By: Jamie Steinberg
Photo By Kurt Kimbrell, Edited By Melody Myers
Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Shades of Black.” Mental health is a big issue these days.
A) “Shades of Black” came from a very real place emotionally. A lot of my writing revolves around internal conflict, dissociation, depression and the feeling of losing pieces of yourself over time. The song is about living in emotional gray areas where nothing feels simple – not pain, not healing, not identity. I wanted it to feel cinematic and almost dreamlike, but still painfully human. Mental health isn’t always loud or obvious; sometimes it’s numbness, isolation or feeling disconnected from who you used to be. That’s really the core of the song.
Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?
A) I think people connect to honesty. We don’t try to write perfect or polished emotions, we write the uncomfortable ones, too. A lot of listeners have told me the song feels like something they couldn’t explain themselves. I think that’s why music matters so much. When someone feels seen in a lyric, it reminds them they’re not alone in what they’re carrying.
Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?
A) The video was heavily inspired by The Morrigan and darker mythological symbolism surrounding crows and death imagery. The crows throughout the video represent the “Shades of Black” themselves almost like manifestations of grief, depression, intrusive thoughts or the darker parts of your mind that constantly follow you. We wanted the visuals to feel symbolic rather than literal, like you were stepping into an emotional landscape instead of watching a straightforward storyline. The entire aesthetic was built to feel haunting, cinematic, and emotionally consuming in the same way the song does.
Q) What is your songwriting process?
A) Our songwriting process usually starts with Russell [Hollar], who composes and produces the music beds completely from the ground up. Once I hear the instrumental, I sit with it for a while and really absorb the mood and atmosphere of the song before I ever start writing. The emotions in the music usually guide where the lyrics go naturally.
A lot of times I also draw inspiration from my favorite artists not by copying them, but by studying the way they structure emotion, cadence or phrasing in a song. Sometimes I’ll even take the emotional flow or rhythm of an existing song and write completely original lyrics over it almost as an exercise, just to unlock ideas or explore a different approach melodically. Then, I take what I learned from that process and reapply it back into our own music in a way that feels authentic to us. I think every artist is shaped by the music that impacted them growing up, and that inspiration naturally evolves into your own voice over time.
Q) Do you need music before you can create lyrics?
A) Not always. A lot of my lyrics actually start as fleeting thoughts, random lines or emotional observations that I have to immediately write down before they disappear. Most of them read more like poetry at first than actual song lyrics. I’ll collect these fragments over time – sometimes it’s just a single phrase, image or emotion – and eventually I start piecing them together into a song almost like Frankenstein stitching different parts into one living thing.
Once the music exists, everything starts making more sense emotionally and rhythmically. The instrumental helps shape the cadence and intensity, but a lot of the lyrical ideas usually already exist somewhere in notebooks or voice memos long before the final song comes together.
Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?
A) I’m heavily involved in all of it. Even if I’m not physically engineering something, I’m very hands on creatively with vocal direction, atmosphere, lyrical themes, visual identity, melodies and the emotional tone of the songs. I care a lot about cohesion making sure everything from the production to the visuals feels like it belongs in the same universe.
Q) “Shades of Black” and “Blood in the Water” are a part of a larger body of work. Any teasers as to whether that will be a full album or EP that releases soon?
A) I can definitely say these songs are pieces of something bigger. We’ve been building a very intentional world around this next chapter sonically and visually. I don’t want to give too much away yet, but fans can expect something darker, more atmospheric and more emotionally immersive than anything we’ve done before.
Q )Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?
A) We actually haven’t toured yet, but that’s something we’re looking to start doing very soon. As of right now, all of my live performances have been local here in Texas, which still means a lot to me because that’s where all of this started. There’s something really special about performing in front of people who have supported you from the beginning and watching the local scene grow alongside you.
I’m really excited for the opportunity to eventually take these songs to new cities and connect with people outside of our home state because I think live music creates a completely different emotional connection than streaming ever can.
Q) The band started out doing some incredible metal reimaginings of songs. Are there any songs you’d still love to cover one day?
A) Right now, original music is definitely our main focus, so covers have kind of taken a backseat for the moment. But if we ever decided to revisit that world, it would probably be something by Nirvana. Kurt Cobain was one of my earliest musical influences and really opened the door for me into rock, grunge and eventually heavier music altogether. There was something so raw, vulnerable and imperfect about the way he wrote and expressed emotion that really stayed with me. His music never felt overly polished, it felt human and I think that emotional honesty is something I’ve always carried with me creatively.
Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them?
A) Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Sleep Token, Spiritbox, Bilmuri and Poppy because I love artists that blend heaviness with atmosphere and emotion. I’m really drawn to music that feels cinematic and emotionally immersive instead of just technical for the sake of it.
Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?
A) Honestly, thank you for allowing this music to exist beyond just us. The fact that people connect to these songs and see themselves in them means everything to me. A lot of these songs come from very vulnerable places, so seeing people turn them into something healing or empowering is incredibly special. We’re just getting started and I’m grateful to everyone choosing to grow with us through all of it.