How did you come up with the band Name? Kristen: The name has multiple meanings, but it’s a play on the distance between us all, and conquering the divide in the music industry, as it’s a mostly male dominated genre. But I think it means something different depending on which member you ask.
Tell us about where you come from and how that reflects in the music? Kristen: We come from Michigan, the UK, Canada, Texas and Colorado. I can’t speak for the other girls, but I feel like being in a band (rock or metal especially) had more of a foothold in places that are cold like Michigan because there wasn’t anything else to do and it’s sort of dark and dreary for six months out of the year. So you get together in a basement and make music. You have a lot of time to get good at playing since you can’t go to the beach or hike or what ever it is that kids do in warmer states, haha.
Tell us about the song-writing process, how do you create your music? Kristen: For all of our new music, it changes per song, but I generally keep notes in my phone for lyric ideas because the idea can strike me at any time. I have a log of title ideas and then separate notes where I start writing from a title and doing a sort of ‘brain dump’ of phrases that eventually get chiseled down into only the best lines. Once Izzy and I have a good foundation for a song instrumentally, I go through my lyrics and see what feels right over the instrumental because the lyrics and music have to be congruent and have prosody. Then I come up with basic vocal melody that works best over the instrumental and we try to piece the words together within that melody. Then Kia and I go back and forth and refine the lyrics and melodies down even further to get to the end results. She adds her own spin on it, and can do all the vocal gymnastics I could only dream of haha. And on some songs the entire band contributes to the lyric process because everyone has a unique perspective and a different way of telling the story so to speak, so again it varies per song. Chemicals was one of those, where we all contributed to the lyric process. But the end result is great and I feel like we are a well oiled machine at this point.
Izzy: It varies! Sometimes we will come up with a chord progression and then we figure out riffs/guitar parts over it together. Sometimes Kristen will write a whole “acoustic version” where chords and vocals will be written first (then we add instrumentation afterwards). Kristen and I bounce guitar ideas off each other so naturally now.
Kristen: Some songs Izzy will come up with a sick guitar riff and we build the entire song around that.
Who has influenced you the most? Izzy: For this new album cycle we’ve been influenced by bands like Bring me the horizon/Architects music wise. But also we’ve been focusing a lot on our vocals a lot too. Pop music (think Taylor Swift/Halsey/Ariana Grande) absolutely kill both vocal melodies/rhythms so we have no shame in admitting we’ve been influenced by those too.
Kristen: What Izzy said, music wise, lately I have looked up to bands like I Prevail, newer Falling In Reverse, BMTH, Asking Alexandria and Architects, and vocally I am inspired by Halsey, Lights, Kiiara, Bulow, and Paramore.
What was the first song you or your band ever wrote? Tell us if you performed it, trashed it, etc.…. Kristen: The first song I ever wrote was for a deathcore band I was in called Mary Shaw, I’m pretty sure we didn’t record it with a click either. It might even still exist somewhere in the graveyard of Myspace.
What song are you most connected to or proud of ? Izzy: I’m really proud of our new single Chemicals. It’s the perfect blend between heavy and melodic. We do have a few unreleased songs that sound awesome too. I really connect to one of our unreleased heavier songs, it’s angry as hell. It was really cathartic to write for us because we’ve been through a lot of bullshit as a band.
Kristen: I would say Chemicals as well, and What’s Left Inside because it made it to the rock Billboard which was a first for us.
Do you enjoy playing live and what do you enjoy about it? Izzy: Playing live is one of my favorite parts of being in a band! Being able to travel the world, see new places and meet fans of our music is such a blessing. I’m so eager to get back on the road once gigs start getting booked again (boooo Covid-19!)
Kristen: I enjoy meeting the fans in person, and you can’t beat the energy and feeling of live shows! It’s such a rush.
What is next for the band? Izzy: We have a few songs lined up that are almost ready to be shown to the world! In the next few months we will be recording videos and releasing these one by one. We are also itching to get back on the road, so hopefully there will be a tour on the horizon!
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