Any Given Sin: Opening Up About Inner Turmoil
Prior to releasing your debut full-length album, one can assume the importance in working on your sound and style. Finding out what works best for you as an artist is integral, mostly for yourself, as finding out where your talents best lie and how to showcase it. For ANY GIVEN SIN their talents lie in creating powerhouse rock tracks that, on the one hand, have you pumped ready for all obstacles ahead, and on the other, display vulnerability with lyrics that ring close to home.
With the release of their debut album, War Within, ANY GIVEN SIN set out across the US on a co-headline tour with fellow rock band, SHALLOW SIDE. Speaking to lead vocalist, Victor Ritchie, via an incredibly shaky internet connection, he talks about the reasons for why they wanted to open up in such a brutally honest way. “For the whole band, music is our outlet. That’s where we put ourselves and that’s kind of where the album ended up. We like to write lyrics that give some hope and shine light on things, to make people come back to life, to find a community and to find solace in music.”
Yet he acknowledges that despite the above goal it can leave an effect on them, but in a way that they positively embrace as he puts it. “Yes, it can be challenging but it’s a release too. No pain no gain,” he says smiling.
And it’s not like the deeper meaning behind the album is hidden within the lines, the album name alone, War Within, very much aims to represent inner turmoil one experiences whether internal or external affairs. Ritchie went on to explain further what that means to them as musicians when it comes to the opening title track. “We felt like, this isn’t a political thing, but there’s a lot of people trying to censor art, and, of course, we’re in the camp of ‘don’t do that ever!’ We were seeing that art and music was getting more censorship to it, it’s a song about how we feel we should be able to speak your mind within those arts and it should remain as it always has been.”
Going deeper into other tracks that hold personal meaning, we move onto Cold Bones, a track that would sound as hard to cover when one knows the meaning behind it. Prior to joining ANY GIVEN SIN, Ritchie had been a part of the military for seven years and had witnessed much of that line of duty’s physical and emotional scars, especially when it came to losing friends within that time. He admits to the song being challenging in terms of finishing, yet now being pleased with its completion and release, “it was a song that I had been sitting on for years. It’s something that I never thought I’d finish in terms of trying to get things out, but we did, and it turned out to be one of my favourite tracks on the album.”
For people familiar with the name of ANY GIVEN SIN, it’s likely they have heard some of their songs played on alternative radio which went on to result in 20 million streams online before the release of a debut album. It’s an impressive feat and when asked if it was something they could have ever expected to happen already Victor immediately goes, “No!”, with a big grin on his face. “We got very lucky and we’re very grateful to be where we are.”
A further highlight for Ritchie was when they had the opportunity to tour with iconic glam metal band STEEL PANTHER, a time that he looks back on fondly. “It was so awesome, that was probably one of our most fun tours. It was just us and them the whole time, they’re really great guys and we had a lot of fun with banter back and forth, we would do little bits onstage that would continue on after in the van sometimes. It was just really cool.”
Despite the intensity of releasing an album and going on tour, there’s nothing slowing ANY GIVEN SIN down with Ritchie alluding to the idea that, after finishing several tours and festival appearances in October, they are likely to be back in the studio writing for their next album. But now that War Within is now out for the world to hear, and they’ve had a moment to take everything all in, how are they feeling now? “We’re really excited, we’ve already got a lot of love and people saying really great things about it, so that makes us feel really good. It’s been a long time coming and we’re happy to finally have it out.”
War Within is out now via Mascot Records.
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