Interview with Horrendous done by Patrick posted on 1-30-19

Interview with Horrendous done by Patrick

1.Hello how are things going with you this week? Please introduce yourself to the readers?

Not too bad, although it has been cold as hell in the Northeastern US the last few days so I’ve been trying to keep warm. My name is Jamie, I play drums in Horrendous.

2.Horrendous was formed in 2009 what gave you all the idea to start the band? What is the current line up of Horrendous?

Damian, Matt, and I have been playing in bands since we were in middle school. Matt and I are brothers, so we had played in a few projects before Horrendous. I met Damian on the first day of freshman year in college and Matt joined us there a few years later. Matt and I started playing music again (we were itching to start again after a long lull) and invited Damian to come to our practice space since we knew he had some similar musical interests, and things took off from there. Horrendous now has a fourth member, Alex Kulick, who first played bass live for us in April 2016. He gelled well with the rest of us musically, and he ended up joining and helping to write our recent album Idol. I should add that Matt and Damian both play guitar and do vocals, and they used to share bass playing duty on our past albums before Alex joined.

3.How do you feel the bands music has changed over the years? And who would you say are Horrendous biggest influences?

I’d say that we started as most bands do - trying to learn how to play with one another and gradually developing one’s specific sound starting from familiar musical places. In my mind, our early material was a melting pot of our separate influences - Damian was very into obscure old school death metal at the time, and Matt and I came from a background filled with punk and also a lot of thrash and traditional heavy metal. He and I listened to some death metal too (e.g. Death), but we weren’t neck deep in the genre like Damian was. As we became more comfortable playing together, we also began to let ourselves explore new musical territory. I think most people would say Ecdysis is where we really started to branch out, and we’ve continued to do so more and more with time. We’ve reached a point where we are not worried about how “metal” a riff might be and are very interested in experimenting with new ideas and challenging ourselves as songwriters and players. Between the four of us, our musical interests are incredibly vast, and while we love metal, we also are deeply invested in a number of other genres. I think it would be pretty tough to give specific influences in terms of bands for Horrendous, but we’re very influenced by music that tries to explore uncharted territories and push boundaries, while still living and breathing the classics that we grew up on.

4.Idol is the bands fourth full length how long did it take the band to write the music for the new release? And how long does it usually take to complete one song?

The writing process for Idol was very long - I’d say it stretched close to a year and wasn’t truly finished until the record was done since we add a lot of intricacies and flourishes during recording. The recording process itself also lasted for nearly a year - it was done on weekends and dragged on for what felt like forever. The creation of Idol was a grueling process. Different songs take different amounts of time to finish, but all of our songs are gradually built over extended periods of time as we add and subtract until we reach a final product that we feel is complete. We are very critical, so the production of new material is an extended process for us.

5.Who usually handles writing the lyrics for the music and what are some subjects written about on Idol? Which comes first the music or the lyrics?

Historically we’ve all handled lyric writing, but on Idol Matt completed the lion’s share, with Damian and I each contributing one song. Idol covers a lot of ground but the topics tend to focus upon the idols within our lives to which we relinquish our agency. The lyrics were written during very stressful times for the band, with the rise of demagogues and growing acceptance of hate in the Western world, anxiety and self-doubt derived from our different vocations, and even the stress associated with the production of Idol. These different forces were exacting negative influence on us, and the lyrics reflect upon and examine this phenomenon.

6.Besides the Idol release are the bands previous releases still availible for the readers to buy? Besides physical releases does the band have any other merchandise currently availible? If yes what is availible and where can the readers buy it?

Yes of course, all of our previous material is available via the band. We have most releases up for sale on our Bandcamp page on CD or vinyl format, along with patches and a number of shirt designs from the last few years. It can all be found at horrendous.bandcamp.com.

7.Has the band ever made a music video for any of the bands songs? If you had the opportunity to do a video for any of the songs off of the new release which song would you like to see made into a video?

We have never done a music video. From Idol, I think I’d probably like to do a video of Prescience and Soothsayer together - I can envision some cool imagery that could follow from the atmospheric introduction into the explosive, intense riffing of Soothsayer. I’m not sure if we’ll ever do a true music video though - I think it is often tough to capture the feeling of the music in visuals unless one has a massive budget. I’m picturing Behemoth music videos as succeeding in this aspect, for example.

8.Does Horrendous play live very often or do you prefer working in the studio? What have been some of the bands most memorable shows over the years?And who have been some of your most favorite bands to share the stage with?

Our live presence ebbs and flows. We’ve done two significant tours - one in 2016 with Tribulation and one in 2017 with Kreator, Obituary, and Midnight, and we’ve done some short tours as well like our recent album release tour with Tomb Mold and Daeva. Aside from these, we often do one-off performances. I’d say in general, we like both live and studio settings - they’re very different and require different types of effort. I think the Tribulation tour was generally our most memorable collection of live events - this was our introduction to life on the road and it allowed us to play in places we had never been before, all the while learning how to perform by watching Tribulation each night. The Kreator tour also had some insane sold out shows that we’ll never forget - that energy is hard to top. Off the top of my head, Tribulation, Midnight, and Tomb Mold have been our favorite bands to share the stage with, as they are all great bands but also wonderful people.

9.Are their any shows or tours planned for 2019 if yes where will the band be playing?

We have a short US West Coast tour coming up in April with Of Feather and Bone in further support of Idol, and we are currently talking about setting up subsequent tours for later in the year. We also have our first European show scheduled for Graveland Fest in the Netherlands in May of this year - we are beyond excited to finally make it to Europe, even though it will be brief.

10.Do you or any of the members currently work with any other bands or solo projects?

Alex was playing in a number of other bands until recently, including Mob Terror and a free jazz project called Sirius Juju. He is always finding new people to play with, and I’m sure he’ll get into some new stuff soon. Matt and I have a few other music projects in the early stages, one of which is a punk band called Pissboys - our first EP is up on bandcamp now. Matt also played bass for Crypt Sermon for a while, although he is no longer playing with them. Damian keeps busy with mixing and mastering a plethora of metal acts in his studio called Subterranean Watchtower, so he doesn’t have much time to play in other bands, haha.

11.When you need to take a break from writing new music or band business what do you like to do in your free time?

Honestly, Matt, Alex and I all spend a lot of time with other music outlets and generally trying to continue our personal musical explorations - I mentioned some of the other bands we played or currently play in. I’ve been trying to get back into practicing guitar and I’m interested in challenging myself to write songs outside of the realm of metal. The three of us live in Philly, so we also spend a lot of time together outside the band and with other friends hanging out, listening to music, going to shows, etc. I’d say reading and writing are also significant interests, particularly for Matt and Alex. Damian does spend a ton of what would be his free time mixing, but he’s also very interested in weight lifting and working out.

12.Thank you for taking the time to fill this interview out do you have any final comments for the readers?

Thanks to you for the interview and thanks to anyone interested enough to read this. Hope to see you out on the road, wherever that may be!

                                                      Band  Contacts
                                              https://horrendous.bandcamp.com/
                                              https://www.facebook.com/HorrendousDeathMetal