Metalcore band OATHBOUND have released their debut EP, and are in the process of recording and mixing, for their debut full-length, with single's expected to come off it this summer! The band talks with us about their music process, writing, lyrics, and plans to hit the road with playing some shows and perhaps a tour!
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?
Oathbound wasn’t actually our original name. We started out calling ourselves Signal from Io, which was inspired by a book series called Red Rising by Pierce Brown that I really like. I highly recommend it! We tossed around literally dozens of ideas and almost settled on something else before our former bassist, John Padgett, offered up the name Oathbound. We liked the name instantly because it embodies our ethos as a group of always keeping our word and being true to ourselves and the ones we love.
2. Why did you want to play this genre?
All of us grew up listening to all the different variations of heavy metal, from death metal to thrash to slam, etc. I wasn’t really aware that there were even genres in metal until after I got a little older. I just listened to what I thought sounded cool, and it wasn’t just metal. I love post-punk and my not-so-guilty pleasure is actually movie soundtracks. Anything in the vein of Hans Zimmer or James Horner. I think there are elements of our music that the discerning listener can pick out as being inspired by cinematic overtures. I think the reason why we gravitate toward metalcore is because we write in a way that our songs are riff-driven and heavy on melody. A lot of modern metal is rhythmic, which is really cool, but doesn’t have the same emotion as a great melody. Mixing the aggression of screams with the emotional clean vocals is where I think we’ll always gravitate toward.
3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?
Viktor (or other guitarist) and I knew each other for a little while before we officially “formed” as a band. We had jammed a few times and neither one of us had any real intention of being in a band at the time. But one thing led to another and I ended up finding our vocalist Kalyan through a local Facebook musician group. Similarly, we found Rishab the same way and things quickly snowballed into a real thing. We rounded everything out with our (former) bassist John and pretty quickly started recording our debut EP Until it’s Gone.
4. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are based out of Seattle, Washington and we’re part of a pretty strong heavy music scene. I feel like the most popular genre of music up here in this scene is deathcore or slam. There are at least 6 or 7 venues between Seattle and Tacoma that cater to the heavy music scene. The support we get from people up here is amazing and we’re really lucky to have such passionate fans. I highly recommend people check out “What’s Wrong” or “Tragedy by Design”. Both of those bands absolutely crush it and are my favorite metalcore bands in our scene right now!
5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?
That’s a hard question to answer. I think music is hardwired into my DNA. I’ve played various instruments since a very young age and music was always a source of emotional expression for me. I’m not very good about showing or conveying my emotions and have always turned to music because it makes me feel like I can be myself. I don’t have to keep a mask on because of societal pressures or expectations. I can just “be” and enjoy the comfort that it brings me.
6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
The songs on our EP gravitate around some emotionally complicated topics, ranging from toxic relationships to mental illness and addiction. We also delve into losing a loved one and the emotions that come with that experience. Really though, we just write what we feel. Like I said earlier, I have a lot of trouble talking about how I feel, but I can write about it without a problem. When I was a kid, I’d write notes to my mom telling her how I felt because I didn’t know how to convey it verbally. I’m sure there’s a goldmine for a therapist between my ears, but it’s how I adapted to my situation and it works okay for me.
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Our writing process typically starts with me being inspired by something I hear and writing a melody. Sometimes I’ll stumble across a cool riff when I’m just messing around with my guitar, but either way, it always starts with a riff. I try to find the balance between being formulaic and being too repetitive with the structure of a song. I feel like a song needs to have verses and choruses, but I try to be creative with bridges, breakdowns and refrains. I’ll program drums as I write the guitar parts of each song so our drummer can get the general vibe and vision of the song. After drums are programmed I program bass parts. I like to add a lot of synth and orchestral elements in our music so I’ll usually finish a song with those parts and then add things like risers, bass drops and other effects last. I wait until I have a well-developed demo before I share it with the other guys, but once I do send it out to the group, we refine parts and try to work out any alternate ideas they may have. With the music portion done, our vocalist gets to work mapping out a vocal cadence for the scream sections and a melody for the clean sections. Kalyan and I work together a lot to refine the vocals and lyrics for each song and record the parts as we go at his studio. Before we actually record final tracks, our drummer Rishab will rework the drum parts to be more “his”. He writes them in a program that he uses and we drop the file into the demo session to make sure that it vibes. A similar thing happens with the bass lines. Once everyone is happy with the composition of a song, we will record it for real. We have produced all our music ourselves up to this point, but would definitely like to work with a fresh set of ears with different ideas in the future!
8. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We released our debut EP, Until it’s Gone in September of 2024 and it has far surpassed even our wildest dreams as far as streaming numbers. As I’ve kinda discussed, our music is heavy on melody but we keep the aggression that metal fans love. We mix up the clean vocal with screams and the guitar chugs with melodic cleans. It’s what we do and probably will continue doing!
9. Do you have any new music in the works?
We are in the late stages of recording and mixing our first full length album and plan to start releasing singles this summer. People that are familiar with Oathbound can expect more of what we did on our EP, but with a more refined production and more technical aspect to the music. We all continue to learn our craft as the years go by and like to push ourselves to the limit of what we think we can reasonably play live. I am excited to start playing some of the new stuff live, but nervous at the same time!
10. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, we will have announced our next tour! We’re pretty excited to play almost exclusively places that we’ve never played before. We’ll have stops throughout Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and, of course, Washington! Aside from that, we are working on a fall tour but don’t have anything to announce for that one just yet!
11. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Honestly, 2 years ago I’d have called you insane if you told me where we’d be in two years. We went from being an idea to selling out a Seattle show and having more streams than I thought was even remotely possible. The plan is to keep the foot on the gas and just keep grinding and working harder than any other band, playing as many shows in as many different cities (and countries!) as we can and just have an absolute blast doing it! Our immediate goal is to get this album out so people can hear the evolution of Oathbound. We have worked incredibly hard on this record and are really excited to share it with everyone!
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can find Oathbound music on pretty much every streaming platform and see all the behind the scenes nonsense and show announcements on our socials (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube). If you want to check out our merch, head over to Oathboundstore.com!
Post a Comment