Interview with THE CRAWLING
Tell us about your latest release: the main concept; what fans should expect; what were/are your goals with it:
Our latest album is called, “Wolves and the Hideous White.” The album is centered around human relationships; people’s need to be with someone, the lengths they will go to, the effects it has, and at what cost.
What fans can expect, is on par with our goals. It’s an emotional experience and mixes up songs of an aggressive nature, melancholy and as always, an element of melody. It’s difficult to achieve those things in the death metal genre, but our fusing with death, doom and black metal in parts helps bring this to fruition.
Did you have a specific sound in mind when you formed the band, or did that grow and evolve as you played together?
When we started it was a very simplistic slow death metal, but the band evolved quickly once we started rehearsing regularly. When we began to release material the songs became more thought out, with nuances and complexities that didn’t’ appear in earlier work. It’s been challenging, but a great experience.
How does your writing process normally work out?
The writing always starts with me (Andy – guitar/vocals), riffing in my home studio, then adding some programmed drums to get a structure and feel in place. I demo some vocals, mix it roughly, then send it to the rest of the band so that they can write their parts. The whole thing ends up in the rehearsal room and we see if it works ‘up loud’ or not. Some songs do, some don’t. It’s an interesting process.
What are your ambitions and how far do you want to push your band?
I struggle with this in my mind all the time. The young lad in me still wants to be a rock-star; spend my life on the road, in the studio, rocking out! But, the old sceptic in me just wants to do a load of cool things as and when I can, around grown up responsibilities. In a way I think I’m trying to find a new model – one where you can earn enough money to keep the band rolling, playing cool shows, releasing music, without bankrupting ourselves, and maintain some kind of balance. As it stands right now, being in a band is a very time consuming and expensive exercise; but it’s always worth it.
What are your influences/musical references and the impact those same influences had in your sound?
We’re all death metal fans, but it varies from Cryptopsy to My Dying Bride, so the influences are a bit of a mix. We do listen to many different genres of music as well, let alone metal, so I guess it all filters through. Ultimately the thing we all enjoy is a good hook in a song, the riff that noodles around in your head, or the chorus you can’t forget. Again, it’s a bit of an odd thing to put into doom/death metal, but that’s what we take away from our influences.
What’s next for you?
Our new album has just been released, so expect new music videos, live shows, vlogs, basically whatever we can do to get the new music out there.