Interview with 'Downfall'
Firstly, introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about the band and how you came to be?
Mark: I’m Mark, I do vocals and write. The first time I heard about this project was when Tom approached me about it in my first year of college, I don’t have the best memory but I think our bassist, Ewan, had shown him a few clips of a vocal cover I did on SoundCloud and the group chat was made!
Tom: I’m Tom, I play drums in the band. I’d wanted to play Metal for a year or so before I joined college but myself and our guitarist, Richard, didn’t really know anyone, so we were limited to our own jamming and having fun. When I got to college I met the rest of the guys, and Mark came a year later and things went from there when he showed me a 'One Step Closer' cover he’d recorded.
Sam: I’m Sam, I play guitar and sing in the band. I was in a band prior to Downfall with Tom, we set that band up in college but split due to some of us going to uni. Tom originally came to me about managing this band, which I was up for until I was offered a place in the band as a guitarist and clean vocalist which worked out better for me!
Ewan: I’m Ewan and I play bass in Downfall, and I’d probably describe Downfall as a bit of clear mix between Metalcore with bits taken from Djent, Indie, some Prog Metal. So we cover quite a lot of ground collectively. Really Downfall is the brainchild of Tom, our drummer, he came to me with the idea for a Metalcore band that would be a bit like Beartooth meets Periphery and I really liked the sound of it.
What were you all up too prior to the band, was this always the chosen path or did you have other dreams and aspirations?
Mark: At the time I got asked to be involved, I was in a Metalcore band from Blackburn, however, it didn’t last too long after I joined Downfall. I’ve never really had any other aspirations outside of the music industry.
Tom: Before this band, I was in a band with Sam playing some very different music! I was literally never interested in music until about 4 years ago, from then on, this is all I’ve wanted to do.
Ewan: At the time I was the singer/bassist for a Rap Metal band called Writing On The Walls but this bands direction and style appealed to me much more than theirs did. Other than Downfall I spend a lot of my time working as a performer, doing a lot of work as a mime.
Tell us about your latest EP and why our readers should check it out.
Mark: You should check it out because it’s cool… and it has breakdowns… Other than that, it was just a lot of fun to write and record (recorded and produced by the amazing Erik Bickerstaffe) but yeah, the main theme of the EP is just how corrupt and just unforgiving the world can be these days, especially seeing some of the headlines on the news recently, it was just something that was in my head at the time I was writing it and needed to get out.
Tom: 'Awakening', is very very Metalcore, so if you’re into that, you should definitely check it out, you might just love it! But Mark pretty much nailed what it’s about.
Ewan: 'Awakening' is our debut EP and I really couldn’t be prouder of how it’s turned out, personally I feel that it really captures almost every aspect of what we try to present as a band. It’s got some tracks that show the heavier aspects of what we do, and then other tracks that’s really demonstrate what we can do beyond that.
Who would you say is the bands main song writer or is it a group effort and where do you draw your inspiration lyrically and musically from?
Mark: I’d say me and Sam (guitarist and clean vocalist) are the main writers, I usually write the heavier songs where as Sam will write the softer, more melodic songs. Growing up listening to Metalcore in its prime (arguably), I draw inspiration both lyrically and musically from bands like Attack Attack, Asking Alexandria, Motionless In White, etc.
Tom: Mark writes most of the music for the band, we all chip in with our own ideas for how things should sound but more often than not, he’ll present us with a song and we’ll learn it and add our own parts to it. Musically my influences are bands like The Word Alive, Volumes and Issues.
Ewan: I’d say that it’s a process of us all contributing ideas and riffs which will then be adjusted into a track gradually or someone will come with a song fully formed, so it is a very collaborative process. All of our lyrics are handled by Sam and Mark, so often the styling of a song lyrically just depends on where they feel it needs to go.
As a band what do you believe is your greatest achievement to date and why?
Mark: It’s still very early days at the moment.
Tom: Yeah, we played a few good shows, but we’re only just getting started.
Ewan: I’d say it’s the overall live reaction to our material, so far we’ve had an incredible response from the audiences we’ve had.
Have you ever come face to face with someone within the music scene who has left you awestruck and why?
Mark: Not just yet as I said in the previous question it’s still early days, there are many experiences to be had!
Tom: For me, our producer, Erik Bickerstaffe, blew me away, we took him ours demos and the difference he made was huge, he turned the songs into more than we could have ever imagined.
Ewan: I’ve not yet, but I did get waved at by Florence Welch whilst Motörhead played at Glastonbury in 2015 so that was a highlight.
What do you enjoy most about touring?
Tom: We haven’t toured yet, but when we do, we’ll get you an answer!
If we were to head out to one of your live shows what can ourselves and others expect?
Mark: Pits and breakdowns!
Tom: Bass drops, we got a lot of those! We also don't give Metalcore speeches, so you’d have that to look forward to.
Ewan: You could expect to experience an incredibly high energy performance, gigging with Downfall is extremely exhausting but it’s so worth it. We really put a lot into making sure that the audience have a full experience, whether that’s in the overall performance or the way we use the synth tracks, we just try and make it as rich a show as possible.
If you had one artist/band that you could go on tour with tomorrow who would it be and why?
Mark: That’s a tough one! Given that there are many great bands out there it’s very hard to decide but I’d probably go with Issues, great band.
Tom: If we’re judging off latest releases, I’m heading out with I See Stars, for sure! Their new record is wild!
Ewan: For me it’d be the Devin Townsend Project, I’m a huge fan of his work and I just imagine he’d be an interesting person to tour with. There’s just so much you can learn from someone with that much experience, and plus seeing them live every night would be a dream.
You can spend an hour with a musical icon living or dead, who would you pick, why and what would you speak about?
Mark: Freddie Mercury. I have no clue what we would talk about but it’d just be cool.
Tom: I’m choosing Brendon Urie, the dudes writes some killer songs. I guess I’d ask what happened at the disco and why there was panic?
Ewan: Lemmy Kilmister, definitely. There are so many things you could learn and so many stories he could tell you, the man personified Rock & Roll after all.
And finally and most importantly is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?
Mark: Yes, one thousand times yes.
Tom: Absolutely.
Ewan: It’s set at Christmas I guess, I’ve honestly never seen it. Not really a fan of action films, Bruce Willis is cracking in Moonrise Kingdom though if anyone is a Wes Anderson fan.
Check out their video for 'Rise'
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DownfallUK/