Inkakai is a revolutionary force in the music world, a six-piece collective spanning continents and cultures, united by their innovative sound and theatrical approach. With members scattered between the USA, Japan and Finland, Inkakai crafts a unique sonic output that blends alternative rock with elements of nu-metal and electronic music to create what they describe as ‘Imperial’ sound.
Each member of Inkakai embodies a distinct symbol, contributing their talents to the collective’s enigmatic aura. Drawing inspiration from Japanese legends and themes of fire and darkness, Inkakai’s aesthetic mirrors their evocative sound, creating an immersive experience for listeners.
With a track record that includes collaborations with iconic artists like Max Martin, Lordi and Steve Vai, as well as accolades such as Finland’s most played song in 2010, Inkakai has confirmed their status as a groundbreaking act. Over the years they’ve released music under various artistic banners, but the Inkakai alias was introduced in 2019 with the single “The Smoke.”
Followed up by “Drown” in 2022, while racking up over a million streams of their music on Spotify alone, Inkakai now brings us their latest release with “Drown (Shadow Version).” Reframing the song in a completely new light, the Shadow Version of “Drown” takes the memorable melodic ideas and meaningful lyricism of the original, presenting them in a delicate, stripped back arrangement that allows its profound impact to hit home even harder.
Starting with soft vocals floating among gentle instrumental textures, the song slowly drifts with elegant overlapping melodies and smooth atmosphere. The marching roll of drums sets the song in motion as the stunning vocal performance carries the moving melodic leads and emotive lyrics with dazzling musical grace.
With gradual rise and fall, the swell of intricate instrumentation builds up before floating back down to the hushed tones of the intro to bring the song full circle. It’s a superb display of Inkakai’s songwriting talent as well as their ability to bring to life existing music in a completely new way.
We caught up with Inkakai to find out more about their musical journey so far, their new single “Down (Shadow Version)” and what they’ve got lined up for the future. Check out our interview with Inkakai below.
Hey guys, how’s things?
Hello there. We’ve been quite productive, writing new material and revisiting older one as well. Working on a few songs simultaneously, let’s see how it all turns out. We’re eager to release our next single, it will be something a bit different from what we’ve released so far.
In recent news, we have retaken our first name Bleak with another lineup and will be releasing more organic alternative rock and grunge with that group. We’ve rejoined forces with the original guitarist from our very first lineup from 1996-1997 before the group was named Bleak.
While Inkakai will naturally be the priority, we’ll be working two groups now. We’re all quite excited about it. As it is with Inkakai, we’ll announce future release dates later on.
More about Bleak such as demos, merch etc.
A quick shoutout to one of our street teamers, Aryanne (@dragonsnowballcat). We’d like to thank her and everyone else who’s loyally supported us throughout the years. We might not be active online, but we appreciate every effort to support us.
What was the inspiration behind your band name?
The name is rooted in the themes of darkness and fire which have been present in our lyrics since day one. ‘The Smoke’, written in 1993, being one of the earliest examples of this. The debut album Burns Inside and its follower The Dark Side explored more of that. The themes have been emphasized by our fire logo and visual black and red style, designed by Inkakai singer-songwriter since 2003. In time this pairing has become more visible, more uniform, more underlined.
The name of our group’s first evolution, Bleak, was picked from a dictionary randomly. At the time of the second Bleak line-up with new band members in 2002, there was a discussion about changing the name because there were several Bleaks out there, but the name was kept for its historical value. When the Bleak line-up ended and regrouped in 2009, we changed the name to Fireal after a Deftones song. In time we started to feel like we wanted to separate ourselves from that and decided to go for a new name – Inkakai.
A small shoutout to new Bleak (Lea County) who launched in 2020, their single “Rob You Blind” from their first demo comes to mind. They have some good material, really cool riffs and the band plays well together. Some stuff reminds us of something our former guitarists Madu and Crab could write. Vocals at times remind of Finnish group 15 Minutes Before the Dive. Cryptic, interesting lyrics, some references about blindness and static caught our eye, along with their slogan “you orchestrate our spine”. Recommend checking them out, they’ve been making some waves in the scene.
This Bleak was recently featured in Metal Injection, like the Finnish act Blind Channel who were originally signed by the Spinefarm CEO. They’ve now taken this black and red style that’s quite similar to ours. Saw some reviews of their latest album, in The Soundboard and Boolin Tunes. We also presented this idea of three trinities in our EatMusic interview already in 2019. Wishing all the best in their future endeavours.
Black and red nicely brings the topic back to Inkakai:
Some of us and our family members have been invested and interested in Asian culture and martial arts since childhood. Thus, we adapted the new name from Japanese legends – ghost lights known as Onibi (鬼火), spirits of the dead that have become fire. One type of these spirits are called Inka (陰火) which appear with ghosts, the word translating as “shadow fire”. Considering our masked anonymity as ghosts and our themes of fire and darkness, it really captured our essence.
Kai means “meeting, association, assembly” as seen in Cobra Kai. And as kids growing up doing martial arts, we watched movies like the Karate Kid. So, the new name also represents us coming together, the whole of us, and the association to things we’ve loved since childhood.
Inkakai or Inka Kai, both are correct ways to write it.
What’s the significance of your symbols?
The symbols represent musical roles in our group. When we ended our seven-year long break in 2019, we no longer listed band members but instead introduced the symbols. Originally, we didn’t want them to represent actual band members, seeing as individuals aren’t the focus in our group but rather parts in our bigger collective. But since then, the symbols have been sometimes seen as monikers for the individuals. While this is not our intention, we understand it is how it’s going to be seen by some.
As for the meaning behind each symbol: the Triangle is the beginning of it all. As the alchemy symbol of our main element, Fire, the triangle was first introduced in our name in 2009. The shape symbolizes a strong foundation and as such, the group’s original founder and the trinity of our core line-up. Connecting to our history, it also symbolizes birth, growth, and death along with past, present, future; connecting to our ethos, it symbolizes ascension, the path to enlightenment and the Eye of Providence.
Our downwards pointing triangle logo introduces contrast to the mix as it symbolises water and as such, some of our key characteristics: transformation, rebirth, change, mystery, purification, and healing. It also symbolises the harmony and unity of the core, along with the balance between light and darkness – the latter being our second main element.
The Square represents solidity, structure, and knowledge; the Circle represents wholeness, unification, and regeneration; the Diamond represents stability, clarity, and balance; the Line represents direction, connection and purpose; and finally, the (red) Dot – first seen in The Dark Side album cover – represents the third eye. The latter can be seen in our second logo, the Eye of Inkakai, which contains all our symbols in the form of the Philosopher’s Stone. There’s also a certain hand gesture in the logo.
Eye of the Inkakai t-shirt from www.inkakai.com/shop
Since your song “Fate” was featured in the Finnish-Chinese movie Jade Warrior, how has your connection to Asian culture changed?
As mentioned before, some of us grew up with a keen interest towards Asian culture. It has all become more pronounced with new Japanese band members and visually Asian oriented style.
However, the soundtrack case for Jade Warrior wasn’t influenced by this at all. The opportunity to write for the movie came from our record company at the time and they weren’t probably that much aware of the singer’s interest towards the Asian culture.
The song itself happened quite easily as the singer also worked with Tomi Malm and Ana Johnsson on her album Little Angel. Inkakai will be re-releasing ‘Fate’ sometime in the future, along with other older material, some in a revised form.
How did you find making your new single “Drown (Shadow Version)”?
It was an interesting experience, quite different from the typical Inkakai recording. The song was co-written with Tomi Malm in the studio with nothing but piano and vocals. Coming from an actual situation of heartbreak, it was a somewhat comforting setting that allowed the singer to open up and explore his broken feelings when creating the song.
When you reach that mood where some outside pressure creates inner pain, sometimes for years, and you know exactly where it comes from, you can really open about the things you’re experiencing and what you’ve learned – and be very vocal about them. It’s all about dealing with the situation and there are many creative and productive ways to respond to it.
We later did some editing with Tomi Malm and the band and explored some new soundscapes for the song. In the end it turned out to be one of those songs that are quite atypical for us but somehow you can still hear it’s the same group.
What inspired you to make an alternative version?
This version was written already in 2004 and titled “Alone” originally. Comparing to “Drown, these two are completely different songs with only the chorus line and lyrics connecting them. However, since the ‘Drown’ of 2022 is the main song for us, we felt the “Shadow Version” described this better.
It wasn’t always certain what would become of this song or which project we would release it with. But after the release of ‘Drown’, it became evident that we would release it with Inkakai at some point. It’s a nice, different addition to our sound.
How do you find working with members spread across the globe?
We haven’t been touring for over ten years now and it has helped a lot in this regard. If the time comes for us to play shows, it’s probably unlikely that we’d be going on long tours. Or maybe we’ll do some lineup changes for touring purposes. We could see ourselves in certain venues in certain countries if there was enough time to plan it all. So, while the logistics aren’t ideal, it’s still doable.
Suppose the question is whether it’s worth all the time, money, and effort it takes to make it work at this point. Time will tell.
Having our own recording studios has certainly made things easier, and modern technology allows us to record together despite being in different countries. We may not get together as often as we would like, but currently this is the best way to allow us all balance between music, other work, and our personal lives.
Overall, we’ve been clear about not wanting to do these things the traditional way, but there’s always someone who wonders why we’re not touring. When we ended our break in 2019, we all agreed to do things a bit differently this time around. For others, the ideal might be the crazy, sweaty rock ‘n roll lifestyle with the touring, drinking, drugs and all that jazz. That sounds like a nightmare for some of us so if we go on tours at some point, it will be quite different.
How did the current line up get together as a band?
We’ve often included the short version of this – the singer-songwriter originally founding the band as Bleak in 1997 with a few local musicians – but here’s the longer and more accurate version:
By the age of 14-15, the singer had written several songs on the guitar when his cousin Madu asked him to join a school cover band. The singer agreed on the condition that they become a real band instead and start rehearsing their own songs – which in this case meant mainly his songs, although he did some co-writes with his cousin. The band played a few gigs and disbanded in a year.
After their last performance, the singer was invited to jam with a local alternative cover band, which he agreed to join on the same condition, bringing his songs to the band. This started the roots of the first line-up that would be called Bleak. Since the group had already a guitarist with riffs of his own, they originally didn’t want a second guitarist, but the singer insisted his cousin could join as well, which is how he came to be in the band in the first place. Not a second founding member.
The cover band guitarist’s riffs would not be included in the 1997-2009 Bleak repertoire, until now with the Sons of She’ol material – for example, in songs called “Nervine” and “Beyond”.
Eventually the guitarist left the group, and a lead guitarist Crab was recruited as the replacement. Soon after, the group was named Bleak. After several gigs and two demos, the lineup broke up in 2000. Two years later it regrouped in Helsinki with a new drummer and bassist. Seven tumultuous years later, the lineup broke in 2009 and regrouped as Fireal with entirely new band members except the singer-songwriter/founder. The core lineup of Inkakai – vocals/guitars/keyboards, bass and drums – is still the same as in 2009.
Since 2019, we’ve recruited new international band members to the group and let go of certain touring musicians and other unofficial associates. We’ve also done some work with people from our past, and it’s been nice to experience both the new and familiar collaborations.
You’ve been through a few lineup changes since starting out back in 1997, how has that changed the course of your musical journey?
This will be a longer answer with further analysis but: every line-up change has made things better for us and has come from the desire for a more peaceful environment in which to create. However, some band members we’ve let go have created obstacles in our career, resulting in smear campaigns and sabotage against us since their departure. Ironically, they have become ghost writers targeting a ghost.
As the founder and main creative force, the singer-songwriter had such a clear vision of the group that some members were more ill-suited to be there than others. It’s a working system that developed naturally in time with history of good results. But some people’s ambitions took the best of them, and they started to disrupt it.
If people have been fine letting one person do all the creative work for years but the moment their enterprise starts making money, they start demanding more influence and bigger shares – well, you know where that’s coming from. It’s understandable when the band wants to reinvent themselves, not when you’re releasing the debut album. It’s also understandable if the band was built on equal shares with equal contribution – not when it’s been leaning on one person since the beginning.
One ex-band member argued that their inability to write lyrics was the reason they wouldn’t contribute to the creative process – yet felt 25% of the lyrical shares should go to them because the legit shares “didn’t feel fair”. They didn’t participate, but argued that the shares “should” go to them for something they didn’t do because “they were there”.
That’s like hanging out with a painter while he’s painting and later demanding he give 25% of whatever money comes from the painting because “you were there”. It’s this kind of thinking that’s common in bands and it’s a narcissistic trait to exaggerate one’s role in something: even if they manage to do 25% worth of something, they sure make it sound like they did at least 75%.
The musical differences before the Bleak lineup ended in 2009 happened because Inkakai singer-songwriter had mostly written one album by himself (The Dark Side), and the material offered by others was drastically different from the band’s sound to be included on the same album. Some of them were cool songs, but they were simply too different.
Beyond that, there were never really any bigger issues with music. If it had been just about music, this would be a lot shorter answer. Which is a statement in itself: how much more excess stuff was involved that’s basically completely beside the point, the music.
The biggest hindrance of our history comes from toxic chemistry with three ex-members, especially two who were in our lineup 1997-2009. What happened during their time in the band wasn’t the biggest problem – and that’s saying a lot because some situations were extremely toxic and the main reason why Bleak broke up and regrouped as Fireal – but what has happened after the breakup, what they have been doing since.
The three members have known each other a longer time and things only really settled down in our band after 2019, when the third one departed. It comes down to a certain few starting ghost-writing for new metal projects over 10 years ago with a certain Finnish metal label. While it’s great to take up on new creative endeavours after leaving a long-term project, it’s a different matter entirely if it comes with the agenda of sabotaging someone on one hand and stealing with the other.
The third member parted ways with us in 2019 with promises to “make our lives a living Hell” and while words are sometimes just words, they speak volumes when coming from a middle-aged, wealthy man who intends to act on them in a small country with even smaller circles in the media. This happened right before we released our comeback single ‘The Smoke’ in 2019, but the song was also shared to our former guitarists Madu and Crab who participated in the 2003 demo of “Smoke”.
Only few months later in 2020, a drastic change took place in Finland, as suddenly doors that were open in 2019, were shut. It later became evident this wasn’t related to COVID. Suddenly all these walls came up and silence ensued with no explanations from anyone; exclusion where there used to be years of open discussion, interest, and excitement. Many things were set in motion in 2020.
It’s a small circle of people who decide what goes where and nowhere in Finland, so there’s no question about what exactly happened. It was a shitty move not even asking our side of whatever story was painted to them, but that just speaks volumes about the overall mentality and pettiness in these small circles. We’ve always been an email away if they wanted to ask something or discuss or reconcile – but while we’ve found a lot of new associates, these old ones have stayed quiet, lost in the past.
We all make mistakes, especially when younger, and sometimes those mistakes force to you take a good look in the mirror – and change. We all deserve second chances as we bear responsibility for our part in everything, own up to our mistakes and really try to grow from them – and that’s the way towards peace with people who are willing to do the same.
But that doesn’t work with narcissists. It’s impossible to make peace with people who are unable to feel remorse and who wear countless masks in real life – giving off a friendly vibe in person but sabotaging you behind your back for 15 years, despite your efforts to reach out and find peace.
Normally these things can be resolved in private but thus far, none of these factions have been able to be honest, not even in private. They have chosen to behave like “snakes”, a word with interesting implications in different languages.
2012 saw one snake’s influence in public when his friend, bandmate, and fellow ghost-writer – a certain “April’s Fool” (let’s call him Pops), boasting for being “fatal” – took part in creating a mocking parody character of the Inkakai singer-songwriter as a child. Their continued work in a big Finnish media company, one channel 3 TV and on a certain show that “Falls” enabled this. That word relates to a ghost-written band where a certain Lobster took part until they called it quits, transferring him to a new metal ghost-written group, associated with TV by name. Both groups have been heavily “loaning” from us and others. Lobster has been well connected in the Finnish HC Punk/Metal scene and one metal label for over 15 years – while remaining anonymously active on different forums, maintaining his dayjob in a phone/internet company as an IT specialist.
For the public, the parody was funny and entertaining as they were oblivious to its roots, but for the Snake and Pops it came from a place of malice and the desire to ridicule the singer to everyone. This childish toxicity has been the running theme in all their and Lobster’s smear campaigns and misinformation for 15+ years. The aforementioned have been long connected to black hat hackers.
Yet, when the opportunity came to write a song for this media character, the singer took upon that because he wasn’t coming from malice. And instead of 15 years, with normal people it could’ve taken only 15 minutes to talk things through, without any escalation ever taking place. A lot of unnecessary pain and wasted time could’ve been spared. But 2021 saw “Fatal” create another mockery project with certain “Smacklund” brothers – a bassist and a ghost-writing producer – in the form of a musical group that combines the singer’s surname and a Finnish slang word for drugs. This extension of bullying – that was previously anonymous in certain Finnish forums – comes from established Finnish music professionals, some of whom have previously worked with us and big international acts while sabotaging the singer to their contacts and blocking him from furthering his career. This includes influence on a certain Finnish center that is supposed to promote art. This should be called out – like “ghosts” in a certain “static” ghost-written band that’s been getting most of the grants, thanks to people placed in these companies to direct them to their pre-chosen groups. Similarly, people have been placed in certain radio X and medias starting with Y, I and S to direct the listeners, media attention and the cashflow to their desired direction. It was always all about the money.
In 2016, certain managers hired and sent one of their unstable friends to spearhead the persecution and smear campaigns for years; whipping up misinformation, messing with our community pages, spreading lies in forums where they’d already been active with their own name for decades. Later accusing their target of what they themselves have been doing while leaving out their own documented history of intoxicated online behaviour.
Regardless of who they are – be they fired band members and ghost writers or managers – this kind of school yard bullying happens when people group together like pack animals and with drugs involved, start acting like ones. The lyrics of their ghost-written projects have shown they come from an incredibly toxic place. It’s usually the weaker many who go against the stronger one they are somehow threatened by and want to bring down.
The weakness lies in the need for attention and validation from others; trying to influence people’s opinions about themselves or those they perceive as threats; to constantly compete against others in a fraudulent way to “win”, dependent on the need to make noise or try to be as loud as possible to draw attention to themselves. If your strength is defined by opinions of others, you are willingly giving them control over your life. You are choosing weakness.
It is not how one possesses or comprehends the quality or the mindset of a strong individual – a “lone wolf”, if you will – and it is perhaps because of this, that some have failed to understand that the pressure and unjust hatred they’ve subjugated their target to – in an obvious effort to break, discredit and demonize him – actually managed to turn the already strong individual into an even stronger one. You either break under pressure or you become something more – something better, wiser, tougher, and much harder to break.
The level of intellect involved here is the kind that thinks twisting the word “gay” into someone’s name is the funniest thing ever. From that you’d think we’re dealing with school kids, but the people involved are near or over their 30s, some even 40–50-year-old family men in positions of influence – mostly centralised in the capital area of Finland – and surprisingly many working in IT while dabbling in metal music. One snake working cyber security – which is even more worrying considering his antics.
It’s hard to understand why adults with good careers would take part in such childish acts. But when you start to understand that we are talking about people with mental issues who are medicating those with drugs and alcohol, it starts making more sense. Amidst this twisted reality, they seem oblivious to their bullying antics – evident compensation attempts for the black hole of insecurity inside their hearts and minds.
It is people like these who have managed to influence and limit what we’ve been able to do with Inkakai as we don’t have the freedom to work or progress in our careers in peace like others – which is something every artist deserves.
Taking the high road isn’t easy when smear campaigns have lasted for all those years, but we’ve sent a message of peace to those involved, nevertheless. If nothing else, then at least we can say we tried. It’s sad to see they haven’t taken up on that even when there’s been ample time to react and make the effort. Insisting on toxicity is obviously a sign of mental illness and knowing drugs are involved on their end, it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise.
Yet, after all this time and damage done, there’s still time left for our little circle of saboteurs to reconcile and make amends. Nobody loses anything in peaceful coexistence between different talented factions, that’s how everyone wins. It requires some extra effort to make amends, but so does taking the high road when you’ve been targeted by smear campaigns and such.
Either way, succeeding in the music industry isn’t exactly easy and by working against something/someone everybody just loses assets that could’ve been used for something productive. We encourage working for a common goal, for one another. Besides, the more music and different unique creative groups we have in the world, the better it is for everyone – especially the fans.
Whatever has happened in the past, we hope people would let go of their hatred and start building instead of destroying. Taking up on some redeeming actions. Who has time for hate? Life’s too short already. And who knows how much time any of us have left on this Earth anyways. Make it count, be better than that.
Besides, if you don’t know them, know that you don’t know who you are talking about, regardless of what someone has said about them – and let that reflect on your actions, your words. Otherwise, it’s like mad men shouting at strangers on the street.
In the end, whatever undealt negativity some people might struggle with, it’s still a distance away from our lives. That doesn’t make it right and it needs to be addressed but it’s still this weird background noise we hear from time to time and ignore. Time always carries those ramblings away.
Because light, unlike black holes, expands and unites. Despite everything that’s happened, there’s so much more to focus on, so many actually important things to invest our limited time in. Time is the only currency that’s worth something in the end. Best make it count.
Maybe as a result, in time our group has evolved beyond the importance of individual recognition. This is why we speak with one mouth. While you couldn’t exactly say there’s no ‘I’ in Inkakai – and a lot of our history is built on the singer-songwriter – it’s been “we” even before we ended our break in 2019. We may have different musical roles but there’s no need for anyone to stand out – not as individuals or as musicians. Our collective work – the music, the art, the words – will speak for itself.
Attention seekers in social media are actively using their surroundings and current topics to excuse posts that bring attention to what they were always about: themselves as individuals, their faces, their bodies. We have been doing the opposite.
By introducing the masks and hoods in 2012, by choosing anonymity, we let go of any need for individual acknowledgement. When doing something for the whole, beyond and around yourself, you are liberated by your craft so that it may exist and evolve independently outside your person.
This is what Inkakai is about.
You’ve collaborated with some amazing artists, who else would you want to work with in the future?
One of our aims is to work with and for some great artists in terms of songwriting, especially since we’re not your traditional rock group. We have written so much material for Inkakai, easily for three albums with the new and old stuff, previously unreleased. But we’re also working on different projects and different genres a lot. Inkakai as a band is our lovechild but there’s also so much more to us, so many different genres and areas we work in. We consider Inkakai not only a group, a band, or a project but also a songwriting team that could easily write for other artists.
Perhaps we will see some of that in the future as well.
Which artists do you draw most inspiration from today?
We’ve been inspired by a bunch of great bands since the beginning of our journey, some of them might be even audible in our music. The pretty much complete list of alternative/rock artists might be as follows: U2, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Deftones, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Tool, Helmet, A Perfect Circle, Radiohead, Muse, Goo Goo Dolls, Jeff Buckley, R.E.M., The Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, and Audioslave. You might pick up some of these from our music, others not so much, but they’ve been influential to us, nevertheless.
Nowadays some of us don’t listen to band music for entertainment so maybe the inspiration comes more from the ones that have survived through all this time. Their endurance, their loyalty to their sound and the journey they’ve made together is something commendable, something to be proud of.
Survival is essential. There are going to be bumps on the road either way and sometimes life really does a number on you. But it’s about surviving the storm and not giving up, pushing on forward and staying true to your heart.
It’s those kinds of artists who have survived through time that inspire us and are inspiring in general.
How else do you find inspiration for your music?
From several things. For example, the drummer needs to hear the vocals to get inspired to play the drums on a song. And the singer-songwriter finds inspiration for the lyrics from things happening in the world today and his personal experiences.
Musical inspiration stems from ideas that pop in the head or, like in our case, from ideas that have been recorded and gathering dust, sometimes for over 30 years. It’s great to revisit something old with a fresh perspective or vice versa: treat some new idea with an older approach. There’s order in the creative chaos that’s very inspiring.
Inspiration itself can be found everywhere. One might not have to do anything other than take walk in the nature, look at some beautiful scenery – look at the starry sky and feel how small you are in this vast universe. There is so much beauty and purity out there.
Yet, how connected we all are on this planet, how we are all in this together even though we are strangers to each other. How very symbiotic it is the way we act on this planet; how important certain individual choices may turn out to be.
All that is very inspiring.
What would you say is the perfect setting for listeners to enjoy your sound?
Everything depends on individual preferences. Whatever floats your boat. Of course, intensive listening will reveal more details and expand the music even more. But whatever is the preferred experience of music for each individual.
If we’d be touring at the moment, the sound would be more raw there, along with the energy. Maybe one day we’ll show that side of Inkakai as well.
How has your own style and sound evolved since you started out?
Quite a bit. When starting out, our initial ideas for the band were a mishmash of influences and raw sketches, created with the eagerness and naivety of youth. As we all have learned and grown as people and artists, so too has our craft evolved and it shows in the music.
We started out as a mix of different styles where sometimes the songs differed in sound so much it didn’t feel like it was the same band. In the decades that followed, our sound has become more recognizable, more cohesive, more uniform, and more in accordance with the vision we’ve been following.
We plan to revisit more of our earlier stuff at some point, but we’re happy with how we sound at the moment – although we haven’t yet shown all its aspects. All in all, it’s been a natural progression and evolution of our sound that has brought us here.
What’s the main thing you want people to get out of listening to your music?
While there are definitely some negative emotions and topics we’re dealing with in our lyrics, we are not sending out a negative message. We want people to be inspired and to learn something – if nothing else, then how to survive. The overall message we want to send is that even if you go through some hell, you can still survive it and come out stronger. Even if you fall down and make mistakes, you can still come back and rise up to the challenge. It’s never too late to change your ways, it’s never too late to try again – and if you feel that something is worth doing, you should try again. Never, ever give up. You can change directions but never give up on yourself.
There are many things in this world that will want to tell you how you should be to be accepted but you shouldn’t listen to any of those. Listen to yourself, your own dreams, not what others are doing or saying around you. Your life is, after all, your own – and you should make it into something that looks like you, not someone else’s.
Pain is an important teacher and the more painful the teaching, the more important the lesson. Keep that in mind and try to evolve accordingly. We’re made to be ourselves but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t become something better. Try to be the best version of you – and that doesn’t mean money or looks or fame. Just the best possible person you can be – for yourself, for your loved ones, for this world.
Do you have any advice for a new artist wanting to follow your footsteps?
Hmm, don’t follow in others’ footsteps or try to be like others. Instead, make your own path. Test yourself, try different things and search for your inner voice, your inner sound. Listen, learn, practice, and try to be open to different aspects of music and art in general. Don’t do it for the fame or the money, do it for your passion for the art – and eventually, to make a positive change in yourself and in the world. We’re all in this together, whether we like it or not.
Stay away from drugs – they will distort your personality and distract you from the important things in life.
Finally, what do you have lined up for 2024?
More music, more releases.
Listen to Drown and Drown (Shadow Version) below
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