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Monty Messex of Dead Fucking Last Talks Collab w/Hugo Mudie, DFL History, Favourite Band Logos & What's In Store For 2019/2020


Monty Messex and his Los Angeles punk rock band, Dead Fucking Last, just released a track with Hugo Mudie, entitled "Incompris." Hugo is the founder of Montreal, Quebec's, Pouzza Fest, and frontman of The Sainte Catherines. If you listen closely you'll hear his French vocals on the new DFL x Mudie collab. 

Check out the song below, and read what Monty had to say about collaborating with Hugo, DFL history, his favourite band logos and what's in store this year and next for Dead Fucking Last! 

 

DFL x Hugo Mudie, Los Angeles meets Montreal; what a great collab! The new song "Incompris" - "Misunderstood" in english, is awesome! What's the story on how you guys initially connected with Hugo? 

Thanks! We’re super stoked on the song and the collab! LA x Montreal x English x French - a whole new hardcore sub sub sub genre is born. 

Mudie brought us out to play Pouzza 8 and we just hit it off.

 

At what point did you decide to team up on the DFL x Mudie collab, and how was the idea to do a song together conceived? 

A few months after we played Pouzza, Mudie messaged me about doing a song together, and we were like hell yeah!

 

Where did you record Incompris, and did you all get together or was the DFL part done in LA and Hugo's vocals in Montreal? 

We recorded all the music and our vocals at Rev9 in Hollywood. We bounced tracks to Mudie in Montreal so he could record his vocals, and I think he recorded them on GarageBand. We mixed the song at Rev9.

 

Is this song part of something bigger between DFL and Hugo, or is this just a one off? 

Hopefully we’ll keep doing stuff with Mudie. I’d love to do another song!

 

In a Vice interview, you mentioned that writing and recording DFL's "Proud to Be" was done really fast. Is that classic DFL way still adhered to today, and was Incompris written and recorded in the same fashion, or did you guys need to take your time and map it out a little more, compared with the formula you were using in the 90's?  

That’s how we record all our albums. Keep it simple and don’t overthink it.  We practice the songs a few times. Then we record the band live with maybe a guitar or vocal over dub. That’s how we recorded Incompris. I think we recorded the track in a couple hours. Boom!

 

Incompris definitely has an 80's west coast hardcore punk feel to it, and in my opinion the french Canadian vocals go had in hand with the the DFL sound. It's a great mashup! How would you describe the song? 

I’m always writing hardcore songs, so I had a riff ready to go. I think the idea for the vocals came to Tom ("Crazy Tom" Davis) in a dream. Hugo wanted to do his parts in French. It just all came together. Rad DFL song.

 

When I listen to DFL, I think 80's hardcore and punk from LA. I also can't help but envision surf, skate and graffiti. What bands, sub-cultures or art forms had the biggest impact and influence on you in your youth?  

I guess DFL’s music is a just an expression of the early 80s hardcore scene I grew up on, short fast lo-fi songs. Bad Religion’s How Could Hell Be Any Worse had a huge impact on me. I listened to that cassette maybe 100 times.

 

The DFL Knuckelhead logo is iconic. Can you talk about who designed that logo and how it all came together? 

Adam Horovitz (Beastie Boys) had the idea for a character with ‘DFL’ for its teeth. Adam’s friend Shea drew it up. I’ve seen some amazing knucklehead tats, totally honoured.

 

 

 

Speaking of great designs like the Knucklehead, which band logos have blown you away over the years? 

Punk rock has spawned some really iconic band logos, the Circle Jerks, the Descendents, the Dead Kennedys, Crass, just to name a few. But for me it’s probably a toss-up between Black Flag and the Germs. You’d see that blue circle or those black bars, and you’d just know.

 

If there was one band t-shirt that you could bring back from the grave, which one would it be?

I had a tie-dyed Sex Pistols shirt that said you can’t trust a hippy. Ridiculous, right. Love’d that shirt.

 

In a short period of time, DFL worked closely with Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (Beastie Boys), Mike D (Beastie Boys) and Amery "AWOL" Smith (Beastie Boys & Suicidal Tendencies) as well as Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion & Epitaph Records), Greg Hetson (Bad Religion & Circle Jerks), and Brian Baker (Bad Religion & Minor Threat). Can you break it down for those who don't know DFL's history with these guys?

We’ve had the good luck to work with some really amazing and talented people over the years. From our start at Grand Royal with Adam and Mike, to the move to Epitaph and working with Brett, to having Brian in the band for a minute, and now Greg produced our new EP. So yeah, grateful.

 

 

Fast forward 28 years, a bunch of awesome records, a hiatus, careers, other musical projects and a 2013 DFL reunion, you and Crazy Tom are back behind the Dead Fucking Last wheel. What's in store for the rest of 2019 and 2020? 

Pouzza 10 and more new music!