A Symbol of Hope: On Exanimate's New Album 'Luminous' and Reinventing Their Sound With Modern Empire Music
Many bands spend their entire careers trying to reach a point of success that defines all we have accomplished. The Michigan natives have spent many years perfecting their craft and sound to craft an uplifting and expressive approach to their innermost thoughts and emotions. While the band has been forging their sound as far back as 2018, Exanimate would finally get the chance to demonstrate their aptitude to write such material with their 2020 release, Därknes.
This is only the start of their young path to success, but it would propel them forward to their 2021 March release, Luminous via Modern Empire Music. Luminous is not only a testament to the fusion of their melodic and vast metalcore experience they have sewn together but also an inspiring and forward-looking message that breaths life and light into the genre. Sometimes what we experience in the world puts us in tenuous and often dark space, but if we don't let the darkness overtake us it can also lead us to a path of happiness and light.
The Pacific North-East metalcore band is here with Scene Daddy to talk about their new record and how they formed their new sound with Modern Empire Records.
What started Exanimate? What was happening in your scene at the time that prompted you guys to start up the band?
Alec: Well, I was in a band before this called Dead Eyes Always Dreaming that had a pretty unfortunate ending. It had taken me to so many places and given me so many incredible experiences so, I wasn’t ready to let that set me back by any means. My vocalist Sasha Hunter from that band and I formed Exanimate pretty instantaneously after the band split.
Exanimate ‘Luminous’ Album Art
What are your music influences? How were you able to bring them into your latest EP release Luminous?
Sasha: Both Alex and I have a pretty broad array of influences for sure and we try to incorporate as many aspects from those that we enjoy, from bands like Kardashev, Converge, Deafheaven, Counterparts to name a few, but absolutely pull inspiration from all sorts of music.
I want to talk about the EP a bit. What sparked you guys to write Luminous? What is the story behind this sort of large, ostentatious work have created?
Luminous was written kind of as a symbol of hope and means of representing the huge change going on in our lives. At the time, that was really the only thing keeping us motivated and positive during quarantine, since we lost our jobs and all ability to play live music all at once upon relocating from Kalamazoo to Seattle. It was insanely tough. It was for everyone of course, but this gave us a purpose and goal to keep striving for.
What was the instrumental and recording process like for this EP? There are a lot of beautiful melodies circumventing through these technical heavy grooves and spirited vocals.
Alec: All of the tracking was done from our little apartment in Seattle and then sent over to our engineer James Zhan, who is just the most enjoyable and professional person we could ask to work with. As far as instrumentals, it was a ton of sleepless nights and making the most of my newfound access to Seattle pot shops haha.
I’d write a riff, kind of just get in the zone and jam out every idea that came to me as if I was hearing a song that was already written. After I have a skeleton, it usually takes me a few weeks of giving my ears a break and letting it breathe and working on it here and there to polish it off. Most times when I start a song, I won’t have ideas that I would come up with later on and so I always give each track quite a bit of time for my creativity to branch out.
Also to account for the inevitable and dreaded writer's block that happens too often to count. We’d then track Alex’s vocals with this super janky DIY vocal booth helmet thing that we attached to a mic stand. It was always a ton of fun watching him with that thing on his head going in on the tracks haha.
What do you want people to take from this EP that was not available in Därknes back in 2020? How do you feel they differ even though they are only a year apart?
Sasha: Därknes, true to its title was written in a very stressed and negative headspace for both Alex and me. We were going through quite a bit of personal trauma and dealing with a lot while just essentially pouring all of these very raw and dark emotions into those songs. It is not the most clean-cut record. I definitely would change a lot on it if I could but at the same time I feel like it sounds exactly how it should for what it is and in the manner, it was written.
This new album is much more of a portrayal of our true selves I feel.
It’s still sad, it’s got this melancholy vibe, but with a strong, hopeful, and powerful essence at the same time. Alex and I have lived our fair share of experiences that we thought we may not recover from but have always persevered and tried to stay as strong as we could while taking away lessons from each time and trying to apply them to better ourselves.
In what ways are you contributing to the genre that other bands haven't or haven't been honing on perse in the genre?
Alec: Well, I suppose our strongest suit is emotion and beauty. There are so many incredible bands out there that are much more technical, heavy, and just are more skilled musicians for sure. Our goal is to kind of make this metal gumbo that can have breakdowns, two steps, blast beats, black metal parts but all of it is topped with this beauty that I think isn’t focused on as much in metal music.
There are absolutely a ton of bands that do that kind of thing and are starting to but that’s definitely our goal. We want it to give you chills because you didn’t expect it to make you feel the way it did, however, it is per individual. Ideally, haha. We're still honing our craft and sound and trying to fine-tune it all.
Now that the EP is out and you have had time to sit on it for a bit, do you feel there are things you would change about it?
Honestly, we are super proud of this album. We worked a very long time on this and made sure that this was something we would have no second guesses about releasing. That isn’t the same story for the Därknes EP at all, but I don’t think we would change a lot about this specific record. That in itself feels really great though and I don’t think either of us have ever felt that way about music we’ve written before.
What is next for you guys this year?
We’re hoping to hit the road for sure, ASAP. We’re ready to come out swinging this next year with live shows and try to make our mark in the scene and continue to grow and meet as many awesome people as we can in as many places as possible. We’re writing our next release right now as well.
It’ll be heavier and prettier and we’re hoping to just keep maturing and have it very much show in the final results. Other than that, we’ll probably just keep being a couple of idiots goofing around Seattle and trying to make the most of this year after so long of being cooped up.