Michael Banting has been a forerunner of the underground hardcore and punk digs for some time now. Fronting one of Perth's seminal grind acts, Population Control and is known for his visceral and evocative performance on stage. Michael has recently dove deep into the electronic world, churning out a moody and harsh Industrial album as the band DIN, with close friend Ryan Thomas helping live.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Michael about how this project has evolved, prior to DIN's performance at ALT//FEST on Saturday, March 20.
From what people have seen from you within Population Control, how would you describe the difference between that and the new project DIN?
Night-and-day really. I've been doing the grind thing for awhile now. It was fun and it was good, but it has run its course. I also have a new grind band underway now. DIN, or at least that style, is all very new to me as well. As much as I have liked that style of industrial - you know like the whole goth side of things - I've just never found the right people to do it with, so I decided to do it myself. I'm just really unsure on how to describe it. I mean, I wrote the whole thing on a sampler. So it's literally completely different from anything I have done, because it's not going into a room and jamming songs to figure them out. The record was finished and released before we ever had a jam and we don't really need to jam because it's all just on there. I have a friend of mine doing improvised noise live, while I do vocals and play the samples plus the tracks arranged in there.
How has the switch to using a sampler and electronic equipment been?
It took me a while to figure it out. During lockdown, while I had nothing else to do. I borrowed it off of a friend of mine and played around with it until it worked. I came out of that time period with around 10 tracks. I was also lucky enough to be able to use one of my friends' studios, who I was able to trade tattoos with. Which is lucky, as otherwise the release would have never been made; not able to afford studio time and having such a good ear behind the desk. I have to thank him so much for that, as there is no way I could have done that on my own. I just don't have the tools to do it. All I have is the sampler and there is only so much you can do on those things.
How has this switch changed the aspects of performing live?
As long as no technical things go wrong, as I've never had to really so much on hardware. It's just an SPD-1 and a noise machine running through all of Ryan (Thomas)'s pedals; that's about it. It's so simple but I think it's just the noise machine I'm more worried about. It's very temperamental. It's like a DIY one I got off the market. It is the best thing I have ever bought and Joey (Beers; rest in peace) was the one who found it for me and went and bought it the next day. We've had to patch it up quite a bit the first time I used it. I almost broke it just because I got so excited.
The best thing is when I asked my friend Ryan to come in and play that live. I've known him for a very long time and we've had some brief little projects together. He always been in bands that aren't heavy, but I consider amazing and I know who he is as a person. So when I brought him in to the studio for the first time and he used it, he had the exact same reaction as i did to it. He just almost broke the thing in half he just got really excited. So I knew I had made the right choice. And I just like being around him. He is just a really good dude, so it's gonna be awesome to be on stage with him again.
There seems to be a massive resurgence of electronic punk music being made recently. What inspired you to leap into creating this new project?
I guess that's how it should be, with everything it just gets boring doing the same thing over-and-over. I was lucky enough to go on tour with Kollaps a couple of years ago as well and that was also the first time I ever heard them play live. It just blew my mind. Even though I had listened to some industrial music in the past, I had just never seen anything like that. I had never seen a live show that matched the intensity that I was used to with punk and grind and stuff. It was like, fuck! That's something I would like to do. So I tried to see if anybody wanted to do it, but nobody took me up on it. I ended up meeting them (Kollaps) and they asked me to play drums on tour with them and I've never played drums before, but I somehow managed to make it work.
Does DIN take any stylings from the goth and EBM side of the industrial realm?
I went into it seeing what would just come out and, now that it is done and you can hear it as a complete thing, I've found that it's more down to stuff like The Body. That really harsh percussive stuff. I didn't even realise that it was such a big influence on me and I love The Body, they are one of my favourite bands. I guess more recently though, Ultraviolet and Kollaps most definitely. I tried to incorporate more moody and gothic sorts of influences but I couldn't pull it off. So I went for the harsher route; that’s just how I operate I guess. I don't really do subtle. Although I did want to harken back to some of that 80s stuff but it’s all a bit soft I guess, at least for what I wanted to get across.
That stuff was always more driving, where as DIN is doomier I guess? It's a bit slower and I tried to make it a bit slower, because it's too easy just to do it really fast. I do listen to a lot of hardcore and really hectic shit, including Gabber and all that. My whole drive is performance. I just like being a frontman and that was the hardest part of playing drums for Kollaps tour, as i just wanted to be out the front and get that intensity because thats whats I've always done. It's what i know and I can't really play instruments; it's a miracle I even did this record.
Population Control was very prominent with championing important social and political issues, does DIN follow in these footsteps?
Not so much. This project is very, very personal. I always had personal things throughout everything obviously. But with every different project, I try to bring a different 'thing' to it. My first band was a hardcore vegan band, so that was the drive of that. Population Control was more so broader politics, which is super important to me as well. But I think this one is way more personal - way more reflecting my own personal struggles with mental health and all that stuff, in a more aesthetic way I guess. It's not as obvious most of the time but it is still just as important for me to get that out in this way.
I know by day tattooing is your trade, how do you find the balance between both sides of the creative realm?
I mean tattooing is my full time job I guess. But it's not a full time job like in the sense that everyone else sees a full time job. I'm not in the shop 40-hours a week, you know, tattooing the whole time. I'm my own boss, so I get to work whenever I want, which suits me as I don't function in the strict routine. So I can give it as much time or as little time to anything else as I want. So it makes that aspect easier. There was a while where I wasn't doing much with the band and everything, but now I'm at a place where I can actually do that. Since that tour with Kollaps, that's all I want to do. My biggest drive is to take DIN on tour and make that a bigger part of my life because I have been doing that with tattooing for years as well. Obviously not at the moment. I want to have those two simultaneous things.
This is the dream isn't it. Living your entire life just as an artist; I can't think of anything better. I'm super fortunate that I can pretty much do that. I have a lot of freedom in that respect and I think that was part of the problem with Population Control stagnating a little bit. All the other guys; I love them and they are amazing musicians and people. But you know they all have hectic full time jobs, they've got serious partners, they've got mortgages, they’ve got all that stuff. So it's a lot harder for them to hit the road and do things and live in that sort of chaotic way that I thrive upon. Like I said, I know how fortunate I am to have that option. So I will take advantage of that, because why not.
ALT//FEST is on Saturday, March 20 at Badlands Bar. Tickets available now here.