Sojourner a band whose hometown is Dunedin, New Zealand; Malmö, Sweden; Bergamo, Italy; and Dundee, Scotland.
Interview conducted on May 19, 2020
By Dan Locke
Sojourner is a multi-national folk-influenced atmospheric metal band from Dunedin, New Zealand; Malmö, Sweden; Bergamo, Italy; and Dundee, Scotland. The band is signed to Napalm Records.
Band Members
Emilio Crespo – Lead Vocals
Mike Lamb – Guitars, Piano, Synth / Keyboards
Chloe Bray – Guitars, Tin Whistle, Clean Vocals
Scotty Lodge – Bass
Mike Wilson – Bass
Riccardo Floridia – Drums
How did you discover music?
Emilio: All on my own. I started listening to a lot of stuff from an early age but when I heard metal music, that was it for me. I knew I also wanted to create.
Mike L.: Music is one of those things that defines so much of your life, it’s such a powerful force in the way that it cements and carries memories like time capsules. Growing up I was just obsessed with music, my family was always playing it around the house or in the car, though only my older brother actually played an instrument. As I grew into my formative teenage years, I knew I wanted to be able to create that myself somehow, find a way to capture the emotions that I felt when I listened to music. My brother was a huge influence on me picking up the guitar, I wanted to be like him.
How did you start writing music?
Emilio: I had been doing harsh vocals for quite some years at that point and I met some likeminded people that also wanted to start a band. I guess the same way it happens to everyone.
Mike L.: After learning guitar for a few years I just wanted to start doing my own stuff so I could form a band, so I started playing with Power Tab and created a whole bunch of derivative throwaway stuff until I eventually got good enough to write decent songs that had some originality. After I’d been in a few bands I found that I wanted to be able to control every aspect of the songwriting so that I could truly capture what I heard in my head, so I learned how to write drums and that’s when it all clicked for me really.
Your band name is Sojourner. What inspired you to choose this name? Have you heard of Sojourner Truth (An American abolitionist and women’s rights activist?)
Emilio: Since most of our lyrics are very fantasy and nature-based, I was searching for something that could really make sense for us. One day the word sojourner popped into my head which is basically someone that doesn’t stay in one place for too long. That’s usually what all characters are in RPG’s, fantasy books, movies, etc. So, we decided on that name. Also, there aren’t a million metal bands with the name, haha but it has no relation to anything else. It’s just based on the original definition.
Mike L.: Yeah, I personally didn’t learn about Sojourner Truth until later on because of the band name, but massive respect to her for making such a huge impact.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
Emilio: I would like to say sleep, eating well, and even some exercise but I did almost none of them while on tour haha I did sleep quite a bit but there was lots of partying with our tour mates in Draconian and Harakiri. It’s 100% recommended to take it easy and I agree but since it was my first-time touring and, in a Nightline, I wanted to enjoy as much as I could. And it worked for me because I gave it my all every night and my vocals were on point the entire tour.
Mike L.: Since we’ve only done the one tour it’s hard to say definitively, but judging by the experience there it seems nearly impossible. Any time you think you’ll have a healthy day it ends up with excessive drinking and the same meat and cheese platter and slop dinner like every other night. If we were ever on a longer tour than two weeks, I think we’d need to seriously focus on buying our own fruit and snacks, and having serious self-restraint when it comes to drinking and eating the cheap food that’s often provided.
Since your band is spread around the world, how do you go about creating a piece of music?
Mike L.: It’s a fairly simple process where Chloe and I write all the music, then send the finished demos out to the other members. Emilio puts his vocals on, Mike Wilson does the bass, Riccardo will add a few minor variations to my drums and then record them, and it all comes back to me for final editing and engineering before it goes off to the mixing and mastering engineers. Writing is simple though; Chloe and I have a system and an understanding of each other’s styles that makes for easy writing from a distance. My studio is basically the hub of the band, so all roads lead back to that when it comes to file sharing, writing processes, and recording.
Have you started to use an application like Zoom to create your music?
Mike L.: We haven’t, no. We just share files back and forth for writing, we’re quite solitary writers and do very little face-to-face interaction.
I hear you are into gaming. Any recent games you’ve been playing and any stories to tell about them?
Emilio: I love JRPG’S/RPG’s and survival horror games above all. Not much of an online gamer whatsoever. So naturally, I’ve been addicted to the recently released Resident Evil 3 and Final Fantasy VII remakes.
Mike L.: I’m a huge RPG and Survival Horror fan as well, and I’ve recently been playing one of my favorite horror games of the last few years, Darkwood, again on Switch. I’m also about to start Sekiro finally too! Dark Souls and Bloodborne are some of my favorite games of all time, so I have massively high hopes.
Do you have a live feed channel like many gamers are starting host?
Emilio: I actually have a Youtube channel where I Livestream gameplays and such but it’s been a bit abandoned for a while. I do wish to start it up again at some point though.
Tell me about any concepts behind your new release “Premonitions”?
Emilio: The main idea of the album on a lyrical level stems from the tough time that we all went through in our personal lives last year. I also had a really tough time so rather than write the fantasy and nature-inspired stuff from the previous two albums, I decided to dig deep and write about the pain and despair I was feeling at the time. The album is completely personal and way different in terms of lyrical themes.
Aside from “Fatal Frame”, will there be any more gaming elements on the album, and if so, tell us about them?
Emilio: No, it’s just that song. I’ve always wanted to write lyrics based on my favorite game of all time (Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly) and due to the themes of the game, I also felt it was gonna match the album very well. Mike was visiting me last year and we played through it together and he pressed me to write the lyrics I’ve wanted to write for so long. He inspired me and we decided to write the song once and for all. I couldn’t be prouder of the result.
What is your favorite track on the album and why?
Emilio: I love the whole album for reasons I already stated but at the same time I have to say Fatal Frame just because I truly love that game and I’ve struggled to write the lyrics for over 10 years. It finally came out the way I always wanted it to. So that one is definitely my favorite.
Mike L.: Yeah, I love the whole album too, but I feel like Fatal Frame might be my favorite this time around. I’m also really fond of Eulogy for the Lost, it has a really low-key old-school vibe to it that I think works really well. I don’t see that being a common favorite because it’s a slow burn track, but I just really like how it turned out.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
Mike L.: I have no problem with people streaming our music, and I personally stream music all the time myself these days. Spotify is just really convenient, though I do a couple that with buying a lot of stuff on Bandcamp too. I guess I just buy less physical than I used to because when you shift around the world a lot as I’ve had to the last few years it’s harder to justify it than when I was based purely in New Zealand, and I just put more money into music equipment these days.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Mike L.: I love vinyl, but I can’t justify collecting it right now. So… vinyl in terms of ideology, digital in terms of practicality.
What song from the past is stuck in your head right now? And what meaning does that song have for you?
Mike L.: Funnily enough I’ve had the Queensryche song ’Silent Lucidity’ stuck in my head a lot lately. It’s a song that means a lot to me because I really loved it when I was growing up, something about that song is just so beautiful and sad in a really specifically melancholy 90s way. I used to listen to that, Pink Floyd, Smashing Pumpkins, and a lot of other stuff on mixtapes while playing Ocarina of Time and Resident Evil and all those classic N64 and PS1 games in my room, dreaming of making music in a proper band one day. The funny thing is, now that I am making music in a band that I love and living out my teenage dream, nostalgic songs like that make me think of all of the things I’ve lost along the way. The choices you make and the mistakes and stuff, it’s a weird feeling. It reminds you that you’re getting older and that time passes more quickly than you’d like and that choices aren’t inconsequential like they were when you were younger with less to lose.
How do you feel the Covid-19 impacting the music business in the future?
Emilio: It’s a shame and we, as well as many bands, are crushed by it all. But we will rise above this and be onstage near you very soon, hopefully!
What have you been doing during your self-quarantine?
Emilio: Gaming and hanging out with my dogs haha!
Mike L.: Same here haha a lot of gaming, rewatching the entirety of the X-Files, and enjoying just making music for the sake of it again. Something you kind of forget to do when you’re in album-writing mode.
Lots of people are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Are you planning to do something like that?
Mike L.: We’ve got a few plans and ideas, but we’ll see what happens! Being so scattered makes things a little trickier than if we were all together.
There was an article in the New York Times this week talking about concerts potentially not starting again until Fall of 2021. Do you think it could happen?
Emilio: I have no idea. I personally don’t think it’ll take that long but I’m no scientist or doctor so we just need to wait and see.
Mike L.: I think that’s genuinely a possibility when it comes to larger shows and festivals at least. Maybe as it eases up smaller venues will be able to get back into it, but honestly, I don’t think any of us know what the world will look like after this. I know it’s going to be a long time before anything resembles the world before the virus. People survive and adapt though, so I have hope.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
Emilio: In Sojourner, still writing and releasing music we love.
Mike L.: I don’t see Sojourner disappearing anytime soon, by not painting ourselves into too much of a corner genre-wise it’s given us a lot of scopes to explore and evolve.
Anything you would like to say in closing?
Emilio: Thank you for the interview and to all the fans that support us! From being just a bedroom studio band to having a major release and becoming a touring band is thanks to you all for supporting us. Hard work is a huge part of it but it means nothing if you don’t have people supporting you every step of the way!
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