Interview: IMMERSE @ Misery Loves Company
IMMERSE
Bristol's IMMERSE are having a jam-packed year. The metalcore four-piece have already released an EP, Everyone's To Blame, in September, and are now gearing up for the December release of their third album, Energy.
We couldn't resist the opportunity to chat with the band after their homecoming set at the recent Misery Loves Company festival. Fresh off stage, we spoke to Archie (vocals), Josh (drums), and Devlin (bass) about playing at their hometown festival, their ethos, and what to expect from their upcoming album.
You had an EP out last week! How has that release been going?
Archie: Honestly, really, really good. It's just a stepping stone, this EP, onto a bigger project as well that we haven't announced yet. So it's all going to be coming soon so you guys are getting the first scoop on that. The EP has gone down really, really well. It's a new direction for us; we've kind of moved away from traditional heavy and moved more into using rock in a clever way to make it heavy. Less screams, using them at the right time. Keeping the cleans in there.
Josh: The impacts from having less screams and less kind of like traditional heavy bits makes them some sound...
Archie: Bigger.
Josh: Yeah bigger. Unexpected, almost.
It's come up a couple of times today, this idea of metal being heavy and maybe "scary" for people, but trying to find that more easy to get into, "commercial" feels like the wrong term...
Josh: Accessible.
That's a great word for it.
Archie: That's the word, nice! Man’s basically a dictionary.
Josh: That's kind of what we're going for.
How are you balancing that heaviness that you want to bring to it and that accessibility so that anyone can find something to grab onto?
Archie: I think for me, music being heavy isn't necessarily about just overly tuned down guitars. It's more about the energy that you push through the music. Our whole new album, the concept of it that I've been writing with the lyrics is the idea that energy moves people. It affects everything. Sad, happy, energetic, everything. It just lifts you when you need it. And that's how we've used our music now. We're making it more energetic. So live, people can move to it and that energy in turn just makes it more heavy. We've had a few people say that we're heavier live than we are on track. And that's what we want. We want it to be that anybody can listen to it, and when you come see it live, it's so big.
Josh: And then that will then open them up to trying out some other, maybe heavier bands.
Archie: Like a stepping stone. That band anybody can listen to and you might think, "Oh, I like this and it's heavier than normal". And then they'll find another song which is maybe a little bit heavier, and it just keeps them spiraling into this metal scene. The more people we can bring in the better.
For anyone listening to you, and more just coming into the scene, who would you recommend they go listen to next?
Archie: I would say a really good stepping stone band is Enter Shikari. A big thing with Enter Shikari is uniqueness in their music. Not everybody gets them, but they're such a good band. Especialy for people who aren't traditionally into heavy music to listen to. Their music is very diverse. It's got slightly mainstream points but also it goes filth for times. They've got techno and synth in there. You can go anywhere with it.
We did catch your set and I can see that balance between heavy, but like energetic heavy. How was the set for you?
Josh: It felt really good. In some show situations, things are a bit rushed or you're not quite settled yet, and you've just got to run with it. But here, they're running a real tight schedule, and they're doing it very well. Really good job.
Archie: 20-minute changeovers, with a line check. But they're doing it.
Josh: They're hitting it. And the sound was great. The crowd was responding really well to us. For me, that was great. Couldn't have gone any better, really.
Archie: I will say this, I manifested bad energy at the start. I'm not normally one that believes in this but...I'm a confident person and I was nervous today before we went on stage. I don't know what it was. In my head, I was sitting there feeling like something's going to go wrong, something's going to go wrong with gear. Then Tim plugged in his head, and it blew up. So we had to use the stage head. It wasn't even our sound today! And I just manifested it. Shouldn't have done it. Should have stayed positive.
Josh: Cheers Arch.
This is a hometown festival for you. Was there something about playing for more of the people you know that got the nerves going?
Archie: I think when you play a festival in your hometown, you represent them. We don't know who buys tickets, so you don't really know who's going to be there to support you. And it's one of those things where you imagine you show up to your hometown show and there's no one there to support you. But the fact that this was basically sold out, I don't think you could get many more people in that room. That's huge. Massive shout out to Bristol. It's so nice coming home. We don't often get chances to play in Bristol and we try to save it for special occasions. So this was just massive.
I saw a quote about your approach to music, "always taking an empathetic and positive approach to creating music". Can you tell us about that ethos?
Archie: Yeah, so when we make music, we like it to be something we would want to watch. We like to bring good energy and we want people to be happy when they watch us, feeling in the moment. Trying to get a positive response from a crowd is such a big thing. People say make music for yourself and if people like it, they do, and if they don't, they don't. We make music for ourselves but we also make it for other people. We want people to come to a gig and feel like they've had an insane time and bring happiness to people. With our music, we bring energy to it that we would want to see live and would make people feel like we do when we play our own songs. Making people happy with what we're doing is pretty huge for us.
You mentioned you're working on the next project. We have some news that might be out by the time this interview goes out....what can you tell us about the next project?
Archie: To be fair, that makes sense because we did finish the album...what album? We didn't finish an album last week! In December, we'll have more music coming. We just shot a music video yesterday. We finished at about 11 o'clock in the evening so we're very tired from that. And we've already got new singles in the pipeline that we're working on behind the scenes. We've always been quite distant between our releases. And we feel like for us, now, we're writing our best material, and it's just coming out. Now it's going to be a lot more consistent from us.
HSo EP is out, album is coming up, what else have you got on that we should be looking forward to?
Archie: We're on tour in November with Written By Wolves from New Zealand. That'll be really fun. And then we come back and we play...
Josh: Weston-super-Mare!
Archie: Which is our second home, that's where the band basically started. Our college bands all started playing at a place called Barcode, which is not around anymore, but that'll be really fun. And then, at the moment we're in the middle of booking stuff for next March, which is looking promising. We'll be going around the country touring the new music. Doing it in full pretty much is the plan. And we're trying to book festivals, so hopefully next year we end up on more camping festivals. We've yet to play a festival where people camp, it’d be great to do something like 2000 Trees, that'd be huge.
Josh: Slam Dunk would be the dream for us.
Archie: Love Slam Dunk, that would be so good. But the aim right now is just to keep gigging, keep busy, keep pushing more content, keep everyone involved.
Josh: Trying to stay in people's faces, really? If you start to dip off the radar it's quite tough to crawl yourself back.
Last question I've got for you is, if you could hear any song again for the first time, what would that song be?
Archie: I would say Linkin Park, "Numb/Encore" with Jay Z. That is such a classic song and it gets so overplayed now. I want it to disappear off the radar, and then go through that phase of not having heard it for ages and then remembering that song. I want that love again for it. For Josh, I'm gonna say, Kublai Khan, "Antpile".
Josh: Every song by Kublai Khan.
Archie: There's one hardcore member of the band. Guess who it is.
Josh: There's so many songs I love, obviously. Well, we were talking about gateways to other types of music, and I think the first time I heard "Recreant" by Chelsea Grin, that…blew my mind. And then from that point, I was just searching for more. I needed more, needed heavier. It’s a different kind of heavy to what I prefer nowadays, but at the same time, it all stemmed from that track. And I felt like...ssssugar, there is something going on here and I want to get involved.
Devlin: "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett. No, I'm joking.
Archie: The band does not speak on behalf of Dev. Dev is a solo entity, we haven't decided if he's joining the band yet.
Devlin: It's probably got to be "Sorry You're Not A Winner" by Enter Shikari. Just straight up energy.
Archie: Which version of it, out of the 32 they released?
Devlin: The current one? It's just one of those songs that started me on a different route from what I was listening to. Set me going and here I am today.
Archie: Here he is today, in an Enter Shikari tribute band, called IMMERSE.
Energy, the new album from IMMERSE is coming 8 December via Adventure Cat Records. Catch IMMERSE on tour this November with Written By Wolves, and headlining Weston Super Mare.
