What’s the story behind your latest song/album?
‘All Is Well In Hell’ is basically a song written by someone who used to be an angsty teenager for the next generation of angsty teenagers. It’s a song that’s just about the people in our lives that we hate. I have around half a dozen of them and this is pretty much the only (legal) way that I’m able to express that anger.
Who or what has been inspiring your music lately?
Right now, it’s been mostly the Metalcore and the Hard Rock bands of the early 2010s that really inspired this song. Bands like Asking Alexandria, A Day To Remember and Black Veil Brides. They are bands that I have grown up listening to and they really shape my creative process. I pull different elements from different bands. For example, I take guitar harmonies and gang vocals from Black Veil Brides and breakdown structures from those old Asking Alexandria albums.
How do you handle creative blocks or self-doubt?
If I’m having trouble while writing, I will either stop or start over. If I’m trying to force something onto paper, it just won’t end up sounding good. So often times, I will just stop what I’m doing, maybe go for a walk or hang out with mates. Then when I come back, if I’m still having trouble, I’ll usually just scrap it and start again. I’ve had a few of those instances where I’ve started over and those new songs become some of my favorites.
What’s a piece of advice you wish you had received earlier in your career?
Make the music that YOU, the individual, want to make and not what other people want to make. There are not a lot of people that I know that enjoy the metal stuff but I still do it anyway. Also, don’t take criticism too personally because in the first few years, I was pushing back on any bit of criticism which just wasn’t good for my sanity. Nowadays and as I’ve gotten older, I’m more laidback and I try to block all the negativity out. I do think constructive criticism is important, though, because at least you’re giving me ways on how to improve rather than the keyboard warriors being all high and mighty.
What’s next for you—any exciting projects or goals on the horizon?
I wrote ‘All Is Well In Hell’ along with five or six other songs that I wrote in the span of a week. I’ll most likely just be releasing those songs as singles throughout the rest of the year. It’s been so refreshing to only be focusing on one single song rather than 15. I’m not too fixated on an EP or an album right now because that has to come organically. Nothing’s planned yet but if it happens, it happens, I’m not too sure yet.
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