Smoulder
Interview conducted on April 3, 2023
by Dan Locke
Smoulder frontwoman Sarah Ann spends 20 hours a week hiking in the woods in her new locale just outside Helsinki, Finland. She listens to music and picks mushrooms and blueberries, granting her “rauhassa” — a Finnish phrase for “peace and quiet.” The hikes served as a balm for Sarah Ann amidst personal and societal tumult — events that were exasperated as the pandemic raged while Smoulder was hard at work on new music. Through her processing of the pandemic, its impact on social progress and the unending reality of misogyny and rape culture bore the title of Violent Creed of Vengeance, the title of Smoulder’s highly-anticipated sophomore full-length.
Line-up:
Sarah Ann – Vocals
S. Vincent – Guitar
Collin Wolf – Guitar
Adam Blake – Bass
Kevin Hester – Drums
What is your upbringing?
Collin: I grew up in a small northwestern Illinois town and had a pretty typical midwestern upbringing. My dad had happened to be a sound man for a local cover band in the 80’s so I gained my passion for music from him (especially after he introduced me to Rush’s 2112 in second grade which I would liken to seeing Star Wars for the first time as a young child).
Adam: I grew up in Niagara, in southern Ontario. The small-ish city I grew up in was a bit dull, so if you wanted something to do often you’d need to organize it yourself. That meant that what music and art scenes existed were pretty grass-roots, and I was introduced to punk rock and DIY events that way. I have some fond memories of making a complete fool of myself on stage in those years, even before I learned to play an instrument.
How did you discover music?
Vincent: I come from a pretty musical household. While my Dad didn’t play a lot, there was an acoustic guitar that I dabbled with before I started learning bass. And my Mom plays the saxophone. Both my parents listen to music quite frequently, so there was always a variety (Mostly classic and hard rock) of music being played around the house. From there my brother started listening to bands like Metallica, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Sepultura etc, and that was my introduction to heavy metal.
Adam: My Mom’s a classical singer, and has performed in choirs my whole life. Most of what was played in the house was classical, and I was sent to piano and violin lessons but couldn’t stand either. However my Dad introduced me to electronic music, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, and some classic rock. From there my interest in heavier music gradually took hold. I was attracted to punk and metal because the subject matter was as heavy as the riffs. I wanted to hear music that reflected more of the world around me, and was about something more than abstract sound.
Kevin: I grew up in a family that was very supportive of my interests in music. My dad introduced me to classic bands like AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath. From then on I was hooked on that kind of music.
How did you get your stage name?
Adam: The first time my dad saw me he said “Ah, damn.” (laughs)
Describe your music.
Vincent: Sword swinging, spell casting, patriarch crushing, ARCANE POWER DOOM! Or simply put, Epic Heavy Metal.
What was your first performance like?
Vincent: Our first performance was our demo release party in Chicago – it was exciting! We opened for Lady Beast, Professor Emeritus and Black Road. Besides some technical difficulties I had during the first song in our set, it went well. That was the first time our bassist Adam had met Collin and Kevin, so it felt really cool. We jammed that afternoon together, the five of us for the first time, then played a gig several hours later. It kicked off this entire whirlwind.
Adam: It was definitely a bit nerve-wracking to play a gig a few hours after meeting the drummer, but it also felt really good to pull that off. Everyone was ready to go and we were able to just launch into the set and crush it. That’s when I knew this was a reliable, professional group that could get shit done together.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
Vincent: Our first original song was “The Sword Woman”. It was written in the earliest days of the band when I was still doing vocals, and Sarah was drumming. It was the reason why Sarah eventually switched to vocals – she had written the lyrics and was singing the ending section, but was struggling to both nail the triumphant double kick ending while singing. The track was first recorded on our demo of the same name, and then again on our debut album.
What is the process of writing your music?
Kevin: The majority of our writing process involves writing music electronically and sending files to each other to critique and edit. We have never written a song in a jam session like a lot of other bands, due to us being geographically distant from one another. The good thing about this is we have everything written down, so if we need to re-learn a song we haven’t played in a while, it’s easier to do so.
Tell me about Violent Creed of Vengeance?
Adam: There’s so much to say here that all adds up to just being thrilled with how it turned out. The songs are generally faster and heavier, but there are still some moments of arcane doom. Those faster songs are more intricate and more challenging to play, which I like for the selfish reason that it keeps practicing and performing them fun — but I also figure that if a song can still keep my attention when I’m playing it for the hundredth time, then others will also find new things on repeated listens.
I could rave about every song because each is different and that makes for a really dynamic journey. It’s part of what makes the album “epic” and tell a longer story across all seven chapters, that the tempo and mood shift subtly from song to song. Midnight in the Mirror World slows things down before Path of Witchery erupts briefly into sci-fi thrash. Spellforger breaks up the epic quests on the B-side with three and a half minutes of straightforward speed metal. Dragonslayer’s Doom is an epic closer.
Sarah’s vocals have reached a new level just as the songwriting has, and the lyrics continue to deliver a message I’m proud to stand by in the form of epic fantasy tales.
Tell me about your new single “Victims of Fate”?
Vincent: This is the only song on the album that was entirely written by me. Music, lyrics, and vocal placement were meticulously arranged before and during the Covid lockdowns in 2020. The lyrics are about the various incarnations of Micheal Moorcock’s Eternal Champion character. It also features a spoken word intro written and performed by Moorcock himself, specifically for us. It’s very gratifying that he’s written for us, Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult. We never thought we could make that happen! The song itself is very epic, multi-layered, and sad.
How did you get the rights to use Michael Whelan artwork?
Sarah: Many, many emails! We’ve now had Michael Whelan’s artwork on our debut (Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring), our EP (Dream Quest Ends) and it’s now on Violent Creed of Vengeance. It took a lot of work to get a relationship going, but I’m thrilled we have. His artwork is so stunning, powerful, and bright. It’s cool to share a cover artist with Cirith Ungol and Demolition Hammer and Sepultura, particularly one who paints powerful warrior women who are clearly in the midst of a quest.
What are you feeling about streaming music?
Adam: I love that music is so freely available. I grew up as Napster took off and never would have been able to dig so deeply into rock, punk, and metal at such a young age without the internet. Now that I can afford to, I buy a lot of records, but I’ll always be happy that people are listening to the music I helped make, even if they’re just streaming it on YouTube.
Vincent: I think music streaming is a mandatory part of being a band in 2023. Youtube was, and still is, one of my go to places to discover new music. I stumbled across countless obscure bands that shaped my tastes while prowling Youtube in my early days of exploring underground metal. Many of which are still favorites to this day. After Bandcamp, it’s my most used streaming platform.
Collin: I agree with Vincent and Adam. It’s great and makes music available to so many more people than just physical product does.
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag. Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
Kevin: I think most people involved with making music still know what a “sharp” sign is. Though a lot of bands learn and write music using guitar tabs, which doesn’t necessarily use sharps as a notation device. I know some musicians who know very little about music theory and go completely by feel when writing music. I still think the sharp sign is pretty common knowledge, but perhaps not to the same extent as in the past.
How was it to play The Sword Woman acoustical for the first time?
Sarah: We played that song acoustically “live” on a few occasions now – first we started practicing for a living room sessions that we did with Friends of Canadian Broadcasting during the initial covid lockdowns. We then played it again on stage in Greece at Horns Up Festival, in Trikala. We did a whole acoustic set there before our headlining set the next day and honestly, it was great. We really enjoyed that. It’s cool to recontextualize your own music.
This year (2022) vinyl is outselling digital media. Metallica is selling so much vinyl that they bought their own pressing plant- They pressed 900,000 plus pieces of vinyl I 2022 alone. The plant they purchase is the Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA. So is it Digital vs. vinyl?
Sarah: Every format has its value. We are in an age where people consume music on every medium, and we like to have our music available in that way: digitally, on vinyl, on cassette, and CD. I personally like vinyl the most because it’s a large physical item to hold in your hand that you have to engage with to consume, and my favorite way of listening to music is sitting on our couch spinning records. But… other people consume music in other ways and that’s valid.
Adam: Sometimes I feel guilty for collecting so much plastic that could just be files on a hard drive, but I do love having the art in a larger format.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Vincent: The title track from Borrowed Time by Diamond Head has been occupying a large portion of my mind for the past year. Lightning to The Nations has been a top 3 NWOBHM album for me for over a decade, but I had foolishly ignored Borrowed Time mainly due to two of the tracks from Lighting… being re-recorded on it. In addition, the more commercial-sounding tracks totally turned me off in my early days of discovering heavy metal. Now having gained a lot more appreciation for Sean Harris’s vocals, I think Borrowed Time is a very solid album and the title track alone is strong enough to warrant a purchase. The song itself has an even more powerful meaning to me because the lyrics are about Elric of Melniboné, the most famous incarnation of Micheal Moorcock’s Eternal Champion character, whom we’ve now written about in two of our songs (“Ilian of Garathorm” and “Victims of Fate”.)
Is pay-to-play still a thing? Now pay to play also means things like a playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
Sarah: My understanding of pay-to-play is what you’ve already outlined. All of us have enough experience in the music industry to avoid that stuff like the plague, although some festivals we end up playing, we end up spending slightly more to get to (travel costs) than we make from our guarantee. It’s why merch is important, and why you have to weigh the pros and cons of every gig!
The show Star Trek introduced people to the holodeck: an immersive, realistic 3D holographic projection of a complete environment that you could interact with. Today holograms are already being used in a variety of way, such as medical systems, education, art, security and defense.
Performers like Tupac, Michael Jackson, Roy Orbison, Frank Zappa, Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse, Buddy Holly, Ronnie James Dio, Marylin Monroe, and Whitney Houston have done it already. The band ABBA just announced that they will be doing a comeback together after nearly 40 years as holograms on their next tour. With ABBA it was with the help of George Lucas .
If the cost was down to the point you could do it also, would you be willing to do Holographic concerts in our living room?
Kevin: For me personally, I don’t think this could ever replace the experience of going to a concert in person. That being said, it would be a cool option for people who were unable to leave their homes for whatever reason, for example, people with disabilities.
In the past if a musician stopped doing music, they found a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Adam: I’m not a full-time musician, as awesome as that would be. But if I had to give music up for whatever reason, I’d still need a creative outlet. Next to music, my favorite medium is gaming, so I’d try my hand at game development.
What is your happy place?
Sarah: For me, it’s picking mushrooms in the forest while listening to heavy metal. I’ve spent a lot of this past year foraging in Finland and it’s very peaceful. The other happy place is on stage. It’s such a blast to perform.
Adam: Anywhere live music is playing, for sure. Heavy metal in particular is best experienced live. However I’m pretty introverted for the most part, so I can be found more often at home with my books, instruments, records, and games. I live near a creek in Toronto that’s nice to hike along in the warmer months, where I go to clear my head after a long workday.
Red Hot Chili Peppers are about to sell their entire song catalog for $140 Million. In the past year a lot of musicians such as Stevie Nicks ($100 Million) , Bob Dylan (over $400 Million), Taylor Swift, Journey, Def Leppard, K.T. Tunstall, John Legend, ZZ Top and Shakira have sold their catalog rights within the last year. Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog for a reported $300 million. Neil Young sold 50 percent of his worldwide copyright and income interest in his 1,180 song catalogue to Hipnosis Songs Fund limited . Once you get to the age of about 70. Publishing is far more lucrative than the mechanical royalties paid to artists based on sales, airplay and streams. A good example of this is Michael Jackson brought the rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. And in the late 80’s the Beatles Revolution appeared in a Nike commercial. The lump sums being offered by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning.
On January 19, 2021 Hipgnosis Song Management acquired 80% of Kenny Chesney’s recorded music royalties, covering the country superstar’s discography from his 1994 debut In My Wildest Dreams through 2017’s Live in No Shoes Nation.
Someone who was totally against selling his rights was David Crosby. He did not want to sell his publishing rights. In addition, it was not an easy thing for him to do. However, by making a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, it took a big weight off his shoulders. He could pay off his house and cover other bills. Now he does not have to work for a living. It should be noted that David is battling tendinitis in his hands, which hurts his ability to play guitar. Peter Frampton at the end of last year also sold his rights to BMG.
Do you think you would be willing to sell your back catalog if someone like Universal is will to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs? Remember anything that you create forward will be 100% yours.
Adam: I’d be happy to sell my entire catalog of unreleased rough draft Guitar Pro files and Reaper projects for a few million dollars. Listeners will definitely not recognize such obscure classics as “crustriffs”, “riff-salad”, “bad black metal”, “voicenote061”, and “bass take 5”.
Over half a billion active users around the world share their favorite music on TikTok either with something like a dance challenge and lip-sync videos or creating a funny skit or candid camera moment.
TikTok has become a great platform for music promotion, sharing songs, and finding new listeners. In which it has become a place for music artists to earn revenue when people use their music. In many cases the daily promotion on TikTok has led to huge boosts on other platforms like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.
TikTok does this with the algorithm that generates a feed of content for each user, which you see as the displaying of #. The more a user engages with content, the smarter TikTok gets at guessing what kind of videos the viewer wants to watch.
Because a song can go viral because of this.
Sony Music and Warner Music Group- , The ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
Sarah: We’ve never used it and don’t have plans to start. That might change, though!
Adam: I’ve never been able to get into services that focus on extremely short-form content like Twitter, Vine, and now TikTok.
Breaking news: TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM music channel went live last summer. The station a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices.
Some of the on TikTok include Cassyette, YukoEXE, Ashinikko, Palaye Royale, Josh Dun (Twenty One Pilots), Yungblud, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, and Mick Jagger.
The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXM and its subsidiary,Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. Do you think this platform could become a force in the future of streaming music?
Adam: So, a radio station that plays whatever’s viral on TikTok this week? Nothing wrong with that, but I think it would just be another channel like so many others, and I’ve always preferred listening to full albums rather than radio.
