Band Interview: This is Endless
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life had a chat with Luca and Solomon of death metal heavyweights, This is Endless. What follows is a transcript of some of the major talking points from the interview.
Their debut album ‘Formations of a World Below’ was released on August 14th 2020 via Endless Records. We loved it and you can read our review here.
How’s life been for you over the last few months living in COVID-19 times?
(Solomon): Well, for me it’s been amazing, to be honest. (laughs) It’s been great to basically sit down and enjoy life a bit more. Go for a walk and write some heavy metal riffs, cook some decent food and not eat like a homeless garbage man. It’s been alright man! Although I want this shit to be over so we can get back on the road and play.
(Luca): I agree man. Not having to go and do anything, I mean obviously this fucking shit has crippled my money-wise but when it first got announced, I knew because I’ve been living in Italy that it was coming. Lockdown over here was fucking harsh.
(Solomon): In Spain at the moment it’s pretty bad. I’m in Gibraltar, so just outside Spain, but things are getting pretty diabolical. If you don’t put a mask on, they (police) will batter you to the ground.
(Luca): Fuck that shit. That’s just total bollocks. They all need to be battered, the police man. I’ll put that on the record, A.C.A.B – All Coppers Are Bastards.
With a ton of downtime have you seen this as a good chance to push This is Endless forward?
(Luca): Yeah! We’ve got a fuck load of new riffs! We’ve definitely got a load of new music, all written in the lockdown. I’ll be honest, we do all this shit on our own. We’ve had a bit of help from Adam at The Noise Cartel, I’d like to give a big shout-out to him, and Tristan and the rest of the guys at the office who’ve helped us get stuff like this. Interviews with you and stuff so without him helping us, well, it’s been good to have him helping us.
It’s been helpful to have lockdown time to so you can fuck around posting shit.
How are you feeling about the imminent release of the new album?
(Solomon): I feel good about it. I think we gave the album, at the time, what it deserved as much as we could, I guess. I think the way we describe ourselves; minimum effort, maximum result, is because we’ve never been a band who wants to stay at home rehearsing every bloody week. We do what we can, whenever we can.
I think what’s exciting about it (the new album), me personally, is that I didn’t anticipate the reviews we’ve been getting and we haven’t even put it out yet! All the reviews are like 9.5 and 10 (out of 10), it’s fucking killer.
(Luca): Hopefully after all this COVID shit, we get our dicks on a bus and go and do some gigs!
(Solomon): I think that the beauty of this record is that we mixed a lot of ideas and it’s a bit different to the first EP. More slams I guess, a bit more Suffocation in there.
(Luca): It’s got a bit more moodiness in there!
How did you achieve the delicate balance of aggressive old school death metal, hardcore elements and modern touches?
(Luca): It’s probably because we like a lot of different shit and it’s more of an amalgamation. We’re all putting bits in and everyone in this band doesn’t just listen to metal. We like all different types of metal and all different types of music.
What helps inspire This is Endless? Is it a matter of looking out your window, seeing the state of the world and that’s enough?
(Luca): There’s a lot of negativity out there and it is quite easy to come up with stuff when you feel like shit. A lot of those songs (the new album) were written when a few of us were down in a hole. It’s a lot easier to come up with banging, evil and negative riffs when you’re feeling like shit yourself.
It’s weird, all this mass-world negativity that’s going on, 2020’s the worst year ever, I don’t think that’s the case. Anyone that thinks this is the worst year ever is obviously a fucking positive person because they don’t think it’s going to get worse.
I think they’re fucking fools. If you think this is fucking bad, being locked up in your house watching Netflix, wanking, smoking weed and eating crisps, wait until you see what the fuck is going to happen in the future! This is just a fucking taster for the negativity that is about to be bestowed upon us.
It’s easy to write shit when you’re feeling shit.
Are you able to disconnect yourself from that negativity, put it into the band and move along?
(Luca): Of course, the music is the release! If we didn’t have these releases…life would be a lot harder. We feel very lucky to have each other, to be able to meet up and jam every now and then. To be able to send each other tracks and be part of something. I personally feel blessed to have these guys in my life.
(Solomon): Something I’ve always said with music is that I enjoy the negative emotions that are released. I use the negativity in a positive way to create some kind of creature, a negative specimen. It keeps me sane.
Is This is Endless off and rolling now? The EP was 2016 and fans have had to wait four years for the follow-up.
(Luca): Shit, was it 2016!? We have to give a big shout out to Pete from Voices, who was our original rhythm guitarist, who is no longer with us on this one. He was on the EP. Peter the Erectionist, Captain Hexagon!
