BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST HEIDI WITHINGTON BRINK BY DOUGLAS MENAGH K onvent is a doom and death metal band and Norway, we don’t have as many bands from Denmark, who released their lethat make it outside the underground, but I thal debut, Puritan Masochism, through think we’re getting there.” Napalm Records on Jan. 24, 2020. Konvent wrote and released a demo in 2017. “I like the way we take something that can Soon afterwards, they got picked up by sound very deadly, and then put it on these Napalm Records. heavy, slow melodies,” says bassist Heidi Withington Brink on the band’s pulverizing “When we got approached by Napalm Resound. cords in 2018, that’s when it started getting serious with the songwriting. Most of the beKonvent formed in 2015 and also feature ginning of 2019 was spent on writing [Puritan Rikke Emilie List on vocals, Sara Helena Masochism].” Nørregaard on guitar, and Julie Simonsen on drums. “At the time, one of my roomOn song writing, Withington Brink says the mates was teaching another girl to drum process is open and collaborative, in that [who was] on the same level as me,” says everyone gets involved. Withington Brink. “We got together, and her sister was Rikke, who is now the lead singer, “Me or Sara come up with a few riffs, and we and they both knew Sara through the metal both do one or the other,” she says. “It’s a community.” very fluent working process.”

After their formation, Konvent made their bones in Denmark’s underground metal scene.

“There is a big underground scene here,” says Withington Brink. “If you compare it to the other Scandinavian countries, like Sweden With the release of Puritan Masochism, Konvent are meeting acclaim and elevating the metal scene back home. “I think with Sweden, they have this death metal scene, and they also have this great ’70s rock scene,” says Withington Brink. “I think that’s because they started from certain cities where they all had these big communities and they grew from each other, and I think that’s happening in Denmark.” Now, ready to promote their massive and acclaimed debut, Konvent are set to tour Europe, playing concerts in places they’ve never performed before.

“We’re all getting more excited about getting more shows,” says Withington Brink. “Getting more festival gigs, being able to maybe go on tour with a bigger band as support, and not just Europe, but perhaps at one point going to the States, because apparently As for the future of Konvent, Withington Brink wants to see how far the band can go.

“We are all so dynamic as individuals,” she continues. “It really keeps a lot of doors open for us during the writing process. I love all our differences, because it allows space for us to present ideas to each other that we would never have gotten to on our own, or if we were all confined to the same influences both in life and musically. It’s amazing to lay down foundations for each other, and be able to get excited about each other’s ideas and grow from them.”

Although they’re a heavy band, Blackwater Holylight’s songs aren't attached to riffs. Their sound is hypnotic, with orchestral structures that build tension and intrigue before turning the song on its head, not by simply getting louder or heavier, nor by just layering elements. the first album, and had more ideas on production,” Faris says. “Working with our engineer Dylan White was a dream, and he really helped us unfold our ideas on this into the recordings. All of these sounds and combinations are just another example of us giving space for all our individual ideas.”

INTERVIEW WITH SINGER / BASSIST ALLISON “SUNNY” FARIS BY MARIKA ZORZI P Portland, Oregon’s Blackwater HolyThe lineup on this album is Faris, Laura The cohesive power of Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, are all about Hopkins (guitar/vocals) and Sarah McKlight is amplified in Veils of Winter. contrasts. They create a fluid union of enna (synths), with new guitarist Mikayla sound that's heavy, psychedelic, melodic, Mayhew and drummer Eliese Dorsay “We definitely operate within the circle of terrifying, and beautiful all at once. After fleshing out the band’s sound in exciting a family dynamic, sisterhood, coven, and their highly experimental, self-titled debut, ways. creative partnership,” Faris says. “I think it the band are now trying a new and more comes out more in Veils of Winter because mature sound with Veils of Winter, released “Their addition 100 percent influenced of the fact that it was a true collaboration. through RidingEasy Records. Veils of Winter,” says Faris. “This album Going into recording, we all wanted to was a collaborative effort between all of give each other space to be ourselves, “We’ve definitely grown and matured, as us; there is absolutely no way the album and support each other in being ourmusicians, individuals and as a group,” would sound the way it does if they were selves. That dynamic is something we’re singer and bassist Allison ‘Sunny’ Faris says. not a part of it.” always working on, but was certainly a focus point heading into the studio.”

“From the beginning, I’ve always had the idea that we can take this far,” she says. “The other guys were like, ‘yeah we’ll see, we don’t think so.’ But I think they’re starting to be like, ‘fuck, what’s going on?’ People are actually liking it, and we’re getting attention we never thought we’d get. Their ideas are changing of what we’re capable of, and what we’re able to do.” ��

She goes on to explain that the themes of Veils of Winter are a pure celebration of life and respect.

“All the lyrics on the album reflect life situations we went through both in our personal lives and as a group. Themes of loss, love, weight, and grief. Also, empowerment and growth. Both the music and the lyrics were outlets for healing in some way or another. We all feel we want to create an environment in which we feel safe to play music and create. We’re just trying to put ourselves out there and say, ‘Hey, we’re allowed to be here’ and just be honest and rock out!”

“We are giving a voice to women/non-binary, or women-identifying people,” Faris says. “There are more and more femme bands coming to the surface, and I think it’s really beautiful that everyone can get up on stage and support each other’s music. We want to show that anyone can hop on stage, and they don’t have to be a certain way to fill the masculine outlines that have been drawn out for years. You can just do what you want, and it’s powerful and amazing.” ��

SIGHTLESS PIT INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST DYLAN WALKER BY MARIKA ZORZI “In one sense, we looked at it like the grave of a human that maybe had been devalued, a L ee Buford of The Body, Kristin Hayter of Lingua Ignota, and Dylan Walker from

Full of Hell combined their profound talents and eclectic tastes to make music in a new project called Sightless Pit. The trio released their first album, Grave of a Dog, via Thrill Jockey on February 21, 2020. As Walker notes, the album was crafted without any clear rules or guidelines beyond their desire to work with one another. “We didn’t know what it was going to sound really beautiful, striking name, and there the connection ends with Elder Scrolls.” As Walker notes, the entrance to the Sightless Pit is a straight drop down, meaning the only way out of the cave is to go forward. This notion very well represents the central pillar of what coheres the three band members into a unified voice throughout the album: a shared, bleak vision of existence and a willingness to follow each other into bold, new territory to survive. person whose name ceased to matter, their whole identity wiped,” Walker says. “They’re just in a hole and buried and forgotten forever from history. I think for me and Lee especially, I think a true literal meaning of burying your own dog also just carries a pretty heavy weight. Nowadays, I always want the work to be open to interpretation because I feel like my most magical moments as a fan of music and art are when I draw my own conclusions. And the artist always has their intention, but when it goes like,” he says. “We didn’t have any guidelines or rules to hit. We just wanted to make “The record is very much a winter record for something together. That was what made it me,” Walker says. “I wrote all of my lyrics in so unique for us when we were working on the winter, thinking about the brutality of it. That’s probably why it took so long, too, mother nature and what it must’ve been because it wasn’t a project that was based in more of a frontier scenario. As a person around any timelines.” with nothing, and maybe in another time period, struggling against winter, it’s one of The name of the project was taken from The those insurmountable things. You can’t win. Elder Scrolls, a series of action role-playing Nature wins every time.” video games. “I was really into this Biblical story at that “I always thought that location name was so moment,” he continues. “Ezekiel seeing this striking, and I wanted to use it for something,” burning wheel, the question of him turning Walker says. “Sightless Pit is basically this away from that and braving this cold world by labyrinthine channel that the player falls into, himself. So that was my headspace; essentialand you have to go forward; you can’t go ly I was just writing from that perspective.” back. And it’s infested with these things called Falmer. They used to be elves, but they’re Along with the music, the title of the album is these blind, evil creatures now. But it’s just a also open to many interpretations.

Your Guns and Wish You Were Here, Ian Smith of Racquet Club, and Jared Shavelson of Boysetsfire and Paint It Black join together for a thrust at melodic hardcore with a strong indie influence. Ways Away satisfy a very primal punk-DNA urge and grow it to cerebral heights full of serotonin. The band’s self-titled record is set to be released in May.

Loobkoff’s riffs hooked to Barnett’s words are pure fun to scream along to from the bottom of your voice box, at the top of your lungs, as the heart blows out of your laptop speakers. Ways Away cry “let it go”—the way independent people respond to indie music. That yell lifts the album up, lets it grow wings and “GO!” With an album on the way, the band dropped two tunes on Instagram and booked three California shows in February. Away it goes, as fast as a land speed racer. viously, when they put out the Racquet Club record, I was just like, Jesus fucking Christ, this guy can do no wrong. I’m an enormous indie rock fan, you know. Nada Surf is one of my favorite bands of all time. I love all the [Mike] Kinsella family bands, like fucking American Football, Owen, Owls, Cap’n Jazz, Joan Of Arc, and all that kind of shit as well. I think when Sergie found out about Wish You Were Here, which is my solo shit, he was a little bit more, ‘Oh, okay.’”

INTERVIEW WITH SERGIE LOOBKOFF AND VOCALIST/ SONGWRITER JESSE BARNETT BY JOSHUA MARANHAS

Sergie Loobkoff of Samiam and Racquet Club, Jesse Barnett of Stick To

“You know, I was kind of flattered,” Loobkoff adds. “For me, finding a crummy singer isn't that interesting. The odds of finding a good singer aren’t that good. Then it just fell into place with Jesse. And not only musically, but I really gel with him.”

That connection led to a blue flame burning hot and fast.

“We hit it off the first day,” Loobkoff says. “[Jesse] had taken home one of our songs and just did an iPhone recording to sing on it, and we were all, ‘Oh, shit.’ That's “Sergie was like, ‘Okay, we only have two weeks to do a record,’” Barnett chimes in. “Okay, I have a buddy named Beau [Burchell] who’s in a band called Saosin. He can do it. I think he was kinda surprised at how quickly it all came together.” out into the world, it’s everybody’s music. It belongs to them now, and whatever they get from it is so valid to me that I want to hear what they think, and I want to validate whatever they feel like it’s about.”

when I went, ‘Oh, okay, cool. I am going to do a new band.”

Adding Buford’s singular percussion and production to Walker’s venomous scream and Hayter’s virtuosic voice, the trio create a path all their own for a passionately dynamic and exhilarating experience.

“We all have so much respect for each other,” Walker explains. “We just went in organically, and everybody just spoke up if they felt like something should be somewhere. I can’t overstate that enough. I think that we just have personalities that are compatible enough, and nobody has an ego about making sure that their part is heard over others’, or there was never a concern about whether it was balanced equally. It just kind of worked out. It was very intuitive.” ��

PHOTO BY JEFFREY LEE BEAULIEU

True art from truthful artists happens. The year ahead looks to be a strong one for Ways Away. The band may have come together like a rocket on a quarter-mile track, but their music is Indy 500—robust and sleek and will surely endure to a meaningful finish. ��