Band Interview: Underwing
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with progressive-grunge-rockers, Underwing!
1. How did you get started as a band?
The band started in late 2015 with Enyeto Kotori on bass and vocals and Joachim Walle Michalsen on drums. Later, Thomas Myhren and Magnus Christiansen joined on guitars. In the fall of 2018 Enyeto decided it was time to pass on the bass to The Merf so he could be free to sing his heart out on stage.
2. How would you describe your sound?
Our sound is aggressive, dynamic and very melodic. Another important aspect of our music is the rhythmical aspect. We always try to make our songs rhythmically interesting for ourselves.
3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?
When speaking of our influences, we usually tell people that they have to imagine that Alice in Chains and Black Sabbath had a lovechild that was adopted by Tool, who coincidentally lived right next door to Soundgarden. We’re influenced by a lot of different music, but we have a solid grunge and prog metal foundation.
4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?
It has helped us spread our music far and wide. I think it definitely has helped us reach people that we wouldn’t have reached otherwise. Our most popular track, Sunless Seed off our debut EP, has been streamed over 200. 000 times. I don’t think our songs would’ve been listened too as much if we’d distributed our solely on physical formats such as vinyl and CD. But still, we have no problem selling our music physically either, so it’s all good. YouTube has been awesome for us. It motivates us to create visual content so that our audience can get to know us even better. Since 2017, we’ve uploaded documentaries from the studio, tour documentaries and music videos.
5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
When we’re not making music, we’re usually working on content for our audience. That can be anything from making videos to making physical artwork inspired by our music.
6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?
We’re always working on new material and we usually grind in the rehearsal room until we’re all satisfied. That usually takes a lot of time and energy and we’re intent on releasing quality and not quantity. But have lots of exciting musical plans for the future. We’re always looking to tour new places and we’re ambitious about where we want to play. We think it’s about time for us to start looking at an European tour soon, since we have a lot of listeners outside of Norway.
Links
Bandcamp | Spotify | Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
