Dubstep has clearly become the electronic music genre of choice for those who prefer something a little more aggressive to their grooves. Given its glitchy angst, it comes as no 
surprise that metalheads (especially those of the industrial and horror varieties) are particularly drawn to dubstep when venturing into new sonic realms. And with bands like Korn and Rob Zombie incorporating elements of dubstep into their recent output, this fusion is coming more and more commonplace. Having performed with former Zombie guitarist Riggs in Scum of the Earth, as well as his own bands Killingbird and ModelSaint, guitarist Skyla Talon founded dubstep project Blackburner in 2011. Since then, Blackburner has become one of the most prolific new additions to the dubstep scene, putting out two albums (as well as numerous EPs, remixes and singles) in 2012. With the addition of fellow rocker-turned-DJ Spled about a year ago, the band’s performances have become just as involved as its music, with elaborate light shows, live instrumentation and masks that look like a futuristic cross between Deadmu5‘s mouse heads and Donnie Darko‘s demented rabbit. With its latest album Drop Bass Not Bombs due out in a few weeks, Blackburner talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the new album, upcoming performances and last year’s tour with Ministry.
Skyla, your music background is pretty well documented. But, Spled, what is your history and how did you get involved with Blackburner?
Spled: I’m a singer and songwriter. I’ve been doing metal and hardcore, then started producing dubstep just for fun. Then it just became a career.
Talon: I had been hanging out with Sonny Moore (aka Skrillex) and he was the one who opened my eyes to dubstep. Then I brought Spled on board to make it more of a party and we’ve been having a lot of fun.
Dubstep, much like drum-and-bass before it, is the more aggressive version of electronic music. So I’m guessing the transition from playing metal to doing dubstep wasn’t all that difficult.
Spled: It’s actually the same structure; dubstep breakdowns are a lot like hardcore breakdowns.
Talon: That aggression is what really got our attention. We’ve always done electronic music, as well as rock ‘n’ roll. Now’s a good time to bring it live and put the rock ‘n’ roll on the backburner for a change instead of the electronic stuff. That’s what we’ve done with Blackburner.
Speaking of bringing it live, the pictures I’ve seen look like an interesting show. How would you describe a live Blackburner experience for the uninitiated?
Talon: We have a really good time. We have cryo guns so we can shoot fog into the crowd. If we’re doing a full-on live show, we’ll bring out our guitars and actually play on a couple of songs. We actually sing on a couple of tracks, we have a crazy light show and it gets pretty nuts. Sometimes we drink too much.
Spled: There’s definitely a lot of drinking.
But that only happens after the show, right?
Talon: A lot of times we’ll start during the show. We just get straws so we can drink through the masks. That way, by the end of the set we’re feeling pretty good.
Speaking of the masks, what’s the story there? They’re very reminiscent of the Donnie Darko mask, which I can’t complain about.
Talon: A friend of ours drew the logo and the logo turned out as this evil rabbit. That’s kind of where it started, even before we were wearing masks.
Spled: And when we started wearing masks we were actually trying to be angry robots.
Talon: Yeah! So that triggered the idea and we initially started out with just gas masks and bunny ears. Then we started working with this movie guy and it grew from that and we came up with this other idea. It does get a lot of comparisons to Donnie Darko, which is fine with us. We didn’t actually think of that at first, but it’s a great movie. And the masks are creepy as hell, so it works perfectly.
Drop Bass Not Bombs is your latest effort, but you guys were pretty busy with a few releases last year.
Talon: Yeah. We put out two records last year, Feel the Burn and Planet Earth Attack. We started to put out Drop Bass Not Bombs, but we actually pulled it and we’re reworking it a little bit and adding some more tracks. So that will come out physically and digitally February 26.
You’re performing tonight in Atlanta, then in Colorado in March and Philadelphia in April. Do you plan on doing more consistent touring or will you continue to do one-off shows for now?
Talon: We’re trying to get it rolling right now. We want to be on the road every day. We’re currently trying to fill more dates, but we will play anywhere anytime.
Do either of you still perform in rock bands at all?
Talon: We still do rock stuff every now and then, but right now we’re just concentrating on this. This keeps us pretty busy, we’re putting out music nonstop and it’s pretty much consumed our lives.
Spled: That’s not to say we won’t go back and do some more rock and metal someday.
At the rate that you’re putting out new music, it definitely seems like you’re focused on Blackburner.
Spled: Yeah, we don’t sleep much. At least with this we can write complete songs on the road or on a plane. That’s one thing we love about electronic music.
You toured last year with Ministry. Between playing for those audiences and your background with Scum of the Earth and other metal bands, how much of a crossover have you seen between fans of your rock stuff and these dubstep shows?
Talon: We didn’t know what the Ministry crowd would be like. It was a lot of old-school Ministry fans, so there were 40 and 50-year-old guys with beards. But by the end of our sets we had them dancing. We played a lot of our guitar tracks for that tour, so it was the heavier side of Blackburner. It was a lot of fun. But we see a lot of people not really caring anymore whether it’s metal or whatever. It’s just music and a lot of people don’t give a shit and just want to have a good time.
