With some impressive albums under their belt already, the band decided to do things differently this time around, working more flexibly, and alongside producer Josh Schroeder (Lorna Shore, King 810, Tallah) for their new record Amongst the Low & Empty. “We’ve always written everything at my house with tonnes of time and been able to just pump stuff out, but we had so little time to write because of touring, it was really hard to come up with enough material this time.”
“We couldn’t have done the album without Josh – we almost wrote the whole album with him. We showed up to the studio with a month of prep time and showed him everything we had. His response was basically ‘so you want to write psycho music?’ and we said ‘yeah. whatever happens, happens’.”
A completely different approach to the band’s usual methodical one, Bobby told us how the band worked together to stitch up a modern deathcore masterpiece.“Me and another person would be working in this little room while David and Michael would be writing vocal stuff in another room. We’d airdrop ideas to each other, then get together with Josh and start tracking drums to build the song. It wouldn’t have come out the same way without doing it like this, and I did not expect the record to come out as good as it did at the end! I would never want to come to the studio that unprepared again, but it ended up working out really well.” Bobby chuckles.
“Josh pushed us really hard but then also let us do what we wanted. He’d guide me in the right direction by saying ‘how can you make this transition better?’ and it really changed the way I thought about writing music.”
“He’s been producing for most of my life, so he definitely has the experience. It’s not so much that he says ‘I’m a producer, you should do this and this’, he puts you in a comfortable environment where can freely develop ideas. He made me realise that you can be a heavy band but also have melody and be musical and create things that suck people into the music.”
“His response was basically ‘so you want to write psycho music?’”
When speaking about his favourite parts of the album, Bobby had a lot of key moments that he was looking forward to people hearing. “A big moment that I’m excited for people to listen to is the end of ‘Dreamkiller’ – it’s this huge, epic moment that doesn’t sound like anything we’ve ever done but it’s still really heavy and unique. You’re either going to love it or hate it.”
“The title track ‘Amongst the Low and Empty’ though was one of the first songs that made me think ‘I can’t wait for people to hear this’. I’m a huge fan of brutality and melody at the same time, so one part I’m most proud of is the second chorus in Faces Without Names. I love bands like Fear Factory and they do that a lot, and it found its way to our music. It’s a simple chorus but I love the guitar part; it just feels good, it’s a well written song.”
Keeping up with the competition in a genre that’s seeing a huge boom in popularity has led the band to continuously evolve to push the envelope. “We’ve done the heavy thing, we’ve done the slams, we’ve done the symphonic stuff, but we tried to stray away from that on this album because there are loads of bands that do that sound so well. When writing Amongst the Low and Empty, any time we had a piece missing in a song, instead of usually putting an orchestra in there, we tried anything else – glitches, distorted drums, electronic noises.”
“We used to say ‘we have to have a breakdown here because we haven’t had one in the song yet’ but we stopped doing that. We still put them in the song, but it’s now just wherever it takes us. I find myself not needing a typical breakdown to get across the feeling of heavy anymore.”
A massive step up for the band, Bobby spoke of how important this record was for him and the group – and his eagerness for fans to hear what the band had been cooking up was huge.
“We put a lot of effort into just being ourselves on this record and just letting it feel like a part of us. I want the album to feel crazy, like lighting in a bottle – I want it to feel exciting for people, where it feels like it could go anywhere at any time.”
“Every record we do, I try and think of it as a new beginning. We’ve had a lot of lineup changes because we tour a lot and we’ve been around for a while, so we wanted the record to be a very real representation of the people who worked on. Our bassist, Mike, it was his first time playing on one of our records and you can really hear his finger playing style come through and I love that. I played most of the guitar on the record and that was the first time I’ve done it to that level, and I just wanted it to be an expression of being an artist.”
“I want the album to feel crazy, like lighting in a bottle - I want it to feel exciting for people, where it feels like it could go anywhere at any time.”
Bobby had lots to praise his bandmates about, explaining that their part in the sound of the record should not be overstated.
“David, his vocal style is very much him – it’s refined. You can understand the parts you need to understand, and the crazy bits are crazy. I hope people take away that he has a much wider range than what he’s been given respect for. He really learnt our style when he joined this band, so for him to be able to bring a more vocal natural style like he did in his old band to our music, it’s really cool.”
“I hope everyone can hear the people behind it, and the labour of expression. When I listen to it, it takes me to a place and I hope it does the same for other people.”
With such an extensive touring record, Bobby was asked if the band have any rituals or special things that do while on tour. “We don’t actually do anything major, but we all do stretch to avoid the aches and stiffness from the touring lifestyle. We get together an hour before we hit the stage and stretch and as we’re going on, we’ll fist bump and then we’re ready to go. Personally, I might play a bit of drums before we hit the stage, but I feel like if I did too much, it would take away some of the excitement. Everyone is different though – some of my favourite drummers will warm up for 2 or 3 hours, or play drums for 8-10 hours a day!”
“While on tour, we rarely listen to metal. We hear it every day, so we try and go for different music. Country is one of our favourite genres of music to listen to.”
“We try to have fun at shows though – if a venue is wrap-around, Dave tries to get fans to do a Mexican wave and stuff. We’re a fun band and we just want to have a good time – I want people to come and have a good time in whatever way they like. If you see something happening in the crowd though, say something – help each other. But just come down and come early to see the other bands because you’re probably going to find a band you’ve never heard of and get your mind blown!”