INTERVIEW: Crevassian
The amount of quality, homegrown bands here in the UK has skyrocketed in recent years. Our small island has always held a certain pedigree when it comes to groundbreaking bands and 2018 has seen numerous emerging talent burst onto the scene. CREVASSIAN are one such band. Pulling influence from the likes of CLOUDKICKER, UNEVEN STRUCTURE and THIS WILL DESTROY YOU, this London-based quartet are forging a wickedly delightful soundscape of instrumental post-metal with their debut self-titled EP. Following its release, we sat down with guitarist James Humphries, drummer Nick Povey and bassist Luke Fabian from the band to lift the lid on their expansive sound as well as talking about their origins, influence and what the future brings for this promising outfit.
So, you have arrived with your self-titled EP. For those who may not be familiar with your sound, please describe what people can expect to hear on the record?
Luke: One that mixes elements of post metal, progressive metal and post rock. The songs are primarily riff based, but we tried to complement and enhance the heaviness of our sound, with melancholic atmospheres and tense / emotive moods. Our music has been described as ‘Icy’ and ‘Cinematic’, which on reflection, is very accurate. Oh, and expect to hear, no vocals.
This debut offering arrives three years after you formed. Can you explain the origins of the band?
Luke: Nick (drummer) and James (rhythm guitarist) met online, with a mutual wish to create MIROIST and CLOUDKICKER worship. Turned out they were both Croydon lads, and began jamming and writing together. Gigging, recording and the current line up, all happened along the way, but that was the genesis of the band.
As mentioned, this EP has been three years in the making. Can you explain the process of writing and recording this EP?
Luke: So the EP is about half and half of newer and oldest material. Summit was actually the first song written by Nick and James. Those Forever Ghost was written in this initial stage as well, whereas Tempest and Firmament were written as a full line-up.
Nick and James typically get a song to a demo stage and then bring in myself (bass), and at the time of writing and recording the EP, George (lead guitar). I had auditioned and then following that brought in George who I had played with in our previous band HANDS OF A SAVIOUR. George self-admittedly was not looking to play shreddy and highly technical guitar, so we brought him in to add minimalistic and creative leads (previously played on backing tracks). At this point, the songs began to sound as they do on the EP. George decided to leave the band after the EP was recorded to focus on solo material, at which point we recruited our new lead guitarist Cody, a friend of Nick‘s.
The drums and bass were tracked together live with Mike Malyan (ex-DISPERSE, THE ALGORITHM, MONUMENTS), which was an awesome and challenging experience, for both engineer and performer. The gamble was worth it however, as there is a really human lock between the bass and drums – it really drives the EP, with the grooves in Summit as a great example. The guitars we tracked ourselves, and then we approached Maxi Curnow for mixing and mastering, who was recommended to us by Mike!
And by taking longer to write and release this EP instead of rushing one out, do you think it has allowed you to really refine the sound of Crevassian?
Nick: I would say that’s accurate. We’d written enough songs to be able to choose at that point, but the singles that preceded the EP, which we released as stand alone tracks, were actually newer songs, so the trajectory wasn’t linear.
Across the record’s four tracks, there’s a wide range of various sounds and movements. Can you shed some light on your musical influences and how they have influenced the sound of the band?
Nick: Well as mentioned, MIROIST and CLOUDKICKER are big for us. UNEVEN STRUCTURE is probably the biggest influence on the EP’s material. In particular, the album Februus. It’s a masterpiece and our band wouldn’t exist without it. Our influences as individuals are more eclectic but the way the EP sounds is definitely informed by those bands predominantly.
By operating as an instrumental band, what are the benefits this brings to how you craft music?
Nick: I think you can afford to be a bit more intricate musically. The beauty of instrumental music is also that it doesn’t prescribe you a narrative, it doesn’t tell you how and what to feel, which can enhance the subjective relationship you have with it.
And on the flipside, are there any challenges you face when creating music without vocals?
Nick: A lot of people just aren’t interested in instrumental music, which is fine. It’s not for everyone and a different kind of experience. Arranging songs is also harder as you haven’t got the vocals to base it around.
This debut EP arrives as we close the book on a brilliant year for metal, especially for the UK scene. Do you think that you’ve arrived on the scene at the perfect time?
Nick: We hope other people think so! We were sitting on the EP for a while to try and get everything done properly. And it definitely has been a great year.
And with the scene firing on all cylinders, what are the benefits this brings to you moving forward?
Nick: Hopefully, more gigs and people listening to and talking about our music, which is the most important thing really.
Performing music of this calibre live can often bring a whole host of challenges. How do you go about performing live and what are the benefits it brings to performing this style of music in a live setting?
Nick: We haven’t approached it any particular way. We just practice individually, then practice together when we can and play. We were originally trying to play with a live backing track and click but we opted to abandon that because we didn’t want technical difficulties to get in the way of the performance, for the crowd and us both. As a drummer I found playing to a click live with other musicians to take me out of the moment which makes it less fun. We try to get tight enough so that it doesn’t matter, which is always a work in progress.
Having shared the stage with the likes of HARBINGER, CORE OF IO, ARCAEON and so forth, moving forward, are there any bands in particular you’d love to perform with?
James: I think UNEVEN STRUCTURE is the dream! Atmospheres are a band we’d love to play with too.
So moving forward now that the EP has been released, what are the plans for CREVASSIAN? Do you have much touring in the works or is the focus to create a full-length record?
James: We’re probably going to do a mixture of gigging and writing. We want to write much more collectively now and are all excited to see which new place we’re taken by that process.
To close, we’ll offer you the floor. Do you have anything to say to the readers of Distorted Sound?
Nick: Thanks for reading, and if you’re interested, curious or bored please listen to our music and buy the EP on bandcamp. We’re on all the streaming platforms but buying the EP from bandcamp is the best way to support us at the moment. Also make sure you keep updated on Instagram and Facebook.
Crevassian is out now via self-release.
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