Monday, February 20, 2017

Riftwalker Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Zan: Were an extreme metal band from Vancouver BC. Trying to aim for a different sound and image.
Miles:  We started in ournteenage years with just our drummer (zan) and our guitarist (miles), with a few comings and goings. This is our first band, and our mission has always been about technical, proggy extreme metal.
Spencer:The band was started way back in 2009 in Vancouver, BC. We were all very young when we started ( I was 13 when the band started) and kind of honed our skills with this project. We released one EP/demo in 2013 ,played a bunch of local gigs, and recorded the
 debut album... and here we are now

2.How would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recordings?
Zan:Our sound is definitely very heavy with death and thrash influences but a lot of our influences come from outside metal which contributes to our overall sound.
Miles: A bunch of radically different elements
 evenly represented. I like to think of it as an experiment in everything from death/thrash metal to proggy psych rock
Spencer:The songs on the green and black album tend to jump around stylistically a bit, but I would describe us as either progressive death metal or extreme metal. Ripping guitar solos, crushing drums, defined bass, and brutal
 vocals!

3.The band has been around since 2009 but so far has only released one ep and one full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the gaps in between  releases?
Zan:
. In 2009 I bought my very first drum kit and started to learn. I met Miles few months later. We jammed in my buildings garage and began writing our song "Beyond" and we found Spencer a year later which completed our sound. It took a few years to write and develop the ability to perform the songs well, Which is why there is a gap between releases
Miles: We went through a great number of setbacks due to (now) former members, and trying to get good enough to make music we were proud of.
 Riftwalker is every members first band.
Spencer:From 2009 to the release of the EP/demo recording "wreckage of the old world" we spent a lot of time practicing recording, and re recording that demo. I think we recorded 3 full different versions of it. We also spent almost a year without a jam
 space. After we released the EP we played a bunch of shows and got used to gigging regularly, and then we jumped into the studio to record "green and black". The album was recorded about 2 years ago; we were holding onto the tracks waiting to make the release
 monumental, and the reception so far has been really good.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Zan: Lyric topics are all varied song to song and have relevence to our typical struggle through life through many different perspectives.
Miles: Themes include the nature of the universe, the afterlife, social dysfunction, birth defects, blowing yourself up making drugs in your house, the list goes on.
Spencer: cliche as it sounds a lot of it has to do with life and death. Some songs deal with hypnotism, nature, and one song in particular harlequin ichthyosis is about the terrible skin defect.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Riftwalker'?
Zan:. Riftwalker means "who who walks through dimensions" and we were inspired by this concept because there were many themes we could explore
Miles: It represents the variety in our songwriting. Likecrossing the rift between different planes if existence, we cross between radically different sections within (most of) our songs
Spencer: Riftwalker- one who walks between dimensions. The album cover captures the bands name fairly well. On the cover the Riftwalker is seen transcending from a heaven to a hell, walking between dimensions towards an unknown fate

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Zan:We've opened for some big bands such as Archspire, Fallujah, Abiotic, and Benighted. Our performance is very energetic on stage and we tend to give it our all. We constantly are evolving our image.
Miles: Our best was probably opening for Benighted (france) or Abiotic (usa) at local shows. Our stage performance is always changing,so stay tuned for live videos in the near future.
Spencer:Over the years we have had the pleasure of opening for some great acts such as, abiotic, archspire, benighted, and fallujah. Our stage show is aiming to be up front yet have an element of theatrics and mystery about it

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Zan: Our Cd release show is on January 28th in Vancouver, were hoping by the end of the year to be on the road.
Miles: Too many. We are collecting ourselves, and improving/ changing our stage performance. We are putting more into this band than anything else in our lives.
Spencer: We plan to tour around Canada and play some festivals this summer and havea cd release show coming up on January 27th in our hometown of Vancouver

8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Zan: We have been self funding everything so far. Our goal is to keep pushing as much as we can on our own unless we can arrange a good deal with either one of our favorite labels.
Miles: For now we are not looking for a label, and we are trying to get the message across that we can be self sufficient and succesful without aid.
Spencer:f a established label approached us we would definitely consider it but as of right now we aren't actively looking.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of progressive and extreme metal?
Zan:9 Our support has been been overwhelming from all over. We have some decent international support from the start which we are grateful for.
Miles: 's been so cool to see people all over the world with a passion for the same thing as us; who like our music. There is aost nothing more validating.
Spencer: So far the feedback for our album has been amazing. We receivedmany kind words from people all over the world, metal injection did a write up on us and featured us in their best of 2016, as did tech death time. We have also sold merch to people as far as Russia!

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Zan: Its hard to say where our sound will be in the future, we are very comfortable with our formula for writing and our new material is definitely more of an evolution of our exisiting sound.
Miles:  We are continuing to experiment blending extreme metal elements with the other music we listen to. It does seem, however that we are going in a more "death metal" direction.
Spencer: We already have another full length completely finished.
 Just have yet to record it. The songs are still along the same lines of the ones on the green and black album except for the fact that they are a lot more concise and in my opinion a lot heavier.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Zan:. Beyond Creation, Psycroptic and decapitated are a few bands that we really draw from. We also listen to alot of jazz/fusion, funk, progressive music. These days im listening to alot of snarky puppy and vulfpeck.
Miles: Lots of funk and disco is going down in our ears these days. Still tons of tech death too. I'd say Psycroptic, Ministry Obscura, and beyond creation influence our metal side a great deal.
Spencer:Quo Vadis, beyond creation, dying fetus, psycroptic, the
 black dahlia murder, type o negative, victor wooten, Marcus miller, wretched, the offspring, woods of Ypres, death, SRV, atheist, etc, were all huge influences to me. Recently I've been listening to tons of leprous, vulfpeck, wastewalker, alterbeast, abominable putridity, and the human abstract just to name a few.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Zan: As a band we like to spend a lot of time outdoors.
Miles: We all play in at least 3 bands and work. There is not much room for anything outside of music and celebrating to be honest. But we have time for movies, Drinking, and general fuck-goofery
Spencer:I like to longboard. Downhill skateboarding is something I've been doing for a long time, I just love the rush that it gives when you are soaring down the road at 60K+. Other then that not too much,I play in 2 other bands so a lot of my time is divided amongst projects and practicing bass at home for my aspirations of going to music school.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Zan: Were really excited to keep pushing forward, we have a lot of content in the works. Stay tuned to our facebook for all details. Thanks!
Miles: We are excited to see the direction that extreme metal is going these days. We hope for nothing more than being able to contribute to the same music movement that got us all through so many hard times. Cheers
Spencer:hank you, thanks to the fans, and I hope to meet and play for everyone and anyone who has taken the time to  read this!

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