The Goo 1
Interview ORAN O’BEIRNE CORK METAL IS ALIVE AND K
ICKING! Rising Cork groove-metallers, Following The Signs took some time out to speak to The Goo about their stunning new album, ‘Conflictions’ - a furious debut, loaded with skyscraper melodies and deep, dark breakdowns, reminding us all, yet again, the level of quality that exists in the Irish Metal scene today. For those that don’t know, briefly tell us about the background to the band and how you would best describe your sound? DAN: We formed in 2017 and took to writing original music right away with a demo, an Ep and now an album. I’d best describe our sound as a mid 2000s metalcore mixed with early 2000s nu metal combined using the melodic and rap style patterns of nu metal with metalcore screams that I use personally. You just released your debut album ‘Conflictions’ independently. As a DIY band, do you feel that the overall process of writing, recording and self-releasing is overwhelming at that times, are and thinking do you have any advice for other artists of doing the same? DAN: The overall process of doing things for ourselves was extremely rewarding, being able to spend time really working on stuff and finding more and more things to add to songs and making them sound better and better. At times it can be overwhelming but in the best ways and it’s been worth the reward of having an album we’re all extremely proud of. The advice I’d give other artists would definitely be to just enjoy the process of creativity, bands become more than just five guys in a room, it becomes a family, so it’s even better when you’re writing PAGE 30 great FOLLOWING THE SIGNS great music that you all enjoy. Just be ready to go “all-in” for the band’s future, whether it’s touring or playing shows. The Cork Metal scene has produced some bands in recent years. Do you feel that Cork gets overlooked in favour of the Dublin underground scene? RORY: I wouldn’t say overlooked more so that bands just haven’t been given the platform to get themselves out there when compared to all of the promotions that are available in Dublin. Your latest single ‘Escape’ is the third to come from the album. With regards you say to sound, the this single is a fantastic example of just how much melody is woven through the music. When writing, would foundation is more about melody, or the heaviness/riffs? NOEL: It really depends on the song. We attack each individual song differently. Some we focus on the melody, while on other tracks, we focus on the aggressive riffs and how we want to piece them together. We know pretty quickly if we have a heavy or a melodic song on our hands. From there we dive in head first, and try to make the best song and get the best sound for the track. Of the twelve tracks that are on the album, what is the most personal to you all? ALL - That would be “This Day is Mine” because this is the first track we all worked on together. There is a definite early 2000’s sound from some of the tracks. Would it be right to assume that this era of Metal music is a huge influence for you all? RORY: Oh yeah, for sure! We all grew up during that time, and certain bands just stuck with us. I think you can hear the influences in “Dogma” for example, with all of its phaser lead sections, slap bass as well as our other track “Falling”, with its mix of clean vocals in the chorus and heavy screams in the verses. With so many sub-genres knocking about today, do you think that the overall spectrum of heavy music has become compartmentalised and elite? VINCENT: We don’t know, (laughing), but I would say here in 2023, there are so many amazing bands that I find really difficult to categorise everyone. Personally, I think there are metalcore bands that I love, and some that I don’t really get into. It’s the same with Death or Prog metal etc. I’d say today Metal is more common, I even saw some US rappers starting to introduce Metal into their music which could spark a whole new take on the ‘Rap-Metal’ genre. What plans are in place for Following The Signs for the remainder of 2023, and into 2024? NOEL: We plan to play as many shows as we can to really get our name out there. We feel like we have a really good head start with this album. We’ve been locked up for all of Covid writing this, so now it’s time to get going. ‘Conflictions’ is out now. Find out more via Facebook.com/FollowingTheSigns