By Andrew Bansal
Based out of Fort Collins/Denver CO, technical death metal outfit Allegaeon released their third full-length album ‘Elements Of The Infinite’ in June 2014 via Metal Blade Records, undergoing two major lineup changes during its writing process but coping well and combining to create a solid slab of technically proficient heavy music. Having put on an impressive show at the Roxy in Hollywood on their headline run late last year, Allegaeon are currently out on the road with Chimaira for a North American tour, to be followed immediately by a tour of the same continent with Arsis and Exmortus. I recently spoke to vocalist Ezra Haynes to discuss the band’s lineup changes, the new album, his lyric writing process, and more. Enjoy the conversation below.
First of all, I believe that the band has gone through some lineup changes. How are you feeling about that? It’s a new incarnation and you’re ready to take the next step.
Most definitely. It’s been a long one. We signed to Metal Blade in 2010 but we’ve actually been around since 2008. We’ve gone through several lineup changes, but this one I can honestly say we’re the most confident about. Everybody seems to have their head on right and we all share the same vision, really. So, everything is going great, and it’s all smooth sailing here.
That’s good to hear. I think the drummer position was the one that held you back the most, the search for a proper drummer. In metal, most of the time the focus is on the singer and/or the guitarist(s), but the drummer is actually the most important member, isn’t it? Without a drummer you cannot really go forward.
Correct! They’re the backbone of the whole operation, and we were without a drummer for like three-and-half years, may be even four years. We’ve been fortunate enough to have drummers fill in for any kind of tours that we had or the local gigs we did around here. We had friends who’d pick up that slack and whatnot, but now that we have Brandon Park, we’re a well-oiled machine. It’s really good!
Talking of your new album ‘Elements Of The Infinite’, what have you done differently and how has the new lineup impacted it?
I would say that it’s a little bit aggressive. I’ve noticed personally that it’s a faster record. We’ve also been able to incorporate things that we wanted to do but never really had the chance to, due to finances or just time limits and whatnot, and that would be adding a lot of the midi section so therefore there’s a lot of brass and stringed instrument frequencies involved, the whole record sounds really nice, real full and pleasing to the ear.
So, have you been able to devote more time to this record then?
I would say so. I mean, we wrote [the previous album] ‘Formshifter’ within just a couple of months and nobody knew what it was going to sound like until we went into the studio in San Diego. For ‘Fragments Of Time And Function’ we had a little bit more time than ‘Formshifter’, but this one is the most effort we’ve put into a record, and probably has taken the longest to write. Before we really dabbled into doing this album, we parted ways with [guitarist] Ryan Glisan. He was a key member, definitely. So, Greg [Burgess] picked up a lot of slack, considering that there was a period of time where we only had one guitar player. So, Greg wrote the majority of the songs musically, and a week into the tour on which second guitarist Michael Stancel was filling in for us, we decided that he was really good, we just really liked his demeanor, the way he acted, his personality and everything just fit. But Stancel came in a little late in the game so he has only a couple of songs that he wrote musically. As far as that goes, typically the guitarists write five songs a piece on a 10-song album, but that’ll probably be the case on the next one.
That’s great. But, being an extreme metal band there is a certain expectation that people have from you musically. Do you see that as a positive or negative? In a way it limits you, but at the same time it’s easy because you know what you have to do.
There’s people that expect the same record over and over again with minimal change, and then there’s people that want to see an evolution. There’s a lot of musicians out there that want to see what else the band is capable of. You know, you’re not going to please everybody, but you’ve got to be honest about the fact that every band wants to be liked more and more. You really can’t get around that. It’s always a good feeling to be appreciated. So, we try to do our best as far as writing is concerned, putting more time on things we don’t normally do. So, there is an evolution but it’s inevitable. We’re always going to evolve, just like any band.
Right, and I think lyrics is one aspect where you do put a lot of focus and attention on, and I think you do a great job at it. How much time do you actually spend on that?
First of all, thank you for that. Basically, we all live in different parts so the music is written via internet. We send mp3s to each other over email or dropbox and that way we get the gist of it. As soon as the music is solidified, that’s when I pretty much start writing the lyrics. I’m the type of writer that does silly things, like I count syllables, I try to do everything as smoothly flowing as possible and give it my best. At times I really go downtown as far as writing lyrics is concerned (laughs). On this last record it got to the point where I was writing lyrics literally the night before I was recording the song. So I was doing it for a good month or two but I was writing all the way up to the deadline, really.
That’s interesting, man. So basically you’re saying that you write the lyrics after the music is done, which means Allegaeon’s music is not really concept-based in that sense.
Correct, yeah I typically write after the music is finished or at least when I have a general idea of what’s going on. When Greg and Michael write, they put computer-generated drums over it just to kind of get the vibe, and then Brandon Park would go about it in his sense but we don’t hear about it until we are actually in the studio and he is always the first person to track. I need to hear the music in order to come up with a lyrical scheme that reflects what the music is doing. So yeah, I’m pretty much the last guy.
These lyrics are obviously themed a lot on space, science and topics like that. What’s your source of inspiration for that?
A lot of it comes from popular culture, as far as science goes. And then of course you have the internet. When I’m just surfing the web I’d ultimately end up coming across a subject that sparks my curiosity. I mean, there’s a couple of recurring things that we do. For instance, every record has a song about a natural disaster because ultimately Greg and I want to come up with a live DVD after quite a few albums, every single album would have a natural disaster and then we want to do a live show that’s recorded, where we do the whole disaster suite. So that’s something that always happens in every record. Other than that, there’s little things, for instance the last song ‘Genocide For Praise’ on this new album is just something I grew up with. I grew up under multiple religions. I wasn’t really religious, but I guess I was exposed to multiple religions, like Judaism for one. Some of the stories in their religious texts are super-fascinating to me, and really evil if you think about it. So I thought it would be cool to sum it up in that one song, and it’s little such things that spark my curiosity ultimately end up on the record.
Coming to your live performances, I saw you guys play a headline show at the Roxy in LA. The turnout was light. So, when that happens how do you motivate yourself and does it become more challenging to put on a good show in that environment?
You know, that used to be the case a lot more for us and it still is sometimes, but if the show is literally for just five people, it’s hard to get into it, man. But at the same time, if those five people thought the show was not very good, it’s going to reflect onto their friends who weren’t at the show. People are more likely to pass on negative news than positive news. We aim to really please, man. We like to stay active in our live show. Even if the turnout is light, like at the Roxy show in Hollywood, we still try to put on our show but we all also have a sense of humor so we like to mess around with the people a lot, so I think that goes a long way as everybody sees that we’re happy. You just have to keep a good head on your shoulders about it. Not every show is going to be great.
Allegaeon links: facebook | twitter | instagram
Remaining tour dates w/ Chimaira, The Plot In You and Upon This Dawning:
8/19: Sacramento, CA @ Assembly
8/20: Hollywood, CA @ Whisky a Go Go
8/21: San Diego, CA @ Soma-Sidestage
8/22: Phoenix, AZ @ Joe’s Grotto
8/23: Tucson, AZ @ The Rock
8/25: Odessa, TX @ Club Patron
8/26: San Antonio, TX @ Korova (basement)
8/27: Austin, TX @ Dirty Dog Bar
8/28: Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
8/29: Dallas, TX @ Trees8/30: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Chameleon Room
Tour dates w/ Arsis and Exmortus:
09/01/14 Empire – Springfield, VA
09/02/14 Championship Bar – Trenton, NJ
09/03/14 Santos – New York, NY
09/04/14 Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA
09/05/14 Foufounes Electriques – Montreal, QC – CANADA
09/06/14 Dagobert – Quebec City, QC – CANADA
09/08/14 The Foundry – Lakewood, OH
09/12/14 The Zoo – Winnipeg, MB – CANADA
09/13/14 Rock Bottom – Saskatoon, SK – CANADA
09/16/14 Red Room – Vancouver, B.C. – CANADA
09/17/14 Studio Seven – Seattle, WA
09/18/14 Tonic Lounge – Portland, OR
09/20/14 O.C. Music Hall – Anaheim, CA
09/21/14 New Royal Dive – San Diego, CA
09/23/14 Moon Room – Denver, CO
09/25/14 Rail Club – Fort Worth, TX
09/27/14 Haven Lounge – Orlando, FL
09/18/14 The Orpheum – Tampa, FL