We love us a good two-piece band with just the right amount of experimentation to their sound evened out with a superb level of power behind their sound, yeah? But of course! Sometimes all you need is the right combination of people with an almost intuitive sort of understanding with each other and what they want to make something phenomenal come about. With today’s Weekly Featured Artist, a strong case of a two-piece band that really knows how to stand out is being made, and I feel needs more eyes and ears keeping track of their endeavors ASAP! Please welcome Possum Den!
Richmond, VA really has a track record for spawning some of the wildest acts in its underground scene, some going more criminally unheard of than they should have. Between the fine mix of metal, punk, folk, bluegrass, shoegaze, hardcore, skramz, experimental, and even slowcore bands that have been around and sprung up within the last five years, you don’t have to look far to find something cool going on in this notoriously ‘artsy’ city. One such example of this is absolutely the music of Possum Den, and moreover, their live act that pairs with the run-off-the-rails sound they’ve made a sort of signature aspect to what they do. Having appeared at their first show sometime in early 2023, it didn’t take long for them to start making waves within the local scene.
Trevor: ‘Mason and I met through mutual friends and we found ourselves jamming at jazz nights that Mason would host. He was amazing on the drums, but once we started talking we both realized our mutual affinity for heavier music. We started talking about it, which turned into meeting up and playing different songs/covers, which eventually turned into writing songs that we were excited about. Originally, we had asked someone to play bass, but after a few practices without them, we had the idea to be a 2 piece and mess with the guitar signal and sample pads to fill out the rest of the sound. Once we started doing that we started to appreciate and dive into the possibilities we had available to us, so we just ran with it!‘
Mason: ‘I could sense Trev had a natural inclination towards a more punchy, shoegaze-y sound in open jams with other musician friends and I was like ‘hell yes dude, let’s do more of that‘ haha. Once we started getting together outside of the context of an open-jam, we quickly realized we wanted to make stuff in the same vein and gelled really well together in the creative process: we keep our egos small, ask opinions of each other often, adapt & iterate.‘
…Both speaking on the general vision of what Possum Den means to them…
‘Possum Den is a representation of everything we want heavy music to be, trying to make the most noise and be as creative as possible with the limitations of a two person act. It’s a project that keeps musically pushing us to create and write on different axes while keeping a positive message in the midst of a chaotic, noisy environment.’
Taking only the bits of what both feel fits best with each composition they craft, the duo work exactly like two best friends who just ‘get’ each other and love what they do. This factor is palpable on their three available tracks found via Spotify. Take for instance “Mr. Giggles”, a song just as grungy and gritty as it is psychedelic and catchy. It blends a rhythmic crunch over with this sort of dark, haunting layer the vocals provide that can make the listener feel as if they’re taking a comfy descent into madness, with plenty of reverb to embellish it.
Similarly, “Love & Kindness” makes an intense build-up as it progresses, using nothing more than a few simple repeated lyric lines: ‘May you be free, may you be happy, may you be at peace.‘ Meanwhile, the instrumental just spikes into a mosh-worthy banger that switches from unnerving, reserved tension, to a noisier, grittier wave of riffing and stomping as those same lines are repeated with a bit more harshness put behind the vocals. This track truly captures the spirit of something we would have heard from the early days of Chat Pile, but Possum Den are far from a mere carbon copy of anything they bear similarity to. The intensity behind this track is all the more magnified when witnessed live, as well.
Trevor: ‘I grew up on metal music, but now I’ll listen to most everything if it’s doing something interesting or different. I love artists like The Body, The Garden, Death Grips, BIG|BRAVE and Gilla Band that try to push their own boundaries, but I also appreciate genres like sludge metal that find a sound and try to create riffs that outline the intricacies of their sound. The older I get the more I realize there are a ton of different levels music lives on, and it can be whatever you want it to be, so there is a lot of beauty in all of it if you can find what the artist cares about or what message they’re going for.‘
Mason: ‘I recently had a conversation about the central themes that make music subjectively ‘good’ to my ear and it boils down to 3 main things – groove, texture, and intention. I have sooo many musical influences that fit within this context that have inspired me to come up with new ideas that don’t necessarily fit neatly within a defined genre. Some artists that I’m currently obsessing over: Yussef Dayes, Mamaleek, Locked Club, Imelda Marcos, Jamie xx, Bruiser Wolf, John Carroll Kirby, and Gee Tee. Also, I just revisited Dance Gavin Dance’s Downtown Battle Mountain I listened to religiously as a kid…hot dawg that album was way ahead of its time and is worth another front-to-back listen (:‘
Even with having such a brief time of existing as a project, the two have really raised some eyebrows with the material they’ve released so far. While they explained that they’ve not exactly set any plans for a full-length any time soon, the duo makes mention of plans to release a few new songs in the near future, as well as gave some insight on what their recording process typically looks like. One thing about the RVA scene is that it seems to be just as full of exceptionally talented producers as it is musicians looking to work with those producers.
Possum Den has found promise in working with a few different names that have only furthered the capturing of a sound that sets them apart from others. Many artists itching to experiment and sort of ‘find their lane’, if you will, tend to wind up working with various producers in an attempt to see what sticks with whatever sounds they find in that endeavor. While the three available tracks heard by Possum Den have a fairly uniform sound to my ears, this proves to be a healthy approach especially in the world of experimental music. Given the potential heard from this material, it’s hard to not imagine a full-length, or even a new EP, not going hard with what they’ve proven they can do sonically.
Trevor: ‘Right now we have a few other songs recorded that we might release, but no idea on a full length anytime soon. We both work with different schedules and have a lot of outside things going on, so we just wanted to put out singles for a while. This gives us the freedom to pick it up and put it down when we need to instead of consistently meeting for a larger project. It also allows us to experiment with how our sound is mixed/recorded rather than just locking into a single way when we don’t even know what we want to sound like.‘
Mason: ‘We’re always playing around with different ideas and like the flexibility that releasing singles offers with our busy schedules. It’s a practical way of getting our stuff out-there, but I’m sure we’d both love to craft a curated experience in the form of a full-length at some point in the future.‘
…On what their songwriting/recording process typically looks like…
Mason: ‘Songwriting for us usually starts with something that catches one of our ears. We used to come up with riffs first, then build everything around that, but now we’re talking about ideas from other genres a lot or using the sample pad to get the ball rolling. Our most recent song idea stemmed from an accident while practicing – just kinda played around with tapping a pick on the neck pickup fed-through delayed, washed-out signals in the pedal chain with a looper active and ran with it. We’ve been more drawn to this approach because it takes us away from the idea of being a metal band and just writing music that we enjoy. We know we will always have the noise rock and metal sound because of the amps, powerful drums and our interests, but starting a song by talking about what pop songs or dance songs we like breaks down the barriers of ‘what should we write’ and ‘what do we want to write’. It’s always a good reminder that there are no limits to this and there shouldn’t be in the first place.‘
Trevor: ‘Recording has been a very interesting process. Because of the nature of having a guitar that is pitch shifted for the bass, the low end on our tracks has always been a point of contention. We’ve recorded with some amazing people, like Joey who runs Fisher King Records and plays in Terror Cell, and our good friend David who I’ve been recording with for a while with our project Mother Long Tongue, but also has his own projects (David’s Favor & Firzan). We’ve experimented with their help to get something that sounds like our live sound, but we are always looking for different approaches and anything that can capture the room as effectively as we want in our heads.‘
To what I can attest, both from having seen Possum Den live as well as heard their recordings, and just the general aura of the kind of personalities the both of them possess, it seems as though this band is a sort of embodiment of what being passionate about your music and all the creativity it entails is all about. Even with the songs having this sort of demented, gritty edge to them, with a myriad of versatility thrown in, the duo operates on only crafting what feels synonymous to not just what one or the other wishes to express, but what they both agree on. When I read their response detailing a sort of contention with the low-end on their production experiences due to how they create a bass-like sound via the guitarist’s pitch pedal, it seemed odd only because the fullness they create live as well as how it all sounds even recorded presents anything but something I feel is lacking in any aspect.
Apart from having an adorable name, and a wholesome backstory of how the two began the project, everything Trevor and Mason do together just works way better than you’d even expect. Hearing it live especially enforces this belief that it’s one of those projects that was just meant to be. I had wondered if there was a story of maybe trying out extra members, or any prior intentions of having ever explored doing the project with more than just Mason and Trevor involved, but the more I learn of them and considering how tightly they come together as a two-piece, it might even work against them to introduce any extra personnel. I believe they are essentially doing a perfect job of everything they seem to aim for with the line-up just the way it is currently.
Trevor: ‘Originally we thought about adding a bassist, but after a few practice sessions we just realized we didn’t need one. I love pedals and nerd out about gear, so the first thing I did after this realization was find a way to split my signal and pitch shift it to get a bass and guitar in one. Once we figured this out, the rest was just cultivating this sound further and further. Another essential tool in our arsenal has been the Boss ES-8 switching system. This allows me to change the order of my pedals to whatever order I want them in on the fly, so I can run crazy distortions or effects before the bass tone, send all wet FX to one of my two amps, or run reverb/delay through a chorus or distortion or micro loopers. That piece of gear has been excellent for us and has also allowed us to switch up how we sound in the middle of songs or sets. We also use the sample pad for some 808’s at times, or to fill in the room with noise or samples when the guitar is reaching for a lower tonality or just doing bass. We like to think that everything has its own lane sonically to build out our sound, but switching the idea of where each instrument needs to live to create a full or wide sound has definitely been pushing us to think bigger about what each of us do in the band.‘
Mason: ‘Live performances have always been a focal point of how we decide to structure our songs. We strive to make the ethereal sections dynamic & dreamy and our heavy sections loud & impactful, leaning on pedals and a sample pad when needed. We try our level best to make it a flowing experience that keeps listeners engaged and doesn’t have too much downtime.‘
Speaking of live performance…with 2024 mostly wrapping up and winding down, I of course wanted to inquire about the band’s future plans. While it sadly doesn’t appear they have any solid, immediate plans to tour, the duo did mention interest in playing some out-of-state shows, as well as some upcoming show plans they have marked on the calendars. With this only being their technical second year of having been a performing band, Trevor and Mason have squeezed in as much as they could within reason. But, as the two mentioned themselves, their live act being their biggest focal point means they intend to spend as much time as needed perfecting and expanding upon that, so that any and all future shows only become all the more mesmerizing an experience for all who attend.
Mason: ‘Right now we have a few shows planned for January/February next year. 2025 is going to be a fun year for the band, we’re tightening up our live show and making new stuff in the meantime. It’s been awesome to meet so many rad musicians in the RVA scene and are stoked to have the opportunity to play more shows with other bands we’re excited about!‘
Trevor: ‘I’m getting married soon and focusing a lot of energy on that right now, but next year we should be picking it back up with some recorded songs and shows planned out! We would love to play outside of Virginia or do some weekenders to get our feet wet, but we’re taking our time with it for sure. We’ve only played maybe 10-15 shows so far, so we’ve been more focused on getting our set down and trying different things and ways to get creative interludes thrown in there rather than looking to perform on different/bigger stages.‘
I’ve said it at a few points in this article, but I really want to hone in on the spirit I see between the two forces behind Possum Den. When I do these WFA articles, I typically like to ask each artist, to which I generally get a unique but altogether insightful response to each time, all about what music means to them and why making it feels so important. With Trevor and Mason, it seems like music is much more than just making a bunch of expressive noises that say something words don’t always summarize too well. This genuinely seems like a vital organ to both of them, of which they feel enables them of capabilities comparable to superpowers.
Perhaps that’s how essentially any artist feels about the privilege of creating and performing music or any other form of art. But, each of the times I’ve witnessed Possum Den live, it’s difficult to not see, hear, and feel the passion pressed firmly in every note they strike from start to finish. They clearly take all of this quite seriously, but leave enough non-seriousness in it to where it’s eternally just as much fun as it is a sincere expression of sonic experimentation as well as a space for both to say what they feel needs to be said. Anyone can tell you that ‘music is life’ to them, when people like Trevor and Mason tell it to me, there’s not a question in my mind that they mean it for real.
Mason: ‘Music has always been huge for me. I was a Limewire kid that would obsessively search for and organize music by mood or feeling. Shouts out to my brother, mom & dad for letting me infect our computer with an ungodly amount of viruses to download terrible quality underground Memphis rap and Chicago Juke tracks – love you! I’ve played in orchestral bands, marching bands, and personal projects since I was about 10 years old. I have an immense amount of gratitude for all of the teachers and peers that have helped me to curate a deep appreciation for the craft itself. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found creating music that speaks to you and developing your sound/skills in a community of other talented musicians IS THE VIBE. I just feel so dang lucky that music has been a creative outlet that has been with me for so long and that it continues to be an important part of my life.‘
Trevor: ‘Music was influential for me throughout my life, but it has grown and morphed in its meaning to be whatever was the most beneficial for me. In high school, I used playing guitar, recording songs, and listening to music almost as a form of escapism. Now, throughout my 20’s it’s proven to be an anchor in my life, being the thing that can help my moods, change my outlook on situations, and always giving me a creative outlet to funnel my emotions into rather than do anything that’ll get me into trouble. Now that we’ve been performing more regularly, it’s once again changed into learning and helping out a beautiful community of people. We love playing music, but getting to meet cool individuals that all do this for the love of the art has been energizing us to help out more with the scene. It’s inspired me to get into making show posters and designs for artwork, and we’ve met a ton of cool people that have aided our experience. For example, [this article] has allowed us to write out our feelings and interpretations of the art we make through this platform, but we’ve also got great contacts for merch that we are now in the process of releasing! Another great person who has done a lot for us and heavy music in Richmond is Rob Brill of Bend the Knee and Rival Booking. He has put us on a ton of cool shows and put on a ton of great shows with cool bands around the area. The people in the scene have been incredible, and sharing that passion continues to inspire me to do more with my own music, but also more for the people around me, helping out wherever I can!‘
As I conclude this lengthy article on an act I’m proud to have had the honor of speaking about, I implore any and all readers to carry themselves on over to Possum Den‘s Facebook and Instagram and keep up with any and all news on the band as it develops. Though their following may seem small now, it’s hard for me to imagine their name not going places over the next year especially. The duo don’t seem terribly motivated or interested with anything involving fame or ‘getting big’ but so much, and I mean that in the best way possible – they seem infinitely more interested in just creating the exact experience live on a stage that they envision. The meaning behind what the band does is 100% all about what it does for them and making that space shareable for all who wish to be apart of it, and that is what I believe not only helps set them apart but projects just how authentic the two are. I end this off with some final words from the band to any fans new and familiar…
Mason: ‘We really want to give people the same feeling that music has given us and also show people how positive, rewarding, and useful music can be. People are complex as hell. We all have a diverse set of interests and experiences that we pull from that shape us into the people we are. I like playing around with this concept of perception and introducing elements of contradiction when making stuff – like layering a loving kindness meditation mantra on top of a sludgy instrumental that feels like a punch to the mouth. Showing the beauty in the gray areas of life that don’t exactly have to make sense.‘
Trevor: ‘For me, the lyrics I am writing are about addiction and the feeling of being trapped by your own thoughts and actions. This feeling sucks, and I worked through this sort of mental paralysis by making music and getting more and more into art. The music we make is intended to be heavy because of the power behind it, but it has an overwhelmingly positive message at the end, which we hope we can accurately portray in our music, shows and whatever we do. My overall message would be summed up into not being like me and doing things and taking steps to better yourself through whatever means gives you the most intrinsically rewarding experience.‘
Possum Den are…
Trevor – guitar, vocals
Mason – drums, vocals
