Portland, OR // Rock-quintet known as The Without formed in March of 2016, and have come crashing on to the scene with their self-released debut EP Factions that was released on the 14th March.
The band has lived in the Portland area for most of their adult lives, and have played in many different bands for years. So last year the members decided to start playing together, having been fans of each others work for years.
When talking about the writing and recording process for their debut four track EP ‘Factions’ Michael Draper stated: It took nearly a year because we wrote about ten songs and whittled it down to what we believed were our strongest four. It was a rewarding process, really putting our stuff under the microscope and discussing at length, what we believed worked and didn’t work about each song. It forced us to communicate with each other patiently and clearly, and it’s really strengthened our writing process for this next batch of songs. We recorded with our good friend Stephan Hawkes. He’s worked with great bands on awesome records (Atilla, Chelsea Grin, I Declare War) He really pushed us. The studio experience itself was very fast. We recorded the whole EP in five days!
Michael went on to discuss what the record is about in more detail: “It’s a commentary on our lives at this time, self-reflective, there’s hope and there’s despair. Moments of clarity followed by confusion and doubt. Much like our lives. As far as making music, I think it’s a compulsion for us. We’ve all attempted to move out of the music industry in one way or another, but we always came back. We love it. It’s a collaborative and exploratory process we all crave. Lyrically the themes are all based on self-reflection. Commenting on where we are at in our lives, spiritually and mentally. We touch on social commentary a bit. As the climate of the world continues to get more and more uncertain, I have a feeling it will become a more common theme. We’ve all partied our asses off. We’re a bit older now, with families, it’s reflected in the lyrical themes, but the music itself still reflects some of the youthful angst.”
You can see the bands mini-documentary on the making of ‘Factions’ below:
Support and purchase Factions via Bandcamp HERE
Along with the release of their debut EP that band already have plans for heading back into the studio later this year. You can watch the video for their single ‘Dead Gold’ below:
Connect with The Without :
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