Decrepit Birth is a modern style death metal band, building upon the blocks of the early 90's death metal scene. "We are a band with serious intentions to create an original sound, with great speed and accuracy." Originally formed in the mid 90's by guitarist Matt Sotelo, and vocalist Bill Robinson, the intentions of this band have always been the same...ultimate brutality. In September of 2001 Matt and Bill joined forces with ex-DEPRECATED bassist Derek Boyer. The three of them started writing material for a full-length CD. The band brought drummer Kevin Talley (ex-DYING FETUS/MISERY INDEX) out, and recorded a pre-release version of "Prelude to the Apocalypse". Luckily, Unique Leader Records offered them a deal, and they happily accepted. They were still one man short for the record, they needed a solid drummer, with all the skills for blasting and lots of fast double bass. Erik of Unique Leader offered to bring Tim Yeung out for the session. "We knew of Tim's insane skills from his work with bands like HATE ETERNAL, AGIEL, and AURORA BOREALIS." Tim came out to Matt's home recording studio to begin tracking for the up-coming release titled '...And Time Begins'. The band completed the recording over a four month period. The album became available on Unique Leader Records in stores world wide October 2003.
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fter that, Bassist Derek Boyer got the call from death metal legends SUFFOCATION to join their ranks full time. So it was time for Matt and Bill to search for a new bassist in addition to a second guitarist and drummer. The underground success, and many positive reviews of '...And Time Begins' brought an army of new fans and a huge buzz for Decrepit Birth. Over the first year of the albums release we tried out many different musicians, until we came across a couple of old friends in guitarist Mike Turner and bassist Risha Eryavec. We had worked with Risha back in the mid nineties, so we knew he had the abilities. Mike stepped up to the plate and showed us what he was capable of on the guitar, and from there Mike and Risha became full time members. So Decrepit Birth was complete in the strings department.
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Still, after months the hunt for a drummer was on. Guitarist Matt Sotelo recorded a young, up and coming band called ODIOUS MORTEM in his studio, and took notice of the awesome skills of drummer KC Howard. A short time later, KC came out to the rehearsal room for a tryout, and completely nailed three songs right away. So in 2004 KC Howard became a full time member of Decrepit Birth, while still playing in his own band ODIOUS MORTEM. From there on Decrepit Birth played many West Coast shows with bands such as Disgorge, Severed Savior, Origin and Suffocation. During that time the band has been working very hard writing new songs for the next album, which will prove to be a much more mature, and multi dimensional album.
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KC Howard Interview:
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SD.com: How old were you when you started playing?
KC: Sup dude, thanks for the cool interview. I basically started playing guitar when I was like 10, then I started playing drums when I was about 13, I'm 23 now.
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SD.com: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?
KC: I played for about a year at Humbodlt State back in 2001, then for a semester in 2005 at San Jose State. But I'm not too into the academic music world. I liked learing about music theory though.
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SD.com: Ever take any lessons?
KC: Yup, I took lessons for years with a dude Bill Ray (from San Diego), he's my main influence as a drummer. Besides that though, just random teachers at school.
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SD.com: Who are your top 5 influences?
KC: Well that's kinda tricky, right now I'd say:Â Bobby Jarzombek, Billy Cobham, Bill Bruford, Sean Reinert, George Kollias.
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SD.com: Assuming that influences doesn't mean favorites, who are your favorites?
KC: Mike Hamilton, Derek Roddy, Tim Yeung, John Longstreth, Flo, bumch more....
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SD.com: Let us know 5 CD's that are in your current rotation
KC: The New Spawn of Possession, Spastic Ink - Ink Compatible, Iron Maiden - 666, Al DiMeola/Paco De Lucia/John M. - Live in S.F. (guitarist trio), Canvas Solaris - al albums...
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SD.com: Can you remember a night you think was your best playing ever? If yes, when and where?
KC: Um, well I'd say some of the Candadian shows we did on this last tour were pretty far up there. This one club we played at in Montreal had crystal clear stage sound. The sound guy was chill, the club was nice, big crowd, playing was really fun that night. And the lighting was cool to. It's all about good sound, I love it.
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SD.com: Do you have a favorite brand of drums or cymbals?
KC: Well I've been playing Tama's forever so I kind of use them by default, until I get a new kit someday. For cymbals, I pretty much like Zildjians and Paiste's the best, but Sabians are right there to. Oh yeah, I've been really into Wuhan chinas and splashes lately too.
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SD.com: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
KC: Just chillin.
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SD.com: If you could give one piece of advice to young drummers, it would be...
KC: Listen to as many styles of music as you can, at the same time.
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SD.com: Who gave the best live performance you've ever seen?
KC: Well....  um, lets just go with death metal. I'd say the time we played the Key Club with Suffocation in Hollywood. They flew out from New York for the show and they played something like an 1 1/2 hour set. A whole bunch of songs I'd never seen live before, cool shit. I was tired after playing, but seeing them up on stage got me all into it, moshin and shit.
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SD.com: If you had to stop drumming, what would you want to do with your life?
