This week, the irrepressible Dom Smith spoke to Jake Duzsik, the lead vocalist of the band HEALTH. They talk about everything from the band’s punk ethos, their legacy, visuals and more!
Jake Duzsik is sick. Now, this may seem ironic, given the name of the band he leads is called HEALTH, but Jake is on the mend from Covid. And he is in excellent spirits. The band’s roots lay firmly in punk, and still do to this day. The band still carry their own gear, set their equipment up, and even help other bands just starting out by finding them places to play. “The punk-ness that is just tattooed into our bones is just being level-headed and always thankful to be anywhere, not taking anything for granted.” Even with their success over the years the band don’t see any shame in levelling up. “We would love to grow to be a large hall, small arena band, (and) one thing I always said in those interviews is that we never had huge expectations, but we’re always really ambitious.”
HEALTH have been in the public eye for about 18 years up to this point. The noise rock outfit broke ground for not sticking to the rules of the genre by managing include the traditional and the untraditional. The group has mainly stayed the same, with Jake Duzsik on vocals, John Famiglietti on bass and electronics, and BJ Miller on drums. Current fans need no introduction, but newbies to the group might. You might know them from their song with Crystal Castles entitled ‘Crimewave,’ or perhaps the soundtrack they created for Max Payne 3. The group have released six albums to date, and they show no intention of slowing down. This is evident from their last two-part project, DISCO4, and features the likes of (deep breath) Nine- Inch Nails, JPEGMAFIA, 100 Gecs, Poppy, Soccer Mommy and Lamb of God.
With all this history behind them, do the guys think about their legacy at all? “I think it’s been much more healthy and gratifying from a legacy perspective, not like a hyper-narcissistic vantage but more just what we have is our output, and kind of jealously guard that quality.” Jake also touches on how some of his favourite bands weren’t that big, with them being bands that were freer creatively and visually, not having to worry about success in artificial terms.
Speaking of visuals, the band are fond of aesthetic, and this shows in any of their album artwork or live shows. The band drew inspiration from post-punk artwork, including certain labels such as Impulse Records and even early Sub-Pop Releases. “If you just removed the band name, and put all the artwork on large format canvasses, and then they would look like they were part of the same retrospective.”
The record has allowed Jake to reflect and allow some cathartic songwriting. This record has been the most expressive for him, and has allowed dark but relevant themes to be explored. The song ‘DSM-V’ is about the addictive drive to destructive behaviour, something that Jake tries to stay away from. “I think if I hadn’t had that outlet, which is ultimately a constructive and positive one, I think that the other outlets would have been not positive or constructive, they would have been the reverse, (and) they would have been destructive.”
As well as being an outlet for Jake and a way to avert pivots to more nefarious vices, the songs here also help fans what they’re going through. “It’s so direct, and I think when you do that, you don’t need to try to write so that your fanbase can connect to it because they’re already going to, because you’re being honest.” That honesty shines through on songs such as ‘Ashamed,’ which was written in the style of stream of consciousness writing. The vulnerability and honesty of the song has really spoken to fans so far, and according to Jake ,“it has engendered the most visceral and emotive reaction of any song for our fans.”
As for a message to the fans, Jake gives a heartfelt thankyou to them. “Thank you for listening. We don’t get to do this without people paying attention, but I think that’s the most important thing to be grateful for.”
HEALTH release begin their tour with Sleep Token on December 5th and release their new album Rat Wars on December 7th.
Listen to Jake discuss working with Nine Inch Nails, touring with Sleep Token and more:
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