By: Karen Steinberg
Q) How would you describe your sound?
Nolan: As soon as our first cassette came out, we were pegged interchangeably as a goth band or a post-punk band. These days I noticed most people see us as a part of this global cold wave or dark wave movement. We always just made the music we wanted to make based on our eclectic tastes; yes that includes The Cure, New Order, Southern Death Cult, Wire and French cold wave bands like Asylum Party and Sombre Septembre, but our sound is not limited to these alone. You’ll hear elements of electronic music, krautrock, shoegaze, found sound and post-rock scattered throughout our discography. Our sound is melancholic, wavy and cinematic, I suppose.
Tucker: Grey.
Q) Who are some of your musical influences?
Nolan: I grew up in a house where music had no boundaries. Saturday mornings with my parents meant watching TV on mute while listening to anything from Nina Simone, Atomic Rooster, Miles Davis, Meat Puppets, Celtic Frost, Tangerine Dream, Simple Minds or Peter Tosh – all in equal measures. It still shapes my listening habits to this day. I’m a child of the late 80s so my teenage influences reflect the “Woodstock ‘99” era, for better or worse! [laughs] Bands like Deftones, Sepultura, Nine Inch Nails, Korn and System of a Down were the ones who made me want to start a band with my friends. Also, the Dischord hardcore bands influenced both our melodic and lifestyle choices. Fugazi provided the road map to do things ourselves when nobody else would help. Studying and playing jazz in high school taught me to see being a musician as a lifelong journey and devotion.
Tucker: There’s always evolving influences and some permanent ones. When we first started it was Cocteau Twins, The Cure and Death Cult – this more tribal mix of sound, as we progressed we pulled from a Pornography era Cure style. We also mix so many elements that it’s our own sound. We also never want to be pigeonholed to a scene or genre – we just do what we want to do and transcend it from the heart.
Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Burn in Heaven.”
Tucker: Lyrically, the track draws from the harrowing real-life story of 23-year-old Anneliese Michel, who underwent sixty-seven exorcisms before dying of malnutrition – a tragedy that exposed the devastating consequences when blind faith eclipses medical science.
“The song deals with possession and the extremities of faith vs science and examines the instilled religious beliefs where people think they’re going to get a pardon by god for horrifying acts when they get to heaven.”
Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?
Tucker: One undeniable reason, it’s our first piece of new music in four years and demonstrates what’s to come. The single builds on our dark DNA while simultaneously expanding it – atmospheric, intense and with an emotional impact that immediately captivates.
Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?
Tucker: 100%. There’s references to Possession – the 1981 psychological horrordrama film directed by Andrzej Żuławski. Isabelle Adjani is also featured in the cover of “Burn in Heaven.” I found a dress that closely resembles what she wears in the film as well. Our actor begins exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior of possession trying to escape from it.
Q) In honor of “Burn in Heaven”‘s release you also shared the unreleased track “This Sick Kiss.” What has been the response from fans to the track?
Nolan: We’ve been playing it live on this current European tour we’re on and the feedback is great every night. Our live shows are very lively and physical and “This Sick Kiss” is a slower building song, so it offers a nice reprieve visually and sonically. It’s something our live set has needed for a while and makes the entire show more cohesive.
Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?
Tucker: I always use music as the first step towards the lyrics. One reason why is because the lyrics need to fall into the songs properly. I do have titles early and what the song could potentially be about.
Nolan: Our songs usually start with tempo and rhythm. Drum sounds are very important, as well as more atonal, atmospheric textures. These elements help set the mood for us to explore different melodic, harmonic and lyrical possibilities.
Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?
Nolan: We work very closely with our talented producer and collaborator, Josh Korody. He’s like the third invisible member of our group. The three of us have grown and learned so much in our almost decade-long working relationship. We were all pretty naive early on with some of our stylistic and production choices, but that’s part of the charm of our early records. The three of us really handcrafted the sound of this band together and still do.
Q) What can you tease are some themes that you’ll be exploring on your upcoming album Professor?
Tucker: Possessor is a gloomy filled sorrowed love affair. It’s unconditional, unflinching and unapologetic. Alienation, grief, loneliness and our intimate untimely demise glossed over from beginning to end. It’s like witnessing our planet slowly losing air as we all suffocate in it without noticing. It’s knowing everything and everyone will eventually die, you can hide from that. It feels destructive as it’s beautiful.
We kill the world and in return the world kills us.
Q) What do you hope lingers as a message or emotion from TRAITRS’ music?
Nolan: Especially with all the discussion and proliferation of AI slop, just the idea that art and music is a vehicle for human connection and healing for the artist and listener alike. It’s a symbiotic relationship and one the billionaire class is incapable of comprehending beyond sheer exploitation and thievery.
Tucker: Authentic. That it helps people cope with the hardship of living.
Q) You’ve toured the US and through Europe. Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?
Nolan: We’ve been having terrific shows in France the last few years. Paris, Lille, Nantes and Marseille have all been some of our most engaged and attentive audiences as well as some of the most beautiful cities we’ve ever visited. Coincidently or not, we’ve had terrific shows in Montreal, the french speaking part of Canada. Mexico City also stands out, the crowds are different there. Hard to pinpoint exactly the difference, but their crowd responses are always loud and very passionate. Also, as a lifelong professional wrestling fanatic, it was an honor to experience traditional lucha libre at the legendary Arena Mexico. Having watched CMLL on our Spanish speaking channel TLN as a kid, I felt a childlike enthusiasm being there as an adult. Viva Mistico!
Tucker: Having lived in England I do love revisiting it. I am loving France a lot at the moment. As for shows, the crowds have been extremely passionate so it would be hard to point to a certain place. We take them in our minds and hearts every night. The shows have become very special.
Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?
Nolan: I would love to work with Trentemøller one day. He’s been an ongoing influence for me since The Last Resort came out almost 20 (!!) years ago. I love his production and melodic style. Especially hearing his last few records, I think he would do a killer job with us and add a lot to our sonic palette.
Tucker: Maybe Robert Smith, so people could hear the differences in our voices.
Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them?
Nolan: I’ve been obsessed with drone metal pioneers Earth for a while now, be it the early Sub Pop records or their excellent collaborations with UK producer The Bug. I’m fascinated by the hypnotic repetition of drone music in both eastern and western traditions and I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about it all year. Alice Coltrane is another artist I can’t stop listening to and learning from. On the surface, her use of drone is very different from Earth’s, but the more I listen the more their similarities stick out to me. Listening to them both feels like taking all natural performance enhancing drugs. Also, since we left Canada a few weeks ago, I can’t stop listening to the new Armand Hammer album Mercy. I was walking through a freshly rained on Reeperbahn in Hamburg yesterday, listening and marvelling at billy woods’ and E L U C I D’s incisive, complex lyricism juxtaposed The Alchemist’s beautiful and haunting production. A great autumn record.
Tucker: Currently, I’ve taken a break from listening to anything. The last thing that caught my attention was the latest Twilight Sad single. Other than that, the last record I delved into was The Cure – Songs of a Lost World – which I truly enjoyed. I have fall/winter records I tend to revisit. I also write during the winter which will happen when I get home.
Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?
Nolan: Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to live off of our art.
Fuck fascists.
Fuck corporations.
Abolish billionaires.
Support worker’s rights.
Tucker: We wouldn’t be doing any of this with you.
You mean everything to us. Thank you for keeping the rain out of our hearts.