Progressive metallers Behind the Sun’s debut release Post Solis has impressed with its diverse portfolio of metal content and generally kick ass material. If you haven’t yet familiarised yourself with the band I heartily suggest you read the below and give Post Solis a spin – it’s well worth it.
Enter the deathless shells…
Introduce us to Behind the SunBehind The Sun is Jesse Hanak (Guitar/Vocals), Nathan Day (Drums/Vocals), Brian Sisk (Bass) & Morgan Murray (Guitar/Vocals).
We are from Upstate South Carolina, we are all very passionate about a wide range of music and enjoy playing and writing our own tunes. The goal with this project was to be open to multiple styles and subsets of heavier genres without trying to pigeonhole our selves to a singular “sound”.
What are your influences?Nathan: BTBAM, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Mastodon
Jesse: Opeth, Enslaved, BTBAM, Gojira, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Camel, Yes.
Morgan: Opeth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Mastodon, Death, Gojira
Name five things you’ve listened to recently that you’d recommendJesse: Clarence Clarity – No Now, Igorrr – Hallelujah, The Flaming Lipstick – Embryonic, Neil Cicierega – Mouth Moods, Home – Odyssey
Nathan: Rasputin – Boney M
Morgan: Ne Obliviscaris – Citadel, Sleepy Time Guerrilla Museum – Of Natural History, Schnellertollermeier – X, Ninet Tayeb – Paper Parachute
Tell us about Post SolisNathan: It’s been in production since before the invention of music, as my brothers and I are deathless shells. We could have technically invented music as a concept if Morgan wasn’t so slow in the studio.
Jesse:It’s the story of a galactic Viking witnessing the birth and death of this universe. Also there’s one other song.
Morgan: It’s our first chance at really experimenting with songs and structure as far as an overall EP goes, we wanted to have a recurring theme for the back half of the EP. We are very proud of it.
Jesse: Wonderful. It’s always been about getting our music into the earholes of humans.
Nathan: We can finally be freed of our curse. Bless you, redeemer.
Morgan: It’s incredibly gratifying after having spent so much time playing and thinking about it.
With such a wide variety of influences and styles at play in your music, how do you go about writing and arranging the songs?Nathan: A lot of communication, first and foremost. We’ll each come to the table with ideas, but they’re almost always built upon by the rest of the band, adding welcome layers of diversity.
Jesse: It varies. Sometimes a song is one member’s vision. Often it’s a collaborative effort inspired by a jam session or a riff someone brings to the table.
Morgan: We’ve played with how we approach songs in different ways over the last couple years until the point where we have a lot of organic chemistry when attempting to write music.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?Jesse: Periapsis. It’s the most fun to play live.
Nathan: Each song was my favourite at some point, but right now I’m coming out of a Periapsis kick.
Morgan: Laniakea, this song is just so heavy and was a real challenge for me initially.
How did you decide on the order of the tracks?Nathan: We chose The Fall as the first track partially because of how abruptly it starts and how quickly it gets into the meat of what we’re good at. Pangaea, Periapsis, and Lainakea all start out fairly softly, and we didn’t want to turn anyone off of what came along later in those tracks. The latter three (or four, counting Scrawlings of the Architect) are supposed to be in chronological order, so they were easy to place after we agreed on The Fall. I don’t know how much of this is true, it sounds right though.
Jesse: Tracks 2-4 are a suite intended to be listened to in order. Track 1, the fall, is just the icing on the space cake.
Morgan: What they said…
How did you choose the EP cover?Nathan: The cover was a joint effort between Morgan and Nathan and it went through a couple of stages (one of which is found on the inside cover of the EP ;^) ). It shows the supercluster Laniakea from an outside perspective, and it’s surrounded by crumpled, used sketchpaper, as if this was the newest prototype of some grand creation, but was about to come to it’s inevitable end. Also it looks cool af.
Jesse: I simply approved it. I’m lazy.
Jesse: Play more shows. Record more tunes.
Nathan: we want to take what we’re doing, and inject it with some sort of mystery fluid. It will make our music faster. It will make our music louder. It will make our music softer. It will make our music slower. You get the idea, it’s gonna be fucking rad.
Morgan: Well hopefully we live up to some of the hype we’ve been getting, it’s put a real fire under our collective asses to step it up a notch with the next round of writing material.
How do you think you fit into the heavy music scene in 2017?Nathan: Me personally? Nathan Day? I don’t, at all. Nor did I in 2016. As a band, however, we aren’t necessarily the odd ones out, but we like to think we’re doing something just a little differently. More differently than the other bands that say they’re doing things differently. We’re totally different.
Jesse: Hopefully well.
Morgan: I think we are right in the pocket, right now there is such a huge amount of artists in tons of different genres that being able to play with style like a chef and add a pinch of death metal and a hint of POST and sludge all mixed together in an attempt to make it cohesive and classy. It’s awesome that there’s anyone out there willing to give us a shot.
Playing live – essential or pointless?Jesse: Essential. You need to prove you can play the material you write and record.
Nathan: Essential. Maybe pointless if you aren’t very good, or if you only do it once and nobody shows up other than some scrawny British kid at the bar.
Morgan: Essential, we will always be a live band first.
What are the next steps for Behind the Sun?Nathan: NEW MATERIAL! It’s coming your way. We’ve got HOURS of material ready. We plan on releasing a full-length, two disc concept album in early August that has secretly been in production since Feb 2014. Nine hundred minutes of pure, instrumental music- no vocals! Six, full-length, fully-illustrated side novels to help you learn about and understand the lore of the world. FOUR HUNDRED free, first class tickets to ANY CITY YOU CAN IMAGINE ON EARTH included in the first four hundred sales. THIRTY-NINE THOUSAND hours of behind the scenes documentary, special features, interviews with the band, actual footage of the “Post-God Abyss”, and it all comes on an interactive mini CDROM. GET HYPED!
Jesse: Mostly writing new material. Post Solis is new to the world but it’s occupied a good part of my brain for many months.
Morgan: We gotta kick out the new jams, hopefully make a video or two to try and put some legs on this EP and just keep growing our reach.
Any Final Words?Jesse: Wubba lubba dub dub!
Nathan: Any LAST words, pleb…
Morgan: Thanks for your time! We certainly appreciate it!
https://bhndthsn.bandcamp.com/releases
Advertisements Share this:
