Interview with Sacha Laskow of Every Hour Kills Hi guys, welcome to Vents! How have you been? Just peachy, thanks for chatting! Can you tell us more about the story behind one of your latest track Almost Human? I wrote the music and then Jerrod came up with the bulk of the lyrics. The song is about addictions, vices and demons. It’s about how when you struggle against those feelings you can feel isolated at times and thus ‘almost human’.There’s a positive side to the message as well, that once we flip that switch in our minds we can eventually let go and release the things that drag us down. How was the film experience? We got to make the video with director Doug Cook, who we’ve worked with in the past in other bands (Divinity, Walk As Chaos) using live performance to really showcase the song. In his mad scientist genius mind he created a very visual representation of the isolated feelings the lyrics portray, in this case, pushing it through the lens of technology as well. The robotic cameras were the only presence besides the band. It was filming us going crazy with energy trying to escape this small mechanical box of a room. Meanwhile, the director sits outside and moves the cameras, watching the whole scene unfold, or perhaps looking at porn on his phone, we’re not sure! The single comes off your new self-titled EP. How was the recording and writing process? Long! The songs went through countless versions and revisions
to get to the final version you hear now. It was important for us to work out every detail until we were all 100% stoked, for every song to be of ‘single’ quality with no filler. We think we ultimately achieved that but it was a difficult road to get there for sure. What was it like to work with Will Putney, Joey Sturgis and Cameron Mizell? How did those relationships develop? It was great! These are all people who’s work I really respect and it was an honor to have them be a part of our record. I basically contacted them and their management and tossed the idea out there of working together. Once they heard the music they thankfully agreed! It was challenging at times logistically since all the work was done remotely but eventually we worked out the kinks and got everything done. Why entering the studio with different producers instead of maybe one? We didn’t actually work with any of these people physically but instead collaborated over the Internet. It is actually useful for other things besides memes and porn! The band and myself are the over-arching ‘producers’ and the other collaborators have their input on each song. I think it’s a cool way of working and gives a variety of different flavors to each individual track. How much would you say they influence the album? They all brought unique spice in their own skills and creativity. Will helped with sick guitar tones, Joey added melodic ideas
and keyboard/synth FX as did Cam. Where did you find the inspiration for the song and lyrics? Every song starts in different ways, sometimes with a guitar riff or a synth part and then it’s built from there. It’s like composing for an orchestra; each layer gets added and perfected until we have a wall of sound. The lyrics come after the music is done and are inspired and informed by Jerrod’s reaction to the music and his own life experiences. Would you call this band a follow up to your previous pro ects or a departure? I suppose both in a way; people that have heard my other songwriting skills would probably still hear my style in there, but it’s definitely it’s own thing too. or me, it was about honing in on the melodic and catchy aspects of my writing, stripping things down in the technicality department to let the songs and melodies shine through. It was also written to be something that would really translate as epic live, not just confusing like my other stuff!
o you have any plans to hit the road? Not really, we are all functioning adults with careers/mortgages/families, etc. so jumping in the van and not showering for 3 weeks is not really in the cards at this point. That said, if the right opportunity came up of course we’d consider it. We’ve done some fun trips and festival appearances here and there and that’s been great so far. What else is happening next in very Hour ills world? It’s pretty much the usual band stuff - more writing, recording, playing shows, nude oiled lawn bowling, etc.