I got a chance to talk to Spanish metalcore outfit, Left In The Wake, which features an English vocalist. In the interview we talk to Damon, their vocalist, about his move to Spain, their influences, their stance on crowd funding, and so much more. Honestly, I have so much respect for these guys after this interview. I’ll post their music video below:
So you guys released an amazing album, The Banner We Follow, in March of this past year. Where did the album title come from?
The name came from the Title track, we wrote it quite a while ago and it seemed to have all the components to be a single, the lyrics were about how I was feeling after living abroad and seeing all my friends moving on with their lives and changing as people as well as my ever growing separation from the British culture. The basis around the Album and the title track was to say “fuck it, we’re doing things our way and if you don’t like us then don’t listen to us” ha ha.
How has the reaction been in Spain? Do you guys have a large fan base over there?
Yeah so far it’s been really good, we’ve been able to gig fairly frequently and with some really good turnouts, fan base wise I wouldn’t say we have “fans” we have people that like our music and the band but it’s hard going in Spain to get well known, I’ll give you an example, Spain’s biggest Hardcore / metal bands in the scene are arguably “Thirteen bled Promises” and “Dawn of the Maya”, they get up to 40,000 plus hits on their videos but only have 6/7000 likes on Facebook… I know that’s not everything but we live in an age where those stupid thumbs ups determine whether a label picks you up or not, or whether a festival invites you to play. In Spain, people seem more reluctant to show love for local bands than for overseas bands and that’s why the scene thrives over there and dies over here.
Which song means the most to you off of this new album?
For me personally the are 2, Dearly deported and Unscathed, Dearly deported is about my live living abroad and how it slowly separates you from friends and family in more ways than just the distance. It makes you more reclusive because, what’s the point in being close to someone when they end up leaving after a year or two. I know that’s not how it always is, but I have gone through a lot of heartache over it and it was my way of showing how I felt. Unscathed is fairly obvious and we play a slightly different version of it live that’s longer, sadder and more epic… but I think the lyrics speak for themselves.
Can you explain the title to track 5? Amazing track by the way!
Ha ha yeah, it’s an interlude that connects “Insubordinate” to “Declaration”, the tuning between the two songs is the same so it’s easy to use live when transitioning and it gives me a break to breathe and drink. The two above mentioned songs are anti-government and pro-action so we named the track
“– ..- – .. -. -.–“ which is Morse code. I won’t say what it means, but it just fits and we wanted it to be a little Easter egg for the listener.
(Exclusive – the track name on the CD reads backwards on the track listings, that wasn’t planned…)
Which bands influence you as a vocalist and which bands influence you as a band?
As a vocalist I’m always looking to change my style, depending on the track sound, I used to do a lot lower stuff but nowadays I go for a higher pitch voice because it matches the music a bit better, I like Wes’ voice from “Give up the Ghost”… I’m not good with vocalist names but the guy from Hundredth, the Guy from CBK has an amazing voice… I guess I like punk / hardcore voices.
the guys all listen to a load of different stuff from funk, jazz and blues to death metal, and indy, they all play in other bands too, but the only influences we can all decide on are Pink Floyd, Radiohead and dream theatre… bands we currently listen to I wouldn’t consider influences as they’ve only been around a few years.
Some metal bands we really like: Counterparts, misery signals, Saints never surrender, The Faceless, Hundredth, defeater, Close your eyes, Climates…. Etc etc
Crowd funding sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter are being used more and more frequently by local and signed bands. What is your opinion of this? Would you consider doing the same?
Ummmm probably not, we don’t really like hassling people with our dreams, if people want to help, they buy a CD or a shirt or donate some money after downloading the free album. We recently put ourselves forward for a festival called “Resurrection fest” it was all based on votes and publishing loads of voting events and sending messages to fans to obtain more votes. We posted one picture and left it as that, we didn’t want to be the sort of band that annoy people with that stuff. I think it’s a pride thing and we want to be chosen for those types of events because people want us to play.
Do you guys plan on touring to promote the new album?
We’re coming to the end of our national promo tour where we have been going away every weekend to play 2 – 3 shows then coming back, we’re playing in the UK in August where we start in Manchester and finish on the south coast, we have 2 dates to confirm and we’re done (if anyone wants us to play their town / city get in contact)
we’re looking to head to Germany, France and Belgium too but we need to buy the van first and start putting money into new merch, it’s an expensive hobby this…
If you could tour with any two bands in the world, who would they be?
Difficult, Counterparts because I think it would be a good mix, and maybe Landscapes because they’re English and have a gloomy sound similar to our own…
but for rock star sake, I’d go on tour with Iron Maiden and Motorhead, that would be an eye opener.
Thank you guys for taking the time to answer our questions! Do you have anything else you’d like to say?
No worries, nothing else other than we hope you like the album, check us out if we’re playing near you, our album is free from the following links so get on it!
Keep it posi
LITW
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTGSPadZ0BE
Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/LeftInTheWake
Bandcamp – https://leftinthewakehc.bandcamp.com/
Free Download – http://www.mediafire.com/download/6my79ni17k9zaap
