Protest The Hero: With A Little Help From My Friends
Throughout their career Canadian progressive metal darlings, PROTEST THE HERO have been relatively consistent in their output. However, during the celebrations of their 10-year anniversary tour for their much acclaimed Fortress album, frontman Rody Walker encountered a concerning diagnosis regarding his health, which if not treated or cared for, could have had severe consequences for his future in music. Thankfully he was able to take the necessary precautions and navigate his way through 2020’s Palimpsest release.
“I was diagnosed with Colitis during the tour and I had a lot of extra intestinal inflammation in my joints and shit like that but also in my throat which is what was causing me the trouble. I’m on some medication now that’s probably going to give me cancer and kill me but it’s fixing my problems!”
Following on from this effort they pretty much started work right away on the follow-up, what we now know to be entitled Within. “We got this idea in our heads that we were going to start releasing shit all the time and weirdly it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long but six years is a long time!” Declares Rody. “It’s a fucking eternity in the music landscape. I don’t really know where that time went but a lot of us are fathers now and we’ve all got other businesses to run and the music just kind of fell by the wayside but we were always working on it in some capacity and I’m really happy with the result. My wife definitely helped me come up with the title as we had developed the concept and we were just sort of talking back and forth and she suggested using the Hermetic Maxim.”
“Everyone has heard of ‘as above, so below’ but it’s not often you hear people mention ‘as within, so without’ and that fit well into the polarising ideas which are discussed throughout the album. It was also just one of those nice album titles which just felt right and for once it was a title which is easily pronounced! Sometimes I’m writing out the descriptions of how the titles relate to the record and it sounds so pretentious or over intellectualised. This time it’s just the concept about how each of our inner worlds are affected by the larger outer world and how that relates to myself specifically.”
With the sheer level of media circulating at any one time, unfortunately we can encounter some level of crossover. Rody wasn’t particularly delighted to discover he had become victim of such circumstances. “The Mariner was inspired by the Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, which is an ancient ass old poem and that’s where the albatross around the neck comes from. I don’t want to expose too much of my thinking as I want people to dig into it, TAYLOR SWIFT style! Grandfather’s Axe is a similar concept to Theseus’ ship. I was watching one of the stupid, fucking Marvel shows and one of the dumbass characters pretty much explained the concept of Theseus’ ship and I was like ‘fuck!’, I’d already titled the song and the philosophy of it conceptually flows through the song and I’m going to have all these basement dwelling Marvel fans coming at me so I had to find something different to call it. Luke came up with a good idea with the same concept about parts being replaced one after another and that is where Grandfather’s Axe was born.”
PROTEST THE HERO have dabbled with DIY based projects in the past, such as their crowdfunded Volition album and their staggered, subscription-based model for EP Pacific Myth, where they engaged closely with their fans and asked them what they would like to hear. Within is their first fully independent release and this looks to be the adopted approach for future works. “One of the main reasons which inspired us to do this is that we’ve been signed to so many different labels throughout the years and we don’t know who owns what anymore. It’s all over the place and everyone is confused,” sighs Rody.
“If you go on your Apple Music or Spotify or whatever, some stuff is down and the pages are a mess. We’re sick of it. Our whole business kind of feels like that and it’s not anyone’s fault but ours but we really want to take it all back into our hands. We’ve put a lot of work in releasing this album independently and we’re going to continue to work this way. It’s make or break for us. It’s either going to inspire us and we’re going to continue going forever or fucking absolutely shatter us to pieces. We’re busier than I think any of us anticipated but we’re having fun. We’ve had a lot of bad advice over the years and signed some deals that probably weren’t the best for us. We just want to clean it all up and do it right. We wish we could have done this from the start. Not to throw any shade at any of the labels we’ve worked with as they all helped us get to where we are and we’ve met a lot of wonderful people through that process that has helped us grow our band but we look at the likes of INTERVALS who have been independent since day one and we’re jealous as hell!”
Longtime collaborator Jadea Kelly returns to lend her graceful tones to Within, featuring on the track The Orchard. “Almost every time I’m writing there is a little part during the project where I immediately think ‘this is for Jadea‘,” grins Rody. “Initially that part in The Orchard included myself as well and I sang an octave below her and when I listened back my voice actually cheapened it. She’s done a beautiful job yet again and it creates such an amazing moment in the song. I love having her on our records and I don’t ever want to have a record without her again.”
Rody has overcome many an obstacle throughout his musical career, some which have threatened to derail his passion and have forced him to rethink his approach to performing to ensure he can continue to follow his dream. If anything, they have only made him more determined to succeed. “I don’t really want to do anything else. Creating has always been so fun for me. I don’t care if it’s drawing a picture with my son or making something, the most rewarding thing in my life is having the opportunity to make music people give a shit about, even though it’s fairly niche. It’s a gift horse whose mouth I will not look inside!”
Within is available now via self-release. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS131 here.
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