Walls Within
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Walls Within

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"Take Five: An Interview with Albuquerque’s Walls Within"

Although Albuquerque’s Walls Within are relative newcomers to the world of metal, the band’s members have cultivated experience by playing in other bands. Walls Within play progressive metal that combines the heavy with the melodic. They are currently working on their debut CD. Take Five spoke with the band, which had the following to report.

Tell me about your band and its musical approach.

Walls Within: “We are an original four-piece progressive-metal band from Albuquerque, formed in late 2010. Our approach as a band is to write songs that are heavy but melodic; brutal but beautiful; technical and complex, but most importantly, the music must mean something to the people that hear it. We want people not just to hear our music, but also to know our influences and personalities, both individual and collective, in every song.”

Any plans to record a CD? Please provide any details regarding possible titles and what fans can expect to hear.

Walls Within: “We are recording now and plan to have a CD released in a few months. The songs we’re writing now have an aggressive, heavy, melodic, and new metal feel that wanders between time signatures and tempos. The song ‘Falling Down’ is a great middle ground in our catalog, boasting soaring guitar melodies, driving bass riffs, heavy rhythmic breakdowns, and vocals that express the frustration and angst of the lyrics in styles both coarse and canorous.”

Walls Within are a relatively new band on the scene. What would you say has been your toughest obstacle to date and how did you overcome it?

Walls Within: “Collectively Walls Within is a new band, but we have all performed in others. Any one of us will say that putting together this band has been several years in the making. In our experience, there are lots of very talented musicians in New Mexico, so for us the most important aspect of the band was the dynamics of its members. It’s essential to match up on so many different criteria. To make good music, there has to be that certain chemistry within the group’s members. From day one, it’s felt like we’ve played together for years.”

How has living in New Mexico influenced your musical approach?

Walls Within: “Living in New Mexico has definitely fostered a strong DIY approach to recording and production. Anyone who has been to our beautiful state knows the vast geography can pose a real challenge to even the most ambitious band. Although we have plans to tour the state and eventually the country, we’ve decided to start out by recording in our recently completed studio space. While this may seem counterintuitive, our experience has taught us otherwise.

“It can take several months for a band to ‘gel’ musically; it’s only then that the members really start to ‘hear’ one another. We decided to expedite the process by recording early on, and it’s definitely paying off. We have band pages on MySpace, Facebook, and ReverbNation, but we are also hoping that by having CDs on hand when we start traveling that we can help further promote our music.”

Tell me about the song “Waiting.” What inspired it and how did you work through the lyrics to develop the final song?

Walls Within: “‘Waiting’ embodies the feelings of frustration, rage, disdain, animosity, and bitterness we all feel when we are trapped in a perpetually bad situation. The music and vocals take the listener through the struggle from the onset of despair and defiance to its resolution, acceptance, and ultimately to a sense of hope that a better future is ‘Waiting.’” - Octavio Ramos


"Take Five: A follow-up interview with Walls Within"

When I last spoke to Albuquerque’s Walls Within, they were newcomers to the world of heavy metal. The band has since cultivated plenty of experience, playing with other metal bands and better harnessing their approach to progressive metal that combines the heavy with the melodic. Take Five caught with the band anew, and guitarist Nathan Joseph headed the call.

Refresh the metal horde about your band and your musical approach.

Nathan Joseph: “What is really crazy these days as far as writing is concerned is we have a much more methodical approach to our songs. Instead of all of us trying to cram in everything we can in an entire song, we let it breathe. We are not afraid of reaching into different influences to help support our music. Our old songs were mainly in a straight four-time signature, which is great but can make the music sound similar from song to song.

“In our new song ‘Vows,’ we have a 5/4 verse section that bridges into a 7/8–4/4 chorus, which allows for the illusion of more space. Another song, ‘Triad,’ has an intro in 11/8 and then bridges into a syncopated 4/4; this giving the feeling of odd meter timing when it is really not. We are working with a great producer out of Austin, Texas, named Ross Falcon. With his ear and our ability to really center in on details, we can provide more cohesion in our songs. I mean we still have the heavy guitar riffs, deep low-end bass, screaming vocals, and syncopated drums but with more style and ease of transitions. We have really focused on making two or three parts of a song strong to provide the heaviest and hookiest melodies we can provide without taking away our technical side.”

So, what’s been going on since we last spoke?

Nathan Joseph: “We had a hard time at the beginning of this year. We had a departure from our group in March, which led to a three-month search for a new bassist. During that time, the three of us decided to sit down and really evaluate our goals with Walls Within. We decided to write and record at our own studio with our guitarist trading out on bass. It made us much tighter as a group and allowed us more freedom to work on the musical direction we wanted to take.

“In June, we found our new bassist. Chris Mattson, an amazing find. Chris has multi-instrumental experience, with an additional talent for vocals. Chris has definitely tied our group together both personality and music-wise. After that, the gears started turning again and the floodgates of music and opportunities opened. We are playing our first show in six months at Hooligans, which is one of our favorite venues. We are surprised with this much down-time that our fans still remember and appreciate us. It has told us that we made a lasting impression and have support, which is something that can only come from hard work and dedication to our art.”

When we last spoke Walls Within were a relatively new band on the scene. Now that you’ve been around for a while, what would say has been your biggest challenge and what have you done to overcome it?

Nathan Joseph: “The biggest challenge so far has been to write music that both we and our fans enjoy. To overcome this obstacle, we decided to stand on the shoulders of giants. We took to researching and discussions in excruciating detail regarding some of our favorite bands and influences. We contacted different successful producers and asked them their opinions on song writing. We took that and kind of wrote our own process for making songs. The results have been astonishing to us.”

Tell me about the track “Faceless.” What inspired the words and how did you go about putting pen to paper?

Nathan Joseph: “‘Faceless’ was one of those songs that just came together. Our guitarist Nathan was doing his normal noodling on the guitar and all of a sudden the intro riff came. Everyone stopped and screamed, ‘RECORD IT BEFORE YOU LOSE ANOTHER ONE!’ The rest of the song came together as a collective. It is a pretty simple song by our standards, but the verse and chorus lines pack a dynamic punch.

“The words came from our struggles with some of the ghosts of our pasts. One of the bridge/chorus lines goes, ‘Faceless . . . are you proud? Of this empty shell you made?’ then the chorus line is, ‘It’s time reclaim. My identity. That you take . . . That you took away.’ It means that all human beings at one time or another allow themselves to become comfortable/complacent with abusive situations, which ultimately change who we are forever—that a mistake can be a defining or destructive moment that only we have the decision to reclaim ourselves from.”

What’s the latest word on recording a debut EP or LP?

Nathan Joseph: “Now this is a fun question. We are going in late October to Austin, Texas, to record with David Butler at SoCo sound studios. David is a phenomenal engineer and creates an award-winning sound. All of us will head out individually to track, which will take the better part of a month. So, a release will be coming out in the December/January timeframe. We are excited to see what this experience will bring us.” - Octavio Ramos


Discography

EP: WWI (Released 2013)
Single: Faceless (Released 2013)

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Bio

We are an original four piece progressive metal band from Albuquerque, formed in late 2010. Our approach as a band is to write songs that are heavy, yet melodic; brutal, but beautiful; technical and complex, but not so much that it becomes difficult to listen to. We want people not just to hear our music, but to know our influences and personalities, both individual and collective, in every song.