Interview: Past the Fall (Written – 2024)

Formidable grunge groove metallers, Past the Fall, throw down their ferocious new single and art video, Poison Mirror, on Wednesday 28th February.

1. Hi guys! Last time we spoke, Bloodstock 2023 was on the horizon. It’s been and gone, and we’re well into 2024 now, so what’s been going on since we last spoke?

Time sure does fly! We’ve been working on new material, were more or less simultaneously working on 3 new tracks, while also preparing the final single from our record ‘FROM INSANITYS RUIN’ called Poison Mirror- we’ve produce a mind-blowing Lyric video and music video for it as well as some playthrough content and in the studio/BTS content. Throw into all that booking a couple of European festival appearances for this year- it’s been quite busy!

2. Were you determined to not become another band who hit the high of playing Bloodstock, so promptly gave up afterwards?

Well in truth I don’t think we’ve ever considered that the apogee of the band- more an important coming of age since it’s so tied to the bands place of origin and upbringing. To confess for me personally it wasn’t as much as a spike of adrenaline as you might imagine, it was a far more holistic and affirming experience to connect with the fans and have my teenage favorite bands playing while we loaded in- very surreal! But when its over its over and the normal of business of doing band is always there- there’s not really such a thing as ‘making it’, playing music is definitely a lifestyle choice than about clocking achievements for me.

3. Tell me a little about Poison Mirror, your new single out on February 28th, 2024. From a creative standpoint, what can we expect?

Its ambitious and plays with what people could traditionally expect from a metal track I think, it tells a story and plays roles to express the feeling from different viewpoints. Its got a nihilistic/dystopian streak that wheels from fat metal riffs to tool like juxtaposition, and is laced with epic and dark solos, as well as screams, singing and spoken word. Quite a bit going on! But not inaccessible at all.

4. Where there notable challenges when it came to this track’s creation or elements that you found you really found to be quite satisfying?

It didn’t feel challenging but for sure this track involved a lot of experimentation in the studio and trial and error to perfect the flow, it also involved some elements that were jammed out from the early tryouts live with the track on some European tours, so it has quite a mix of different approaches to the creative process.

5. How does this track fit amongst the previous Past the Fall releases and does it point to the direction you’re heading in?

I think its one of our tracks that demonstrates the most of a unique personality, and in that sense I’m really proud of it for being brave to do something out the norm. The album in general ‘ From Insanitys Ruin’ we made with not a lot of higher concepts of our sound, we just tried to push each track to its best and natural zenith on a case by case basis, and so there is a lot of ebb and flow on that record. The material we‘re making now definitely is a lot more focused and ‘forward tilted’ I would say, like the best of us but put through a distillation process, and tied into a higher concept of our vibe and sound.

6. What continues to be the most challenging aspect of getting your name out there and getting ears on a track like this? Also, what do you need to do to overcome this?

For better or worse I think the music scene is slightly more tentative about expressing its personality and leans more on styles and genres to access existing fan communities. There’s positives to this , but the potential downside is we’re create echo chambers of very similar music and cutting through that noise is extremely challenging. For us, we try just focus on the music- I know everyone would say that but to our detriment probably we’re not the best at clowning around on SM, and as relatively shy and introspective people we struggle to share our private worlds with people. The irony is, those qualities that draw us to express ourselves through music can make us not the best self promoters! So with that in mind we try to adopt a music first approach through platforms like Spotify and share the journey and message of the music and hope that resonates with other people. Also picking things that I enjoy helps- for example I love podcast interviews and have begun interviewing locals bands myself as for me that’s a really fun way to connect with people.

7. This release is the starting pistol (so to speak) for a busy 2024 overall, right? What details can you share regarding longer term plans?

Absolutely! Poison Mirror in many aspects is the first run of a new release and promotion long term strategy with how we release music, believe or not the plan stretches 1 year ahead of us and has quite a lot of moving parts and teams to manage! In a nutshell we want to deliver more to our fans and move away from a traditional release cycle of 20 years ago of album, tour, rest, album, tour, rest etc. We want to focus on a steady stream of singles and producing cool visuals for each one so that’s theres something cool and different for the fans regularly, and then eventually those will be compiled into an album.

8. What’s a realistic goal that you would like to achieve this year? Something to look back come December 31st and be pleased you managed it?

I think getting a beautiful body of work out with these 3 singles and shedding skin into a more dark and muscular version of PTF, basically just what we feel like now and seeing our followers grow on Spotify and appearing on more UK festivals this year. It doesn’t sound like much but doing justice to the awesome material we’re creating in all other aspects of the business to best of our abilities would leave me feeling satisfied.

9. Speaking about the UK rock and metal scene in general here. What do you think can be done to ensure local scenes don’t become over-saturated and that bands across the country get the most exposure possible?

I think creating the right lineups is key- which means the balance of local bands to boost the numbers but the opportunities for creatively interesting/ out of town hard working bands to get an opportunity to reach a different audience.

10. You’re scrolling through one of the multitude of social media apps, what’s a immediate red flag for you as far as band posts go?

For me personally its jumping on trends and forced clowning. If your funny then cool! But just trying to force awkward videos of saying stupid stuff just feels ingenuine to me and has detracts from the music. And the trend stuff is just second hand onces it’s a trend for starters and the intention to do it is ingenuine again- just doing it for the clicks. Maybe I’m a fuddy duddy but I still feel music is art, and I want to see authenticity, faking it till you make it just sucks IMO. With all that said that does mean people can express themselves how ever they want, if its genuine it connects for me.

11. If you could have your music be a soundtrack on a video game, what would be your choice and why?

Uff that’s tough! I don’t really play many video games, so my point of reference isn’t going to be great, but probably something a little dark and dystopian in an open world of action with a glimmer of hope through comradery and humanity.

12. In that same vein, pick a specific intense horror movie scene that you think you’d music would fit nicely to.

Something a bit urban and brutal- maybe Saw!

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