Welcome to our interview with The Obsidian Resurrection! This Modesto, California-based band formed in 2000 and features a talented lineup of musicians including Deimitri Reyes on vocals and rhythm guitar, Danny Stevenson on keyboards and synths, Josh Jones on bass, Alex Bosson on drums, and formerly Nate Amundsen on second guitar. After releasing their debut EP "Enslaved By Nightmares" in 2003, the band unfortunately disbanded in 2005, but reunited in 2021 to release their long-awaited debut full-length album. In this interview, we'll dive into the band's history, creative process, and future plans. So without further ado, let's get started!
1. How did you all come together to form Obsidian back in 2000?
Josh: Well honestly it all started I think between Danny and I. We were both working at a pizza place and through the madness of that place, we discovered a mutual bond through music. We started hanging out and listening to and discovering new bands, staying up late and listening to little sound clips since this was before all these streaming services, all we had were little sound bit files we could download and hear about 30-45 seconds of a song. It was difficult to find good underground metal back then unless you went to a record store in the city, but we made do with what we had. And through all this, we decided to start a band. He brought in Deimitri from school, I brought in the original vocalist and guitarist, and we started writing music in bedrooms and garages, anywhere we could jam, we were creating music.
2. What were some of your earliest musical influences that helped shape the sound of Obsidian?
Josh: Well I think we all have our own personal musical influences, but collectively as a band that influence our sound would probably be: Morbid Angel, Cradle Of Filth, Twin Obscenity, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Immortal, old Metallica, Marduk, Decapitation…..
3. When did you first realize that you wanted to pursue music as a career?
Josh: For me, my mom and dad and my grandparents on my moms side of the family were a big inspiration to my being a musician. My mom got me into hippie rock, old 40s and 50s rock and roll, my dad got me into classic and modern rock, NWOBHM and heavy metal, hell, my sisters got me into glam rock, hair metal and punk and even early death and thrash metal, and my grandparents got me into jazz, blues and big band swing. So music was literally everywhere I turned growing up. My grandma plays damn near every instrument haha, mostly piano, choir and organ, my dad played bass and built his own recording studio for his band back in the day, a Rolling Stones cover band who also wrote their own material called, Licker. My mom got me my first guitar, it was a acoustic, at the time I wasn't into guitar, I wanted to play bass because my dad was a bassist and I fell in love with that deep rich sound, so I asked to play bass instead and both my mom and dad told me to properly learn the acoustic guitar first to work on proper playing form and then I could switch to bass, my mom and dad were a firm believer that learning the acoustic guitar is the best way to prepare for other instruments since you have to have good form and pressing on the strings strengthens your fingers. So thats how I got into it.
4. Can you describe the writing and recording process for your debut EP "Enslaved By Nightmares"?
Josh: Writing was really fun with this band and still is my favorite writing experience of all the bands I've ever been in. We all just clicked, you know? It's rare when that happens. It was fun. But we would typically start with the riffs first, jam on them for awhile until we figured out a good riff to place to help move the song forward. We would riff off each other, and Danny was a key component to our songs and style, riffing off of what he would be playing. Jamming to what Danny would come up with really helped push our music into the style we wanted and would help us create riffs and movements within our song structure would end up being a key piece of the Obsidian puzzle. Once we had a song, we would then go over a theme of sorts and then the process of writing the lyrics would come into play based on the feelings and vibe of the song itself.
5. What was the reception like for your debut EP after its release?
Josh: Well that's hard to gage since we never did a official release. This was before the internet really took off for musicians, we had MySpace and that was about it, these days anyone can upload their music and put it up on distrokid or cdbaby and they're good to go. We had to physically print and make each EP and would sell them at our merch booth at our shows. They did really well, all of our merch seemed to always sell well actually, it helped us to at least keep all our EPs, shirts and stickers stocked it seemed, so I'd say the reception was positive.
6. Why did the band break up in 2005, and what led to the decision to reform the band in 2021?
Josh: It came down to Deimitri needing to move back to Arizona for family reasons. We tried to make It work between the two states of California and Arizona, but being so young back then, it became difficult to keep it going. We managed to for awhile, it did help us break in down south in Arizona and areas down there in the southern areas of the US, but ultimately it was too difficult and we disbanded. It sucked, it never really felt right either though because we were playing a lot of shows and we had a entire album that we were literally about to record, but we couldn't. So we had all this music just sitting there for 20 years, and I think it all just ate at us in the back of our minds over the years as we went off to do our own things. We remained for the most part in touch with each other and then one day Danny hit up Alex and got the ball rolling on us finally getting this old music reworked and released.
7. How did it feel to reunite with the same lineup from 2005 for the upcoming album?
Josh: I admit, it felt good even though it was all online now since we all live in different parts of the United States, but it felt real and authentic still. It felt like putting on your favorite article of clothing, you don't care how old and tattered it's become, you just put it on and it fits just right, haha.
8. Can you give us some insight into the musical direction and themes for the new album?
Josh: More or less the same as the material was back when we were writing it. You know, love, romance, a coming of age story between two High school sweethearts, haha no, it's more of a dark and foreboding type of content lyrically. But I think the lyrics and content can also be insightful and thought provoking. We hit on several themes and topics, death, spirituality, humanity and morales, etc; but do so in a way that we paint a picture so the listeners can hopefully grasp the concept but ultimately come up with their own interpretation.
9. How has your sound evolved over the years since the first formation of the band?
Josh: I'd say we sound more, "mature". Back then we were really raw and we let our music speak through our energy and tenacity. We took that same energy and focused it it seems with this album. It'll be interesting to hear what people think of how the original three demo songs sound now compared to 20 years ago, and to hear what the fans have to say about our new material.
10. What have been some of the biggest challenges you have faced as a band, and how have you overcome them?
Josh: The living in different states issue has made it tough, all of our different schedules as well has made for several set backs and rescheduling of things. But we are getting it done and making it happen, one step at a time. It's easier to do this now these days with band members spread out because of the internet. I can't stress that enough, we wouldn't be able to do it back in the day like this. Our Facebook chat is our band room now haha.
11. What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are just starting out in the industry?
Josh: The industry is a different beast now than it was back then. Hell, back in the day record labels would scout out bands for their labels, we had a couple scouting us, they don't do that anymore because it's all online now. So I'd say build up your online presence and promote like crazy because you have to stand out in the digital crowd now. That's not to take away from playing live though, that's the real meat and potatoes. Practice like crazy so your live show is stellar. Practice practice practice. When you think you're ready to tear up that stage, practice some more. Always try to better yourself.
12. How has the internet and social media impacted your career as musicians?
Josh: In our situation it made it a helluva lot easier, I don't think we'd be able to do it if not for how the internet is these days. I will say this though, now that we are a online only band now, trying to put ourselves out there online just isn't as satisfying as if we were playing to crowds of people destroying venues like back in the day. It feels hollow, it's hard to really connect with people though social media, the lack of connection makes it suck, but we do our best to bring in as many listeners to our music as possible. It has helped us branch out to new markets and regions though so it does have its benefits.
13. What is your process for writing and creating music together as a band?
Josh: Back in the day it was the jamming together and riffing off each other, now we record sound files and record videos of riffs and send them back and forth between our chat group and emails haha, completely different now.
14. What has been the most memorable show or performance you have played as a band?
Josh: For me there were 2 shows that stood out. Obviously our first show. Before our first show, we were making music for several years without a drummer, so by the time Alex joined and we were ready to play live, we were simply hungry for the stage, we WANTED to destroy shit haha. All that pent up aggression and frustration of playing for so long trying to find a drummer, really translated to our first show. Just having that feeling of, "finally!", washing over you after so long of dreaming about getting up on stage to tear it up for people was a driving force for us, and that first show was such a satisfying release of aggression. And the other show that stands out for me was when we coheadlined with Dragonlord, a symphonic black metal side project of Eric Peterson from Testament. Seeing a completely packed venue, selling practically all our merch, connecting with the crowd, I had a blast playing that show, there were some things that frustrated me about that show, but ultimately when we hit the stage it was awesome seeing the place packed all the way to the back and seeing the pits explode was fanfuckingtastic.
15. How has the pandemic affected your ability to play live shows and promote your music?
Josh: Well, we can't play live so that doesn't effect us these days, but promoting wasn't really impacted at all because of covid with us.
16. What are some of your favorite tracks from the upcoming album, and why?
Josh: I'd personally say the new version of Prophecy's Will, that one is a beast of a song now compared to the demo version. And one song in particular that we will eventually reveal the title of, has become a personal labor of love, I think Danny feels the same about this song too. It was first written way back when myself and our original guitarist was in high school guitar class. We were supposed to learn and play this crappy Beatles medley for a finals exam but we both hate the Beatles haha. So we instead started writing this particular song. When it came time to play our Beatles medley for our finals exam, we played the early version of this song instead. Our teacher was pissed initially haha, but she allowed us to play the entire thing we had written back then and we still got an "A". That song has gone through several changes over time even back then and when we tried to remember it for the upcoming album, we had to really reach into our memory banks to remember how all the riffs went since there's a lot of them in this song. Once we remembered the riffs and order of the riffs, we rewrote parts that needed fixing and it now just, to me, feels complete after all these years.
17. How do you hope your music impacts listeners and fans?
Josh: I personally understand that people won't like our music, not everyone are fans of symphonic metal, let alone symphonic death metal. At this point though, I feel I'm releasing this music for us personally. We have so many memories with this old music that it'll just feel amazing getting the final product out to people to listen to and do with it what they will. If they hate it, that's fine, if they love it, awesome. I think it'll find its niche in the metal scene though.
18. What are your plans and goals for the future of The Obsidian Resurrection beyond the release of the new album?
Josh: There have been whispers of things haha. But only time will tell. But for now we are just focused on getting this album out there.
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