A Dirty Dozen with DANY ROBERGE from GET THE SHOT – November 2022

According to a recent press release: “Quebec City’s GET THE SHOT will release their new album Merciless Destruction, out October 7 via New Damage Records. Merciless Destruction marks the awaited return of Get the Shot. As with No Peace In Hell (2014) and Infinite Punishment (2017), the upcoming fourth album sees the band exploring new territories of extreme music, while sticking to its roots and its fierce DIY approach to music. Following the thrash-influenced Infinite Punishment, Get the Shot incorporate death metal and beatdown elements on Merciless Destruction. Over countless tours across the globe, the band has taken inspiration from many bands along the way and refined its sound, while also taking influence from some of the top-heavy artists such as Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, and Machine Head.” We get bassist Dany to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release. What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

I hope the listeners will be left with the feeling of being hit by a sack of bricks on its first spin. All jokes aside, we worked hard to produce our heaviest album to date. You can still feel the GET THE SHOT sound in the writing. All the previous influences are still there, we just added more spices into the mix. Longtime diehard fans will recognize hints from the past left on “Season of the Damned II.” Some of the riffs on that song come from a longtime ago. Indeed being a direct follow up to part 1, but also including moments from “Den of Torments.” Being fans of horror movies, we also left a few hidden nuggets here and there on the album.

2. What got you into music and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

All members of GTS come from a long history of being involved in local bands. Starting as young as 14 years old, I don’t think we have ever wanted to be musicians, we just were. If I have to pinpoint a moment in my personal experience, I would say listening to Green Day Dookie detonated something to the point of no return. Watching them live at Woodstock ‘94 clarified that idea of wanting to be a live performance musician.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Most of us come from the punk rock scene. However, other members grew up listening to metal classics such as Slayer, At The Gates and In Flames to name a few. However, we all have in common American hardcore. I must admit that JP has often acted as a central force by introducing us to several groups, thus allowing us to broaden our musical horizons and thereby developing a common field of influence. To namedrop a few albums that shaped our sound; The first two HATEBREED albums, the first two TERROR LPs, COMBACK KID’s early material, Reign in Blood by SLAYER, Urban Discipline by BIOHAZARD, Among The Living by ANTHRAX, Violence Violence by CEREMONY, Slowly We Rot by OBITUARY, Slaughter of the Soul by AT THE GATES and Master Killer by MERAUDER.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

That’s a tough one. We always work with close friends and always write the material beforehand. We never had the opportunity to do a collaborative effort with another songwriter or an outsider of the band. I’d love to hear the shred and divebomb from the master Kerry King. If I think out of the box, a more melodic song with an aggressive ending featuring Davey Havok and Jade Puget of AFI would be something amazing too.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour? What do you like to do to unwind?

I wish I could have spare time to unwind. JP goes to the gym everyday and Tom is a beast on a ping pong table… and I mean, a competing level beast. For my part, I am juggling between spending time with my family and doing business development for three businesses. Spare time is hard to grasp. I am a cinema aficionado. I find comfort in movies and am able to escape in storytelling. I try to watch as many movies as I can when I have a minute for myself.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

GET THE SHOT is, and will forever be a hardcore band. Heavily influenced by metal, but still a hardcore band at heart. We are the sons of BIOHAZARD and SLAYER, raised by HATEBREED. I don’t mind referencing other bands to talk about our music, that means extreme music is alive and has its gateway bands. Yet, I don’t like being compared on a single aspect of our art. At first we’ve been compared to COMEBACK KID because of the fast drumming, then RAISED FIST because of JP’s voice. Nowadays we’ve been compared to KNOCKED LOOSE, again because of JP’s voice tone, but also MALEVOLENCE because of our recent power ballad. Those bands are awesome, so we take that as a compliment, but we’ve been doing our thing for the past 13 years now, I think our catalog is rich enough to be viewed as a whole.

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

It’s been a while since our last non-music related hang out. We used to do that a lot back then, throwing BBQs and stuff. I guess I would do the cooking, Tom would pour the drinks and JP would sing his heart out on a Little Richard acoustic cover. Our drummer David used to be a DJ in various Quebec City clubs. He still owns a great record collection to spin and move the dance floor.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

Coming from the punk scene, I got to meet many of my teenage heroes, some of them are now close friends, some of them disappointed me. I don’t put musicians and artists on a pedestal, and mostly consider them as hard working and inspiring people with a story to tell. The only time I froze was when I was introduced to Billie Joe Armstrong. So many things to say, yet not a single word came out.

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

I cherish the close relationships I developed with my bandmates. There is a profound level of intimacy that you can only find in families, in those relations. I am glad to have experienced the emotional roller coaster with those beings. We grew together and keep doing so. I enjoy every aspect of being a musician. I love the road, I love the stage, I love creating art. GET THE SHOT is a huge part of our lives, yet we all have other occupations that fulfills our time. JP is a philosophy teacher and puts as much passion in it as he does with GTS. If my musical venture would have to come to an end, I guess I would still hit the stage as a Spoken Word artist. I look up to Henry Rollins, Greg Bennick, and Scott Ian with great admiration.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

I always try to push what I want to say in the answers. I like to talk about the dynamics inside a band that has been together for more than a decade. To tell how hard it is to keep a band on the road, how hard it is to get out of Quebec and being belittled because of our French Canadian origin. I’m passionate about the DIY ethic in our way of doing music business. One question I cannot stand anymore is “Where does the name GET THE SHOT come from?” It has been answered millions of times. At some point we got rid of it, but now since the pandemic I feel like we still have to put it out one last time. The name GET THE SHOT comes from a song from a hardcore band called Attitude from Syracuse. People can also think that it comes from Pulp Fiction if they prefer, I don’t mind. Haha.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Of course there were dozens of missteps and fuckups. GET THE SHOT was never supposed to be more than a bunch of outsiders playing in front of a handful of their peers in a Quebec City basement. We did everything ourselves, made some mistakes and learned from it. We always set our things straight with the people concerned and face the consequences of our actions. Then we move forward. As long as the whole band supports each other, the rest doesn’t matter.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

I love the story of BEASTIE BOYS – Check Your Head (1992). After putting sampling techniques to its limits on their previous effort, the band returned to their punk roots and played all instruments on this one. Sampling and looping themselves instead of others’ work. Rather than booking expensive studios for their sessions, they used the advance money from the label to rent a warehouse and build their own compound from scratch. They bought various instruments from thrift stores and used the space to manage all their activities. The recording techniques on that album are some of the most creative I’ve read about.

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Category: Interviews