Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / Capsize Return — Daniel Wand on the New EP Under a Hollow Sky

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Capsize Return — Daniel Wand on the New EP Under a Hollow Sky · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  The EP as it is wasn't a conversation until the label
• 0:05
  kind of brought the opportunity directly to the table.
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  Prior to that, like you know, we had only only been recording 2
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  songs at a time for quite some time just for the sake of it.
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  We're coming out of pocket and it's just more of like a hobby,
• 0:16
  like giving back for the fact that that we still have like
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  such a cool audience. It wasn't an ongoing plan, but
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  as soon as it got brought to the table, a plan got put into place
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  like right then and there and we got straight to it.
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  Like from the time that we agreed to do it, we were already
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  in the studio and like less in two weeks.
• 0:37
  What's up everybody, It's Kefi from ghostcultmag.com.
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  I am happy to be joined today by Daniel Map Size.
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  How you doing? Man, I'm great man.
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  Thank you for having me. Yeah, of course.
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  Congratulations on your upcoming new EP.
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  So much to unpack and talk about it.
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  But you know, First things first.
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  First, these series of singles have kind of preceded this new
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  release and first, you know, new real hefty release in 10 years.
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  So a lot has happened, but I felt like musically this was
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  like a really cool call back to like a combination of all the
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  kind of things the band is encompassed.
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  I hear some of the earliest stuff there.
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  I hear like new things, some of the catchiest stuff you've ever
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  done, some of the heaviest. Like I think Ember has the most
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  heaviest breakdown ever from the band.
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  But like so many cool things to talk about.
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  But like, you know, it took a few years.
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  Was was the EP my question? There's a question here, I
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  promise. Was the EP kind of always a plan
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  in the future? Because like, we've had kind of
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  this like nice drip out of singles for a few years.
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  Sure. So like we'll end up routing
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  back into this but but no, I mean the the EP as it is wasn't
• 1:47
  a conversation until the label kind of brought the opportunity
• 1:51
  directly to the table. Prior to that, like, you know,
• 1:53
  we had only been recording 2 songs at a time for quite some
• 1:57
  time just for the sake of it. We're coming out of pocket and
• 1:59
  it's just more of like a hobby be like giving back for the fact
• 2:03
  that that we still have like such a cool audience.
• 2:05
  It wasn't an ongoing plan, but as soon as it got brought to the
• 2:08
  table, a plan got put into place like right then and there and we
• 2:10
  got straight to it. Like from the time that we
• 2:12
  agreed to do it, we were already in the studio in like less than
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  two weeks. That is wild.
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  Technology's crazy. Remember, we used to take like
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  months and months to write and record a record, and now you can
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  just kind of come straight from the heart with a high quality
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  product if you know what you're doing or you have great
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  collaborators. It is wild.
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  For sure, yeah. Now, like I feel lucky to have
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  like kind of grown up to be the first, you know, age demographic
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  of people that have been able to actually, you know, make real
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  progress recording from their bedroom.
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  You know, for anyone that was doing it, you know, before the
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  era that our band started in, like it was.
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  Yeah, it was a lot harder to, you know, have anything even
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  remotely listenable like out of your bedroom.
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  And. And now you know you can.
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  Damn, you have your finished product.
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  Right. And I know that a lot of people
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  are kind of like also sort of self-made producers or they have
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  a sound in their mind. Then there's a, there's an
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  artistry about that that I fully respect.
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  I also have the experience where I'd spent like a year making a
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  record and I spent like a few months making bedroom records
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  and recording vocals in a clothes closet with like a bunch
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  of suits and ties around me. So like in my monkey suit days.
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  So I totally respect it. And I've talked to a few other
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  artists who also, you know, on that same path, like the
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  freedom, there's a freedom now financially, but also
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  creatively, it allows you new choices you might not have made
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  before. So that's really cool.
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  And you know, obviously this, you know, the under a hollow
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  sky, it's, it's a, it's a comeback of sorts, right?
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  So Ruin, Ruin records is putting this out.
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  And I, I checked them out. I wasn't too familiar with them,
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  but I know they have the Bunny and the bear, right?
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  And they they seem like they're doing really cool things like,
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  you know, cultivating type things that we don't see anymore
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  because the old music industry is kind of changing and fading
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  out, right? And there's this new thing where
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  like you really just need distribution and a means to make
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  and put out records. And so it was cool to like delve
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  into them a little. But tell me, how did that, how
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  did you got, you know, your last record was out on equal vision?
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  Put out a lot of records, great label overall.
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  Hopefully your experience with them was great.
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  But like ruin ruin, how did you know?
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  Was it born in Newark? Bred in New Orleans?
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  Operating out of Texas? That's their tagline in their
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  website. Yeah, yeah, Adrian, the owner of
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  it, it is is from New Orleans and and she's in the Dallas area
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  now. But but yeah, so it's it's been
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  a really good thing with them. Like she's she's essentially
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  been a long time fan of us also and came to me kind of
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  coincidentally, like a week or two before we were about to drop
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  the last song that we had dropped independently before.
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  And, and she had asked, you know, if we had any plans for a
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  full EP or album or anything. And, you know, I told her, oh,
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  you know, funny enough, we're about to, you know, lay our last
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  card on the table as far as like what we have right this second.
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  And and so she said that she was trying to get the label going
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  and yet she already had a few projects with a few bands, like
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  helping out with the final releases on, you know, some
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  bands even more like Throwback than us.
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  And she's also now working with some bands that have only been
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  formed in the last year or so too.
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  So she has a really, really big vision for what that label will
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  will eventually have to offer the scene overall.
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  And, like, I'm excited to have been a part of the inception
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  and, you know, one of the initial, I guess, kind of bands
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  from our era that, you know, she chose to fuel the fire, you
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  know? Right on I'm so excited to see
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  where that label goes and what they do next because super just
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  everything about the way they're being managed and run shout out
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  Adrian, I don't know you, but shout out to you.
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  Great job. And we'll maybe come together at
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  some point and ping, ping them for an perhaps.
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  But interestingly enough, we are in a crazy time.
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  You started in the era when records were still sold, but we
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  were at sort of the precipice of sort of the post Limewire, post
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  Bear share, post computers getting virused up, post
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  Hamster. Then it was iTunes and Apple
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  Music. You know, the birth of that, of
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  that and now streaming. And while streaming is not the
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  most important to me, it's got to be gratifying for the
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  response to the fracture, which is the lead track.
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  It's like one of your biggest stream songs actually,
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  considering the history and length of the band and, you
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  know, maturity of the band. So such a killer track and super
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  nice to see this like very healthy response to it.
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  For sure. Yeah, I mean, I feel super,
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  super grateful to the fact that excuse me to the fact that every
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  single time we drop like no matter how long a part it is, if
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  it's like 6 months or a year or and you know, in this case, a
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  couple weeks, like pretty much every single time.
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  You know, I'm just just taking back at the amount of people
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  that are like still super excited just because at the end
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  of the day, you know, even though we do our our own thing
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  and you know, I like to think that we do what we do.
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  Well, at the end of the day, there's you know, millions of
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  talented artists that are maybe a little bit more directly
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  accessible, you know, coming through their town any moment
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  now or, you know, releasing to what way more frequency of songs
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  and stuff. And so the fact that we've had
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  like such a chill pace last few years and like people are still,
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  you know, super attentive to it is, is a pretty special thing
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  for me. Right on.
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  And again, we don't live and die by these industry things here at
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  our site. Like, you know, popular enough
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  to be underground. Still happy to, you know, report
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  on and talk about bigger bands. But really, like, at the end of
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  the day, I don't quantify success by streaming, but it's
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  just when I see something impressive to me, I call it out
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  right. And we don't live and die by
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  everything Spotify or the Grammys or whatever.
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  We just like talking about it because you know, it's, you
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  know, cathartic to like bag on shit sometimes or praise shit.
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  It's also cathartic for me to praise an uplift band.
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  So you know. For sure.
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  And even though like, yeah, you know, it's not healthy to like,
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  like hold so much weight over a particular streaming size
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  numbers as far as like using that to identify the, the, you
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  know, success of, of your creativity and not being like,
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  if not the sole metric that, you know, the, the main metric at
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  the end of the day, you know, music fans should know that a
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  huge percentage of your opportunity is based on where
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  those numbers sit amongst your peers though too.
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  So, you know, even though it's like important as an artist to
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  not obsess over it, at the end of the day, it's like you know a
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  lot to do with what opportunities you know you're
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  going to have access to. Right on and it's weird for me
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  because honestly, I say this all the time, having been a band
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  dude and being a journalist for a long time, having a the small
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  website that covers music is a lot like my band aids.
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  It's it feels very familiar and we are also graded and judged.
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  Oh, you want to get an interview with so and so?
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  What are your numbers that you want to attend the festival?
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  What are your numbers? So on one hand they're
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  important. They help for tour, you know,
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  booking tours for bands, they help for attention getting.
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  But at the end of the day, if you don't have the actual music
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  and the connection with the fans and something to say that's
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  original, you don't have much. And I feel like it's the same
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  for us, too. So I'm always very sympathetic.
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  I feel like we're, you know, we're not that far off on the
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  same track for what we do here, no.
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  For sure. But like I said at the top, what
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  a killer record I hear like thing calls from across, you
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  know, just it sounds like your music.
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  It sounds like you let's do a little track by track and again,
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  as much or as little as you want to share, I don't know.
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  Yeah, I don't always ask the chef to explain the recipe, but
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  if you want to share a little bit about each, that's.
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  Pretty straightforward. Fair enough, fair enough.
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  The fracture is obviously the opening track here and it's such
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  a banger and and just such a just such a uplifting track.
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  Yeah, so essentially right after it got confirmed that we were
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  going to be making an EP, I started making, you know, rough
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  ideas, scratch tracks, you know, just song skeletons and stuff to
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  to show up to the first official session that we did in Arizona
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  with Matt Good. Kind of just, you know, I
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  didn't, I didn't plan on having those be any of the songs that
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  we were going to actually go through it in the studio.
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  I just kind of wanted to show him where I was at creatively.
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  So after I showed him, you know, the stuff I I had made the last
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  two weeks or so, he kind of, you know, took note of that and then
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  took the lead from there. And we were really just hanging
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  out like we, we worked with Matt multiple times over the years
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  before. So it, it was honestly like one
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  of the least serious like sessions ever.
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  Or I mean, obviously we're taking the song being cool
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  serious, but like it was 0 pressure.
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  Like we were just hanging out talking shit the whole time.
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  And, and and yeah, so we spent three days with him and we
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  definitely left there with clarity on, you know, where,
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  where the rest of the record, you know, can and should go.
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  Right on, it's great to hear that process open up a little
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  bit. RIP the Halo is the second track
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  I love little. All these tracks are very short
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  until the point. No fat on them at all, which I
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  love. RIP the Halo.
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  No pauses, no spaces. Yeah, so that one is the only
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  other one. That was a collaborative thing.
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  I had brought on my friend Shiloh who used to play in the
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  band and he's out in Portland now playing in a band called
• 11:22
  True Fear. But he's a really good guitarist
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  and like he's a session guitarist for some other bands
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  and stuff too. And anyway, so me and him like
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  pretty much just hung out on FaceTime writing that one and
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  and then the other, the other 3 was just me in my room.
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  Like touching on different vibes that, you know, I felt were
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  something I wanted the the EP to have.
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  Like, you know, you mentioned Ember like that has a heavier
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  breakdown than any song we've ever had.
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  And I wanted to make sure that there was a moment on this EP
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  like that, like that the song scars you left.
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  Like, I really wanted a song that, you know, appeased to my
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  youngest, like, entry into the scene.
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  So and, and, yeah, like having, having the other three songs be,
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  you know, me just kind of creatively reflecting on how I
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  thought I could be true to every song we've ever dropped while
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  still keeping it fresh. I dig that so much.
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  Beside talking about how heavy the breakdown is of Ember, what
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  I love and I got off the vibe I got off of Ember is that it
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  really reminded me of the earliest stuff from the band,
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  the post hardcore era stuff. But also like some, you know,
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  like driving riffs and and beats that are actually like like
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  really killer, which is why the breakdown works so well.
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  But talk a little bit more about Ember is is such a badass track.
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  For sure. I mean like kind of the
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  aesthetic I had like in my mind as I was writing that was just
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  like this. I wanted to just make a song
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  that just sounds like the end of the world, but like via like via
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  post art core lens, you know what I mean?
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  Like I was just trying to make it just have like a really, I
• 12:57
  don't know, Like I don't know what to call it because this
• 12:59
  isn't really like an auditory description, but like I wanted
• 13:02
  to make like a post apocalyptic like sounding song, but
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  something that still matched with like all of our other
• 13:09
  music. I know there's a lot of people
• 13:10
  out there that do YouTube mods and vids of like, they'll take a
• 13:14
  track they like and then they'll put it on, you know, the Last of
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  Us with this song, you know, or old school movies.
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  I feel like this would be the track to be soundtrack to
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  something. Yeah, I don't the next big
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  horror movie. Or something for sure.
• 13:26
  I need someone who's like a pro at that to to get on that.
• 13:30
  Yeah, definitely. All right, we'll be taking
• 13:32
  offers over DM Check us out the scars you left, which you
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  mentioned already, but let's talk this the shortest track,
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  but it's also like, again, another absolute killer.
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  Yeah, I mean, that one, essentially I wanted to make
• 13:44
  something that really nodded towards like my favorite metal
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  core, which is, you know, to like 2000 to 2004 where shit was
• 13:53
  super aggressive, but not necessarily trying to be as
• 13:56
  heavy as possible. There was still kind of a more
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  like catchiness to it. And and like even though the
• 14:01
  music is aggressive, there's like still like this like warm,
• 14:04
  welcoming feeling like into listening to it.
• 14:07
  And to be honest, like with that one, I was really just trying to
• 14:09
  make a song that, like, if I heard from a random local band I
• 14:12
  didn't know at my first show of my whole life, I would have
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  thought it was the coolest shit on Earth, you know?
• 14:17
  And so yeah, like, like that song is just like appeasing my
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  like, inner child, like discovering this shit in the 1st
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  place, really. Right on, I dig it so much.
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  And then we close with the title track Under a Hollow Sky, a
• 14:32
  really nice sum up to everything.
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  And, you know, another one that's a bang for.
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  Sure, Yeah. So this is actually the first
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  release where I had the EP title like really early on.
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  Like honestly, for our full length records, the name of the
• 14:45
  album was probably like the very last thing at the buzzer, just
• 14:48
  because I was kind of putting a lot of pressure on myself to
• 14:51
  make it original and good. But I don't know what changed
• 14:53
  creatively. But for for this release, I
• 14:55
  actually had the EP name like before any song was officially
• 14:59
  finished. And I and so it kind of came
• 15:02
  later in the process to actually create the title track just as I
• 15:05
  was adding vocals to the instrumentals.
• 15:07
  But yeah, I mean, by the time it came time to do vocals for that
• 15:11
  song, I hadn't made a title track yet.
• 15:12
  And I knew I wanted to. And like, I love that EP name.
• 15:15
  I feel like it, you know, it said it covers the tone on all
• 15:20
  the songs. But that being said, like, yeah,
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  I just want to make a song where it was the chorus was based
• 15:25
  around like the EP theme in general.
• 15:27
  And, and yeah, I like that one a lot too.
• 15:31
  Thank you for summing all that up for us in a nice little
• 15:34
  package. They're not easy to do.
• 15:35
  I appreciate you. I don't even actually like
• 15:38
  comparatively, I don't even ask that many people to do this
• 15:41
  anymore. But I felt like this would lend
• 15:43
  itself to, you know, with the length of the record and things
• 15:45
  like that. So cool.
• 15:47
  I believe it hasn't been announced, but I believe there's
• 15:50
  plans for a vinyl. I know lead times are what they
• 15:52
  are right now. Yeah, the I'm pretty sure that
• 15:55
  the the vinyl is going to become available like whenever the
• 16:00
  fully piece out. Oh say OK, cool.
• 16:02
  I didn't, yeah. I wasn't aware if there was a
• 16:04
  pre-order. We are recording this the week
• 16:06
  of the release, which is super cool and I'm appreciative of you
• 16:09
  making the time. Just like I said, really a very
• 16:12
  strong comeback for y'all and between the label and the band
• 16:16
  and the song quality here, I'm I'm stoked.
• 16:18
  I always like to end these interviews with a wild card
• 16:21
  question. I think they make it fun.
• 16:23
  It is like Movie Awards season. So I wanted to know what was the
• 16:27
  last good movie you saw, whether it was in the theater?
• 16:29
  Shit, I am so late on this. I'm like painfully late on this.
• 16:33
  And I'm sure anyone's going to be like, it took you to 2026 to
• 16:37
  watch that shit. But just last night I I actually
• 16:40
  watch Anchorman for the first time and and I quickly realized
• 16:45
  how like how and why it's a classic.
• 16:47
  You know, you can't go wrong with Will Ferrell.
• 16:49
  He's great in everything, even the movies that people don't
• 16:52
  love. He's still, like, the standout
• 16:54
  part of all of Here's a great film that people don't talk
• 16:58
  about that he's in, which is Stranger than fiction.
• 17:00
  That's an oldie. Not that old kind of old.
• 17:03
  Yeah. It's really smart.
• 17:06
  It's like one of the smartest films I've ever seen.
• 17:08
  And it's got Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gilson
• 17:12
  in it. So pretty cool.
• 17:13
  And don't you know, we're not just like we're with.
• 17:16
  We're rock and metal. We're not gatekeepers here.
• 17:18
  Whenever you come in, you get Anchorman.
• 17:20
  Today, cool. Tomorrow you'll get something
• 17:21
  out. It's hard to keep.
• 17:22
  We're bombarded with stimulation.
• 17:24
  It's hard to keep up with everything.
• 17:25
  But anywho, Daniel, Juan, thank you so much for hanging out with
• 17:28
  Ghostco man Congratulations. For sure, I appreciate your
• 17:31
  time. Yeah, man, thank you.
• 17:32
  Congrats on Under Hollow Sky and we'll we'll be looking out for
• 17:35
  more stuff from Rue and Ruin Records.
• 17:38
  The great Yeah. Ruin room they get, they got a
• 17:40
  lot in the pipeline for sure.