Slant puts true dedication to what drives them to create the music that they do. They have made creative yet insightful music for their fans and themselves, that it's landed recognition world wide. Thus, landing them chances to tour all over the U.S. and even in Europe, bringing out the inspiration and positivity that their listeners need to hear. The entire band took part in discussing their all new album "Hope Created", as well as plans for the future and who knows what else they have in-store!
1. First of all, who are you, and what do you do in the band?
Fahim: My name is Fahim Zaman, I sing and play guitar in Slant.
Munir: Munir Haque, I play guitar in Slant.
Jimmy: I'm Jimmy. Drummer for Slant. Also play a bit of the triangle.
Josh: Josh Chastain, I play bass.
2. Can you give those of us who aren't familiar with Slant a brief history of the band and can you please describe your sound for those who have yet to hear your music?
Fahim: We've gotten a lot of "sounds like" comparisons.... I say my two biggest influences are probably Tool and Nirvana...So if you combine both of those... You prob get Slant.
Munir: Slant started about 10 years ago. Fahim and I grew up together and listened to music a lot and one day we were like you play guitar, I play guitar, lets start a band. We wrote songs and when we had enough for a 30 minute set we booked our first show and then kept going.
3. Where does a name like Slant come into the picture? What does it mean if anything?
Fahim: We chose the name Slant because the music we create is basically our "take" or "slant" on music.
Munir: Slant is defined as a perception of something or viewing something in a different way. The music we create is our view, take, perception on music.
4. Who are some of your influences?
Munir: Influences is a topic that can go on for hours. I'm influenced by anything really that provokes emotion while listening. But to name some artists that are a go to for me are, Nirvana, Tool, Babyface, Wu-Tang, Jimi Hendrix, The Used, Seether, Deftones and Slipknot.
Jimmy: There are tons of great bands, artists, and musicians that have influenced me. There's Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, and Nirvana to name a few.
Josh: Sam Rivers (Limp Bizkit), Fieldy (Korn), and Dave Ferrell (Linkin Park).
5. Could you take us through the writing process of Slant? How does one of your epic songs come to be?
Munir: Writing with slant is a lot of fun because the songs go through so many changes while it's taking life. Sometimes I might create a riff and its simple and repetitive but catchy and then Fahim will add another riff over it and so will Josh. Then Jimmy will hear something different and asks us to try it and it sticks. Or Fahim will come to us with an idea and lyrics and we all add our own flair. The emotion of the song is always in the center I feel. Take for instance our up and coming song "Twelve", I had this simple heavy riff and and kept playing it over and over. Josh, Fahim and Jimmy added what they heard in their head and we created one of my favorite songs in a matter of minutes. But the song also took on it's own life in the studio and is very different from when it started. It's a cool process for me to be apart of.
Jimmy: Some songs start with a guitar riff/idea and some just flow out through jamming together. Our experiences in life have come out through the music as well.
6. What label will be releasing the album?
Jimmy: We will be funding the album ourselves and will be an independent release. Our strong work ethic and teamwork has proven to be very effective in getting this album together.
Fahim: Well it's evolved majorly first in part because we have two new members (drummer and bassist) so what they brought to the table was a different style of those instruments, and also I feel like the concentration of focus is more towards what makes a song better rather than what I wanted to get articulate in the music.
Munir: When Jimmy was preparing for his 14 hour studio days, Fahim said to him "I want you to die on this album, leave yourself in everything you do". I probably quoted that wrong lol but that was my take away. I feel we all really left ourselves in these songs. As far as our sound goes, Our songs really represent our emotions. So you can say we have matured, learned, grown, been sad and its all in there.
8. Was your songwriting and recording process any different than usual for this album?
Fahim: Before I would've done most if not all of the lyrics, music, and arrangement for the songs....and on this record it must much more of a collaborative effort. I did most of the lyric writing, but I was constantly drawing inspiration and asking questions to the other members. I really wanted it to be something we all wrote rather than just some guitar and lyric song they wrote their parts to (in order to make it "Slant" song). All these songs on Hope Created are full Slant songs from the ground up.
Munir: Yeah our first album was released through our label at the time and we had 14 days to lay down and mix the album. This album, we put a lot of time into and I feel the album almost told us when it was ready for the next step and the step after. A lot of elements came into play that seemed to only happen because the previous step wasn't ready to move on when we thought it would be. Hope Created really took on a life of it's own and a lot of things happened very organically. Even the album cover fell into that mix and vibe.
9. What inspired the album title? Is it a concept album?
Fahim: Hope created was kind of like a wrap up of the last couple years of being in the band, trying to figure out the direction of the band, and getting the guys motivated to be in the band..(at least for me.) I knew that if we could get this album out there would be hope and motivation for all of us to continue writing and making music through Slant. It also in my opinion is sort of a play on all the bs that we've all been witnessing with life lately.... It seems as if almost everything is a facade, be it government, capitalism, everything seems to be being sold to someone for someone else's gain. So if that is something that holds true... what facade are we selling? Why not sell hope? Hope is probably the best kind of facade you can sell.
Munir: Hope Created comes from different avenues from each of us but lays on a common ground. It's hope, a possibility, a chance in anything you hope for. Where our individual hopes come from, we felt was left in these songs.
10. Did you get the album you wanted? Is everything on there or were there some things that were just impossible to pull off?
Jimmy: Some songs were harder to write than others. When it comes to writing and recording it's something we all agree upon as a group and in the end we are very happy with the results.
Munir: I am very happy with the album and the experience we shared with each other and learned through the project.
11. What are your expectations for the album?
Jimmy: We will be releasing the album in April 2015 and plan on pushing the album hard!
Munir: We want to share it with everyone, tour, play, get it out there.
12. What’s coming up for tours and shows?
Munir: We are currently gearing the year up. We leave in March for a European Armed Forces tour, followed by our album release show, an art show we are throwing celebrating art from Los Angeles, followed by many shows and tours.
Jimmy: We will be playing for the troops over seas in March and continue with shows in the U.S. throughout the year. I'm excited for this year. It's been great!
13. How about the future, what do you guys have planned for 2015?
Munir: 2015 is about getting out there again with Slant and exploring all avenues.
Jimmy: 2015 will be a good year. Going out and playing shows is what's in the future.
14. What about this European tour, what can be expected from that? How will the setlist turn out?
Munir: Looking forward to this AFE European tour. We have a lot of material ready for the show along with some fun covers. Good times.
Jimmy: We have a great set of songs for the troops. Tons of originals and a few secret cover songs. *grin* :)
15. What have you guys done to prepare yourselves for this tour?
Munir: Started doing daily push ups. We have a lot of deadlines to meet before we ship off. Working as a band and knocking it out.Jimmy: Rehearsals have been great! Playing live and running around on stage can be physically tough. I've been hitting the gym and getting my stamina up!
16. Will this be the first time that Slant, has flown overseas? If so, what do you think the crowds will be in comparison to the U.S.?
Munir: This will be our 3rd Europe tour. The crowds are great, a lot of energy, a lot of fun to hang out with and extremely humble.
17. Being a musician is obviously a hard career path that many people try and pursue, what makes it worth it for you?
Fahim: Honestly, what makes it worth it is knowing that I wouldn't want to be doing anything else in the world. It's literally saved my life in a bunch of ways.
Munir: Having the ability to create, travel, hang out with my band and share these experiences is what makes it worth while. Also everyone has someway they release emotions, thoughts, what not, this is how I do it.
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