terminal has the only pastrami sandwich I could have characterized as "juicy" – whatever you do, I swear, do not go to Hymie's in Merion. My favorite Indian place is Indian Sizzler, but it is unfortunately closed right now. I’m a big fan of Vietnam Cafe in West for Vietnamese food. I frequently think about the katsudon from Yamazaki Ramen in Bryn Mawr and how the power went out there one time while my friend was in the bathroom. This place in Chestnut Hill called McNally’s has a sandwich called The Schmitter, which is awesome. My go-to Wawa order is the chicken parm with garlic aioli, tomatoes, and onions, and if you enjoy chocolate milk, I love the double dutch. I like the pizza from Bella Italia in Ardmore, and The Pizza Box in Ambler, but the best place to get pizza in Philly would have to be at Philly Style Pizza (obviously).
What's your favorite Always Sunny quote?
"I have contained my rage for as long as possible, but I shall unleash my fury upon you like the crashing of a thousand waves! Begone, vile man! Begone from me! A starter car? This car is a finisher car! A transporter of gods! The golden god! I am untethered, and my rage knows no bounds!" Either that, or Frank saying "I get it" after Mac's interpretive dance.
And if that wasn't enough, here is the track-by-track breakdown of the inspiration of each song off of Dawg Rock Vol. 1. that was teased earlier in the article. Check it out!
"gotta have fun"
Marin and their friends Nate, Eze, and Jack got wasted one NYE a few years back and decided to write an EP only using a cat keyboard and their phones. Nate, being used as a divine conduit for the word of god, played three notes on the keyboard and said “alright, I’m ready to record ‘oh, you gotta have fun’.” The song has existed as a psalm since then, this is just one of our renditions of it, and it happens to be what we play at the beginning of every single set. Please feel free to make your own versions.
"catsitting"
This was the first like “armbite” song I really wrote; I tuned my guitar to open D and said to myself “I want to write a song like Glocca Morra,” and didn’t quite do that, but this came out of it, which I think is pretty alright. It’s about being berated for leaving a relationship. Fun!
"big head"
This one’s about getting your ego deflated a little. In the little section with the breaks we typically do a thing where before the last one, Marin will ask someone in the crowd if we can play the rest of our song, and thankfully, a good amount of the time they say yes. The funniest thing that happened though was the one time my parents made it out to one of our shows, Marin asked my dad that question, but I guess he didn’t hear them well enough and thought that was an invitation to play bass on the song. There was like a small minute of confusion and I don’t think he ended up really getting it, so we just ended up awkwardly finishing out the song. Feels apt to the meaning of the song now that I think about it.
"green song"
This one is me trying to do some observational lyricism where I just kinda tried to take in the people around me, which particularly started off when I was feeling very down in Media, Pennsylvania. In that theme, it’s not the most positive, and details a lot of frustrations. Something you gotta realize about Pennsylvania, Philly included, believe it or not, is that it’s a really beautiful, green place. With that, I kind of encoded that visual atmosphere into my interpretation of the song, so it’s always felt green to me, hence the name.
"murray"
My dad used to drive this wine red Nissan Murano he called Murray. This song’s about that car and about not liking Los Angeles.
"marin has heelys"
One time in undergrad, I was on a date and we were walking around the campus, and who else but Marin rolls up behind us, wearing what else but their Heelys. It was pretty cool. This was one of the few times that the song title came before anything else, I just knew that had to be it. Besides that, the song is about finally learning to drive when you’re twenty years old.
"the bluffs"
If you couldn’t already tell by the incredibly gauche lyrics, this song was written when what was a very low point for me mentally; I was super anxious, was sleeping and eating a lot less, and just overall felt bad all the time. I was with my parents in LA during that time, and decided to go to these bluffs to do like a beach hike thing. I got down the bluffs via a really steep trail, and I walked along the rocky beach for like an hour or two before I decided I wanted to go back up. The next trail up, however, wasn’t for another roundabout or two. Not wanting to do that, I pretty much scaled up the side of the bluffs to get back to the street level. It was pretty cool because that distracted me for like a little bit, with the adrenaline hitting, but as soon as I got up there the feeling just sank right back in.
"(oh, you gotta have fun)"
The word of god manifests itself in many different ways. One night I decided to “reharmonize” gotta have fun to make it more jazzy and whatnot, made a voice memo and sent it to the band, and that became the first part of this song. The second part was me sitting at the piano in Hidden Fortress just telling Bridget to keep rolling and then playing some bullshit. Building off that bullshit, we turned it into a fun interlude track that basically gave us an excuse to record a bunch of little instruments. Matt even used a little box of nails for the percussion somewhere in there.
"lucky penny"
I wrote this song for my old band. It’s a bit more poppy, rips off Marietta a little, has a verse-chorus-verse-chorus thing going on; I uncovered it and sent it to the band, and they were like “we have to do this one,” and I was like “fuck.” I know it’s Matt’s favorite, but it’s definitely not mine, haha. That being said, the song kind of encapsulated the feeling I had one time when I was walking back to my apartment from the college library at like midnight in the winter, thinking “how awesome would it feel if I just fell in this snow and laid there for a while?” I didn’t do that, but I did write this song. The “lucky penny” part is because I saw a penny on the ground, but it was tails up, so instead of taking it, I just flipped it over for someone else to find.
"dog math"
Another attempt at observational lyricism on my end, but this time feeling more frustrated with myself because I was bogged down with my own shit. I was trying to distract myself by getting out into the city just to do something, but it didn’t really help me get past that mental block. A little bit of a callback to “the bluffs”, I guess. We were struggling to get a name for this one, then Matt suggested “dog math” because of the line about “psychoanalyzing my dog” and it stuck more than any other of the ideas we were having, so we ran with it.
"filbert hates you"
This one is more about just like a general frustration with people, in particular, stubborn people who are too dense to really look inwards and will die on their hills of idiocy. Some might say these lyrics could be turned right back around to apply to me, myself, but they would be wrong, because they don’t realize that I’m perfect and right all of the time. As for the song title, because it’s derived from a bit more of a nonspecific place, I had a harder time coming up with one, but then someone suggested “filbert hates you” and we were like “yeah. What if Filbert from Haunt Dog was evil?”
"delthorne park"
Once again, a song about not liking LA. It was about a point where I was just working part time and living with my parents, too tired to do anything after my work days, with not much to do even if I wasn’t. It kind of gave me one of those crises where I thought “christ, is this what the rest of my life could look like?” Thankfully I don’t live in the LA suburbs anymore, I live in Philly, where I can actually take public transit, walk places, and there’s way more cool music happening. Shoutouts to Collars and Jordan and all my friends out there, but I am so glad I’m not there anymore.
Best effort, full effort (We're Trying Records)
