Seit ihrer Gründung 2016 in York haben INVISIONS einen Raketenstart hin zu einer der vielversprechendsten Bands der britischen Metalcore Szene vorgelegt. Bereits in der ersten Woche nach ihrer Gründung und noch ehe das Lineup der Band vollständig stand, gingen die Musiker ins Studio, um ihre Debütsingle „Unbreakable“ aufzunehmen – ein starkes Statement, Sechs Jahre später steht die Band mit ihrem nunmehr dritten Album „Deadlock“ in den Startlöchern: Eine intensive Platte, der mit massiven Breakdowns, djentigen Vibes und beeindruckender Brachialität besticht. Das Album wird das Licht der Welt am 11. Februar erblicken. Dies nahmen wir zum Anlass, um mit Josh Hardy über das kommende Album zu sprechen.
Frontstagee: Hello InVisions! Thank you very much for taking the time for an interview. How are you?
Josh: Doing great thanks; we’re all working harder than ever, shows are happening again and people are really giving us some great buzz off of this new record so far, which is cool as f***!
Frontstage: „Deadlock“ is your 3rd album – the other two albums were released before the pandemic in 2017 and 2019. Did the pandemic influence the making of the album and your songwriting? If so, how?
Josh: I wouldn’t say it consciously influenced the writing lyrically, but naturally if you sit around with your own thoughts for a year and a half it’s going to seep in, to a degree! All we knew was we weren’t gonna just sit around and do nothing with the time we had been given. Amidst covid restrictions, a new album seemed like the perfect way to focus, knowing we would come out the other side sitting on a fat record was the shining star and kept us mentally there! A blessing that came as a result of the pandemic was that we had a lot of time with this one, it was kind of like having that time of writing a first album all over again with no pressures or stresses of deadlines.
Frontstage: Which is your favourite track and on the album? Why does this song mean the most to you?
Josh: My personal favorite has got to be ‚Half Life‘. Solely because it has so many elements musically that remind me of my early days of drumming in post melodic hard-core, the repeated riff coming back half time, up-beat faster sections and a huge chorus! What I take away from this track is how when you’re in the music business, you are always restricted to what you can do with the rest of your life as you chase your wildest dreams. I.e you can’t take this job because you tour too much, it’s hard to commit to everyday life events and plans with your friends, family and partners in case a tour comes up. We all want to make this our full time job and lives, but if you’re not going to push to work hard and make those sacrifices, it simply won’t happen. „If you can’t save yourself, then who will save you?“.
Frontstage: The last two videos are impressive with very expressive images and elements play a role. In „D V P E“ it was water and in „Deadlock“ snow. Does this have a deeper meaning or did you simply choose these elements for aesthetic reasons?
Josh: Our video production is always something we have taken very seriously, we always want to top the last thing we did; with the phenomenal team at ‚LifeIsArt Visuals‘, we have been able to make that happen this far!
The track ‚D V P E‘ lyrically deals with addiction and how people get into a dark place and it can feel like there is no way out. The water symbolizes people slowly killing themselves and being in a closed coffin like space with the water rising really brings home the feeling that even if you want to escape sometimes you can’t!
We never talked about doing „element“ based videos, it’s more so we wanted to create a phenomenal visual aesthetic and give each track their own world! With ‚Deadlock; there is a line in the track „I’ll pray the rain turns into snow“ which instantly made the video have to include snow. With it being the title track and the last video we shot we knew we needed to deliver on this video as the song means so much to all of us and our journey in this band this far. The track cuts so deep and we wanted to go as epic as possible for the video to match the energy of the song and lyrical weight.
Frontstage: Currently there are „only“ 2 confirmed concert dates in April in Leeds and London. Are you already planning a tour that will take you to Germany or are you still waiting to see how the global situation develops?
Josh: We absolutely have plans to get back over to mainland Europe and are in some exciting talks to make that happen in the immediate future; that being said, the global touring situation sadly is something we have to take into consideration when planning, fingers crossed there are no more cancellations.
Frontstag: Is there a location (no matter if club, hall or festival) where you definitely want to play once in your life?
Josh: I think I speak on behalf of the entire band when I say main stage at DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL. We headlined the Dog house tent on the Thursday night in 2018 and it was the biggest/ coolest experience we’ve ever had. It felt like home, so we absolutely plan on returning.
Frontstage: What else can we expect from you in 2022?
Josh: Lots of shows, lots of new songs being played live, hopefully touring some new areas that we haven’t been able to visit yet and the biggest year InVisions has ever had!
Frontstage: It was a pleasure for us. Thank you very much for the interview and good luck for the album.
Josh: Thank you so much for having us, appreciate it.
Fotocredit: Offizielles Pressefoto
