If you want to find out more about Portland post-punk trio Collate, you’ll have to go to a show and talk to ’em. That’s because the band has decided to stay mostly off the internet. A Google search turns up very little. There’s no flowery Facebook bio, no pithy Twitter feed—just a basic Bandcamp profile with a couple of shows listed and a couple of albums to listen to.
“We’re not trying to be willfully obscure or anything. I think it’s just sort of a response to the oversaturation of social media,” says bassist Erika Elizabeth. “We don’t need to get into the constant shameless self-promotion end of things, trying to get more clicks and views. [Bandcamp] seemed like the easiest way to have something that people can use to get info without us bombarding them with bullshit all the time.”
Dig a little deeper and Collate’s punk-rock principles start to surface. Elizabeth has been involved in DIY and punk since she was a teenager, and her bandmates—guitarist Jason Nickle and drummer Travi D—have been playing in underground bands for years. When it came time to decide how to promote Collate, they were all on the same page.