Q & A: Whitefall

Canberra Metalcore 5-piece Whitefall are just over a month from releasing their new EP ‘Origins’. We jumped at the chance to have a chat with them about their fresh new sound and what they’ve been up to.

Worst pick up line you’ve heard or used?

Get your coat, its cold in the boot of my car.

Your perfect meal would consist of?

The meatiest of all meaty pizzas.

If you had to be trapped in a TV series, what series would that be?

Metalocalypse.

What question do you hate answering in an interview?

I got asked what my biggest weakness was in a job interview once, I told them it was answering that question.

Describe yourselves in 5 words

Shit talking guys playing music.

How did you decide on Whitefall as your band name?

We decided on the band name back when the band was just Scotty and myself (Connor) when we first started writing music together in 2013. We had a few ideas and i came up with the name Whitefall, which was the name of a planet in one of my favourite TV shows, Firefly. The sound of the name resonated with us and the idea of naming the band after a barren, desolate lawless planet seemed to be a good theme to us.

How would you describe the sound of your music?

Our sound was something that just sort of happened. We like to think that it’s pretty heavy but still melodic with some progressive flare to it. Although we would love it to be described as face melting.

What are some of your musical aspirations collectively?

For the most part it’s to play with some of our favourite bands at our favourite music festival, like Soundwave….RIP

Who would you compare your band too musically?

I suppose we would compare ourselves to bands like In Hearts Wake and Northlane, maybe even I Killed the Prom Queen.

How did the band meet one-another?

Scotty and I (Connor) met because I worked with his sister at Coles and his dad was also in a rock cover band-The Never will bes- with my uncle. His sister mentioned that we were into the same kind of music and we started jamming. Chris and I worked together at coles and i noticed he was always wearing ‘Thy Art is Murder’ and ‘Deez Nuts’ merch so I asked him to come along to a practice one day and he fit right in. Chris was also friends with our bassist ben who he asked to join. I actually met our guitarist Zac when I went to get my guitar serviced at the store he works in. He started shredding on my 7 string and I asked him to join.

You’ve just dropped the launch date for your upcoming EP Origins (4th March), how are we feeling?

It’s definitely a very exciting time. We’ve been building to this for a long time now and now that it’s so close we all can’t wait to show the world our music.

How long was the recording process and how was it?

We recorded the EP over 3 days, we would have liked to have spent longer on it but money (as for most start up musicians) was an issue. It was an awesome experience. Although it was only Scotty, Chris, Reece (Our old bassist) and myself at the time we have an great time which was only made better by our producer Dax Liniere whose passion for his trade is only matched by his fun loving attitude. Its amazing how much fun and stupidity we managed to squeeze into those 3 days and end up with an EP that sounds like this.

Are you happy with the finished product? Is there anything you would have changed given another opportunity?

We are all very happy with and proud of the EP. We definitely would have liked to enter the studio more prepared than we were but such is life right.

Is there a particular song on the EP that you think really expresses who Whitefall are as a band?

Causality was definitely a good track for us. It was the first track that Scotty and I wrote that we really listened to and thought, “Yeah this could be something”.

Did you only record 5 songs for this EP? Or do you have tracks that didn’t quite make the cut?

We did only record 5 songs on the EP yes but we had plans to record a 6th instrumental track that we unfortunately ran out of time for. At the time we were disappointed but we are still proud of what we have achieved.

How happy were you guys to hear that Dan Tompkins from TesseracT was keen to feature on your track Causality?

We’re absolutely stoked!!! We’d seen big bands do features in their music but never thought we could pull it off on our very first release! Dan was an absolute pleasure to work with as well and such a talented guy!

Do you plan to tour with EP? Any teasers on who you might use as a support act?

We don’t have any plans to tour the EP no. At the moment we’re really just playing the gigs we can find. If one of those happened to be a tour we would be pretty keen to jump on it.

What was it like making your first live debut on tour with Dream On Dreamer?

That was definitely a memorable first gig for us. We had to push really hard to get the gig but it paid off in the end.  We met the guys from Dreamer and Polaris who were all top blokes and Marcel from Dreamer even gave us some great advice which was rad.

What city did you enjoy playing in the most?

So far we’ve only played in Canberra and Sydney. For us it’s hard to beat a home town show in Canberra though.

What is your fondest memory as a band so far?

Recording in the studio was probably the best experience we’ve had. It was a really fun time for everyone involved and we didn’t want to stop.

If you hadn’t become musicians who would you have been?

Absolute deadbeats….just kidding…..maybe. Most of us are at a bit of a fork in the road at the moment with our futures and what we want to become. A few of us are at uni and working crappy jobs to pay the bills for now trying to figure out who we could be.