Stay Black is the debut extended play by American gothic rock and roll / post-punk band Damien Done. Originally titled Love Thongs, it was recorded in September 2003 and scheduled for release in April 2004, through Belgian record label Good Life Recordings. The record company refused to release the extended play and kept it stuck in limbo for thirteen years, until German record label Demons Run Amok Entertainment licensed its rights in late 2015. While awaiting its official release, the band offered the music for free download and streaming across a variety of websites, with an often-changing track listing and several different cover artworks. Demons Run Amok Entertainment's official vinyl and digital release was finally issued on July 8, 2016.
The extended play was recorded at Wisner Productions in Davie, Florida and was co-produced by recording engineer James Paul Wisner and founding band member and principal songwriter Damien Moyal. The release features Moyal performing all of the vocals and acoustic guitar, Matthew Crum supplying drums, percussion and synthesizers, Wisner providing electric bass guitar and electric guitar, and Juan Montoya contributing electric guitar. Wisner later re-mixed and remastered the songs in 2016 for the Demons Run Amok Entertainment release.
Stay Black features the single "The New Cleavage", for which the band filmed a music video with director Dwid Hellion while visiting Belgium in November 2003. Three more music videos were scheduled to be filmed in 2004, but were abandoned when Good Life Recordings shelved the release. "The New Cleavage" and "Dude Becomes Sea" were both used to promote Demons Run Amok Entertainment's release in 2016.
Composition and recording Background Vocalist Damien Moyal had previously fronted such hardcore punk, metallic hardcore and melodic hardcore bands as Culture, Shai Hulud, Morning Again, Bird of Ill Omen, As Friends Rust and Bridgeburne R during the 1990s and early 2000s. In mid-February 2002, while recording As Friends Rust's A Young Trophy Band in the Parlance of Our Times at Wisner Productions in Davie, Florida with producer James Paul Wisner, Moyal tracked a solo song, not originally planned for the release. The song, "Up and Went", featured Moyal on vocals and electric guitar (borrowed from As Friends Rust guitarist Christopher Beckham), with Wisner contributing additional electric guitar and synthesizer. Moyal later singled out the song as his first non-lyrical composition, and a precursor to his solo project, Damien Done.
Moyal wound up quitting Gainesville, Florida-based As Friends Rust in late February 2002, less than two weeks after recording A Young Trophy Band in the Parlance of Our Times, citing dissatisfaction with touring, wanting to focus on school and his then-girlfriend, and loss of interest in the mainstream musical direction in which the new members were taking the band. Not wanting to abandon music completely, yet unwilling to take part in the dynamics of a new band, Moyal began tinkering with the idea of working on more solo material. Though he did not own a guitar, nor knew how to play the instrument, his at-the-time girlfriend was a musician and he borrowed her acoustic guitar to start writing material.
"I simply got sick of screaming. I stopped being content with punk and hardcore years ago, and towards the end of As Friends Rust, I was making very deliberate attempts to contradict the music, vocally. I think, to be honest, that I became so frustrated with the sorry state of hardcore (and the mundane, stagnant styles that were pervading the entire scene and the As Friends Rust songwriting) that I started to mock it. However, it made the songs more interesting, and that's when it occurred to me that I just needed to let that beast loose." "I had never played an instrument in my life, but my girlfriend at the time was a guitarist, so I started tooling around with her guitar and writing basically the minute I quit As Friends Rust. I had no ambitions of recording or playing live, but I did need to exercise that songwriting muscle, and Damien Done was the result."
Moyal initially named his new solo project Rubbers, a name he picked because of its deliberate lack of seriousness (rubbers being a colloquial term for condoms). However, once the recording of the band's debut extended play, Love Thongs, was completed and turned out much better than he had anticipated, Moyal wanted to give the project a more appropriate name. He briefly considered using his own name, but ultimately settled on the moniker Damien Done, as he felt it was less pretentious and offered multiple meanings:
"The project was originally called Rubbers, but the name was abandoned because the recording ended up sounding much more serious than the name. Normally, I'd enjoy that polarity, but I felt it was a bit goofy, so I decided to change it. I considered using Damien Moyal, but I just couldn't take it seriously. Damien Done encompassed the solemn, pessimistic vibe that seems to underlay the sound, so I feel like it's perfect." "I considered Damien Moyal, but it felt wrong, like I was implying that my name means something. I thought about it and came to a compromise... Using my first name is effective in conveying that this is indeed a solo project, but using a fictitious last name frees me from the hesitancy I felt about my real name. It also goes well with the bleak nature of a lot of my songs. "Done", like "settled"."
Song development, influences and writing style Being new to musical composition, Moyal approached songwriting without deliberate similarity to his past hardcore and metal bands, instead citing influences like Glenn Danzig, Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, Pixies, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, Radio Birdman and Velvet Underground. The music ended up sounding bluesy and grungy, with a metal influence present in his guitar playing style. In retrospective interviews, Moyal pointed out that Damien Done's early songs lacked traditional structure, but that this was not done intentionally. All of the music was written and arranged using an acoustic guitar, and in the process, he discovered a new appreciation for composing and arranging music, one which he had previously never been subject to as a vocalist and lyricist.
Moyal's softer and cleaner vocal delivery utilized in Damien Done stemmed from a transition developed over the years, especially during his time in As Friends Rust. In comparison to his harsher and screamier, at times growling, vocals in Culture, Shai Hulud, Morning Again and Bird of Ill Omen, his singing delivery in As Friends Rust, and later Damien Done, was deliberately cleaner and more conversational, intended to create an intimate connection with listeners.
“Dude Becomes Sea” was the first proper song written for Damien Done. It's lyrics tell the story of a man who is a prisoner on a slave ship, and who organizes a mutiny to overthrow the crew and wreck the ship in a final coup at freedom, knowing that they will all die in the process. The man's spirit then becomes one with the sea, occupying most of the planet, though he holds resentment for no longer being on land and begins to mess with other sea vessels.
"Here Comes the Plague" was written about Moyal's feeling as an outcast, as one with whom no one should become involved. He further developed the situation into a story of a man who destroys everything with which and everyone with whom he comes into contact.
"I Want to Solve the Problems in Your Dress" deals with adultery. It depicts an affair from the perspective of "the other man", who becomes so infatuated and obsessed with his lover, a married woman, that he wishes the death of her husband. Moyal would further utilize this theme during the writing of Damien Done's album Charm Offensive throughout 2016 and 2017, with many off-beat love songs told from the perspective of "the other party".
"The New Cleavage" (originally titled "Ass-Crack Is the New Cleavage") is a story about a man who has been put through the wringer by his girlfriend, a chronic cheater and psychic vampire. After being in this toxic relationship, he struggles to find a way out, and uses his last bit of dignity to free himself.
"She's About to Lose It" tells the story of a woman, with each of the three verses of the song detailing different devastating losses in her life. In the first verse, she loses her virginity, not in a manner which she had envisioned. In the second verse, she loses her baby in the third trimester of pregnancy. In the third and final verse, she loses control and murders her partner.
"Catsong" was conceived at a later time from the other five songs on the release. Moyal had written the main guitar riff but was unsure how to use it. While at Crum's home studio one evening, Moyal recorded the guitar track and Crum added keyboards. The song was named as such because it included a sample of Crum's cat, Garth, purring and meowing.
Label interest and recording With only a handful of rough bedroom recordings, Damien Done (at the time still named Rubbers) was quickly signed by Edward Verhaeghe to his Belgian record label Good Life Recordings in the summer of 2003. Good Life Recordings had previously released material by several of Moyal's bands, including Morning Again, Culture, As Friends Rust and Shai Hulud, as well as distributing Bird of Ill Omen's releases in Europe.
In early September 2003, Moyal entered Wisner Productions in Davie Florida, where he had previously recorded with As Friends Rust on numerous occasions, to track five songs with producer James Paul Wisner. Handling vocals and acoustic guitar, Moyal recorded five songs: "Dude Becomes Sea", "Here Comes the Plague", "I Want to Solve the Problems in Your Dress", "The New Cleavage" and "She's About to Lose It". He then invited Matthew Crum (formerly of As Friends Rust and The Rocking Horse Winner) to contribute drums, percussion and synthesizers to nearly every song. Crum subsequently joined the band and the pair recorded a sixth tune, "Catsong", at Crum's home studio, which was then mixed at Wisner Productions.
Wisner, who recorded and mixed the full session, also provided electric guitar and bass guitar to the songs "Dude Becomes Sea", "Here Comes the Plague" and "The New Cleavage", the last of which also featured electric guitar by Juan Montoya (formerly of Floor and Cavity, and later of Torche).
Delays and expansion Original title and sequencing Moyal originally titled his solo project's debut extended play Love Thongs, a pun on Love Songs. With the recording completed, two songs ("Here Comes the Plague" and "Dude Becomes Sea") were made available to stream or download from Rubbers' new MP3.com page and from Good Life Recordings' website on September 16, 2003. On October 1, 2003, "She's About to Lose It" was added to the MP3.com page.
A handful of CD-Rs were burned in November 2003, which featured artwork baring Moyal's own name, as he was in a transitional period between using "Rubbers" and "Damien Done". The original song sequencing placed "Here Comes the Plague" as the extended play's opener, followed by "Dude Becomes Sea"; the two songs were later switched when the release was re-titled Stay Black in 2006. The original version also positioned "Catsong" after thirty seconds of silence, presenting it as an unlisted bonus track.