Tristan Harvey, Leesville senior, is the guitarist for local metal band Drown the King. Harvey’s musical career started in the fourth grade when he first began learning how to play the guitar. “I’ve always wanted to be in a band,” said Harvey, “and then a friend of mine was in the band and he wanted me to join, so I joined.”
With musical influences that range from The Beatles to Cannibal Corpse, Harvey describes Drown the King’s musical sound as “different and heavy, but at the same time melodic.”
Don’t base Harvey’s musical interests on his band’s music, however. Despite DTK’s heavy metal sound, Harvey musical tastes also expand to both rap and country music. “People don’t expect me to [listen to country music]. Same with rap,” said Harvey. “I really like old school stuff, but I also like new stuff, too. I’d have to say my favorite rapper is Tupac…or Eazy E.”
Recently, DTK was able to record their first studio single “To the Docks”. “It was surreal,” said Harvey. “I was, like, I [have to] drive two hours away on my birthday. I don’t get to have cake or anything or do anything fun, and then it turned out to be really awesome.”
[DTK will perform live on December 5 at Greene Street with popular bands Protest the Hero, Architects, Affiance and The Kindred.]
“We’re the only local band,” said Harvey. “It’s probably going to be packed to the brim.”
[Though Harvey doesn’t get nervous anymore, their show on Greene Street may conjure up some feelings he hasn’t felt in a while. “I’m sure I will [get nervous again] when we start playing in front of a bigger crowd. We don’t really play big shows. Well, we play decently big shows, but not, like, thousands of people.”]
Drown the King has made it a long way; Harvey remembers their first performance like it was yesterday. “It was at this sandwich-place-slash-bar in downtown Raleigh. There were probably, like, 50 people. So that was cool. But they weren’t there for us, they were there to drink.”
DTK isn’t hard to find. “Everything [on YouTube] related to the band is usually just ‘Drown the King,’ but you have to go to, like, the second page. There’s a bunch of other videos of us performing, but it’s not our official page.” DTK’s songs are also frequently posted on SoundCloud. Tristan’s personal SoundCloud can also be found by searching ‘tristonio1108.’
More information on upcoming DTK performances can be found on Facebook.com/DrownTheKing.
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