interview with DEPTHS
Have any of you played in other bands? All of us have played in many bands before starting Depths, ranging from acoustic to hardcore. None of which went anywhere worth mentioning. Our drummer Shaun still plays in the band Saving Grace when he's not playing with us.
How is it that you started playing music? We all started playing music in our early teens. Playing local shows and slowly getting better at writing music, well we would hope that we got better! We have always been drawn to heavy music and the older we got, the heavier our influences become. Eventually we got to where we are today.
What are your names? / Who plays what?
Joshua Bain - Vocals
Shaun Anderson - Drums
Jason Meadows - Guitar
Jae Faithfull - Guitar
Kahi Bettridge - Bass
Have you had other previous members? We have had a few member changes over the years. Most notably after our first album 'Revelation', our bass player and guitarist left to pursue other endeavours. Our current line up is definitely the strongest its ever been.
Did you make music even when you were young? We all started in our early teens. For me it started when I was 11, when I bought my first acoustic guitar. Everyone in the band has their own stories to what got them involved with music, most of which start round the same time.
Where are you from? Palmerston North/Wellington, New Zealand
What year did the band form? We started under the name Deadpool in 2009, but changed our name to Depths early 2010.
What's your style of genre? Well I'm sure everyone would have a different answer for this. We get lumped into the "deathcore" genre a lot, but we really don't like that term haha. We try to push oursleves musically when we write, not being bound by restraints of some genres. If we could call our music something, it would probably be progressive death metal.
What inspires you? Each of us is inspired by different things, but the main one for all of us would definitely be Meshuggah .
How have you developed since you started with the music? When we first started we were just trying to be as heavy as possible. Nowadays we focus on making the best product musically. That each song has its own idendity and sound.
What made you decide to make this music? We have a story to tell, so we're going to tell it.
What are your songs about? Lyrical themes range from government corruption and self enlightenment to depression and religion.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? I write all the lyrics (Josh) and a bunch of the song skeletons. Then everyone comes in with their ideas and their flavour to make the final product. Composing songs is a very long process for us, as we have to make every section the way it can be.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Lyrics are always the last thing for me to write. A lot of the time I find myself procrastinating when it comes to lyrical content.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? A lot of the time my ideas come to me when I'm stoned haha. I find it helps me write outside the box.
Have you done any covers live? We have never done any covers. If we were to do one, it would need to be played round with so it has our own flavour.
What language do you sing in? English.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We would get bored very quickly if we didn't play a variety of songs live. We are always changing our set list to not only keep things interesting for us to play, but for the fans who come to the shows.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Because New Zealand is such a small country, it means we only really have 4 or 5 major cities to play in. So a lot of the time we play the same venues in each city due to the fact their are few options provided.
What was your first gig like? We played 2 shows back to back. The first performance was a bit shit. Made a few stupid mistakes due to nerves etc. The second set was a lot better. Playing our hometown to our friends and a bunch of drunk people going crazy.
Have you had to cancel a gig? I don't recall that we ever have had to cancel a show. Since it's something that all of us hate, we will do everything that's humanly possible to make it to a show. And from memory we have made every single one!
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We are planning to get over to Australia again this year as part of our new albums release. Then hoping to get over to America end of 2015 to early 2016z
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Merch is pretty much the only way we make money as a band so we always try to have a bunch of designs available at shows. The designs are always changing.
Where can people buy your merchandise? At shows of course, otherwise we have a bigcartel site www.bigcartel/depthsnz
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays? It's the changing of times. We wouldn't be where we already without the internet as its exposure, I'd say that's the case for most of the metal bands round the world today. Sure it's great when people buy the albums, but we would rather our music get to people for free than not get to them at all.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It's adapted itself to fit in with the new generation. Digital album sales would far outweigh physical sales for a majority of bands out there today. I guess if the product is good, then people will buy it. Well you would like to hope so anyway haha.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I don't know if it will do anything, but I'd hope that anything we do to promote our band, whether big or small, is a good thing.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Inspiration can come in any form. I can get inspired to write a riff from listening to a hip hop song. So regardless of old or new, it's all relevant.
What have been your biggest obstacles? The biggest obstacle would probably be ourselves really. Dealing with members who didn't want to be in the band, having writers block and struggling to balance work and the band would be the hardest obstacles we've come across. You just need to decide how much you want the band to succeed and push forward.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. At the end of the day it's about the music, not getting famous or getting laid. It's about the enjoyment of showing something you've made to other people.
How do you get psyched for a gig? We don't really have any rituals before shows. We just warm up and jump on.
Do you have any new material? We have a brand new album coming out very soon. We have the first single about to be dropped with the album release date. It's been a long and frustrating process, but we can finally show everyone our hard work.
What are your web sites?
What are your plans for the future? We are already halfway through writing our next album, and already it's by far the best thing we've ever written.
