Following on from our review of ‘What Burns Beneath‘, from We Feed Alone, we’ve asked the band some questions, to find out what truly makes them tick.
Who are your biggest music influences?
Hey EssentiallyPop, so nice to talk with you! Our biggest influences would have to include most of the stuff we grew up on. This includes things like Nine Inch Nails, Alice In Chains, and Tool. I also must include the great stuff that our parents exposed us to like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Electric Light Orchestra, and so on. Things are a little more eclectic now. I love the stuff Puscifer is putting out, such a cool sounding band. I dig into as much stuff as I can and how I’m feeling at the moment. Stuff from my playlist includes Phil Collins/Genesis, to Ghostemane, to Massive Attack, to Freddie King, to Kesha, and on and on.
What was the catalyst that brought you all together to form We Feed Alone?
We Feed Alone is combination of artists who have a lot of history playing together, plus the invitation for new collaborators as was done in a few recent singles. After a hiatus due to our busy lives I (Eric Straton) became inspired to start recording drums on my own. It was a very simple and fun time. All I wanted to do was record drums and make them sound as good as I could. All sorts of different experiments with room acoustics, mics, mixing techniques. This is as the heart of everything and is a continuous journey and always improving. As things started coming together, I naturally started adding things like drones and ambient noises, then some guitar. All the while I was sharing what I was doing and I think I sparked something in all of us to record more complete songs together. It’s been nice and somewhat unexpected.
What has been your proudest moment as a band so far?
Our newest release is a proud moment, and the next one will be too! “What Burns Beneath” is a proud moment because we self wrote, recorded, and produced both the song and the video. It’s quite an accomplishment, especially when it’s all self made.
What can you tell us about your latest release, ‘What Burns Beneath’? What was the inspiration behind it?
It started as a drum beat. It was actually a drum beat I was messing around with to make a remix of ‘Hold My Liquor’, by Kanye West, something a friend challenged me to do. It was cool, but I didn’t really have big plans for it. I liked the beat, and another guitar groove I was working on just slid right into place over the beat. It just sort of wrote itself from there. Doug Wagner began getting involved with the bass and finished the song with beautiful lyrics and vocals. Lyrically, this song tells a story of fated love. Two souls eternally bound, to find one another both in the living world, and the afterlife. Inspiration was personal, and later developed through historical study of the ancient Aztec legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.
How personal is the song to you? Is there a particular line that holds the most meaning?
I can only speak for the music, though I do know that the lyrics are very personal to Doug. For the music, the second half of the song is very powerful to me because I honestly don’t know where the guitar and bass groove came from. Maybe it was accident, but I’d like to think something more supernatural. It certainly makes it fun to listen to since I feel like more of a listener than a creator. Very cool experience.
How do you approach directing music videos? How does it differ creatively from writing music?
This video has a lot of original video from when we were recording the song so I can’t really say there was too much intentional directing. We did add some additional footage that each of us did independently and we tried to add by capturing the feeling of writing the song. Doug has some footage of him singing in his car, since that’s the way he works a lot of the time. Driving around listening to the track and working on ideas.
Is there any advice you would offer to newer artists?
I’ve found that whenever I work with a teacher, or mentor, or whatever you want to call it, I get significantly better results. Over the past few years I’ve been working with Ryan Earnhardt (Creative Sound Lab) who has helped me tremendously with my studio skills and also helped me get into video. I’m also currently working with John Falstrom (EADG4) to better understand bass and music theory.
What are you guys working on next?
Several new singles in the works. Three are very close to finished and so many more ideas. We’re focusing on singles at the moment. It’s more fun to us and gives us an opportunity to celebrate each song as we finish them. It really gives us time to explore sounds and improvements without fear that each song will sound too different to be on a single album. I’m sure they would work just fine on an album, but this makes sense right now.
Watch the music video for ‘What Burns Beneath’ below, and find out more about We Feed Alone and their music online on their official website, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
