New Jersey metalheads Mutiny Within formed way back when in 2002 by bassist Andrew Jacbos being a cover band at the time covering various tunes from Finnish act Children Of Bodom. After years of touring and releasing several records, Chris Clancy as well as the rest of the band had decided to go on an indefinite hiatus as of 2011. But now one whole year later the metalheads are back! Thus includes Chris Clancy reprise his role as vocalist for the band as well as an all new album called "Mutiny Within II: Synchronicity" coming out within the New Year! So it looks as if everything worked out for the better and vocalist Chris Clancy discusses the band's brand new release and what the future holds for here on out.
1. Can you tell me how the band got it's name?
Chris: We were originally called "Mutiny" but had to change our name after we were signed. We came up with Mutiny Within as we felt it kept the same meaning as the original name. Some argue that the name makes makes no sense, but they have too much time on their hands.
2. What type of band are you?
Chris: We are a metal band. There's been so many discussions on our videos and forums about what type of metal we are, but to us, it's metal. All types of metal wrapped in one sound.
3. How has the band’s sound evolved from your first release onto this one?
Chris: I feel the new album is slightly more vocal orientated. It focuses a little less on technical ability on more on songwriting as a whole. I guess you could describe it as more mature, but without losing the fundamentals of our sound. After Drew (Keyboards) moving on to college a few years ago, we had to write songs which didn't rely on keyboards, this obviously developed the sound, but it couldn't be avoided, and we're 100% happy with the evolution of the band.
4. Was your songwriting and recording process any different than usual for this CD?
Chris: The process was totally different. We did everything ourselves this time. Some songs were written when the band were still together in the USA, but almost half of the album was written over the internet. AJ was sending Chris instrumentals and together, they crafted them into full songs. It was a totally different way of working, but we had to work around the restrictions of our situation. The album was essentially pieced together from demos and then produced and mixed in a room in Chris' house. It's amazing what can be accomplished now with some dedication and a simple setup.
5. What inspired the album title? Is it a concept album?
Chris: Bill, myself and AJ are particularly into the idea of Synchronicity. Things happening not entirely by chance. Sequences of events unfolding to create a certain outcome. I live my life by following intuition and that gut feeling, and when it came to making the second album, it seemed the obvious choice.
6. Who write's the songs what are they about this time around?
Chris: AJ and I write the songs. AJ writes the instrumentals and I writes the vocals/lyrics and produces the material, having AJ re-write parts in certain ways if a vocal idea needs some changes to work properly. The songs on the record are about everything from the unfortunate news of a friends suicide, to songs of hope out of despair and philosophy on life.
7. Are you using any new instrumentation you've never used in the recording process before?
Chris: Not on this album. There's a little more orchestration in some songs, but it isn't too dissimilar from the keyboards from album one.
8. Can you go into one or two tracks on the new album? If so, can you give us the track title and brief description of how the track sounds and how it came about?
Chris: There is a song called Lights which is about somebody I knew who committed suicide. I was heavily involved in making this track a certain way because of the obvious attachment to the lyrical theme. We tried to create an atmosphere that draws the listener in, encouraging reflection, but without focusing too much on sadness and despair. Keeping the track up beat for the most part helped create the mood. The simple analogy of "Turn out the lights, I close my eyes and say goodnight, Turn out the lights, Remember me, goodbye, I'm sorry" help keep a personal touch to the song without being overly descriptive. I like to keep lyrics open to interpretation in most songs.
Embers is a more driving song which we wrote when we knew the band could be facing an uncertain future with the label. It was our song of keeping something burning, keeping something alive. It was relevant at the time and we find writing honestly has far more impact on ourselves and others that writing about something you have no connection with. I think this song will be a favorite for most.
9. What are your expectations for the release?
Chris: We don't really have any expectations. We just wanted to put out the music because it sat on my hard drive unfinished. It seemed such a shame that so many months of work went into the music only for it to go unheard. We talked earlier in the year and decided it would be great to release it. We really hope the fans enjoy the music and it's mainly for them that we're releasing it. We were hit extremely hard by music piracy on our last album which was directly responsible for the band coming to an end and we ask people to please buy this album to help support us. We amassed a lot of debt on the previous album personally and we're hoping that the sales of this will help us.
10. What are your upcoming touring plans?
Chris: We have no plans of any future tours, the band is strictly in the studio. The costs to tour for visas and equipment are way beyond us financially so we have no interest in touring.
11. Anything else you want to say or add?
Chris: Piracy ruins bands. People forget this, but we're living proof. Fans think it's fine not to pay for the album if they buy a shirt and a ticket. Unfortunately, a lot of tours are booked using CD sales as a measure of a bands success. We missed out on a lot of tours because of this and eventually ended up being removed from tours because our sales were low. In 9 months on the biggest metal label in the world, we sold only 7,500 albums. On ONE single torrent site alone, we had 65,000+ illegal downloads. If we'd sold another 5000 albums, we'd still be together now, touring and making music. Bands make money from shirts, and shows, but labels make money from CD's (as well as shirts and shows). A label invests money in a band like a bank gives somebody a loan. If the label loses money from a band, they're not profitable, and the band will be dropped. We weren't profitable. We were dropped. Music is unfortunately a business, there's a product that costs tens of thousands of dollars to make, which if goes unsold, loses money.If you walked into a car dealership and took a car without paying, you'd call it theft, but for some reason when it comes to stealing music, people think it's entirely different. It isn't. If a band wanted to put music out for free, they would. We didn't put our music out for free, it was our product that took years to make. And to all the people who say we weren't committed to music because of this, ask yourself this. If you worked full time as a restaurant owner and nobody ever paid for your food, what would you do? Would you buy all the food yourself and keep cooking it and serving it up because you enjoyed doing it? Or would it eventually take its toll on your when you couldn't afford to eat anymore or pay your rent?
We love music, we just couldn't survive the state of the industry.
Thanks to all of our fans for sticking by us through everything and we hope you enjoy this album.
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