Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. Today, Joe sat down with Connor and Matt of Casket Feeder to discuss their upcoming debut record, working with Stu McKay and the revival of the UK metal scene.
Joe: How are you feeling going into this record?
Matt: Overall feeling is excited, we’ve had 18 months before our first show last year so we’ve had a lot of time off which has got us really excited to get things going again. Excited to hear what people think of it.
Connor: Really looking forward to just releasing the album and seeing people’s reactions, as it’s a big step up from the releases we had out already. We’ve had to sit on the album for a while due to delays caused by the pandemic and other things. We’ve been sat on it for a long time and we’re chomping at the bit for people to hear it.
Joe: What’s it been like sitting on the record for so long?
Connor: Frustrating, but out of our control and don’t get me wrong. As shit as it is, having to release your album is pretty minor to what some people went through. It goes back to what we were saying before, everything is such a step up. People would be like “can I go check your band out”, we would say we had some EPs online but it’s not a patch on the album but you can’t hear that yet.
It was entirely written, recorded and mastered before the pandemic. We recorded it in April 2019, mixed and mastered a few months after that. In that year we signed a deal to a label, which didn’t work out and we chose to leave. It wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. Initially we were going to drop the record early 2020, then the pandemic caused that delay. Then as things went on and on, I couldn’t see this record coming out on this label the way we envisioned it. So we just cut our ties.
So in terms of the time between, we’ve had a lot of time to analyse the record after the fact. None of us have the feeling of wish we had done this differently, we’re happy with the decisions we made such as going with Stu McKay. We all collectively knew they were the best set of songs we put together. We’re quite brutal when cutting stuff and separating the wheat from the chaff, we’re quite thickened skinned when it comes to that. It’s all about the collective effort.
Matt: In terms of songs, it gave us a chance to reflect on the album. There was one song which didn’t make the album, which we cut. Being sat on the record gave us more time to think about things. There was one song we released as a single last year, “Wormwood”, which we made the decision to release as a single. Which was nice to get out as we hadn’t had the chance to showcase what our new material sound likes.
Joe: What’s your writing process like, is it a collective approach?
Matt: It’s a collective process, there’s no real formula we stick to. We have quite a few people in the band who contribute riffs and everyone has contributions to structures. If it sounds good and excites all of us it makes the cut.
Connor: Sometimes one of us will come in with a complete song demoed, that all of us can listen to. It’s pretty 50/50 split between members coming in with a full song fleshed out and writing collaboratively. Unless everyone is happy with the song, it’s not going to pass, it’s very democratic.
Matt: There’s no dedicated songwriter, there’s songs I’ve written, songs Connor has written. There’s songs our other guitarist Aaron has written, there’s songs Connor and I have written together. It’s a mixture, there no method for how it has to be as long as it sounds good.
Joe: Has it been easier going down the independent route in this era?
Connor: It’s a double edged sword, not to give you a half-answer. It’s easier to have the means at your disposal to record yourself and distribute your own music. There’s advantages to a label, if you’re on a label it gets ou that step up the ladder to get more attention. For example there’s certain things at our level, there’s certain video concepts we couldn’t execute for budget reasons. That if we were on a label, it was nothing mental, nothing like we need 80 grand to make this video. Certain things were just a bit out of our reach. It’s great in terms of the freedom and in terms of answering to yourself but there’s benefits to being on a label. Especially if a label that really understands the bands ethos and the vision, and that’s where you see really fruitful relationships.
Joe: Is the label route something you’d explore again?
Matt: It’s something we’re open to, I don’t think any of us are interested in signing the first deal that comes our way. We would have to review what comes our way and ensure it’s positive for us. We’re not get any younger, we need to make sure we don’t waste any time.
Connor: That’s the one upside from the previous experience we had, you learn and know what to look out for. It wasn’t the worst situation, we didn’t lose out financially but we know to be more mindful moving forward and the red flags are easier to spot now.
Joe: How did working with Stu McKay come about?
Matt: It was a no brainer really, we wanted to get into this studio and record some proper drums. Stu has been great on the album by pushing us and getting the best takes out of us.
Connor: It was a really conscious decision for us to approach Stu for the album, to the point where we’ve got the kind of hardcore influences. We wanted to work with a producer who understood that and could capture it to its best, his production credits speak for itself. We also wanted a producer who understood extreme metal, he’s done Malevolence and Desolated along with Discarnate and that. Stu was a dream to work with, got really good performances out of us. We actually recorded in four or five days, we were on a really tight schedule doing 12-13 hour days with him but because we were all these to work it was great. We never felt like we had to compromise, if anything we came out with a better record than we hoped to achieve.
Joe: How do you feel you’ve developed since your previous EPs?
Matt: Our sound has naturally progressed and it goes back to the earlier question about writing collaboratively. If you asked every member what their main influence is, you’d get a different answer. Everyone has their own influences and when it’s a collective process and everyone is putting their own contribution in that has helped us develop our sound. I’d say we’ve probably found our sound on this record as with previous EPs we were still searching for what we wanted to sound like. With this album we’re really happy with what we achieved.
Connor: On the EPs and once the records are out, people can make that comparison. I think on the EPs we’re drawing from a much smaller pool of our own influences. With your debut album you want to make a big statement and present a fully form band so we drew more from our various influences. We really pushed up the play in and the technicality, we didn’t want to be comfortable and push ourselves with the songs. In terms of influences bring in more of our death metal influences. Just try to write the best songs we could and think about crafting the songs. Trying to write earworms with our songs and not trying to write how many riffs can we cram into one song.
Joe: What’s it been like going back to live shows?
Matt: It’s been amazing. One of the first live shows we did back was a Bloodstock warm up show, as one of the first shows we did back being Bloodstock would have been crazy. It’s been really nice doing live shows back and we’ve been doing these songs live before lockdown as we had them written. We’re really excited to get things going again and reach it far and wide.
Joe: Do you think there has been a revival in British metal with the likes of Employed to Serve, Venom Prison and Bleed From Within?
Connor: 100%, if you take the artists mentioned, it’s a really good cross-section. I’d add Pupil Slicer to that list of bands too. There’s a load of newer younger bands, on the more extreme end drawing a much bigger audience. Broadly speaking, extreme metal, has the healthiest audience it’s had for decades. Some people might dispute that but if you look at those bands there’s such a vibrant audience and wide appeal without watering the music down. It’s really exciting and all of those bands are very different from eachother. People want bands that want bands that are doing their own thing and have their own strong identity, you don’t want 10 copies of what came before. Especially now when there’s so much access to music, you’re giving people such a wide range of taste and opening people’s ears to so much stuff that you want a sound that hooks people in and keeps them interested.
Many thanks to Connor and Matt for sitting down for a chat with us, and you can listen to Servants of Violence on May 20th.