In this week's 10 Questions we get to know Hubris Debris, a Death Metal project from the US

Their song Silos of Burden is currently featured on the NAS Spotify playlists

You can follow Hubris Debris on Instagram

1. Tell us a little about where you are from.

I'm from the St Louis area, on the Illinois side. First and foremost, I'm Dad to two boys and husband to one awesome wife. I have a full time job, and my hobbies are making mead, and writing and recording death metal.

2. What inspired Hubris Debris to start playing and making music?

I don't even know, probably the first time I heard "One" by Metallica and about the same time I heard "5 Minutes Alone" by Pantera and I was about 10-11 years old and decided I needed a guitar, haha!! I didn't realize music could have that kind of power or impact up until that point - and I yearned for it!!

I ended up "jamming" with friends from school and neighbors and from ages 18-30 I played live shows around St Louis in a variety of bands - including Ordained Genocide, I Stabbed My Landlord, Gyanna, and Where Wolves Live. Now I record at home with my solo project Hubris Debris and periodically with my international band Et Languorem.

3. Who are Hubris Debris' biggest musical influences?

Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy, Cannibal Corpse, The Haunted, Archspire, Mephistopheles, The Faceless, Black Crown Initiate, The Red Chord, Pig Destroyer, Despised Icon, Psycroptic, Nasum, Rotten Sound, Wormrot, Cephalic Carnage, Origin, Necrophagist, Cattle Decapitation, Nile, Carcass, Fear Factory, Meshuggah, Metallica, Sepultura, Superjoint Ritual, Unearth, Down, Crowbar, CKY, Asesino, Metallica, Pantera, and Black abbath have inspired me heavily to make music.

My sound as Hubris Debris is generally created to be groove death metal, no clean singing, with enough familiarity to bang your head to it, but enough interesting riffs and rhythms to entertain most metalheads.

4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?

Music is a hobby for me, but it's therapy. I get to explain everything that's ever bothered me - in song form, and get it off my chest. My original key goal was to write, record, and release my own album - all on my own. And I did it, twice! It sounds homemade because it IS homemade. And I like that about my music. So anything else from here on out is just fun for me!

5. Tell us about your creative process.

Generally it takes me about 2 hours of guitar playing to write just one riff I like, and I'll record it as a voice memo on my phone, and save it for later. When inspiration strikes, I'll cobble together some of the riffs I've written over the years and make a song out of it.

It then takes a few more years for me to figure out how I want to do my vocal rhythms over the song, and then I'll write lyrics to that. It's a looooong, slow process. But it's how I tackle them, and it allows me to have it as a side hobby and get to be super present in my kids' lives as Dad.

6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?

The Spectator by Misery Index. The lyrics are absolutely haunting, harrowing, terrifying for anyone "growing up" and working an adult job. It's a reminder to not let your work consume you, to do something with your life, and to try to enjoy as much of every single day; as much as you possibly can.

7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?

Dean Lamb is one of my favorite musicians, he's the guitarist of Archspire - and he has all kinds of advice videos about bands, being successful, growing, and achieving milestones with your music. I don't agree with every single thing he says, but it's the single best source of advice for metal musicians that I've heard anywhere.

I don't really seek advice or give it - because my journey is very personal to me. Music is a hobby, and my lyrics are my personal therapy sessions, so I NEED my music to sound homemade and not overproduced; and therefore I kind of discard a lot of advice about sound and mixing and mastering that's out there.

8. What is your proudest accomplishment?

In life, being a father to my awesome boys Rex and Eli. In music, getting to open for my favorite band Misery Index was a concert bucket list item for me. Covering their song "Alive?" was a massive accomplishment for me musically, they've inspired me so much and I felt like I had an opportunity to take their song out for a rip and hopefully did it justice.

9. What's been your most embarrassing moment so far?

Early on in my concert playing career, while I was playing second guitar in a punk band - a venue told us they could pay us some share of the tickets OR just pay our bar tab. We took FULL advantage of that... We were in our early 20's. Needless to say, "things" happened in and outside the venue, and we were banned from returning to that venue!

10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.

Music and interest in it ebbs and flows out of me. I have little control over it, so at my best I'm picking up the guitar 5x per day and writing riffs. I love and recording awesome songs and have the drive to feature my friends and record them and really hit the ground running with my music.

At my lowest, I have a difficult time even picking up my guitar to write... And even if I try, I don't like anything that I play. I can't explain it - it's as if I have zero ability to control my own enjoyment of the writing process.

When I'm really driven, music POURS out of me. When I'm not feeling it, I couldn't enjoy it if I wrote entire complete symphonies. But in those low times I can barely even get one riff out, for months. It's just a part of who I am and my process.