If you read any Neurosis interview, it’ll usually be either Steve Von Till or Scott Kelly doing the talking - and Steve was indeed the first member of the band to be on this show - but the fascinating thing (well, one more fascinating thing for the pile) about that revolutionary band is that every band member seems to hold an entire super-creative musical universe all of their own within themselves. Such is the case with Noah Landis, who joined them in 1995 to explore the world of sampling and keyboards even if he famously hadn’t really done much of that previously. When you see Neurosis live now, Noah wildly swiveling back and forth to the pounding rhythm of their apocalyptic dirges as his rack of machinery teeters ever-dangerously on the edge of falling down, you simply cannot imagine them without his presence, which just says it all about the impact he has had on these last 27 years of one of the most important bands in the world.

However, just like Dave and Jason, and obviously Scott and Steve too, there’s a whole lot more to Noah - there was already when he joined Neurosis, in fact. A decisive figure in the punk scene of the West Coast, he was on the legendary Christ On Parade, for instance, and throughout the years he’s kept on being involved in several fascinating projects. Some of them Neurosis-related, of course, like Tribes Of Neurot or Blood & Time (which kind of evolved into The Road Home), but also the amazing (and sadly extinct) The Same, and now Tension Span. A brand new entity featuring Matt Parrillo (Dystopia, Kicker) and Geoff Evans (Asunder) with Noah on vocals, their debut album ‘The Future Died Yesterday’ will be released on September 30th on Neurot and it’s a thing of great dark beauty.

Of course, Tension Span hold a special place on this episode of The Devil’s Mouth podcast, and we give you two new tracks off the album, but they are also bookending Noah’s Ten Rounds, which turned out to be a remarkable trajectory through some of the songs that were most important to him when he was younger, and which hooked him to punk and post-punk for life. Not only musically, but also in terms of philosophy, ethics and lifestyle. Our chat with Noah reflects a lot on how these songs and the punk scene shaped him and his work as a musician, and we are lucky to receive some of his pondered thoughts on subjects such as the notion of "anti-music"; or the ideas of rejection and rebellion which fueled (and still do!) his music and the music that inspires him, or how feeling like an outcast has informed pretty much his entire artistic output.

You can tune in and listen to the whole conversation+songs right here. I hope it’s as fun to listen as it was to record with Noah.

You can find Tension Span on Bandcamp.

The Devil's Mouth

THE DEVIL'S MOUTH Vol. 103: Ten Rounds with…