Archers Gate

A heavy song doesn’t start as a finished riff and a perfect hook. It starts as a feeling, a voice memo, a half-built demo, and a band willing to tear it down and rebuild it until it finally hits. We sit down with Ohio rock band Archer’s Gate for a deep, practical talk about collaboration, vocal harmonies, and the real behind-the-scenes work that turns an idea into a release you can blast in the car.

We get specific about their songwriting process, from who brings the first spark to how they pressure-test arrangements in pre-production with scratch tracks, pads, and evolving structures. The band also breaks down their studio workflow with Sonic Lounge Studios and engineer-producer Joe Viers, including why producer coaching changes vocal performances, how Pro Tools sessions move back and forth, and why recording clean stems for re-amping keeps tones flexible without losing personality. If you love gear talk, you’ll hear how they think about guitar roles, drum impact, and bass tone shaping with clean plus dirt blending.

Then we go straight into the heart of the music. Emily shares the story behind “Metamorphosis,” using the butterfly lifecycle as a metaphor for life transformation and the hard seasons that come before growth. The band also unpacks “Suffocate,” weaving anxiety, pressure, and breathwork-inspired vocal textures into a track that feels as tense as the message. We wrap with what’s next: album plans, marketing support, building the right team, and what they actually want from management.

Subscribe for more artist interviews, share this with a musician friend, and leave a review if you want more deep dives like this. What part of the band’s process do you want to hear more about next?

Episode Links

• Archers Gate: https://www.archersgateband.com/

Transcript

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Welcome And Meet Archer's Gate

Jay Franze 0:24

Here's your host. Jay Franzi. And we are coming at you live. I am Jay Franzi. And if you are new to the show, this is your source for the latest news, reviews, and interviews. And if you'd like to join in, comment, or fire off any questions, please head over to jayfranzi.com. All right, my friends, tonight we have very special guests with us tonight. That's right, I said it guests, plural. We have recording artists hailing from the great state of Ohio. We have the band Archer's Gate. Guys, thank you for joining. Thank you for having us. It is my pleasure to have you here, even Joe. Yeah, jumping in at the Y. He came in right at the end. That's awesome. Thank you for joining, sir.

Where The Band Name Comes From

Jay Franze 1:15

Let's just jump right in. Why don't you tell me where the name Archer's Gate came from?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Archer's Gate. So it's like a terminus, it's like a beginning and an end. It's like a like a passageway, an urned passage, if you will. Like metamorphosis, it's going through the gate.

Jay Franze 1:35

Let's talk about that for a minute. Let's set the scene a little bit because we've got the entire band here today, which is awesome. Thank you all for joining. I do appreciate it. But let's start with a little bit of foundation. Let's just do a roll call. Emily, your lead vocal, so why don't we start with you? What primary roles do you play in the band?

SPEAKER_06 1:57

Well, I'm obviously the singer. I think that we work really well together. We all collaborate well. I write a lot of the lyrics, melodic ideas, vocal melodies, harmonies. I'm a harmony person. But I think that musically the the band I would say equally contributes to the the building of a song.

Jay Franze 2:22

So the band as a whole, you all contribute to lyrics as

Band Roles And The Harmony Mindset

Jay Franze 2:25

well?

SPEAKER_06 2:25

Not all, but some, yes.

Jay Franze 2:27

And you mentioned your um harmony person. So do you feel like that gives your music an edge over others in the same genre?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

As long as we can sing it right.

Jay Franze 2:40

Right. So she comes up with the harmonies and makes the rest of you suffer through them. Depends on the nose. The singer comes up with the technical stuff. I like it. No, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 2:52

Yeah, I think that there's power in in one voice. So I think there's bands out there that don't do a lot of harmony, that it's just as powerful. But I've always been able to build harmony really easily. And so it's just something that I like to it's kind of cool how it happens in the studio. It happens a lot in the studio. A lot of times I'll do it kind of in the moment of when we're recording, which is really fun. But yeah, Jake and Joe, they kind of help carry some of those harmonies. I know Justin sings too. He's newer to the group, so in the future I'm sure he'll be throwing in some harmonies with us too.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

We're all getting mics.

SPEAKER_06 3:36

Yeah. Everyone has a mic.

Jay Franze 3:39

All right, Jake. Let's go on to you. So, what's the the primary role that you take?

SPEAKER_02 3:45

I am the drummer. Play drums, make the beats, about the rhythms. Uh, definitely like to partake in harmony, kind of, you know, going off what Emily said. In some cases, it's like been a lost art with a lot of music and something we we've like really wanted to own in on and past bands that we've all collectively been in. It was kind of a staple as part of it for what we did, and just it never goes out of style. So uh yeah, drones, harmony. Uh, I kind of help out with like uh booking, you know, like she said, we all have our part. I'm big on merchandise, I like to be uh OCD about merchandise and sell it in, you know, just kind of in order. So yeah.

Jay Franze 4:21

I like that. I can appreciate somebody with OCD. Thank you. I guess people don't typically think of a drummer singing, especially harmonies. So is it difficult for you to do that?

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Um no, not after, I mean, again, it's it's muscle and muscle, and it's just kind of practicing it and doing it over and over again. Something we've been big on over the years is having like even a cappella practices and really just getting that engaged and that becoming second nature while you can get back to your first instrument and kind of have those collectively work together. So I think it's just it just comes down to practice it and doing it more. And I have to pace myself because sometimes there's a little more excitement and synergy in the room, and I have to calm myself because then I find myself getting out of breath. So got to bring myself back down to earth. But yeah, gotta keep that good balance between the two and kind of stay in that zone.

Jay Franze 5:11

All right, Joe, you're the other one that joins in on the harmony. So what else do you have to add?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Um, Justin and I so far so good on kind of like sharing guitar harmonies to switch gears like to the instruments. So there's that, uh, which I think is good. Kind of keep a thing 50-50 there as far as what I do. I guess kind of meat and potatoes with the songs, whether they're like in their infancy or whether they're like more well polished. I, you know, just bring ideas to the table. The songs kind of go from there. And then also I do my best. Uh Justin's really good at at the tech stuff, so I try to help with that, you know, like getting gear moved, like everybody else go to the merch table and I'll try to strike the stage or you know, get stuff loaded in the van, you know, so a little more of I guess the muscle things. But yeah.

Jay Franze 6:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Justin, Mr. Tech. Yeah. I uh play guitar like Joe said, uh, kind of switch off lead and rhythm depending on the song and and kind of where we're feeling. I mean, sometimes within a song, it's not just Joe's the lead on this song and I'm the lead on that song. We're we're we're typically switching back and forth, whether it be covers or originals. Same with writing. A lot of it is coming from both of us, bringing our heads together, and then we kind of piecemeal out those things. As far as roles uh otherwise within the band, I I am kind of the tech guy. I've built our rack setups. I take care of making sure that all of our inner monitors sound good and all that fun stuff, just keeping up with what we need to keep putting on a professional live show. I also do a little bit of the production work with Josh, being the uh second set of ears there as we go into uh writing, recording, and and getting the mixes ready to send off for uh polish and all that fun stuff.

Jay Franze 7:04

Now, normally in rock or metal music, we don't typically find two guitar players, especially when they trade off on leads or play harmonies within it. That's more of a uh, I'll say southern rock or country thing. I mean, do you find you have influence from those genres?

SPEAKER_03 7:23

I think there's there's cases being made for a lot of bands recordings that even if they go out uh and they've got like one guitar member, they're laying multiple tracks, right? And kind of building those harmonies and the dynamics, and we just take it the step further and have you know a live person. You have you have bands going all the way back to like grunge and stuff like that that brought in second guitarists. So we're just taking that to the the the next step, which is you know, trying to keep some of the background elements going and the dynamics going while we're we're kind of trading off those things.

Jay Franze 7:55

Josh, my friend, you've got a couple things of interest I want to talk to you about. But one is a six-string bass.

SPEAKER_05 8:04

Yeah, I'm the guy with the funny-looking instrument in the band. So yeah, I I uh I'm just the bass player, but I do have some crazy looking basses. You're the lead bass player, Josh. Yes, exactly. That's awesome, Justin. Thanks. I don't know about that one, but uh but outside the bass, I'm heavily involved with the production, particularly the pre-production of the music. So we'll do a lot of scratches and skeletons and trying to get stuff in as good of a place as possible before we go to the studio so that way the engineer has a good direction for how we want to go with the songs, and then I'll be kind of the liaison between the band and the engineer to get everything the way we want it to sound, and that's something that Justin's involved with as well. Uh, so a lot of the guitar and bass stuff be involved in just the overall recording and sort of pre-mixing for it, and then all of the drums and vocals, those are completely out of my hands because I don't even want to get involved in that.

Jay Franze 9:02

So we got Justin, or as we're calling him, Mr. Tech. And then we have you doing all sorts of pre-production. Are either of you trained in that area?

SPEAKER_05 9:11

Uh Justin is, but I am not. I know I know nothing.

SPEAKER_03 9:15

I went to full sale for uh music production. So did you really? That's why uh I'm using it for our live sound, I'm using it uh to help out Josh with mixing. He's got most of that stuff under control. I'm I'm really, like I said, just kind of another set of eyes to make sure nobody's going nuts while they're days and days deep in the mix. That's funny.

Jay Franze 9:34

Um, just side note, when did you go to full sale?

SPEAKER_03 9:38

I uh graduated in 2022. So I started in 2020. It's like a two-year program or so.

Jay Franze 9:46

Yeah, I used to teach there. So I I left before

How A Song Starts And Grows

Jay Franze 9:50

before you arrived. Yeah. Yeah. But that's pretty cool. All right, so let's get into the the writing process, if you don't mind. Can you kind of walk me through whoever takes the initial steps into the writing process?

SPEAKER_06 10:05

Sometimes it's just different. Sometimes somebody has a a guitar lake that they are wanting out to to show us, and then a lot of times when I hear a medley on something played, it kind of gives me an idea in my head of like how does it make me feel? Sometimes I'll have like a song idea that I'll present to them, like, hey, I really want to write a song about this. I have a this this like idea of like meat and potatoes of what I want it to be about. So I think it's different. Some of the band has songs that they've been sitting on that they've written over the years. I have song ideas, I have vocal medlies that I'll pull out from my voice memo that I have, saved from just years of just me driving in the car and just oh yeah, I like I like the way that sounds save it, or like a notepad of like a lyric that I'll hear, or somebody will say something that I'm like, oh that's a really cool line, or I think like I can speak for everyone and say that it's it's it kind of just depends on what it is, and it's different every time I feel like that we have written together.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Joe's come with some ideas, Justin's come with some ideas, Josh has come with some ideas, and then we kind of stem up from there and we kind of bounce it back and forth. So they all kind of evolve in their own way, you know. Uh, some maybe more done than others, and some we collectively like are writing in the room. So I don't think there's an exact point of how we do it, but it is a myriad of ideas between the guys.

Jay Franze 11:41

All right, so Josh mentioned pre-production earlier. So when you guys are writing songs, whether it be from a musical piece first where you're gonna then get spark an idea for lyrics, or whether it be a lyrical piece first where you're gonna go ahead and put the music down, what is the process of taking that song to a demo stage?

SPEAKER_05 12:04

Yeah,

Scratch Demos And Pre-Production Builds

SPEAKER_05 12:05

we'll go through rehearsing it in the practice space, but obviously it doesn't, you can't quite hear everything the way you want to hear it in the practice room. So then we'll come into my studio and we'll lay things down there. And it's usually just very scratch. So we'll have scratch guitars, bass, vocals, and then um just an electric kit into the feeder. And then from there we'll have that shell so everybody can hear what's going on, and then new ideas start coming up once you have that laid down. Maybe I start putting some pianos or pads or things like that in certain sections. Hey, what do you guys think about this? And then uh we're able to start building off. I would say it's very rare that something goes into pre-production and stays exactly the same. Especially uh Emily mentioned this earlier. When we actually go to the real studio and she's doing vocal parts, there's a lot of stuff that comes up with the vocal parts and just with the way she sings something with the harmonies, so on and so forth. And obviously, we really want to make sure that those are coming through in the front and that we're building around the vocal parts and not doing too much in those sections, which can happen sometimes. So I would say that it changes very consistently from the practice room until we get the final copy back.

Jay Franze 13:21

It's funny you mentioned that. I mean, if you wanted to take it to the nth degree, your song can change years down the road. You can constantly be tweaking its art and you're always gonna have new ideas. But you mentioned going into the real studio, and I believe for the most part, you guys record over at Sonic Lounge Studios. Is that correct? Yep. So you try to get the ideas down the best you can, but when you get in the studio, what does the role become then? Do you guys produce your own project or do you take in a producer with you?

SPEAKER_05 13:52

We do our own, but we work with the

Sonic Lounge And Producer Engineer Joe Viers

SPEAKER_05 13:55

engineer that we work with is also a producer. He he does a lot of collaborating with us for basically everything that we do, whether it's bass, guitar, vocals, like everything we do. And we give them direction on it, but we give them some freedom to add some things to it as well, which I think is important because you know we get so fixated on certain things, but it's you you've got to be able to have someone else listen to it and point things out to you that you might think sound good, but then you're like, Oh, actually, never mind, you're right. We should change things up based on that. So we don't have a specified producer, but he's kind of he kind of is.

Jay Franze 14:32

I'm saying that he is that Joe, yep, Joe Veers.

SPEAKER_05 14:34

Yep.

Jay Franze 14:35

Yeah, very cool.

SPEAKER_05 14:36

Yep, sorry. Yep, gotta get gotta give the man the credit. He's the best. He's he's he's the best.

SPEAKER_06 14:41

Yeah, I will say too, as a singer, I've recorded in several studios over the years, and for me as a singer, it's been hard to find somebody who was separated from being just an engineer. Like I would work with people, and it was like I'd sing one tr one line, one track, and they'd be like, Oh, it sounds great, but then they're correcting guitars and things like that, and it just didn't feel like I was getting coached. Sometimes you just need somebody to take you to the next level that can hear when you're singing it just a little bit sharp or just a little bit flat. And you know, there's different people throughout my lifetime that I've worked with who have been able to do that, but I will say Joe Vier specifically will take something that I'm trying to do and make me sing it six different times or six different ways, and then try to break it down on which one is the strongest one, and like that's the difference between a producer and an engineer that I think somebody who might be new at doing this kind of thing is like there is a huge difference between somebody who's just recording you versus somebody who's producing you, and when you find a good producer, like it it really just elevates things in such a way where they're not just recording what you're already doing, but they're taking what you're giving them and they're just taking it to a whole different level. And I think every song that we've done with Joe has turned out different, but but better than what we brought him, and that's because he is such a great producer and engineer.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Well, and it's an iterative process, right? We're we're we're delivering things to Joe at different points, and then he's taking over at different points, and then we're bringing it back and making changes and kind of going back and forth. So that I think there's a lot of opportunities for both parties to really hear what's going on and hear new things. So, like as Josh was talking about, when we do those scratch tracks, some of those go to Joe to uh uh uh you know, send Jake in, record the drums, get those locked in so that we have something to kind of like figure out and orchestrate as we break these parts apart and figure out how long this is gonna go or that's gonna go. And then Emily's got a good skeleton structure of what she's gonna sing when, and then you know, goes up and records with Joe. And that's gonna bring back different melodies, different harmonies, a different way to really orchestrate some of those pieces going a little bit longer. Joe's gonna have ideas based upon what Emily's done. And then we kind of go in and lay those final tracks, whether it be the synth, the guitars, bass, all of that stuff, with I think a lot of those ideas kind of in a basket for us where we're kind of picking and choosing out of those things for the direction that we want that song to go. We've it's it's like we have an overabundance of pieces that we can kind of like sift through and figure out with Joe, with each other on the the latest recording with uh Metamorphosis. I mean, that went uh uh through a couple different iterations of hearing it and going back to to Joe and this is what we like, this is what we don't like. You know, we want to showcase this, we we want to pull this back, right? And it and it can really change how that song feels. It takes a long time to even get to that point where we're like, yeah, this is this is where we're at.

Jay Franze 17:58

Does he also coach with guitar tones or bass tones?

SPEAKER_05 18:03

Uh yeah, he does. We um we work together, I think, pretty well with that kind of stuff because we we send him the tracks and he'll have the ability to re-amp them if he wants, basically if he wants to, you know, if he wants to readjust the tones on them. But that's very rarely happened. I think we've had things pretty dialed in going into it. But uh what obviously he does help out with big time is gonna be the EQing on the parts. And I don't fully mix something before I send it to him, so but the why the positioning he has on the guitars and bass is going to be a lot better than what I had it, so it's going to sound different and it's gonna sound better. So we we collaborate on that, but uh a lot of it actually is tips on how to better capture the sound from our side, so just like kind of more technical stuff, actually, like certain input gains and things like that. I always ask him, hey, what could I have done better this time? And he'll always give me some things about that. But it's usually not necessarily specific to playing or anything like that, unless it's like, oh, this is like a little out of tune. Can you resend me a new track or something like that?

Jay Franze 19:16

So is that how things are working? You're recording a certain amount of the tracks at your own studio?

SPEAKER_05 19:21

Yep, yep. So we we'll do like all scratch takes that we don't use at all. Then we'll send them to Joe's. Emily, Jake will go, they'll do all their own stuff, and then we'll do a combination of guitar-based stuff, whether it might be at Joe's or at my house. It just depends on what's required for the takes. So it's kind of a combination of them both. And then Joe and I both use Pro Tools, so I can just send him a session. He'll be able to pull open the session with all the stuff that I put on there. And in fact, I actually uh sent him what stuff I was using. He's like, Oh, I'm gonna pick up a copy of that so that way you can just send me the session. So um, so we've got a

Reamping, EQ, And Capturing Tones

SPEAKER_05 20:00

very seamless relationship in that regard. A lot of the guitars, well, I could tell you all the bass stuff is my I do that at my my place because it's well, I have a question on that too.

Jay Franze 20:10

But first, uh I want to finish the previous thought. You mentioned that he has the ability to re-amp stuff. So does that mean you're recording a clean signal that you then send along with the tracks as well?

SPEAKER_05 20:23

Yep, exactly. Yeah, so we'll send them the clean stem so he can re-amp it, whether it's running it through a live amp or digital amp.

Jay Franze 20:30

Sure. Yeah. And you said you do the bass parts yourself.

SPEAKER_05 20:34

Yep.

Jay Franze 20:34

Do you provide a clean track for the bass parts as well? So is he doing any reamp or any, you know, sorcery behind the scenes for your bass parts?

SPEAKER_05 20:44

Yeah, yeah, it's typically best practice to to have, you know, if like especially I I have a little bit of dirt on my tone, so I'll I'll send it to him third, and then just a straight clean one. A lot of the breadth of the bass remains in the clean channel, so it's very important for him to have that still to so it, you know, it doesn't sound all washy and and weird.

Jay Franze 21:04

Well, that's kind of what I wanted to get to is on metamorphosis, you have a bass tone that is very unique. So is that something that you came up with, or is that something that Joe came up with?

SPEAKER_05 21:16

Yeah, that's me. Uh that is uh that is a dark glass amp that's uh that's running through there. But I so I I sent him the dark glass signal, of course, but then he's got a clean as well. I think a lot of the really thick low-end stuff actually probably comes from the clean, but the distinctive dirt is from my dark glass amp.

Jay Franze 21:36

Well, it sounds very cool.

SPEAKER_05 21:38

Yeah, thank you very much.

Jay Franze 21:39

I like it a lot. I mean, that song just has a bite to it that's is very, very cool.

SPEAKER_05 21:44

It it does, and just real quick, I'll say but a lot of a lot of the low end stuff really comes from what Jake is doing on that song because he's Jake's very aware of every single thing that everybody in the band's doing. So I would just encourage people. To listen to the drums, just literally just listen to the drums of that song because all of the stuff he's doing is very coordinated with me, but everybody else in the band. So a lot of that low end thickness is actually from the drums.

Jay Franze 22:12

All right, Jake. That brings us back to you. So as we're talking about drums, Josh mentioned earlier an electronic kit that he does pre-production with at his studio. Do you then go into

Live Drums And Vocal Coaching Choices

Jay Franze 22:25

the Sonic Lounge and replace it with live drums?

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Oh, yeah. Yep. So yeah, we'll get all our pre-pro there and we're getting those ghost tracks done. Once we feel good about the basic meat and potatoes of it, we'll take that up and then Emily and I'll pretty much put the stamp of what is ultimately going to be the vocals and the drums there. And I bring all my acoustic shells, mic them up, you know, and then we'll kind of fine-tune it from there after, like Josh said, and kind of teeter-totter between both studios depending upon what's needed to make the track happen. But yeah, acoustic drums, live and loud, gotta be, but great to practice on the electronic ones for us and pre-pro.

Jay Franze 22:59

Because um, you don't hit softly.

SPEAKER_06 23:02

So I especially does not.

Jay Franze 23:05

I can't imagine that would come through very well on an electronic kit. So the fact that you play it in an acoustic kit like that is awesome. I I do appreciate that as well. Now you mentioned Emily, so let's go back to Emily for a second. Earlier, you mentioned Joe that he coaches you through the recording process, and it's unlike people that you've worked with in the past where they don't just say that was a great take, thank you. Now, does Joe have you sing the parts from start to finish a few times, or does he stop you and correct things as you go?

SPEAKER_06 23:40

We usually do stuff in sections. So I have sang through songs from start to finish, but I like to build things vocally. So sometimes a chorus is gonna be kind of a copy-paste type of thing. But I would say that we we start stop a lot.

Jay Franze 24:04

All right. I know when we take vocalists into the studio, one of the things we typically do is we have them warm up and we record the first few passes as they're singing it. And then what we might do is then find some parts that might need a little bit of special attention, and we'll go back and focus on those parts.

SPEAKER_06 24:20

Yeah, we start off singing the the song all the way through.

Jay Franze 24:24

Very nice. Joe, sir, you've been awful quiet over there. So do you record during the pre-production part or do you record anything in the actual studio itself?

SPEAKER_01 24:36

No, most of the stuff uh I pretty much all the guitar parts, like Josh says, uh, you know, we'll we'll do the pre-production stuff uh most of the way there, if you will. Send it out, then Jake and Emily get it, you know, a go at it. They lay their tracks, and then we'll get it back. And at that point, Joe's cleaned up a lot of stuff. So almost all the way done there. Sometimes new ideas bloom from there, because you'll, you know, sometimes it's nice to finally step back and hear everything. So that happens uh sometimes more often than not, but sometimes you gotta be able to stay to stop and say no, and and that's hard too. But usually by the time we get it back, most guitar stuff is done instead of you know hauling amps all the way up to Joe's and recording up there. Like Josh says, he has everything to to re-amp stuff. So if we're not feeling the tone on something, it's not hard to and I'm I'm pretty easy to please, you know, as long as it's a good distortion, it sounds crunchy and it's you know, it's sweet to my ears, I'm happy.

unknown 25:42

Nice.

Jay Franze 25:43

I like that. You can tell that in your live performance that you're you're a very animated performer. Thanks. All right, so that saves the time, saves the money. Now, do all of you go into the studio for the mix process?

SPEAKER_05 25:59

We um we all do try to be there when we can. Sometimes it can be odd schedules where you know you've got a patch during the day where you know maybe Jay can go play drums, but we obviously all love to be in the studio because not only is it helpful to hear everything, but it's also fun. You know, that's like the one of the most fun things, like everybody hanging out, listening, screwing around. So, like, not screwing around, but you get what I mean. Right. Um and um playtime, yeah. So like that's like one of the most fun things is being in the studio. So we try to be there when we can. It's not always the case. In terms of mixing, we haven't been there presently when Joe is like in a mix session. Obviously, we're there when he's kind of noodling on some stuff, but I know Jake and Joe actually they've worked with Joe Veers for a long time in previous groups as well, and they've stayed there for a few days to where they could actually be involved in the mixing session. So they could probably speak on that experience very, very well. But as far as what we've done, we just haven't had a super long session there. So usually it might be a couple days where you're in and out of pockets, but like obviously it would be a lot of fun to be there when he's actually, you know, mixing stuff and just discussing it live, as opposed because right now I send him an email with notes and then he sends me back, here you go. Okay, cool. And that's that's how it goes.

Jay Franze 27:21

So that's a cool way of doing it as well. Justin, I know you're you're trained in it, so do you feel like there's ever a time that you want to be part of it?

SPEAKER_03 27:31

Uh I mean, you think as time goes on, so Metamorphosis was the the first song that I got to work on with the band. So going through that process, a lot of the pre-pro stuff had already been done. So I think as we continue to go into these newer sessions with songs, we'll probably have some of that. And uh yeah, I think it'd be fun to go up and and see Joe's process and kind of talk through it. Because I like Josh had kind of spoken to earlier, I think that you know, being able to send those sessions back and forth gives us a good lexicon of how to talk back and forth, not just in the way that we want to be produced and the way that these things are starting to be produced together and kind of build towards greater bodies of work, but also like the patches we use for guitar and dialing those in, and then even taking that out to the live show on how we dial in what we use live to do those things, right? So the more involved that we can get with that process, I think that there's there's a long-term set of goals that go along with that. So it really just depends on like everybody's kind of talked about the time that we have to go up there and do it. Obviously, it's freeing for Joe to not have to like worry about when we're doing it, he can do it at whatever hours he wants when we're not there. But I do think that there is worth in being there for those mixed sessions, especially as we start to kind of grow that body of work.

Metamorphosis And The Butterfly Story

SPEAKER_03 28:50

All right.

Jay Franze 28:51

Let's jump into the the songs now. We've been talking about metamorphosis, so let's go ahead and start there. Who wrote the lyrics or the primary lyric writer for that song?

SPEAKER_06 29:02

I did.

Jay Franze 29:03

Okay, you're on the hot seat, my friend. Can you can you go ahead and just give us a quick overview of what the song is about?

SPEAKER_06 29:12

Yeah, so the song is about life transformation, the metamorphosis process. We kind of have a theme currently in the band with the butterfly. It's uh been kind of our brand since we've been together. And not just because it's feminine and beautiful, but it's I'm just fascinated with the process of caterpillar to butterfly and just some of the things that we don't always think about with a caterpillar and how it completely has to break down its body while it's in the cocoon, where it's literally not even a body anymore, and it somehow comes out this beautiful butterfly, and how the butterfly probably doesn't remember being a caterpillar, but the caterpillar also doesn't look up and wonder like, am I gonna fly one day? Every season is important and pivotal and necessary. You know, I think that every person that's watching right now, everyone in this band right now, is in one of those seasons, whether it's searching, growing, isolation, figuring it out, or they're soaring right now. I'm just fascinated with that. And I've had I had an idea to write a song about it, and it just totally became this beautiful, one of the best songs I think I've ever been a part of writing. Just what everybody brought to the table and how beautiful it came together. And for me personally, just in my own journey in my life with different hard seasons that I've gone through, that song was very emotional for me. I even remember when we were recording it, I was in this the vocal booth, like just fighting back tears at certain certain periods of what's actually on the recording. I can hear it in my voice because I know I remember like I was trying not to cry because it's just so meaningful to me and so powerful.

Jay Franze 31:06

And so yeah, I just that's so what's that like for you when you're in the studio and feelings like that come aro come across?

SPEAKER_06 31:16

I don't know. I think you want like as an artist, you you want people to feel what you feel with what you put into your songs, but everybody's gonna have their own interpretation, so I don't even always like to give the full meaning necessarily or like what exactly was in my head when I wrote this or that, because you know, there everybody has a different version of yeah, interpretation of of what it will mean and and how it will impact them. And I think that that's the beauty of music is that it speaks in different ways than what maybe the original meaning was for. But but yeah, I think it's emotional for

Creating A Cinematic Set Intro

SPEAKER_06 32:00

all of us to hear something that you you've written be brought to life, and how it takes every every part, you know, every instrument, every vocal lines to create what you now hear, and it's all necessary and needed.

Jay Franze 32:16

The whole song seems to step up. I've listened to your catalog quite a bit over the past few weeks, and it's like you can see some growth in the in the song. When I saw you guys perform live, you also had a recording at the beginning of your show that tied into the song as you closed the the set with that song. So can one of you tell me where that recording came from and how you guys got it to tie into the closing of your set?

SPEAKER_05 32:44

So Emily's very, very good at thinking of concepts for things and she can paint them very well. So for me personally, that helps me because like if she, I'm just gonna make something up here, but if she says, hey, I want this Egyptian feel in Phrygian, well, I know what that means right away, and then she can put a bunch of stuff, and then I can like whether it's me doing stuff on the keyboard or guitar or bass, but just thinking of stuff. So anyway, that's what ended up happening with that introduction. We we knew we wanted it to be tied with metamorphosis, we were gonna close with that song, but I could probably find the uh text, but it was something like it'd be cool to have like a mad scientist talking about the the growth of the butterfly or something like that, and like having this kind of you know, maybe creepy ambient sounds, and then building into the opening song. And so um, so that's what I ended up coming up with was that that introduction. And the um, there's the I don't remember who it is, it's like it's a famous learning scientist guy, not Bill Nye, but in that same vein, talking about it. And I found a random clip and spliced all these things that worked perfectly together and put some keyboards and things like that in the background, and that's and that's what it ended up being.

Jay Franze 34:00

Now I've seen you perform twice, I've only heard it once. So is that something that we plan on making a recurring theme?

SPEAKER_05 34:09

It it has been for a little for over a year. We actually we used that, I think our very first show. Am I am I remembering that right? Yeah, so we we've been doing it, we've been using it for a while. So, not to spoil anything, but we've got some new cool stuff we're working on. We could talk about that later, but there will be a uh a new a new intro, I will say.

Jay Franze 34:33

I'll make note.

Suffocate Breathwork And Studio Effects

Jay Franze 34:35

So the next thing I want to talk about, the other song is Suffocate. And the reason I want to talk about that one is it seems to have a message, but it also seems to have some some cool ambience to it. For example, breath work that's happening. So, whose idea was it for the breath work?

SPEAKER_06 34:54

So, this is something I was gonna say about Joe Veers. Joe Veers just gets my brain be like, listen, I really want to make a noise like this. Can you help me make it sound like this creepy thingy that I'm thinking? And he'll get these mics out and have me do some stuff, and I'll and we'll listen, and I'm like, yes, this is this is exactly what I was thinking. So I did a lot of reverse breathing where you suck in air instead of breathing into it, which is what that like stuff on that recording and metamorphosis. I love breath work and I love weird voices and kind of that creepy stuff. So yeah, that's kind of threaded in several of our of our songs.

SPEAKER_05 35:39

I want to actually just say something. The uh all the the male vocals on that song are Joe, and they make really a big difference to kind of add into that. We can talk maybe more about the theme of the song, but like with that the the breathy stuff and the little effects, like that's that's all Joe doing that stuff, and it's sounds great, it sounds good. Like it's you know, we love Evan Escence, you know, the song Bringing Me to Life with that dual vocal type thing, and it's got similar thing, and it makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Did you do the scream on that one live, Joe? Like, did you do that one in the nice he did his thing?

SPEAKER_05 36:15

Joe did that scream in my house, and we sent that that's a good idea. And it is if if you listen to that track brawl, you would be like, holy crap, because it is I I am I I have no idea how he did that, but I sent that to Joe Veers, and he's like, Yeah, I this is I don't need to do anything else. This isn't amazing.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Sounds like it has distortions and filters on it, but I've heard Joe do it live. It's not.

Jay Franze 36:43

That's that's what I'm saying, but I wasn't expecting it, but on demand. That's awesome, Joe. Thank you. All right, what's up, buddy? So let's let's talk about the the message, Josh. You mentioned the message of the song. So Emily, did you write the lyrics to this?

Anxiety, Pressure, And Performing Live

SPEAKER_06 37:10

Yes.

Jay Franze 37:11

All right, so what can you tell us?

SPEAKER_06 37:13

So it's about just the pressure of life. Again, just one of those songs, whether it's relationship, whether it's spiritual, physical, addiction, whatever it is, you're just trying to, you know, that that battle of of oppression that's making you feel like you can't breathe.

Jay Franze 37:37

Is there anything that you suffer with?

SPEAKER_06 37:42

Um I would say I I would say I have some anxiety. Um I've struggled with anxiety, had a lot of crazy life situations that I've had to navigate in the last 10 to 15 years that maybe on another time we can talk about. That, you know, um just different traumatic things in my life, and then, you know, having a family where addiction is kind of threaded throughout that suicide. I am one of seven kids, I'm kind of in the the middle, but I'm I always say I'm in the middle, but I'm the oldest. So there's a lot of pressure.

Jay Franze 38:22

Sure. Do you think that that helped you with the delivery of that song?

SPEAKER_06 38:30

Absolutely. I you know, every time we're on stage or when I get to be on stage, there and maybe everyone can agree that there is nothing like live performance and feeling like you are living, you know, in your purpose and how healing that can be, especially when you know that you you have an impact on people who are watching you. And so I think would I walk through some of those seasons again? No, but it definitely has shaped who I am now and uh the the story in my life. I wouldn't have that if it wasn't for those hard seasons, and so I have a lot of things that I want to write about. We've been talking about ideas coming up with the album that we're gonna be working on, and obviously they're welcome to their input as well. But just you know, I have lists of concepts of you know, this happened and you know, just stories and things like that.

Jay Franze 39:33

Yeah, it's gotta be tough. I know every family has a set of challenges, and every person has to find a way of dealing with it. But I only mentioned it because you have a way of delivering that song that you can feel a connection to. I mean, it was a great performance. It's a great performance all around.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

Thank you.

Jay Franze 39:50

All right, let's lighten it up a little bit. Josh, you mentioned new stuff. So what do we have

Album Goals And Next Releases

Jay Franze 39:55

on the horizon?

SPEAKER_05 39:56

Well, the uh the goal is we're we're looking to get an album out. I I can't give you timing on that. We have quite a few ideas and a couple that are shaping up to get very close to where we're feeling confident about getting them recorded. So it'll probably be a few-month project at least, I would say, but I think we're all energized and ready and ready and excited. And if it doesn't make it to a full album, at the very least, it's going to be a cluster of songs. So that's the plan right now. I don't don't hold me to that too much, but but that's that's the plan right now. But but we're we're very uh very excited about these new songs because I you know you said it. We we've kind of I think we've been getting better as each song's come out, and I think this next set of songs is going to be on that same trajectory. Yeah, so very excited about that.

Jay Franze 40:53

All right. Do we have any sort of team of people helping behind the scenes that we

Marketing Help And Social Media Reality

Jay Franze 41:00

don't get to see?

SPEAKER_06 41:01

I would say yes, we've got some stuff brewing in the background right now. We're still considered a new newer band, but we do have some things that we haven't officially come out and announced with a team that is working with us. We do have a marketing team that we've been working with for a couple months, and that's really helped us kind of learn more about meta and social media and the crazy world of how to navigate being an artist in this time period because we've all been in bands, multiple bands, for many years, and it's just a very different world now where you have to be schooled on how to do this, you have to be an influencer if you want to be on social media pretty much. So we have a team that's working behind the scenes with us doing that, and then we've got some other things that we are that aren't official that we're um that we've been having conversations with certain individuals that we're excited about too.

Jay Franze 42:02

That's funny. You mentioned you have to be an influencer. You have a skill that I don't have, and that's the ability to just sit there and talk into your phone. I just cannot cannot get myself to to do that and have it come out natural. It just doesn't feel right to me.

SPEAKER_06 42:19

It's just it's it's not easy. I mean, it's like having another job, but it really is. Especially when you have your own personal pages, plus the band pages, it's it's very time consuming. So this team is really kind of helping us take the weight off of us a little bit with some of that.

Jay Franze 42:37

Now you you mentioned creatively,

Booking Support And Building A Crew

Jay Franze 42:40

you have Joe in the studio to engineer and and co-produce with you guys. Do you have anybody administratively? Do you have a manager or any booking agents or anybody on that side of the world?

SPEAKER_02 42:52

We've been pretty much self-sufficient with booking. Uh, we're gonna extend the whole team process. We could go to the live setting. We do have a couple guys that have been dedicated to be stage hands or looking towards gearing towards locking in a sound guy or two that can kind of travel with this. So we never really want to be compromising the show, uh, and eventually a lighting guy. So, yeah, getting back to team, you know, it's it definitely takes a village, like Emily said, there's a lot of changing, a lot of moving parts. Even the socials is a job in of itself to keep people engaged. You know, it's it's a constantly revolving market now of videos and reels and stories and posts, and to stay in that without oversaturating it, but making sure you stay plugged in is is a balance in of itself.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

I'm gonna include uh Josh's wife, Rachel, in this as well, since she helps out so much with kind of whatever we need, whether it's being at the merch booth while we're we're on stage or uh running to grab something for us. So she's been she's given clutch numerous times.

SPEAKER_06 43:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:49

My my number one, number one fan.

SPEAKER_06 43:52

Number one fan. I thought I was your number one, Josh. And Leo. We're looking into management. We've Had some conversations. We've had people interested, but again, it's it's it's um really being able to discern who is genuine and who isn't. There's a lot of commercialized management teams out there that it's just not a good deal. And so we really want to work with the right person or people behind the scenes that can really help. And it's it's it's hard. Everything is hard. So that's that's one thing that we're we're looking into to kind of help as we're we're moving forward and growing and trying to get to the next level. Um, we're ready for that, and it is the thing that we're spending some time looking into currently.

What They Want From Management

Jay Franze 44:40

What would you hope to get out of having a manager?

SPEAKER_06 44:45

I mean, obviously getting booked more shows, uh, more quality shows, helping kind of to take care of some of that administrative stuff.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Kind of keeping everything streamlined efforts. It can be a lot, conflicting schedules and managers looking out ahead, like she said, with booking and everything, just something a little more clear, concise, and streamlined as far as pushing the business and you know, where's that bounce of getting the album done, of getting out there and sponsoring that and pushing that live show in the live settings. So someone to kind of help facilitate those things and figure out where's the market needs us at this point in time.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

Well, and also uh somebody that kind of sees the vision with us, right? And they're there to kind of make sure that that vision comes true, right? So, like as we all kind of come together and figure out what it is that we do and want to do and want to achieve, right? It that it's that person that comes in and makes sure that A, we're staying true to that, but then all of the kind of outside vendors and people that we work with understand that as well, just keeping that that sort of through line on what we're looking to achieve.

SPEAKER_05 45:53

And just keeping the mental availability available for everybody in the band because when you try to do too much stuff, you're not gonna want to do it anymore. And that's just the reality of it. And if you get somebody that supports you and knows what they're doing and wants to help, that's the way you're gonna succeed. So we're we're getting more and more into that those spaces, and that's been very

Unsung Hero Shoutout And Closing

SPEAKER_05 46:15

good. And I think I really do think that the next year is going to be a big year for us.

Jay Franze 46:21

Well, I look forward to it. All right, guys. Well, we do this thing here we call Unsung Heroes, where we take a moment to shine the light on somebody who works behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way. Do you have anybody you'd like to shine a little light on?

SPEAKER_05 46:34

I think we got to go talk about Alan.

Jay Franze 46:36

Yeah, that's exactly where I was going.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Tell me about Alan. So Alan, um, he was with mine of my brothers, former band with us with Liptimedian with stage hands. He's come along with this project, really taking liking to the band. Super incredible human being and just kind of an all-around great guy, always there for us, stage hands, helping us load, just a positive presence in the in the room to begin with, and always kind of believing us. So definitely, definitely grateful for his presence and his help, you know, so far in this band with all that we do. And he's definitely been partial to a lot of that enjoyment, you know, especially in the live show.

Jay Franze 47:12

All right, folks. Well, we have done it. We have reached the top of the hour. We've actually blown past the top of the hour, which does mean we have reached the end of the show. If you have enjoyed the show, please tell a friend. And if you have not, well, tell two. You can reach out to all of us tonight over at jfrenzy.com. We will keep this or any other conversation going. My friends, I cannot thank you enough for being here. And I would like to leave the final words to you.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

Well, first of all, Jay, thanks for having us. Uh, it's been an absolute pleasure, man. Great host. Also, just for all the support you've given us so far since you knew the band. It's been great to know you. Yeah, we'll have a bunch of uh hopefully new stuff coming out here within the by the end of year, I would say. So stay tuned for that. And if you guys have not heard our latest single Metamorphosis, we are on all streaming platforms, anything you can listen to music to at Archer's Gate. And we are available for booking, so book us. And if you want us to come play at your big festival, we're here. Yep, we're a health party.

SPEAKER_06 48:11

And thank you, Jay, for again just the article that you wrote about us and all the kind things that you said. It was very detailed, and we're just yeah, very humbled by everything that you wrote. And thank you for having us on. It's been awesome.

Jay Franze 48:24

My pleasure, folks. On that note, have a good night.