Cody Dewald of Serration on Breakthrough Album, Straight edge, and Calgary Hardcore
Canadian Metalcore band, Serration, released “Simulations of Hell” (2023), breaking through the scene with its utterly chaotic and immensely engrossing, sound and lyricism. For insight on Serration X Dying Wish Split / features with Emma Boster, behind the music of the scene-shaking album, and upcoming plans, read on…
To start off if you could introduce yourself/your role in the band, and if you wanted to share with readers something people don’t know about you?
Cody: My name’s Cody, I do vocals in Serration. My full-time job is a tattoo artist, that’s pretty much it.
I also am really interested in what your first hardcore show was like!? Notable venues, bands that out you on etc.
Cody: Totally. So where I’m from it’s sort of like the Texas of Canada, that didn’t really lead up to what brought me into music, but country music was huge in my household. I got into bands like KISS, I honestly didn’t get into hardcore or anything until I was thirteen or fourteen. My gateway into hardcore was more of the metal side, bands like: Poison the Well, Bleeding Through, and Zao.
Can you tell us about the current state of Calgary hardcore? What’s the scene like? How long have you been a part of the scene and how has it changed since you started getting involved?
Cody: I started going to shows around 2005/2006. The scene out here was absolutely booming at that point. When I was going to shows, a ‘bad show’ would’ve had like 175 people. I’d go to some local shows and there would be 350 kids there, and that was prior, back in the MySpace days. That probably lasted from ‘05/’06-2010. After that for a solid four years, we were lucky if we got 50 kids to a show. Around that time people just started scratching their heads trying to figure out what we could do to bring people out. In 2016 I joined the crew of people to book Wild Rose hardcore fest, and that’s been going great. It’s one thing to book shows for a touring band, but to be a part of a group of a few people to book big bands to come to Calgary, it’s crazy, but it’s a lot harder. States like Florida or New York it’s easy for bands to maneuver around, you have to make it worth their while. Then in 2018 basically when Serration got started, and yeah we’ve been just doing it ever since.
So, you guys share some members with World of Pleasure/Mortality Rate if I’m not mistaken— how did that crossover come to be, or if you want to share how Serration met and started?
Cody: All the members that kind of share each other: me and Jake we were both in Mortality Rate, along with Jess, who’s also in World of Pleasure, so Serration started before I was even in the band, so they had another vocalist. I hit them up and they had put a video up on Instagram, and I hit them up like ‘yo if you guys need a vocalist, I’d love to do vocals in a band.’ They were like ‘oh we already have a guy.’ I just said if worse comes to worse if you ever need somebody let me know… two weeks later Colter hit me up asking if I was still interested. During Covid, Colter joined Mortality Rate, and myself, Jess, and and Colter went up to where the first World of Pleasure record was recorded, which is where all that started. Jose is in Serration and World of Pleasure, and Jess is in Mortality Rate etc.
Speaking on your guys’ album drop from last year, “Simulations of Hell,” that’s got to be one of the most insane albums I heard all year, and it seems to be entirely well received by the scene. What was the creative or writing process like for that album?
Cody: Old Serration stuff–the band would get together, and we’d kind of write some things. Now, Colter takes a big reign on all of that. If he has something on his mind from drums or bass to guitar, he’ll sit down and write it all, and then he’ll send it to the group chat and we’ll talk about what we want to change. Once we kind of finalize it, he’ll send it to me and I’ll start writing over the tracks. I was overseas when they went to go record it, so I was on vacation trying to write lyrics for it. There were some songs I already knew were going to be on the record, and some that I heard for the first time that were new to me. That’s kind of the whole process as far as getting new songs written, but as far as influence, Zao is a big inspiration. With Colter I can’t think of the bands off the top of my head that inspired him, because there’s so many, and [same with] Jose, our guitar player, who recorded the acoustic part on the record and piano. As far as lyricism, a lot of it is personal stuff. The first song off the record, “Boreal Serpent,” yeah that whole thing has to do with people feeding off the media and just reading the headlines and not digging into it. I used to write a lot more personal stuff, but now I’m branching out and viewing the world now.
So let’s talk about the collab with Emma from Dying Wish on, “A Suicide Note in Midi Format,” what was that experience like, and do you have any other artists you’d like to work with again?
Cody: We did a split with Dying Wish in 2018, and we did a quick tour with them too. Asking Emma was a no-brainer as far as asking someone to sing like that. Love her. I think on that split with Dying Wish, I had John Pettibone from Himsa, so getting him was kind of the end-all be-all for me. He’s practically (Himsa) what got me into hardcore aside from discovering straight edge at fifteen. [...] As far as down the road goes, getting anyone from Zao to do anything, or I’ve kind of been thinking about asking (and this is just in a perfect world) getting Morgan from Kittie, I love Kittie. That’s me just shooting a shot out there because I think that would be awesome.
If there could be one track you recommend or promote to a new-listener, to put them into Serration, if they’ve never heard you before, what track would it be, and why?
Cody: I would say “Birthing of Golden Ash.” That song has a little bit of everything. It’s pretty chaotic, there's mosh parts, there’s guest vocals. I feel like you could play it if you’re at a hardcore show, or a metalcore show, and it’ll just fit. I love playing that song live.
With the album drop last year, are there any plans for new music this year, or tour etc.?
Cody: No music has been put together or anything. [...] We have a few shows coming up locally. If there are any bands that want to do something and put something together [...] they don’t have to be some gigantic headliner band they could be homies or just fun stuff, but hit us up. [...] We’ve never been out to the East Coast, so we’re looking to play Florida, New York, Georgia etc.
Could you share how claiming Straight Edge has impacted or influenced your music.. or if you wanted to share some thoughts on how that goes hand-in-hand with Serration and being involved in the hardcore scene?
Cody: Absolutely. I’m trying to think of off the top of my head what songs are influenced–”Chaos Demon,” off the new record has to do with people that I know that were Straight Edge or were never straight edge and have passed away from addiction, and about just reaching out, and sometimes people just don’t want help. You do you, right. [...] Every once in a while if I’m playing a show I’ll throw the X’s on my hands, but I’m not super vocal about being Straight Edge. [...] I claimed edge when I was fifteen years old, and I’m 35 now.
Any final thoughts, advice, or something to say to fans and readers?!
Cody: If there’s any bands that potentially want to do a run whether that’s in Canada or the U.S., or overseas, let me know. Shoutout DAZE Records. Other than that, if you’re a band looking to play Canada, let us know because we can definitely set you up from Winnipeg to Vancouver. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t find shows, we can definitely get it set up for you.
Serration, with their dueling participation in both hardcore and metalcore, release of a top album complete with essentials like: fevered screaming, ruthlessly expressive tracks, and pummeling breakdowns—some of the most brutal of 2023, are only going up. Follow their socials and stay-tuned for when they (fingers crossed) come to the US, or drop some new music.
Written by: Allie Payne (@alliepaynex_)
Published on: March 7th, 2024