Shreddy Krueger interview done by Mike De Man. Questions answered by David Ecker (Guitarist).
With The Grieving having a reissue come out soon, there are bound to be a few differences. What should friends and fans expect from one of the best albums of the year?
I think the biggest difference is just the overall sound quality. There are tons of little nuances on this version of the record that listeners totally missed on the original release. We reused the same drum, vocal, and electronics as the first release, but retracked all of the guitars and bass. It feels much tighter, bigger, clearer, and true to what our band sounds like.
Do you have any new songs that are premiering on this release?
No new songs on the reissue, just the original 10 that were on the first release. We toyed with putting a new bonus track on it, or an acoustic rendition of one of the songs, but decided against it. The reissue was something we were able to put out quickly, (retracking, remixing, remastering in less than 2 weeks) and we didn’t want to take any focus time away from writing a new record that we didn’t have to.
When you recorded The Grieving originally, it was with Jeff Schneeweis and Joey Sturgis. How was that experience?
To sum it up in one statement, it was a blast! We drove 18 hours from Western Canada to Northern California in Jordan’s Civic stuffed full of our gear… we honestly couldn’t have fit another piece of anything in it haha! We spent 3 weeks recording and goofing off with Jeff and made the trek back home. Jeff had worked with our previous band, Secret and Whisper, on 2 full lengths and was a natural choice to go back to. And as everyone knows, Joey is the man at what he does, and working with him on mastering couldn’t have been easier.
Did you return to them for the reissue?
Sort of but not really. We had all the raw tracks from the sessions with Jeff, and we reused the drum, vocal, and electronic files. Guitar and bass were completely re-recorded at my studio in our hometown of Kelowna. One of our good friends, Taylor Gormley, who lives in Calgary was the wizard behind the mix. I played in a band with him years ago and he’s always been my recording guru! He loves our band, has a wicked talent for audio engineering, and is probably the easiest person to work with in the music industry. He’s actually going to be mixing our new record shortly.
So to go back in time a little bit, how do you think the band has evolved since the Curses EP back in 2012?
We’re just…. better than we were back then haha! When we were writing for Curses we were unsigned, just coming off of releasing albums with Tooth and Nail records in our previous band, and just wanted to get back to playing music for fun. The writing of those songs was with the intent of doing an independent EP, playing some local shows, hanging out with our best friends, and having a beer. Invogue swooped in 4 days before the release of the EP and wanted to put it out, and that was the beginning of the end! Even listening to the songs we have written for our second full length, they are just leaps and bounds ahead of what is on The Grieving.
We know who we are now, and we know exactly what we want our band to sound like.
We know who we are now, and we know exactly what we want our band to sound like.
With Curses and The Grieving both being released on Invogue over the years, how would you say your experience was working with them?
Invogue is awesome. Our relationship and deal is very chill, and we’re just happy to be able to release our music to more people than we could by ourselves. We are not a touring band, which a lot of labels would steer clear of, but Invogue has stuck by us and Nick is truly in it for the love of music. Being able to maintain this relationship and working agreement with them is perfect and low risk for both sides. We’d be putting this music out anyways, so why not put out to a few more people!
Do you have any music videos you’re planning to rock the fanbase with coming soon?
We definitely will! For The Grieving reissue we won’t be doing any new videos outside of streaming videos, but we will be doing a few our new record. Can definitely count on at least one music video to showcase our first single, and some unique videos for the others singles we’ll be putting out.
Rumors are going around on Facebook and Tumblr about you guys releasing additional music this year. Is that true?
You bet it is! We actually are heading into the studio to begin tracking this record on June 27th. We’re doing drums in Vancouver Canada at Rain City Recordings, and the rest of the record at my home studio in Kelowna. Looking like a 10, possibly 11 song record, to be out this September/October. Expect a new song this August! We are extremely proud of how these songs are turning out, and really feel like we have taken it to the next level. The songwriting has been elevated, there are shredding guitar leads a plenty, the bass is meaner and spicier, drums are harder hitting and the vocals and melodies are inhuman Everyone has truly brought their A game on these new tracks. We cannot wait to get our noise pollution into ears around the world.
Many bands over the course of their career struggle with the fact that many of their members leave and end up needing replacements, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem with you guys. How has your experience been having four original members working together for such an awesome, love-driven product?
We’re all best friends outside of the band, and we have played music together, in some form, for over a decade. We all have the same dedication, passion, and vision towards music, and it shows through in our final product. We live our lives with our friend and families, work full time day jobs, and come together in the band as a creative outlet. Because we aren’t a full time touring band, I don’t think we go through as many of the same stresses, debt, and burn out that a lot of bands go through, which ultimately tears them apart or forces people to make the decision of leaving. The band was built on friendship and the want to play music. Since none of that has changed, and probably never will, I don’t see the band going away anytime soon.
