Do you like your music insane, complex and loud as fuck? Then I do believe An Isle Ate Her might just be the band for you. This interview is interesting because it is the first I have had with more than one member of the band. Read on to learn about how the band came together, the origin on the band’s name and what the band’s plans for 2011 are.
Chaz — Matt
Can you tell me how the band came to be?
Matt: It started off when a band I was in way long ago played a show in Collin’s basement with their old band. They ended up needing a drummer for a show so I practiced with them a couple times, but the show never happened. Both of our bands ended up disbanding, so Chaz, Collin, and an older member of their band asked me to start Feeding the Foxes with them. We had an EP, played shows and toured for about 2 and a half years until we realized that we could be writing much more complex and cohesive music. That’s when we decided a name change was in order to suit the new material, and AIAH was born in February 2010. We finally found Eric, who plays bass for us now and it rounded out the lineup perfectly.
Can you tell me how the band came to be?
Matt: It started off when a band I was in way long ago played a show in Collin’s basement with their old band. They ended up needing a drummer for a show so I practiced with them a couple times, but the show never happened. Both of our bands ended up disbanding, so Chaz, Collin, and an older member of their band asked me to start Feeding the Foxes with them. We had an EP, played shows and toured for about 2 and a half years until we realized that we could be writing much more complex and cohesive music. That’s when we decided a name change was in order to suit the new material, and AIAH was born in February 2010. We finally found Eric, who plays bass for us now and it rounded out the lineup perfectly.
How was the band name thought of?
Chaz: It came to Collin in a dream.
Yeah it was pretty random, haha.
Chaz: It came to Collin in a dream.
Yeah it was pretty random, haha.
The band plays a style of music that is, as best I can describe it, fucking chaotic. Did the band come together to play this style of music or did it evolve over time?
We’ve always wanted to write this style of music, but earlier it just wasn’t as possible as we thought.
When we first started, we thought we were really crazy and weird, and looking back, the music we were making then is nothing compared to what it is now. If the 2006 versions of ourselves heard the music we’re making now we would have hated it/not even considered it music. Back then we were in no way capable of writing/performing this music, which makes me excited to see where we’ll be in a few years.
We’ve always wanted to write this style of music, but earlier it just wasn’t as possible as we thought.
When we first started, we thought we were really crazy and weird, and looking back, the music we were making then is nothing compared to what it is now. If the 2006 versions of ourselves heard the music we’re making now we would have hated it/not even considered it music. Back then we were in no way capable of writing/performing this music, which makes me excited to see where we’ll be in a few years.
You released an EP a little while back. Can you tell me a little about the writing and recording of it?
It was definitely written over time. “A Core and Some Seeds” and “Tributary…” were written about a year before the EP was released, but we had changed or added riffs since then, and the other 4 songs were written in between summer 2009 and spring when we recorded it. As far as the writing process goes, Collin will think of riffs, and play them over and over until he has a full song done. Then, him and I will go through it riff by riff so I can add the drums, and in that time we’ll work out transitions, change rhythms, or anything else that needs to be done. Chaz writes his lyrics and vocal patterns to fit with what we’ve done after that. During the time of writing and recording, we didn’t have a steady bassist, so Collin did all those parts impromptu in the studio. We also had a second guitarist at the time, Joey Kavanaugh, who isn’t in the band anymore, but he worked with Collin to write his parts that he recorded. We recorded Desiderium with our good friend Paul Hundeby over at City Pro Recording in Orlando, FL.
We met Pauly last winter when we went on tour with his band City of Ifa. One of us would be in his bedroom all day recording parts while the rest of us would be smoking blunts with Jake, Ifa’s ex-drummer.
I did my drums first in a few hours, Collin and Joey did guitar parts, Chaz then did his vocals, and bass was recorded last. It was kind of rushed, but fairly stress-less except for some click track issues…
And I forgot to do some vocals on “A Core And Some Seeds”, which I ended up recording in my bedroom in Georgia.
How was the EP recieved when it came out?
About as well as it could have. We play a very selective style of music so about 97.8% of the world’s population is going to hate it, but all the reviews online (that I’ve seen) have given it positive scores.
A lot of people that were into the style seemed to dig it, and tell other people about it. We especially got a lot of love from the Apparatus (http://theapparat.us), a tech-metal/music message board that we all frequently post on. All the members voted on the top EP of the year, and we got first place, over Dirty Projectors + Bjork even, so that was pretty rad. Also, people started posting on Blogspots that A Core and Some Seeds was the demo version, it’s not! If you got it with the EP, it’s the final version.
About as well as it could have. We play a very selective style of music so about 97.8% of the world’s population is going to hate it, but all the reviews online (that I’ve seen) have given it positive scores.
A lot of people that were into the style seemed to dig it, and tell other people about it. We especially got a lot of love from the Apparatus (http://theapparat.us), a tech-metal/music message board that we all frequently post on. All the members voted on the top EP of the year, and we got first place, over Dirty Projectors + Bjork even, so that was pretty rad. Also, people started posting on Blogspots that A Core and Some Seeds was the demo version, it’s not! If you got it with the EP, it’s the final version.
What comprises some of the lyrical content or themes on the EP?
While being as brief as I possibly can, the lyrics tell of an Alien whose race has evolved to the point where they no longer die nor reproduce. After millennia of existence, the main character or ‘the rogue’ grows tired of living. Each song details a separate attempt in which the rogue tries to commit suicide, but due to his immortality, he ultimately fails each time. After throwing himself into a volcano, he floats through earth’s mantle dissolved into billions of particles. After thousands of years he reforms to find that humans now have the technology to create black holes. The EP ends with the rogue detonating a bomb which creates a black hole that sucks him, along with the rest of humanity, into oblivion.
While being as brief as I possibly can, the lyrics tell of an Alien whose race has evolved to the point where they no longer die nor reproduce. After millennia of existence, the main character or ‘the rogue’ grows tired of living. Each song details a separate attempt in which the rogue tries to commit suicide, but due to his immortality, he ultimately fails each time. After throwing himself into a volcano, he floats through earth’s mantle dissolved into billions of particles. After thousands of years he reforms to find that humans now have the technology to create black holes. The EP ends with the rogue detonating a bomb which creates a black hole that sucks him, along with the rest of humanity, into oblivion.
When can the full length album be available?
We have 3 songs as a full band completely done for it, and Collin has around 5 more songs written ready for us to write our parts onto, so we should be getting into that writing process pretty soon. We hope to have it out by summer, or at least be recording by then.
What is in store for An Isle Ate Her in 2011?
Writing, shows in Georgia/bordering states, recording, hopefully a pretty long east coast tour in the summer.
New merch, the death of thousands of innocent virgins/babies.
All I suggest is for everyone to keep an eye out for us, our new stuff is gonna blow your brains out.
Writing, shows in Georgia/bordering states, recording, hopefully a pretty long east coast tour in the summer.
New merch, the death of thousands of innocent virgins/babies.
All I suggest is for everyone to keep an eye out for us, our new stuff is gonna blow your brains out.
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