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!
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