Ray Heberer, guitarist of Heteromorphic Zoo, delves into the band's monster-inspired "worship music," the creative process behind New World, and the distinctive role of violin in their metal sound.
1. Heteromorphic Zoo's music is described as "Worship Music for
Monsters." Can you tell us more about what inspired this concept and how
it influences your songwriting process?
A big part of it comes from the inspiration we take from classical music. For
the longest time, a huge proportion of music was made for worship or patronized
by religion. When composers wrote new pieces, they were attempting to
experience a connection to the divine. While as a band we don’t push any
particular stance on religion, we are trying to capture that same feeling of
being connected to something bigger for those that listen to and love our
music.
Perhaps this is a secret I should not give away, but truthfully, the phrase “worship music for monsters” was only inspired midway through writing the New World EP, so musically the idea is not yet 100% embedded into the DNA of these first 5 songs. It’s definitely there lyrically, but musically our listeners can expect us to grow into the idea with our next releases, with more things like chorale style harmonies paired with even more extreme techniques and textures from the metal world.
2. Your EP "New World" explores the narrative of monstrous beings
invading a new realm. How did you develop the storyline, and how do the
different perspectives (monsters, overlord, enemies) play into the lyrics?
We never
really set out to create any sort of connective narrative. The only real rule
was for the songs all to take place in the same setting. I personally think of
them like scraps of history collected years later after a large cataclysm has
reshaped the landscape of a world. In that sense, each song is quite narrow in
scope lyrically, focused on a single “scene” for the most part.
Just to briefly explain the perspectives, Ritual of Fidelity and Napalm are
from the perspective of the monsters, Your Final Seconds and Aura of Despair
are written in 2nd person directed at victims of the overlord’s magic, and
Avatara is from the perspective of the overlord.
In Ritual of Fidelity, there’s a long segment of many high-ranking monsters called “guardians” pledging their loyalty to the overlord. This is preceded by a contrapuntal section inspired by classical fugues, where we felt the repetitive nature of that compositional technique aligned well with the repetitive nature of the lyrics.
On the other hand, Avatara is a more emotional song. We wanted to capture those emotions while not overly humanizing the overlord, which is why we heavily layered the vocals together with the violin.
3. With such a diverse sonic palette combining groove, melody, intricate
riffs, and breakdowns, what is your approach to balancing these elements while
maintaining a cohesive sound?
At the end of the day, if everyone in the band likes the music, then we’ll go
with that.
Music
is this strange thing where so many of its ingredients are objectively
measurable (how well you play your instrument, how distinct elements are in the
mix), but the end result of how you choose to employ those ingredients is 100%
subjective. I could play a part “perfectly” but a listener might prefer the
sound of sloppier guitar with more unintended string ringing.
So we understand
that what feels right and balanced to us won’t feel that way to everyone. To
give another example, I often like to write music that builds up expectations
and then delivers on them in a way that feels satisfying and in a way
predictable. But other people might prefer music that surprises them more
often.
All that to say, we don’t use anything other than our collective personal taste to decide what feels cohesive. And it’s also because of our wide tastes that it ends up being so diverse.
4. The violin adds a distinctive melodic twist to your music. What role does
Megan Ash’s violin play in shaping the dynamics of your songs, and how do you
integrate it into the heavier metal elements?
She’s
absolutely a huge part of our sound. Like I said before, “worship music for
monsters” was only discovered as the north star for our music midway through
the process.
At the
start of the process, it was more like: “how can I write metal with violin as a
first-class citizen in a way that’s not gimmicky?”
In my
opinion, the violin adds authenticity and rawness to the music. Unlike
instruments like drums and guitar, where most of the identity of a played note
happens in an instant (the “transient” for the audio people out there) and then
they ring out in a predictable fashion, every single moment of violin has to be
controlled by the performer as they continuously use their bow to sustain. Add
that to the fact that there are no frets on the violin, and you end up with an
extremely high-variance instrument, kind of like the human voice in that
aspect.
So we rely on the violin to add melody and emotion, but also chaos and rawness
into the mix. As for how we integrate it, that's a tricky question but as a
start I'd say it's similar to how other melodeath bands integrate clean vocals.
5. Your band is recommended for fans of In Flames, Within the Ruins, and Ne
Obliviscaris. How have these bands influenced your sound, and what elements of
your music set you apart from them?
Honestly
the “for fans of” stuff is all marketing, and I struggle with it. The bands
we’re influenced by and the bands we end up sounding like can be quite
different.
For
example, rhythmically I’m influenced a lot by bands like The Browning and
Asking Alexandria, which I know would get me a lot of heat from certain types
of metal listeners. But do we sound anything like them? I don’t really think
so.
All of us
are influenced by Dream Theater. But again, it would be hard to recommend us to
fans of that band.
I will say,
Within the Ruins is a band I have taken influence from in terms of how they use
their lead guitar. I think people will be able to hear that in Ritual of
Fidelity. In Flames was also one of my favorites growing up, and while I can’t
say we took explicit inspiration from them, it’s highly possible their
influence is there.
As for Ne
Obliviscaris, it just happens that they also have violin and so people have
compared us to them, even though I don’t think our sounds are much alike. Of
course, everyone hears music differently, and for some people the
instrumentation is a huge factor where for someone like me the rhythm and note
choices matter most, so I'm not saying the comparisons are invalid.
6. Heteromorphic Zoo seems to thrive on contrasts—technique vs. simplicity,
raw performance vs. post-production. How do you navigate these dualities when
creating your music, and how do they reflect your artistic vision?
It’s not
really the result of conscious effort. More than anything, it’s a side effect
of having broad tastes as a listener and trying to cram as much as what we love
into a singular vision.
By the time
we track our instruments for a record, we’re a little more practiced than a
band that would write in the studio and record all in a few weeks time would
be. But then maybe we edit less, or do longer takes and end up less perfect
sounding. So that’s how the performance vs. post-production balance emerges.
And of course I’ve already mentioned the violin, which is just an insane
instrument to manage; I’m very happy I picked up instruments like piano and
guitar instead.
7. Lyrically, "New World" touches on grand, fantastical themes. Do these themes have deeper symbolic meanings, or are they purely for the sake of storytelling?
There is
actually a fictional series that has inspired all the lyrics in New World. I
won’t say what it is because it’s kind of a little game for me to see people
find out naturally, but it should be obvious even from the name of our band to
true fans of the series.
That’s not to say our lyrics actually take place in that series. Mostly, we
want to write about grand civilizations and alliances of all monstrous beings.
We want to celebrate the glory of their diversity and what they can accomplish
when united, and the devastation they are capable of inflicting upon their
enemies.
8. What’s the writing and recording process like for Heteromorphic Zoo? How
do the different members contribute to the creation of such a multi-faceted
sound?
The songs
all start with me, and usually I’ll write everything out in tablature/scoring
software. The drums at this point are fairly basic. From there Bryce will come
up with the drum arrangement and we will have it programmed down to the exact
notes he plays during drum fills. When he tracks his drums he’ll try to do it
note-for-note the way it is written, unless some really great ideas emerge on
the day. The same goes for the guitars, bass, and violin. Between me writing
the notes and Megan tracking violin, she adds all the articulations she wants
to do - what notes are slurred, where to be legato or play spiccato.
Of course,
the process itself is a tool we tweak if we want to come up with a different
sound. But for the average song, that’s what it is.
9. With
members like Coty Garcia (vocals), Bryce Butler (drums), and Ray Heberer
(guitars), all veterans of heavy music, how has your collective experience
shaped the band’s sound and evolution?
I think it goes back to what everyone has been saying about the diversity of our sound. All of us have been involved in music for most of our lives, and we all have slightly different tastes. Coty is mostly inspired by deathcore and melodic metalcore, Bryce by progressive metal like Dream Theater and Between The Buried and Me (while also having been part of a ridiculous amount of bands), whereas I’ve been playing and writing melodic death metal and symphonic death/black metal since I was a teenager. Put that all together and it’s not out of the question to end up with something like Heteromorphic Zoo.
10. What can fans expect from your live performances? How do you translate the intricate and diverse elements of your studio recordings into an engaging live experience?
We take the
live experience very seriously; I would even say we approach it with reverence.
With the amount of live experience between our members, it’s not something we
want to do until it can be done right. Every song has a live arrangement that
may differ slightly from the studio version in order to bring out the aspects
that work especially well live.
So it might be a little while until we bring these songs on the road, probably
not until after our first full-length album (we’re working on it now!), but
when it happens it’ll be a lovingly crafted experience that recognizes just how
special it is for anyone to show the level of support that is coming to one of
our shows.
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