How did an aging punk rocker with roots in 80’s hardcore and 90’s noise rock form a duo with a Berklee alum half his age steeped in a mix of Zen Buddhism and prog metal? Well, sometimes that happens when one musician marries another musician’s mom. Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of the world, guitarist/vocalist Nate Panic’s last Seattle music project was falling apart. Conveniently, his step-son, Matte Black, relocated to the PNW around the same time.

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Although Matte’s primary instrument is bass, he’s also an accomplished drummer, and the pair saw an opportunity to forge something new as a guitar + drums duo. And so the sonic assault of Regretski was born. Drawing from the pair’s diverse backgrounds, Regretski developed a unique sound, shifting from plodding tempos to frantic outbursts, taking time to explore everything in between.

 

Nate plays a baritone guitar, usually tuned to a variant of drop A, splitting his signal into three paths - clean, dirt, and octave down. The goal is not to replicate a bass player, but rather to find an alternate way to layer and build a range of frequencies. Matt’s drumming exhibits a rare attention to detail, filling a role that extends far beyond keeping the beat. The drums are, after all, half the instrumentation of this band. Matt wields his sticks with surgical precision, in contrast to Nate’s blunt-force guitar racket, creating the tension at the heart of Regretski.

 

In 2021 Regretski finished a collection of songs, recorded at The Killroom in Seattle with noise-rock alchemist Jeffrey McNulty at the helm. Mastering was handled by Phil Petrocelli at  Petrocelli Audio. The songs, most of which came together during the pandemic, explore themes of paranoia and dread, as well as survival and redemption. Nate’s lyrics create oddball characters, mixing stream-of-consciousness rants with desperate pleas, always punctuated with Matt’s attuned, visceral pounding. The duo’s first EP, Dubious Claims of Specialized Knowledge, comes out June 3, 2022 on CD and all streaming platforms. A very limited run of vinyl will drop in July. The first single, “Nail Gun,” is slated for release on April 20, 2022.