ON SEPT. 2, 2022, Polyphia hit the primary main speedbump of their newest album cycle.
Twenty-six reveals right into a sold-out 28-date United States tour — simply as they’ve dropped full particulars of their fourth LP, Keep in mind That You Will Die — drummer Clay Aeschliman’s physician confirmed that he’s dislocated his clavicle. Surgical procedure can be required to place it again in place. As a lot as Aeschliman and the remainder of the Texan collective are loath to let something disrupt plans which were actually years within the making, their refusal to carry out at lower than 100% implies that scheduled home-state reveals in Fort Price and Austin have to be postponed.
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“We had been on these Hen scooters,” guitarist Tim Henson shrugs. “I suppose they’re fairly harmful…”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
For a band which have constructed their identify on precision and management — rising from highschool YouTube virtuosos into the world’s hottest instrumental band — there may be an air of disarray this afternoon. At his condo, Henson is at the moment being mobbed by three canines craving their proprietor’s affection after a month away. Fellow founding six-stringer Scott LePage dials in whereas nonetheless on the highway, working errands and ferrying forgotten baggage on the best way dwelling. The pair waved off Aeschliman, bassist Clay Gober and the remainder of the touring social gathering mere hours earlier than convening with AP.
“This tour has been superb,” Henson continues, visibly stung by ending such a triumphant run so abruptly. “It appears like proper place, proper time in the place we’re with the followers, with the music, with one another. Then this.” Henson continues to be reeling from what he describes as “the weirdest goodbye session” with the band and their crew. “It feels incomplete, like a blue-ball sort scenario,” he quips. “There’s been no climax.”
LePage concurs. “It leaves us with this unusual responsible feeling,” he nods, “regardless that it’s out of our management.”
In a way, days like these are what Keep in mind That You Will Die is all about. Whereas the title originated — in very Polyphia vogue — with LePage Googling “cool phrases” throughout final September’s Dance Gavin Dance tour, it has taken on better weight over the months since. The unique Latin translation, memento mori, whispered into the ears of triumphant emperors in historic Rome to make sure their groundedness, has apparent applicability to younger males with the world at their toes. Characteristically, Henson places his personal spin on that. “It’s a seize the day sort of factor,” he smiles, pensively. “You must do the shit that you want to do when you want to do it — earlier than you’ll be able to’t.”
If something, their newest setback has solely added urgency to Polyphia’s booming ambition. Though the band are open about the way it’s their fixed crucial to “degree up” with every new launch, pushing their technical capacity, composition, sound design and mixing, the sheer boundary-obliterating maximalism on present right here suggests they’ve taken a quantum leap. From the putting, nylon-stringed experimentation of “Enjoying God” to the steely dubstep of “Reverie” and the decadently layered rage beat of “Neurotica,” they’re deftly fusing pop and steel, jazz, EDM and numerous different genres in-between.
“When somebody asks me a couple of file’s ‘stylistic development,’” LePage grins, “I usually consider the query as, ‘What was I listening to once we began writing?’ Right here, I attempted to carry each factor that we’ve ever achieved. I wished to showcase each sound in my arsenal.”
Striving to elucidate how they managed this, Henson narrows Polyphia’s strategy down to a few bullet factors: better emphasis on collaboration (extra on that beneath); elevated maturity of their sound; expanded give attention to sound design and manufacturing. Quite than descending right into a dry dialog about studio strategies and musical concept, although, the shred grasp outlines the album title’s chilling twin that means and the way it connects to the improvements therein: a story of the unstoppable march of expertise, and the apocalyptic way forward for synthetic intelligence. “By second observe ‘Enjoying God,’ we’re already constructing issues which might be turning into too good for us. It builds and builds till ‘All Falls Aside.’ Then there’s a ‘Massacre.’ ‘Ego Loss of life’ represents the top of all of it.”
Machine sounds reign supreme. Though human efficiency stays very a lot on the coronary heart of Polyphia, the multitude of writing and recording classes that took them round America, from Los Angeles (the place Henson was resident at first of recording) to Detroit and residential to Texas, had been largely targeted on eradicating the natural tone of steel in favor of the sensation of preprogrammed beats from pop and hip-hop. On a conceptual degree, this concerned factoring in manufacturing from the very outset of the writing course of as a producer like Skrillex would. On the sensible aspect, it required the development of the carpeted “cave” through which Aeschliman recorded percussion, seen in latest playthrough movies from Henson’s newly constructed dwelling studio again in Texas.
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
“In case you had been to play this music inside a automobile, flip all of it the best way up, then step exterior of the automobile, it will bump like rap music,” he explains, espousing the advantages of such an unusually concerned strategy. “Comparatively, when you had been to try this with a steel file, it will sound like shit.”
Within the period of playlist-led listening, too, the strategy to style was much less “mixtape” than wired mashup. “Every tune is drastically totally different,” Henson enthuses. “It’s virtually as if Polyphia had been the substitute intelligence — a sonic equal to a type of image-generating AIs. You sort in ‘Bossa nova classical guitar lure beat’ and also you get a tune like ‘Enjoying God.’ You enter ‘Ariana Grande hyperpop prog’ and we play ‘ABC.’ You attempt ‘trap-style steel’ and also you get ‘Fuck Round And Discover Out.’ Hell, a observe like ‘The Audacity’ may very well be the consequence from punching in ‘Jazz, shred, regardless of the fuck!’”
BEFORE THEY BECAME THE GENRE-DEFYING disruptors we all know at present, Polyphia’s dream label was prog-metal powerhouse Sumerian Data. Following 2011’s four-track demo Resurrect — dropped when LePage was 18 and Henson simply 17 — the LA-based indie reached out by e-mail. The message was agonizingly direct: “The place’s the singer?”
It’s a query that has dogged the band for years. Having opted, early on, to keep up tight give attention to the slim core of guitar, drums and bass, most would argue that their instrumental restrictions are why Polyphia stand aside. On Keep in mind That You Will Die, nevertheless, they don’t have any time to be steered by their limitations, bringing aboard everybody from trilingual LA singer-songwriter Sophia Black (“ABC”) and San Diego-based visionary Killstation (“Memento Mori”) to Deftones frontman Chino Moreno (“Massacre”) and legendary six-stringer Steve Vai (“Ego Loss of life”).
“After we began engaged on this file three years in the past, our file label requested us to place collectively an inventory of dream collaborators,” Henson explains. “We had everybody from Rick Ross to Chino and Steve on there. We had all the time recognized that we wished to do a bunch of various collaborations to stretch our wings when it comes to saying, ‘Sure, we will tackle any fashion, and we’ll do it. You need a pop tune? A steel tune? A rap tune? We’ll give it to you.’”
That angle is the actual key to Polyphia’s individuality, compelling them to diverge from the path blazed by revered friends like Animals As Leaders and Periphery. “Primary, we like these different genres,” Henson stresses. “We actively take heed to these genres. We need to take part in these genres.” The opposite bands from their scene? Henson isn’t certain they do. “You must put the work in,” he explains. “I can’t think about a djent crossover with a pop artist that will really be good with out having put the work in on the pop aspect to know why that sort of collaboration might work.”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
Unquestionably, RTYWD is a labor of affection. Though Ross by no means returned their calls, and work on an authentic model of “All Falls Aside” with Tilian Pearson of Dance Gavin Dance and SoundCloud star Trippie Redd fell by means of, eight of the file’s 12 tracks nonetheless boast notable visitor spots. Certain, the boys’ guitar work is basically much less ostentatious than that showcased on 2014’s Muse, 2016’s Renaissance and 2018’s New Ranges New Devils, however there may be an astounding dynamism and variety that’s testomony to the large effort and a spotlight to element poured in. No function feels tacked on, both: every one on the coronary heart of its personal naturally grown composition. Certainly, the primary sound to essentially catch your ear — one which ties by means of to the file’s thumping shut — isn’t guitar however the bellow of horns courtesy of New York hip-hop producer Brasstracks.
“Brass is such a triumphant, epic opening and shutting sound,” Henson smiles. “They wished to offer us fireplace.��� And Polyphia wished to offer them, like each visitor participant, the area to shine. For followers and potential future collaborators, they wanted to show that emotional resonance was extra vital than nerdy intricacy. “We have to serve the [composition],” Henson stresses. “That’s one thing that Scott and I’ll by no means enable our egos to get in the best way of. We care much less about exhibiting off our chops than making good music. We wish to have songs that stand the check of time.”
So, is there a shared high quality that unites the disparate roll name of artists they’ve chosen to usher in?
“The one high quality that everybody that we collaborate with [shares] is that they’re sick as fuck,” Henson jokes (kind of). Possibly “audacious as fuck” can be a greater description. Each artist featured right here has an urge for food for working exterior the field and a willingness to problem themselves to maintain tempo with trendy guitar’s most prodigious gamers. “Polyphia aren’t essentially the most instantly digestible factor,” Henson says, bluntly acknowledging their behavior of hitting extra notes in a single tune than some would throughout an entire album. “To even entertain the thought of a collaboration with us, folks must be open-minded. They should have an appreciation for issues which might be past surface-level.”
Naturally, most of the collaborators got here from Polyphia’s quick circle of buddies and colleagues. Killstation, for example, had already featured Henson on the banging “Radiation,” whereas Brasstracks’ Ivan Jackson is name-checked a number of occasions throughout our dialog with actual love and respect. There was explicit worth, all the identical, in tapping into the expertise and perspective of some bona fide rock legends.
Vai had been one of many boys’ childhood idols, however when a NAMM Jam on the 2020 commerce showcase put them on the identical stage, they discovered the admiration was mutual. In an interview with Guitar World, he subsequently named Henson one of many up to date six-stringers taking the instrument to the subsequent degree: “Tim is exploring new grounds. I’m seeing an evolution in a route that I didn’t… that I couldn’t even see coming.” Henson gleefully reciprocates the sentiment: “That was fuckin’ superior: a second with our guitar hero acknowledging us!”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
Much more eye-opening had been the classes with Moreno, and his openness to sharing concepts within the studio, not simply with the band, however their songwriting buddy and esteemed rapper lil aaron, as effectively. “With pop and rap, there may very well be 20 folks in a room and everybody’s concepts are welcome,” Henson displays. “Quite a lot of rock dudes are much less open to interjection. We had been shocked to see how a lot Chino loved lil aaron being there and the way open he was to tackle board different folks’s options.”
With familiarity having been sacrificed on the altar of innovation and ambition, although, will followers be as open to this new period of Polyphia? On this tour, no RTYWD tracks that includes vocals had been aired, not as a result of there was any concern of backlash, they clarify, however to order the large reveal for the arrival of their painstakingly crafted studio variations. A clearer indication of the band’s thought course of may be gleaned from the sequencing of the album’s advance singles, with comparatively conservative instrumentals “Neurotica” and “Enjoying God” kick-starting the cycle earlier than the complete tracklist dropped alongside the brilliantly bonkers “ABC.”
“That was an us determination,” Henson admits. “‘Enjoying God’ was the primary tune we had dropped since 2019. We wanted to reel again in our fanbase, to rally the troops.” “Neurotica,” he explains, was one other fan-service tune. “You’re getting quick, you’re getting nice melodies, you’re getting instrumental. Plus, it’s a bopper,” he provides, emphasizing the significance of riling up the fanbase earlier than smacking them within the face with such an unapologetically poppy third providing. A mischievous grin. “I suppose ‘ABC’ was a option to let everyone know that we’re again on our bullshit.”
AS HEADY AS IT IS HAVING Polyphia unpack their advanced musical course of, they’re each bit as partaking when setting their devices apart. Candid recollections of final week’s AP picture shoot really feel like proof of that. Wrapped in additional layers than even their densest compositions, the boys had been shoved right into a stretch limo in an nameless Los Angeles warehouse. The issue is that these sorts of warehouses don’t include air con. And it’s not attainable to spark the engine to activate the automobile’s with out the concern of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Man, that was sizzling,” Henson grins, reliving the well-dressed ordeal. “However it was cool.”
A pointed appreciation of what’s on-trend is the final piece of the Polyphia puzzle. Eager aesthetic focus is a part of that, with at the very least 14 visible artists — one for every of the 12 tracks, two typographers and outfit sculptor Nusi Quero offering music video props — tapped for simply this album. “Everyone likes issues that look cool,” Henson rolls his shoulders. “If it didn’t look cool, folks in all probability wouldn’t test it out.” An on-point web presence helps, too. Regardless of being “extra Boomer than Zoomer” on the subject of particular app updates these days, Henson emphasizes that they nonetheless assume deeply about on-line presentation, having stopped trying to “igno-rappers like Lil Pump doing dumb shit on-line” for affect, in favor of higher-profile figures like Future, “who’ll put the album artwork on-line, and that’s it.”
[Photo by Lindsey Byrnes]
Whereas it’s tempting to see Polyphia’s explicit model of extroversion as a response to the hyper-conservatism ripping by means of their native Texas, too, Henson is reluctant to offer weight to such simplistic evaluation. Referring again to choices like 2019’s “Look However Don’t Contact” video — the place they posed as Mormon missionaries coming into an afterlife that’d make Lil Nas X jealous — Henson admits which will as soon as have been the case. “However lately, we don’t really feel notably hooked up to any sort of political message,” he explains. “We wish to hold it in regards to the music — the aesthetic and sonic qualities of what we do — relatively than pushing folks’s buttons.”
Much more pivotal is the willingness to faucet into their colourful personalities as readily as their mind-bending talent units.
“Quite a lot of that’s simply attempting to embrace ourselves as folks, and to be ourselves,” Henson gestures. Certainly, it’s one thing the band have lengthy struggled with. However following this tour, they’ve discovered actual confidence within the countless hours of prep and follow put in. “For that hour-and-a-half onstage, we’re proudly owning it,” he asserts. For Polyphia, hiding beneath a rock isn’t an choice.
“It actually helps to have three motherfuckers who’re your greatest buddies doing it with you, too,” LePage provides. “Half of my [mindset] is the arrogance that comes from enjoying with my bandmates. The opposite half is self-doubt. Luckily, having my buddies there means confidence wins out.” Henson nods: “Possibly lots of the fellows in these different bands aren’t peacocking round as a result of they don’t have their buddies to do it with them.”
That results in the last word query dealing with Polyphia: Does it really feel like they’ve what it takes to carry actual guitar music again to the forefront of common tradition?
“I’d say that Machine Gun Kelly did that,” Henson says with a playful grin. “MGK is the daddy of guitar music! Severely, although, guitar is so prevalent proper now. Take a look at MGK, WILLOW, acts like Web Cash and Lemonade. Guitar itself has been making a comeback. We’re simply doing what we do. We exist in a time that we exist in. We don’t wish to take credit score for one thing that’s taking place anyway.”
LePage struggles even to see the logic of the query. “It’s bizarre,” he narrows his eyes. “For me, guitar music has by no means not been cool.”
Extra pointedly, whereas there are many acts proper now who like to pose with their six-string and may strum a couple of chords, there absolutely are none cracking the mainstream (or anyplace, frankly) who can play their devices like Polyphia. Has there been a band who’ve been in a position to traverse the worlds of rock and pop, making shred appear this cross-culturally cool, since Van Halen?
“It’s tremendous simple to be mad corny if you’re doing virtuoso guitar,” Henson speaks frankly. “Off-script, it’s virtually corny in itself. However to search out the issues which might be musical about that, and to place it in contexts that aren’t corny, is the actual problem. I believe lots of bands who play that means aren’t actually involved about these issues. In case you look again, taking in Eddie’s work with Michael Jackson on ‘Beat it,’ perhaps the final time it was cool was Van Halen.”
It’s not a foul comparability. It’s additionally one to which Polyphia are unafraid to stay up. Abandoning their “cult” standing to come back so far as they have already got has solely stoked the need — and the assumption — that they are often the most important band on this planet.
“I’d prefer to say that we would like that for ourselves,” Henson declares. “We wish to be that family identify. Greater than something, we wish to have the liberty to make no matter sort of music we would like, with whoever we would like, whether or not that’s at present’s largest stars, legacy acts or newer artists. Getting by means of the door is simply so tough. We simply need entry. To get that, you need to develop. On the finish of the day, the higher issues go for us, the extra time we’ve to make dope shit.”
No matter Polyphia’s subsequent evolution could also be, rely on it to soften your face and blow your thoughts.
