INTERVIEW WITH THE PARALLEL [CANADA]



After having reviewed their debut EP, Embark, Metality's Habib T interviews Canadian progressive hardcore band The Parallel. Vocalist Matt Johnston answers the questions.

            Habib: Hey guys. Hope you’re doing well, and it’s a pleasure to have you here on Metality. So how did you guys get together and form this band? What drove you to do it?

Matt: We formed this band a few years ago all coming from different bands in our local scene. We all got along well, and had a similar goal/vision on what we wanted to achieve as a band. We all just love making music, and I think the fact that we were making stuff together that we could get behind and support drove us to keep pushing this project to where it is now.

           We see a lot of bands following the progressive/djent sound nowadays, to the level that it’s being stereotyped and parodied on the Internet. What do you think distinguishes you from those bands and makes your music unique?

I think what makes our sound different from other progressive/djent bands these days is our hardcore element we bring to our music. We try to incorporate different styles when writing our music to keep it different, and make it unique to us.

We recently reviewed your Embark EP and we loved it. How would you describe the writing process for it? Can we look forward to anything new from you guys soon?

Collectively we all write riffs, piece things together and record demos, then we work on drum parts to solidify the song. Playing the sporadic, technical type of music that we do, it’s important that every riff or section in a song feels like it belongs, and truly justifies its existence. Being 100% satisfied with a song is always tough for us but there comes a point where you have to step back from endlessly tweaking a song and just call it done. After a song is completed structurally, we then work on writing lyrics and figuring out vocal parts. Our writing process is nothing fancy or atypical but it works for us. We are always writing and working on material; as of now we're planning to drop one or two singles before releasing a full-length in a year or so.

What bands would you cite as your major influences?

We all have our own influences personally, but the main ones that we share collectively would include; Structures, Northlane, Architects, and Counterparts.

We at Metality deal with bands from all over the world, but we’re based in the Middle East. Have you heard of or listened to any bands from the Middle East?

I can’t say I have to be honest! I would be interested in checking some out though.

Here’s a fun question: If you had to choose five bands/artists you could listen to for the rest of your life, who would they be?

Well I would want to get as many different genres in there as possible so I think I would pick
Bring Me the Horizon, Brand New, Zac Brown Band, Blink-182, and Justin Bieber because his new album is absolute fire. I don’t care what anyone says haha!

Will you be going on tour anytime soon? Do you guys have any preshow rituals that you do when performing live?

We have nothing set in stone at the moment, but we're aiming to set one up in the new year. As for pre-show rituals we don’t do anything specifically, I personally do vocal warm-ups, but nothing other than that.

Any words for the readers of Metality?

Thanks for checking out our interview and supporting our band!



You can find The Parallel on Facebook here and on Bandcamp here


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