Rise To Remain have brought their strong and defiant brand of metalcore to Sonisphere 2011, and we thought that it would be a great time to catch up with guitarists Will Homer and Ben Tovey to chat about the new record ‘City Of Vultures’, touring with Iron Maiden and more…
“We’re always prepared to fill that massive space on a stage” – Ben Tovey
S] Obviously the festival has been hectic and the weather has been mental with the rain, how are you enjoying it?
B] “We came back home in the van, we just got back from the Swedish Sonisphere yesterday, so it feels good to be home.”
S] How have your recent European dates been?
B] “It was spectacular and crazy, ’cause out there they actually love metal and know how to party.”
S] Do you have any rituals to help you prepare before you go on stage?
B] “We start with a warm-up to make sure we’re playing the parts properly and in time and then do stretches. That is to make sure we can move around on stage and then do some vocal warm ups and some backing harmonies for the vocals. We’ll do that for about an hour before a show. Then we hype ourselves up before going on!”
S] You’ve just finished working with Colin Richardson for your new album, how was that process?
W] “It was a great period of time! It was quite a lengthy recording process, we wanted everything to be as perfect as it could be because it’s our first album. Colin as a producer, has such a history, as we all know and he helped us bring the best for ‘City Of Vultures’.
S] Is there a particular reason for that album title [‘City Of Vultures’]?
B] “It’s actually one of the track names and it pretty much sums up the general lyrical concept of the album and how there’s a lot of people that are out to just look after themselves – even if it means betraying their own friends.”
S] And was there any kind of major challenges throughout that creative process?
B] “The biggest challenge was probably having so many sections and having someone record them four times to make sure they sound natural and tight as f***, all on top of each other. So, that was a learning curve for us, I guess.”
S] You’ve been to Sonisphere a few times now, how do you feel about it – what have you learned?
B] “Quite a bit. To talk a little bit about the Iron Maiden tour we did, we obviously played at a lot of stages around the world and from that, and from the bigger shows like the first two Sonsipheres and the Download Festival, is we’re kind of prepared to fill that massive space on a stage and as a result of that experience we have matured as a band. The bigger shows have been great for us.”
S] Do you feel like there’s a particular track or a couple of tracks from that album (‘City Of Vultures) that really defines the sound of the band?
W] “I think ‘Illusions’ is a great mix of everything we’ve done so far as a band, musicially, and I think we do show it a lot with that track. It’s like really heavy, really melodic and there are some great slow bits all over the place.”
S] In terms of the themes you were talking about earlier, were there any kind of experiences that inspired those?
B] “It’s just like describing the way the world is at the moment. If you watch the news, everything is going downhill, you know? Like banks going down and screwing over their own customers. Just watch the news, it pretty much tells what the album talks about.”
S] Where is it that you guys find time for writing? Is it purely studio based or could you be out on the street?
B] “There’ll be a thing where before we go into the studio, we have a live pre-production session, so if there’s a few songs with holes in them, we kinda get together and write to get the links in them. We’ll work on some riffs and a structure and then a bassline but before we go in, we make sure we have everything sorted out to give it the best amount of thought.”
S] If you could rip away a soundtrack to a current film out there and replace it with your music, what film would you choose and why?
B] “That’s a great question! It would have to be something epic!”
W] “Let’s just say 300!”
For more information visit the official Rise To Remain website.
