By Ron Evans
Wenatchee’s DATURA unleashes a new full-length LP, Arcano Chemical, the trio’s first release under Sell The Heart Records who signed the band in 2021. The 11-track album features brand new material and some old ghosts all in the classic DATURA gothy, post-punk stylings.
Singer David Betancourt’s melancholic but catchy tones ring out from a fog of echo as if he’s lurking somewhere in the distant shadows, almost out of range. The gritty and metallic resonance of Betancourt’s guitar glides like a banshee over Jake St. Johns’s brooding, clean bass lines and Shafer’s subtle and clever drumming. It all comes together (seemingly) effortlessly with an eerie production and atmosphere that perfectly understands the ominous message it’s delivering.
As someone who was coming of age when bands like The Cure and Sisters Of Mercy were actually on top 40 radio (that really happened) it’s hard for me to not be somewhat haunted by nostalgia when listening to this album. I sort of wish I could go back in time and put “Orphans” or “Dare You” on a mix-tape for the gothy girl in science class that I had a crush on, but was terrified to talk to. And while the throwback to this era of post-punk is authentic and heartfelt, DATURA doesn’t go so far down that path that it’s not also its own thing.
Arcano Chemical is dark, melodic and focused with songs that have a strange enticing effect - like a siren luring us into the unknown. And we will likely follow because it’s just too damn catchy to resist.
I sat down with bassist Jake St. John to talk about the album, their new label deal and what’s coming down the road for the band.
Talk a little about the conception of the album and the timeline of recording and releasing it.
Some of the songs on Arcano Chemical have been around since the beginning of the band and even before David and I met. “Bloody Shores” for example was a song he wrote in his teens or twenties. He and I worked out that one in our first couple jam sessions before Tiffany joined. The song was dropped from our set for a couple years, but we decided to bring it back for this album. Tiffany really pushed to include the song and I’m glad we did it. “Orphans” originally appeared on our first EP. “Trapped,” “Phantasma,” “Dare You” and “Our Ship is Lost” were all written before COVID. When the pandemic hit, and our show calendar got wiped out, we retreated to the practice space to write the rest of the record and to tighten up the arrangements, tempos, lyrics, etc. We recorded the album in June of 2021, got in touch with Andy Pohl from Sell the Heart Records later in the summer and started working out the details for the release.
I don’t wanna expose any of the band’s powerful secret shit, but what can you tell us about the album title?
A couple years ago, I read the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, an absolutely mind-bending blend of science fiction and fantasy. Her world, characters, and plot twists are totally original, even psychedelic. Somewhere in the series she uses the term. I loved it and pitched it to the band for the album title. Without getting too far into the implications of what it means in context of the books or for its meaning for the band, it was a pretty unanimous yes.
Where was the album recorded - who recorded/ produced it?
We recorded the instruments with Chad Yenney at Earth to Emma and the vocals with Greg Shapovalov at Narrative Sound. We didn’t really need a producer for this one as all the arrangements were studio-ready before we went in. Tiffany put a ton of work into ensuring the tempos were solid, and David made sure the lyrics and concepts of each song were dialed beforehand, so there wasn’t much left to do but make sure we got good takes. I think we recorded the instruments at Chad’s place in one weekend, and then over the next couple weeks, we’d go to Greg’s to do the vocals a few songs at a time.
The one exception is our single “Everything Turns Black.” We played that song a bunch in practice for a while and tried out all kinds of things, but we shelved it because it wasn’t manifesting in a way we all really loved. I finally went into Narrative Sound in the summer of 2020 and the magic of it came together there. I went in with a skeleton, and the arpeggiated synth and guitar lines were fleshed out in the studio. When it comes to David’s solo project, SHANX FM, I believe a lot of those songs take shape as he works with Greg at Narrative Sound.
Album artwork by Pla.g.u.e
The cover art is incredible. Tell us about the artist and how this image came to be your LP graphic?
Thank you! We’re very pleased with how it turned out. A couple years ago, I started following this solo psych-industrial band from England called Primitive Knot. The guy is prolific. He cranks out multiple releases a year, and it’s all rad–hypnotic, riff-based, lo-fi. He did a record in 2021 called Fight the Future. I loved the album artwork. It’s this grainy and affected image of a dog’s maw coming right at you. I looked up the artist, who goes by Pla.g.u.e on Instagram. He produces lots of violent, apocalyptic digital collage stuff that’s very suited for extreme metal bands, but we asked him if he could work with us, and he agreed. He’s from a remote little village in Argentina. He was very responsive to our ideas, made sure the image fit the atmosphere we wanted, and would sit well with our listening audience. We keep in touch now. It’s been a fun relationship, and I hope to work with him on future projects
Any fan of what was happening in Seattle in the early 90s will likely know the name TAD Doyle. How did TAD end up in the mix? So to speak.
It was nothing crazy really. I just emailed him and asked if he’d be willing to master our album. He’s worked with some amazing bands over the years as a sound engineer. I’m familiar with more of his metal / hardcore leaning clientele: Zeke, Addaura, Black Bone Exorcism, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Heiress, Profound Lore Records. I think that he also may have worked on one of Andrew Houck’s projects (Ghost Power!!!/Otho). It was really cool that he agreed to work with us. TAD was amazingly quick, polite, and helpful with any questions we had about the process.
You recently signed with Sell The Heart Records, tell us how that transpired and what that means for the future of DATURA.
We got in contact with Andy from STH through Facebook a couple years ago. He posted that he was looking for new bands for his roster, and Ando (Peart) from Snatchee Records was kind enough to let us know. I sent Andy a quick email with some Bandcamp links to our first two EPs, and he got back to us right away about working with the label. It felt good to receive such an enthusiastic and quick response from him. We discussed releasing something on vinyl, but we didn’t really have enough material for a full album, and since our first EPs had already been released, we mutually decided it wasn’t the right time. After recording Arcano Chemical and talking with a couple other labels, we reconnected with Andy about doing cassettes, and he was into it. The vinyl productions plants were super backed up with wait times extending over a year, so a cassette run was appealing for everyone because sitting on an album for that long really kills the exigence. We figured we’d just do what we could with physical merch, so STH ended up pressing some CDs and making some shirts too.
What our relationship with STH means for DATURA is getting more (and quicker) exposure to a broader audience that we’d struggle to attain on our own. Andy is supportive, professional, hard-working, and he has connections and resources we don’t have. For example, we’re working with Tim Anderl at Sweet Cheetah Promotions through the label for PR, and it’s been very helpful. Tim is a killer dude who has lots of connections.
We’re not really sure what the future holds, as everything is uncertain. We do have a couple tentative shows booked for Wenatchee, one in Portland, and two in Seattle. Beyond that, we don’t want to say too much.
What are some other bands on the label you think people should check out?
STH is pretty eclectic, so I’d say there may be something for everyone. The label’s bread and butter is made of upbeat, driving punk bands like Decent Criminal, Neckscars, and JukeBox Romantics. Tulpa Luna reminds me of King Missile. Unconditional Arms and Snipers are soaring post-rock. Middle-Age Queers fucking rip it old skool. Check out their album Too F*g for Love.
You said the album will be released on cassette which makes me happy. What are the plans/timeline for releasing on the other formats?
Sell the Heart is releasing the album on CD; however, a couple weeks ago, we were contacted by Tomasz Woodraf, owner of Bat Cave Productions in Poland about doing a deluxe CD run for distribution in the EU. We’re super excited about that, as it is cost prohibitive for us to ship abroad, and we do have an audience in Europe. He’s currently doing pre-sales, and the CD will be available in March there. Bat Cave works with tons of goth and post-punk bands we admire from the states and around the world like Nox Novacula, Altar De Fey, Fearing, Otzi, Padkarosda. We are honored to be included with artists like these.
Most recently, Andy from STH proposed we do a small run of vinyl with the caveat that we get enough pre-orders to make it feasible. The idea was to run the pre-order campaign for a month, and it’s been going well, so hopefully we’ll be able to finalize this and get things rolling. We’re absolutely stoked because we’ve wanted to do vinyl all along but had accepted that it probably wasn’t in the cards for this album. Luckily, we had TAD do a vinyl master for us too, just in case.
What were you all listening to while working on the album?
Man, let’s see…Tiffany was on Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cramps, and Calabrese as well as La Luz and Messer Chups, but those last two didn’t really influence her playing as much as the others.
David got on a black metal kick and loves Mütiilation, Darkthrone, Spectral Wound, Këkht Aräkh, and a bunch of other bands I can’t spell, let alone pronounce. He’s also really into She Past Away, Drab Majesty, and Lebanon Hanover.
Typically, I listen to lots of metal in the mornings, and as the day progresses, I get into bands like Nick Cave, New Model Army, Wovenhand, Chameleons, Black Marble. In the evening, it’s ambient synth records, movie scores and world music like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Dead Can Dance and Stephan Micus.
Overall, my biggest influence for DATURA is The Cure. I remember talking with the mates around the time that the Bury Me EP dropped that the next thing we did needed to be in the vein of Pornography by The Cure. I don’t know if we nailed the vibe entirely, as some of the songs are more upbeat, but we got close with one or two.
As mentioned, things are still pretty up in the air concerning live shows at the moment, but are there any plans set on a tour to promote the record?
Since everything is so uncertain, we are reluctant to share more until we have something concrete to report. We have talked with Andy about playing in the Bay area and David has worked very hard to establish relationships along the Westcoast with bands, promoters and our audience. I hope a tour will eventually happen. It’s just a matter of time and will.
Anything else on the horizon you want to plug?
We have some video concepts for a few songs from the album, and we hope to work on some of those this year. We’re kind of on our own schedule with this and there’s no real rush to follow the album release with videos and tours. I’m always chomping at the bit to write new material, but that has slowed down a bit with our personal lives being so busy and with most of our attention going to the album release. It’s been a big project and has taken lots of time and energy.
We’d like to thank everyone for being so supportive. We appreciate seeing people come out to our shows, buy merch, and share our music with others. That means a lot to us. Special thanks to the local bands we play and to Ando at Snatchee Records for fostering a thriving local scene.
