We recently interviewed Steve Garner, vocalist of the heavy hitters from The Bridal Procession. We has them as our Artist of the Week not too long ago and for good reason. They deliver some fierce, technical death metal with notable progressive elements. Read up and learn. We've also included some metal tunes for you to enjoy \m/__________________________________________________________________________________
SG = Steve Garner
MT = Mike Thall
MT - Let's start from the beginning. How did the band get started up?
SG - Tuan and I created the band in early 2007. We were and still are to this day best friends and really wanted to try our hands on something different we could do together. He was a 21 years old guitarist and I was just a 16 years old kid from a poor family so I picked up the cheapest instrument there is, vocals! And that's how it all started.
MT - How did you choose The Bridal Procession as your name?
SG - Back then we found it fitting to use a bridal procession as metaphor to represent our society. During a bridal procession, very different people living very different lives are united in one place. Most of them have an history together and reasons why life separated them. Hypocrisy and fakes smiles are kings amongst the happiest place.
MT - You dropped a new album "Descent Into Arcologies" this year. Can you tell us what went into making it?
SG - Well, it's obviously been a very long and treacherous road. At first, it was the simplest process. The album took us about two months to write and all in all a month to record, that was back in 2011. It's what came after that ruined everything. Dozens of delays with multiple different mixers, then picking one and getting screwed over, juggling with our other bands/projects/jobs, not finding a new drummer, which resulted in us having a finished album in early 2012 and not seeing it released for an entire year…So we released it ourselves recently with the kind agreement from our former label.
MT - You had significant cameos from Aaron Matts and Nick Arthur. How did these come about?
SG - I featured on Betraying The Martyrs' "When You're Alone" at first so it made sense to invite Aaron in return on one of our tracks. As for Nick Arthur, I was simply a big fan of Molotov Solution for years myself and I asked him directly. He gave a very great review to our debut album back in 2011 so he knew us already and he was excited.
MT - Any favorite tracks from the album?
SG - I think we all have our favorite ones but as far as musicianship goes, the instrumental track "A Solar Symbiosis" is our favorite. But Subterranean Abomination is definitely our favorite "full band" track.
MT - How has the response been so far?
SG - It's been great. I honestly haven't seen much negative comments about the album itself. A lot of shit came from the wait and set backs we put the public through but musically I haven't heard negative reviews.
MT - I gotta say you have awesome artwork. Is there a story / concept behind it?
SG - It's mainly reflecting the storyline of my lyrics, yes. If you read through each song you'll find that they're all linked together from start to finish even if I drift off a little sometimes to more actual subjects they're still happening within the story. The album's concept is a direct follow up to our debut album (which was about our society and planet's impending death). It's what happens after the apocalypse. The life of those who survived and how even after all this, people would do the same mistakes again and fall back into the vile arms of tyranny.
MT - What inspires your music?
SG - As a lyricist, my inspiration truly comes from our everyday life. How us, citizens of the world, are slowly stripped away from our rights and our dignity. We're strangled 24/7 with a slightly stronger grip every day and yet if it's not a global reaction, nothing can change our situation. Our society's leaders are centuries-long well oiled machines that have much different plans than the well being of the people.
MT - What are your thoughts on the French metal scene?
SG - It's producing great bands these days that's for sure but the public isn't changing. Turnouts are still relatively poor except if it's a big tour coming to town.
MT - Any bands you would recommend?
SG - Betraying The Martyrs are definitely great flag holders right now. Other bands off the top of my head would be The Algorithm, Chunk No Captain Chunk, Upheaval and the obvious Gojira, Gorod etc!
MT - If you could tour with any bands in the world, who would you choose?
SG - Collectively our answer would probably be Opeth and Between The Buried And Me.
MT - What's the craziest thing that has ever happened to you on the road or at a show?
SG - One sticks out off the top of my head. We were booked to play a show in Germany whilst on tour in Europe with the american band LIGEIA back in '09. When we arrived at the address given to us, we found a huge destroyed factory-like place. All windows smashed, nothing inside it but obvious rests of slaughterhouse work, no stage, but a P.A on one side of the factory. Obviously we had very low hopes on this being a good show because it was about 5 degrees inside, no sign of any fan around and let's face it, shit was scary. Comes show time, 400 kids turn up, most in costumes, start the craziest pits, smash the little amount of windows that were left, buy most of our merch stocks and make it the craziest show of the tour. Looks can be deceiving.
MT - Favorite song to play live?
SG - We all have a favorite one but I think Shroud of the End off our debut album is in everyone's top 3 for sure! Short, fun to play and it gets the crowd going everytime. Other than that, maybe A Paradoxical Utopia from our new album because on our last UK tour it was the intro track and it was definitely a big kick in the teeth for the public and ourselves.
MT - What are your plans for the rest of 2013 / early 2014?
SG - We're obviously not an active touring band anymore and have been on hiatus since October 2012. We will not get back on stage but we're considering writing a new EP at the end of the year. A very special occasion to get the fans involved this time is in the works. Time will tell!
MT - Is there anything you want to say to your fans out there?
SG - Thanks for sticking with us along the years. It's been a very bumpy ride and those who stayed on board are like family to us. Keep supporting the artists you love.
MT - That's all we have. Thanks for your time!
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