Heute erhöhen wir die Schlagzahl. Es wir lauter und schneller. Wir sprachen mit UNRAVEL aus Belgien über ihre Einflüsse, ihrem kreativen Prozess und was sie in näherer Zukunft vorhaben. Hier sind UNRAVEL mit ihrer Story, ihrem Album "Closure" und mit ihren Antworten auf unsere Fragen. Thanks a lot UNRAVEL for your time and of course your great album "Closure". Spotify
Biography
Unravel was born out of the foundations of a former rock band by a group of friends who decided to take a turn towards modern metal music. Even though the young and enthusiastic band only has a handful of shows under their belt, it has shown a lot of promises for the future with its energetic live performance and catchy songs. Because of its many influences, the Belgian metalcore act strives to bring lovers of all heavy music together in its next chapter. After months of writing, multiple line-up changes and a though year of recording a full-length record in the midst of a pandemic, Unravel is proud to present its debut album ‘Closure’.
About the album
Closure deals with a multitude of topics that people are experiencing on the daily. The End Of My Rope and Persist deal with depression and anxiety, and how we deal with these feelings, while Black Sunday touches on social unfairness, narrow-mindedness and the frustration this brings. Songs like Caged and Survive are about the hardships of expressing yourself and being happy in a society that is more and more focused on self-preservation and not talking about issues, while Remember faces the consequences of dementia, and losing the people you care about the most.
Musically, Unravel’s debut album draws influences from all kinds of heavy music like metal and hardcore, but also tries to learn from other genres ranging from modern electronic music to rock. All these influences come together in a tightly performed mixture of technical riffs and drumming, catchy chorus patterns, atmospheric cleans and heavy, low-tuned breakdown parts.
The Interview
Who inspired you to make music?
We take influence from a lot of bands, a lot of the band members have different tastes in music, not only metal but a wide range of genres. We try to incorporate a lot of different elements into our songwriting. Another great influence is just going to live shows and watch bands play a set, it’s so inspiring and it gives us a lot of motivation to write new songs and play them live!
What is your creative process like?
It mostly begins with our guitarist Arend noodling on his guitar until he finds some riffs that he likes. We then receive some demo songs that he records in his bedroom and we give him our feedback and start learning them for rehearsal. It sounds quite simple but some of our songs took years to be fully finished, others only took a few weeks or weren’t even finished when we entered the studio.
Who would you like to collaborate with?
I always love vocalists featuring on other bands’ albums! Personal favourites are Dries from Moments and Sean from Titans! But I’d also be open to musicians from other genres like Willy Organ or Stefanie from Brutus.
What is the most useless talent you have?
Our drummer can do pig squeals!
What is the most useful talent you have?
It might not be a talent, but we’re all very passionate about what we do and everyone in the band is always enthusiastic when we make progress or we get new opportunities. It’s very important that bands are actively involved in what they do and don’t take everything for granted, and I think this is the case for Unravel. Besides that, our drummer doing pig squeals might come in handy one day.
If you could change anything in the past, what would it be?
As a beginning band, we made quite a few dumb mistakes in recording and promoting our first album Closure, but I think we learned a lot from that so I don’t think I would change anything! I’m very proud of what we managed to achieve in the last year! Having said that, ordering the wrong bass strings for recording was probably my largest brain fart so far.
How do you feel the internet has impacted the music business?
I think it has had a huge impact! Band promotion nowadays is all about knowing how to use social media and how you portray yourself. Facebook and Instagram are such great platform for reaching fans, other bands and people who can help support your music! The COVID-pandemic has made this even more important, since playing shows and meeting people face-to-face has become impossible. The fact that some bands have managed to explode in 2020 proves that social media can be a perfect tool in promoting yourself!
What’s next for you?
Practicing and rehearsing ASAP! We can’t wait to get back on stage and perform our album across the country (or even abroad). Writing is of course also a never-ending process and I’m dying to get back in the studio for some new material.
What do you know about Austria?
I absolutely love Austria, we’ve been there quite a few times on vacation and it’s such a beautiful country. I would love to play there once!
Why “Unravel”, is there a story behind the band name?
It was a long search for a name. Especially since we preferred to have only one word. Each band member made a list of suggestions and from that we then chose Unravel together. Which fits us very well since we always have to unravel the tangles in our cables before we rehearse. It is also a song title of a Belgian artist 'Warhola' and the band Hundredth also has a song called Unravel, which is extra cool.
