Roll of the Dice: 8 Questions with Dissidente

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Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.

Pittsburgh’s ska-core juggernauts Dissidente dropped one the absolute best albums of 2022, The War On Two Fronts, and have been earning quite a following on the backs of their politically charged brilliance. Frontman Chris Ruckus took the time to join us for a quick Roll of the Dice interview where we were able to discuss the band, what’s next and why we can not get lazy just because Trump is out of office and the projected Red Wave turned out to be little more than the spittle that builds on the corners of your racist uncle’s when anyone mentions police reform.

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the success of The War On Two Fronts. It was quite high on my personal Album Of The Year list. What can you tell us about the formation of the band and songwriting process on these tracks?

This was the first set of recordings we did as a four-piece. Our FRONTLINE EP was Iggy on drums, Vadim on bass and me singing and playing guitar. As our sound developed more into the realms of hardcore and metal, we knew we were going to need an actual lead guitarist, so we enlisted Rhett (who also happened to be an immigrant like Iggy and Vadim.)
Some of these songs (“Reproductive Reichs”, for instance) we had written years earlier, and had intended for them to be a part of the FRONTLINE EP, but for one reason or another they never made it to tape. A couple others from that FRONTLINE era we felt would benefit from Rhett’s harder guitar stylings, so we re-recorded them. Generally, I would try to leave space for Vadim to do some crazy shit on bass, since he’s such a phenomenal musician. But since adding Rhett, I have to make sure we leave room for his solos too, since he’s such a fucking shredder too.
The songs that I brought to the table on this record were mostly aborted riffs from bands that fizzled out, rewritten and rearranged to fit our new harder ska / metal act. The ones that are straight metal / hardcore were typically the ones that Rhett, Vadim or Iggy had a riff for that we extrapolated from.

I won’t call it a ska revival because ska is something that’s never gone away, but there is a massive rejuvenation of the scene with The Interrupters, We Are The Union and Catbite.  What is going on out there that has gotten so many people back on their boards to ride this latest wave of ska?

Ska had some horrible, cheesy-ass growing pains from the third wave 90s ska revival. A lot of people my age in the 2000s underground scene completely discounted ska because of it’s reputation for being goofy at a time where the trend in the scene was being super serious. Fast forward 25 years and the kids today have no association with that 90s goofiness.
Add on top of that artists like Jeremy Hunter and what they have done for the scene with Skatune Network and Mike Sosinski at Bad Time Records curating the best bands in ska who are actually doing something to push the genre forward and you’ve got a recipe for a new generation of ska fans.

Dissidente has been garnering a lot of  (well-deserved) hype as one of the “next big things” in our scene.  How is that high standard playing into the writing and/touring process?  Does the high bar you’ve set for yourselves affect your creativity?

Touring has been admittedly difficult for us, as we’re split between two coasts (as I’m sure Mike from BTR could attest to with his band Kill Lincoln) but, hey! At least we’re all in the same country now!
Fortunately, this has left me with lots of time to mull over my songwriting in private and have lots of material to present to the rest of the band for them to tear apart and turn into something worth listening to.
As far as pushing ourselves creatively, I feel fortunate that we never painted ourselves into a corner by writing only one type of music. The songs we’ve been writing lately are all pretty cross-genre, experimenting with styles we’ve never played before. It still has the things that make a Dissidente song sound like Dissidente, but they’re being implemented in ways that might be surprising to some.

What’s the state of the scene from your point of view?  We are living in a “just deal with COVID” world and everything about this timeline is some level of completely fucked.  Beyond the lyrics, what impact, if any, does the current cultural and political landscape have on the band?

The pandemic fucked with pretty much everyone’s head. Trump fucked with pretty much everyone’s head. Increasing isolation has made it harder to see the people we love, and increasing inflation has made it harder to afford the things we love. These are long lasting psychological effects that some will be dealing with for years to come, and I think lots of people have been pushed to their breaking point. I know I’m one of them.
Within our own scene’s culture, the biggest eye opener for me was how the majority of the punks have sort of shut their mouths and gave up the fight the minute Biden was sworn in. I think our next album is going to ruffle some feathers and make those folks uncomfortable if they think we only vocalize dissent when a Republican is in office. If you don’t get that, then you don’t get us.

Dissidente is indisputably a politically charged band.  In this age of social media, members of the Q-Tang Klan have been emboldened to aggressively spew their ignorance with arrogance and anonymity, spreading misinformation at every turn.  Where would you direct our readers to stay informed without having to wade through the bullshit from the Dicks of Hazzard and Buzzcucks of the world?

First and foremost: ‘Q-Tang Klan’ is fucking hilarious and had me in tears. I am absolutely going to steal that. Thank you!
But for real: I would urge everyone to get as local as possible. That is where you will find out about the things happening in your own backyard that you actually have the means and power to find and disrupt. Find your local alternative bookstores and zine distros. Big shout out to The Big Idea Bookstore and FILLER Distro here in Pittsburgh. And for god’s sake TALK TO PEOPLE. Your neighbors are the greatest source of information for what is actually impacting your community daily.

One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?

Oh, man. My taste is sort of all over the place and I have been listening to decidedly non-punk music lately. Listen to Fela Kuti: afro-beat is absolutely that real shit. William Onyeabor is another cool one. He’s a psychedelic Nigerian artist from the 70s. Asuka Ando is one of my new favorites too. She’s a Japanese rocksteady singer who sort of toasts in a way that reminds me of Sister Nancy. I’ve been listening to a lot of Cumbia lately too. Basically, if I could give anyone looking for new music one piece of advice, it would be listen to music that isn’t from your own country.
Also, if you like heavy technical ska, listen to PWRUP. Mark my words: their next album is going to blow you away.
On a personal note, I have a new skacore supergroup that is just a few months out from being fully announced. It’s a super ambitious project and I am hella excited about it.

What’s next for Dissidente?

It’s probably bad form to talk too much about stuff we have in the works. But we do have a split 7″ coming out soon with a band you wouldn’t expect, doing covers of a band you wouldn’t expect. Other than that, we’re working on new material that will likely get divided into at least two separate releases. Brush up on your Russian.