Guiltless return with Teeth to Sky, an intense and introspective full-length album. In this interview, they discuss their creative evolution, collaborative process, and the themes of environmental awareness, duality, and catharsis in their music.
1. Teeth
to Sky is a deeply introspective and heavy record. Can you share how
your creative process evolved from your debut EP Thorns to
this full-length album?
Thank you,
very much appreciated. In late 2022, I started experimenting with
ideas for a new band, something heavier and more pointed than my previous work.
While a large part of my goal was for the new band to be collaborative in its
approach, I felt like I needed to put in some work and figure out what I had in
mind before approaching the guys…sort of defining a sound to present, rather
than just emailing everyone and asking, “Hey do you want to start some kind of
heavy project?” Once I had the basic outlines for Thorns,
I got in touch with Billy, Dan and Sacha and was very happy they were all on
board. While we rounded out and finished Thorns as
a group, Teeth to Sky started the true collaborative effort,
with everyone bringing in their original song ideas, and all of us working as a
group to hone those ideas into a cohesive body of work.
2. The
album opens with “Into Dust Becoming,” which feels like a sonic manifesto. What
inspired the intensity and themes of this track?
"Into
Dust" came together in the early part of the writing process. Dan sent an
arrangement of guitar parts, and I worked with his ideas, trying to stay as
true to the original intent as possible, while upping the intensity all
around. Vocally - everything always starts with me just running through
the songs and essentially singing whatever comes to mind in the moment - trying
to get some initial visceral reaction to the music before dissecting the songs
too much. The actual lyrics came much later, and took a while to process
and clarify an overall theme. I knew that I wanted to inject some
positive light into the words this time, and "Into Dust" definitely
started that off. With the political and environmental problems our world
is facing currently, it’s easy to get lost in, and soak up that darkness, so
the lyrics also work as a personal reminder to look around and take life in, to
realize how lucky you may be in comparison to people in Gaza for example, or in
Burma, where the US is cancelling all aid for refugees.
3. The
duality of human nature is a recurring theme, particularly in “One Is Two.” How
do you reconcile this duality in your personal lives and music?
I am not
sure that there is much reconciliation to be had as a human on Earth. Our
species is, for the most part, a bulldozer. As for the band, we all
recycle (haha), and are mindful of our existence here, but we can’t yet afford
electric cars or solar/wind powered homes, etc. We, like most people,
live at the whim of our governments and half of our populations’ blindness (the
right wing climate change deniers, etc). We are, as is everyone, part of
the problem. "One Is Two" hits on that realization and is also
a reluctant acceptance of our own role in climate change and other other
issues. That said, none of this is meant to deter people fighting for our
planet, our environments and for equal rights for every one of us - we
absolutely should be. That said, the lyrics work as a mirrored reflection of
who we want to be as a person or as a species, and who or what is reflected
back at us by our planet.
4.
Guiltless blends influences from experimental rock, noise, and doom metal. How
did your respective musical backgrounds shape the sound of Teeth to Sky?
That’s
awesome to hear that those influences are coming through. We all have
extremely wide musical tastes and influences, as well as having played in wide
varieties of bands. Obviously knowing all of the band members well, I
definitely hear our influences in Teeth to Sky as a
whole. I think the main challenge is to bring those influences together
and focus the music enough to where it feels cohesive and fits into a crafted
vision - one that is natural and whole in itself. The only real outline
we had for this record was to make sure that it still relates to Thorns (and
that every record will relate to that initial overarching sound). I have
been in several bands where the sound evolved so much over the course of
several albums that it almost became a totally different band. With Guiltless
it’s important to us that we grow, but it’s also important that we be rooted in
that initial identity.
5. The
title track explores themes of nature’s revenge. What role does environmental
awareness play in your music and message?
As you can
tell from my previous answers, environmental awareness plays a pretty central
role in the message. To me, heavy music feels more poignant, more honest
and has more weight when the lyrics are addressing true real-world or real-life
concerns. I do realize there is also value in ‘checking out’ as a
listener, where you’re not being pounded in the face with lyrics that talk
about how your species is killing your planet, haha. Sometimes listening
to songs about wizards (for example) can be a nice getaway, which I also enjoy;
however, growing up with punk rock and bands like Fugazi and Discharge, I have
more of a connection with music that demands change or at least acknowledgment
to social issues. Guiltless (specifically Teeth to Sky) rides
that line - we are not preaching - but are definitely introspective and self
aware.
6.
You’ve mentioned that this album reflects a more collaborative approach. Can
you describe how the band worked together to expand your sonic palette?
Since we
are working remotely - we basically start each record with a shared music
folder, where everybody is uploading layered files of their ideas.
Everyone has the freedom to write on any instrument, and that has also been
really freeing for us, vastly opening up the sonic palette. No one holds
their ideas as unchangeable or sacred, so it’s just about getting ideas out
there, and allowing creative interpretation to unfold. With this
approach, we are getting a decent amount of the “band in a room” collaboration
while being thousands of miles apart. As the songs come together, we
start to refine the ideas and sort out how to make sure everything is playable
live without a computer on stage.
7. “In
Starless Reign” tackles humanity’s inability to prioritize collective
wellbeing. How do you channel such heavy societal critiques into music that
feels cathartic rather than despairing?
I’m very
happy to hear that the cathartic quality is coming through. Writing albums in a
bubble, you never know how the final result will be interpreted, so that is
awesome. This song was started by Dan, and we all immediately loved what
he had. There’s a Celtic Frost vibe mixed with some black metalness that
pushes the album into different territory, definitely widening the album’s
scope. Lyrically it’s dark but I am also trying to keep in mind (and
remind myself) we are not only “human impact.” We are also a lot of
awesome people that are being affected by climate change in ways that are out
of our control at this point.
8. The
album was recorded remotely, with mixing by Kurt Ballou and mastering by Brad
Boatright. What challenges and benefits did this remote process bring to the
table?
Everyone
likes to talk about the immediacy of “band in a room” collaboration, which is a
real thing. I have been in bands where the particular sound of those albums
would not have been achievable without that in-person battle and
compromise. For Guiltless, all of us are already on the same page and
have a clear goal in mind. We all spend a good amount of time honing in
on our ideas before sending them to the group (again always allowing for
further change from these initial parts), so we know that when we check out a
new idea, it will already be great and well thought out. It’s a bit
different than rehearsing in a room 3 nights a week where maybe you only had
time to come up with one riff, and then you work sporadically from there.
For me, when I am working with someone else’s parts, I am always trying to stay
true to the initial intent, while adapting and pushing things toward the sound
of Guiltless through the final arrangements and vocals.
9. Hope
and despair coexist in your music. How do you balance these opposing forces to
create something that resonates emotionally with listeners?
Hope has
always been a thing I have tried to keep out of my lyrics - or at least the
concept of “having hope.” The word itself is so loaded, and also sometimes
feels weak in sentiment. That said, the idea of acknowledging what we have in
this life, and how lucky we are in comparison to a lot of people alive right
now, demanded some element of hope, some element of light in the dark, and
something that is not just despair. Those lighter sentiments have been
inherently unnatural in my lyrical body of work, so there is definitely a
battle happening between the two concepts. I “hope” (hahaha) that the lyrics do
actually resonate with listeners. They are the result of someone who
typically sees the negative side of things, forcing themselves to open their
eyes completely, and accept the good.
10. Many
of your tracks, like “Illumine” and “Lone Blue Vale,” feature complex
arrangements. How do you approach songwriting and layering to maintain both
intensity and atmosphere?
"Lone
Blue Vale" was Sacha’s original idea, and it was a crazy one to put vocals
to. The final arrangements always come together with the addition of the
vocals, so with some of these songs, I really just threw out the idea of having
a super traditional song structure. The music felt too free / original to try
and confine it that way, and staying true to the original intent demanded
something unique. Actually a weird reference for some of these structures is
early Cure - Seventeen Seconds and Faith - the arrangements there are crazy -
totally nonsensical but they work fantastically, and they cover a lot of ground
in very short periods of time - very little verse to chorus setups.
Illumine started from my ideas, and that arrangement harkens to some A Storm of
Light moments, but also working with this sort of songs-within-songs idea -
where you can get some short moments of verse and chorus feeling, but with some
more freedom and abstraction, allowing some more breathing room and variety on
the album.
11.
Heavy music often serves as an outlet for channeling frustration and angst.
What does playing in Guiltless mean to each of you personally?
Playing
heavy music really works as a kind of therapy for me. There’s so much time that
goes into an album - thousands of hours just in writing, and then touring etc.
It’s really a cathartic journey of discovering these parts within yourself,
working together as a group, crafting a full record out of nothing, and then
ultimately being able to travel the world and play those songs live. Heavy
music for me as a youngster was completely cathartic - yelling lyrics in your
car or at shows with your friends, etc. I have had more than one tour manager
say that metal bands are the nicest people to tour with, whereas mellower bands
can be a nightmare, which I have always thought made sense - we are getting our
angst and frustration out every night, rather than internalizing it into more
confining music.
12.
Looking forward, what do you hope fans take away from Teeth to Sky,
and how do you see Guiltless evolving as a band?
Hopefully
the music will really resonate with fans, and they will be able to recognize
the honesty in our music and art. It’s always weird just before a new
record comes out. You never really know what will happen. I am typically
less-than-cautiously-optimistic, as is my nature. From here on though, it
would be great if we can play regularly and keep writing more music. We
are lucky enough to have been able to make Thorns and
now Teeth to Sky, so I am thankful for that at the moment.
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