Interview with ULTIMATE DISASTER
Slim connected with Billy from ULTIMATE DISASTER at this year's A Varning From Montreal. The interview was conducted shortly after.
Slim: Did you enjoy Varning, did you have a favorite part?
Billy: I think just the fest in general. It was my first Varning and I was just kind of blown away by the experience. The curation of the fest every year is really strong. It's always the heavy hitters who play. A highlight was seeing MOB 47. They were great, also playing was a total honor. Montreal in many ways is a different world for me. It's been an aspiration to play there, so to do it at Varning was awesome. JTA, Janick and everyone involved with Varning treat bands so well. Montreal is sick and to get to experience it and so many great bands was a pleasure. Another personal highlight for me was sitting and talking to MOB 47 while sitting at the Piranha aquarium at Piranha Bar.
S: How did the band form?
B: Chris and myself were in a band that was a failed band that never really got out of the practice space. When Chris and I were playing, I felt like we had good chemistry and we have a lot of the same taste in music. After that band flopped, I was like 'hey dude you wanna do another band?'. This was late 2022 early 2023. So that's how it started and since then, he and I have been jamming once a week. We gelled together really fast. We both set a parameter of what we wanted the band to be and what we wanted it to sound like. We've been sticking to that with some evolution. We play faster now than in the beginning and sometimes there's a third riff. There's even some hi-hat from time to time. Things just happened naturally over time. Rachel joined the band earlier in 2026 full time and it's been great having her in the room now.
ULTIMATE DISASTER live at Varning VXIII
S: What are your influences?
B: For this band it's been DISCHARAGE, VARUKERS, ICONOCLAST (U.S.), AGAINST, ANTI SYSTEM, TOTALITAR, MOB 47, DISCLOSE, DISFEAR, DISCHANGE/MEANWHILE, NO SECURITY, DISASTER - bands of that ilk. The new stuff has more of a Swedish tilt. It's faster. Our approach is to keep it clear and not overly blown out to try and keep the power there as far as riffs and tonality are concerned.
S: It seems to me like there is something in the water in Richmond, there are so many incredible bands coming out of your city.
B: We are spoiled with fantastic bands and a bounty of amazing hardcore punk musicians. It's a small city, most all of us are friends it's a really special thing. The standard of bands is high but I wouldn't say it's competitive, everyone is super supportive and that shouldn't be taken for granted. There are heavy hitters like our friends DESTRUCT. Those are our brothers. We've toured together and are great friends with them. There are bands like PUBLIC ACID, INVERTEBRATES, SUBJECTS--so many bands from different genres it's almost exhausting haha. Every time there's a new band pops up I know they're more than likely gonna be good. It's champagne problems. It hasn't always been like that here though. There were some down years a while back, but since the pandemic I feel like the bands have been insane and highly productive. Everyone tours and makes sick records. I hope it lasts forever. It's cool that people think about Richmond when they think about cool bands. Historically, we're in the shadow of bands like GOVERNMENT WARNING and DIRECT CONTROL. They set the bar. Bands like UNSEEN FORCE and WHITE CROSS, if you go back to the 80s, set the bar before them. The city has been ripe for good hardcore punk for a long time.
S: Any new bands you wanna put us on to?
B: There's a band called DISINTEGRATORS. They do a UK 82 kinda hardcore punk that's great. Another band is SUBJECTS. They're definitely more straightforward US HC. MASSACRE SYSTEM is another one. They are a hard ass DBeat band. Also, there's a band called SKEKSIS. Check them out. They're great. It's hard to pick because there are so many good bands here. On the softer side of things, I really like a band here called CANARIES. They do like a MY BLOODY VALENTINE kind of thing. There's also DREAM WORLD and GNOSTICS. Like I said, there are too many good bands to list haha.
S: How did you land on the band name?
B: We had a really hard time thinking of a name. All band names are bad at first you know? We had a show coming up and didn't have a name. We had a list of like 100 bad names that just sucked or didn't feel right. I was in my records one day and saw the song title "The Ultimate Disaster" from DISFEAR's "Soul Scars" record. Early DISFEAR is a huge influence on this band and has been since before I wrote the first UD song, so I was like, what about this? Two days later it was on a flyer and I was like well, I guess that's our name now haha. Our first show was with LANGUID, which was so sick. They live to rock, such a great band.
S: What's one of your favorite shows you've played as a band?
B: It's at top of mind because it just happened but I would say either of the two Skull Fests we played. We did a matinee the first year we played and it was us, FLOWER, and many other killer bands. John from PEACE TALKS/Cruel Noise did that gig. This year at Skull Fest we got to play with DEVIATED INSTINCT, GUERRA FINAL and DECOMP at the Profane Existence anniversary gig that our friend Chris did. It was a stacked show. We felt lucky to be a part of it.
In general, we've been so privileged to play some crazy shows for a band that really has not been around that long. Over this past summer, in addition to the Skull Fest gig I mentioned, we got to play with the VARUKERS in Pittsburgh. That was kind of surreal, playing with them and getting to talk to Rat and the other guys. They were lovely people. We played with LIFE from Japan here in Richmond at a show my friend Patrick did. That was a big deal for me. When we toured the UK we got the play with DEVIATED INSTINCT in London. That was a bucket list show for me. I didn't know what business I had being in the room but I was just happy to be there. We also played a great show in Sheffield at the Lughole with EXTINCTION OF MANKIND and RAT CAGE.
S: Tell me about your lyrics and how it relates to your band name.
B: My lyrics are largely a product of me looking around and trying to find a way to express anger at all the terrible stuff that is constantly happening. Sadly, there's never a shortage of subjects to write about if you're writing lyrics for a punk band in 2026. In some ways, I think writing lyrics helps me process what I'm seeing and put some of the anger to use. It helps me like articulate better what I'm seeing and feeling. It's hard to feel anything but bad when you're seeing atrocities playing out both in real time and through your phone screen but I try not to only focus on the despair of the current moment. I think you just have to try and remember not to succumb to hopelessness in this ever-evolving hellscape. It's hard, but if you do that, they win. As far as relating to the band name, I don't know. It feels like the name kind of captures the state of late-stage capitalism and the vibe of the current era.
S: Can you tell us about the upcoming record?
B: It's 10 songs Chris, Rachel and I recorded in a studio in Richmond. Hopefully it'll be a 12-inch 45rpm record like the last record was. I would say the difference from the last record is that it is a little faster. It still sounds like us, but yeah, we definitely just play faster now because of playing together so much. The lyrics are similar thematically, but I would say this batch of them leaves a door open to talk about the importance of resistance in the face of all the horrors we see on a daily basis. A first for me was I wrote a set of lyrics that are about animal rights. It's something I had wanted to write about for a long time--I've been vegan for 17 years thanks early exposure to CONFLICT and CRASS--and it finally happened. We're hoping it will be out early next year on Grave Mistake in the U.S. and Kick Rock in Europe. It's tentatively called "Madness Dictates."
S: We'll definitely need some copies.
B: Maybe I can ethically train a carrier pigeon (hawk?) to bring some to you all in Canada. I was talking to Canadian legend Ben Peppin, and he was telling me it's cheaper for him to order records from France than the US currently, so I'm glad there'll be a European copy. Postage is so fucked now.
S: How'd you get into punk?
B: I grew up in a rural area in southern West Virginia where there's nothing but churches, car lots, and coal-related industry stuff. When I was younger, I fell in with a slightly older group of punk dudes who were cool. This dude John gave me his CD book and told me to pick what I thought looked cool out of his book and burn my own CDs. I found THE PARTISANS, CRASS, CONFLICT and a few other bands that would change my life in that book. My first proper music order, I ordered CRASS - Feeding of the 5000, THE DICKS - Hate The Police and CONFLICT - The Ungovernable Force. I also ordered London Calling in the same order but after you've heard "Asylum" by Crass that starts Feeding, London Calling feels kind of weak and besides the point. At first, I was into whack shit you're into when you're young and like "punk music," corny shit like NOFX. But once I heard the bands I just mentioned, I was like this is what I want to be into. They turned me on to a lot of ideas that really resonated with me and changed my world view and radicalized me. I feel lucky because the internet was not what it is now when I was growing up. Myspace existed but I pretty much still discovered bands through people I knew or T-shirts or looking through CD inserts and seeing what bands they thanked in the credits.
Being a kid in Appalachia, it's very rural and conservative. It's got a lot poverty, and desperate people being put into desperate situations a lot of the time. It can be grim, but it's also a beautiful state with some wonderful people. Finding punk, helped me articulate what I'd been seeing in my life up to that point. It helped me understand the world in a way that made a lot of sense to me. It also helped me think I could play music and go different places, meet cool people. It also gave me hope that I would one day be able to eat good vegan food and not the terrible tofu I was making when I was a teenager.
S: Maybe a kid will listen to Ultimate Disaster some day and feel the same way?
B: Haha. I don't about all that. The best I can hope is they're like, "hey, I could do that,' and to that I'd say 'you definitely can, and you absolutely should.'
S: Even that in itself is a massive thing, like seeing hometown bands and realize if these guys are doing it and talking about these really difficult things and pushing back in your city then those are people you wanna join up with and strengthen what they're doing.
B: It's totally empowering. The reality is anyone can do it, not to get corny or cheesy, but that's the beautiful thing about punk. It's what makes it more special and genuine than most other "extreme" genres in my opinion. That being said, playing punk music the right way isn't as easy as some people think, and some people are way too dismissive of the musical requirements or merit of punk musicianship. Punk drumming--like good punk drumming--has to be one of the hardest jobs out there, I don't give a fuck what any metal nerd says haha.
S: I fully agree. Your drummer is so good, I watched him for most of the set.
B: Haha yea man, Chris is sick. He's such a student of the genre and he's a lifer. He studies it and cares so much and that really comes through. That's why I love playing with him. He can swing with the best of them.
S: When you find someone you click with musically it doesn't matter the genre it's just worth it to have a band.
B: You have to protect that with everything because it's rare. Once you have it, protect it by any means necessary.
S: When the band is in the car together what is playing on the stereo?
B: The default rule is the driver picks the music. I usually drive I think cause I'm a bit of a busybody. Usually, I've got on the hits like a Bon Scott-era AC/DC records or soft stuff like COCTEAU TWINS or THE PASTELS (sorry Chris). But as a band we have a pretty diverse tastes in music. Like, Chris turned me on to ambient records from the 70s. He knows so much about that realm of music like Brian Eno or shit like that. When you're on the American highway system, you don't really wanna listen to aggressive music when you're driving. Other times it's just, classic van stuff: AC/DC, STEELY DAN, FLEETWOOD MAC. Stuff like that. There was a recent example of the absolute wrong band for the wrong situation. We were stuck in gridlock Manhattan traffic (sitting at the same stoplight for half an hour) and fucking DANZIG's "Dirty Black Summer" came on and I was like damn song sucks right now haha.
S: I think you can learn a lot about a band from the music they listen to outside the genre that they play. Diversity of musical taste can really up your musicianship.
B: Oh yeah, absolutely. We're all nerds for music. I think anyone who plays probably should be.
S: Any plans or goals for the future?
B: Getting the record out is at the forefront of our goal and priority list right now. We're just waiting on the masters, getting the art done, and the record pressed. We're gonna play a few more times in Richmond this year, then go to New Orleans for a punk fest. It'll be our first time playing there. Next year we're gonna play Europe hopefully.
Also, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to interview us, for doing a zine and being interested in what we do!
Biscuit