Interview: Dwelled (Written)
UK modern metallers Dwelled set loose their blistering debut EP, Suffering Heritage, which arrives on Friday 6th December. The emerging hard-hitters have also released their biting new single and video, Suffer, out now. We get to know them a little better in this interview.
1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.
Hey, we’re Dwelled, made up of Matt W (vocals), Matt T (drums), Louis & Sam (guitars). Originally formed as a recording product during covid lockdowns in 2020 by Louis, it scaled up to a full live band in mid-2022, rebranding as Dwelled earlier this year.
2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?
We don’t quite fit in a single category, instead describing ourselves as a modern interpretation of heavy music with intense, crushing guitars, aggressive rhythms and vocals with a raw expression of anger & self-reflection.
3. What’s currently going on in your camp? New releases? Tours? Etc.
We’ve just released our new single “Suffer”, taken from our upcoming debut EP “Suffering Heritage” which is dropping 6th December. We’re also about to shoot a video for our next single release, as well as announcing some gigs for the end of this year.
4. What has been the most positive experience of making music to date for you?
We really enjoy pushing ourselves and our skills to be as DIY as possible – we self-produce all of our music, videos and artwork. We don’t have management or a booking agent, so doing everything ourselves makes the reaction we get to our tracks and live performances really rewarding.
5. Likewise, what has been some of the more challenging aspects and how have you overcome them?
Our members are split across the Northwest of the UK, so writing and rehearsing together could have been challenging with the distance between each other. We constantly message and facetime each other, remotely share new song ideas and individually practice to a click-track which means when we get to the practice room, everything is super tight.
6. How do you handle the modern expectations of being in a band? Always online, having to put out content constantly, your success measured in likes and follows?
It’s tough. Rather than just being able to enjoy making and sharing music, bands are expected to be content creators and marketing experts in a highly competitive market with the lottery of going viral. We prefer to focus most of our attention on our live show – we’d rather make an impression and connect with the people who have turned out for a gig. The live aspect of playing music is always going to be our top priority. We do understand the importance of online engagement, so always want to make sure our social media content is quality over quantity.
7. What’s something that really ‘grinds your gears’ about the industry/business these days and what would you propose is done to combat it?
Not enough support is being given to the underground scene – the place where 99% of bands start. Promoters are having to charge more for entry because venues need to increase their costs due to increase in their overheads, meaning less people come to shows because they are having to make their money stretch further, resulting in gigs having smaller turnouts or being cancelled due to too much risk of not being able to cover costs. If there was more funding available, it would mean busier, more frequent gigs, allowing more people to easily discover new music.
8. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support your music?
Going to underground gigs and supporting up and coming bands is a huge help! And then in the world of social media, it’s all about that monopoly of hitting the algorithm to try and build your audience. The easiest way to help a band do this is by liking and commenting on social posts, sharing to your friends, adding songs to streaming playlists and watching videos on YouTube.
9. Outside of the music, what do you do to relax?
We try to be outside and away from the screen – a reset for the mind and an escape from the all consuming online world. But if the weather’s not playing ball, a good horror or sci-fi film and some gaming is always on the cards.
10. Where can people find you?
You can find Dwelled at the following links:
Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube
