Say hello to .. Great Demise.
Meet Great Demise, a two piece Alternative/Hard Rock band from Chino, CA. We had the pleasure of getting to chat with Christian and Jake all about their newly released DIY self titled debut album: including their songwriting process, the inspiration behind the record, and more.
Read the interview below!
OA: For starters, the album is self-titled. What made you go that route?
GD: We decided to go with a self-titled album for our debut simply because it felt right. The track list for this album is practically a compilation of songs that we wrote over the past decade or so. With that in mind, we decided it would be nice to name both the band and the debut album after the first song we wrote together, “Great Demise.”
OA: Where does the inspiration for the album come from? Were there any specific artistic or personal experiences that inspired certain songs?
GD: Each song on this album was created for a different reason. “Fear of You” was initially written to convey an unreciprocated romantic interest, whereas “Saint in the Streets” was written to address hypocrisy and judgement of many religious people. Every song can be dissected pretty easily through the lyrics if you give them a quick read.
OA: Do you feel the record fits into a particular musical genre, or would you say it’s a combination? Describe the overall sound or direction of the album.
GD: This record particularly is a combination. We took elements from indie, punk, blues, metal and even some pop to produce these songs. The most important part of our recording process though was making sure that all of the songs are cohesive and have the same tone and a very similar feel, while also being very different from each other. The overall sound of the album did turn out to be a very raw, DIY rock record. We wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s honest and unapologetically imperfect.
OA: Can you walk us through the songwriting process? Did you experience any writer’s block? If so, how did you overcome it?
GD: All of the songs on this album, with the exception of the intro track and the lyrics for Saint in the Streets were written by Christian. He’d come up with the lyrics, guitar riffs, basslines and then initial song structure. The foundation is then built on by Jake with his unique and driven drumming. Lyrics are tweaked towards the end of the song writing process. We do experience writer’s block from time to time, but it usually goes away when we find an idea and work with it for an hour or so. It usually doesn’t last longer than a few hours.
OA: Out of the 12 tracks, is there a particular one each of you are proud of, or are most excited to perform live?
GD: Christian is most proud of “Scalp.” Its simple guitar riffs and its consistent beat give it a driven feel for an acoustic song. The lyrics came about when his mind went to a dark place and dreamed of being slowly tortured. He is very excited to eventually perform this at an acoustic show in the future. Jake is most proud of Saint in the Streets, it’s a hard hitting track with a very obvious meaning and it seems to stick with people.
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OA: The album is completely DIY. What pushed you to do it completely solo with no guest musicians or collaborators?
GD: We find that it’s best to keep the project very tight knit. We both have similar musical influences, but also have different music tastes, which yields an interesting dynamic when the two of us work together. We have always been able to reach an easy flow-state when jamming out to new ideas, and often times when another person gets involved, it kind of starts to feel unnatural. This particular project just seems to work best between the two of us, though we are certainly not opposed to collaborating with other artists in the future!
OA: What was the most challenging part of creating this record? Did you learn anything in the process?
GD: The most challenging part of creating this record was learning how to record, and use the equipment properly. Throughout the record you can probably hear imperfections in vocals, snippets of tracks, and maybe even some occasional background noise. It was recorded in Jake’s bedroom with a small audio interface and a mixer. It was never going to be flawless. We learned so much in this process though. We know how to proceed in future projects with recording and producing. We know not to stand too far or too close to the microphone and to measure distances from mics to amps and drums. This particular record was rough around the edges, but we find a lot of beauty in that.
OA: What do you hope listeners take away from this album?
GD: We hope that listeners will be inspired to create something from nothing. We are very proud of this album. Blood, sweat, and tears went into this project for ten months. This project began when we were in high school, then we took a very long hiatus, and then we decided to pick it back up again a little over a year ago. You never know where life is going to take you, so you might as well make something you’re proud of while you can.