Playing Enemy

The formation of a band can often occur through a serendipitous chain of events.
In some cases, it’s just a case of “right place, right time.” Other times, things are blueprinted out from day one.
The emanation of the Seattle, WA based hardcore/noise outfit Playing Enemy came about somewhere in between the spectrum of chance and circumstance. Vocalist/guitarist, and not to mention artist, Demian Johnston played in hardcore bands like Undertow and Nineironspitfire before joining forces with comrade Andrew Gormley in the highly respected Kiss it Goodbye. Here, a true-blue musical companionship was born.
“ Playing Enemy was pretty much Andrew and myself from the beginning,” says Johnston, a wily hardcore vet. “We were both in a band called Kiss It Goodbye, which broke up. We liked playing together so we kept it up. We had about six... yeah, six bass players until we got Shane [Mehling], who was previously in a Diamondhead cover band.”
Not too long after initially hooking up, this tightly bonded trio began to flesh out what was to become one of the most iron-clad, thunderous musical forces to hit the West Coast in recent years. Ironically, Playing Enemy began as more an outgrowth of Johnston and Gormley’s Kiss it Goodbye antics as opposed to a wholly new vision of dominance.