On January 21st, I had the pleasure of talking with Sirens & Sailors before their show at the Orpheum in Ybor City. We talked about their new album “Skeletons,” where they acquired their inspiration, guest appearances, and their favorite releases of 2013. Right now Sirens & Sailors are on tour in support of their new album along side Shai Hulud, Sworn In, and This Or The Apocalypse. Be sure to check out for any tour dates near you.
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Q – Your latest full length release “Skeletons” has been out for almost 3 months now, how has the reception been?
Kyle – it’s been phenomenal, it’s been nothing but growth for us. It’s definitely been our biggest release yet. And it’s interesting to see where’s it’s going, it hasn’t been out for very long, so we still have some time to tour on it and promote it and spread the word about it but overall its been a great reception. I’m really happy that people enjoy it.
What are the lyrical themes for “Skeletons” ?
Kyle – Well it ranges everywhere from love to hate. So there’s a lot of lyrics I relate to my actual life like most singers do but I cover it up usually with stories or characters I guess so to speak, so you’ll have to listen to it and hopefully you can relate it to you own life as well.
You released the music video for “Straightjacket” back on Halloween. How was it shooting the video, and what was the idea behind it?
Kyle – Just to make it look as mental as possible.
Doug – It was a lot of fun! I got to play a couple of different roles, I was a scary doctor and also I was in this really tight black suit with a white mask on the back of my head, it was a lot of fun we all got separate parts it was one of the first music videos that we shot that I felt included the band to it’s full potential as far as weird and crazy we can be especially behind the camera.
(Kyle Bihrle) You recent did guest vocals on Arcane Haven’s song “The Waters”, how did it come about for you being on the song?
Kyle – We actually had met those guys through our friends in Affiance at a show with them in Pittsburg and we were recording for our CD “Skeletons” and they happened to be working with Ricky from This Or The Apocalypse who also sometimes would come into our studio to do some recording work, so they were coming into the studio and they hit me up and asked if I’d like to be featured on a song and I said yes because they’re really nice guys and the song turned out great and we actually just played with them in Pittsburg on this tour and I went up and did my guest vocal spot on that song for the first time with them, it was a blast.
What are some of your influences and how are those influences portrayed on your album? I was listening to it and I could detect some metalcore, black metal, death metal, some “djenty” parts if you will, where did all your styles come from and what’s your main inspiration?
Kyle – We all have different inspirations from different areas of music whether it’s metal or not, pop music too, maybe the pop doesn’t show as much as the metal does, but we definitely touch base on a lot of different genres of metal so to speak. A lot of people were all like “oh you’re turning into a djent band now” but if you listen to the whole album, that’s only in a couple of songs and it’s minor, we only touch base in a very small way that we djent, but yeah we just generalize ourselves as metal and whatever you want to break it down to, that’s up to you, but we just write the music that we want to play.
Doug – And we don’t necessarily have anything in mind we just play whatever feels right and what’s flowing out of our being at the time like there’s certain songs with like a southern flair and there are other songs that like you said that have a death metal feel which usually isn’t things we like to put together in a song themselves but it’s just things that we like to listen to and things we like to play as much so we add them in as much as we can.
Jim – Yeah it ranges anywhere from As I Lay Dying to The Black Dahlia Murder.
Doug – Memphis May Fire a little bit just a lot of metal bands, we’re not trying to mold ourselves to anyone.
James(Interviewer) – Well yeah because ultimately it’s Sirens & Sailors and not anyone else.
Kyle) – Yeah you got it.
Doug – If you look on the CD it says for fans of Parkway Drive, The Color Morale and Chelsea Grin and I don’t think you can get three different sounding bands within the metal genre, which is kinda cool I guess.
Kyle – We just have a widespread amount of influences and it shows within our music.
What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended that you didn’t play?
Kyle – There’s a lot of them, any Blink 182 concert I’ve ever been to, any AC/DC I got to see and knock off my bucket list, any Every Time I Die show I’ve ever been to, we grew up an hour away from them so I used to go their shows from basically since they released “Hot Damn” I’ve been going to their shows, that’s when I found out about them. Those are some of my favorite shows I’ve ever been to.
Stephen – I went to Toronto a few years ago to see Underoath and that was probably the most fun show I’ve ever been to, years before Aaron quit, it was their original line up and it was just awesome.
Doug – The Blink show I went to back in 2011 was mind blowing and probably Rob Zombie.
(Whole band) – Oh yeah!
Doug – That was probably one of the most fun shows I’ve ever been to, it was Rockstar Mayhem and our manager was doing merch for Born Of Osiris so we all went right into the pit and it was just a blast, it was a lot of fun.
Jim – Getting to see The Black Dahlia Murder was awesome and then definitely Pantera, I got to see them before Dime got shot and yeah it was amazing.
Todd – I can’t let Doug go before me because I was going to say Rob Zombie and Blink 182 and their concert with New Found Glory in 2003 I believe. I couldn’t stop smiling like a little girl about that night.
Doug – You were going to say Rob Zombie too? Yeah the whole theatrics and production of the show was just so awesome. Big props just wild there was like three semi trucks just full of his stuff and there was fire, it was crazy.
Favorite music releases from the past year?
Kyle – Some of us will agree on some and some of us won’t we have different choices, but a band called In Heart’s Wake they have a CD called “Divination”, The Contortionist, and these aren’t necessarily out this year but maybe more so that I started listening to them this year, Confession from Australia, The 1975 too there’s just a bunch of music.
Doug – The 1975 all day, The Story So Far, they’re great I like their previous record too and I’m also going to with In Heart’s Wake as well and Thy Art Is Murder, that’s really what I’ve been playing lately.
Jim – I have to say that Bad Rabbit’s new album is absolutely amazing and Thy Art Is Murder as well.
Todd – As far as Metal goes I love Memphis May Fire, I love the new album I think it’s great.
