A Dirty Dozen with KEZIAH “KZ” STASKA and RYAN COUITT from DREAMWELL – July 2026

Photo credit: Nat Lacuna

According to a recent press release: “Self-proclaimed post-skramz outfit DREAMWELL will unleash their scorching Hymns For The Denial Of God full-length on August 28th via Prosthetic Records. Everything boils down to intent. In the wrong hands, social constructs like religion will divide us and diminish our potential for unity. DREAMWELL unravels the contradictions, complications, and conflicts inherent within the misuse and weaponization of faith in a higher power on their third full-length offering, Hymns For The Denial Of God. Rather than levy a black-and-white attack against religion, the Rhode Island quartet — vocalist Keziah “KZ” Staska, guitarist/backing vocalist Ryan Couitt, bassist Justin Soares, and drummer Anthony Montalbano — considers the nuances and what happens when an entity meant to unite ends up driving us apart.” We get KZ and Ryan 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?

KZ: There is actually a little hidden easter egg I put in the record for all my old friends. The final lines of the song “Your Ichthys Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore” is a rewrite of the final lines in the last song my first band ever wrote 13 years ago. The story there is that we would end every set from our very first show with this breakdown where the lyric was “why the fuck would Jesus die for me?” But as we became a better band over the years, we realized the song it was in sucked and we scrapped it. Eventually, we wrote this part we wanted to use as a new set-ender, and I didn’t bother writing to it because it wasn’t a real song, so I would just smash my mic into the ground and stomp around. But at one show, I realized halfway through that those lyrics still fit over it, so I brought it back, and we eventually wrote a song around it. I remember my friends being so excited it came back. I always knew I’d do it again someday, the right part just never came. But when I heard those closing notes of “Ichthys Decal,” I instantly heard it. I knew it was time.

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

KZ: It’s cliche, but I always knew from a young age I wanted to perform, I just didn’t know how. I never saw myself as a musician, just as a performer, and I needed to figure out what that meant. When I was in high school, I couldn’t do anything without having music on, so that’s what I was drawn to. I went to my first local show when I was 13, at a boxing gym in Whitman, MA, and that’s when I learned you didn’t have to be famous to play shows. From that point on, starting a band was all I ever wanted. It would take me a few years to realize I was a vocalist and not a guitar player, though.

Ry: One of the earliest moments I can remember being mesmerized by music was when I was 6. I had walked into my brothers room and he was playing AFI’s Sing The Sorrow on his stereo. I can’t say I immediately knew I wanted to be a musician then but I had absolutely fallen in love with music and further continued to raid my elder brothers CD collections.

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

KZ: I saw Clutch at The Axis in Boston in 2002 when I was 10 years old. I think they would have been touring Pure Rock Fury at the time. That band, and in particular Transnational Speedway League, set me on my path for sure.

Ry: Billy Talent is probably one of my greatest influences musically. When I was 9 or so my brother would put music on an mp3 player for me since I didn’t know how to operate a computer and one day I asked him to put Simple Plan onto it. He said “no I’m not letting my little sibling listen to that”, he introduced me to Billy Talent instead and I never listened to Simple Plan again.

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

KZ: A nightmare to choose just one, honestly. I’d love to get Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies, Battle of Mice) on a track because no vocalist has had more of an impact on my style and approach than her and I think she’s just an absolute monster. John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats) reached out to us after Modern Grotesque and suggested it was a possibility someday, but they’re the busiest band on the planet so we just gotta hope it lines up right one day. That would be insane for me. I’d like to get billy woods on a track, too. Just an impeccable lyricist and he has such a dark delivery, plus an uncanny ability to work on top of any instrumental, so I think he’s someone that could pull off the crossover without it being corny.

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

KZ: I mostly just like to read and write. Music for a lot of my life has been kind of an excuse to write more. It helps me work through things in my brain. I’m also an on-and-off powerlifter.

Ry: I’m a big fan of just getting out into nature, mostly just visiting local trails and preserves. I sit and stare at the ocean a lot and do a bit of sea glass collecting.

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?

KZ: Riffy, chaotic, unhinged screamo with a heavy thematic emphasis on loathing, self or otherwise. I don’t  know that I would say any of them make me cringe, and I usually see where they’re coming from even when I disagree. My vocals get compared to La Dispute a lot because I go into the talk-singing thing sometimes and I just don’t think it’s a good comparison, not because I don’t love La Dispute or I’m ashamed to be compared to Jordan Dreyer, but because I just think what he does is so much more specific than just talk-singing. He has a whole cadence that’s entirely his own, and that’s the defining thing about his vocals. There are a hundred bands that talk-sing that I usually AM trying to rip off when I do it, so I always just think it’s funny. That said, when people inevitably make the comparison this time around on “Hypercrucifixation,” they’ll be right.

Ry: I don’t like being called metal.

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?

KZ: When we have long writing sessions in the summer, we got Anthony hitting the grill for sure. I think everyone in the band has cut back on drinking for the most part (except me, I never did it in the first place). Nobody is hitting that acoustic guitar ever but we are not strangers to putting on Jagged Little Pill loud as hell.

Ry: Yeah Justin usually takes care of grabbing food supplies and then gives us all a job to take care of. We used to have a tradition of shotgunning white claws before practice but we’ve chilled out quite a bit in the last couple years. I’ve cut alcohol out back in October.

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

KZ: I’ve never been starstruck in my life. I don’t believe in it. That’s a person. Which honestly I think is a useful skill, because whenever I do meet someone who I know has some amount of notoriety, it’s really easy for me to just be regular and friendly. The last person I went out of my way to say hello to was J.R. Hayes from Pig Destroyer, though.

Ry: Yeah what KZ said, I think fangirling people is extremely odd behavior. The company I work for serves refreshment beverages at some music festivals that happen every summer here in Rhode Island and last summer I served Willow Smith, that was neat.

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?

KZ: The best part of being a musician will always be playing shows for me. It’s the point. If I could never play live again, I wouldn’t ever write another song. Being with a community, having an outlet to perform. It’s irreplaceable in life. I’d like to be a college professor. English or writing.

Ry: Playing music with friends on stage and being able travel the country from it and getting to visit all the friends you meet along the way. I do not dream of labor.

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?

KZ: I don’t know that I have one for that first one. It suggests there’s something I’m burning to tell, but haven’t had an opportunity to yet, and I don’t know if that’s the case. I just enjoy the conversations the handful of times we’ve done podcasts and stuff. That’s fun to me. I’m not so pressed about what they ask, I just like being there. As for one I’m tired of, asking about the band name. It doesn’t matter at all. Plus, I wasn’t even involved when the name was chosen, so I barely know.

Ry: Generally I just hope to have the interviewer ask questions that show they’ve listened to the music first. I’m tired of the question “where do you see yourselves in __ time?”

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?

KZ: I’ve had some experiences damaging my voice on tour and when it’s happened it just absolutely tanks my mood until it comes back. I’m mopey and miserable and I know when it’s happened it has made me come off as standoffish to the people we are on tour with, and I think it’s kept me from building the relationships with other people that I could have if I didn’t get so in my head about it. So I’d like to learn to not let hardships weigh me down so much.

Ry: I think I ultimately killed my van we were touring with. There’s a specific moment where I was driving us from Dallas to Austin on our tour with TWIABP immediately after we just got the van fixed up from breaking down the day before. I hit close to 110mph and felt the engine do something odd. While exiting off the highway an odd ticking was coming from the engine. 24 hours later on our way to Phoenix we broke down again with a diagnosis of broken crankshaft.

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?

KZ: We Are the Romans by Botch, easy. I want to know everything about it. I want to watch every track get laid down. I think it’s the single greatest metalcore record of all time and I don’t think it’s ever going to be beaten.

Ry: Sing the Sorrow by AFI. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time. It pushed every boundary of what hardcore music can be.

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Category: Interviews