‘Candy’ for Your Ears: The Uniquely Human Sound of DRAIN

Fun is the name of the game for the widely heralded hardcore punk band DRAIN. The trio’s blood-pumping riffs and overwhelmingly positive lyrics make the group an anomaly of sorts. Composed of vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro, drummer Tim Flegal and guitarist Cody Chavez, the trio has gained praise as the leaders of the resurgence of the hardcore sound. 
 
“It’s been a very wild ride,” frontman Ciaramitaro told Newsweek. He credits the group’s underdog mentality for its success. “We’ve just been chipping away at it, man, just playing hardcore and punk rock music. It’s been a very wild ride, and we’ve been able to do things despite being the underdog. We’ve been able to do some pretty cool things, and we still got so many cool things left to do, and we’re just enjoying the ride.” 

Rise of the Underdog

That ride has been a long one for the group, notes Ciaramitaro. “Our drummer Tim started it in 2014 and I came shortly after that, and aside from the name and us still being there, it’s basically a completely different band. But it just started as kids in college that were like, ‘Hey, like, your band shirt’s kind of similar-ish to the band shirt I’m wearing,’” the singer recounted.
 
Little did they know that those differences would go on to become their band’s strength, as their individual tastes help add to the band’s diverse sound profile that Ciaramitaro describes as “walking that line between punk rock, hardcore, metal, hip-hop at times; just fusing all of that into one blender.”
 
The trio’s connection has only continued to blossom with time. Longstanding friendship helps promote continuity and evolution in the music. “I feel so blessed I get to do this with people I care about. And we have just a really great chemistry off and on the stage. We get together, we just play and like, ‘Yo, this feels good.’ I think at one point earlier on, when we were first just kind of starting to figure stuff out, I think that we would just throw things out of left field, and put this part here, and then put this part here, and that was really cool,” reflected Ciaramitaro. 
 
DRAIN’s newly released third album, “…Is Your Friend,” takes the bombastic sound the trio has been roundly praised for over the past two albums and sharpens it with goosebump-inducing riffs and witty, self-reflective lyricism.

“Guitar shred music kind of fused in with breakdowns, and just trying to find that really fun and happy medium to put all those in and do it in a way that’s meant to be played for people,” Ciaramitaro said of the album. 

Chemistry, Chaos and Creative Freedom

Throughout the album, DRAIN experiments with a variety of sounds, sometimes folding them inside one another like a punk nesting doll. Ciaramitaro can appreciate when bands have a specific vision and sound they curate, but that’s not how DRAIN operates.

“That’s totally cool, and for us, it’s not really us,” Ciaramitaro explained. “We all have just things that we enjoy. And so when we’re getting together and writing, it’s tough to figure out how to blend it, but once you do, and you find a way that works, it can be a lot of fun. And there’s, there’s really no limitations,” he continued.
 
“When you put it all together, there’s a lot of cool things going on. It’s like little candy on your ears, but you can still bob along, and there’s a solid beat. It’s not like overtly technical music to where it’s challenging to play, but there’s no heartbeat behind it.”
 
Themes of heartbeat, humanity and authenticity appear at several points in the album’s run; most prominently when Ciaramitaro sings “Sometimes I feel like all that rock and roll they play don’t got a soul” on the album’s standout track “Who’s Having Fun?” 

The Art of Imperfection

“We’re trying to be what we want to see, and especially now with where technology is, on stage and off stage.” he said. “If I drop this guitar, it’s gonna sound like s***. You’re gonna hear it, it’s gonna sound bad. If I sing out of key, which I do all the time, you’re gonna hear it. I think there’s some, there’s a beauty to that.” 
 
DRAIN is breaking the mold with their DIY approach and reverence for the human aspect of creating music. They can switch styles at a moment’s notice, which Ciaramitaro credits to his band mates Flegal and Chavez. “Our guitar player and our drummer, in my opinion, I think they’re, they’re black belts at their craft,” he praised. “I am a white belt at my craft, but there’s something so cool about being like, ‘I don’t know everything.’” 
 
“I’m not some musical genius. I don’t know what the strings are called. I don’t know how that goes, but I’ve spent enough time with good musicians and around people where we can all get in the room and we can make something human, and we can make it real. We didn’t do it to a metronome, we didn’t do it to a click track,” he added.
 
“We’ve advanced so much as a society, and that’s not even just related to music,” Ciaramitaro mused. “We advanced so much that sometimes it’s actually really cool to see human moments, and sometimes that looks like error and imperfection, but it’s really actually such a beautiful thing to see, because when they get it right, oh man, that means it even more when I actually hit that note right,” he added, laughing. 
 
DRAIN forgoes a technology-heavy approach for a more DIY affair. Even their jam sessions have a stripped-down, fun-focused atmosphere. “We have, we literally have a little practice spot. It’s got one light bulb that dangles down the middle of the room, no windows. And we just get together and we play. And half the time we’re at practice, we’re not even playing, we’re just bulls******* and hanging out. But like, that’s where the magic comes from, you know, when you get together with your friends and people, you actually enjoy their company,” Ciaramitaro said.
 
“I have no regrets and I love it. I think that where we’re at now, it was kind of like, ‘Hey, to get from point A to point B, if we build it up a little better. There’s a way to make that hit even harder,’ and they stretch them into more cohesive songs. I think we did a really good job with that here,” continued Ciaramitaro.  

For DRAIN’s newest project, the band made it a point to hit the road with the new music, touring across the United States to finally get a glimpse of the tangible growth of their fan base. “The last record we wrote was during, most was written during COVID. So we kind of didn’t really know it was [growing]. I saw based on Spotify numbers that our band had grown or whatever, and Instagram followers, but I didn’t really know what that looked like,” said Ciaramitaro.
 
The communal nature of punk music makes live performances and crowd interaction key points for a band’s growth, features DRAIN has in spades. Earlier this year, the band went viral on TikTok due to a pair of humorous interactions with crowd members who didn’t know the words to which Ciaramitaro laughingly responded, “I don’t know them either.” 

Regarding the group’s spirited performances, Ciaramitaro said, “I really love when people sing along. So that means I’ve got to write something they want to sing. They want to sing it back, or scream it back to me, and make it memorable and catchy. So now I could be 30 feet from the crowd, but I can give the mic out and they sing it back.” 
 
“The way that I enjoy it the most is everybody’s in the show. It’s not just me and the guys up here, you’re just as much as a singer as me, and I’m gonna give you the mic, and even if you don’t even know, you’re just yelling, I love it. Just yell something, dude, we’re all gonna be the singer tonight,” the 32-year-old laughed. 
 
This spirit of inclusivity and shared experience is at the heart of DRAIN’s live shows, where the boundary between performer and audience dissolves into collective energy. But beyond the stage, the band’s mission extends deeper into the emotional fabric of their listeners’ lives. 
 
“It’s very easy to find a lot of negativity out there, and there’s a lot of it, man, and a lot of it is very real. Where DRAIN sits in this world is, OK, they don’t have any of the real answers. But if I can just shed a little positivity in this world and then bring it in person for people to come see, and they walk out feeling a little better than they came in with, then I’ve done my job,” Ciaramitaro said.
 
…Is Your Friend is available to stream now.