Drug Church is a hardcore punk band who write fast-paced, aggressive songs that take a sardonic approach to issues of social concern. Members include Patrick Kindlon on vocals, Nick Cogan and Cory Galusha on guitar, Pat Wynne on bass and Chris Villeneuve on drums. A few of the members also perform in another band called Self Defense Family which—like Drug Church—is based out of New York.

The band’s namesake is derived from an early period where Kindlon was playing around with fun, “local-sounding” band names. He says of the time:

For fun, Self Defense Family started making a list in the van on tour of the most local-sounding band names. […] When the guys in Drug Church asked me what they hell we wanted to call this thing, I gave them a list of five or 10 things that were all pulled from the shittiest band name list and they loved Drug Church.

Their writing process, unlike many bands, involves Kindlon coming in after music has been written to write lyrics based on what’s been recorded. This allows the band to creatively fulfill themselves while setting the mood for writing that will inevitably come after. In some cases, the purpose of the actual songs isn’t even fully-realized until after the entire process has been nearly completed.

They’ve released two full-length albums to date, Paul Walker and Hit Your Head, with their third album, Cheer, to be released on November 2, 2018.