Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. This week, Oceans Ate Alaska answered our questions regarding everything about their upcoming album: the recording process, the sound of particular tracks, and the return of original vocalist James Harrison. Oceans Ate Alaska‘s new album, Disparity, is due for release on Thursday, September 1st.
Obviously, James has returned to the band. What effect did that have on the direction of this new record?
Jibs – We had the instrumental written for quite a while prior to us guys reconnecting, so in that area I guess it was a continuation of our personal growth as composers. What’s been interesting about having James back on board is that original process that we had back with ‘Lost Isles‘ – it feels similar in a way, only difference being that we are older and maybe a bit more mature (well maybe not so much haha). I think we are always going to be a band of individuals, some of us have a clear understanding of another’s work ethic; James definitely has his own style that creates different dynamics throughout the album. It’s fun to see that movement. Sometimes he sees things we don’t, and vice versa!
This is by far your most diverse album despite being the shortest. Did that wide array of sounds come about organically, or was that variety the intention from the outset?
Jibs – Thanks! There’s definitely never anything forced with OAA. Chris had some strong feelings of incorporating Grime samples throughout the album, there were a lot of Lo-fi sample banks stored up with one of our producers ‘Clem Cherry‘ that did stick out as well. There’s also this fundamental love of deathcore across all members which seems to have shaped this sonically rich listening experience. All of our writing sessions conclude in various ways (highs and some tremendous lows) but we never leave a song not stoked on trying to listen to it ourselves as a consumer. If we aren’t jumping up and down throughout the track it just ain’t the one!
I think this is by far your tightest and most mature record; do you consider this your best work?
Jibs – Tough question but let’s say fuck yeah for the breakdowns.
Disparity sees a departure from the Japanese instruments that characterized Hikari. Was that always intended as a one-and-done theme, or did the soundscape of this record just naturally take on a life of its own?
Jibs – I guess this question was kind of answered above haha. I think we will always have a special place in our hearts for Japan and Japanese culture. What we did with ‘Hikari‘ again came from what made us excited at the time, Chris had some amazing ideas and it was just moving day by day. I think to try revisit that may become forced, which we want to avoid obviously. Living in the present boi!
Hikari kind of kickstarted this trend of Japanese culture influencing metalcore. What do you think of the takes on that by the likes of Within Destruction and Desolate?
Jibs – We love to inspire and get people talking. Who knows for sure whether we started it or not but if people are getting excited about it and it makes them want to make music then hell yeah!
Disparity flows magnificently, and “New Dawn” sits perfectly in the tracklist, but at first I did expect it to be the opener. Was that something you guys ever considered?
Jibs – Maybe for a live set but as for the album placement, not so much. Sometimes its too easy to allow these kind of tracks to take on a role that’s almost been designated by the industry itself. Again, not to bang on about the ‘need to do what makes us personally excited’; but when we are aligning these tracks we are trying to catch a vibe. “New Dawn” gave the dynamic flow of the album exactly what it needed at that particular moment – we have a checklist but it’s only by our own standards and expectations of what the listening experience is like. In short – that shit goes where we want it to go!
“Nova” is structurally super interesting. What was the thinking behind releasing it as a single?
Jibs – You think? To us it’s quite formulaic in that we setup the track with a motif (the intro if you like) take the melodic/rhythmic themes to create a verse, sub sections to vary the flow, (repeat a couple times for continuity) fuck everyone up 2/3rds of the way with a breakdown then end it on a big sing along high! Maybe we see things differently but that screams single to us!
The artwork is very abstract compared to Hikari and Lost Isles. What was your intention with that, and how do you see it as relating to the record as a whole?
Jibs – Disparity (by google definition) stands for ‘a great difference’. There’s a lot of ‘dystopian world’ themes and stories lyrically in this album, we wanted a strong image that never completes itself in a technical sense (as a metaphor for the multidimensional ways of looking at the world) but differs greatly in colour. There’s darker tracks and more uplifting tracks, you think you’ve scratched one surface but actually opened up a whole other world.
Chris, you’re one of the foremost drummers in the scene. When you were getting into music, was there any drummer who was a particular influence on your playing style?
Chris – I’ve always been intrigued by co-ordination and freedom behind the kit, so when I first saw Thomas Lang I was in awe! He definitely inspired a lot of my playing today. Now I tend to blend these core principles with powerful playing.
Who would you say is your favourite artist that people would be surprised to hear you like?
Mike – Hmmm, as a band? Whenever J. Cole goes on when we are travelling from show to show you better believe we all lose our minds to his track “No Role Modelz“.
After such a long delay between “Metamorph” and the album release, what was the motivation behind essentially surprise dropping the album? (It being announced only weeks in advance)
Mike – It’s taken us a while to weave in and out of the COVID pandemic, so ideally this wasn’t what we planned. Enough time has passed now however and as much as we love getting people amped up everyone just wants to hear some tunes!
You played a handful of shows in June and have a UK tour lined up for September. How does it feel to be playing live again?
Jibs – Fucking awesome, we love ripping shows and meeting old and new fans alike. If everyone likes ‘Disparity‘ you will be seeing more of us around the world!
What gear are you rocking for live performances these days?
Jibs – Chris is still smashing his DW drums, accompanied by Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth sticks. For guitars and bass we’ve actually taken a step into the future and all run Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex!
Are there any tracks from Disparity you’re particularly looking forward to playing live?
James – “Paradigm” is going to be fun as the track has on upbeat energy to it, plus the breakdown is heavy and should get the moshers going! We’ve struggled choosing which songs we wanted to play as most of the tracks could be singles themselves, there’s something different in all of them which makes for a challenge in performance!
If I’m not mistaken, there is a certain vocal feature on “Dead Behind The Eyes” (Eric Vanlerberghe of I Prevail). How did that come about?
Jibs – We are friends with Eric! We’ve played a few shows here and there with I Prevail and always chatted about our mutual love for super heavy music. Chris spoke with him for a short while about doing a guest feature and he was all about that! The rest was history and Eric threw down some pure filth on that track haha!
James, your vocals – both cleans and uncleans – sound better than ever. Was that something you deliberately worked on during your time away from the band?
James – I actually had trouble trying to inject time into my voice, especially during the pandemic. I live in an apartment so things are tricky with noise etc, I did what I could but when it came to recording time I tried to clue myself up as best I could with music studies (theory, self recording) prior to tracking sessions. Working with Chris who engineered the vocals was a big step forward though, we didn’t have to worry about time constraints as much which meant we could nail the parts. There were a lot of sessions where the other guys would join as well and offer their thoughts on things which just made for a more collaborative process!
Considering how intricate and intense OAA’s style is, what is your general compositional process? Do you have a ton of ideas for the individual instrument layers and see what flows well together, or is it more targeted than that?
Jibs – It’s very scattered in the earlier days of settling on some general direction, which as I mentioned earlier on has to start from somewhere natural, and so far we’ve always managed to land on something haha! If it’s a sample intro then generally we try and decide what feel we are hearing rhythmically and curate some ideas of potential parts that could be played over it, usually there’s a lot of bullshitting with melodies and motifs and we back and forth until something sticks. From there it’s a development process, and it takes some-time to really dive into something unique but no song is ever created the same. Once there’s some shape forming between the tracks it’s a case of looking what each track achieves and saying to ourselves ‘what do we need more of/less of’ ‘does this song belong here?’ etc etc. Every step of the creating process goes through a lot of screening to make sure we have maximised the albums potential.
Which song was the most difficult to track, and why?
Chris – Every song has a section or two that is challenging for me to really nail, so it’s hard to pick just one. However I can give some parts that really stand out to me, such as the intro’s to “Dead Behind The Eyes” and “Plague Speech” and some of the footwork in “Sol“.
Jibs – All of them haha, they all fucking sucked hahaha!
How was it self-producing the album?
Chris – Some people self-produce as they’re afraid of accepting other people’s comments and opinions on their music – but that’s not the case here. I make sure everyone’s opinion is heard and is trialed to get the best results possible. The reason I self-produce is to enable a stress free environment to trial and error every idea without being on the clock. Plus I’m a massive perfectionist, so once we are settled on an idea, I enjoy being able to really polish it.
With Hikari, I know you recorded entirely MIDI-free. Was that the same case with this record?
Jibs – When it’s in Chris‘s hands then there is definitely no MIDI haha. Clem is a magician and does use MIDI for the Lo-fi samples but that guy has so much to offer it’s hard to say what he doesn’t use!
Are there any plans for an instrumental version of the release, like with Hikari and Lost Isles?
Most likely!
Now that you’ve been able to get back into the rhythm as a band, have you started thinking about what comes next?
I think across the board we just want to see cool parts of the world again and meet new people, music has a great way of connecting you with others in a way you cant grasp over things like social media – so hopefully the shows start rolling in and we’ll be playing in a town by every one of you soon!
Many thanks to Oceans Ate Alaska for sitting down and asking our questions about the new album, and make sure to check out our full review of Disparity! For all things OAA, progressive metalcore, and the UK core scene, keep it locked on Boolin Tunes.