ON SEPT. 2, 2022, Polyphia hit the primary main speedbump of their newest album cycle.
Twenty-six exhibits right into a sold-out 28-date United States tour — simply as they’ve dropped full particulars of their fourth LP, Keep in mind That You Will Die — drummer Clay Aeschliman’s physician confirmed that he’s dislocated his clavicle. Surgical procedure shall be required to place it again in place. As a lot as Aeschliman and the remainder of the Texan collective are loath to let something disrupt plans which were actually years within the making, their refusal to carry out at lower than 100% signifies that scheduled home-state exhibits in Fort Price and Austin have to be postponed.
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“We had been on these Fowl scooters,” guitarist Tim Henson shrugs. “I suppose they’re fairly harmful…”
For a band which have constructed their title on precision and management — rising from highschool YouTube virtuosos into the world’s hottest instrumental band — there may be an air of disarray this afternoon. At his condo, Henson is at the moment being mobbed by three canines craving their proprietor’s affection after a month away. Fellow founding six-stringer Scott LePage dials in whereas nonetheless on the highway, operating errands and ferrying forgotten baggage on the best way residence. The pair waved off Aeschliman, bassist Clay Gober and the remainder of the touring celebration mere hours earlier than convening with AP.
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
“This tour has been wonderful,” Henson continues, visibly stung by ending such a triumphant run so abruptly. “It seems like proper place, proper time in the place we’re with the followers, with the music, with one another. Then this.” Henson remains to be reeling from what he describes as “the weirdest goodbye session” with the band and their crew. “It feels incomplete, like a blue-ball sort state of affairs,” he quips. “There’s been no climax.”
LePage concurs. “It leaves us with this unusual responsible feeling,” he nods, “though it’s out of our management.”
In a way, days like these are what Keep in mind That You Will Die is all about. Whereas the title originated — in very Polyphia trend — with LePage Googling “cool phrases” throughout final September’s Dance Gavin Dance tour, it has taken on higher weight over the months since. The unique Latin translation, memento mori, whispered into the ears of triumphant emperors in historic Rome to make sure their groundedness, has apparent applicability to younger males with the world at their ft. Characteristically, Henson places his personal spin on that. “It’s a seize the day type of factor,” he smiles, pensively. “It’s essential do the shit that it is advisable to do when it is advisable to do it — earlier than you may’t.”
If something, their newest setback has solely added urgency to Polyphia’s booming ambition. Though the band are open about the way it’s their fixed crucial to “degree up” with every new launch, pushing their technical capability, composition, sound design and mixing, the sheer boundary-obliterating maximalism on present right here suggests they’ve taken a quantum leap. From the placing, nylon-stringed experimentation of “Enjoying God” to the steely dubstep of “Reverie” and the decadently layered rage beat of “Neurotica,” they’re deftly fusing pop and metallic, jazz, EDM and numerous different genres in-between.
“When somebody asks me a few report’s ‘stylistic development,’” LePage grins, “I usually consider the query as, ‘What was I listening to after we began writing?’ Right here, I attempted to convey each component that we’ve ever finished. I needed to showcase each sound in my arsenal.”
Striving to elucidate how they managed this, Henson narrows Polyphia’s strategy down to 3 bullet factors: higher emphasis on collaboration (extra on that beneath); elevated maturity of their sound; expanded deal with sound design and manufacturing. Relatively than descending right into a dry dialog about studio strategies and musical principle, although, the shred grasp outlines the album title’s chilling twin that means and the way it connects to the improvements therein: a story of the unstoppable march of know-how, and the apocalyptic way forward for synthetic intelligence. “By second monitor ‘Enjoying God,’ we’re already constructing issues which are changing into too good for us. It builds and builds till ‘All Falls Aside.’ Then there’s a ‘Massacre.’ ‘Ego Demise’ represents the top of all of it.”
Machine sounds reign supreme. Though human efficiency stays very a lot on the coronary heart of Polyphia, the multitude of writing and recording periods that took them round America, from Los Angeles (the place Henson was resident in the beginning of recording) to Detroit and residential to Texas, had been largely targeted on eradicating the natural tone of metallic in favor of the sensation of preprogrammed beats from pop and hip-hop. On a conceptual degree, this concerned factoring in manufacturing from the very outset of the writing course of as a producer like Skrillex would. On the sensible aspect, it required the development of the carpeted “cave” wherein Aeschliman recorded percussion, seen in current playthrough movies from Henson’s newly constructed residence studio again in Texas.
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
“Should you had been to play this music inside a automotive, flip all of it the best way up, then step outdoors of the automotive, it will bump like rap music,” he explains, espousing the advantages of such an unusually concerned strategy. “Comparatively, in case you had been to try this with a metallic report, it will sound like shit.”
Within the period of playlist-led listening, too, the strategy to style was much less “mixtape” than wired mashup. “Every track is drastically totally different,” Henson enthuses. “It’s virtually as if Polyphia had been the substitute intelligence — a sonic equal to a kind of image-generating AIs. You sort in ‘Bossa nova classical guitar entice beat’ and also you get a track like ‘Enjoying God.’ You enter ‘Ariana Grande hyperpop prog’ and we play ‘ABC.’ You strive ‘trap-style metallic’ and also you get ‘Fuck Round And Discover Out.’ Hell, a monitor like ‘The Audacity’ might be the consequence from punching in ‘Jazz, shred, regardless of the fuck!’”
BEFORE THEY BECAME THE GENRE-DEFYING disruptors we all know at present, Polyphia’s dream label was prog-metal powerhouse Sumerian Information. Following 2011’s four-track demo Resurrect — dropped when LePage was 18 and Henson simply 17 — the LA-based indie reached out by electronic mail. The message was agonizingly direct: “The place’s the singer?”
It’s a query that has dogged the band for years. Having opted, early on, to keep up tight deal with the slender core of guitar, drums and bass, most would argue that their instrumental restrictions are why Polyphia stand aside. On Keep in mind That You Will Die, nonetheless, they don’t have any time to be steered by their limitations, bringing aboard everybody from trilingual LA singer-songwriter Sophia Black (“ABC”) and San Diego-based visionary Killstation (“Memento Mori”) to Deftones frontman Chino Moreno (“Massacre”) and legendary six-stringer Steve Vai (“Ego Demise”).
“Once we began engaged on this report three years in the past, our report label requested us to place collectively an inventory of dream collaborators,” Henson explains. “We had everybody from Rick Ross to Chino and Steve on there. We had at all times recognized that we needed to do a bunch of various collaborations to stretch our wings when it comes to saying, ‘Sure, we are able to tackle any fashion, and we’ll do it. You need a pop track? A metallic track? A rap track? We’ll give it to you.’”
That perspective is the true key to Polyphia’s individuality, compelling them to diverge from the path blazed by revered friends like Animals As Leaders and Periphery. “Primary, we like these different genres,” Henson stresses. “We actively hearken to these genres. We need to take part in these genres.” The opposite bands from their scene? Henson isn’t positive they do. “It’s a must to put the work in,” he explains. “I can’t think about a djent crossover with a pop artist that might truly be good with out having put the work in on the pop aspect to know why that type of collaboration may work.”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
Unquestionably, RTYWD is a labor of affection. Though Ross by no means returned their calls, and work on an authentic model of “All Falls Aside” with Tilian Pearson of Dance Gavin Dance and SoundCloud star Trippie Redd fell by way of, eight of the report’s 12 tracks nonetheless boast notable visitor spots. Certain, the boys’ guitar work is basically much less ostentatious than that showcased on 2014’s Muse, 2016’s Renaissance and 2018’s New Ranges New Devils, however there may be an astounding dynamism and variety that’s testomony to the large effort and a focus to element poured in. No function feels tacked on, both: each on the coronary heart of its personal naturally grown composition. Certainly, the primary sound to essentially catch your ear — one which ties by way of to the report’s thumping shut — isn’t guitar however the bellow of horns courtesy of New York hip-hop producer Brasstracks.
“Brass is such a triumphant, epic opening and shutting sound,” Henson smiles. “They needed to offer us hearth.“ And Polyphia needed to offer them, like each visitor participant, the house to shine. For followers and potential future collaborators, they wanted to show that emotional resonance was extra essential than nerdy intricacy. “We have to serve the [composition],” Henson stresses. “That’s one thing that Scott and I’ll by no means enable our egos to get in the best way of. We care much less about exhibiting off our chops than making good music. We wish to have songs that stand the take a look at of time.”
So, is there a shared high quality that unites the disparate roll name of artists they’ve chosen to usher in?
“The one high quality that everybody that we collaborate with [shares] is that they’re sick as fuck,” Henson jokes (type of). Perhaps “audacious as fuck” could be a greater description. Each artist featured right here has an urge for food for working outdoors the field and a willingness to problem themselves to maintain tempo with fashionable guitar’s most prodigious gamers. “Polyphia aren’t essentially the most instantly digestible factor,” Henson says, bluntly acknowledging their behavior of hitting extra notes in a single track than some would throughout a complete album. “To even entertain the concept of a collaboration with us, individuals should be open-minded. They should have an appreciation for issues which are past surface-level.”
Naturally, lots of the collaborators got here from Polyphia’s fast circle of associates and colleagues. Killstation, as an illustration, had already featured Henson on the banging “Radiation,” whereas Brasstracks’ Ivan Jackson is name-checked a number of instances throughout our dialog with actual love and respect. There was explicit worth, all the identical, in tapping into the expertise and perspective of some bona fide rock legends.
Vai had been one of many boys’ childhood idols, however when a NAMM Jam on the 2020 commerce showcase put them on the identical stage, they discovered the admiration was mutual. In an interview with Guitar World, he subsequently named Henson one of many up to date six-stringers taking the instrument to the subsequent degree: “Tim is exploring new grounds. I’m seeing an evolution in a route that I didn’t… that I couldn’t even see coming.” Henson gleefully reciprocates the sentiment: “That was fuckin’ superior: a second with our guitar hero acknowledging us!”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
Much more eye-opening had been the periods with Moreno, and his openness to sharing concepts within the studio, not simply with the band, however their songwriting buddy and esteemed rapper lil aaron, as nicely. “With pop and rap, there might be 20 individuals in a room and everybody’s concepts are welcome,” Henson displays. “Numerous rock dudes are much less open to interjection. We had been stunned to see how a lot Chino loved lil aaron being there and the way open he was to tackle board different individuals’s options.”
With familiarity having been sacrificed on the altar of innovation and ambition, although, will followers be as open to this new period of Polyphia? On this tour, no RTYWD tracks that includes vocals had been aired, not as a result of there was any worry of backlash, they clarify, however to order the massive reveal for the arrival of their painstakingly crafted studio variations. A clearer indication of the band’s thought course of could be gleaned from the sequencing of the album’s advance singles, with comparatively conservative instrumentals “Neurotica” and “Enjoying God” kick-starting the cycle earlier than the complete tracklist dropped alongside the brilliantly bonkers “ABC.”
“That was an us determination,” Henson admits. “‘Enjoying God’ was the primary track we had dropped since 2019. We would have liked to reel again in our fanbase, to rally the troops.” “Neurotica,” he explains, was one other fan-service track. “You’re getting quick, you’re getting nice melodies, you’re getting instrumental. Plus, it’s a bopper,” he provides, emphasizing the significance of riling up the fanbase earlier than smacking them within the face with such an unapologetically poppy third providing. A mischievous grin. “I suppose ‘ABC’ was a approach to let all people know that we’re again on our bullshit.”
AS HEADY AS IT IS HAVING Polyphia unpack their advanced musical course of, they’re each bit as participating when setting their devices apart. Candid recollections of final week’s AP picture shoot really feel like proof of that. Wrapped in additional layers than even their densest compositions, the boys had been shoved right into a stretch limo in an nameless Los Angeles warehouse. The issue is that these sorts of warehouses don’t include air con. And it’s not potential to spark the engine to activate the automotive’s with out the worry of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Man, that was scorching,” Henson grins, reliving the well-dressed ordeal. “Nevertheless it was cool.”
A pointed appreciation of what’s on-trend is the final piece of the Polyphia puzzle. Eager aesthetic focus is a part of that, with at the very least 14 visible artists — one for every of the 12 tracks, two typographers and outfit sculptor Nusi Quero offering music video props — tapped for simply this album. “Everyone likes issues that look cool,” Henson rolls his shoulders. “If it didn’t look cool, individuals in all probability wouldn’t test it out.” An on-point web presence helps, too. Regardless of being “extra Boomer than Zoomer” in relation to particular app updates these days, Henson emphasizes that they nonetheless suppose deeply about on-line presentation, having stopped trying to “igno-rappers like Lil Pump doing dumb shit on-line” for affect, in favor of higher-profile figures like Future, “who’ll put the album artwork on-line, and that’s it.”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
Whereas it’s tempting to see Polyphia’s explicit model of extroversion as a response to the hyper-conservatism ripping by way of their native Texas, too, Henson is reluctant to offer weight to such simplistic evaluation. Referring again to choices like 2019’s “Look However Don’t Contact” video — the place they posed as Mormon missionaries coming into an afterlife that’d make Lil Nas X jealous — Henson admits which will as soon as have been the case. “However lately, we don’t really feel significantly connected to any type of political message,” he explains. “We wish to preserve it in regards to the music — the aesthetic and sonic qualities of what we do — somewhat than pushing individuals’s buttons.”
Much more pivotal is the willingness to faucet into their colourful personalities as readily as their mind-bending ability units.
“Numerous that’s simply making an attempt to embrace ourselves as individuals, and to be ourselves,” Henson gestures. Certainly, it’s one thing the band have lengthy struggled with. However following this tour, they’ve discovered actual confidence within the countless hours of prep and follow put in. “For that hour-and-a-half onstage, we’re proudly owning it,” he asserts. For Polyphia, hiding beneath a rock isn’t an possibility.
“It actually helps to have three motherfuckers who’re your greatest associates doing it with you, too,” LePage provides. “Half of my [mindset] is the arrogance that comes from taking part in with my bandmates. The opposite half is self-doubt. Happily, having my associates there means confidence wins out.” Henson nods: “Perhaps loads of the fellows in these different bands aren’t peacocking round as a result of they don’t have their associates to do it with them.”
That results in the last word query dealing with Polyphia: Does it really feel like they’ve what it takes to convey actual guitar music again to the forefront of common tradition?
“I’d say that Machine Gun Kelly did that,” Henson says with a playful grin. “MGK is the daddy of guitar music! Severely, although, guitar is so prevalent proper now. Take a look at MGK, WILLOW, acts like Web Cash and Lemonade. Guitar itself has been making a comeback. We’re simply doing what we do. We exist in a time that we exist in. We don’t wish to take credit score for one thing that’s taking place anyway.”
LePage struggles even to see the logic of the query. “It’s bizarre,” he narrows his eyes. “For me, guitar music has by no means not been cool.”
Extra pointedly, whereas there are many acts proper now who like to pose with their six-string and might strum a couple of chords, there certainly are none cracking the mainstream (or wherever, frankly) who can play their devices like Polyphia. Has there been a band who’ve been in a position to traverse the worlds of rock and pop, making shred appear this cross-culturally cool, since Van Halen?
“It’s tremendous straightforward to be mad corny whenever you’re doing virtuoso guitar,” Henson speaks frankly. “Off-script, it’s virtually corny in itself. However to search out the issues which are musical about that, and to place it in contexts that aren’t corny, is the true problem. I feel loads of bands who play that manner aren’t actually involved about these issues. Should you look again, taking in Eddie’s work with Michael Jackson on ‘Beat it,’ possibly the final time it was cool was Van Halen.”
It’s not a foul comparability. It’s additionally one to which Polyphia are unafraid to reside up. Forsaking their “cult” standing to return so far as they have already got has solely stoked the need — and the assumption — that they are often the most important band on this planet.
“I’d prefer to say that we would like that for ourselves,” Henson declares. “We wish to be that family title. Greater than something, we wish to have the liberty to make no matter type of music we would like, with whoever we would like, whether or not that’s at present’s largest stars, legacy acts or newer artists. Getting by way of the door is simply so troublesome. We simply need entry. To get that, it’s important to develop. On the finish of the day, the higher issues go for us, the extra time we now have to make dope shit.”
No matter Polyphia’s subsequent evolution could also be, rely on it to soften your face and blow your thoughts.
