It's time for another Jam Sessions Q&A! This week we interviewed Hardcore/Metal Band, Trigger Warning! Band members Nigel, Ethan, Ryan, and Mike all participated in the interview.
1)Who are your biggest musical influences?
N) I come from a musical background spanning many different genres. I started off listening to music like System of a Down when i was 7 till I hit my teen years, then I went through this phase of listening to Arctic Monkeys and other Indie artists. To this day I still love to listen to Indie. Before I joined Trigger Warning I started to get into metalcore and post-hardcore such as The Amity Affliction, Issues, I See Stars and Architects.
E) I grew up with a lot of Classic Rock which consisted significantly of artists like the Beatles, Rush, INXS and Dave Matthews Band who were some big influences to me as a child, but in the past couple years or so I've discovered a lot more musical variety and some of my biggest influences today include Radiohead, Muse, The Killers, Crooks UK and Twenty One Pilots
R) Coming from a musical family, I was exposed to a wide variety of music from a young age. It started with some pop/rock/jazz as my parents would always play artists like Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Simon and Garfunkel, etc. Once I started drumming, classic rock really stood out to me. Especially the Beatles. I also really liked bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Who, the Clash, Black Sabbath, Rush, etc. As I got older, I started getting into grungier/alternative rock bands like Nirvana, the Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Muse, etc. These bands had a huge impact on me as a musician and my drumming style. About a year ago, I started getting into some heavier/more progressive bands such as CHON, Plini, Polyphia, Animals as Leaders, System of a Down, Intervals, Sithu Aye, Scale the Summit, Enemies, Issues, Crooks UK, Periphery, etc. You can hear the influence of these bands greatly in our song Terra off of Self Accusations. I have also recently been listening to and practicing a lot of jazz. Artists such as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Tigran Hamasyan, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans have been really influencing my drumming, and the kind of material I’ve been working on recently.
M) I started listening to classic rock and metal from a young age. So bands such as Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc.. Were a huge inspiration to me as a young musician as they would inspire any young kid to pick up a guitar and jam. As time went on I was getting into heavier music like Protest the Hero, Sevendust, Tesseract, and Periphery. Arriving at highschool I opened up my musical palette finding myself listening to more Post/Hardcore, Metalcore and Deathcore acts such as, The Amity Affliction, Architects, Parkway Drive, Chelsea Grin, Beartooth, Pierce The Veil and Whitechapel. Now that highschool is ending for me I am listening to more Jazz and Hardcore music. Some Jazz artists I listen to are Dave Brubeck, Avishai Cohen, Ali Di Meola, etc...Some Hardcore, Progressive Music and Metal acts I listen to are, Animals As Leaders, CHON, Polyphia, Being as an Ocean, Stick To Your Guns, Crooks UK, Wage War, I See Stars
2) What do you love most about performing?
N) I love the adrenaline you get before you go on the stage to perform and when the crowd is loving the music you are playing, it just adds to the performance. Its awesome when people have fun with the music and just go wild.
E) I love being able to just be yourself and unleash yourself on stage and show people what you've worked on and what you do think the thing I love most about performing is the feeling best.
R) The thing I love most about performing is the feeling. It feels so awesome to know that all your years of hard work, dedication, and practice aren’t in vain. Being able to unleash everything that you’ve worked so hard to perfect, both individually and as a band and have the audience enjoy it is really an amazing feeling.
M) I love the feeling of playing to my full ability and having fun on stage. Everything about live performance gets me hyped and excited. Being able to communicate with the audience. Having that band to fan connection is what live performance is all about and I know how it feels to watch a band perform so the fact that i provide that to people makes me feel amazing. I see myself as a viewer in the audience's eyes.
3) If you could play anywhere in the world, where would it be?
N) That’s a hard question considering I haven’t been to many places but I think Australia would be insane to play because the metalcore/hardcore scene is booming out there.
E) Probably Japan just because it's such a cool place and bands always seem to have fun playing in Japan.
R) I’ve always dreamed of playing a big stadium for thousands of people. I feel like that would be really surreal. I’d love to play some place like the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre or Wembley Stadium in London or something one day, That would be awesome!
M) I would want to play Australia because it is such a welcoming place for metal acts such as us.
4) Congratulations on the EP, Self-Accusations! What can you tell us about it?
N) This was a very fun and inspiring record to create. A little fun fact about the song “Trial & Error” is that Mike and I were hanging out listening to some old demos he wrote over the years. “Trial & Error” was one of his earliest demo’s. I was blown away by how emotional the song sounded, even though it was instrumental. It’s huge chorus just makes you feel a certain way that leaves a lasting impression. So I immediately told him that we definitely have to remake it because it’s not worth leaving a gem like “Trial & Error” behind. After adding vocals and rewriting some parts. We decided it should be on the EP and “Trial & Error” ended up being a fan favourite!
E) The working title for “RED” was “The Red Light Means Go” and we wrote “Objects In The Mirror” on April 3rd 2016. We only had one more song optioned for this EP called “Fall With Grace” but we didn't end up recording it. We may redo it for a next release.
R) Making Self-Accusations was a really fun experience! A lot of the songs were remakes of our older material. The stuff we used to play was a lot softer than now. We used to cover bands like Muse, Foo Fighters, Zeppelin, The Eagles, Rush, etc. Lots of classic rock and alternative rock stuff. For Self-Accusations, we got all of these old, alternative rock songs we wrote and sorta revamped them, making them heavier, as well as changing some of the parts to fit our new style. You can still hear some of these alternative rock influences in some of the songs. For example, the opening riff to Objects In The Mirror.
M) It was fully self produced! Everything was tracked in my basement and produced by Nigel and I. Since it is our “demo” i'm glad that it has very good quality and is put together just how we wanted.
5) Do you have a favorite song on the EP?
N) I enjoy every song, but if I had to choose, I would choose RED.
E) I think Trial & Error has a great chorus but my personal favourite song is Objects In The Mirror (Are Closer Than They Appear) because as a whole I think it sums up what we are as a band, it has a little bit of everything.
R) For me, it’s hard to choose a favorite since all of the songs have some sort of significance towards the band and our evolution. From a player’s perspective, Trial and Error is a super fun one to jam to. Although, as a whole, I really dig Objects In The Mirror, for pretty much the same reason as Ethan. It sort of molds our old style with our new in a way that’s super catchy and fun to play.
M) My favourite song on the EP is a tie between RED and Trial & Error. I also enjoy each song because of the certain things that differentiate them from each other.
6) Is there anything you would like to say to your fans/followers?
N) I would just like to say thank you to all those who enjoy the music we put out. It really motivates us and puts a smile on my face that we can all get together and enjoy this beautiful thing we call music. I love you guys and I hope you guys are excited for what’s coming up next.
E) Keep encouraging us and more music will be on it’s way.
R) I’d like to say a huge thank you to all our fans and followers! It is a great feeling to know that our music is being heard and enjoyed by many! Your support motivates and drives us to create new, and better music for all of you! New music is on its way and we promise it won't disappoint you!
M) Thank you very much for keeping good music alive! Huge thanks to everyone who bought our EP! More music will definitely be on its way!
Don't forget to follow Trigger Warning on social media and check out their stuff!
Twitter: @TW_OfficialCAN
Instagram: @triggerwarningband
