Interview with Within Shadows: Canadian Metal Band Launches Debut Album and Music Video

Within Shadows - P. Cummings (5)Within Shadows released their debut album Mind = Enemy on December 21.  In conjunction with the release, they premiered the music video for “Get Up,” the first track on the album. And if that weren’t enough excitement for one week, the band also announced a show on January 14th at Lucky’s Roudhouse in Windsor, Ontario.

This metal band from Ontario, Canada features Sean Farias (vocals/guitar), Jordan Heffernan (drums), Brad Tiessen (guitar), and Jacob Bailey (bass). NYS Music spoke with frontman Sean Farias about their ambitious 15-track album, the passion they poured into the making of the video, and their plans for 2017 and beyond.

Paula Cummings: Your album is called Mind=Enemy. How did you choose the title?

Sean Farias: We chose the title Mind=Enemy because it relates to the song themes that we portray lyrically. The majority of our songs relate to inner battles, struggles that we’ve had and about conquering those. This also helps bring a positive outlook to the listener and help them with the same problems.

PC: Tell me about the tracks on the album.

SF: The album is going to consist of 15 tracks, four of them being remakes of older Within Shadows tunes and 11 brand new songs. The songs will range from different metal genres like hardcore, easycore, djent, heavy metal and more. We have a new instrumental track called “Captive” where we try to recreate the concept of our EP song “Regrets” and have guitar solos through the whole song. “Demons” is a remake from an EP released a year ago. We have a song called “Djust Kill Me Now,” which was written during one the darkest times in my life. It is a collaboration with Derek Petricka of Discord Curse and Lucas Mann of Rings of Saturn. We also wanted to showcase that we like to play different genres by including a pop punk song called “On My Mind.” There are many more tracks to this album, and I promise there are many bumpin’ riffs to mosh to.Within Shadows - P. Cummings (3)

PC: Which bands inspire you?

SF: Our band is greatly influenced by other bands, such as Slipknot, Lamb of God, Beartooth, Tool, Billy Talent, Rings of Saturn and more. We are influenced by their musicianship and writing styles which we infuse into our own. Also we have seen the majority of these bands perform live, which in its own powerful way leaves us with extreme levels of motivation and the urge to write our own music.

PC: What was it like to record your first music video together?

SF: It was incredible! We had the honor of working with Ryan Brough of Zeebrah Media. He is a great guy, easy to work with, and made what was envisioned in our mind come to life. We are just as excited as our fan base to see the finished product. We wanted our first video to be the perfect representation of what we will be like live to anyone who would want to come see us. So it is literally us going buck wild in front of a camera playing our song “Get Up!” We had so much fun shooting this video. Jumping around for three hours was certainly tiring, but we brought the crazy throughout the whole shoot. Jacob Bailey even bled all over his bass from going so full out!

PC: Jordan got to break out his new drum kit for the video, right?

SF: Oh yes! He was most certainly excited about that. We all were. This new kit is magical!!!

PC: You guys also help local charities.

SF: That is one of our passions. We love to help out those in our community, and also contribute to local charities. When we raise enough money or make enough sales on our music and merchandise, we love to give a chunk of that to charity. For our EP Release the Disease, we ended up donating $500 to our local food bank, because of all the support our fan base gave us. We hope one day we can grow our band to a bigger level where we can help impact more people in a positive way and more on a global scale.

PC: 2016 has been an eventful year for Within Shadows. What are your band goals for 2017?

SF: Shows. Lots and lots of shows. Trying to get our band more exposure. Sending our new songs out to record labels and work with many people in the industry and other musicians. Also we want to record a lot more music videos for our tracks.

Pre-orders for CD’s are being taken at their website. Digital downloads and streaming are available through Bandcamp, iTunes, and Google Play. 

Photos by Ryan Brough of Zeebrah Media

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