Die Amerikanische Band From Ashes To New sind in viele Köpfen als eine „Breakup songs“ Band bekannt, schlagen allerdings mit „Villain“ auch andere Seiten auf. Was sie damit ausdrücken wollen oder wie ihr Songwriting Prozess für das neue Album ausgesehen hat erzählt uns Matt. Gerade sind From Ashes to New von ihrer ersten EU/UK Headline Tour zurück und haben sich die Zeit genommen mit Frontstage etwas über das neue Album „Reflections“ zu sprechen. Zwischen den persönlichen Konflikten, emotionalen Songs und dem Songwriting Prozess von geben sie ebenfalls einen kleinen Einblick in ihre Kindheit.
Frontstage: Hello Matt. Thank you so much for being here today.
Matt: Of course. Thank you for having me.
Frontstage: Four Singles of „Reflections“ have already been released. Which one is the most meaningful to you?
Matt: From the singles that are already out? I feel like the ones that are the most meaningful ones to me, like the ones that have actually have a deep weight in my heart, those aren’t out yet. But like everyone asks this and they are all my babies. So, its hard to pick a favourite child. But I think that “Die for you” is one of those song that just hits. The way it was written and produced. U know? Maybe not so much the meaning of the cause I don’t identify with it as much as some people might, but the song itself does hit for sure. And I give long/winded answers, because I want to make sure that I’m crystal clear!
Frontstage: That’s perfect! Personally, I love “Villain” the most. But they are all amazing.
Matt: Really okay, sick, that’s hard. That’s our first dark love song. And since the blackout record, people began calling us like this breakup song band like “you’ve got like the best breakup songs”, and this like s*** like what if we make one that’s kind of like a dark romance love song? And that’s what Villain is.
Frontstage: Booktok is loving it.
Matt: Good. I’m glad I’m glad that they are. I mean, that actually wasn’t the intention going into it wasn’t like, “hey, how can we write a song for Booktok?” But like everyone loves a good villain, right, and there is like a word for it…
Jimmy: Antagonist
Matt: So, Jimmy’s over here, by the way, giving us answers off screen so yeah, the antagonist, like everyone loves a good antagonist. So, we wanted to write a song that was kind of off the beaten path from a love song.
Frontstage: I’ve seen that on the new album. There are going to be 12 songs. Which one represents the heart of a project where, like you would say that’s the most significant one?
Matt: That’s like asking again, like, what’s your favourite child? I think they all represent it like we have a very purgatory type Feel like an emotional and mental purgatory type, feel to this record, where it feels like you’re trying to reach for something so great and you get pulled back down to hell, and that’s kind of like the overarching theme of this whole record. So, they all hold a special place, and then you have a couple. others like “Die for You”, which is not kind of thematically with that. And we weren’t actually trying to do a concept like it wasn’t like, we were thinking, “this is our theme for this whole record” it, just kind of is where we were as a band as individuals emotionally. So, we just kept feeling like, we’re right in there during the writing process. And it’s like one thing to the next and kind of doesn’t feel like you’re doing what you should be doing. So, they all kind of have A special place. Um, I think that some of the tracks probably aren’t going to stand out as much like a song “Falling from Heaven” really holds a lot of emotional weight. Especially for me, like that and “Your Ghost”, those ones like lyrically that hit hard.
Frontstage: Your music touches a lot of mental health stuff in general like, we just talked about that. Has writing stuff about those kinds of things help you like, get over your own Struggles?
Matt: Yes, but it’s not while I’m writing it. It’s after. I listen back and I go oh I wrote about that. Because I don’t really know at that point. Especially for me, lyrically, I’m just like “I need to get this done, I need to write about something” and so if we have a topic that’s picked or you know, we’ve created, and it starts off with one line I’ve got to make sure that everything fits that one line. So, a lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll create a chorus, and then once we create that chorus, then we’ll go back and we’ll write the other pieces around that chorus. So, like, I already know what the theme is and now I need to write within that theme. Sometimes I’m not really thinking about it like, what it means to me. I’m just writing. But then when I go back and I listen back to it, I remember that particular point in my life. As in “Oh, that was therapy, I needed to write that. Or this is why” sometimes I’ll even go back and I’ll listen to really early stuff that may not have clicked in the moment and I’ll go “oh f***, I was f***** u* and I didn’t realize it.” And now, I realized. We got a song called “My fight” that’s like from the very beginning and I didn’t realize that I just felt like it was me against the world until that song came out.
Frontstage: Does it ever happen to you like you write a demo song and you think about it, and then you basically scratch the whole thing and just keep some pieces of it? Like a song that went through major transformation during the album writing process?
Matt: All of them, they all do that. We’re not satisfied with them until we’re satisfied with them like “Die for You” for example, because that up to the last second was a completely different chorus. The same lyrics, but melodically it was completely different. And then we, you know, we sat with the record for a little bit. And went, how could we make this better? And it just kept coming to me like, I feel like this chorus could be like this or something like that. And the song’s huge, I just feel like this chorus isn’t as big as it could be, and we went back. And you know, Lance started this melody idea, and I think Danny was in on it. The next thing you know, we’re going back in the studio like, “hey, we gotta come back in, because we need to fix this” and we re-recorded this whole new melody for “Die for You”.
Frontstage: Another like similar question to the first two, but which song from the new album “Reflections” would you play to somebody who’s never heard From Ashes to New before?
Matt: It’s tough because there’s so many different sounds on this new record. Like, we’ve got some emotionally dark songs, we’ve got some musically dark songs. Everything’s tuned down really low. So, it makes it feel very emotionally heavy, I think that if you’re trying to reach a broader range, and I’ll use Bad Omens as an example, like they’ve reached a broader range while keeping it dark, like if you were to do something like that maybe “Forever”. But it’s like a different vibe, right? Because it’s got rap in it a little bit. But I’m like sing rapping and then like, you know, it’s just I think it’s different, like “Forever” sounds a lot different than anything that’s out there. It’s still in the alt metal world like it still exists in that lane. But it’s just way different. But again, there’s no breakdown so, you go to a song like “Upside Down”, which still has that, but it’s got a gnarly breakdown in it. I don’t know, it’s a tough question. Every question you’ve given me has been pretty difficult!
Frontstage: Mission success.
Matt: Yeah, right? That’s what you want to do right. No soft balls.
Frontstage: Now, I also want to know what is one question you wish fans or even reporters asked more? Like something that you’ve always wanted to answer, but you’ve never had the chance to.
Matt: Uhm, I think I’ve answered everything…. I don’t know, I think for me like “What did you do as a kid?” You know, like just more personal stuff, I think cause, you know, fans are here because of our music, right and they hear the songs and they see who we are now or whatever, like, oh, you know, tattoos and like makeup and dark and mysterious or me, like I’m super outgoing and like, the kind of guy that tries to crack jokes at funerals. Because I want people to be happy all the time like that’s like my thing. And that’s why I’m always talking about mental health or whatever, because I want people to feel good, you know, but it’s like that all stems from somewhere right? We all psychologically come from somewhere. And that all comes from who we were as kids like what were you as a child? And now you’re gonna ask me like, what was I as a child is that the next question?
Frontstage: I was thinking about it but like, maybe it’s a bit too far. Because I don’t want to be rude and ask like “So what trauma did you go through to write that kind of music” in general you know? It’s a very fine line.
Matt: Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t even have to be like that. Like, you know, “how were you as a kid like what did you do growing up”, like, “what was your favourite thing to do growing up”, because for me, people would probably never guess, because it’s such a stark contrast, from what I do now from what I was as a kid I played sports as a kid. I played Baseball, I rode my bike in the dirt, I played with little cars in the dirt like we didn’t have a lot of money. So, I tried to figure out how to have fun. I’m always in the woods or creeks, or whatever, you know, because I didn’t have the money like everybody else had. I had to figure out fun in different way so like that’s the kind of stuff I feel like not a lot of people get asked. But I understand that not that everyone would want to answer it, but I know I would because I could talk to you all day about all the fun I’ve had when I was a kid.
Frontstage: I’ll definitely keep that in mind for the next Interview.
Matt: There you go. Someone’s gonna get p***** at you. Like “why would you f****** ask me that question?”
Frontstage: That’s why I would never ask it. But if you give me permission, we will talk about your Childhood more next time.
Matt: Yeah, for sure ask me. I already gave you half of it.
Frontstage: Perfect. Thank you so much for taking the time today, sitting down with me.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. It has been awesome. Thank you!
Hier geht`s zum neuen Album:
Fotocredit: Alex Bemis
