Despised Icon
TM - Hi this is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix and we are here with Despised Icon, thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
DI - Thank you.
TM - What can fans expect from your new album "Shadow Work"?
DI - Fans can expect some good old Despised Icon, we are bringing brutality, speed, technicality and grooves. We are a bit more evolved. We have tried to push the envelope a bit more in some of the areas. Some of these songs are more melodic. We have experimented with some different tuning on the guitars. I think it's the first time that some of the songs are in drop A. We also have some special guest on our album, one special guest is Ms D who is featured on one of our songs.
TM - What was your writing and recording process for your new album "Shadow Work"?
DI - I don't know about Australia, but in Canada, the government were very strict and the lockdown was for a long time, so it was complicated to meet up and write music together. A lot of these songs were written by a single member who stayed at home, and when the pandemic came to an end, we could meet up and see each other. We started to expose ourselves to what the other band members wrote and went from there. It was a good three years to write, and I'm not including the first year of covid. We did Zoom calls to try and write music.
TM - How did you come up with your Video for "Death Of An Artist"?
DI - "Death Of An Artist" is one of the more technical songs on the album and we wanted to showcase the musicality and the technicality. We went back to a directed that we have used on the previous albums videos because we know each other very well, and it's important to showcase that. The theme of the song is evil, Alex is our singer and he wrote the lyrics. He works a different career now, and to free himself of that indie clip, he put himself on fire.
TM - What can fans expect from your American tour?
DI - We Will be on tour with "Sanguisugabogg, Defeated Sanity and Corpse Pile" so they can expect a lot of musicians ship. As far as "Despised Icon" they can hear some of our new material so we will try and play some new songs every night and the classics.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?
DI - I would like a band like Alice in Chains to play one of our songs in their style. Our vocalist is not that melodic so if they could come up with some melodic vocals that would be great. I would have them play "In Memoriam" off our new album. That would allow them to make the song sound like Alice in Chains.
TM - Who was the first band or Artist you saw live and can you tell us a story?
DI - As far as I can remember, I saw Guns and Roses and Metallica in 1992 here in Montreal at the Olympic stadium and it was my first Metal concert. I had wanted to see them for a year or two. When I got to see them i was a fan of the "Injustice For All" album and the "Black" album. I only got to see six or seven songs of their set because James Hatfield got into a pyro accident in the set, so they abruptly ended the set. The rest of the band walked on and apologised for not being able to finish their set. Guns and Roses had to come on early, and Axl Rose came on stage and played four songs, then threw a temper tantrum and left, and there was a huge Riot. There were fires and police cars and I was fourteen years old.
TM - Did they influence you to play music?
DI - Metallica are the main reason I play guitar. As soon as i heard their first single "One" and saw their video on MTV i thought wow this is what i want to do.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
DI - If I can say anything to our Australian fans, we missed you very much. We have only seen them once in our career back in two thousand ten and it has been a good fifteen years. I remember Thy Art is Murder opened for us and now they are massive. We would probably support them now. We had fun in Australia and check out our new album.
TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
DI - Thanks for having me.