SOURCE – How did the songwriting process for Born Into Chaos compare to Death Ritual?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – Hello, it’s nice to meet you. Very different process for the two albums, but also very similar at the foundation. In those three years between the two albums, we recorded two other albums also, so we definitely have fine tuned our process along the journey.
For the ‘Death Ritual’ album we had a different drummer at the time, Mike Tull, and then also for some of the writing process before we found Mike, we had our good friend Jesse playing drums with us in NYC, while rehearsing and working on things in the early stages, just to help with having rhythms under the riffs while constructing sections, until we found a permanent drummer. However, Mike wasn’t able to continue keeping up with the tour offers and shows after the album came out, so we luckily found Sean who has been our drummer for the three albums since then, as well as for all of our touring in the US and Europe.
The similarities in our first album and the newest album would be the studio where they were recorded, and I’m still writing the songs and lyrics before messaging a simple phone voice recording playing the songs to Maria and Sean to work with on their own, before coming together to rehearse them. Of course, usually some structural changes or rearranging happens once we hear them live with all the players together, and then we rehearse it relentlessly.
SOURCE – Did the pandemic affect the recording of the album?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – For the ‘Born Into Chaos’ album, there were definitely still lots of COVID restrictions in place. We all lived together and spent a lot of time together already, as a family type situation, so we were safe being around each other and spent a lot of time doing things outside so we didn’t go crazy. Once the studio was comfortable enough to have us, we definitely had rules and restrictions to follow from them. We had to sleep in the studio where we recorded for the entire five days, and we were unable to access the regular common areas in the building, and the things we were normally able to use for breaks and such. No bar visits at night time after recording, or restaurants, just food deliveries and the refrigerator in the studio. However, the two albums we put out in 2020 were more greatly affected by the pandemic. For instance our ‘Blood of the Night’ album was released in January 2020, and then we were leaving for a big tour starting on Mar 13 for the album, with the van packed full of merch and ready to go when the pandemic hit and everything was cancelled. So we never got to tour for that album.
SOURCE – What are your goals and expectations for the album?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – Like always we want to reach as many people as possible with the album, and tour as much as we can.
SOURCE – Tell us about the new track Terminate By The Sword and the video you shot for it. How important are videos in the promotion process these days?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – For the video we used Tom Hughes aka Ritual Video in Whales. He also did a video for our song ‘Sorcerer’, from the ‘Blood of the Night’ album. We liked his work and short films and pretty much just gave him a theme and a little direction along with the songs and we let him interpret it through his vision. For the new video he chose ‘Terminate…’ to use.
SOURCE – How did you come to sign with Prosthetic Records?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – We are very fortunate to work with Prosthetic now. Hard work pays off.
SOURCE – How has the Maryland scene been impacted by almost two years of no live music? Have you managed to stay connected to the scene throughout the pandemic? How has the reaction from the local scene been to the news you’re continuing to move forward?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – We aren’t really tied to one scene or city too much. Mostly due to where we live being far from the cities. We have to travel a few hours to go to any shows and any kind of scene really. Sean is from Philly, so we have strong ties to that scene, then we rehearse near the ocean in Maryland, a few hours from Baltimore, DC, or Philly. But we got our start more in NYC than in Maryland, so we have big ties to the NYC music scene also, so I guess we are tied to multiple scenes.
SOURCE – Social media is an essential part of promotion these days. Do you like the transparency and interaction, or do you prefer the old days when there was more mystique to an album release?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – It’s all just part of the game. You have to be good and knowledgeable in all aspects of it now. In some ways though, sadly, we think it helps strengthen the worst parts of what we love. For instance with livestreams becoming more normal than a real live show. It’s almost turned into a Netflix type thing, where on any given night there are too many options of livestream shows to choose from – if you’re so inclined. You can never replace the energy and power of a real live show.
SOURCE – Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
Dana Helmuth (vocals, guitar) – Just that we’re really excited to start touring in promotion of ‘Born into Chaos’! All the best!
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