In this interview, Voidchaser discusses their re-release of "Tyrant," the song's thematic depth, and their unique blend of progressive metal influences.
1. Congratulations
on the re-release of "Tyrant" along with the captivating lyric video.
What inspired the decision to revisit and enhance this particular track from
your debut EP, "Odyssey"?
The
decision came from being in contact with Jason Poulin, the engineer behind the
re-release. Jason showed interest in the band and after a few back and forths
between him and Jici the decision had been made to do a remix of “Tyrant” as a
sort of “Test Drive” for the collaboration between Jason and the band. We liked
his work so much that we decided to go ahead and re-release it as is own thing,
and go all-in with the lyric video and marketing push as we feel like it is a
short and sweet representation of the sound, energy and story of Voidchaser.
2. "Tyrant"
explores themes of autocracy and resistance against oppressive forces, set
against a sci-fi backdrop. Can you delve deeper into the narrative behind the
song and how it reflects your artistic vision as a band?
“Tyrant”
for us really serves as an introduction to both “Odyssey” but also to the
bigger narrative of Voidchaser. The idea for us is that everything we write and
put out musically is all sort of interconnected. “Tyrant” in our narrative is
the introduction to the first of many villain in this narrative that our
current and future protagonists will encounter. The song itself sets the stage
for this oppressive dictator that rules his part of this universe with an iron
fist. We wanted to introduce a character that bought their way into power and
is abusing that power for their own benefit. That being said, we also see this
character as the “Face” of a much darker evil in this particular storyline.
3. The lyric video for
"Tyrant" showcases striking visuals that complement the song's
thematic depth. How did you approach the creation of the video, and what were
some key elements you aimed to convey visually?
We got in
touch with Andrea Mantelli who does this kind of stuff. We we’re really
impressed with his portfolio and asked him if he was interested in doing
“Tyrant” to which he agreed. We basically just sent him the Photoshop files for
the “Odyssey” and “Tyrant” artwork and let him run with it. We’re super happy
with the result and highly recommend him.
4. Since its re-release,
"Tyrant " has garnered significant attention and praise from the
global metal community. How do you feel about the response to the revamped
version of the song, and what do you think sets it apart from the original?
We’re just
happy people enjoy the song as much as we do and are still processing the
amount of attention “Tyrant” is getting. I don’t think we thought it would be
popping off so much but we all really like it and chose it as our featured
single for a reason. I think what sets it apart is that it sounds much better
for starters. We are also pushing it harder due to the nature of it being a
single and easier to push. It’s just a little surreal that something we didn’t
think much of initially has gotten and is continuing to get all this attention.
5. Voidchaser has been described as
pushing the boundaries of the progressive metal genre. How do you incorporate
diverse influences from bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, Between the Buried and
Me, and Haken into your sound while still maintaining your unique identity as a
band?
I think we
like each of those bands for very different reasons and a lot of their
influences can be heard in our music for sure but the best way to incorporate
them into our sound is to not think about it and just write music. Once the
song, riff, or idea, has its own shape that's when we take a step back and kind
of go like “Oh! That’s very Dethklok.” We never try to emulate the style or
sound of another band we just write music that we want to listen to for people
who like that kind of music.
6. The
upcoming "Ashes of the Void Tour" sees Voidchaser co-headlining with
Ashbreather, alongside other local bands. What can fans expect from your live
performances, and how do you plan to elevate the concert experience on this
tour?
First of
all, we are huge fans of Ashbreather and we recommend seeing one of their shows
to anyone as its quite an experience. We try to book shows with bands that we
enjoy listening to and want to see perform and there are some hard hitters on
the bills. The Aphelion and PYRES to name a few are bands that we are
legitimate fans of. But for our particular portion of that experience you can
expect some new material material from an upcoming album, the songs off of
“Odyssey” among some other music, as well as the usual Chad shenanigans, which
may or may not involve a kilt and some t-shirts. We don’t get to do this as
much as we want since Chad moved to Stockholm so we are definitely looking to
make a very memorable experience for the audience as well as our selves.
7. With Chad Bernatchez on vocals
and rhythm guitar, Jeffrey Lehberg on lead guitar, Jici LG on bass, and André
Ouellette on drums, Voidchaser boasts a diverse lineup. How does each member
contribute to the band's creative process, and what dynamics define your
collaborative approach to songwriting?
Most of the
bases ideas tend to come from Chad and this can vary from a riff idea to a
whole 15 minute long composition. Usually what comes after that is MIDI files
being shared to Jici through Dropbox where he will tweak arrangements and layer
some stuff. Jeff will usually write some riff variations, guitar flourishes an
solos either before or during the recording and the same goes with Andre
regarding the drums of the songs. We like to all be present during recording
sessions to just throw ideas at each other. We have a “there are no bad ideas”
approach and aren’t afraid to change things around for the benefit of the song.
8. "Tyrant " marks a bold
new direction for Voidchaser. How do you envision this release shaping your
trajectory as a band, both musically and in terms of your presence in the
contemporary metal scene?
Musically
we see Tyrant more like a new chapter of the same direction but in terms of the
quality and the production we 100% agree. We see “Tyrant” as the new standard
we want to hold ourselves to when making content for our listeners and I think
this release is important to us because it makes us feel like we have something
that people resonate with and inspires us to really go as big as we can for
everything we do. The listeners deserve as much and we don’t have any intention
on delivering less to them. “Tyrant” is really our impetus and our candidature
for the prog metal audience. We don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
9. In addition to the revamped
version of "Tyrant," what other projects or releases can fans look
forward to from Voidchaser in the near future?
At the risk
of sounding incredibly cliche, we have a lot of big things coming. We will be
launching a brand new single just before the “Ashes of the Void Tour”, and are
planning to do a music video for that. We are also currently wrapping up
recording our next album that we are very excited to share with the audience.
We have other concrete plans as well that we are not ready to talk about in too
much detail yet but these include some video content, another tour, and another
single to close out 2024. We are also have some plans scheduled well into 2025
that aren’t as concrete but are still in the works that we will not be sharing
but fans can absolutely expect more from us.
10. Finally,
how would you describe the overall journey and evolution of Voidchaser since
your inception in 2023, and what do you hope listeners take away from your
music and performances?
I think the
best way to describe the evolution is how we started looking at the band musically, conceptually and pragmatically. At
the start, Voidchaser was suppose to only be Chads live band. The goal was to
do a show a month, Chad would release self produced music whenever he felt like
it and that was that. Once we got to jamming together it instantly became more
than that and we decided to “rebrand” as Voidchaser and release some music
under that banner. Then when we got in front of an audience and saw that people
enjoyed what we were doing and started looking a things more seriously and the
idea of our narrative was born a few months later. Once Jici came on board the
idea of recording an album started to become concrete and when Chad announced
he was moving to Sweden we decided to do an EP and really went with a pragmatic
approach of schedules, deadlines and iterations. Probably the defining moment
for us was being able to record and produce “Odyssey” in such a short time
frame. We kind of decided from there that we need to keep hitting the anvil
while its hot. All we really hope for in the end is that listeners get as much
enjoyment out of listening to our songs and seeing us perform as much as we
enjoy doing it. We all wake up in the morning and say “I’m a part of
Voidchaser” and we love what we do and we truly hope that the audience sees
that and feels that.
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