By Chelsea Smiley Walking down North State Street, you could feel the vibration throughout your whole body approaching The Shakedown. As soon as you walked through the door, you were immediately surrounded by loud bass and head banging, making you feel like you could rock out all night long. The voice of singer and guitarist Christian Lembach boomed from the speakers as he introduced Atlanta-based band, Whores. Lembach said the band name was inspired by their influences, such as The Melvins, having simple names. The band’s 10-track debut full-length album, “Gold,”was listed as No. 10 on Rolling Stone’s list of “20 Best Metal Albums of 2016.” Matt Savage, a fan, said Whores’ music reminds him of another band. “They’ve got an updated Helmet vibe,” Savage said. “Sorta pretty aggressive, choppy.[It’s] good music. It wakes me up in the morning.” Lembach said the song-making process for the band starts with collaboration on the arrangement. Lembach will bring in a riff and the band will kick it around a bit together. Then they will try to find counterpoints to the original riff to either simplify or take it in another direction. Once there is an arrangement, Lembach said the band thinks about the intro and the bridge for the song. After they record, Lembach will take it home and write the lyrics. “In that word-writing process, things will change pretty drastically,” Lembach said. “Something that I thought was the bridge was actually the intro, or the main riff for the song is actually the chorus. The words and the phrasing will dictate how the arrangement goes.” Pretty much all of Whores’ songs are about similar things, like the world we live in, where Lembach said “someone always has their foot on your neck.”. The band’s most significant challenge is their name. Because of it, Lemback said, sometimes the band gets passed over for endorsements from more prominent businesses. “The smaller pedal companies are good to us because they’re independent builders,” Lembach said. People misinterpret the name and give the band grief non-stop, Lembach said. Lembach said, worst-case-scenario, they think they’re hicks, thugs or simply ignorant. Best-case-scenario, people believe they are tone deaf to what the word represents to people. “It’s really difficult because that’s not where we're coming from at all,” Lembach said. “It’s a hassle, but we're not going to change it.” You can check out Whores’ latest music on Spotify and read more about them on their website, www.whoresband.com.
