19 August 28 - september 3, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents UnityTX Sounds Off UnityTX’s vocalist, Jay Webster, gets honest about challenges in the music industry. BY KRISTIN LOCKHART W hen UnityTX vocalist Jay Webster’s mom bought him a toy guitar as a kid, he destroyed it by smashing it on the basketball court. As it turns out, that was a precursor to going against the grain. As he explains it, “I was just destined to do rock star things.” Since 2014, Dallas’ own UnityTX has concocted a ferocious blend of metal, hip- hop and electronic elements long before the resurgence of nu metal. Their uncompro- mising grind has landed them a label deal with Pure Noise Records and tours with bands like Silverstein, Poppy and Loathe. Despite the success, carving out a lane for themselves has meant pushing past the neg- ativity and becoming wary of underlying motives. Webster has experienced firsthand the hollow feeling in the aftermath of other bands using UnityTX as a resource to bene- fit themselves before moving on to someone else. Then there are the naysayers of Reddit that always have something to say. It has chipped away at Webster’s passion, but he’s still determined to do whatever is necessary to take his band to the next level. That drive isn’t going anywhere. “People don’t take this as seriously as they should if they really want it, because I’ve been doing everything for my band ever since the beginning,” he says. Webster’s fierce loyalty and determination to do things a different way were cemented long before the band even began. He grew up in the Audelia neighborhood of North Dallas and learned not to follow what everyone else was doing as he searched for where he belonged. The neigh- borhood kids didn’t understand who the al- ternative, skinny-jean-clad Webster was. When he found skateboarding, it was a ha- ven for the misfits and outsiders. “That really changed everything, because before I did that, I couldn’t play guitar,” Webster says about his discovery of skate- boarding as a gateway to the music scene. Through skateboarding, he found bands like The Devil Wears Prada and Bring Me the Horizon and started playing guitar. He would venture to (the now-defunct) Eisenbergs skatepark in Plano, which served as a hangout for skating and seeing bands. “So I think rightfully it just goes hand in hand with guitar, skateboarding and stuff. And it’s pretty much what’s got me here, and why I’m still doing everything the way that I do, instead of to what everyone else wanted me to do,” he remarks. His family then moved to Lewisville, which led to his contribution as a guitarist in I AM. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a robust metal scene there, and many musicians ended up in Dallas. Webster worked as a stagehand at The Door and played shows around Deep Ellum before forming UnityTX. Even with the immense strides UnityTX has taken over the years to solidify their sta- tus in Dallas, Webster still notices a lack of support from the city, explaining that it’s “something that makes us want to work harder to get out of this city and go out there and do other things, and see what we could do with what we have.” While it’s unfortunate the support hasn’t happened much back home, UnityTX’s reach has expanded far beyond DFW. This year, the band toured Europe for the third time and performed in Australia with Void of Vision. There’s a surrealness to being wel- comed with open arms and crowds recipro- cating the energy thousands of miles away. Webster points out that being so different from everything else is part of the appeal. “The kids love the spirit of the hip-hop with the heaviness. They don’t really get that genuine feeling from a lot of these bands,” he says about Australian fans. “They’re just really hyped and explained to me how what I do as a Black vocalist, or a Black musician. … It’s really cool, and it in- spires them to just like do more things. ” It’s an appreciation for being who they are with nothing to hide. UnityTX has never tried to categorize itself into one particular subgenre within metal. Sure, that mentality can be divisive, but it can also set the group apart from the saturated field of metal bands. “We’re just always pushing the envelope because we like music. We like different things. I don’t want to be just known as a metal vocalist,” he says, citing Skrillex, Trent Reznor and Ice Cube as inspirations. For the upcoming album that the band fin- ished recording a few months ago, Webster freestyled all of the vocals at the studio. The spirit of socially conscious hip-hop artists like Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and The Phar- cyde was channeled into a rhythmically in- clined project that didn’t let up on grittiness. The vocals in the latest single “Heinous” display rhythmic awareness, but still cap- ture the vexation of feeling like an outcast. The LP represents how he was feeling in the moment. “I never really get a chance to nurture the lyrics or anything like that, or I write all the lyrics previously and then I get into the studio, and I don’t feel that any- more. So I feel like now, with these lyrics for this album coming up with everything, it’s a lot more present.” Recently, he’s been more focused on moving forward in his own way, which has altered how he talks about what he’s going through. “I’m just looking at what’s around me, and I’m just kind of speaking on it. I don’t even have to really rap it. If anything, I think the way that I do everything feels like a form of slam poetry,” Webster observes. As the band continues to rise up in the ranks within the metal community, there’s plenty to observe and speak on. Last year in Cincinnati at a show headlined by Alpha Wolf, a concertgoer (ironically wearing a shirt that said “I still hate everyone”) com- mented racial slurs on Instagram after see- ing the band play. UnityTX’s Instagram reel about the incident shows the man getting kicked out of the venue before the headlin- ers took the stage, but it’s a stark reminder of the issues UnityTX still has to confront. The band had heard the complaints about the music not being metal or rock, but UnityTX are going to do what they want. Despite past experiences in the local scene and beyond, UnityTX will continue to march on and remind everyone where they’re from. “We go out and we do it for our city. Ev- ery time we play our shows, we say we’re from Dallas, Texas, he says. “I’m putting it in our music. I’m expressing for the city with it on my back, and I don’t really care who doesn’t care about it.” UnityTX will support The Callous Dao- boys on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at TX Tea Room, 2815 Main St., Suite B. Tickets are available starting at $30.71 on eventim.us. Olivia McLaughin UnityTX is one of the special guests on The Callous Daoboys’ 2025 tour with Your Spirit Dies and Crush++. ▼ Music
