Photo courtesy of the artist

Demands plays a fast raw brand of hardcore that contains a youthful energy mixed with a sense of maturity. With songs that are controlled but still hard hitting, they have quickly risen to become one of DC’s best hardcore bands

We had a chance to sit down with Augusto Pagliarini (Gu), Daniel Paulson, and James Doubek of the band to talk about the opportunities and challenges that face them as a band.

Listen to their music

You can find their music available on Bandcamp

How did you get started?

James: Dan was the one who started the band. I knew him because my old band The Guilt played with his old band Skinfailure. Dan was the first person who ever asked me to be in a band. Usually I form bands, so it was nice to be asked to be in a band.

Dan: Yeah thats right. I quit my old band and The Guilt broke up around the same time so it was perfect timing. The original drummer was in a band from Baltimore and I knew the bass player who just moved DC from an internet weight lifting thread on a music message board.

What happened with your old drummer?

James: It was not working out for practice schedules. So now we have Gu playing drums. He’s been playing with us for a year now.

Gu: I was playing with The Coastals, this band I was playing with at the time and James was playing with another band he’s in called The Sniffs . James asked me to come play, so I came and practiced and all the dudes were really nice. The songs were fast and fun. When I came in the first time, I asked how fast I should play and they responded by telling me just to play as fast as I could. They were able to keep up.

James: Gu can play really fast which well for works for us.

What year did you guys get started in?

James: September 2011 was when we started jamming and our first show was in March 2012.

I’ve heard you guys are looking for a new bass player, what exactly are you looking for?

Gu: Awww

James: Our bass player is moving, I’m not sure where yet

Dan: Our bass player is great, we get along with him real well. He lives with his lady, and she’s having a hard time finding a job. So he’s going to move with her. We all understand but it is unfortunate because he we liked him so much.

Gu: We love him

James: It’s hard to replace him because he set the bar so high.

If you could pick a famous person to replace him, who would it be?

James: Ummmm….

Gu: Dude, John Kerry plays bass

James: John Huntsman or Mike Huckabee

Dan: Martin O’Malley, since he has an Irish flare.

So I heard you guys recorded a few new songs recently, tell me about this?

James: We just recorded 5 new songs with our friends Lennon Luks and Carni Klirs. It’s sounding really good, so we’re hoping to release it as a 7 inch if we can find a label who’s interested in putting it out.

You guys have been touring a lot, how has that been going?

James: We did two weekend tours recently. Back in February we went to Richmond and North Carolina we did three shows. In July, we went to New York City, Burlington and Albany.

Dan: We also did the pre-show for a weekend, aptly named Breast Fest in Charlotte that we got to travel for. We got to play with our friends Votnut from North Carolina and that was awesome.

How often do you like to tour?

James: Yeah, we waited 5 months in between the two tours. When we find a new bass player we will try to organize another weekend. I like to go out of town a lot, it’s always a lot of fun. It’s sometimes since Gu is in a lot of bands, and Dan works a lot so it’s always complicated with schedules. We’d like to go a longer tour soon.

Dan: I think two weekends and a week in a year is ideal, we won’t do that this year but maybe next year.

What is your favorite story from touring?

Dan: There is this place we play when we go to North Carolina, called The Milestone. We’ve played there twice. It’s this legit punk club, where they claim it’s longest running punk venue on the east cost. It’s all covered with graffiti, they have authentic Bad Brains graffiti with a frame around it.

James: Yeah, they have Dead Kennedys graffiti too.

Dan: The bar is super cheap, you can get Mickey’s malt liquor and they have a Nintendo 64. We were on tour and some shows fell apart. This punk dude who works there added us to a show at the last minute and it was great. We went back to hang out with him again later on the tour. That’s my favorite story from touring because it just shows how nice people can be within the punk community.

Gu: We have no drama to tell. We have no fights.

What is in store for the DC punk scene?

Dan: I think DC has an interesting scene and good things are in store for the future. They had the Damaged City Festival recently which hits a niche. They brought lot of bands you would not expect. It was good as someone who goes to a lot similar festivals, to see bands outside of ones you typically see. There are also young kids booking shows which brings in new things. Every scene works in 10-15 year cycles. I’ve lived in New Jersey and Baltimore and I’ve seen it happen before. I think we are in the upward swing of a renaissance.

Gu: I play in a Maryland based band, Boardroom Heroes and we play with Kill Lincoln often who are great.

James: There are a lot of other cool bands. Lately I’ve been into garage rock bands. I think the best band in DC is The Shirks. I really like Foul Swoops and Thee Lolitas too. We played with Anti-Zen last month and that was also great.

What about outside DC, who are you into?

Dan: We’ve played with Manalive from New Jersey and Votnut from North Carolina who are great.

Gu: Also, Cretins from Richmond.

James: Oh yeah, they are one best hardcore bands I’ve heard in a while.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with me.