Indisposed

Jul 30

Chicago is home to an ever expanding vast DIY music scene bursting with punk music of every sub genre and style you can think of and since 2017 Chicago has also been home to a great band, that once started as a bedroom project, called Indisposed. This bedroom project gradually formed into a fulltime band and after a handful of great releases and a seven year run we’ve been asked to help break the news that Indisposed will be playing their final shows and disbanding. There’s no easy way to say that and it’s coming at an odd time considering they’re fresh off of the release of their amazing new album “Steadfast” with a 21 minute run time of very creative chaos, but we are grateful to give their vocalist Nina an opportunity to voice their thoughts and feelings regarding the bands legacy, their message, their last shows, and their final album.

WHAT BANDS INFLUENCED THE SOUND AND WRITING PROCESS ON STEADFAST?

“We normally don’t go into writing with other bands in mind. Some older bands that resonate with us unanimously are Daitro, Raein, Native, Droughts, Sed Non Satiata, and Suis La Lune. We love older screamo that stands out from a respective period, like the French band Anomie or Le Pre Ou Je Suis Mort. George and I are big fans of 90s slowcore and post-hardcore (Unwound, Slint, Frodus, Dianogah, etc). We all love mathy bands like Pretend so our influences are all over the board. Modern bands like This Will Destroy You, Stormlight, Massa Nera, Sonagi, and Burial Etiquette also influenced us quite a bit.

Our writing process has been either Goose or myself bringing in a skeleton of a song and building upon it or just writing in the moment at the space. We’re big fans of rhythms first, scribbled out on a giant 18x24 pad of newsprint. Goose and I lead a lot on the writing and believe writing is best in the moment. ‘DARVO Dance’ was originally just drumming by Goose. ‘I’m Prepared To Lose Everything’ I wrote the guitar parts for and we went from there. ‘Staring Knives’ was a song that just happened at the end of ‘Stomaching Time’ because we magically synced on all our beats and chords.

I’m a huge believer in organic blank-slate practice space jams. I fast from music when writing and enjoy using my intuition to tune into someone else’s headspace. We’ve had jams where we show up to practice in the worst moods and come out grinning / proud of what we made. We all have a mutual love and respect for each other and have even played each other’s instruments before to write. We’re also very lucky to have that kind of musical chemistry.

‘Antiquate the Argument’ was made years ago with Goose after a night-out show hopping. We wrote out the rhythms & tabs on some newsprint with Sharpie. Thankfully, we were able to translate it afterward, ha.”

Staying DIY and raw right until the very end I was surprised to hear about their recording process as this style has almost completely gone the way of the dinosaur, despite it still being the most authentic way to capture any punk music.

“We prefer to record live and have everything mic’ed up at once. It sounds better, feels better, and forces us to fine tune our playing as much as possible. We also change our tempo a lot in each song and don’t want to lose any of the dynamic elements by recording each individual track. Tracks 1-5 were recorded at Bricktop Recording by Pete Grossman. Track 6 was recorded at Studio 8500 by Maya Chun and all tracks were mixed & mastered at Bricktop Recording by Pete Grossman

We hope people hear this album and are more inclined to honor the values demonstrated in these songs. We are about to indefinitely not be a band anymore after the fall of this year. We’ve done this for a long time. Who knows what the future holds, but for now, we are going to disband after the end of this year.

WHAT IS THE OVERALL MESSAGE OF STEADFAST?

Indisposed has historically been about the fallout of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. This album however is tackling that subject matter a little more head-on; It’s a cultural analysis of how the community handle callouts and our feelings towards some aspects of the music scene. We believe it the community has regressed in keeping people safe. I have had my life and friends lives entire life trajectories changed by predators that have been in the scene for 10+ years… and predators keep coming back. Having friends tell us their experiences at every level of the music industry, things get really ugly.

“MOST PEOPLE DON’T REALIZE THAT BIGGER LABELS & PR PEOPLE HAVE THEIR OWN DAMN LAWYERS IN PLACE TO SILENCE OR INTIMIDATE SURVIVORS INTO SILENCE. THERE IS A WHOLE INSTITUTIONALIZED NETWORK OF ENABLERS WHO VIRTUE SIGNAL PUBLICLY BUT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS HAVE THE FISCAL ABILITY & BUDGET TO SILENCE SURVIVORS AND BLACKLIST THEM. STEADFAST IS A BIG ‘FUCK YOU’ TO THAT.”

- @INDISPOSED.CHI

‘I’m Prepared To Lose Everything’ is a love song to the DIY community and meant to empower people who don’t feel safe coming forward. It’s about making the move to speak out for the sake of a collective group of people. DARVO dance is meant to spread awareness of “DARVO”, an acronym for a predatory tactic. It stands for “Deny, Attack, Reverse, Victim & Offender”. It’s dark, but the lyrics are meant to poke fun at abusers and predator's reverse smear campaigns.

‘Stomaching Time’ is about how your life freezes after abuse and how trauma can affect your sense of time. How one can turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms like alchohol or addiction. I hope when people hear “Take Your Shot Now”, they resonate with the positive meaning of the double entendre, that they feel triumphant, and don’t let their trauma stop them from living life or pursuing justice. It’s meant to say “You’re here, what are you waiting for?”.

Indisposed are playing a few shows with Radura leading up to New Friends Fest this weekend! July 31st to August 4th. Pittsburgh, Akron, then off to Canada. They have a few distros in Europe, Canada, and the states that will be carrying the record, (Zilp Zalp Rercords is one) but they are mostly putting out the album by themselves.

ANY CLOSING WORDS?

Thank you to all our fans and friends who have toured or supported us over the years. A big thank you to Jackson of Excrucis for wanting to fill-in and play with us on this run. Shout out to Radura and big shout out to the owners of Middle-Man Records and ZilpZalp DIY for being the best humans. We are also pumped as all hell to meet & see everyone at New Friends Fest 2024!

Checkout their linktree here: Indisposed

Writer : @just_reidz

Editor : @letsgetpivotal

07/30/24