It was almost exactly a year ago that I met Grey Skies Over Rapture at the Symbiotic Metalfest in Wellington, New Zealand; since we last spoke, the band issued their long-in progress first album. Guitarist Andrew Collett, drummer Jake Forster, and vocalist Richard Matthews took turns answering my questions about their self-titled debut.
Dreams of Consciousness: Hey guys, it's been a year since we met in Wellington. What have you been up to since then?
Andrew Collett: This year has been pretty quiet for us but at the same time very eventful. We've only played 2 shows, one supporting German technical death metal band Obscura and the other headlining the 11th annual Junefest here in Wellington. Also we did just drop our album, and it feels good to finally have it out there!
DoC: When I spoke to you last year, you had already begun tracking your first album, which you just self-released. Where was it recorded, how long have you been working on it, and how would you compare it to your previous releases?
Jake Forster: We’ve had these songs in the works for a few years, and many people will recognise them from our live shows. This time around we decided invest in a quality recording set up so that we could engineer and record the tracks ourselves. This allowed us to take the time with pre-production and track things at our own pace. The drums were recorded at Toi Poneke, a creative space in Wellington City and guitar/bass and vocals were recorded at Andrew’s (guitarist) and Richard’s (vocalist) home studios respectively.
Both our Between Worlds EP and single, VII, were a good experience in recording and releasing our material however we feel this album is a much stronger and honest representation of our sound. We worked closely with Jake Booth at Mordecai Studios for mixing and mastering duties to chase the sound we were after. This, alongside having the time to craft and polish each song, has given us a solid album that we are proud to share with the world!
DoC: What can you tell me about the lyrics of the album - what themes/topics do you explore?
Richard Matthews: Lyrically the album is mostly inspired by everyday life, but it has been warped and pushed into a dystopian/fantasy setting. My goal is to encourage people to think for themselves and to not accept everything at face value. I hope that people can relate to some of the stories in the songs.
DoC: Now that you have your first album out, what are your goals for the future?
AC: The process for making the album has been an extremely long process and while rewarding it has also been draining on us too. We plan to take a short hiatus soon and once that's ended we will see where we go from there.
DoC: What's next for Grey Skies Over Rapture?
AC: Currently we are preparing for our last performance for the year, which will be a free show in Wellington on the 31st of October featuring 2 newcomers from our city, Glassblower and Fall of Man. Make sure to check them out, they're really good bands and will surely help us raise hell.
greyskiesoverrapture.co.nz
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Grey Skies Over Rapture on Bandcamp
Across The Open Zea
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