I sent Harry Harvey (guitarist,artist) some questions about the new release.
Interview after the jump.
What is the history of Convulsions?
Convulsions started right in the end of 2009 as a project to push our selves with a bit more challenging music in response of all the more standard sounding hardcore that our members had previously worked with. Original members include Nate Almedia, Kaycee Tarricone, Evan White, myself (Harry Harvey) and Dlan Kulpa. When writing our first songs it was really the first time we started pushing our selves, experimenting with some light guitar effects and slightly odd time signatures, also we started to experiment with some faster paced tempos. After recording our demo entitled "Losing everything" ourselves; we went on to play as many shows as we could ... while playing as many shows as we could we started to write more music, including a couple unreleased songs that may be out winter of 2010. Next thing we know after doing as much as we could in getting out music around our selves we realized it might be time to have support and distribution of a larger source.
Convulsions started right in the end of 2009 as a project to push our selves with a bit more challenging music in response of all the more standard sounding hardcore that our members had previously worked with. Original members include Nate Almedia, Kaycee Tarricone, Evan White, myself (Harry Harvey) and Dlan Kulpa. When writing our first songs it was really the first time we started pushing our selves, experimenting with some light guitar effects and slightly odd time signatures, also we started to experiment with some faster paced tempos. After recording our demo entitled "Losing everything" ourselves; we went on to play as many shows as we could ... while playing as many shows as we could we started to write more music, including a couple unreleased songs that may be out winter of 2010. Next thing we know after doing as much as we could in getting out music around our selves we realized it might be time to have support and distribution of a larger source.
How did you end up getting signed with GloryKid?
Glorykid ltd. was a label that my previous band had made attempts to work with, that simply never congealed into anything. So with the door already open i approached the label with the idea of releasing my new band's (Convulsions) material. From the start everything went very smoothly. Not only was the transition great, but we know have a great responsible label doing everything they can for us - ultimately causing a start of a great friendship between us and the labels sole proprietor.
Glorykid ltd. was a label that my previous band had made attempts to work with, that simply never congealed into anything. So with the door already open i approached the label with the idea of releasing my new band's (Convulsions) material. From the start everything went very smoothly. Not only was the transition great, but we know have a great responsible label doing everything they can for us - ultimately causing a start of a great friendship between us and the labels sole proprietor.
What is the meaning of "The Reaper's Gift"?
This name actually coincides with a line from the last song on our first release on the track entitled "no soul". The Reaper's Gift is seemingly the symbolism of death being unwanted handed to a life not ready to exit this earth. The actual lyical content written all by our singer Nate Almedia has alot to do with his personal struggle of coping with his fathers terminal lung cancer and resulted loss of faith in specific organized religions.
What would you describe the sound of this album?
With the album "The Reaper's Gift" we attempted to recreate the live and natural chaos of our musical nature. With Trevor Vaughn engineering the album we were able to experiment with a more roomy gritty sound. I think the end result is very representative of what we are attempting to create in a live atmosphere. Within these four songs we tried to orchestrate a chaotic yet genuine product to help express the turmoil in which our singer is patiently conveying. Without trying to sound pretentious I feel with the work Trevor Vaughn put in along with the provided sound and aesthetics, the release seems to convey the resolve we had been working on.
What are your feelings on having your first official release?
I personally feel excited for the release to be out and honestly am very excited to work on our next release. Convulsions is writing pretty often in an attempt to keep ideas fresh in our heads so there is never really a time where we are allowed to lay stagnant without any progression. Once this record is out I feel with the distribution of Glory Kid and our hard work it is going to be moderately successful in attempts to find people interested in the message we are looking to convey.
What was the writing process for the band on this album?
The writing process consisted of myself(guitar) and Kaycee(guitar) creating the riffs and the major musicality to bring them to Evan(drums) who adds all the musical structure and percussion. lastly Nate(vocals) would write lyrics to each song decided which would fit best with certain time signatures, over all feelings of the songs, and the order of which he wanted his message conveyed.
I know you have done all the artwork for the band. What aesthetic do you aim for when it comes to the band's art direction?
The artwork is actually a reaper from a previous oil painting I had done, next what I did was take the subject of the painting changed the medium into a personal favorite (block printing) where I carved the reaper skull into linoleum, next printing the skull onto Bristol, to leave me lastly to scan the picture digitally onto a computer , in turn to place the typography and color scheme. The direction I was attempting to go with aesthetically with actual typography and specific art deco motifs where to create a cover in vein of something from much earlier decade such as the 50's-60's. The reason for doing this was simply an attempt to set apart the chaotic nature of the release to something a bit more concrete and simple. My direction I am looking to go for is really decided by the next songs we are planning to release.
What are the future plans for Convulsions?
Chaos has alot to do with future plans for Convulsions, overall stimulus of the senses. I Have just recently invested in two electrical momentary switches to further more create a sense of chaos in a live atmosphere giving birth to another level of our live show with lights and other aesthetics ultimately to create a more memorable organization of chaos. We are leaving for tour august 20th and hope for that to go great. Other than that we are taking it as it goes, go over to glory kid ltd. and preorder the 7"
Pre-orders start August 6th, 2010
First fifty orders will receive a special limited edition Orange color vinyl (limited to 100 pieces) which will only be available through here. A 7"x7" block-print of the "Reaper" artwork used for the EP, hand printed by the band. And a raffle entry for a test press giveaway.
First fifty orders will receive a special limited edition Orange color vinyl (limited to 100 pieces) which will only be available through here. A 7"x7" block-print of the "Reaper" artwork used for the EP, hand printed by the band. And a raffle entry for a test press giveaway.
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