www.facebook.com/wshadowsofficial
From: Harrow, Canada
Sounds like: Metal
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Within Shadows” and is there any meaning behind it?
All the members of the band each started music at different parts in their life, some at very young ages and some not too long ago. We all have had the same thing in common though and that is our drive and liking of music from different genres like classic rock to metal. All of our parents were very supportive and encouraging. They were always sharing great historic music with us and also a wide range of different genres, not just subjecting us to one. So we were able to gain a larger understanding and respect for all kinds of musicians and sounds.
The band itself started off as a solo project back in 2012 and has grown through the years until now as the four piece band it is. Our sound has really developed from all our talents combining, the various bands and musicians that have influenced us such as Slipknot, Beartooth, Tool and tonnes more. We took all these factors and have mashed them together in an array of what we call metal variety. Metal variety being when we create songs of different genres ranging from rock, hard-core, pop and even punk to metal, heavy metal to djent and we incorporate our own metal style of playing to it. This is our favorite way of tackling our sound because it doesn’t limit us to what we can do like how a lot of other bands are known for a specific genre and style and have to stick with it.
The name of the band “Within Shadows” was created back in 2012 by our vocalist Sean. He was creating many names for bands when he was trying to start up a solo project that became the first few years of this project. He created the name Within Shadows only a few tries in when thinking of words and pairing of words. The meaning behind the name was to express what he wanted to portray with the messages and lyrics of the music Within Shadows would make. The main thing of the band being that we all have our negative times and things in our life, we are surrounded by those like shadows, and we have to stay strong and learn how to break through the shadows to reach the light again. Themes for the band are mostly relating to inner battles, emotions, depression and other topics with mentality. We feel the best way to connect with our audience and others in our music is to help them and show we have gone through things too and have survived, never backing down.
2. What do you want listeners to take away from the "Mind = Enemy" album?
When people listen to our album “Mind = Enemy”, we want them to take whatever they want out of it. Music will speak to anyone in anyway. We want people to take every song and put it in their own perspective as well as the one that we are portraying. In our lyrics and song structure, we tend to express our feelings for things that we have gone through in our lives, whether they are good or bad experiences and talk about them and how we feel. Many instances are ones that other people can relate to as well and they tend to latch on to the songs because of it. Just like the relations we have with other bands that we like and their songs. At the end of the day once all that is said and done, we like it when our experiences and stories can help other people in a positive manner and help them through any situation that they need help with. In any situation, we believe there is always a light at the end of the dark tunnel you may be in, you just have to get through it and never give up to experience the better.
3. What can people expect from your live show?
People can expect utter chaos from our shows. We will be jumping around, bringing the heavy and crazy every second with our set. The perfect example of what you will see from us is displayed in our very first music video for Get Up. We decided to make the video as a performance video to help showcase to everyone watching this exact fact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiz1oJ5KYY4
Every show will be an amazing experience being able to have an enjoyable time with everyone who comes to watch us and we not only will have fun and crazy times but very close and intimate times that we will all always remember together as a family.
4. What's your favorite track to play live?
We haven’t yet played a show live yet, our first one is actually this coming weekend that we are doing this interview. Through all the times we have practiced and played through our songs together we would have to say that it would be a tie between "Get Up" and "Inside the Shape". Both songs have so much energy to them and also have so much meaning to us that we thoroughly enjoy playing through these songs all the time and every time we do we have the same level of emotion as the time we wrote them.
5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Three bands that we would very much like to tour with would be Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold and Lamb of God. There are countless other bands that we would include in this list if we could. We would choose these bands because over the course of all 4 of our lives we all have in common the fact that we’ve loved these bands and looked up to them. They are bands that have heavily influenced who we are today and the musicians we now. It would be a dream come true to meet and work beside bands like these ones that we have so much respect for. We have always worked so hard to accomplish that in our lives, and maybe one day we may very well do that.
6. Any crazy show stories?
Currently we do not have any crazy show stories. We are just about to embark on a series of shows for the first time ever as a band and we are extremely excited for it. We can assure everyone reading this that we will have many insane stories to share very soon and over the coming year since we are all very crazy individuals and we have a lot planned.
7. What’s your take on the current state of metal?
Our take on metal is that it is very much alive and has its major fan base. There are positive areas and negatives just like in every other kind of musical genre. In our opinion there are some fake/cookie cutter bands nowadays that many people sadly call “metal” but aren’t. The scene and the bands in it are automatically judged as well for having darker vocals of “screaming” in their songs and performances. Therefore, making a lot of people speak negatively or decide not to like metal as much. If only they give metal more of a chance and a little bit of their time they can learn to appreciate the musicianship that it contains that people like us enjoy and appreciate. But the great thing is for the people that enjoy it and very much support the genre and bands that are in it can always enjoy what there is offered. Our band is very honored and happy to be a part of the community and have met so many great people in it and have discovered some pretty amazing and talented bands.
8. What’s the current music scene like there in Canada both locally and country wide?
The Canadian music scene is very much alive and entertaining! Our band has seen lots of local bands that are very committed and want to make a career out of music, just like us! We go out together whenever we can and support local acts and check out local shows that happen and we are always amazed at all the great musicians and people we meet. We always end up making a lot of great connections and have a great time enjoying new local bands. We’re very pleased with the scene that has been created here.
9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
Our take on it may be considered weird, but we find it to be the best and true way to approach the situation. We use ITunes and other platforms to download the music we like. We also however go out or go online to purchase the physical copies of those cd’s from the band s we like that we want to support. Every band that you enjoy their content you should give back to them for that enjoyment by supporting them financially so they can keep doing what they do and make the music you love. And if people want to see their favourite bands/singers do new and more music and tour, they need to stop downloading their music illegally and support the artist by making purchases even if very small. Everything counts and helps.
10. What’s next for Within Shadows?
Our band is about to embark on playing many shows over the course of 2017. We are going to keep increasing our bands growth to more people around the world and to more fellow people in the music industry. We hope to take our music to the next level and one day do this as a full time job. It has always been our dream and we work hard every day to make that a reality. We will also be expanding our merchandise whenever we can and working on even more music in our free time. Expect a lot from us!
11. Any shout outs?
We would like to give a shout out to all our fellow musicians and good friend s that were featured on our album. Joe Farias, Lucas Mann and Derek Petricka are all amazing people and musicians and really helped steer us in the right direction and help us improve as musicians. With their help and talents on our album it became something totally amazing and unique. And for that we thank them and encourage anyone who is reading this to take then time to check out their musical projects and support what they are doing. We would really appreciate that. Please spread the love and enjoy amazing music.
Joe Farias
CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/intruderx
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/intruderxmusic
Lucas Mann (Rings Of Saturn)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ringsofsaturnband
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ringsofsaturnband
Derek Petricka (Discord Curse)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/discordcurse"
Bandcamp: http://discordcurse.bandcamp.com
Thank You From the Depths Entertainment
Our band would just like to thank you From the Depths Entertainment and Mike Bohn for taking us under your wing of knowledge and helping our band progress to higher levels. Everything you have done, are doing and are planning on doing we appreciate so much and we are so honored to of met you and be working with you. Thank you so much and we’re excited for what is yet to come!
