Interview

Byzantine Talks New Album "To Release Is To Resolve"

Celebrating 15 years of existence, Byzantine is set to release fifth album "To Release Is To Resolve" in April. Forgoing even an indie label this time around, the U.S. group crowd funded the album and will be releasing through its own publishing company.

With the release date just a month off now, the members of Byzantine checked in to explain the process of funding and recording the album, and to discuss everything from the artwork to the diverse lyrics (covering topics from the West Memphis 3 to pain pill withdrawal and even on to alien/human interactions). Check out the full interview below.

xFiruath: How long have you been working on this new album and how does it feel to finally have it done?

Sean Sydnor: Started working on the album as soon as we got back from the Fall 2013 Indianapolis Metal Fest. Recording it was a bit of an enduring process, as we’re all kind of perfectionists but in the end we were all completely satisfied beyond all expectations. Definitely glad and excited to have it finished!

Chris Ojeda: I had one song (“Scold’s Bridle”) that was a holdover from the last album’s material and the rest is all new material. We started tracking the material this September. The whole record took about 5 weeks to record.

xFiruath: After an album is done being recorded, what’s the process like after that, and typically how long does it take to go from recorded to pressed and released?

Ojeda: Since we keep everything in house with our engineer Jay Hannon, it goes pretty quickly for us. After he finished tracking the album, he took about a week off to decompress and rest his ears. The mixing and mastering process took around 3 weeks. We pick one song as a test song and he tears into in sending multiple mixes via our Dropbox. We pick that song to death until we are completely happy with it. Then the rest of the songs will go much quicker. We like to keep it in house because we don’t have to explain the why’s and how’s to a new mixing engineer. Jay already has most of it planned out before he even starts the actual process.

xFiruath: Are you guys going with an independent release this time around or do you have a label backing (or are you actively seeking label backing at this point)?

Ojeda: We are going the independent route again. We will be releasing this through our own label and publishing company we created for our releases. One major difference this time around is that we partnered up with RED/CEN Distribution so this album will be represented with physical as well as digital distribution. Also, we have The Syndicate handling all our publicity as well. So as of right now, there’s little to no difference between us being signed to an indie label like earlier in our career and doing our own thing now, except we are only in debt to ourselves and any backers we have. It’s still financially stressful but we know to the penny how much we have to sell to be recouped.

xFiruath: Byzantine crowd funded this album – how did that process go, how much did you end up making, and were there any unforeseen problems using this model you’ve experienced that other bands might want to know about before going that route?

Ojeda: The last album, we used Kickstarter and raised around $7,000. This time around we used Pledge Music and have raised around $14,000 so far with only a few weeks left to go. Pledge is more hands-on. They designate a rep to help work your campaign with you and that has helped tremendously. The other difference is they hold some of the money back until you fulfill all of your pledges. That way it limits the amount of fans being ripped off by bands. Crowd funding a record is an incredible amount of back end work for the band but we seem to recoup our expenses much quicker than if we took $14,000 from a record label.

xFiruath: There’s a lot of symbolism in the very striking cover artwork. Who created the cover, what medium did they use, and how does it connect to the album?

Ojeda: The album cover was created by our friend and long-time Byzantine fan Christopher Lovell. Lovell is a super talented pen and ink artist from the U.K. and we’ve been internet friends for a few years now. I sent him the demos last year and he came up with the concept based off those instrumental demos. His pen and ink detail is world class and it’s by far the best album cover we could ever have hoped for. It’s a tattoo artist’s wet dream!

xFiruath: On a similar note, what are the overall lyrical themes on “To Release Is To Resolve” and what should a listener take away from the album?

Ojeda: The lyrics cover a few different topics. “A Curious Lot” is written from Damien Echol’s perspective after he was released from prison. It’s the 2nd song I’ve written about the WM3. The song “You Sleep, We Wake” is the 4th song about alien intervention with the human race and it’s one of my favorite topics to write about. The biggest theme on this album is based on the album title. I have experienced a few losses in the past few years with a divorce and losing 2 band members so a few songs cover the topic of resolving relationships by releasing them of that relationship. It also has a musical theme to it, since you get release in a song by resolving to certain notes.

xFiruath: Musically what’s happening with this album – what’s different from previous albums and what will remain more on the same page?

Matt Wolfe: Well, when you listen to this album, you can definitely tell that it is still Byzantine that you are listening to. We have a new lead guitarist and bassist, so of course they have their own individual stylistic approaches. The songs are much more epic and dynamic on this album too, as opposed to some of our previous work.

xFiruath: What upcoming live shows, tour dates, festival appearances, etc. do you have to support the album?

Wolfe: I think it’s safe to say we are all anticipating the SxSW festival. Here’s what we have so far:

3/18 - Austin, TX @ South by Southwest Festival
3/19 - Little, Rock AR
3/20 - St. Louis, MO
3/21 - Dayton, OH
4/4 - Huntington, WV
4/17 - Beckley, WV
4/18 - Parkersburg, WV

xFiruath: Outside of your own release, what’s coming out soon you are excited about, and what albums are you listening to most often lately?

Wolfe: I’m really looking forward to the new Krysthla release. They used to be called Gutworm and are from England, whom we toured with back in 2004.

Ojeda: I’m looking forward to a new Gojira album and the new Lamb of God album.

xFiruath: Anything else you’d like to add?

Sydnor: I’d just like to add that this has been an amazing musical journey for me. We all click in this project and I think it shows. Being on the same page is probably the most important ingredient for a band, I mean without it, you’re just scattered notes on a page that just get flung into the air and past every ear. This music tells a story.

Ojeda: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk about our new album and we hope everyone digs it. We had a blast making it for you guys!