THE METAL PIT'S UNEARTHED BAND OF THE MONTH
March 2010
SANITY FALLS
The Metal Pit's featured unsigned artist is the band SANITY FALLS from the United Kingdom...
We will be talking with band members Jinny (vocals) and Serge (drums) today.
Metal Pit: Greetings Jinny and Serge, welcome to the Metal Pit and congrats to you on being selected as the second band for our new feature about up and coming unsigned Metal Bands.
Metal Pit : The band was formed in 2007 and is relatively new to the scene but has been creating a huge buzz in metal circles and has received some pretty amazing reviews as well. Is the band's popularity at this early stage a surprise to any of you?
Well, we believe in the
music we’re making and we really like our sound, so it’s great that other
people agree with us and appreciate what we’re trying to do – but we’re also
really flattered by and appreciative of the positive press we get.
Metal Pit : How did Sanity Falls first come about and what bands influenced you to start one of your own?
We all have our own
styles and personalities, so we wanted to form a band that allowed scope for
that, and let us explore a slightly different style from the bands around us
while still being brutal and uncompromising – Sanity Falls didn’t always have
the sound it has now, and we are still evolving and hopefully always will be.
(Jinny) For me my
influences began with singing along to my Dad’s old vinyls; so bands like Dire
Straits and the Eagles… then I discovered metal (to my parents’ dismay) and a
band was the natural progression from there.
(Serge) Drummers like
David Silvera (Korn) and Joey Jordison (Slipknot) inspired me to play drums
seriously, but I wanted to create my own style and find a band that allowed me
to do that – so, again, Sanity Falls gave me the opportunity to do that.
Metal Pit : Can you tell us a little about yourselves and the rest of the band?
In a nutshell, we are all totally
different – different things make us tick but at
the end of the day the music is what we’re all here for.
Metal Pit : Who writes the lyrics and music for the band?
Jinny writes all the lyrics (mainly
cos she’s a control freak) but we are all involved in the music – it’s a
collaborative effort (though not always a smooth one!).
Metal Pit : For new fans who may have not
heard of Sanity Falls, can you describe the
music for us?
Raw, heavy, passionate
and full of contrast… but above all it’s honest. There are real emotions in the
music from every one of us, whether it’s in a hard, screaming chorus or a
melodic interlude.
Metal Pit : The band is sort of unique in my opinion in that the music is heavy as Hell, almost reminds me of early Sabbath, but you also have melody and Jinny's vox are a step above Ozzy's to say the least. How did the band cultivate their sound?
Trial and error, arguments,
experimentation, respect for each other and a disregard for what everyone else
is doing!
Metal Pit : What do you think makes Sanity Falls stand out from some of the other Metal bands on the scene today.
We try not to let the ‘female frontwoman’
thing become a gimmick, but at the end of the day it is what it is, and we’re
bound to get compared to other female fronted metal bands. What makes us
different is that we’re not trying to fit into the gothic, operatic fad that,
in our opinion, has been done utterly to death – we’re just trying to be
ourselves and we can hold our own at gigs where other female fronted metal
bands might not fit so well with the other bands on the bill.
Metal Pit : If I were a record company exec, how would you convince me to sign your band?
All the reasons above –
that and we are actually very nice people J
Metal Pit : The band has two self released demos, "Sanguis Cordi Suffusus" in 2008 and the more recent demo " Imorh" released in 2009. Currently "Sanguis Cordi Suffusus" is avaliable on Itunes, when will "Imorh" be available to the fans as well?
For now, if fans want a
copy of Imorh they can contact us
through the Myspace and we’ll hook ‘em up.
Metal Pit : On your Myspace page you feature the songs "Burning Trees" (my personal fav), "To the Nameless" and "Persecution Complex"... can you tell us a little about those tunes?
(Serge) From a musical perspective, we
wrote Persecution Complex before the other two; when we wrote it we felt that
it was really good technically, but, as always, a bit of time went by and we
realised we could actually do a lot better. Burning Trees and To the Nameless
were both written with that drive in mind, although they both came out sounding
completely different from each other.
(Jinny) In terms of lyrics, Burning
Trees is related to allowing yourself to become trapped, letting a situation
get out of control – it’s actually one of the most introspective songs I have
written. To the Nameless is related to trust and losing respect for someone or
something that you used to hold in high esteem – it’s about the feelings that
arise when someone falls off their pedestal because they stopped paying
attention. Persecution Complex has a bit of a split personality; it’s partly
about being someone whose soul is black beneath six inches of makeup, and it’s
partly about getting inside that person’s head and knowing that everyone can
see you for what you are.
Metal Pit : Are there any plans in the works to release a full length CD any time in the near future or does that depend on when the band gets signed to a record deal?
We’re always recording new tracks, and
the ideal is to get them together as a full-length, but at the moment the
recording is self-funded and it’s always a question of money – so yes please, a
record deal would be nice.
Metal Pit : The digital age has made metal music more accessible to the fans than ever before. There are some great things about this technology and some not so great things. What is your opinion on the way the music medium is changing today and how can this help a new unsigned band get the word out about their music?
The great thing is that you don’t have
to pay out loads of money to hear new music, and you can sample a much wider
range; the downside of this is that it discourages people from venturing out of
their houses and going to gigs, and bands have to work a lot harder to make
money the money required to keep going.
Metal Pit : What is your opinion of the overall state of heavy metal today?
The new wave of death metal bands
coming out of the States have shaken up a scene that was getting to be a bit
staid at one point, but the British scene seems to be stuck, to a certain
extent, in glam and 80s-style stuff, while the female fronted bands seem to be
unable to move past the gothic style that we talked about earlier – although
there are some decent underground bands if you look hard enough.
Metal Pit : Jinny, as a female vocalist, how do you think women are perceived in the scene today and who are some other singers that you admire?
I think a lot of the time
women are still treated with suspicion in the metal scene! But that is
changing, and it can pique people’s interest in the band, so it’s not all bad.
The singers I admire are
so varied, there’s just not space to list them all. When I first got into
metal, singers like Jessicka from Jack off Jill, Otep and Morgan Lander from
Kittie were real eye-openers for me – people like them taught me that women
don’t have to sing ‘nicely’ all the time. But I also appreciate singers who can
portray their lyrics with honesty and depth; people like Tom Mcrae, Tori Amos,
Leonard Cohen, Trent Reznor. If you don’t believe in what you’re singing,
people can tell.
Metal Pit : It seems to me a lot of the old stereotypes about women in the scene are finally starting to fade away after all these years. Would you agree or disagree with that Jinny?
We still have to fight a
lot of stereotypes, and I get people coming up to me after just about every gig
saying ‘you don’t sound at all like I expected’ – or before gigs telling me
girlfriends of the band have to clear out before the show. But that kind of
works both ways, and I get a buzz out of destroying people’s expectations! I
think women still have to fight to prove their worth in the metal scene.
Metal Pit : What is a live show from Sanity
Falls like?
Energetic, aggressive and
loud, but also down to earth – we want people to connect with us when we play.
Metal Pit Does the band strictly do only originals live or also some cover tunes?
To date we’ve only done
originals, although watch this space – we may decide to mix it up a bit in the
future…
Metal Pit : Have you played any memorable shows that have really stood out for you over the last couple years?
We played a gig recently where all the
other bands on the bill were something along the lines of ‘warrior rock’… we
were the only band who didn’t have fake weaponry and/or costume changes involving
Nazi uniforms. We also neglected to include in our set any songs about charging
the gates of hell or following your destiny… somehow we went down well but
yeah, it was certainly memorable!
Metal Pit : Who would the band love to tour with and what parts of the globe would be on that tour?
(Jinny) I’d like to tour
with Disney on Ice. And the places involved would be all the Disneylands…
really. I’m a big Disney geek.
(Serge) We all have a
number of bands that we admire, so any of them would be great – and we want to
play everywhere, so it would be an around-the-world tour.
Metal Pit : What other ways can potential fans find out more about the band?
We love talking to people after gigs,
so coming to see us and taking the time to hang out is always a good way! Other
than that, we always try and respond to people who email us or contact us on
the Myspace.
Metal Pit : Ok, Jinny and Serge the stage is all yours... is there anything at all you would like to add to this interview?
Well obviously we are very honoured
that you chose us to be the Metal Pit’s first unsigned artist – so thank you!
Metal Pit : On behalf of myself and the Metal Pit, I really want to thank you for your time today. We wish the band the best of luck with securing a record deal and with all you do in the new year.
Horns up brothers and sisters...
Nick Rohm.
