Friday, January 27, 2023

Choosing the Right Producer with Olivier Allard of CYDEMIND



In this episode of The Rock Metal Podcast, we're chatting with Olivier Allard of the band Cydemind about their new album ‘The Descent’ out now.

During our chat we touch on a lot of great tips for musicians, such as choosing the right producer.

‘The Descent’ was mixed by Simon L’Espérance (Karcius) and mastered by Tony Lindgren (Fascination Street Studios). The cover art for the album was created by Alexander Dagenais.

For fans of Dream Theater, Leprous, Symphony X, Tigran Hamasyan.


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Guest Resource

Cydemind's Website - Connect with Cydemind!


Guest Music Video





3 Heavy Hitters

1. Choose to work with a producer because you love their sound and their approach to making records.

2. Stand out in the metal scene by capturing real instruments in unique spaces, rather than relying on samples.

3. Even without lyrics, think about how the music tells a story from the individual song to the entire album.  Take the listener on a journey.


Sponsors

Asher Media Relations: Doing PR for everything loud! For your band needs to be seen and heard in print, online and radio!  Let Asher know Jon from The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.

Tue Madsen: Tue Madsen is responsible for producing, mixing, and mastering some of the best metal for over the last 20 years.  Let Tue know Jon from The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.

Syndicol Music: A full service agency for musicians, offering record label services, marketing, branding, production and management.  Let Charlie know Jon from The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.

Wormholedeath Records: WHD is a modern record label, publishing and film production company fit with global distribution, publishing and marketing using a roster of global partnerships. Let Carlo know The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.


Show Notes // Transcript

Jon Harris: So, Olivier, go ahead and say hello to all of our beautiful listeners. 

Olivier Allard: Hi, everybody. 

Jon Harris: And it is absolutely freaking great to have you on. Let's go ahead and chat about this. I have here as a quote "with Erosion, we were young. We were still trying to define our own sound." Take us back to that first album. In trying to define your own sound, what's happened since that time between then and now? And do you feel that you're any closer? 

Olivier Allard: Okay, that's a great question. We were in our early twenty's and we really had no knowledge whatsoever of how to produce an album. We knew how to write, we knew how to play, but we had really no clue how to produce an album. That's why we asked Chris Donaldson to help us out in that he made an awesome job. Honestly, we have nothing to reproach to him. Only thing is, it sounded like Chris Donaldson. It sounded like what he used to do with death metal bands. And it's a very aggressive approach. We wanted for a second album to try and find something that's more well, that's more us. And we had COVID to kind of learn everything. And we really had time to dig into production and refine the guitar sound as we want, the keyboard sounds also. So we had a lot of time to make tests and also find a mixing engineer that would help us out, but like, hear also our ideas and understand where we want to go. So I think it's been a very very enlightening experience we're on the right track. I wouldn't say we're totally happy with the end product. We're really near. Of course, we still have some things to learn along the way. 

Jon Harris: You know, maybe you're in a band, you're looking for a producer, mix engineer. You brought up a really good point. Chris Donaldson, he's great, he's fantastic, he's super talented. He also sounds like Chris Donaldson. And a producer usually imprints their sound, or a mix engineer usually imprints their sound. And there are a few who kind of don't that come to mind. But I mean, even a Mutt Lang, if you listen to all of Mutt Lang's records, certain things sound the same because it's just the way that he's processing the band's material or even influencing the band's material. 

Olivier Allard: Yeah, exactly.

Jon Harris: So always take that into account when searching for a producer or mix engineer is what does this person's work sound like? And do I want my band or my record to sound like that? And if the answer is yes, then go to the races. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly. I think we also have that questioning for mastering, actually, because some people go with certain mixing engineers and then go to other mastering engineers just to have a different colour, just to have a different opinion. And that's actually what we did. We went to Fascination Street Studios. We got our album mastered by Tony Lindgren. He kind of got this European prog metal sound that we love so much, so we were really glad about that. 

Jon Harris: Abso-freaking-lutely. Now, Tony Lindgren, that is a definite legend for anybody who doesn't know Fascination Street Studios is also Jens Bogren. And if you don't know who he is, just think like Amon Amarth. Definitely some heavy hitters in the European metal scene. Now, you mentioned some trials and tribulations as far as working on The Descent is concerned. And obviously each stage of the creative process itself has its peaks and valleys. What was the greatest moment in producing this record? 

Olivier Allard: For me, I would say it was the violin tracking. I recorded my tracks in four days, and it was really the most challenging four days of my life. I remember after the first day, completely tired, I think I went to bed at like, eight and I woke up and got back to the studio and four days in a row, like, that really, really tiring. But I'm really happy with the result. Everybody in the same room. We're all tracking in each separate room, and it's kind of a lonely experience, and you're just yourself with your instrument and playing so many takes until you have the one you prefer. So it's a lot of focus, concentration, but I'm very happy with the results. So I'd say that was fun. I think for everybody else, it's going to be different. I really liked tracking grand piano with Camille. We went to a very, very nice studio, actually, it was ancient. It was an old church that was renovated into a studio. And there was a grand piano there. We tracked everything there. The grand piano. It was only the grand piano there. I was the kind of producer there. There was Camille on the grand piano, and I was kind of leading him. Do that again. Do that again. Can you try this? Can you try this? And we kind of build it, the performance together. It was a very fun experience. 

Jon Harris: Yeah. I mean, using those old renovated spaces like a church, the particular grand piano that they had, all of those things that you're capturing in time are unique to the record and can't be used anywhere else. And I know there are so many samples available nowadays and they'll get you by, but it just sounded so easy and so fluid, Olivier, for you and Camille to just go down to this unique space on this unique piano and create a unique moment in time. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly. I mean, in metal, there's so many samples in metal music, it's really rare that you're going to hear a real piano.  I mean, our biggest influence, Dream Theater. I'm not sure they even used a grand piano, a real grand piano in any of their records. It's only Jordan Rudess with his keyboard, even if he's a concert pianist, he's really trained as a classical pianist. But we felt that's a sound that we want to explore having the grand piano. I think it really comes from our Tigran Hamasyan influence. I don't know if you know that guy. He's a jazz pianist. He's doing really odd time signature stuff, and Armenian melodies on top of that is really good. And he has a very Meshuggah-like approach to his songs. It's really your heavy and lots of low end punches on the piano. So I think we get our sound from him. 

Jon Harris: Yeah, I mean, Olivier, you hit it on the head. There are a lot of samples in metal, but if you can do something unique on your recording like you guys have done here, so that it's organic and unique to your record, then bonus points. And then also as well, it sounds like you're pulling influences from many places, but then connecting those dots. I mean, you mentioned jazz with Tigran Hamasyan, but that it's Meshuggah-like. So we're connecting the dots back to metal. Which takes me to my next question. What was the biggest challenge for you on this record? And I guess, how did that, what did you guys make of that challenge? 

Olivier Allard: Biggest challenge? Well, it was a long process. I think what's keeping us motivated was maybe one of the challenge, because we wrote those songs, I think a year after we released Erosion, all the songs were already done, so it took us a four year after that to release everything. I think it was kind of long. We had some delays with studios because everything closed at the moment we wanted piano recording, so we had to wait a year and then everything closed on the day we had our first music video, everybody caught COVID, so we had to delay everything. So I think that was the biggest challenge, was to keep the momentum, even if we had so many delays. 

Jon Harris: Yeah, abso-freaking-lutely. Staying motivated. I mean, come on, baby. Especially since the pandemic. How many listening in right now have tried to get a band off the ground, or a music project, or any project for that matter, and have found it difficult to do so and how to stay motivated.  Now, something else that had come up with regard to the notes that Asher Media Relations had sent out was "with The Descent, we delved into the concept of obsessions and the abyss into which they can plunge the human mind", says Olivier, which would be you, Monsieur. So...

Olivier Allard: Haha, yeah, that's me.

Jon Harris: What was the main inspiration for these kinds of themes on the record? 

Olivier Allard: We find the inspiration. We write the music before thinking about what it's going to be about. Since we have no lyrics, we kind of find the themes after. At least that's how we work right now. And I actually would like to do the opposite, maybe next record, and find the theme and work musically on that. This record was really written the music before, and then we thought, where does it lead us? How are the shielding? And we really thought that it was a descent into hell if you get the first song and you ditch it out because it's kind of an overture. You start at Hoax and then going down to Breach,  Call of the Void, Hemlock. They all get longer, more complex, more darker, and you kind of get to a point in Slumber where actually you don't know if you're dead or alive or you don't know where you are. And then the last song is kind of more epic finale. But I think we delved. We chose the obsessions theme because mainly there's themes that go that reappear in every song. So you kind of get that obsession late movie like. We say that's appearing in many songs structurally review was how dark and how low can one go from something that's really fun. Hoax is really uplifting, really exciting. And then Breach is also catchy, but it's going to be heavier. And then Call of the Void is already a lot darker. 

Jon Harris: Yeah. So what I want to kind of unpackage there from that one was telling a story. So the music was written before the themes and as you mentioned, next time you'd kind of like to do the themes first and write the music around it. But what I want to zoom in on is when you said and then we thought, where does this lead us? Where does this lead us? It's about telling a story with the music and then you guys were able to craft a compelling and as you said, catchy and even dark and heavy, right? But you were able to craft a compelling story. Now, one of the other things I wanted to chat about was, you know, you guys had mentioned grand piano a few times. Samples sort of somewhat came up a little bit. I'm curious, in terms of telling the story, are there any other pieces of equipment that may have come in that surprised you or really became a part of the recording? 

Olivier Allard: A few things still with the grand piano, we had the idea to mess around inside the piano with the big strings. We had one penny and we were messing up with a sound inside the piano. It actually ended up being the end of our album, The Last Stone. You kind of hear those little almost like a guitar pick on a piano and it sounds really a movie soundtrack and very epic. So we like to and it really was kind of a moment thing. Let's just try this on the piano and see how it sounds. And it sounded great. Other than that, there's my electric violin here, but I tracked everything on my acoustic one for that record. There was no electric violin in that record. I think we like to have that more classical approach with the grand piano and the acoustic violin. It really gives a more organic sound and the challenge is actually to blend it with guitar and bass and drums and make it sound as a whole. 

Jon Harris: Using the grand piano in various ways, I mean, instruments, you know they're there for your enjoyment. Just because it was, I guess, designed to be played one particular way doesn't mean you can't get under the hood and start tinkering around and end up with some really cool things as a result of it. So, I mean, if you're listening in right now and you're kind of stuck on a project, maybe start using snare drums the way they're not supposed to be used. You know start getting out of your comfort zone a little bit. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly, be creative with the instrument you have. 

Jon Harris: Exactly, baby. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly, think outside the box. 

Jon Harris: Except this time you went inside the box. 

Olivier Allard: Haha, exactly.

Jon Harris: How would you define success at this stage of your career with regard to this release, Olivier? 

Olivier Allard: We're happy with how the album got received. You know, I think self producing that album was a risk because I think there was a lot of interest on our first album just because it was Chris Donaldson who was producing it and there was a name behind it. So people got curious for that. And it was a challenge for us for that second album to keep that interest. Because first, it was five years ago, so everybody forgot us and then we self produced our album, so we had nobody to help us with anything. But we learned so much from that process that we wouldn't change anything. And we're really focusing on that being I only have the French word autonom. I don't know if you know what I mean. 

Jon Harris: Yeah, autonomous, like being on your own by yourself?

Olivier Allard: Being able to do everything yourself. And I think that's where we want to keep pushing. And same thing for our third project. It's going to be self produced. We enjoyed so much the whole process of pre-production and production and post production. It's something that we like to do on our own. 

Jon Harris: So enjoying the process, basically, of self producing, because, as you were mentioning, that, it made me realize that finding a great producer, or even a great mix engineer, anybody else along the way, is almost like finding that fifth band member. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly. In our case, it's our 6th band member. 

Jon Harris: Yeah. And honestly, you're listening and you're thinking, man, I need to find a great producer. You will, in time. And when that time comes, it'll happen. I know that sounds quite serendipitous, but it's true. So either try a different producer every album or just do what these guys are doing. What Cydemind is doing, self produce, be happy with it, get the good feedback, enjoy the process, and eventually the right person, their ears will perk up and say, I know I can help you guys. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly. We like to do that because we like to learn. And if we go see a producer and we tell him, just do your stuff and we're not interested in what you're doing, some artists are doing that. It's fine and trusting a producer is really good, but I think knowing what they do actually and how they do it and maybe challenging them and work with them, I think we're more looking for collaboration than just give our music to somebody and he makes whatever he wants with it. 

Jon Harris: Haha, that sounds so aggressive, Olivier. 

Olivier Allard: Haha, yeah, sorry there.

Jon Harris: Then just take it and do with it what you will. Now, speaking of collaborating, obviously being a musician is a collaboration between fan and the artist. So my next question is, what's the number one thing that you want people listening right now to do? Is there a website that you want them to go to? What would you like them to do right now? 

Olivier Allard: Well, we released two very nice music videos. So I think if you don't know the band, if you don't know Cydemind, you should check us out on YouTube. Our music video Hoax, is really a very good highlight of our music, of our album, The Descent. We also have a very, very nice music video called Winter, which released a few years ago, which is actually an arrangement of Vivaldi's Winter Concerto, and that's also a very epic music video. We have the opportunity to be working with my brother, who is a director, who's a movie director, so he's very generous of his time and he's really good, actually. So usually music videos, especially for metal bands, are kind of generic and bland, and it's not the highlight. You just listen to the music and don't really check the video because they're usually not that good, but they're worth watching. 

Jon Harris: You didn't just scream into a light bulb, is what you're saying. 

Olivier Allard: Exactly. 

Jon Harris: Okay, very cool. So everybody listening in right now. Go ahead and head over to TheRockMetalPodcast.ca. In the search bar, you can search up Cydemind, and there you will find all of the music videos for the record as well as Winter that Olivier had mentioned, as well as any other relevant links so that you can get in touch with Cydemind and become their next big, greatest fan. Olivier, thank you so much for coming. 

Olivier Allard: Thank you, Jon.  Really, really nice to chat with you.

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Friday, January 20, 2023

How to Stand Out In the Metal Scene with Jay Arriaga of SCATTERED STORM



In this episode of The Rock Metal Podcast, we're chatting with Jay Arriaga of the band Scattered Storm about their new EP ‘In This Dying Sun’ out now via Blood Blast Distribution.

During our chat we touch on a lot of great tips for musicians, such as how to stand out in the metal scene.

'In This Dying Sun' EP was produced and recorded by Jay Arriaga himself out of Empty Paradise Studios, and was mixed and mastered by Tue Madsen out of Antfarm Studios.

For fans of Fear Factory, Gojira, Meshuggah, TesseracT.


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Guest Resource

Scattered Storm's Linktree - Connect with Scattered Storm!


Guest Music Video





3 Heavy Hitters

1. Get industry level feedback on your music

2. Measure your success as a band in small stages

3. Constantly evolve your sound as a band


Sponsors

Asher Media Relations: Doing PR for everything loud! For your band needs to be seen and heard in print, online and radio!  Let Asher know Jon from The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.

Tue Madsen: Tue Madsen is responsible for producing, mixing, and mastering some of the best metal for over the last 20 years.  Let Tue know Jon from The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.

Syndicol Music: A full service agency for musicians, offering record label services, marketing, branding, production and management.  Let Charlie know Jon from The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.

Wormholedeath Records: WHD is a modern record label, publishing and film production company fit with global distribution, publishing and marketing using a roster of global partnerships. Let Carlo know The Rock Metal Podcast sent you.


Show Notes // Transcript

Jon Harris: Go ahead and say hi to our beautiful listeners, Jay. 

Jay Arriaga: Hey, everybody. 

Jon Harris: Well and hello back. Now, Jay, what was the greatest moment for you producing this record? 

Jay Arriaga: It took a different turn from what we did in Oblivion and it took a while for us to get on board with this record because it was kind of different from what we did previously. Plus we had other projects, me and Andre, the vocalist, we started during the Pandemic, a project called No Life On Earth. So that kind of kept us busy with not getting the new Scattered Storm started because we were doing that particular record with some friends from Brazil who are pretty popular, shout out to them, Alan from Eminence and Andre Acosta from Jota Quest, who is a very famous band over there in Brazil. We had guest appearances from Andreas Kisser and Caesar Soto from Ministry and Tue Madsen and actually did a project. That's how we kind of got acquainted with him because he played a solo on that particular project. So when it came to producing In This Dying Sun, we went to I mean, I mixed the first record and I mean, it's pretty good, turn out good, but we wanted to go in a different direction. And my buddy Alan from Eminence, his record was at one point produced by Tue Madsen and he told me, why don't you just have Tue Madsen and mix it? And I was like, okay, well, that's going to be interesting. He just did the new Meshuggah record. I mean, back then when I was a new one, he's worked with bands like Mimic and several other very popular bands and I like his sound, so that was pretty exciting to begin with. But for the most part it was kind of solidifying the style that we want to bring, which is very eclectic, industrial, it's futuristic, it's primal and just kind of cementing that once more. But kind of expanding on it was the exciting part for me, producing it plus vocally, it was going to be more demanding and producing Andre proved to be that kind of challenge because it took us a while to record the vocals because it was not that straightforward. In the end, the final product was pretty amazing. 

Jon Harris: Well, and Jay, I completely agree with you that the final product is pretty amazing. And I mean to sum it up for Rock Metal Nation listening in, I believe you had mentioned doing a project with Andreas Kisser from Sepultura, Caesar Soto from Ministry, and Tue Madsen coming in to play a guitar solo. And then eventually, you're chatting with one of your friends, and he recommended moving the mixing duties over to Tue Madsen, who, as you said, had just worked on the new Meshuggah record and a few other records that you really like. And personally, I can think of a lot of records that I love, like Poisonblack that Tue Madsen had at least mixed had some kind of a hand in. I mean, the guy is incredible. Now, something you'd mentioned, though, was also some challenges producing this record. What was the biggest challenge for you, Jay? 

Jay Arriaga: Well, one, we kind of incorporated faster paced songs. So technique wise, we kind of had to adjust because we've been and it's always going to be part of Scattered storm the low tempo type sludging that we kind of incorporate from, like we said, from Sugar and Neurosis that's always going to be part of it and it's hard to do that because there's a lot of control. But in this time, Son Kevin kind of wrote a couple of ribs that were faster. So adjusting to that was pretty challenging too. Plus we had a song like Scene, which was pretty progressive rock because it kind of deals with my background. I'm more of a Prague rock kind of guy, king Crimson and all that. So all these time changes while keeping it radio friendly was really the challenge and that proved to be quite the challenging part on this record. 

Jon Harris: Yeah, well, I mean, adjusting to higher pace tempos and adding in some prog rock time changes from the traditional low tempo type sludging that you had mentioned and keeping it radio friendly, which is important. Not necessarily you want to become the next Justin Bieber by any stretch of the imagination, but I mean, Rock Metal Nation, you're listening in right now, you're a metal head and you're thinking, I don't know, why do I want to be on the radio? Well, why not? I mean, it's a way to reach a larger audience with your art and with your craft. Now Jay, you mentioned you're kind of trying some new things here. Sometimes that means a new piece of gear. Is there something that was different about the gear that was used on this record? Is there like, I don't know, a fuzz pedal you want to give a shout out to? 

Jay Arriaga: Well, the mixing and recording challenges increase as your ideas start getting more expensive, right? So, yeah, definitely. Computers have been evolving and it created it created kind of a 
raucous for me recording this album because I was using a Mac from 2011. Maybe I had been pretty good up until this point in recording everything that I was doing and mixing several tracks. But you start evolving as to the plugins that you use and you start using more digital plugins and software that are just more demanding on your computer. So my computer just crapped out at the end and it was like, yeah, this record is not going to be made on this computer. So I had to get another more powerful M1 type Mac to do so. And that was the most beautiful part about recording this record because now I can really dump pretty much whatever I want into it. The other thing that was pretty amazing is that we used a lot of digital guitar plugins to record the first album. And on this record we went with real amps, which was kind of funny because when I sent all the stems to Tue Madsen and I was like, I'm not sending you any DIs. I'm sending you everything as is analog. And that's going to be your challenge, to mix this record. He was pretty cool about it. He was like, no, I mean, it's your sound. We're going to make you sound as best possible. So that was great because the bass is what was recorded. It was not something that I sent in the DI and he could reamp. I mean, the only thing that was really sampled were the drums, and that's it. That's where I was most comfortable with because obviously I'm not in a big LA studio getting these fantastic drum sounds, so I kind of had some. I gave him a little bit of leeway into that and it turned out to be a great thing because he partnered up with DrumForge and created some samples for them. And he featured one of our songs on his example. So that was pretty cool. And that was the actual song, the song In This Dying Sun, yeah. 

Jon Harris: How does that make you feel? 

Jay Arriaga: That's great. I mean, the input that I've gotten from industry people and like him is that he told me flat out, you got something really good going on here. So that's always encouraging. And it made me want to continue and really push this because I'm like, okay, I'm not hearing it from my head. Always, yeah, I think this is good. No, somebody else told me from the industry, this is good, and I want to use your stuff because it's pretty good. And I'm like, okay, fantastic. So it makes you feel pretty good. 

Jon Harris: Yeah. Are you listening in right now? How many times have you been working on an idea? Maybe it's a band, maybe it's another podcast, and you're getting feedback from anybody but the industry and what ends up happening, they blow smoke up your butt. I've been there. I know what that's like. You have your mom, your girlfriend, whoever. I just recently read a blog post about a girl who she says she notoriously dates musicians and she's getting tired of it because there are so few talented musicians out there. She was being pretty brutal about it and she said, I'm getting tired of having them look at me with starry eyes and say, so how was it, babe? And she has to come up with a story. So definitely look for that industry level feedback as to how you're doing. 

Jon Harris: More to come, but let's go ahead and check in with our beautiful sponsors. 

Jon Harris: How would you define success at this stage of your career with regard to this record release? Jay? 

Jay Arriaga: Well, that's a very good question. How do you measure success overall, really, in this day and age? In this industry? How many followers you have? Is it how many TikTok responses you've gotten? Because it's kind of tricky because you can get Bots to blow up your page. Many ways that are not organic to it. So when I try and measure success, I measure it in small instances. Not really like a whole blow up of what the goal is. They're tiny success. We started out with the first record. It was okay, so we kind of put our name on the map. So now the success was okay, we're out there. Obviously the other stage of the success was that the record was very well received. I mean, the reviews were pretty good and we got some really cool reviews from people all over the world and that's really what you want to get across because it's your music. You're not really compromising to write such music. The other part of the success was to get a global distributor like Blockbust, which not a lot of bands have. So I guess like I said, it's in tiny stages. We're playing more. So you take your victories in that sense, you know what I mean? It's not really like, oh yeah, no, we made so much our fan base is growing slowly but steady and we kind of do stand out from a lot of bands that are out there. I mean, I was listening to I was kind of going through a podcast webpage the other day and it featured so many bands and so many bands, unfortunately, they sound pretty much the same. That's one of the main goals for us, that we're like we don't want to sound like anything out there. It doesn't matter. We're not overly technical or we're not blast beating our way, you know, through through songs, which is pretty popular right now. So we're kind of going against the grain when it comes to that. And really we're really set up in our in our ways as to what we want to do. Who knows? I mean, the next record might be a little bit popular because that's how we feel the record is going to go. We really don't have any boundaries in regards to that. 

Jon Harris: Yeah, I mean, Jay, you hit it on the head. There are so many things for a band to worry about right now, so many moving parts. I mean, there's your social media campaigns and is that a gauge of success? There's just the reception of the record in general, which obviously means something, having those music industry level partners who are willing to support your work. I mean, earlier in the interview you mentioned Tue Madsen, which is great, who said that you guys are doing something good and then you have Blood Blast, who's distributing your record around the globe, which is absolutely fantastic. And I mean, the next part of it is you mentioned basically what it sounds like is evolving your sound. So could you take us a bit more through that. What does evolving your sound mean for you? 

Jay Arriaga: It's going to be, obviously more in a musical sense, because right now, I never stopped writing music, and right now I have, like, five or six, probably seven songs already, you know, for the next next record that we want to put out soon, because that's what it is right now, just putting music out. And, you know, I've been finding that these songs sound much different than what Indispensing Sun or Oblivion were. And it's just me trying to incorporate more melodic aspects, more industrial parts. Sometimes I can put dance beats in it and it's just me not giving a crap about where the direction is going to go for the song. Yeah, it's going to be heavy, but let's define heavy. Nowadays, I don't think heavy is just distortion, I think heavy is feeling and beat. To me, it encompasses way more than just low drop tune guitar. It can be a chord, it can be a sequence, a melodic sequence. So that's where the evolution comes for us. We're not just ingrained to, oh, we need to hit the low B right there. It's like, no, yeah, I mean, it's going to be part of it, but there's so much that builds up to it and I think that's where it's scattered. Given our background, our musical background can evolve into doing these different things. 

Jon Harris: Yeah, chugging on that low B, baby. I mean, come on, we can always go lower and know it's all the way until you can only feel it. You can't even hear it. You can only feel it. But, yeah, heavy isn't just distortion, it's the feeling behind it, even. You mentioned a melodic progression. I mean, it's so many things and I enjoy your definition. Now, for Rock Metal Nation listening in, who is wanting to find out more about you? What's the number one thing you want listeners to do? Where should they go? 

Jay Arriaga: Well, first of all, appreciate the music, enjoy it. And if you do, which is the first great part of this engagement process between band and fan is spread the word out. Yeah, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're on Twitter, we're on Facebook, on YouTube, everywhere. We have our videos up on YouTube. We're doing a video for each song, actually. We're going to release one at the end of January again for the song Hollow. So, yeah, hit it up, spread the word, share these videos, show the love. And that's like the most satisfying part to us that you're able to join on this journey for us. Wherever your platform is, Spotify, Apple, iTunes, stream it, enjoy it and just keep following us. 

Jon Harris: Absolutely. Wow, so many incredible value bombs dropped today. Rock Metal Nation. My personal favourite being getting the right kind of feedback on your music. Now, if you're curious to see those music videos that Jay had mentioned, then go ahead and head over to our website. That's TheRockMetalPodcast.ca, in the search bar at the top type in SCATTERED STORM and the show notes for today are going to pop up for you, giving you all those juicy extra details from today's episode. Now, Jay, thank you so much for coming on to the Rock Metal podcast and thank and we appreciate everything you guys do for us as far as spreading the word. 

Jay Arriaga: So thank you very much.

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Wednesday, January 4, 2023

We're coming back!

Expect new episodes to start airing around February to March of 2023.

Notable interviews in the works:

INSOMNIUM

VILLE VALO

ANTI-FLAG

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