In the run-up to the track’s release, RANGE sat down with BALACLAVA mastermind Dylan Joyce to talk about how the project began and what drives him as the walls close in. For Joyce, BALACLAVA isn’t just a random undertaking, but a well where he can pour both his ideas and anxieties.

“BALA was born out of a personal necessity of mine. I moved to New York, left a past band in the dust and then completely stopped creating. Spent way too long going to shows in NYC, asking myself ‘Why the fuck am I not doing this? I need this.’ It took too long but I finally crunched out a bunch of tracks on my Tascam. Showed them to my buddies and asked ‘You dig this? You wanna do this?? Are you in???’ Thus the band was formed! It’s like I had forgotten that writing dumb little punk songs was a deep need of mine. BALACLAVA was the antidote to that,” he says.

It seems like everything aligned for Joyce to bring his vision to fruition, and BALACLAVA, now in full formation, wastes no time churning out January’s scuzziest, most desolate punk song. The way Joyce describes it, the track was more than just a fun tune to pen — it was a catalyst for fatalistic self-realization:

“’DRAMATIC EXIT’ was written at the end of a feverish month-long writing cycle I did a few summers back. Thirty songs in thirty days. The very last day is when I found the exit. Suffocated with the pressure of creativity, spun by the shit around my head, smacked by the muck in front of my face every day, pulled at by the evil in my pocket… the exit was desperately staring at me. The end was right there but it still felt like I was standing in shit. Maybe you’re supposed to bask in those moments. Maybe it’s better to turn off and tune out. Either way you must cross the exit, COMPLETE THE RHYTHM and get out!”

If that explanation is enough to mess with your head, wait until you catch a glimpse of the video. Two kids in Frankenstein’s creature masks trick-or-treat their way through the city, stirring up shit and holding people up for candy and money at gunpoint. It’s a perfect reflection of the cartoonish and insolent image the band project — tongues squarely in cheek and packed with dread. Shot as a photo-roman and stapled together from sequences of stills and short clips of the kids and the ski-masked band members themselves, “DRAMATIC EXIT” plays out like a comic strip from hell.

“Our friend David Cardoza came to us with the idea for the video. He definitely injected it with his style. He actually met the two kids who star in the video at an after school program he was working at, for kids who were into making their own comics. So that graphic novel vibe certainly comes natural to him. He’s a wiz,” Joyce explains.

Who knows what the future might hold for BALACLAVA — or any of us, really. One thing is certain: Joyce and co. have a lot more earworming songs in the works. And they’re coming for you.

“BALACLAVA was always in my head, before it ever hit my ears. Those years spent sitting in crowds, questioning myself, were also spent listening to a lot of good shit. I would get really fucking obsessed with a certain record or specific band to the point where I was trying to dissect why I even liked it in the first place. It drove me a little mad. I ultimately found that the songs that get stuck are always the best. The ones you can’t stop humming, singing, tapping on your foot at work. The hooks. The earworms. I eat that shit uuuup! So I’m just writing songs I want to listen to. It’s selfish. But it’s BALA,” says Joyce.

Catch BALACLAVA live at Taverne Tour in Montreal from February 12–14.

For full lineup details and tickets, head to tavernetour.ca.