Interview Euchridian

Euchridian, a unique musical venture, fuses doom, traditional metal, and black metal influences. The band, comprising Matt, Guillaume, and Mika, draws from diverse backgrounds to create their distinct sound. Stay tuned for more music from this collaborative trio. To keep updated on Euchridian's future projects and endeavors, follow them on social media and music streaming platforms.

1. Can you tell us more about the origin of Euchridian? What inspired you to start this project?

After leaving Of Spire & Throne I initially struggled to find people who were interested in helping with my ideas so nothing happened for a while. The first real steps towards Euchridian were me jamming on bass with my friend on guitar in my garage on Saturday mornings. My friend isn't into metal but we'd work on riffs, drink beer and discuss music. Eventually these sessions stopped as my friend was struggling with the long arrangements but by that time the first half of The Rule Of Three was beginning to take shape, Sweetness was in an embryonic state and, believe it or not, we had also worked out a fairly out-there arrangement of an REM song.

2. Matt, you previously played bass for the doom band Of Spire & Throne. How did your experience in that band influence the direction of Euchridian's music?

OS&T was the first band I ever played in and I was already in my 30s at that point. I'm not much of a musician but when a vacancy arose I figured that playing bass in a band that played very slow might be within my grasp. I didn't listen to a lot of doom and wasn't really aware of the style that OS&T were doing but I got really into it - we recorded a few EPs and the debut album together and played many gigs and few small tours. It really opened my eyes to some new possibilities in terms of doom song structures but unfortunately as I was beginning to feel that I could contribute more to the songwriting, the style began to change. That's why I decided that it was time to do my own thing but I remain good friends with the band and am indebted to them for giving me a start - I even returned to lend some guest vocals to the second album.

3. What drew Guillaume to collaborate with Matt on Euchridian, and what is his role in the project?

After the jam sessions I continued to refine the songs I was working on and tried to put together a recording lineup with some local musicians but they were very busy with other bands and life in general so we only ever managed to schedule a couplke of practices. At this point my old OS&T bandmate Ali suggested I ask Guillaume who was a great friend of Of Spire & Throne who in his capacity as a guitarist had regularly played on the same bill as OS&T in various local bands and even contributed a solo to the debut album.
Guillaume runs Sonorous Studio and I effectively employed him to record, mix, master, etc plus play the guitar parts and program the drums while I would perform the bass and vocals. By this time lockdown had started so I was sending him guitar tabs and he would send back what he'd recorded so far. The arrangement worked very well and was far more collaborative than you might expect - for instance in the second half of the track Sweetness, Guillaume helped with the order of the riffs and wrote the two solos. As covid restrictions started to ease, I visited Sonorous to the vocals and around this time two decisions were made. Firstly, I would not play bass on the EP - Guillaume had not only recorded the bass for demo purposes but had improved some of the basslines along the way and I knew I couldn't outdo what he'd already done. Secondly, we both agreed that the songs deserved real drums.

4. Mika and Guillaume both play in the black metal band Barshasketh. How did their experiences in that genre affect their approach to Euchridian's music?

So Guillaume suggested we ask his bandmate Mika to record the drums for a number of reasons. Firstly, he's a very, very good drummer but also they're used to working together and Mika was also trying set himself up as a session drummer. I'm a huge fan of Barshasketh anyway so it seemed like a great idea.

To be honest I'm far more into black metal than doom and wanted to reflect this in the music. I think that Guillaume and Mika's playing styles helped accentuate that feel and give the EP a different edge alongside the more traditional doom elements.
Guillaume travelled to Finland to record Mika's parts and it was at this point that Mika suggested that he add backing vocals to fill out the sound - they're fairly low in the mix but I think they work very well as an eerie shadow to my own vocals. As for the drums themselves, they're insanely good - I'll never get bored of listening to the fills in teh second half of the track Sweetness and I think Mika had fun playing a bit slower for once!

5. Can you describe the sound and style of Euchridian's music for those who may not be familiar with your work?

Euchridian is the result of a mix of influences. Primarily driven by my experiences in Of Spire & Throne, I started to add things that felt natural to me which included epic/traditional metal and black metal. The end result is simply a combination of those things: there are trad doom riffs, thundering drums, soaring solos and guitar melodies and horrible vocals.

6. What does the name "Euchridian" signify or represent, and how does it relate to your music?

The band is named after Euchrid Eucrow, the protagonist from singer/songwriter Nick Cave’s debut novel And The Ass Saw The Angel (1989). I'm a huge fan of Cave’s work and felt that the feral, mute anti-hero from the book was in some way analogous with the anguished sound of the music. Of course it's also just nice to make a reference to a musical hero of mine.

7. How do you handle the geographical challenge of being a band split between Scotland and Finland? Does this distance influence your creative process?

It's not really an issue at the moment as there no current plans to play live but I think the way the EP was recorded was recorded was interesting because I handed my work to Guillaume to record and he subsequently made some adjustments and suggestions. Then once everything else had been recorded, Mika heard the tracks and had some different ideas about the drums. It's difficult to say if the same changes would have occurred if we'd been jamming the songs in a studio but either way I think it turned out really well with everyone making important contributions.

8. Euchridian is a three-piece project. Can you tell us about the roles and contributions of each member in the band's creative process?

Well Euchridian is primarily my project - I wrote the lyrics, the riffs, melodies and the overall structures of the songs. However there would be nothing to discuss here without the other guys' involvement.
Guillaume is very diligent and won't quit until he's completely satisfied with what he's done. As well as his recording/mixing duties and playing all the guitars and bass, he helped to finalise the song structures and generally brought everything together.
Meanwhile, Mika's ideas for the drums were different to anything that me or Guillaume could have imagined and his vocal contributions were the perfect finishing touch.
As a result, although I hired Guillaume and Mika to help me, I feel that their contributions made it a truly collaborative process and I don't think it's contradictory to say that Euchridian is a band.

9. What themes or concepts inspire your lyrics and songwriting in Euchridian?

The EP's title is Philia which is one of the four types of love according to the ancient Greeks. It roughly translates as friendship, affection or even brotherly love. It's a sarcastic title as the songs use the imagery of Cain and Abel to reference literal and then figurative fratricide respectively. A painting of Cain leading Abel to his death is used for the sleeve art.
Beyond this common reference, the songs cover quite different themes.
Sweetness was inspired by the infamous US killer Ed Gein albeit it's a more sympathetic view of a serial killer than you might expect from a metal song. It basically depicts him talking to his late mother who he worships/deifies and then as the song progresses he speaks directly to the listener to try to explain why he is like he is.
Meanwhile, The Rule Of Three was inspired by a story I heard about how having reduced the teams from three to two, lighthouse maintenance workers often drove each other to violence if they were trapped together for too long. The rule of three is also used in comedy to refer to a specific joke structure where the first two people do the same thing and the third person breaks the pattern for the punchline so that idea is rolled into the lyrics too.

10. How do you approach the songwriting and composition process within the band?

These two songs developed very gradually over a number of years so it's hard to remember where they originally came from. Sweetness includes ideas which I had for OS&T while The Rule Of Three started with me and my drinking buddy playing the opening riff on repeat until I worked out what should happen next.

11. Could you share some insight into your recording and production process? What role does Sonorous Studio play in shaping your sound?

I think I've covered a lot of this already but basically Sonorous (i.e. Guillaume) is a one man business who will help with pretty much anything he can if you want to make music. I've now worked on three quite different projects with him where he's taken care of all recording and production, done some programming, made helpful suggestions about the songs, written and recorded some amazing guitar solos and been very patient during my vocal sessions!

12. Euchridian's music has been described as a fusion of different styles. What genres and bands have influenced your sound the most?

So in terms of doom influences, my time in OS&T was very important in terms of writing tunes with more progressive structures rather than just verse-chorus-verse-chorus, etc. On top of that I already listened to a few fairly traditional doom bands like My Dying Bride but also some more out there stuff like Khanate (who definitely influenced my vocal delivery). However one of the biggest influences on the first section of Rule was the slow parts of Darkthrone's Panzerfaust album which has a really grim sound and again, some really horrible vocals.

Another element that crept into the sound was Omnio by In The Woods which has this amazingly epic, melancholy feel to it. I also wanted guitar solos - I grew up listening to bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica and think if they placed correctly they can really elevate a song. The riffing in the latter parts of each song is defintely inspired by a love of 80s thrash metal.

13. Can you tell us about any upcoming or recent releases, and what listeners can expect from them?

There are no definite plans for Euchridian for now but I'm working on several ideas for what will hopefully become a full length album. In the meantime, Guillaume and Mika have also helpedme with an EP of black thrash which I currently deciding what to do with. It's very different to Euchridian and Mika gets to play a bit faster!

14. Have you faced any unique challenges or obstacles while pursuing your musical vision with Euchridian?

The biggest problem for Euchridian was finding the right people for the job - once I started working with Guillaume things came together very quickly and I'll hopefully continue to work with him and Mika on this and other ideas.

15. What are your goals and aspirations for Euchridian in the coming years? Any specific projects or collaborations you're excited about?

As mentioned, there's no new Euchridian release on the horizon yet but there's plenty happening in the meantime.
I used the Euchridian EP as an opportunity to relaunch Tatterdemalion Records which was originally a name used by OS&T so that we could self-release our debut album on vinyl back in 2015. There's a cd of the Philia EP available via the bandcamp page and the aim is to use the label as a platform for demos and side projects by people in the Edinburgh scene and OS&T family tree.

16. Finally, for fans and potential new listeners, how can they stay updated on Euchridian's music and future endeavors?

Probably best to follow Tatterdemalion Records on facebook or bandcamp as the label will cover not just Euchridian but other related projects. People should also check out Guillaume and Mika's main band Barshasketh if you haven't already as well as their business pages.

https://www.facebook.com/sonorousstudio

https://www.facebook.com/people/MK-Nagh-Music/100090388328555