Interview with the band Past the Fall
By Mick Michaels
The
Cosmick View: Hello, and welcome to The
Cosmick View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time to chat with
us!
Past the Fall: My pleasure!
CV:
Describe your definition of the band’s
sound and style and how does that definition uniquely describe the music?
Past the Fall: I guess I could start off with the TLDR…Melodeath/groove
metal with flavors of grunge/thrash/prog. Its heavy music that encompasses a
lot of moods and dynamics but at its heart is always the songwriting first and
foremost and placing the emotion and feel of the song above any technicality-
although you won’t be short of hearing some fat metal riffs and epic solos!
CV:
Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level of
connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made the
connection to your fans?
Past the Fall: I think to some extent its always been
that way, perhaps playing in band and promoting it has helped me realize how
connected we are to stories and journeys about music, that said I think metal
heads are particularly cool because we pride ourselves on music first image
last in a lot of cases. For us personally it’s using absolutely everything at
our disposal to connect, there’s never been any one magic bullet. So we use
social media, mailing lists, live shows, forums, boots on pavement, radio…really
it’s our job to be where our fan wants to interact- not the other way around.
CV:
Is fan interaction an important part of the
band’s inner culture?
Past the Fall: In all honesty, online it’s been a
challenge at first because we’re quite private people BUT the irony there is in
person we absolutely love to have a natter with people and in that situation
its super natural for us just to shoot the breeze with fans, in fact its one of
the things we really enjoy about live shows. Rather than say its part of the
bands inner culture its perhaps just naturally part of our personality and
we’ve learnt to extend that to online platforms.
CV:
Can a band truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of personal
privacy without crossing the line and giving up their “personal space” in your
opinion?
Past the Fall: I hope so! And I think so, everyone’s
different but for me sharing aspects of my personality, and more or less it
being in and around the space of the story of the band and the musical life is
where I like to come from in regards to my presence online- and then in person
its seems really respectful both ways, us to the fans and the fans to us, so
its never seemed an issue crossing into that ‘personal space’. I guess it helps
thatwere not some desperate fake tan z listers trying to become famous on love
island, haha, metal fans are some of the coolest people in the world!
CV:
Is music, and its value, viewed differently around the world in your
opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such
multiple views among various cultures?
Past the Fall: Hmm good question. I’ll try just to
speak from my own personal experience, I’ve found that scarcity or adversity
really increases its value to communities and people. That aspect in of itself
can be played out in different ways, for example when we’ve played more
economically deprived places the appreciation of live music has been different,
and if there’s cultural adversity that we can take for granted in the UK, for
example strict orthodox religious sentiment in some places, that can also
sometimes mean that meal heads really value live music a lot. Even within the
UK I think the pandemic really was a wakeup call on how precious the music
scene we have is, perhaps before apathy could set in due to there being too
much choice.
CV:
Do you feel that a band that has an international appeal, will tend to connect
more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued to see
the band over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor?
Past the Fall: Funny you should mention it as we’ve
pondered that ourselves! It’s only a gut instinct as we haven’t done much work
in the states yet, but so far the reception has been awesome. Sowe dream we can
carry on the tradition of cultural rock/metal exchange that’s been happening
between the states and the UK since American blues men started it off in the
50’s! Again, also just a gut feeling but sometimes I think there is an element
of intrigue with foreign acts- perhaps its because they’ve had to really go for
it to get in front of people there. Plus ther are so many shit hot American
bands I grew up listening to, it’s kinda part of my DNA, well and literally
haha…as my grandad is American! What’s cool I think about the states is that
Rock/Metal is really part of the story of the nation, the UK has it too but in
the states its really intertwined with the zeitgeist of the nation IMO. So
perhaps that’s why there possibly more open to international metal acts if
that’s the case.
CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level in
your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been blurred?
Past the Fall: This is just my own opinion, but I don’t
think so. My argument for that is about intent and purpose. For example, a
piece of poetry generated by AI might solicit an emotional response from
someone, that’s a legitimate response obviously- but what makes art is the fact
that there is intent/philosophy/message behind the work. Because in a sense the
inverse could be true…there’s a case of a bunch of art students using their
grant money to go on a beach holiday and got the story picked up by the paper-
and they then presented that as there degree piece. The university and country
was outraged. Turned out they faked the holiday and planned the whole thing to
elicit a response! Also, whether it’s online or not doesn’t make it art, I
think someone could create something no one ever sees but its still art at the
opposite end of the spectrum.
CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends
and one who sets them?
Past the Fall: Fortitude, vulnerability, honesty, and
risk taking.
CV:
Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to
appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in
actuality, weakened music’s impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
Past the Fall: Again I will only speak for myself as
perhaps this could be contentious, but yes I think so. In fact there’s nothing
wrong with all of this music coming out and trying to find an audience, just to
be clear, but the process of creating niche sub genres to a microscopic degree
I think stunts the most important thing about music- how does it make you feel?
I enjoy festival bills that are quite varied for example, but the feeling has a
path through the event. To even qualify to be in a certain niche micro genre
there is a risk of just having to sound exactly like something to qualify, and
then we’re just left with 100’s of bands that sound the same. Basically just 1
band with 1000’s of members…haha! I think people should just go with the
personality and chemistry of themselves and their band mates and that’s way
cooler than writing to sound like someone else.
CV:
What can fans expect to see coming next from you?
Past the Fall: So we’re playing a Bloodstock Open Air a
big metal fest in the UK in the next few weeks, we’re pretty stoked about that
as we’re on the same day as Megadeth and Sepultura who are heroes of mine. And
then we’re heads down working on 3 new tracks hopefully due for release in
spring 2024! We’ll be escaping the studio with some one-off shows as well
through the rest of 2023.
CV:
Thanks again for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.
Past the Fall: Thanks again for having me, and great
questions!
Check out Past the Fall at:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6C6hcrzZpmfy0Bc4LfTXj6?si=EeDE3M7CRkCemNuvkLvAXg
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