Capturing what can only be known as “the descent” in the band’s name, UK deathcore revelation quartet SUNFALL have created a deadly machine that presents itself as a storm of music. Traversing the multi-dimensional world of art and vibrations, SUNFALL’s music takes many forms and embraces the full potential of futuristic genre blending and fluidity. The true wonder of SUNFALL comes from the unpredictable animalistic nature of their music.
Today SUNFALL are premiering their crushing new single ‘Neon,’ which comes accompanied with a visualizer video that can be watched below.
Save “Neon” HERE.
Guitarist Oli explains, “Neon takes us into the world of the popular game series known as Fallout where we find ourselves in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland overrun with mutants and hostile survivors. Trapped in this world, we need to find our own way, our own friends, our family and survive by any means necessary. You must keep going no matter what and follow the “neon signs”.
“Coming from the back of our last single ‘Toxicant’, we continued with this style of genre blending we used for Toxicant and to great effect in Neon. We have learnt more into our metalcore background for this track but in SUNFALL fashion, we empowered the track with beatdown / Slam passages. This song is also our first time having very prominent clean vocals, and they do an amazing job at adding to the existing depth of our sound.”
As an unrelenting Nu-Core band from the UK, SUNFALL recently released singles ‘Industrial’, ‘Seducer’, ‘Toxicant’ and ‘Quiet Kid’ which saw the band receive high praise and approval from the world-renowned YouTube personality Nik Nocturnal, as well as coverage with Rock Sound, KnotFest, Metal Injection, Revolver Magazine and more. The band have also gone to gather the attention of playlist curators at Spotify, Sumerian Records, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora and Tidal. SUNFALL have shared stages with a wealth of bands, including the likes of Monuments, The Royal, Hacktivist, Martyr Defiled, Bound in Fear and Distant, amongst many more.
Check out below the transcript of an interview with band-members Oli, Ryan and James below.
First of all, congratulations on the new tracks! It’s been 3 years since you released the debut EP “Serenity”, and that was an immense release. “Deathbreaker” is still rattling my bones. The material we’re hearing now is even more diverse than “Serenity”. SUNFALL is really branching out and removing that expectation that super heavy bands always have to ‘stay heavy’. What was the most fun part for you as a group about leaning further into different styles and sounds?
Oli – Thank you so much! Glad to hear “Deathbreaker” is still a jam for you. The most fun part for me is hearing that final product come together. Because of how many different styles we try to utilize, when it comes to getting these songs together, it’s less “Gotta make sure everything stylistically matches” and more “Let’s find the best way to stitch these sounds together” or “What genre are we gonna use to transition from this sound to that sound”. And at this point I just know the song is going to slap when it’s all done, so it’s exciting every time because each song is different to the last.
Ryan – For me it’s the more slapstick moments that I get a lot of enjoyment from, there’s definitely times where we’ve tried stuff and it hasn’t worked but it’s usually come with some funny results. Rather than trying to directly adopt ideas, we create the “Sunfall” version of that influence and I think that leads to the most unique sounding parts of our music.
Is there some sort of boundary or limits in terms of how far you were happy pushing the diversity in your sound? What controls that fluidity from style to style from straying so far that it doesn’t fit in the SUNFALL sound any more?
Oli – I really hope we never introduce boundaries. I’d want SUNFALL to be so diverse, we could be able to release a full on Jazz track if that’s what we are feeling as a band. What we’ve gotten good at is just translating whatever sound we play with into something that sounds distinctively as SUNFALL. Even if we were to write a Jazz track, once it’s gone through the SUNFALL machine it will be a Jazz track that sounds like SUNFALL. But as of now, we haven’t gotten that far in diversifying [laughs].
So Sam has been in Perth, Australia, whilst the rest of you are in the UK. There is a visual representation to this in your video for “Quiet Kid”, where all of the shots of Sam are him on his own! That just speaks volumes about how committed you all are to keeping the band going strong without faltering, no matter the circumstances. How has it been working with one member on the other side of the world? When is the glorious reunion?
It’s been expensive [laughs], especially when it comes to music videos. Instead of paying one videographer, we have to pay two… one to film us here in the UK and one to film Sam out in Perth. Apart from that, it’s obviously a lot of messaging online and phone calls when our different time zones overlap at a time that’s sensible for us all.
Let’s get onto your new sledgehammer of a track, “Neon”. It starts with such a supercharged pace, not really wasting a moment to get right up in the listener’s face. What message did you want to convey to listeners within Neon?
Let’s get onto your new sledgehammer of a track, “Neon”. It starts with such a supercharged pace, not really wasting a moment to get right up in the listener’s face. What message did you want to convey to listeners within Neon?
Sam – The message in Neon is to always fight for your truth if you genuinely believe it’s the right thing to do. Don’t trust everyone but keep your loved ones close, and know the outside world can chew you up and show no remorse if you’re not careful.
Also, that breakdown, I wasn’t ready for it, or the lyric that leads you into it. Sam, one thing I really enjoy about your lyrics is the length of them. You create a body of verbal work for each track so the music is packed so densely with themes and messages. How do you go about writing your lyrics? Is there anything you do that helps to get the creative juices flowing?
Sam – My lyric writing process is actually very easy and I really enjoy it. If I find something I’m happy with, I don’t normally second guess changing it unless the guys in the band have a suggestion. The normal process for me is to listen to the instrumental a dozen times and then just start randomly saying words over the top of it to find vocal rhythms and even potential melodies for more melodic sections. Our drummer Ryan really helps me out in the pitched areas and it’s his voice you can hear harmonising with mine for a few of the choruses! From there, I usually pick a topic that I want to sing about and go in on writing. I like to use a lot of personal anecdotes in my lyrics that only make sense to me and the people close to me, but that also gives listeners their own unique meaning to what I’m saying that they can relate too. I try to vary what I sing about on each song, but I do always come back to the themes of mental health and personal struggle.
Just like SUNFALL’s songwriting, your vocals also know no limits in terms of versatility. How long has it taken you to get to the impressive point you’re at now, vocally? Who were your biggest vocal influences as you developed your own voice?
Sam – First of all thank you very much! I started taking my vocals seriously in 2018 when I joined SUNFALL. So I’ve been going at it pretty hard for nearly four years. Before then I knew how to do a few screams but nothing that could’ve gotten me through a whole live set. When I joined SUNFALL, it kickstarted me wanting to learn everything and hone in on and improve all the techniques I thought I could do. Back then I could only do fry screams comfortably, if you listen to the “Serenity” EP and all the singles before, there’s no false cords apart from the gutturals. But I wouldn’t be able to do the gutturals on the spot and I didn’t know if I was doing the technique correctly. It wasn’t until 2019 where I learnt how to do false cord screams properly which opened up an entirely new range for me to experiment with. Since then, I’ve peppered our music with both vocal styles and I’m constantly trying to learn new techniques and expand my repertoire!
Alex Erian and Steve Marois from Despised Icon have always been my go-to biggest vocal influences. They really utilize the two-vocalist dynamic in a band and they’re a big reason why I like to try so many different styles throughout our music. Always loved the hardcore mids paired with the gutturals, pig squeals and banshee high screams. I’d have to also say Ben Mason from Bound in Fear and Pintglass was huge in terms of wanting to sound loud and powerful. Ben has absolutely blown me away when I’ve seen him live and on record due to his insane volume and vocal tone. When I learnt how to do false cord properly in 2019, listening to Ben helped me find my voice.
The mix is insanely tight and powerful, but opens up at those huge moments and possesses such a magnificent energy, a major step up from your EP which was already huge in its own right. Ryan, congrats on the monumental sound of “Neon”, as well as the more recent tracks as well! What was your favourite part about producing “Neon”?
I would say tracking backing vocals on boxing day was really fun, I track a lot of background vocal layers for SUNFALL, to add different textures, mine and Sam’s differing vocals sum together really nicely. Within the track there’s a callout to a crowd of “raiders” following the Fallout context, to do this I ran around a practice room screaming a load of shit, and banging on chairs and drums with sticks. That was really fun to do some kind of performative vocal to bolster that section.
Is there anything special in this mix that you’re specifically stoked about? For me, the highlight is that snare drum. It’s like Joey Jordison’s and Evgeny Novikov’s snares had a baby and it grew up to be your snare.
I pride myself on banging snare tones, so I massively appreciate those compliments. I think mostly I’m stoked on this mix because I feel like I’m starting to really settle into the style of mix and production that I want for SUNFALL. This last set of singles has been a lot of experimentation between different tunings for drums, different ways to process and arrange guitars and vocals, and with this mix it felt like I crafted the “Sunfall Mix” and I can really aim for a sound rather than using references and guessing what I think it should sound like.
For all the budding producers out there, what would be one piece of advice you’d give them?
I do not feel qualified to answer this question at all. I would say, just f**king do it and don’t listen to randoms on the internet about gear and production. Everyone hears differently and has different preferences on mixes and likes different gear. No end listener cares as long as it sounds cool, there are plenty of professional mixes I dislike and I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t like what I do, just do what you want to do and like to hear, and the more you just do it, the better you’ll get.
Oli, SUNFALL has come a long way from being a solo project. How do you think your songwriting and contribution to Sunfall’s sound has developed over time as you’ve begun to work with your bandmates on it?
I think I’ve become more insecure about my writing since SUNFALL first began [laughs]. Ryan is an insane song writer and since him and I started writing together and writing separately post him joining the band, the music has really taken a step up. So now I feel a pressure to make sure everything I write can compete with the music we have out now. In terms of my writing, it’s developed in that I’m paying more attention to the small details in the music now. During the writing of “Serenity,” I didn’t really pay much attention to the small details. It was the first time I was writing music truly by myself, so I was just focused on that experience and not getting deep into the writing itself.
And now when I listen back to “Serenity,” I hear so many things I could have done differently with that music… the small details I didn’t focus on back in 2017/18 like the drum fills, guitar licks, ambience. If I was to re-write that EP, those things would get a lot more attention. In terms of style, I’m letting in far more inspirations in and stepping out of that purely Post-Metalcore sound that carried Serenity. It really shows the most in a lot of demos that I currently have in the vault. I hope they see the light of day at some point.
James, congrats on the collaboration with Carillion Guitars! How did that collaboration with Carillion come about? Have you been tracking the bass for Sunfall’s tracks with a bass from them?
James – Thank you so much. I’ve known Chris (Carillion Guitars) for quite a few years now after we first met at a Killswitch Engage and Sylosis show back in 2013. We got chatting before and after the gig about all things guitar and bass related and have been friends ever since.
We did speak about commissioning an electric guitar build for me shortly after we met but that was something I never thought about seriously. Spending close to 2k on a guitar when you’re 17 is never going to go down well with your parents.
Fast forward a few years to the start of 2020 and Chris put out a post on social media that he was willing to trade a specific amp (A Peavey 5150 Mk.1) for a discount on one of his builds. It so happens that I had one of those amps.
After taking the amp to his workshop and playing it way too loudly with one of his headless guitars he was happy to take it in exchange for a commission. We then spoke about what I needed from a bass for everything SUNFALL related, what he was happy to work with and we came to an agreement.
18 months later I went back to pick up the finished instrument and it exceeded all my expectations; it is flawless, plays so smoothly and sounds incredible. The clarity I can get from the bass even tuning down to a low F# is unreal and sounds better than anything I have used. It has certainly stepped up my sound and suits SUNFALL perfectly. There’s no hiding behind muddy notes now.
I’ve used this bass on everything we have done since Quiet Kid. Before I got my Carillion, I had a Dingwall Combustion which worked well on the tracks. You can see me using the Dingwall in the Quiet Kid video.
Due to the pandemic, unfortunately I haven’t been able to record all my bass tracks. On “Harakiri,” we have used ‘Impact Studios The Inferno Bass’ plugin which sounds very similar (almost identical) to the combustion, so it worked very well. I still used the Dingwall in the music video.
How long have you been building your own guitars, also? Your build for Oli is awesome, especially the wolf inlay on the fretboard.
James – Building my own guitars is something I’ve always had an interest in, even from when I started playing guitar I was always messing around with parts, changing things over, and learning how to set up a guitar properly so I could change everything if I needed to.
The second guitar I’ve ever owned (which I still own to this day) was one that I built out of parts bought online. I sort of lucked out with this guitar as it was a Les Paul style body with a random neck I stumbled upon, and it all seemed to fit well and didn’t require much setting up. The neck was kept straight by a small piece of a plectrum that I found, and the same piece is still in the guitar.
I never really took building guitars from scratch that seriously until the start of 2020 right before the pandemic. At this time Oli had a guitar neck built for him after I supplied a body and a wired pickguard as he wanted to convert a standard Squire Jazzmaster into a baritone Jazzmaster. When he got the finished guitar back there were a couple of small issues which needed fixing and at that point, I thought to myself, why can’t I do this and how hard is it to build a guitar from scratch.
As it turns out, it’s very difficult and ever since then I’ve been on a huge learning journey to build my own guitars.
I started out by building a simple ‘Super Strat’ style guitar which turned out okay, it looks pretty good and holds its tuning very well and sounds great but I’m not 100% happy with it. I’m very picky when it comes to things I’ve built, if they’re not perfect it’s not good enough. A good attitude to have I suppose.
After I finished this build, Keir Campbell from the band Bound in Fear asked me if it was possible to build him a fully custom left-handed 9 string multiscale guitar. Seeing as this was going to be my second guitar build from scratch, I said I’ll be more than happy to do at the cost of parts and materials.
This guitar was the biggest learning curve for me as I had to learn many new skills in order to build a guitar that would be suitable for someone that is left-handed and at the quality I would expect from a custom instrument. I’m right-handed so this was very bizarre for me at first and helped me advance hugely in my guitar building skills.
This guitar turned out surprisingly well, looked stunning thanks to the wood choices and sounded great thanks to some custom Bareknuckle Pickups. This paved the way for a few more commissions including Oli’s newest guitar to come through to me.
With Oli’s guitar he basically gave me the freedom to do what I want with it. The only criteria were “red top”, “27-inch scale” and “custom wolf inlay”. The colors that you see on that guitar are all natural, no additional coloring has been used and everything has been done by hand, including the inlay on the fretboard. The Box Burl top was a great find as it suited the criteria and looked fantastic even without any finish applied on it. Luckily, I had enough left over to make a matching veneer on the back and front of the headstock. This guitar is loaded with some ‘Bareknuckle Painkiller’ pickups and works well for all our stuff even with the low F# tuning, it’s super clear and stays in tune incredibly well.
I finished this guitar at the beginning of December 2021 and just in time for us to use it for a music video so keep your eye peeled for its debut appearance. You’ll see my new Carillion bass in action as well.
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