If you’ve been following along, you probably caught Ian’s review of Alunea yesterday. This is an album many of us have head our eyes on, and I must say that I completely agree with my esteemed colleague… the latest from Kardashev does not disappoint. Out through Metal Blade, the deathgaze collective have given us so many wonderful things to explore with this release. It’s one I find both thought-provoking and catchy, and frankly it’s just super enjoyable to get lost in. So I’m happy to be here with another opportunity to talk about it on its release date. It’s our latest Profile feature, so give the responses to our questions a read below and join me on this wonderful ride why don’t ya?

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How and when did you first get into playing music, or metal more specifically, and how did your band get its start? Any pushback from family/those close to you?

Nico here! (Guitarist) I was first introduced to metal and playing it by some friends in Jr. High School around 2002 when we got together to jam some Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold or Atreyu in my buddy Alex’s house or his neighbor Kyle’s garage. We would learn the tabs on his family computer and then run out to the garage and plugin and try to jam. It was really a special time for me. As for Kardashev, we didn’t begin writing music until 2012, about 10 years later when Mark and I met at Northern Arizona University and I told him I wanted to write music and he told me that he’d always wanted to scream like Bring Me The Horizon. Our families supported us wholly, although they may have been confused by the musical direction, they supported us with love and care, and for that we are grateful.

How would you describe your band and what you play to someone who is completely in the dark?

To someone who’s completely in the dark, I would walk them through the lens of popularity based on their age. For an older person, it might be something like, “You know Metallica? We sound kind of like that if they were less political, not thrash, and had angelic singing.” Or for a younger person, “Have you ever heard of Lady Gaga? Yeah, we don’t sound like that.” But for most people, I’d say we’re Experimental Death Metal.

Is there anything about your latest album or about your band that no one will find in any interview or review that you care to divulge?

The mixing and mastering process was done while Nico was moving to Germany, which made it a WHOLE new challenge for the band members to get feedback to the mix engineer while he was on planes, packing, selling his stuff, and generally preparing his family for his departure from Arizona to Germany. Most people don’t know about that or will ask about it. Thanks for asking. It was hard.

Any funny stories from playing shows / tours / festivals, etc?

When we played UK Tech Fest in 2015, we didn’t have a drummer, so we brought a laptop to just “press spacebar” for the drums. The thing is though, stages are rumble-y, and vibrate a lot, so if you have a HDD instead of an SSD or M.2 drive, your backing tracks begin to skip sporadically, and ours did, and we were unable to salvage that performance or audio capture because of it. We learned a HARD lesson that day, if you’re going to have backing tracks from a laptop, make sure there are no optical drives. haha

What do you see as some of the great things happening in and around the metal scene (yours or just in general) and what are some of the worst things happening right now?

The best thing about the metal scene that I’ve observed is probably that young people are still following the path of creating and innovating on a genre that seems like it’s done EVERYTHING already. They’re impressing us with NEWER and NEWER sounds and it’s brilliant! I’d encourage people to check out Caelestra, Mirar, and Primitive Man to name a few. As for the worst things happening in metal, it’s not the culture’s fault or the fans, but we rely too much on social media and don’t understand that the algorithms of social media prevent us from seeing MUCH of our favorite creators because those creators aren’t profitable to the platform. I’d encourage every band and fan to find a more direct way to communicate and collaborate, like Discord, email lists or bandcamp directly.

Most folks have passions for a cause or causes that are close to them. What, if any, are some of the most important issues (social/political/humorous/etc.) for you / your band and how do you insert those issues into your music? 

Probably the most important issue that we touch on is that kindness costs nothing. NOTHING. And there’s little to no reason to be kind to one another. It’s not a contest to be mean, or top dog. It’s embarrassing, most of the time. That being said, we also tend to touch on the subject of universal empathy. Most people have the capacity for empathy, but we try to evoke that, or even write in such a way that a listener feels like the message of empathy is felt. At least I hope so.

Do you guys have day jobs or hobbies you want to share? 

I (Nico) am a private consultant for creators. I have a sort of… offering of fast tracking bands to get into what I call the “Sign Ready Status”. Basically, helping bands and creators tick the boxes to make the best effort in meeting with a label or potential business relationship. It’s a sort of consultancy I guess. But I ONLY focus on extreme bands as they often are less likely to get the specialized help they need.

Mark runs a vocal academy called Kardavox Academy and uses YouTube to teach extreme vocalists how to preserve their voice and grow their power.

Sean is a marketing consultant for eCommerece businesses.

Alex plays for the band Holy Fawn when they tour, and is a GAMER. Like, he plays games, man. haha

What advice do you have for music critics and outlets out there? How can we all better serve the genre in the eyes of a hard-working musician?

Music critics, I don’t have much advice for. I know what I like, but that doesn’t have to be what they like. Keep doing what you’re doing and remember, positive affirmation goes a long way for bands, especially DIY Metal bands. As for serving the genre, stop using socials. Start seeking out direct contact with bands/fans. We use emails, Discord, and Bandcamp to keep in contact with our fans since social media will suppress posts for bad hashtags, or ban your account because you said the wrong word of the month. It’s not within your control, so move to something that IS.

Any specific long term goal(s) in mind?

Long term, I’d like to get the third MBR album done and then take a break. I’ve moved to Germany, got married, began learning the German language, and am taking care of a loved one from a distance. I’d like to re-focus my efforts on music at some point, but the balance can be hard to find, so in the meantime, I’ll keep the band chugging on Discord and our Website and maybe write a new album in the next year. 🙂 Join us at discord.gg/kardashevband

When you’re not obsessing over your own material, what are some of your favorite albums to listen to currently?

Caelestra – “Bastion”, Deafheaven – “Lonely People with Power”, IOTUNN – “Kinship”, Lantlos – “Melting Sun”, AHAB – “The Coral Tombs”, and Rye – “Beyhoe”.

What is the near future outlook for you or your band? Any specific events on the horizon that the masses should be aware of?

We are content creators regularly and primarily. We don’t perform live unless a festival has an invite and can afford our fee rate, so we make content and exist in our Discord community. We’d love to play more festivals around the world, we just need the opportunity.

Summarize your band in one word.

Deathgaze

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Many thanks to Kardashev for the time!

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Alunea is out through Metal Blade Records. Join them on Discord, linked above, or do the social media thing: Instagram and Facebook.