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Why New Punk Supergroup Publicist UK Is Happy to Call Colorado Home

When David Obuchowski, of the hardcore band Goes Cube and Distant Correspondent, moved out to Colorado with his family a few years back, he had no idea he would end up starting a new band out here. But after some conversations over beers with fellow punk veterans Brett Bamberger of...
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When David Obuchowski, of the hardcore band Goes Cube and Distant Correspondent, moved out to Colorado with his family a few years back, he had no idea he would end up starting a new band out here. But after some conversations over beers with fellow punk veterans Brett Bamberger of East of the Wall and Revocation, Dave Witte of Municipal Waste, and Zachary Lipez of Freshkills, he found himself helping form Publicist UK in late 2013. They posted a few rough demos earlier this year that earned attention from big-name heavy music publications around the world, and the band signed with well-known label Relapse Records in September.

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"What we are are four people who have a very strong connection in terms of other bands and us playing together," Obuchowski says of the new supergroup of sorts, though he wouldn't be so quick to use that term.

"Friends and friends of friends," he says. "We're all really good friends now. It was more just 'I love these guys, we've done music for a long time, when are we going to do something together?'"

Obuchowski had some songs he was working on that didn't fit any of his current bands, so he sent them to Lipez and Bamberger, who were both interested in working with him. Bamberger set down some bass lines "that very weekend" and then showed Witte the project who immediately wanted in. Suddenly, mentioning some songs to a friend over beers turned into a real band. While Longmont is the base of the band, or at least Obuchowski's homebase, most of the recording has been done long distance, and fast. The songs currently online were recorded entirely long distance. For their debut album, due out next year, half of the guitars were recorded by Obuchowski in Colorado, and the rest of the work has been done with Goes Cube's longtime producer in New Hampshire. They still need to track the drum and bass parts, something that will happen when Bamberger returns from touring in Europe, Asia and Australia. While the tracking of each instrument only took a few days, getting everyone into the studio is more complicated. "It takes a while," Obuchowski says.

Though there is some physical distance and varying influence between the members of Publicist UK, Obuchowski says that Denver has been a big inspiration for him musically, and has no doubt the band will play its first live show right here.

"Denver is awesome from a music perspective," he says. "Goes Cube has always had a hard time fitting in. We're a New York band, we kind of fly between genres ... and Denver has always been one of those cities that we've just really clicked with."

He says his favorite part of the music scene here is that it's not limited to one genre or group of people. "It's not like 'Oh I'm only part of this scene.' It's like, 'hey this is just awesome music.' One of the reasons I love being out here is that it's just like it's a town of people who just fucking love music."

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