Interview with Obey The Brave vocalist Alex Erian and bassist Cory Wilson | By Joe Smith-Engelhardt
Montreal metalcore crew Obey The Brave have developed a sound built on hard-hitting breakdowns, soaring melodic choruses, and uplifting lyrical motifs, but on their latest album, the band have expanded their range and experimented with some new sounds. Their third album released with Epitaph Records, Mad Season pushes vocalist Alex Erian’s clean vocals into a new realm.
“To be honest, I was pretty scared about it,” he admits. “I enjoyed that challenge. We’ve all done a couple records—whether it was with Obey The Brave or our various bands—and this was something new for us, and we’re definitely digging that new direction. It keeps things interesting, not just for us as a band releasing our third record, but also for the listeners out there.”
Although the band are happy with the finished album, it didn’t come without challenges. Obey The Brave recorded the entire album, using all of their funding from Epitaph in the process, when their producer suddenly disappeared and left them empty handed. The band had to start over with the help of their guitarist Terrence McAuley, who worked alongside engineer and mixer Dean Hadjichristou to rerecord the entire album.
“We lost six months through the whole process,” bassist Cory Wilson says. “As bummed out as we all were and as shitty of a situation it was, ultimately, the whole record benefited from it, because we stepped back into the studio, had a new perspective, and took a step away from the record. All in all, we got to spend more time on these songs—rerecording them, improving them, scrapping whichever parts we didn’t like—and the record benefited from it.”
Aside from stepping away from the finalized record, Obey The Brave took a step away from writing metalcore songs for a brief moment. The band collaborated with fellow Quebec natives, Loud Lary Ajust, on the hip hop-driven track, “RIP,” mixing electronic sounds with live instruments to flow with the sound of the rap group.
“When you go to an Obey The Brave show, it’s kind of a party setting,” Erian says. “We normally put a lot of hip hop samples in between songs to try to keep that vibe going, and it’s just something we wanted to capture on record. It was something we discussed for quite some time, and we finally did it. Loud Lary Ajust are a band I really like from back home, and I was talking to their manager and they were all about it.”
The band led off the release of their new album by dropping a video for the single “On Our Own,” which depicts them along with their friends in a hard-partying scenario. ATVs, motocross bikes, and cars are used and abused throughout, culminating with the band playing while a spectacle of fireworks is set off behind them.
“The guy that directed the video, [Didier Charette], from his perspective, it was quite a handful,” Erian laughs. “Everybody was in party mode, so it’s hard to give that sense of direction, but then again, it contributed to that overall mood in the video. Everybody acts like it’s not a concert; we just invited our friends, and we were all just hanging out and having a good time, and I feel like that’s portrayed properly in that video.”
Purchase Mad Season here: Physical | iTunes
Photo by Charlie Baron
