BALL OF LIGHT

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CHARLIE WILLIAMS, GUITARIST/VOCALIST GARED O’DONNELL, AND DRUMMER PATRICK COST BY DEREK NIELSEN

Ball of Light started 2020 “I mean, they haven’t officially invited Yup, everything was looking rad for about the first song, ‘Under Red on an upswing. Still a trio me into the band, but I am on the sev- Ball of Light—and then, of course, Skies’; the riff has kind of a Discharge when they released Flux en-inch,” O'Donnell clarifies. “But, I COVID took the piss a few months feel. But Discharge was never like last year, the Cincinnati would love to do so much. I adore later. But, aside from having their ‘Fucking Gorbachev!’ [laughs]. It’s not metal band’s debut LP was heavy what these guys do. It reminds me tour schedule cleared out indef- talking about specific people or speenough to catch the attention of very much of why I still do what initely, Ball of Light—along with cific things, but the forces that are at

Planes Mistaken For Stars frontman I do, why I started doing what I O’Donnel—remains intent on press- work behind them. COVID is—knock

Gared O’Donnell. do, and why I want to continue to ing forward. After all, the current on wood—going to go away; Trump do what I do. But, it’s nice to not state of the world has presented is going to go away. But the situations “We were opening for Weedeater, be the one steering the ship. Not plenty of artistic fodder. are going to pop up over and over. If and we were at the club really early,” to complain about what I do in you write about the feeling, that will describes drummer Patrick Cost. “I Planes or [Hawks and Doves], but Rest assured, the band’s new materi- last forever.” was looking at my phone, and Gared it’s nice to just be like, ‘Alright I'm al will tap into the river of discontent randomly hit me up about Flux. He was gonna stand in the corner and do that all of us are currently experi- “For me, the idea of writing songs about like ‘Hey, I've been listening to this a this weird, creepy thing, and you'll encing (after all, they are a metal the world right now sounds nightmar-

lot. I'm not blowing smoke up your ass; I really like this.’ That’s kinda how the conversation started.”

After a brief courtship with the boisterous frontman, things got serious, and the band recruited O’Donnell into their ranks as second guitarist and backup vocalist. Eager to test the waters, Ball of Light entered the studio in January with producer Jeffrey Dean to record their self-titled EP, which dropped last month on Rad Girlfriend Records. find out about it later.’ It’s their band—it can’t all be high fives and baby, but I don’t mind changing bong rips). But Ball of Light are less its diaper! [laughs]” interested in whining about quaranThe new songs have an eerie and sin- of all this unhappiness. Isn’t that what ister thread woven through the driv- being an artist is all about? ing riffs and punishing rhythm section, tine and more in unearthing the roots with O’Donnell’s haunting backup “If someone happens to listen to it vocals adding new dimension to 10 years down the road, they’re not Charlie William’s guttural screams. gonna be like, ‘I don’t know what the In many ways, the EP is reminiscent fuck they’re talking about,” Williams of when Mike Patton joined Dillinger elaborates. “I want you to be able to Escape Plan. relate to it in a way. Gared was talking ish,” confesses O’Donnell. “The English Beat had this song called ‘Stand Down Margaret’ about Margaret Thatcher. My 13-year-old loves the English Beat, but he’s like, ‘What the fuck are they talking about? Margaret? Is she a music teacher?’ I get tackling things topically. But, at the same time, you want to make art that will last. The best sci-fi books are 100 fucking years old. But they land in whatever time they’re in. H.G. Wells, you can read fucking The Time Machine, and it’s literally a time machine!” �� �� ��