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, Max and Joe spoke with Keaton Goldwire of Invent Animate to discuss all things Heavener, their new album due out March 17th via UNFD.
Max: Heavener is due out soon, how are you feeling going into the release?
Keaton: I try not to get like too worked up or anything. Someone asked me the other day when it was coming out, and I was like, I actually don’t think I know the date. [I suppose] you could do look at that as being irresponsible, or I’m just too cool.
Powered by RedCircle
Max: There was a big lead time between “Shade Astray” and “Elysium”, and then the album announcements, so it’s probably been the most hard-to-keep secret for you guys for the past three months, as well as since recording began.
Keaton: Caleb and I started writing “Shade Astray“, almost two years ago now or something. As long as it feels for everyone else, it’s way, way longer for us. There [are] some songs on the record now that are even older than two years, I think. At least like the first version of it, it’s [been a] super, super long time coming.
Max: What would you think the fan favourites would be on the record?
Keaton: “False Meridian” would, and it’s just it’s one of those songs where it’s just [a banger]. “Purity Weeps“, obviously, now that we’re talking about it’s probably one of the slammers, although I think that those two songs are the ones that people are going to be like [the most].
Max: On guitar, you’ve opted for much lower tunings on Heavener, was there any intention with that?
Keaton: So with every record we do, there’s [a] mix of different things. Whatever it is, at the time is somewhat inspiring for us, I think [going] as low as like, we have songs and D#, E and D. It doesn’t go any higher than that. We did have a song in F, “Immolation of Night” was originally in F and we actually dropped that to E just to mesh better. All of these songs are in the lowest tunings that [we’ve had], and it just kind of opens up doors for us to lean into doing a heavier approach, also exploring how we can use that like super heavy [style] over [the] ambient songs that are on the record.
Max: There’s a nice dynamic contrast on all the stuff in Heavener, I think the low tuned guitars really help add this like extra texture. They’re being used in a way that not enough people use.
Keaton: Right, and that was kind of a challenge to it, you know? As we talked about “Purity [Weeps]“, we were writing that song, and going into it I was like, ‘I’m gonna see how I can make like this somewhat positive, cool feeling song’, because the whole record is pretty down. We are going to have a song that’s got like a cool, somewhat uplifting vibe. For the tuning that it was in, it felt kind of hard [at first], but going into it, that was my goal. I think it turned out pretty cool, and if I would have done that and like G# or something, it would have just sounded whatever.
Max: A lot of bands have trouble with when a new vocalist enters the fold. How do you jump from having the these two vocalists who have pretty different vocal styles? All in all, do we just ask him to do exactly what you wanted him to, or let him do his own thing? I think Northlane did that perfectly. After a while, I think Marcus came into his own.
On Greyview, and I wouldn’t call it a mistake, but we we definitely pushed him in a way that we thought we wanted him to sing. And, I don’t know, we just kind of let him do his thing this time. [Heavener] I think is much more suited [to] his voice and it just [worked out for the better].
Max: What themes are explored in the record, and particularly the next single “Without a Whisper”?
Keaton: It’s kind of like a collection of our stories, there’s definitely not [an overt] concept to it. [“Without A Whisper” is] kind of touching on how I feel about the afterlife, and stuff like that. It was really written in response [to] my grandmother passing away, and it was the first time I’ve like really been directly confronted with the fact that I’m not like a religious person or anything. So in her passing, [the song was written] about like, ‘I hope that she goes somewhere’. That is like heaven, or the idea of heaven.
Max: The artwork for the record is super pretty. Does it tie anything until like the overarching themes of the record?
Keaton: It’s not [super direct, it’s a] visual of what would heaven look like to me.
Joe: Is there a link between the artwork and the Everchanger artwork as well?
Keaton: We definitely thought should reuse that somehow. As much as I wish there was a really nice story and transition, it was just like, ‘let’s keep that idea and kind of bounce it over here‘. Hopefully people make some sort of connection, because it kind of feels like a journey.
Max: What has lead the inspiration behind the music videos?
Keaton: Chris Klump since the EP (2021’s The Sun Sleeps, As If It Never Was) has been shooting our stuff, so he’s responsible for everything. Making that switch to him was huge, because he’s just so good at taking our ideas and applying them, “Elysium” was based and structured more just about being kind of visually cool and fast moving, but “Immolation [of Night]” in particular was well thought out. A friend of his who’s a very good writer drafted up a screenplay. So, going into that, before even contacting him we had a story line written out and like a very detailed vibe sheet, with snippets of movies that we were interested in trying to convey. That’s the most prepared we’ve ever been for a video, and I think the result of that is from all the pre-planning, and also just that Chris rules.
Max: Do you have any more videos coming out?
Keaton: We do have another video coming out that’s very aesthetically cool, but it’s more just a performance video. We wanted to do like one that was performance, one that was strictly aesthetic, and then one that was kind of a mix of both, which was a “Elysium“.
Max: Was there any intention with playing “Immolation of Night” on tour?
Keaton: It was actually pushed back, I was like, “no, no, no, we have to save it“. The rest of the band was really was like “let’s just tease it. Let’s just go play it on this tour with a bunch of super heavy bands.” We were definitely the weenie band, and just throwing that on there, it was a cool little easter egg, and something for people to look forward to.
Max: Are there any more songs from the record that you’re planning on putting in a live setlist, or is that something you haven’t really discussed yet?
Keaton: We’ve got some stuff coming up later in the year and we’ve been just like, “Oh, it’s a bad or it’s a great issue to have“. We can’t really narrow down exactly what we want to play live just, because we’re always like, “Oh, this will be cool. This would be cool. Like, how much time do we have? How can we squeeze all this in?” It feels like our setlist will like transition pretty heavily to the new record. So we’ll probably be playing like four or five minimum on some of the smaller stuff, or if there’s any more time we’ll try to squeeze in some more. But yeah, some of the picks are “Void Surfacing“, and “False Meridian” sounds like a really fun one to play. Some of the heavier ones. “Labyrinthine” would be one, that’s what Brody wants to play, of course, because it’s drum heavy.
Max: How everything’s gonna play out over the next few months? Are you nervous?
Keaton: I’m really not even nervous this time around and I feel so good about it. This is the most amount of time we’ve had to sit and polish something. It feels for some reason, like the real beginning to our band, even though we’re so deep into this. We’ve been touring for eight years, the first song came out 2012 or around then. This just feels like the most real version of our band, for whatever reason, so I’m just excited to turn that page. I’m just like, full steam ahead from there. We do have some solid tours lined up and our next year is looking pretty solid. So, that’s mostly just what I’m looking forward to.
Max: How was it working with Landon Tewers on the record?
Keaton: Game changer, honestly. I had mentioned earlier that we found Marcus‘ pocket and a lot of that has to do with Landon. Landon and Marc surprisingly have this like similar timbre and ability in singing. So, going into the studio, obviously [we were] kind of nervous, Landon‘s approach to music is definitely super different compared to us. If you told a lot of people beforehand, like “oh, we’re going to work with Landon“, they would probably be scared, “Oh, you got to put like a pop ish record or something“. I just think he’s, perhaps, a genius. Marcus said he’s never found someone he’s more happy to work with. and I’ve heard him verbatim say that he will never work with anyone ever again.
Max: He was on a songwriting level was also on the sort of production level for this record as well, right?
Keaton: It was mostly mostly vocal production. If vocal parts did lead to song changes, structural changes, we definitely did stuff. I would say that, on that level, he did have some input for the better. For example, I don’t think “Shade Astray” would have been anywhere near the same song before if we hadn’t gone to Landon. [We’ve never been] a three chorus band, never. On the album, he forced us to like “let’s try this“, and [it worked], and the melodies are good enough to where I want to hear them that many times.
Invent Animate‘s brand new album Heavener drops this Friday, March 17th via UNFD, and you can find pre-orders for the record here.