“Sometimes I lose my mind, man. I thought it was cool, but obviously, I was on alcohol and stuff. Then today on the way home, I realized how I was going through delirium,” Kid Bookie admits. 

This aggressive and sincere attitude shines through, offering a deeply exhilarating approach to his music. The South East London artist seamlessly floats between calmness and hostility, whether in his hip-hop-driven songs or heavy-metal-tinged beats. This type of genre crossover has a lengthy history and is becoming increasingly common today, but for Kid Bookie, the pairing was natural to his roots. Fusing them fluidly, Kid Bookie’s vulnerability and penchant for introspective evolution in music are palpable on his debut album, Cheaper Than Therapy. 

Read more: In issue 400, twenty one pilots reveal the importance of their community

What draws you toward experimenting with different genres and sounds?

It’s an amalgamation of what I listened to growing up. I love hip-hop, and I love rock music, and I like fusing them because sometimes rock and hip-hop doesn’t work. I know it’s a weird thing to say, but it doesn’t, and sometimes it can come out in a really weird way. I’ve studied both of these genres so much because they’re what I love, and if you cut my arm now, I would bleed the music of the genres. I guess mixing them was always going to be natural. It was just finding out how and where in my life it felt right to do it.

What overall message are you trying to achieve through your debut album?

Break free, man. I know it’s such a cliche sentiment, but sometimes you have to bring back the cliche sentiment to realize why it’s cliche. It worked. It’s about the music for me. You really have to care, and the message is to care. Be thoughtful in your process, be true to you and be authentic to you. Fuck a wave. A wave will crash ashore and die out — be the fucking ocean and the ship. You can supply the waves to all these motherfuckers coming off you, and you create a vibrant process that’s everlasting and shapes music. 

You linked up with Billy Martin from Good Charlotte for “On My Rock” on the record. How did you two connect, and what was the process like working with him on the track?

I did a behind the scenes of the “Stuck In My Ways” video, and MTV came down. As soon as I was sitting down in this interview, they were like, “Oh man, what’re your influences as an artist?” I said Good Charlotte because Good Charlotte are one of my favorite bands in the fucking world. “Little Things” is my fucking shit, and I was talking about “Little Things,” and I told him on Twitter, “I just shouted you guys out in my interview.” 

You’ve been a part of the music industry since you were a teenager. What do you hope to inspire in young people through your musical career? 

I hope to inspire methodical madness, but not just madness where it doesn’t have a tangible ending. Knowing that the world is shaped to be a way, I feel like when you conform to that way, you’re like a cog in a cycle, and we just make the thing go around. Sometimes you have to break the things that go around to find out where the problems are, and you fix those problems, and it goes around even smoother. I don’t want to say I’m going to fix the world, but if I didn’t say I was going to fix the world, would I be a fucking artist? No. I hope to inspire parts of the world. You can put out an ethos, people take upon the ethos, they start applying it to their lives and then you start changing corners of the world. 

How did you first get interested in heavy metal? 

That’s the first thing I grew into. I fucking hated rap music. I only liked Eminem and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony — only because Eminem was shouting a lot, and Bone Thugs were spitting fast bars. I was like, “Yo, these sound good,” but I didn’t know how to rap. I wasn’t in beat. I just used to pick up a guitar in my band New Connections and screamed to inspire songs. 

I guess Slipknot was actually my gateway to pop punk. I know it sounds crazy. I was into so much heavy metal. I ended up just going so far away into different realms by listening to Slipknot and shit that led to Good Charlotte and stuff like that. It was always part of me.

What’s your ultimate goal for what you hope to accomplish through your musical career, and what do you hope your fans can take away from your new album?

It’s like a science experiment, just to see how far my sounds travel and what it does to people. I don’t know what it’s going to do. I don’t even have an idea when it comes out that it’s going to do anything. I have no expectations.

In music, I want to be able to be a platform for everybody. I know what I want to do, but what I want to do consistently changes because I’m a contradictory, hypocritical mess, and I’m OK with that because I want to change. I have no top ceiling, and I have no bottom ceiling. I just want to excel, change things and continue to keep doing it until I have no fire left or I’m dead. 

That is exactly what I want to do in music — change — because if I give an idea now, that means that’s the only thing I’m gonna do. I’ll always be undefined until I consistently keep it in those parameters and go further until who knows what because I don’t have [a] precedent. I hope that people just enjoy [this album]. It’s going to sound like music. It’s good, and I care about it. I really care about opportunity and cry about it because it means that much to me, and if things mean that much to you too, then maybe we can share this experience as a whole.

FOR FANS OF: Kamiyada+, Cameron Azi, Cypress Hill

SONG RECOMMENDATION: “In My Soul” (feat. Tech N9ne)

This interview appeared in issue 400, available here.

After putting out several releases, Badflower—vocalist/guitarist Josh Katz, lead guitarist Joey Morrow, bassist Alex Espiritu and drummer Anthony Sonetti— exploded with their debut album, OK, I’m Sick, and were thrust into the forefront of the modern rock scene. Their authentic delivery of emotional turmoil is something people instantly gravitated toward, and their infectious instrumentals sealed their status. Now, Badflower are primed to be a driving force in today’s pack of fresh rock bands while serving a purpose to promote meaningful messages.

Read more: Badflower drop vulnerable single and video for “Don’t Hate Me”—watch

Embarking on the journey of creating THIS IS HOW THE WORLD ENDS began with a gutsy move: relocating from their home base in Los Angeles. Half the band moved to Pittsburgh, while the other half made their way to Nashville to live on a farm while crafting the album.

Along with the move from Los Angeles, Badflower took every aspect of production into their own hands and stripped away their insecurities around perfection. With a more expansive self-recording setup, they often used the first take instead of endlessly poring over demos and making a polished-sounding album. These slight imperfections shine throughout the record and magnificently highlight its overall message—everything and everyone has flaws.

Read more: 15 artists who completely reinvented their sound from album to album

On a lyrical level, Katz took this record as an opportunity to tackle who he is as a person. Instead of viewing his struggles as a moment to wallow in self-pity, he embraced his flaws and admitted that he isn’t trying to be the absolute best version of himself. The singer/guitarist understands that he doesn’t know exactly how to become that. Instead of lying to the world and himself, he puts this notion on full display while acknowledging that he isn’t the victim.

With their sophomore album dropping Sept. 24, Katz reflects on gaining the confidence to record in an unrefined way and the legacy he hopes the band will leave behind. His desire to leave a lasting impression on the world and provide an outlet for positivity through sadness is brought to fruition on THIS IS HOW THE WORLD ENDS, but the journey is just beginning for Katz and the rest of Badflower.

With this being Badflower’s second full-length, you have had a quick rise to success overall. Did you feel any sort of pressure to top what you’ve done previously before heading into this album? 

It is definitely hard competing with your former self, but at the same time, you also look at the grand scope of where music is. I pull all the things that I really like, and I tell myself I like what a certain band is doing. I feel like I could do that. That’s what I do, but I could do it in my own way. So there was a lot of this competitive energy in the beginning, competing with our former stuff and competing with things that we saw happening around us in music.

It turned into failure every time, and that became really apparent in the beginning. I think that the very beginning process of making this album, at least writing for it, was songs that went directly into the garbage. They just weren’t working, and it was clear that we were chasing something that wasn’t our current state and our current identity.

The first song we wrote for this album was “Family.” That set the tone for everything because it was a song that was very, very real, but for the first time, it was an accountable message. I wasn’t the victim of anything. I realized I was the villain, and that’s what I sang about. That changed everything, realizing that I could do that and not worry about what people might think of me if I do take this approach where I’m not necessarily likable in every scenario because I’m not always likable in real life. That’s what really inspired this album, and it felt like nothing we had quite done before. It also felt like nothing we can draw from, from pop culture anyway. It was like a lane opened up, and we jumped into that.

You’ve also said that some of the recordings on the album were done without any demoing or planning involved. Do you think that this raw way of recording worked for you differently than if you meticulously planned everything out?

That’s the heart of what this album is. We were very frustrated. We’ve always been pretty frustrated just recording songs, not even making full albums since we’ve been recording songs forever. The demo process is hard because you start to fall in love with your first inclination, your first idea, whatever your first instinct is. Then you get into a room, whether it’s with the producer or without a producer, but you just get into a room to try to top it, try to beat it or do the “real version,” and it’s never as good. 

When we finally got down to tracking drums and doing the rest of it, it was all just this first tape kind of magic moment. If something wasn’t perfect but we felt that we were all smiling or crying or excited or whatever, let’s not mess with that. Let’s leave it exactly as it is.

Were there any specific moments that stood out to you from some of those raw takes that you thought was something that normally wouldn’t have been perfect but it worked within the context of what you did?

There’s a song called “Only Love” that I wasn’t finished writing all the lyrics for, and I was recording it in pieces. I was writing a bit and then singing it and mostly leaving the first takes because I was so in the moment and emotional. There was a moment toward the end where I didn’t have the lyrics finished. I just had the start of them, and I thought to myself, “I’m just going to put down this beginning so I can hear that, and maybe I’ll be able to write the rest.” 

I ended up pretty much finishing the song on the fly. You can hear me specifically stumbling over certain words because I was just finding the words in the moment. When I hear it back, it makes me chuckle because I wrote it right then and there, and I left it, and I never touched it. That was a moment that I’ll never forget. That’s a moment that you couldn’t plan, and I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again, but it’s very cool.

Why did you name the record THIS IS HOW THE WORLD ENDS, and what does it mean in the context of the topics discussed across the album?

To me, it means the end of empathy, and discourse to me is a much greater threat than people are talking about. We’re in a pandemic right now. We have the threat of disease. We have the threat of war with crazy leadership all across this planet, and nobody trusts anybody. But on top of all of that, I feel like we’re losing a sense of empathy, really, and respect for each other. 

We can’t have differing opinions without people at each other’s throats, and I felt that splitting my friendships apart or seeing other people’s friendships split apart. When the pandemic happened, I was like everybody else and just sitting, scrolling through social media and watching this happen.

I don’t know if you’ve observed this, but this is my observation of the situation, and it looks like things on a mental health level feel really, really bad for everyone on top of everything else that’s really bad. That’s a subject that I felt like I really could touch on, and it feels like the end of the world. 

With songs such as “Family” or “My Funeral,” they feel very honest in pointing out your own personal problems and struggles instead of taking a vague outsider’s view or trying to paint yourself in a better light than what the reality really is. What drives you to write music this way? Do you think that it’s an important aspect of creating music that feels genuine?

I think that’s the most important aspect. For one, it’s the thing that I think truly sets us apart from other bands. That is right off the bat a huge point to consider. If we can do this, whether it works or not, I think this is something that we can do that really is unique to us. We might as well go for it, even if we fail trying. 

The second part is that it is so much more rewarding. On the first record, I had never been more depressed in my life. I’d never been more anxious, depressed and scared, and I didn’t know if I wanted to continue doing this. I felt like that album might be the last album I make, and for a few reasons, many different outcomes could have come out of it. The one where I was pretty successful and got onto the next record and built a fanbase, that wasn’t the one that made sense to me in my head while I was writing.

With this album arriving soon, what are your plans and hopes for what you’re able to do as a band once the record comes out and going into the next few years as a group?

I’m hoping to stay sane. That’s the honest answer. I don’t feel like I’m chasing success in the ways that I once did, and it’s not so far off the topic that I was just talking about, which is that it’s entirely self-serving being a musician. It’s really hard to phrase because it almost makes me sound ungrateful for what I have, which I’m not. I’m very grateful. I just see the reality of it, and I know that with more success and more attention, the more my mental health starts to slip, and I’ve seen that happen to me before.

I never want to come across as not genuine, so the tough question to answer is, “What do you want to get out of this?” Well, I could say to you that I want to be the biggest band in the world, and that’s rock star shit. But do I really? Because I’ve had time to sit and analyze this, and I don’t know if that’s gonna make me happy, and I’ve spent enough time putting my sanity and my happiness in the back seat. 

I don’t know how long I’m capable of doing that. I would like to make another record after this, but how will I be able to keep going? How much fucking yoga do I have to do? What do I have to do to make sure that I can enjoy the whole ride? But that’s my job, so I’m still sorting through that.

You can read the full interview in issue 397, available here.

The fluidity of how the band work lends itself perfectly to teaming up with new musicians on each song, and as they finished the first collab album, they saw the potential. Instead of poring over songs by themselves, they were able to rely on other artist’s judgments to find new creative avenues. Great minds tend to think alike, and with HEALTH choosing to only work with artists they personally enjoy listening to, the results are exceeding expectations. 

Read more: Daine offers a first look at upcoming “Salt” video featuring Oli Sykes

They launched this second collaborative release with a natural pairing on “ISN’T EVERYONE” with Nine Inch Nails, but Jake Duzsik says they weren’t sure how that group’s fans would react. “They have such a dedicated fanbase,” he says. “There’s always a bit of worry that they’re going to be like, ‘Finally Trent and Atticus are dropping new music. Who is this guy ruining the new songs?’ We were pleasantly surprised, and we’ve communicated since then that the reaction to the song has been positive with their entire fanbase and ours. That’s a reason why it makes you want to keep doing them.”

With a new round of collaborations on the way in the form of DISCO4 :: PART II and another solo full-length on the horizon, Alternative Press spoke with Duzsik and John Famiglietti about why they wanted to continue their collaborative efforts, how it differs from their usual workflow and what they’re looking forward to when lockdowns come to an end. 

DISCO4 :: PART I broke away from the other DISCO albums being remix records. What’s it like writing collaborative albums compared to making an album on your own?

JOHN FAMIGLIETTI: It’s freeing because a lot of stuff you just don’t have control over. That’s because of other people, time constraints and a lot of this has to be done remotely through emails. You have to wait a long time, so you have to go with what’s around and think on your feet. It’s nice because then on your album, you’ve gotta make a statement. A lot of these collabs are done over a long period, but the song with Ghostemane [“JUDGEMENT NIGHT”] was done in a day, which is shit that would never happen, ever, with our own music.

JAKE DUZSIK: It can be like a blind date. If you start going on dates after being in a long-term committed relationship, you’re uncomfortable at first, and maybe so is the other person. After you do it enough, it’s not like you have a new bandmate that you’ve gotten used to—you’ve gotten used to working with new people all the time. Now when we’re starting the process, you can sense a bit of reluctance from the other person because they’re dealing with the same thing we were. 

One thing I try to make clear when we first start is every instance is going to be different, but what we want is a true collaboration. Ideally, we would like them to not be fully fleshed out because then you’re going to get what’s more akin to a feature. If there’s a musical idea that’s more or less there, you’re already supplying the sound palette. If you have a plan for a song, it’s always going to end up different, and that’s been exceedingly true of the collaborations. It’s like a magnification of that uncertainty that is alluring about creative pursuits in the first place. 

Why did you want to do a second album of collaboration tracks again this year?

DUZSIK: It’s so rewarding because every song has a new sound palette that is brought by another artist. We’re only asking people whose work we like, so that is energizing, especially when you’ve been in a band for a long time. It gets you out of any sort of cyclical rut of your writing process. When you start writing music with a different band or artist for every track, it’s like a cheat code to not repeat yourself. The only expectation is to make a good track, and if it doesn’t feel good, you move on to a new idea. 

FAMIGLIETTI: I did not want to put out an album and not be able to go on tour. Normally, we wouldn’t do two collab records in a row. We were still in this situation, and it’s like, “Fuck it, keep it going,” and I’m glad we did because, obviously, this is the result. The first collab record came along, and we never really planned to do it anyway. A big part of that was COVID. 

HEALTH recently revealed a collaboration with Nine Inch Nails. What was it like working with the band?

DUZSIK: It was a very pleasant surprise to get a response back. In the past, we opened for them, and we did a track at his home studio with his longtime collaborator Alan Moulder. At the time when I contacted [Trent Reznor], everybody is fucking home. It was the middle of the lockdown, so if there was ever a chance, that would be the pie in the sky. 

The part that made it real was when he sent a vocal track. It’s one thing when you’re exchanging emails, but he has a very iconic voice that I’ve been listening to since I was a kid. One thing that made the whole process of writing this track with Atticus [Ross] and Trent so easy is that regardless of their legendary status and unimpeachable career, they’re very relatable and accessible. Sometimes you could be worried about working with someone with that kind of profile to broach a subject because you don’t want to ruffle their feathers. There was no concern about that. 

How do you manage to bring such a broad spectrum of artists together into one package without losing what’s unique about each artist you collaborate with?

FAMIGLIETTI: I think we’re malleable with what our sound is. Everyone we chose, we liked and we thought we could work with well. We’re trying to showcase them as much as ourselves and just do whatever’s right for the song. A lot of these songs the other artist began, and we’re adding onto it, or we go back and forth, and whatever we have, [we] just roll with that. 

DUZSIK: We started doing collabs just to explore it, and then the light went off that we were able to supplant doing a companion remix album by doing a collaboration album. Remix culture in a more general sense was a way for labels to extend the life cycle of a record. We never had to do that because we weren’t making any money, anyway. We were doing it solely for the aesthetic and creative pursuit of it. If you heard the HEALTH remix album, it wouldn’t just be a bunch of tracks thrown together. When we’re doing the collab records, that blueprint was just carried over. 

What’s most fun about the collabs when you start them is being able to say, “There’s no pressure.” The only idea is to make something that we think is good and [that] both bands are happy with. On top of that, [we’re] trying to assure the other artists that there’s nothing precious going on. I think a pitfall a lot of young bands get trapped in is the restriction of constructive criticism. Having that as a basis for the tracks allows them to be created in a way that does some of the work preliminarily towards making what feels like a cohesive record. 

Touring is slowly becoming an option again, and you are creating a new full-length in 2022. What are you looking forward to for the next album?

FAMIGLIETTI: Just to get on the road because at the start of COVID, people were saying shit like there might not be touring for three years. [The fact] that people are booking to tour now seems great, so fingers crossed. To be able to put out a record and go on tour again is pretty exciting, especially with what people were predicting before. With every record, you want to grow or have some big moments, but all that is continuing on the rise. 

DUZSIK: Ideally, to make our best record. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but it’s hard to want to make a record if that’s not what you’re trying to do. I feel like if you’re not trying to do that, then it’s almost impossible to make a good one. My goal is always to not alienate fans that have stuck with us for so long and also create something that could connect to new people. I don’t want to make pronouncements about what kind of record it’s going to be, but I’m hopeful that it will be something that we’re proud of.

“Kami means God in Japanese, and Yada in Hebrew was to be spiritual, so it all comes together,” Duncan says. “As far as where I am in my life now, even adding the plus [sign] to my name, there’s always a push for progression and keeping the wheels turning on things at all times.” 

Read more: Daine offers a first look at upcoming “Salt” video featuring Oli Sykes

The tones throughout The Metal In Me are equally inspired by Alice In Chains and Kanye West, culminating in a unique sound that challenges listeners to think beyond the boundaries of hip-hop. Coming from a Panamanian family who mostly listened to reggae or salsa artists, Duncan also cites dancehall artist Buju Banton as one of the figures who shaped who he is as a musician. This vast range of inspirations creates a musical environment where limitations don’t exist, and Duncan can be free to explore any sound he wants.

After discovering hip-hop in his youth, Duncan found a type of music he could more closely relate to and delved into creating his own world. Now finding his way through the horrorcore rap scene, he’s crafted a unique, multidimensional world through story-driven music, videos and more while staying true to the experiences that shaped him. Alternative Press spoke with Duncan about what he hopes to accomplish through his music, the creative process that led to The Metal In Me EP and how his upbringing has shaped his complex sound.

Your music truly embraces the idea of being limitless and not focusing on boundaries. Why do you feel this is the best way for you to make music?

A lot of that is fueled by all my past experiences. I’m 25 now, and I’ve been doing this for about three to four years, but I’ve seen so much, I’ve done so much [and] I’ve grown so much. I feel much older than my actual age. All of this has helped me mature. My music had to mature with it. I don’t even talk about a lot of the same things I’ve talked about when I first started, but I still try to keep that energy in there to give people what they want. 

I also have to keep it true to myself as far as exerting that energy and being true to exactly what it is I’m feeling. I have to give that to people as raw as I possibly can and not water down anything. I’m not gonna dumb things down for people. I want us all to be on the same page as far as what I have to talk about. Whether it’s something serious or not, it’s how I’m feeling at that moment. If you’re going to be a listener, you’re going to be a part of the audience, and I want it to be an experience that is real and authentic. 

Do you feel that creating music by yourself differs from working as a collective with the Midnight Society?

Definitely. We’re still a collective. Some of us even live together, but the thing about it is we’re all focusing on our own things because things are happening individually for everyone, and it’s great. I love that. I could even tell when we work on music together now, it’s a bit difficult because everyone is formulating a new sound. There are so many different things going on now as far as all these other new genres that have come into play. It’s dope because it adds a challenge. It takes way longer than it used to at first to make music together, but when we do get it done, it’s great.

You’ve mentioned before that creating “Metal In Me” gave you a lot of confidence. What was it like putting together that track, and do you feel the confidence gained through making it extends to other areas of your artistry?

I think that was probably the second song I made when I had moved into my new house. We moved in literally a week before COVID hit, so we got lucky. Our house was empty. All we had was a bed, a TV, a desk and then my studio monitors, and that was pretty much it. When I record, I don’t write anymore. Everything was off the top of my head, but it was crazy because I remember as soon as I heard that beat and I started to record, everything came instantly. 

Even off the first three lines, I thought this was unreal. I felt like I was on fire instantly once that happened. Once the track was done, I was so happy with it. I sent it out to all my friends like, “Yo, this track is actually something serious. I think something crazy can come from this.” I kept working on songs that I felt were similar to that or derivative of it, and that’s really how the EP came together. I met my new engineer, and he opened up so many doors for my sound. I got that confidence that I could make way crazier music, make it more of an experience. It really puts out that raw energy. 

The last song on the EP, “Fucking With My Head,” taps into a ska beat, which feels very different from your other tracks. How did it feel to write something so far away from the hip-hop world?

That was fun because I just met my engineer. He’s this guy named Tim Randolph (YUNGBLUD, POORSTACY.) He’s played in a bunch of bands and [has] been around for years. All the bands I was into, he was watching when he was 17, 18, so he gives me a lot of insight. It was him and then Zac [Carper] from FIDLAR, and we got really close [during the pandemic], and we’ve been working a lot together since. We were at Zac’s house and were drinking, and they were on acid. I just pulled up, and they were jumping around the room. 

It came into fruition as that, and I’m like, “Whoa, this is actually really fucking good.” It was probably the second song that me and Zac had done together. I think that was the second time I ever met him, too. I feel like all that was based on energy. The energy was good, and the vibes were right, so it came together, and it took me out of my comfort zone, too. 

Musically, the jump from “U Made The Devil Cry” to “HARD” is pretty drastic. When you were structuring the EP’s overall flow, why did you place tracks that stood apart from each other back to back?

When I got “Metal In Me” done as a track, that wasn’t a goal on my previous EP. The song is way crazier than all those songs, and I wanted to set it aside for something else. I was thinking to myself, “I can carbon-copy ‘Metal In Me’ and make three more similar songs so the album has cohesion.” I thought it’d be cooler if I create a story alongside this album, which is why my videos are so crazy. I am writing all these to create this character, [so] let’s give them a background. Let’s make sure the songs loosely reference everything that’s happening through the story and these videos. 

Then what I wanted to do was [have] it start off serious—you have “Metal In Me,” “U Made The Devil Cry,” etc. When it jumps into stuff like “HARD,” it becomes more about love and softer tones. Now the songs are slower. Now it’s less about anger and aggression and more about love, compassion and softer energy. I want to switch that mode but still be able to show you the depth of this character that I’m trying to create so it’s not one-sided. You’re not just seeing aggression or anger. You can also see the love and the vulnerability parts, too. I also wanted to write scripts and direct my own videos, so I had to finally get my feet in the water with that. 

Your music and overall aesthetic push into darker themes. Why do you feel drawn toward these aspects of life and art? What do you hope to be able to say through the music you release?

I want to be able to make music that delivers authentic feelings. I want it to be on a level where it’s not run of the mill, saying something that is generally popularized and understood. I want it to be stuff that people don’t talk about much but everyone secretly relates to. I want to take it somewhere different so that when you hear it, you can appreciate it unconditionally. Whether you’re sad, whether you’re happy, whatever, you’re going to hear the music, and it is still going to hit you. That’s my main goal. I want to [make music] on the level of the things that make me feel the way [I do] when I watch a great movie or when I hear a great song or when I get nostalgic. I want to give that back to people because I love those feelings.

On his debut album, he’s taking on the role of both an artist and an activist. The record pulls inspiration from what it’s like growing up and living as a Black American while showing the positive and negative sides of what that means. In some moments, he’s taking on the tragic murder of his brother at the hands of a police officer. In others, he’s advocating for body positivity for Black women. As a whole, BLK VINTAGE is a tale of how music can be more than a fleeting moment of fun and challenge us to question the world we live in.

Read more: Nova Twins focus on alternative POC artists for a new charity compilation

“I think that’s a really big goal of mine, and I think it should be a goal of any artist who has a powerful platform and has an opportunity to do things on a larger scale,” Houston says. “Music is good. It makes the world go round, and it’s important to our culture, but there are more important things to be said that can’t be summarized in a three-minute song.”

Through his laid-back, blissful and groove-oriented sounds, BLK ODYSSY strives for creating catchy music while overtly confronting some of the most pressing issues within American culture. Alternative Press spoke with Houston about how he shifted his musical career stylistically and aesthetically, the balance of social justice and personal experiences on BLK VINTAGE and the effect music can have beyond artistry.

You recently made the change to perform under the name BLK ODYSSY. Why did you want to do this, and what does the name mean to you in the context of your music?

When I got to Texas and I kept telling people my name’s Sam Houston, everyone kept looking at me weird. They’re like, “What are you talking about? You know who that is, right?” As a kid from New Jersey, we didn’t learn Texas history, so I didn’t know who that was. It happened to be some super-big Confederate soldier, and I was always very conflicted with how I got that name and that I moved to Texas.

He was the [governor] of Texas when they seceded. I started to notice that I don’t know if this is my crowd because I was doing a show with a country artist, and I walked into the crowd after the show. One lady actually said, “I was wondering if you were a slave descendant of Sam Houston’s properties or something like that.” I knew I really didn’t want to go by this name anymore because people got me all fucked up with this shit. I was like, “No, not at all. Someone gave me that name,” and she got real awkward after that. She was like, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Do you want to do shrooms?” I said no. [Laughs.]

What inspired you musically while creating your debut record with your new style, and what was the process like putting it together?

I was really inspired by a lot of the things going on around me in the beginning of the pandemic, the social unrest in this country. It was at an all-time high, and I really related to that because in 2010, I had a brother that was killed by a police officer. I’ve been so busy that I didn’t have the chance to just sit face to face with those issues that I faced as a Black kid growing up in America. 

I’m watching TV, and I’m watching everybody’s timelines and news feeds, and I’m like, “Dang, this actually happens all the time. How could my brother’s story stand out when next week there will be a dozen other people killed by police?” I started to conceive a story with these thoughts, and it inspired me to paint a vivid picture of our perspective as Black people in this country.

I wouldn’t say that the whole album specifically speaks to all the tragedies because a lot of it speaks to the triumphs too. Songs like “HANG LOW” celebrate Black women and natural bodies, which is something else that I learned on my journey here. When I was in high school, there was this whole light-skin versus dark-skin phase among Black people, which was crazy because as a dark-skinned dude, society almost painted a picture that light skin was more desirable. That was one of the oldest tricks in the book. They had been doing that shit since slavery.

Lyrically, you tap into topics like violence and addiction while also touching on lighter themes around relationships and love. Why do you think it’s important to balance these topics in your music?

I was on the fence about that because I’m doing this politically driven project, and I want to talk about social injustice. At the same time, I’m still a human that experiences things that everybody experiences. Sometimes when we’re on a mission in life, we could neglect the things that make us a person and make us normal and relatable to everybody else. I didn’t want this record to seem unrelatable to anyone, even if it’s a person that doesn’t agree with my political views.

In the beginning of the song “BIG BAD WOLF/SOBER,” I’m speaking about instances that trigger some mental illness in me, and I’m talking to myself in the beginning of that song. It segues into this interlude where I get a call from a girl, and she’s telling me she would never hurt me. It goes into another piece that exemplifies her lying and then goes into a beat switch where I speak about being hurt and where that trauma came from.

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I was trying to take the listener on a journey to where I was mentally. The music is one thing, but I’m very keen on having people connect with me as an artist more than just the songs. Songs like “HANG LOW” present itself as a love song, but more than anything, I’m just speaking about Black beauty and having Black women accept themselves for who they are, no matter how their body features are. I want to change the rhetoric and the idea that dark is not as desirable as light-skinned.

You’ve said you want to create music that is culturally impactful for Black people across the U.S., specifically young people. Why do you think it’s important as a musician to try to inspire the next generation?

We essentially create the next generation with what we do. My father was very intentional in playing music that he thought would shape my ideas and who I was as a person because I absorbed music so intently. It challenged the way I thought about things, and it challenged the way that I looked at other people as a musician. Whether you’re a basketball player, a musician, a teacher, a garbage man, the goal, in general, should be to impact the people we come across in a positive way.

It’s up to us to shape these people, especially when they’re at a younger stage and they’re a sponge. My goal is anyone that I come across, I want to teach them forgiveness, which has been a big thing in my life. Having to forgive the people that killed my brother was one of the most heavy weights that I lifted off my shoulders. I want to reverse some of the bad tendencies that we have in our communities by starting new practices with how we conduct ourselves and how we teach people.

What’s your ultimate goal for what you hope to accomplish with your music?

The ultimate end goal for me is to be able to do things that transcend past music. There are so many different things that we could be talking about as a community that we just don’t talk about because the conversation is awkward, or it’s just not something that we’re known to do because it’s not common in our culture.

What I notice is that a lot of artists when they get the means to talk to people, they don’t do it because they don’t think it’s going to be viral. I think there’s a way to do both. I’m not saying I’m some perfect dude that just wants to have this political message.

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If you listen to my album, songs like “NINETEEN EIGHTY” talk about how me and my brother were on drugs in high school. I speak about how that culture was something that we grew up in and participated in. In songs like “GHOST RIDE,” I speak about it in the same way but from an opposite perspective, from a more intellectual person looking in, and “NINETEEN EIGHTY” was from that person looking out. I understand both sides of life. My goal is to be someone that can help other people understand it because I think that’s very important.

This interview appeared in issue 397, available here.

The soundtrack acts as a companion to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s seven-issue comic series, with the musicians involved—including Mastodon, Chelsea Wolfe, Rise Against and more—taking inspiration from the story’s dark themes. “ANTI-LIFE” sees HEALTH, Moreno and Bates tackling the grim, mysterious world of Batman, which HEALTH member Jake Duzsik says fits his lyrical approach like a glove. 

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“He doesn’t have any superpowers,” Duzsik says. “There’s nothing supernatural. He’s the world’s greatest detective, but he’s super sad, and he’s an orphan. He’s fucking goth. He’s super isolated in his caves, and instead of him making an industrial record, he becomes a vigilante because he has more resources. The Batman world is very existential, and that’s distinctive of other comic book universes. That pairs well with my proclivities as a lyricist.”

Bates encouraged artists to write their musical contribution based on how the comic resonated with them. Although the producer says the soundtrack presented a challenge in adding another dimension to Snyder and Capullo’s story, it was exciting to see how each musician gave their take on the topic at hand.

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“This album was conceptualized before the majority of the music was created,” Bates says. “I had the opportunity to discuss this material with the artists and prompted them to write songs inspired directly from the text or whatever emotion or viewpoint the visual dimension of this series evoked once they had read the material. I find it fascinating to hear how this material inspired each of the artists on the soundtrack through their musical expressions.”

The experimental electronic group’s harsh yet melancholic sound was an ideal match for the aesthetic of Batman’s story, making their approach to “ANTI-LIFE” seamless. Having a love for comic books dating back to their childhoods, the members of HEALTH were easily able to intertwine their styles and personalities with the concept.

“I was into the Image Comics explosion in the ’90s,” HEALTH’s John Famiglietti explains. “That’s probably when I was most into comics, but overall, everybody loves Batman. We wanted to be able to reference Batman without having to say Batman or anything like that because you don’t want to come across as corny.”

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“Everything musically with us needs a minor key and is dark and has this oral space that is very conducive to being paired with the Batman aesthetic world,” Duzsik says. “I realized [when I started] to write lyrics that a lot of [them] could fit into the Batman universe anyway. I think that’s part of why that DC world and specifically Batman really appealed to me when I was a kid.” 

When Bates was planning which musicians he wanted to work with on the soundtrack, he immediately knew he wanted HEALTH involved. Having worked together previously for the Atomic Blonde soundtrack, he knew they would be a perfect match to his vision and could craft something unique.

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“Jake and John are into comics, so I thought it would be a great impetus for us to write a song inspired by this source material,” Bates says. “This was also a great distraction as COVID-19 was in its more nascent stage. John and I masked up and worked together at my studio, while Jake joined us remotely.”

While Bates is mostly acting as a producer for the artists on the soundtrack, HEALTH wanted to make this song more of a collaborative process. After working on last year’s massive collaborative effort DISCO 4 :: PART 1, they’ve developed a passion for writing alongside other musicians in a more involved way and are carrying this mentality forward with a second collaborative album arriving later this year. 

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“[Bates] has been a great cheerleader of our band and a mentor in a lot of ways,” Duzsik says. “We expressly said to him we had already been going down this road with these collaborative tracks and we didn’t want him to just wear a producer’s hat. We’re co-writing it together. As the song was coming together, the conversation turned to how it’d be really interesting to have another vocalist on this track to have them bring what they would bring to it emotionally.” 

HEALTH, as well as their fanbase, according to Famiglietti, are massive fans of Deftones, making it a match made in heaven. When Bates proposed Moreno as the guest vocalist for “ANTI-LIFE,” they were beyond excited. Within days of contacting the singer, they were able to sit back and listen to his take on the track. 

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“I already knew that Chino is one of HEALTH’s favorite vocalists, so having worked with him before, I sent the track to Chino, and he said he was down to sing on ‘ANTI-LIFE,’ Bates says. “He recorded himself from home and sent me his track within a couple of days. It was exciting for the band and I to hear Chino’s voice in the context of HEALTH’s sound. This was one of the many bright moments during the production of this album.”

Beyond the scope of the soundtrack, Bates is also working on other parts of the Dark Nights: Death Metal multimedia experience. Several of the artists appearing on the soundtrack were tapped for the animated counterpart to the comic: Sonic Metalverse. These connections eventually led to some of the musicians continuing their involvement in the project. 

“Knowing that he is a massive Batman fan, I contacted Andy Biersack to voice him in the motion comic,” Bates says. “Andy’s performance and interest in going the distance on all seven episodes is what led to this becoming a series. I then asked Chelsea Wolfe to voice Wonder Woman because she loves DC Comics, hence the song ‘Diana.’”

He decided to try to involve as many of the artists on the soundtrack in the series as possible. Because the project was developed during lockdowns, Bates feels it created a positive creative outlet for the musicians to craft something invigorating at a time when their typical routines were restricted.  

“The energy each of the artists put into their music and their voice performances inspired camaraderie and created a concentric point for all of our artists to interact,” Bates says. “Considering the state of isolation that most of us experienced in 2020, this project provided an awesome opportunity to connect and create art with new people, which was healthy and uplifting for everyone involved.”  

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The passion for DC Comics lore is felt across every moment of the soundtrack and throughout the many revolving parts of the comic series event. As a whole, Dark Nights: Death Metal presents a one-of-a-kind experience for both the artists involved as well as comic and music fans. 

“The culture of DC Comics is about storytelling and creative possibilities, and with their support, we as fans created a potent body of work that we are excited to share with true fans of music and comics,” Bates elaborates. 

The ‘Dark Nights: Death Metal’ soundtrack arrives digitally June 18 and physically June 16 via Loma Vista Recordings. Preorders are available here. 

Throughout the last several years, the members of Architects have felt a rejuvenated passion for environmentalism and what society is doing to our planet. Climate change continues to escalate at an increasingly rapid pace, and on For Those That Wish To Exist, the band demand we all reconsider our role in the planet’s downfall. Corporate entities and government bodies may be the driving force in environmental damage, but the album challenges humanity to confront their individual impacts and question whether there is more they can do.

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The band openly pose this question, though. Everyone has limitations on what they can change, and imperfections shouldn’t halt progress, which is something Architects showcase across the sonic landscape of this album, too. Technicality takes a backseat to tactful melodic passages of synths, orchestral strings and slowed-down riffs, but they’re not ditching their heavy past completely. The band are simply more selective about using powerhouse moments of scorching-hot metal to make the most of them. 

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As Architects enter a new era of their career, they’re priming themselves to have an arsenal of musical tools at their disposal and aim to make a difference in the world while using them. Drummer Dan Searle and vocalist Sam Carter explore our collective responsibility in the themes of their new record and how the various changes they’ve experienced helped shape their future as leaders in heavy music.

With this new album, Architects made a stylistic change in both the writing approach and the overall sound. The riffs are more simplistic, and the vocals are much cleaner than ever before, but why did it feel like the right time to try out some newer things?

DAN SEARLE: I was desperate to make this jump. It didn’t happen on Holy Hell because it was the first album that Josh [Middleton, guitar] and I had written together without Tom. It was a confusing time, so we felt we should do what was familiar and safe. I think it’s understandable that we took that measure at that moment, and fortunately, the album was popular, and it meant a lot to people. 

I think with time, you see how highly people hold that record. I can’t speak for my bandmates necessarily, but I needed to do an album to trust myself and to build that belief in myself. Previously, I would be my brother’s No. 2. He led the way, and I just helped and tried [to] see what I could do to complement his work. Now I have much more of a prominent role, so I’m able to dictate the way things go with Josh, but I think there needed to be a period that we just felt like we believed in ourselves. 

SAM CARTER: Holy Hell was a very good metal record—carrying on from where we left off losing Tom, being able to have half the record with his riffs and the rest with Josh’s. Moving into this period of writing, we didn’t want to just rip off what we’d done before by copying ourselves and copying Tom’s riffs. That would’ve felt cheap and disingenuous. It felt like [the] time to go with what we’d learned throughout the years of writing with him, being musicians and learning together, to feel out where we were and what we wanted to achieve.

SEARLE: The only time we had ever made the melodic switch, it had been pretty uncomfortable for us. We changed things with The Here And Now, and it got slaughtered. It took us a long time to rebuild our confidence and to believe in ourselves to make that change. It was risky, but it doesn’t feel like it now because the album has done well. I think the more cynical fans that weren’t so into this record think we just did an easy option, but that wasn’t the case at all. I was quite nervous about that. I don’t worry about other people’s opinions, but once it’s done, you have to face up to the fact that people are going to hear it, and they’re going to give you their opinion on it. For some of those people, it’s not going to be what they’re used to.

This is also the band’s longest record to date. Do you feel that trying out some new things led to you becoming ambitious in different ways than you expected?

CARTER: I think you write with what you know. We had a few years of touring bigger rooms than we were used to—you start writing for the set and where you can take things in that environment. It does give you a level up of creativity.

SEARLE: The whole rule set that we had was that there were no rules. It didn’t really matter if something felt like too much of a radical change. If we liked it and it resonated with us, then we just went with it. The great thing about doing a record this length—and by the way, it was going to be a double record—is [that] it gives you the ability to maneuver, diversify and experiment. You can do a few songs where you’re doing something more familiar, but then you can go off and experiment. 

I wasn’t worried about making a record where everyone likes every single track. It was just about doing whatever we wanted. A lot of people will love this record but not be into a couple of tracks because they’re just too different for them. We weren’t trying to please everyone. It was just about experimenting and doing whatever we wanted.

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In the modern world, bands find themselves in a narrower lane. [There] was once a time in earlier years [where] bands would change with every record. People lived with it, and the attitude was [that] you either liked it or you didn’t, and, if you didn’t, you moved on with your life. Bands had this fearlessness. It would be nice for artists to feel like they have that freedom [again].

You’re more subjected to people’s opinions now, and that’s the nature of, I think, commercialism plowing through artistic intention because you’re not just thinking about the music. You have this devil on your shoulder that’s saying, “This is how you pay your bills. This is how you put food on the table for your child.” You do your best to try and drown that voice out and keep it as authentic as possible. 

For Those That Wish To Exist also became your first No. 1 album in the U.K. What was it like finding this out? With this being your ninth album, does it surprise you that the band are still able to make new achievements this far into your career?

SEARLE: [Laughs.] Yeah, absolutely. Even when we were three, four albums in and we [played for] a decent crowd in London, but nowhere else in the world, I thought our ship had sailed. I thought we’d missed our chance because you don’t see that many bands make it on their fifth record, and you certainly don’t see bands have their biggest record on their ninth. We’ve been very lucky because our sixth was our biggest, then our seventh, then our eighth, then our ninth, and it’s a very odd and unique career path.

It just shows that every band’s path is different and unique, and it’s never too late. All that matters is the music. It’s such a corny thing, but it’s so true. We only focused on the songs and making sure they were as good as we could possibly make them. I think the difficult realization for us was that we got too caught up in other stuff, and we didn’t fully appreciate that fact. 

CARTER: It was a really big deal, especially because we live here. Then we got No. 1 in Australia as well, which was crazy because it’s the other side of the world, and we’re not even there to be able to celebrate it. It was a huge achievement. It’s one that people that I’ve not spoken to in years were hitting me up like, “Whoa, I’ve just seen this, and we went to school together, and now you’re bloody No. 1. How crazy is that?” We never write with that in mind. We just write with honest intentions and [wanted] to put together a good album and create something special for ourselves. This one just really connected.

SEARLE: To be getting No. 1 on our ninth record is well beyond a lot of our wildest dreams. I know we’ve been surpassing our expectations for years, but I would probably say having a No. 1 record in the U.K. is the most ludicrous. To have a No. 1 record is so unlikely for a metal band. It’s so difficult and so rare. That wasn’t the ambition. It wasn’t spoken about, so we’re grateful that it ended up happening. It was like an actual moment of disbelief for me. I thought there must have been a mistake. I was waiting for someone to tell me that we were actually No. 2.

CARTER: It surprises me that we’re still a band! I remember putting out the first and second albums and just being like, “I’m not doing this when I’m 30. [Laughs.] I’ll be way too old then.” Now I’m 32, nearly 33, and I’m like, “Fuck, let’s go until I’m 50.” It feels almost like magic. You’re just like, “How the fuck is this happening?” It’s enjoyed more now because of the effort and the time that we’ve put in throughout it. We know how special this is, and it’s definitely not something we take for granted at all.

You also recently released an orchestral variation of “Animals” recorded at Abbey Road Studios. What stood out the most about the band’s time there?

CARTER: Walking in that door and walking up the steps, it’s just amazing. I’m a lifelong Beatles fan and not just the Beatles—the number of bands that have recorded there, like Pink Floyd [and] Black Sabbath. Every important rock record from the U.K. has come out of there. It’s amazing to be in there and also amazing that we seem to be in there all the time. There’s some serious magic in those walls. 

We’d done a couple of Spotify sessions in there before, but I think this was more special because [we were] able to see everybody together after going through all this shit with COVID and having time apart from each other. Going in there and being excited to be around each other, it was nice to just have everyone together and jam and see all our crew. 

SEARLE: None of us take it for granted. It’s amazing that we find ourselves frequently going to Abbey Road because it took 15 years of the band existing before we ever went there, and now, we seem to go all of the time. So many artists have walked those halls. 

CARTER: We could have done something like “Dead Butterflies” or any of the other songs off the album with strings, but doing “Animals” felt really special because it has no strings on the actual record. It took it up and made it this whole other beast. It ended up feeling like we were in fucking James Bond or something.

SEARLE: We’ve got strings involved on the record, some extra percussion stuff, but the thing about those types of musicians is that they’re really musicians. There are brilliant musicians within guitar music, obviously, but the way that a violinist is expected to turn up to a session, sit down, look at the paper and play it perfectly—it’s another level of musicianship. It’s a different art, really. The ability to just know the piece instantly is super inspiring. 

We have plans to try and reimagine the record again, maybe with the whole record having an orchestra. That’s something that we’re thinking about right now. It’s amazing that we can because we’ve always wanted to do something like that, to have a full orchestra playing with the band. What band doesn’t want to do that?

The whole theme of the album is quite self-reflective in looking at how personal responsibility is a huge part of the world continuing to be destroyed. What inspired you to want to tackle this topic on the record?

SEARLE: This is the second album I’ve written the lyrics for, and the first one was just all about grief. After my daughter was born, my perspective shifted. I started to see beyond my own life, and you start to wonder what sort of world you’re leaving for your child. You care about that stuff before you have a kid, for sure—the youth on this planet are the most ecologically conscious part of global culture, global society—but having a child shifted my perspective hugely. 

I started to become concerned about it, but I try to live my life from this place of accountability and self-responsibility. I try to point the finger at myself in a healthy way and ask myself, “What else can I do?” It’s all well and good getting all riled up over corporate interests not taking their responsibility for the way in which they continue to pollute the planet, but if everybody knows what they need to make the most of themselves, then the world would be a vastly different place. I was struck by the juxtaposition between the severity of the situation and my own apathy. My part is very small in the grand scheme of things.

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I conceded that I ask myself the question of, “Why am I doing so little?” and draw from the idea that we’re held back, or our hands are tied because we carry so much baggage. We’re troubled people. We have years and generations of trauma, but we all live in this selfish, individualistic manner. It’s very hard to incentivize ourselves and provide an action that is essential and necessary for us to turn the ship around and start moving this planet in the right direction.

CARTER: I just feel it’s like, “How could you not?” I think you have to write about what you know, what you care about and what’s in front of you. I think at the time of Holy Hell, we were completely wrapped up in what happened with losing our friend, and we wrote about that. Then you come out with that part of your life, and you remember things that you were passionate about before you entered this really painful world, that painful place. You come out, and you look around, and you’re like, “Nothing’s changed.” We were talking about all this stuff before. 

We’ve been through these situations, and you’re like, “How can I sleep at night? What can I do? How can I help?” I think writing a record in a way that is just talking about what’s happening makes people listen more. People don’t want to feel like they’re under attack, and it’s not like we’re saying we have all the answers. We’re just saying, “This is pretty fucked up, isn’t it? We all need to pull it together and do something about this because it’s going to end badly.”

What do you hope this album accomplishes in terms of the message the band are trying to get across?

CARTER: I just hope it sparks some conversations within people about the situation of where we’re heading and if they’re comfortable with it. I think we have a responsibility as a band and as individuals that some people look up to. Not everybody, of course, but you have to use that responsibility well. I think you want to be able to try and leave the world in a better place and feel that you did everything you could. I hope we can continue to use our platform for good and also say that we’re not perfect. You don’t need to be perfect to try and help these things—you just have to try. 

SEARLE: I think it’s just for people to ask themselves the question of, “Why am I not doing more? Do I want the planet to die?” I don’t talk about this much because it seems this particular issue is very divisive in a big way, to the point where you can’t really suggest what I’m about to suggest: I believe in climate change, but some people don’t. I think the way to speak to those people is to say, “OK, you don’t believe that we’re affecting the climate.

Do we really want to destroy the oceans to a degree where there’s no longer any life in oceans? Do we want to pollute the air to the point that our children can’t breathe the air outside of their home?” I think that we can come to a common place, and I believe that we can find commonalities among our differences. I hope that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves why we’re not doing more. It’s a simple question. 

For Sam, too, you’re closely involved with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. How did your relationship with them start? Why do you believe they stand out as an organization, as opposed to other environmental groups?

CARTER: We were on a plane going to Australia, and I watched a documentary called Sharkwater, which was about the illegal shark fin trade. I was so horrified at everything that I was seeing. I was already vegan at that point, but then I was like, “Why and how is this happening?” In the documentary, Captain Paul Watson got arrested, and I was just obsessed at that point. I knew they were a nonprofit, so I started thinking about ways that we could do stuff to help them and how we could possibly spread the message. 

From there, we started inviting them to every show we were playing and setting them up next to our merch table, covering their merch fees for them to be there. It moved on from there to putting out an Architects and Sea Shepherd shirt, which raised a bunch of money. It snowballed into everything I could do to raise money, and then they asked me if I would be a U.K. ambassador. 

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That was a super proud day because it just felt like I’d made a difference for them. Sometimes you can feel like you’re banging the same drum, but I have this responsibility. I’ve been speaking to the director [Ali Tabrizi] a lot and speaking to Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd about how we can continue to push this Seaspiracy documentary on people because it’s a really eye-opening one. I feel like it’s not eye-opening just in the sense of seeing what these animals go through but statistically and factually where we’re headed and what we need to do.

Do you think it’s easier for people to ignore climate change, as opposed to other issues given the gradual time frame it’s happening in?

CARTER: I think it’s so much easier, man. I made a tweet one day, and I caught a lot of shit for it, but I just said, “Can we shut the hell up about the Royals?” Everybody’s talking about what Meghan said, what Harry said, who said this and who said that, but can you imagine if we put this much energy into climate change, deforestation or overfishing? If we put this outrage on what one person said or what they didn’t say to like, “Do we want to have a world for children to grow up in and enjoy?” That should be the question on everybody’s lips. 

It’s easy to not see it. You don’t see it, [and] then you think it’s not happening. The same thing with Seaspiracy. So many people don’t watch it because they’re like, “Oh, if I watch it, then I’m not going to eat fish,” and that’s the whole point. You need to see this. This is there to change your life in a good way. You’re not going to watch that film and then be like, “Nah, fuck this. I’m just going to carry on doing what I’m doing.” Ali, [who] made the documentary, he’s not doing it to make money. He’s a young dad, and he wants to leave the world in a better place and go to sleep at night feeling like he’s done something. 

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I think people are so scared, and we’re so used to our little world that we live in. We don’t think anything is ever going to change, but it will. It’s on our fucking doorsteps. We just had two days in Brighton, where I live in England, that have been super hot—people at the beach, people in the sea having the best time. On Monday, it’s going to be snowing. For April to be that hot at this time of year and then for it to be snowing is like freak shit. It’s mad to me that there’s even a debate and that some people don’t believe in it. It’s crazy.

SEARLE: It is easy to ignore, but I also appreciate that a lot of us conduct ourselves in situations—just speaking from my point of view—but my life is just simple domestic stuff. There’s no time for anything else. I have to look after my daughter; I have to cook food; I have to clean my house; I have to work. The simple, obvious things still leave you with very little time in the day to go and save the world. I understand that most people just don’t have the space in their life to make the sacrifice, and for me to do what I need to do, I need to abandon my daughter, but I’m not going to abandon my daughter. 

I have to accept the limitations of what I can do in my situation, but I liken perfection to be the enemy of good. They say if you can’t do anything, do nothing, but I don’t think that’s the case. I do what I can—I can always do more. I can talk about it. I have the platforms to talk about it. I know that when the point comes in my life where I have less responsibility to my family, then maybe I can step it up. 

Seaspiracy and many other documentaries [highlight] the state and corporate giants. These are the people that can make the big moves that will create huge shifts in the way we treat the planet. It doesn’t absolve us on an individual level from action. I think it’s important we all do what we can. Drive less, walk more, do your recycling properly, simple little things. These are all simple gestures, and all of us as individuals need to do them. 

How do you think people get past the idea that they can’t personally do anything to help fix the problem?

CARTER: I think that’s the thing: People need to understand that their efforts are more powerful than they know. I think you vote with your wallet with things like this. If you go into a supermarket and you don’t buy what’s there, that’s a huge move. Eventually, people are going to catch on, and it’s going to create a wave.

It’s these little changes, these little conversations that you have with people, where if you’re not just shouting in somebody’s face and they come [to] ask for an honest piece of advice about it, they are inspired, and they go away and do it. Then they have that conversation with somebody else. These things can make massive changes. They may feel like a drop in the ocean, but it will make a big difference. It will create a tidal wave.

SEARLE: Certainly Western culture has developed into a highly individualistic one. That means that we don’t look at ourselves as a whole—we limit ourselves as an island. I don’t identify as communist or anything like that, but this is the benefit of the ideology. That ideology sees everyone as a whole, so people give up their individual wants and needs for the collective. Obviously, nobody’s worked it out perfectly, but until we see ourselves more as a collective, I think it’s going to be hard for us to understand that those little efforts are working.

The photo shoot for this cover story highlights the “most important number in the world,” with the time frame reflecting the countdown from the climate clock the photos were taken at. Why do you think this number is something people should be paying closer attention to?

CARTER: I think we’re so used to it being in the distance. It almost doesn’t feel like a real thing because it’s easier to think it’s not a real thing. I get that. It’s easier to close your eyes and think somebody else will do it [because] that’s the way we’re programmed as humans. Then when you see something literally with a timer, there’s something that brings it to the forefront. Something that makes you think, “Oh shit, this is real.” 

Now I’m looking at this, and I’m thinking, “Hang on a minute. I haven’t had kids yet. What if I have kids and they’re going to have to live through this? Will there be a place for these kids to live?” It’s an eye-opening thing when you can actually see a timer. It’s like someone’s saying, “Well, we fucking told you this was real, and now you’re going to have to actually see it.”

SEARLE: It’s the start of a domino effect, isn’t it? I suspect as we get closer to that moment, we will see an exponential rise in the attention that it’s getting. Right now, that whole issue and that countdown are all very abstract. Those that believe it feel disempowered, and those that don’t believe it don’t give a fuck. How do you engage these people? 

I think people need to be putting most of the pressure on the state, on corporate interests, and those will be the people that ultimately can make the big changes. With regards to what we’re going to experience with the rising temperature and how that’s going to affect our life, hopefully we will see that gather some momentum. The difficult thing is that if it does, the most disempowered will be the ones that are affected, right? 

Most Western countries won’t be affected, and it’s largely the rich people in Western countries that have the power, right? I think that’s why we need to collectivize and stand up for those people that are in harm’s way, [those] that don’t have a voice in developing countries. Those people are the ones that need to be protected, and they need us to stand up for them to try and ensure that their way of life [and] their homes aren’t destroyed. It will kill a lot of people, and it will displace a lot of people. 

Through the pandemic, bands have been doing livestreams instead of hitting the road, but there’s an obvious environmental effect caused by touring. Do you feel the band will find ways to make your carbon footprint smaller when touring returns?

CARTER: On the last album, every flight we took, you have an option when you book these flights to offset your footprint. It isn’t cheap, but it makes you understand the value of that journey. We don’t just fly around the world willy-nilly. We’re pretty sensible with the way that we route and tour things. I think you just have to take that hit as a musician. If you have the money to do it and you’re going to go and earn money, but you have to use a lot of carbon to go, then you have to pay the world back. I think if you’re spreading the message that we’re spreading, it would be fucking insane to not do that. It would be so mad to push that this is a conversation we need to be having and then just fly around the world all over the place. 

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We’d been thinking about doing it for a long time, but we moved into doing all of our merch through the first phase of lockdown over here—sustainable, organic products where we know where everything’s coming from. It’s so easy to print on a fucking piece of shit T-shirt, put a logo on it, sell it, someone buys it once and then throws it away. That’s so damaging to the environment. The amount of water that goes into making a pair of jeans is fucking nuts. 

SEARLE: We do what we can. We pay carbon offsetting fees. [It’s] a drop in the ocean, but it’s one thing we can do. We have no plastic on our rider. We request that venues don’t have any plastic or they use biodegradable cups and whatnot for the punters, but these are small things. The issue we have is the amount of fuel we’re burning from flying and driving. 

CARTER: It’s all about doing what you can, and you can’t be perfect. Nobody’s perfect. I think you just have to think about whether there’s something that you can do that’s positive because why not? We’ve got all of this time on our hands and moving out of this COVID situation. Is there anything that we’ve learned from it, or are we just going to carry on down that shit route that we’ve been going down?

SEARLE: The world will not stop turning, no matter what we do. The issue is [that] we need to be weaned from the teat of oil. I believe we should minimize our energy consumption, and we need to transition to clean energy. There’s no stopping the consumption, so I believe we should try and individually minimize it. The population continues to grow, but ultimately what we need is to transition to clean energy sources, and my worry is that will only happen when we run out. 

I think there will be people out there making it happen because there are potential huge amounts of money to be made. My hope is that certainly in my lifetime, there will be clean methods of aviation, there will be improved battery technology and we can be getting onboard battery-powered tour buses. It’s one of those things [where] as a band, we’re hyperaware of our own hypocrisy, and this is why we try and do things like printing T-shirts on organic and fair trade and trying not to overprint. You’re still making stuff, and the manufacturing has emissions. It’s basically impossible to be perfect in the world, but we are trying. 

Why do you think it’s important for artists with platforms as large as yours to be active in discussions around topics like climate change?

CARTER: I think of it as you have to understand that it’s cool to care. It’s like with Sea Shepherd, I think that they’re my fucking heroes. I grew up getting hardcore DVDs and talking about being vegan, and these things impacted my life and made me who I am. I think these topics are super important because if you see somebody you like in a band where you respect their music and then you see what they’re about, instantly that makes it cool. 

I think we live in a world where it’s really easy to not give a shit. That’s almost a cool attitude to have, but that whole state of mind is coming from a place of like, “Oh, it’s not going to happen to me. It’s not going to happen to this generation.” It really will, and it’s coming now. It’s important to change that attitude of “I can’t do anything. I’m just a kid. I’m not going to make a difference.” You can. 

I was that kid in school who failed and did fuck all and just wanted to be in a band. Then I got in a band, grew up and learned stuff there. I didn’t learn about climate change in school. The deforestation of the Amazon and the way we treat this planet, I didn’t learn about that in school. I learned about that at hardcore shows. It’s about doing that research for yourself and having these conversations with people and opening your eyes from there. 

SEARLE: You have a platform, and people are paying attention. It’s easy not to use it because it turns people off. We have a lot of fans who are like, “Please don’t talk about this stuff. I don’t believe what you’re saying,” or “This is some liberal bullshit.” For some people, it’s just business, but it’s important to look past that and understand that there’s a responsibility to people that have the platform to use it for good. You encourage positive change and positively influence a younger generation into understanding the situation we’re in. 

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really like doing it. I do because I feel like we should and we have to, but it doesn’t feel comfortable. I often feel on the edge of saying the wrong thing or saying something that is factually incorrect, and I might do that. I have to accept that that is the case, that it’s uncomfortable. I think in the world we live in now, to put yourself out there and have strong opinions, there’s always going to be a gang of people that are going to shoot you down, that call you out. It’s tricky, and you just have to accept that you will take punches for it. 

Read more: FEVER 333’s Jason Aalon Butler knows the world needs more empathy

I strongly believe that I’d really just like to live a quiet life, but I’m doing my small part and doing what I can. I’m trying to be on the right side of history. I think that’s what it boils down to. I’m inspired to talk about this more again and become more active in it because of my daughter, and I care deeply about the world my daughter is going to inherit. Any discomfort I feel talking about this publicly or any criticism that I or any of my bandmates might be on the receiving end of, it’s justified in my eyes because I’m helping build a better world for my daughter.

You can pick up your own copy of issue 393 featuring cover stars Architects right here. 

Exuding a polished and confident sound, you wouldn’t be able to guess the group were originally planned as a one-off side project. They were birthed from progressive metalcore group the Afterimage as a way to try out a heavier sound while building vocalist Kyle Anderson’s idea for a song based on manga series Berserk into a whole band.

Read more: 21 underrated deathcore albums that deserve more credit than they got

Luckily for extreme-metal fans, they took notice of the colossal hype that accompanied their debut release, The Interstice, and forged on with the band as their main focus. Now following up their first full-length, God Hand, Brand Of Sacrifice are showing they still have quite a few tricks up their sleeves with Lifeblood. 

We spoke with Anderson about the new record, their decision to release it independently and what sets them apart from the rest of the deathcore pack.

Lifeblood is the first album Brand Of Sacrifice are releasing independently. How do you think the viral beginnings of the band affected the ability to operate this way successfully?

We saw a lot of growth early on in the band and were able to navigate the industry and figure out what we wanted specifically as a band on the business side. We’ve always created our own artwork, we record ourselves [and] everything is DIY as far as the music goes and the production. We don’t have a manager, so to go fully independent was the next logical step. Thus far, it’s been proven to be fairly successful for us, and we’re really excited about it because we didn’t know what to expect moving forward.

With the new record, touring isn’t really an option, but there’s been plenty of hype around the release. What are your plans for the next couple of years with this new album cycle?

Everybody’s hoping that touring will come back soon, but during the pandemic, it’s a weird opportunity in a sense to release music. I think people are ingesting it in a lot more detail than they normally would going about everyday life. 

How do you feel the band’s sound has refined in the years since God Hand?

Touring helps significantly with that understanding of what riffs worked better, what type of responses you were getting from certain sections or what songs worked better live, then homing in on the tool set we already had and doubling down on the things that were really working. The other main component to this record was we wanted to approach it from a standpoint where even metalcore listeners might be able to gravitate to some things that are going on. It was meant to be that gateway deathcore album.

You have some great guest spots on the record. Why did you want to have collaborations on the album?

We had originally planned to have a few features on God Hand, but with timing, it didn’t pan out. That’s something we wanted to have for this record. We wanted to have a combination of people from the metalcore world and people from the deathcore world as well. 

We have Eric [Vanlerberghe] from I Prevail on the album, and we’ve got Frankie [Palmeri] from Emmure as well. Every single voice on that record is very different. Not only are they different from my style, [but] they’re different as far as tones go and style goes.

There are some really interesting orchestral sounds mixed into your songs. Will this eventually be expanded on in some way, whether it’s clean vocals or more instrumentation?

I think we have plans to try a little bit more of that maybe with some new singles, but it’s important to us to make sure that we don’t alienate our fanbase. The choir aspect of the band and our sound is part of our toolkit now. We tried to expand upon it a little bit more with our song “Lifeblood.” It’s even in our single “Animal” as well. We may try some pitches in choruses, but there’ll be accompanying screams as well to go with it.

Being at the forefront of the recent deathcore resurgence, what did you want to do differently from the Afterimage?

[Brand Of Sacrifice] were supposed to be just a side project for fun about my favorite manga called Berserk. It wasn’t supposed to be much of anything other than a quick EP of something ridiculously heavy and me trying to adapt more brutal vocals since I was primarily doing singing vocals and mid-screams in the Afterimage. I didn’t expect this to happen because at that point, I was almost throwing in the towel with music. I was already pretty deep into a career in the insurance industry, but I had a longing to create some heavy music.

If you had to choose one of your new songs to introduce someone to your band, which would you choose and why?

“Animal” would be a good pick because it’s still got a lot of deathcore flair, but it’s basically a metalcore song. I think the average metal listener could be able to understand what’s happening within that and maybe want to listen to heavier deathcore music as a result of that.

What are your plans for the next couple of years with this new album cycle?

After Lifeblood, we’re going to start focusing on doing a slew of singles, which will eventually tie into an EP. I think we’re going to focus on telling a story with music videos as well. We’re going to tie them all in together. Not to give too much away, but I think that’s the next step. Hopefully by that point, the show will go on again, and we’ll be able to get back on the road.

The full interview is featured in Alternative Press’ 100 Artists You Need To Know, which is available here.

Iconic monsters and villains such as Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster or the Wolf Man were truly scary at one point in time. Reflecting on the films that created these characters gives a look into what society’s fears were at the time. 

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Below are 10 horror movies made before the ’70s that you should watch if you’re a dedicated horror fan. 

Frankenstein (1931)

Most people consider this to be the first Frankenstein film. Although there’s a silent short film version that came before this, the 1931 version is the best telling of Mary Shelley’s classic novel. The film feels like a slow burn, but as you get toward the end where Frankenstein’s monster tosses a girl in a river and is chased by the townspeople, it’s got tons of action to make it worthwhile.  

Nosferatu (1922)

The beginning of vampire lore begins with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but in the film world, it began with Nosferatu. The film had to alter some things about the novel due to the Stoker Estate refusing permission for the adaptation, but nevertheless, Nosferatu kicked off this subgenre in horror filmography. Twilight fans should take note and learn what led to the possibility of vampire romance stories to be told.

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1913)

The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a classic one. While there are plenty of versions of the story you can watch on film, the 1913 version stands out as it’s the only one where an antidote for his dilemma is almost discovered. The movie is twisted and disturbing despite the fact that the filmmakers didn’t have the technology in the early 1900s to make amazing visual effects like they do today.

Freaks (1932)

If you’ve ever heard someone chanting “One of us!” over and over again, you’ve probably not questioned it much and understood it to be a reference to joining a group of sorts. Well, the origins of that phrase come from 1932’s Freaks, which is about a group of circus sideshow performers. While it was originally banned for “exploiting” disabled people who acted in the film, it’s viewed today in a much more positive light. 

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920) 

One of the all-time greatest psychological thrillers, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari focused on an insane hypnotist who uses his expertise to carry out murders. The film’s twist ending that reveals it was all the delusions of a madman led to a new subsection of psychological horror films and helped give recognition to Germany within filmmaking at the time. 

Psycho (1960)

Everyone knows the music from the shower scene in Psycho, but not as many people have actually seen the movie. It’s viewed as one of the greatest movies ever created and pushed the boundaries of what kinds of violence and sexuality could be portrayed in film. Plus, it essentially started the slasher genre. 

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

The original zombie movie, Night Of The Living Dead is George A. Romero’s first film in his long-running collection of zombie films. Sure, it’s a lot cornier to watch than Dawn Of The Dead or Day Of The Dead, but seeing where zombies really joined the cinematic realm is a must-see. 

The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

Horror movies feed on what people fear at a given time. While we may not think of mummies as scary anymore, they were in the 1940s. The Mummy’s Hand isn’t the original birth of the mummy monster, but it’s the most well-known and spawned a ton of sequels.

The Wolf Man (1941)

Similar to The Mummy’s Hand, werewolves are a fantastic example of a Hollywood horror character that used to be truly terrifying. The Wolf Man horrified audiences when it came out and shows all of the classic tropes of the character. It became more successful than the first mainstream werewolf film, Werewolf Of London, which was regarded as too similar to Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde at the time it was released. 

The Body Snatcher (1945)

If you’re a true horror fan and don’t know who Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are, well, you don’t know enough about the history of the genre. The duo’s final film together, The Body Snatcher, is easily one of their best and most shocking. It involved a whole lot of grave robbing, murder and attempts at experimentation on bodies, which are still horrific to watch today.