Interview with Vintersea, Female Fronted Progressive Death Metal Band

Interview with Vintersea, Female Fronted Progressive Death Metal Band

Vintersea is Female Fronted Progressive Death Metal Band from Corvallis, Oregon, USA. They're Avienne - Vocalist, Jorma Spaziano - Guitar, Riley Nix - Guitar, and Jeremy Spencer - Drums. Riley J Nix gave us some information about Vintersea. Check it out.

 

Tell us about Vintersea?

Vintersea is a melodic metal band based out of the Willamette Valley in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, made up of Avienne, Jorma Spaziano, Riley Nix, and Jeremy Spencer. After releasing our debut EP, 'Constellations', at the end of 2014, we went to work on 'The Gravity of Fall', our recently released full-length. We strive to combine some of our favorite things about metal - crushing heaviness, soaring passages, and relevant lyrics, into one cohesive piece that feels undeniably like the Pacific Northwest. Dynamics and passion are the most important aspects of our music, and we believe that shows! 

What are lyrical themes of Vintersea?

Some of the prevailing themes in our music revolve around the rise and fall of civilization, and the impact of corruption and industry on mankind. 

What are your influences?

We are heavily influenced by our environment, both the natural beauty of our region and the negative aspects of life in the 21st century . As for bands we aspire to, there are elements in our music from Gojira, TesseracT, Devin Townsend, Ne Obliviscaris, Meshuggah, Skyharbor, Ihsahn, and Opeth. In general, if someone likes music that is dynamic, heavy, and beautiful, we hope that they will give us a listen. 

How did you choose the cover artwork for "The Gravity of Fall"?

The first song written for this record was "The Holy Procession". That song created very specific and detailed imagery for all of us, of parishioners being led to their demise by a corrupt, hooded figure. That idea represents a lot of what 'The Gravity of Fall' tries to express: that our society, despite good intentions and hopes for a better tomorrow, is easily corrupted and fooled into a cycle of self-destruction. We worked with our good friend, Rylan Woodrow, closely on the cover art, and he did a great job of bringing our vision to life. 

How were the songs written?

Each song had a different journey from conception to finished product. A couple of the tracks came in to the band room with the music almost finished. In this case, we work together to refine the riffs and the song structure while Avienne (vocalist) writes lyrics based on the themes we all discuss. In other cases, the songs came together, from conception to almost-finished product, in the band room. That is a very exciting way to write music, and tends to result in some of our best material. In either case, a lot of our writing comes in the refining process, where Jorma (guitarist) composes orchestral pieces and we work together to further layer our atmosphere through instrument tracks, effects, and samples. 

How did the recording process go?

We spent a lot of time in pre-production, making sure that the album was laid out from start to finish before heading into the studio. Of course, despite our best efforts, the recording studio is a place of major creativity, and our engineer Justin Phelps (The Hallowed Halls) had a lot of ideas to contribute. In the end, we recorded all of our drums and vocals at The Hallowed Halls with Justin Phelps, as well as re-amping our previously recorded guitar tracks. Some layers, effects, and samples were added outside of the studio, but we are really happy with the results we got from recording drums and vocals in a high-caliber studio. 

What are your future plans?

We plan to spend the next year or more promoting 'The Gravity of Fall', with plans to play several small tours and runs through the United States. In the meantime, some new songs have started to develop and we are looking forward to continuing to put out new music. 

Are there any countries you’re interested in touring or performing in? Why?

We are interested in playing to everyone we can reach! We'd like to branch out into Canada and other countries here in North America, and of course our dream would be to reach the excellent metal audiences in Europe. Scandanavia, the UK, Western and Eastern Europe would all be a dream tour for us. Avienne is from Malaysia as well, and we eventually plan to do tour to play a few places in Southeast Asia. 

What bands would you like to play alongside?

All of us would be thrilled to play with any of the influences we named above. Opening a concert or tour for Devin Townsend, Gojira, Ihsahn, or Ne Obliviscaris would be particularly exciting, and we think their audiences could really appreciate what we do musically.

Any last words?

We truly appreciate the support we have received so far, and are incredibly excited to see what the future holds for Vintersea. We couldn't do this without the support of publications like BDP Metal or the online metal community. Keep an eye on us! 

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