Spearside On the Making Of ‘Hatchet Man’
How did everything come together?
I think we were a bit too cautious when we first came out a couple of years ago. We almost tried too hard in a way. It can often happen to bands. Recording this EP felt like one big sigh of relief for me at least. It felt very freeing to record without many preconceived ideas of what "our sound" is supposed to be.
Was there any challenge that you encountered while making 'Hatchet Man?'
Obviously, when you open the gates of exploration you can be in danger of drifting too far from homebase. The danger is that people who have followed the band to date are turned off when you try something new. Thankfully, an EP is a good place to experiment with different sounds. Based on the feedback we've had so far I think we managed to shake things up and make something a little bit different without annoying people too much.
Which song(s) from 'Hatchet Man' do you think best represents your artistic vision?
All four are very different so it's hard to single one out. They all carry different parts of our artistic vision. The title track represents the more abrasive elements of our sound, “Planning Our Escape'“ has a more mellow vibe. “All The Same” is probably most representative of what our homebase is as a band has been to date. Our cover of “Are 'Friends' Electric?” is our attempt to record a cover in our own voice so even though it's a cover, that track is a good representation of where we see our sound going into the future.
Can you tell us more about you as a duo?
We're brothers first and foremost. We've always done everything together. We play a lot of sports together and we're super competitive so that helps in the band a lot. Because we have an outlet for our competitive and confrontational natures outside the band, we tend to keep the arguments to a minimum when it comes to music. We have a baseline level of confrontation that is always present so it never really boils over. Sometimes we have typical brother-band moments but not too often thankfully.
What role do you feel emotions play in your music, and how do you channel them into your performances?
Music is the best way to actually document emotions because you have words coupled with sounds that offer a context to the story you are trying to tell. Being creative also helps when we have struggles in our lives that we are forced to process. Music is the only language we have for that.
