[Editor’s Note: due to a technical fault, the audio/podcast version of this interview is unavailable.]
In recent years, it seems like it’s been less than ideal to be a member of Veil Of Maya. Not through any fault of the band itself or anyone within it, mind you, but it seems like the veteran progressive-core stalwarts have had a rough time getting to where they’re at now, and an even tougher time keeping their highly opinionated fanbase happy. The latter sentiment is a notion that guitarist Marc Okubo is intimately familiar with, one that he has been enduring for the many years following powerhouse vocalist Lukas Magyar’s entrance into the fold in 2014.
Through all of this – entire scrapped records, personal turmoil and a global pandemic to boot – Veil Of Maya seem to have waded through the murky waters of adversity and prevailed stronger than ever before. The impending release of the band’s long-awaited seventh studio album, [m]other, speaks to that too, as the lengthy five-year gap since False Idol finally comes to a close, ushering in a new chapter for the group at long last.
Let’s take a trip back in time, though. Back to 2014, as the band were left searching for a new vocalist amidst the unceremonious exit of vocalist Brandon Butler who, while he was not strictly their first vocalist, saw the group through their utmost formative years. By Okubo’s own admission, the band were already moving in a direction that planned to incorporate clean vocals, but through a unique approach to still facilitate Butler. “I was already writing that, the music was already done before Lukas [Magyar] had got there. We had already planned on having singing, but Brandon wasn’t the one to do it,” says Okubo. “So, we considered having our friends do the singing parts, and having cameos during that time.”
However, as Magyar caught wind of this opportunity, then standing as vocalist for a smaller group called Arms of Empire, he sent in an audition tape based on an instrumental demo from the group’s forthcoming album. What emerged from that audition was the band’s smash hit “Mikasa” – a song that Okubo claims changed very little from Magyar’s initial submission. “He hit up our manager when [he heard] Brandon [Butler] decided to leave. [Brandon changed] his job on Facebook, and then like the metal news sites picked up on it. Lukas saw that and he found our manager’s email and hit him up. Then, [our manager] sent him the instrumental, and then he sent back what became “Mikasa”, so that’s the story.”
Given their background at the time as a more deathcore-centric band, it’s less than surprising to discover that Okubo was quite nervous about ushering clean vocals into their sound. “I was kind of scared because it’s like, ‘oh, like people are gonna think we’re like, posers or, like metalcore or whatever. Like, all the things that did eventually happen,” he chuckles.
Even so, Veil of Maya had never been ones to pigeonhole themselves into the tropes of the genre, and some would even say they were a big force in bringing the ‘djent’ sound into the greater cultural consciousness – which is a funny concept, given just how much Okubo treats ‘djent’ as a dirty word. I digress, but the main point is that through their career, from the start, all the way through their wild sound changes, the band have facilitated a platform in which progression is largely welcomed. That is, of course, with… limited exceptions.
See, as it’s certainly true that over the years, and the band’s progressive sound change, Veil Of Maya seemed to only gain more and more traction over time, Okubo claims they still can’t shake some of their older, more stubborn fans who claim to ‘only like the old shit’. “I know there [are] people that [say they are] obsessed with Brandon and like, that’s fine. [But] I don’t believe you,” he says. “No, you did not listen to Veil Of Maya because of the vocals, you do not have all of his lyrics memorized.”
While our interview was a few weeks prior to the recent release of “Red Fur” and [m]other’s announcement, Okubo shared hints of what to expect from future material, and that maybe the band’s sound going into [m]other isn’t quite as clear cut as the first two singles may have you believe. “I think you’ll be happy with the result … [the] lead up to an album release is the worst, [though,] because when we do put out one song, people are gonna judge the record off of the one song.” He continues, likening the rollout to the one of 2015’s Matriarch, based on the response of some fans from the new singles. “If you [judged Matriarch off of] “Phoenix”, that [song] doesn’t sound like any of the others, [and] that’s the point. We’re just not that kind of band that has [a song] that nails us down in one.”
As mentioned before, however, getting to the point in which they have a record completed and ready to release has been quite an arduous task. For reasons Okubo did not wish to detail, there were a string of events that led to the record that mid-pandemic singles “Outsider” and “Viscera” were intended to appear on to be shelved in its entirety. “We were recording a new album … and that’s why [the new album] took so long, because we did have a record that we were working on, and then [things got] messed up … There was a gnarly situation in 2019, and then 2020 came the world kind of stopped, [along with] all of our plans.” However, a glimmer of hope following [m]other’s announcement is that Okubo has stated on Twitter that the band intend to “make a home for the singles” in due time.
With their long-awaited seventh album, [m]other on the horizon, as well as prospects for future material purporting to likely be released in much quicker succession than the timeline between their recent records, the future seems bright for Veil Of Maya. [m]other will be released on May 12th, 2023 via Sumerian Records, and you find both digital and physical pre-orders here. Further, you can catch the band on their upcoming US tour run with Avatar starting this April, and you can find tickets + tour dates here.