When Does This Place Become Our Scene

Hammok were far from home and yet had finally found where they belonged. Somewhere in the middle of Europe, vocalist/guitarist Tobias Osland began writing a new song, reflecting on the international hardcore communities that had embraced the band with open arms. He and his bandmates — drummer Ferdinand Aasheim and bassist Ole Benjamin Thomassen — were overwhelmed, stepping out from Oslo’s small, tight-knit alternative circles and meeting fans across the continent. Osland carried this new song with him on the road, titling it “The Scene” as he san “When does a space become a scene, when does this place become our scene.” He immediately knew it would become the title of Hammok’s new album. When Does This Place Become Our Scene, the trio’s sophomore outing and first release for Sargent House, captures three musicians who once felt outside looking in — now stepping fully into their own.Osland and Aasheim first cut their teeth together as pre-teens playing pop-punk and hanging out at a skatepark in their hometown an hour outside Oslo. They were in and out of other projects, eventually meeting Thomassen in a band that collapsed around the pandemic. Just before lockdown, and now in their 20s, the three moved in together, and spent their time in isolation launching Hammok as we now know it. While live shows are usually paramount for bands in heavy music, Hammok didn’t have the option to perform in public. They learned how to be a band together by writing and recording, yielding a new sense of adventurousness in their music. “You begin to think sonically, in layers and production, instead of in breakdowns that will make people mosh and go crazy,” Osland explains. On When Does This Place Become Our Scene, their idiosyncratic blend of pop production, the vivacious energy of hardcore, and experimental textures fully blossoms, placing them on the vanguard of forward-thinking punk.