Metal go getters CHAINTWIST have an EP and whole lot more newer music in the works. Shows are set for later this summer, with just more music, and more show planning all thrown in together in-between! A couple of the band members discusses that new music, shows lined up, and a whole lot else in the works!
This interview was done by vocalist Dan Smallacombe and drummer Ryan Obier. The answers are marked by D and R for each person. The other members of Chaintwist are guitarist Josh Roy and bassist Joe Vitorino.
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or did it come out just like that?
R - Dan and I had the name Chaintwist for years before we even started the band. We were going to actually do a clothing line together and were on a random word generator website trying to brainstorm names for the brand and Chaintwist was the first one that came up. We thought it was too heavy for a clothing brand but too sick to not use for something. We were both involved in different musical projects at the time so we bowed that if we ever wound up doing something together that we would use it for that and now here we are.
2. Why did you want to play this genre?
R - We always had the intentions of doing something heavy with this band but wanted to pay a bit of an homage to what we listened to as kids. So we try to inject the old vibes of nu metal and all the weird crossover genres into something that still feels like it’s from right now because that’s what we grew up on and that’s what got us into music in the first place as kids.
3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?
R - Yeah! Josh, Joe, and I were playing in a band together since 2017 and I’ve been doing music with Josh for even longer than that. Dan and I used to work together and had his own project that he was involved in so we were friends and he met Josh and joe through me. Coming out of Covid and realizing that both projects that we were all doing were basically at their end, it just made sense to keep the three of us that had already been doing music together for years and add Dan to the fold and that’s what started Chaintwist.
4. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
R - Half of us are based out of Central Connecticut and the other half out of Western Massachusetts. We jokingly brand it Nu England since we’re kinda spread out up in the Northeast. Our local scene is great and always growing! We’ve seen bands like Currents and Boundaries play our VFWs and rise to worldwide fame now which is amazing to see. Our scenes latest success is our friends Dreamwake who just signed with UNFD. But bands that are still considered local to our scene we recommend are No Eye Has Seen, Shapethrower, Euclid, and Dream of Scipio.
5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?
D - A lot bands that we grew up listening to like Slipknot, Linkin Park, Static X, Korn and Limp Bizkit to name a few are very influential in our writing. We’re also influenced by current heavy bands too that are pretty evident in our music. Sometimes certain sounds can influence a whole song. For example, ‘Anger’ was written completely around a heartbeat sample that I had found one day and it plays in the background of the entire song. Basically wrote the skeleton of the song around that alone.
6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
D - Our EP ‘Bleed Out’ loosely follows a concept centered around the end of the world. ‘The End’ was the first song written for that, and I was playing a lot of Far Cry 5 at the time and kinda based the lyrics around that which covers a man-made doomsday scenario so that kind of spilled over to the other two songs. But aside from that, it’s all just about what I’m feeling/experiencing or sometimes it’s lyrics that just fit the vibe of the song.
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
D - It’s all us, sometimes we’ll have some input from our producer in studio for little nuances but that’s really it. The process now for me personally is starting with a riff or two, adding some basic drums to it and building off of that one riff. I basically get a full song done, production and all, then I’ll send it over to the guys to get their input and let them add their own touches. I like having the full song done this way I can share the full idea rather than just a certain section of an idea.
8. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
D - We’ve released a little two song release to launch the band (Kerosene and Purge) then we’ve released three singles after that (Feral, dead2me and AWOL) and our three song EP ‘Bleed Out’. New fans and existing fans alike can expect that nostalgic Nu Metal sound, but with a new age aggressive/heavy twist, no pun intended. Maybe.
9. Do you have any new music in the works?
D - Lots of it. There’s 9 or 10 songs demo’d out that we’re going to narrow down for a release, along with single or two. There’s a couple that are my favorite things I’ve worked on ever, and would probably be my favorite songs even if they weren’t us so I’m excited for these to see the light of day. I'm sure that list will grow cause my brain does not stop haha.
10. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
R - We’re going to be doing a little east coast run from July 28-August 3 with our friends Tarcil and Float Omen and then have a local show in Thomaston CT in November. In between all that is going to be prepping for new music.
11. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
R - I think the goal is always to just try to take this band as far as we can and accomplish everything possible. So we’d love to branch out and tour more and hit more markets and release more music and just continue to build on what we’ve already done and see how big we can make it!
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
R - We’re on all streaming platforms! Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, iTunes.. etc. We have a small little merch store at chaintwist.limitedrun.com.
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