Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Flesh And Blood With JOSH MIDDLETON From SYLOSIS

Transcript

Flesh And Blood With JOSH MIDDLETON From SYLOSIS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm Josh I sing and play guitar and Silosis.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We've been a band for twenty five years and we're
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: on our seventh record now, but to come out twenty
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to February.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Fantasty mate. Thanks for joving us tonight.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me my pleasures.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: As you say, Rose, Silosis to release your seventh studio album,
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: The Nude Flesh on February the twentieth.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: So how do you feel about it?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Great, very excited for it to come out, very
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: excited for people to hear it. Yeah. I mean, I'm
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: just really just enjoying writing music at the moment, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's our most enjoyable, like fun album. Even
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: though it's like super angry and heavy, it just takes
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: me back to being a kid and just discovering like
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: heavy music. That's kind of the aim for this.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So could you drive into that a bit deeper, bro, Like,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: what were you going for musically this time around?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean we kind of touched upon on the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: last record, but and we made a small documentary to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: try and shine a light on it. But essentially it's
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: about going back to the roots of the band when
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: we first started because we didn't release our first full
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: length record until eight years after we started the band.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: But when we started the band, we just wanted to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: be super heavy. We were listening to a lot of
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: death metal, but also a lot of like nineties groove metal,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: like early machine Head and Terra Sepultura. Then we were
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: coming off the back of the New metal era, so
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: there's a lot more of our early influences coming through,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and we deliberately made that documentary to like talk about that,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: because every now and then, I think some of our
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: fans are like, oh, they're going met recre and they're
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: going on modern and they're leaving the sound behind. It's like, well,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: this is actually us going back to what got us
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: into heavy music. I can reference any song, any even
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: anything melodic or any riff to like the influencers we
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: had back then. I mean even a song like Adorn
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: my Throne, which is quite a melodic song that's just
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: kind of pure type O negative worship from me because
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I love that band, and I'll say it in another interview.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I can kind of pinpoint all the influencers on this
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: record to one VHS tape I had as a kid,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: because I never had MTV or anything, and I got
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the only way for me to see these bands I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: would read about in karrang was I found this road
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Runner Records drilling the vein VHS tape compilation. So it
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: was fear factory replica, Take My Scars by machine Head
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: had sepulture, habituary TYPEO negative. I mean, that's it, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: groove metal, death metal, that's all the influences I think
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in that new stuff coming through a bit more. I
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: mean to say that I definitely love you earlier records
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: in the thrashy sound and the melodic type of riffing,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and that's not something I want to leave in the past.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But I wanted to kind of bring back where our
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: heads were as kids, because we would even look to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: like a lot of the really extreme stuff on relapsed
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: records or even bands like DILLANDERR. Escape Plan for just
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: how obnoxious and heavy it was and how abrasive it
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: was live. So even like, we've got a new song
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: that we're playing on this tour called All Glory Novalad,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: which I think is the heaviest song we've done. It
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: doesn't sound like DIMANDERR. Escape Plan, but it's it's got
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: like disgusting, screeching samples of like metal being scraped together throughout,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: just like the verses, just to make it sound like
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: horrible and as nasty as we can, just because like
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that really excited us as kids, like just that feeling
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: of oh my god, this is so heavy. It's obnoxiously heavy,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: and I pride ourselves on getting heavier and heavier, but
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it's all going back to our past.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right? Was that an easy thing to do?
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: But bands, like you're always trying to move forward musically,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: so it actually step back.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Was it a difficult ajustament?
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: No? I mean I have such fond memories and vivid
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: memories of either discovering bands or when we first started.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I've even got the demos from when we were you know,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: kids in school and the stuff we were trying to write,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: because this it feels new and fresh to us, because
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: this is what we would have been writing if we
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: were able to because kids, but we weren't technically that
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: good at playing. We didn't know anything about songwriting. We
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: don't have the means to record ourselves properly, so this
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is almost like making up for what we couldn't do
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: as kids. And like if silosis could have if we
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: were the age we are now, back in the year
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: two thousand. This is what the music would sound like essentially, so,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: but it feels modern, Like we're definitely not trying to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: just live in the past completely, and I think we're
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you know, the productions still holds up against modern production,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: but I think there's still a lot of life in there.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I know you probably didn't write the press release ray,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: but there's a line in there that caused your best
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: album yet, Like, would you.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Agree, Yeah, I mean maybe I did say that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I mean I was trying to get you off the book.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Then I didn't write the press release though, that was
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: written by Dom Lawson, who's quite a big name in
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the metal press over here. K Yeah, in the UK.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I'm in Germany currently.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: As a musician, bright, Like, do you put that much
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: thought into like whether or not an album compares to
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: something you've done in the past, or you've sort of
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: more like to live in the president.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Just take it as it's coming out.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: No, I'll reference things now and then. I want to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: make sure I always want to keep one footing out
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the sound that we established on our first two full
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: length records. Conclusion of an Asian edge of the Earth.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: There's always going to be elements of that, you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: type of griffing or silos or some of the guitar
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: stuff and the melodic side of things. I don't want
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: to lose or leave that behind. But yeah, I mean
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: it's I think more just in terms of the level
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: of quality and attention to detailing the music. I just
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: don't want it to be bad. So stylistically things might
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: you know, we might try different things out on different records,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: but the most important thing is just make the best
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: possible music.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: One thing that really stood out to me bro like
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: you're talking about the melodic side of it too, But
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: there are a lot a lot of albums these days
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: like the melodics feel a bit forced, you know, they
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: sort of disrupt the song.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: But with yours that it actually enhances music.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Like it is it hard to integrate that sort of
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: styles to get.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: It comes quite naturally some times. For us, We've always
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: had quite a lot of melodicism to our music, and
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I'd say that this is probably less melodic on the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: whole in terms of like the type of ripping, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: we're trying to just be as heavy and ob noxious
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: as we can with our music. Yeah, I mean, but
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: there is a lot of you know, cliche melodic stuff
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in metal. Not that people are necessarily trying to sell
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: out or anything. I just think maybe they don't have
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a good reference point of good songwriting. I pride myself
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: on having quite a good upbringing thanks to my parents
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: listening to the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Crowded House, like,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: just good songwriting when I was a kid, and I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: think having a good understanding of melody and chord structures
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff that I think it was just
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the amount of music I absorbed as a child maybe
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: helped with that. Because a lot of metal bands, if
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: they just listened to metal and you're just going for
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the same sort of melodic stuff that metal bands do,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it's quite repetitive. So I was trying to bring core
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: progressions or melodies in that. I try not to be,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you know, just the same thing that everyone else does.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Your life album before this like a side of things
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: to come as well receive universally. Bro Like, I know
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: you guys have got the runners on the board, but
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: even at this stage of your career, there's a way
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: to public expectation create as you pressure following an album
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: there was so successful.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm a lot of the pressure is
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: just self imposed. We kind of put it on ourselves.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I thought of Sign of Things to Come was our
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: best record, and then going into the studio doing the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: new one, I'd listened back to it some of that, like, no,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: this is way better. We've learned a lot since then.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Along those lines there bro like was it tending to
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: almost rehash that album because you know that that formula worked,
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: or was it important for you to move forward?
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, in some ways, I guess you could argue
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that we are rehashing the formula, and I don't think
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a lot has changed stylistically per se. I think we're
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: just trying to get better at what we do. And also,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't say there was a formula to
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: that record. Our influence is still quite diverse, you know.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I pulled from a lot of early death metal stuff
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: like Morbid Angel, Dear Side, where it's death metal with
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the riffs are still quite catchy to like Sepultura and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: groove Metal machine Head, or some of the thrash stuff
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and Metallica, or even bands like Terror, who's like a
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: hardcore band but it's still quite thrashy, and then all
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the melodic stuff that we do so or even like
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: this and some things to come in particularly, there's a
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: lot of sort of nods to new metal as well,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: because that's what introduced the metals. So if you listen
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to a song like Eye for an Eye, that's quite
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: sort of there's a lot of elements, like some of
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the guitar overdubs like the chorus are quite new metal sounding.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: So I don't think stylistically the new records in a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: completely different world. I just think it's better and just heavier. Again,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: we just try to make it even heavier this time.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: I love the album covered Tube like it's it's striking
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: with lots of vivid color in it, Like what was
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: what was the thought process behind putting out something like that?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: So we actually came up with the idea of the colors. First,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it was like, it has to be red, blue, black
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and white. It has to be that color part. That's
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: just how the songs looking. And then the artist that
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: we use, Snakehead, who did a sign of Things to Come,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: he pitched us a bunch of different ideas and I'd
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: send him some references from a few movies, like basically,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: he I think I wanted there to be a water
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: element or a liquid element too, and I send maybe
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a picture. Is it like the Baron from Dune who's
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: like submerged in this pit of tar or something and
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: he comes out of it, and maybe some shots from
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Blade Runner twenty forty nine, But yeah, he kind of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: came up with the concept. So it's essentially like a
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: stone statue revealing a new face, new flesh, just like
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: emerging from water. I guess it's so cool.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: This another line India press release was a quote from
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: you actually where you said that you are under more
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: of a time constraint with this album, Like what did you.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Mean by that? And then how did it benefit the album?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we always like to we don't rush writing,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: so we're always writing at all times and want to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: have the best songs we can put as much effort
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: into them, like leave no stone unturned and really make
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the songs just good as we can. But we had
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: this tour that we're on currently booked way ahead of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: finishing the album. We had a bit of a time
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: constraint for getting the album out, getting in the studio
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to make it happen for this tour. So we booked
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the studio without we had all the songs finished, when
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: we had about fourteen to fifteen songs, but it was
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the last three two or three weeks before getting in
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the studio that over half the album. All the songs
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: just got rewritten at the last minute or not rewritten.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: But for example, the first rap Beneath the Surface, there's
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: just just big build up into like this sort of
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: like Stadium Metallica kind of groove riff, and it's like
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a really big moment in the song that didn't exist
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: three weeks before getting in the studio. There was some
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: riffs there that were quite cool. I really liked the riffs,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: but they just sort of didn't elevate the song in
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: any way. And so that sort of thing happened in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: various other songs, and then a song everywhere at once
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: essentially got a complete rewrite, like I kept maybe one
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of the core progressions, and it sounds nothing like it
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: did before that. So if the pressure forced us to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: be like, what is going to be the best song here?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: How can this song be even better? And it was
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: really beneficial, But I still don't like the idea of
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: doing it again, and I want to know. I want
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: to know that we booked the studio and everything's perfect.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: It made the album better than it could have been,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I think, but it's a bit daunting on that pressure.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Damn well, thanks pretty much for time Brod being a
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: pleasure to speaking with you. The New Pleasure is out
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Februy the twentieth. Then, I sainly before May just bored
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: me completely. It's a fuck a brilliant album, man, so
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: best of luck with it.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you very much.