The hardcore genre is having a major moment, as bands like Turnstile and Angel Du$t reach bigger audiences and local scenes grow across the country. With their debut album, Big Hand, St. Louis hardcore band Squint seeks to bring more people into the Midwest hardcore and punk community while also holding true to the genre’s ethics and principles.
Assembled from veterans of the STL scene (Time and Pressure, New Lives, Choir Vandals), Squint’s birth can be traced back to a chance meeting, when vocalist Brennen Wilkinson and guitarist Ian O’Leary bumped into each other at the Tower Grove Farmers Market. Coming out of a pandemic that had slowed things down for both artists, O’Leary was interested in starting a new project. He had some riffs he’d been playing around with, and he wanted to show Wilkinson.
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“I don’t really have much of a history of singing,” Wilkinson says. “I’m more of a yeller. I told him to send me the tracks and I’d see what I can do with them.”
Those demos eventually turned into the songs on Squint’s first EP. Wilkinson and O’Leary set about assembling the band around those demos, pulling in O’Leary’s frequent collaborator guitarist Dave Shanle, Wilkinson’s longtime friend and bassist Jake Lindsay, and bringing drummer Wil McCarthy out of “hardcore retirement” to round out the lineup.
In November 2023, Squint went to The Animal Farm, a studio on a farm outside Flemington, New Jersey, to record Big Hand with producer Jon Markson over the course of nine days.
“It was clear something special happened between when we left there and when Markson delivered the mixes,” McCarthy says. “Whatever he does in his mixing wizardry, we had very few notes. He kinda nailed it pretty quickly.”
Markson, who has worked with other notable bands such as Drug Church and Drain, helped to hone the songs on Big Hand even further, capturing a marriage between melodic, riffy ‘90s alt-rock and classic, brash hardcore.
This kind of crossover appeal has made Squint’s shows accessible, accepting places for hardcore-curious folks who otherwise may not have felt welcome in the past.
“Back in the day, it would’ve just been 30 guys that I know punching each other,” McCarthy says. “And now we see college and high school kids, Juggalos, people wearing corpse paint, the DIY skramz kids. It comes with a level of safety for a more aware new generation, that when you put that skin on hardcore, you get a very respectful, positive environment.”
Midway through their release show, at a packed Atomic by Jamo, Wilkinson went out of his way to welcome younger folks in the crowd or anyone attending their first hardcore show. In light of the recent election results, he reiterated that the hardcore community is meant to be a safe place for all who respect the ideas and ethos of the genre. While these ideas may differ slightly from scene to scene, they are often built around anti-authoritarianism, acceptance, and inclusivity.
“The standard of how many people are in a room now has just gotten to a larger scale,” Wilkinson says. “It’s important to me to try and keep the ethics underneath, because as things become more mainstream, you run the risk of losing those ethics.”
On a local and regional level, members are deeply ingrained in the hardcore scene. Wilkinson has helped assemble shows like the Platypus’ sold-out Hardcore Halloween featuring touring heavy hitters Militarie Gun and Public Opinion. Similarly, Squint’s release show featured up-and-comers like Volition and Blight Future, as well as scene-mainstay Prevention, from Springfield, Illinois, and a surprise set from local legends Direct Measure.
“It definitely feels like the Midwest has a nice pocket of scenes at the moment,” McCarthy says. “And while we’re not quite playing to crowds as big as some of those bands, it feels like there is that potential there if we put the work in.”
It’s this scrappy DIY ethos that not only raises the profile of this thriving community throughout the Midwest, but also fosters inclusivity and acceptance at its core. And with bands like Squint carrying the torch for a new generation, the future looks pretty bright.
