While completing a semester in New York City, Economou began writing material remotely, and by February 2016, only months after the first practices, the band had recorded an early demo and played its first show in a Binghamton, New York, basement. Its name was similarly unpremeditated. Economou began screaming the Spanish word“ escuela,” which means“ school,” during rehearsal. It stuck.
Ithaca did have an underground music community, but Escuela helped build the specific scene it wanted to inhabit. The members booked shows themselves, promoted performances, organized events, and traveled wherever there was an audience.“ We really fought for that,” says Economou. Fuentes adds:“ The heavy music community is stronger in some places than others, but people really came out to support wherever we booked shows.”
By 2018, Economou and Fuentes returned to Pittsfield. The move brought another personnel shift, including Morash, whom they had met after sharing a bill with her previous band. Morash became part of a new iteration of Escuela as the band began putting down roots in Western Massachusetts, bringing another musician into a project that was increasingly growing beyond its original Ithaca configuration.
The same period also brought the band’ s DIY instincts directly into Economou and Fuentes’ s new home. They began booking underground shows in their Pittsfield basement, including an appearance by Singaporean grindcore band Wormrot— an internationally known act in a genre with no public presence in the Berkshires. A legal dispute over the original Escuela name forced another change. Because the band’ s social-media identity had already gravitated toward“ Escuela Grind,” the solution was straightforward. The new name arrived just as the band itself was becoming something new.
Escuela Grind frontwoman Katerina Economou rehearsing in her Pittsfield home.
Fall 2026 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 29