INTERVIEW: Colin Young – Twitching Tongues

TWITCHING TONGUES have exploded in size over the past several years. With their new record, Disharmony, ready to be released October 30th, Distorted Sound’s Jessica managed to sit and have a chat with front-man Colin Young about the record and what it means to the band.

I’m Jessica and I’m going to be interviewing you today for Distorted Sound about your upcoming record, Disharmony, first thing is first though – how are you?

Colin: I’m great, how are you?

I’m wonderful thank you. So, tell me about Disharmony, it’s your first debut record with Metal Blade, how does that make you feel?

Colin: It’s a pretty surreal thing, considering this is our third record but the first one with actual worldwide distribution. Knowing that now we’re just a few days away from it being released is a pretty insane feeling.

You have gained an incredible fan-base with your past two records, do you think being signed to Metal Blade will help push your popularity even more forward?

Colin: That’s definitely the goal! It definitely opens some doors in terms of tours we can do and opportunities we might not have had before. The Metal Blade name as a prestigious entity will alone kind of will make people who have not checked us out before, give it a chance.

Do you think Disharmony is a lot more ambitious than your previous records, due to being signed with Metal Blade?

Colin: I think regardless of whether or not we would have gone with Metal Blade, we knew that we couldn’t write the same record again and we had to kind of trust our basic instincts and not deny ourselves. We really just wanted to trust in our first instincts to write the most craziest and most interesting of songs that we think we most possibly could at this time. It wasn’t so much a conscious effort to be more ambitious, it was just us really, truly being ourselves musically.

So do you think that helped you guys merge even closer as a band, being able to focus more on this record, as like you just said, trusting your instincts?

Colin: Yeah! Let’s say before, I wonder if this band can be something that sustains us and now it’s just like, it really seems like a possibility and its crunch time. It’s time for us to everything that we possibly can and not really shut ourselves out to opportunities that may come. I would definitely say that as an entity, it feels more real now.

What was the influence behind Disharmony?

Colin: Woah! Musically, we kind of wanted to build off of our previous records and definitely, consciously heading towards a heavier direction all round. We wanted to implement new things, I wanted to make it feel like a complete cinematic experience which is why it both starts and ends with these big kind of epic synth parts, to just form this one big cohesive album, a full album experience that we have never really had before. Lyrically, it was all just the past two years of my life, personally just coming into song form one by one. I was just spilling out all these things that I was feeling for so long and things that had hit me recently. It’s a crazy experience to feel something so strongly and then once it becomes just a piece of art, just kind of like leaves my system and doesn’t become something that I think about.

Do you think that the personal side will help the fans as well with their own struggles?

Colin: I definitely hope so, if one person tells me that they can really relate to this then I feel like I have done what I was supposed to do, it is a very rewarding feeling.

I can imagine so. Is there a track on the album that you’re most proud of?

Colin: The last song Crucifixion is definitely one of my favourite songs that we have ever written, it started backwards, I was just in a dark place mentally and ended up writing the keyboard part at the end and then we worked from there. By the end, it felt like a deserving closer of the album that we were so proud of.

Did writing Disharmony manage to give you a lot of closure on the personal issues that were happening in your life?

Colin: Absolutely, like I said these things that will weigh on me for months at a time, leave my system and become part of a song and no longer a thing that affects me every day. It absolutely provides closure, I don’t have to deal with it anymore and singing them as pieces of art, doesn’t bring those feelings back because it lives in that and no longer in me, if that makes sense.

You describe Disharmony as art, do you believe that your previous releases are too?

Colin: Yeah, I would say that music is poetry being sung. Our first record was an entirely different thing and so was our second one, they all make me feel different things so far. They provide different senses of nostalgia, some bittersweet. Now the new one really feels like something I can be proud of for the rest of my life.

Are you excited for your tour coming up to support Disharmony?

Colin: Yeah, HARMS WAY is a band that we have been close to for several years now and we’ve been talking about doing a U.S. tour with them and the stars never aligned and now it’s time. It feels super great, we’re both super excited for it and I think it will be our best North American tour yet.

From what I have seen through videos, you seem to put on a good show, what track from Disharmony do you think will be a fan favourite live?

Colin: I’m hoping the first three are. They really translate well to a live audience since they were written with that in mind because of how important crowd participation is to me while we play. I just envisioned those as we was recording them songs that people would enjoy getting their kicks out to live, literally.

What’s next for TWITCHING TONGUES after the release and tour?

Colin – We’re doing Europe in January on the Persistence Tour and then the UK with TERROR and WISDOM IN CHAINS and then we’re kind of just going to keep going. This is going to be our busiest year of touring yet, we’ll only stop for weeks at a time and then we’ll keep going back out with different bands. We’ve got a couple of things being developed right now where if they work out, we’ll be really excited to play.

Thank you taking the time out of your day to talk to me for Distorted Sound, I hope your tour and the release go excellent for you!

Colin: Thank you! Have a nice day!

Disharmony is set for release on October 30th via Metal Blade Records.