A bunch of great news just came from camp Aerith! For those who are unaware, this is the Melodic Death Metal project driven by Aborted drummer Ken Bedene, his lifelong friend Aaron Green, and his father Frank Bedene. Together, they’ve put out arguably some of the best music the sub-genre has seen in recent years (CLICK HERE to listen) and they’re nowhere near stopping.
In fact, Aerith have just announced an all new EP “The Cosmic Winds” to hit this month! It will be released on July 31st with pre-orders currently available to those who CLICK HERE.
As a means to help preview the new music, we’ve spoken with the band’s vocalist and our friend Aaron Green once again. He covered a lot of ground in regards to the new material and all the band’s plans going into the future. And, as per usual, we also had some nerd talk! So, without further adieu, here is the official word on the new Aerith EP “The Cosmic Winds”:
The time has come for new Aerith! You guys have a new EP on the way quite soon. What can listeners expect from the new music?
Aaron: This time everyone can expect the same things you loved on our self-titled EP and some new elements as well along with a bigger sound in terms of production! We really wanted to push the mix as far as we could with the new material. That’s why we went with former member of Aborted and our very good friend Mendel bij de Leij to take the helm of mixing and mastering this time around. It made sense to go with Mendel since we are good friends with him and Mendel and Ken both have a 7 long year friendship and experience of being band mates in Aborted so to bring him and to give him the spot to produce the EP felt so natural. Mendel definitely stepped up to the plate for us and brought very amazing production that let’s our sound really be massive.
Your previous record was centered around the character of “The Wanderer”. Has there been further movement on a concept with this release?
Aaron: Yes! very much so! This new EP titled “The Cosmic Winds” is, in a way, a glimpse and short detailed preview of the story behind The Wanderer. These tracks will further his journey, as interpreted on our self-titled EP. With the art work, I wanted to go deeper on the subjects of who was the entity at the portal, why was it there, why was it inviting The Wanderer to come through the portal, what happened to him once he went through, what would be revealed to him, what would change in him from the moment he stepped through the portal to when he is traveling through it, and what that experience would be like and what revaluations and trails would come to him before he reached the other side. The lyrics were a fun challenge to describe all these things in the story, but also trying to create the lyrics to be interpreted by the message as well. So, as I said before, I strive to write something where the listener can hear and read the lyrics to follow the story OR see a message behind the meaning within it and be able to interpret and connect with it in their own way even if they aren’t following the story concept.
What’s your approach to crafting music for Aerith?
Aaron: Hmm, well usually Ken will write a track and send me the demo, I’ll listen to it for a few days and make notes to begin mapping out and writing lyrics too it. Then when we will talk over the notes and ideas I had written down and see if they work or Ken will make my ideas his own, like adding a different riff somewhere, what the drums should be doing on that section or more synths in a certain section or things of that nature and make whatever changes necessary. Then once the track has reached a point, we will begin on vocals.
Can you dig in further to how you handle production duties as a band?
Aaron: Well, we both talk over what we want in the aspect of production. Going in, we really have a mind of what needs to stand out. Before, we reached out to Chris Themelco of the melodic death metal band Orpheus Omega and Monolith Studio out of Australia. I had been following his band for a very long time and knew he had a studio and felt he could really capture what we wanted since his band was the same genre we were writing. After talking with him, we knew he was the guy to go to. He loved all the old Melodeath we loved and knew the Gothenburg sound very well and knew what we wanted in terms of production and nostalgia but doing something different. We are a recording project so we don’t know if we will EVER do live shows, so Ken and myself wanted to capture a raw nostalgic feel like those old melodeath albums like In Flames “Colony” and At The Gates “Slaughter of The Soul” with a more modern up to date take on it to create an almost “live production” type sound to try and make it as if that’s what those tracks would sound like if they were to be played live. Through A LOT of trial and error Chris did a fantastic job capturing that goal and we thank him so much for that.
With that said, when it came to production for our new EP “The Cosmic Winds”, we wanted to try and do the same thing but really push the mix further! We had been talking about it for some time and we kept a good friend of ours in mind to take the helm of Mixing and Mastering this time around and we decided to go with our very good friend Mendel bij de Lein. Like I said, we know Mendel from him being a former member of Aborted and him and Ken have worked together for 7 years in that time and it just made sense. We had been tossing the idea with him for about a year and we finally just made it happen. Mendel did a phenomenal job with these 2 tracks and took the mix to a whole new level for Aerith and he was extremely easy to work with and he really took in all our notes and pushed himself to get the best mix possible! We feel everyone is going to be very pleased with the results.
Can you tell us about the artwork for the new EP?
Aaron: Well the art for this new EP was a very different process. Before, we had our very good friend Nik Burman do the concept cover art for our self-titled EP. I had contacted Nik after we decided to do a new EP and he got to work on a new concept piece. But the more time went on and the more detail and ideas went into it the more it felt like that the art Nik was working on shouldn’t be for a EP… it should be for our full-length that we’re working on. With that, it would give Nik more time to work on that piece and he has for the last 8 months and still is as we speak. I will have to go into detail about that art work when the time comes but trust me… it will be well worth the wait and will be a huge piece!
So with that said, I decided to look around at different artists work seeing if anyone stood out. In that time, I was writing the lyrics to these 2 tracks and was asking myself a question… who is the entity in the artwork from the cover art on our last release and what are they? Do they have one form or are they are a cosmic being? What would be their true form? Or do they pick a form to present themselves that a species like us could comprehend? What would the name of their race be? What is their purpose? So all these things were going through my head and, in that time, I found an artist named Caelan Stokkermans. I went to his web site and looked at his work and was amazed. While going through his portfolio, I saw the piece that became the cover art for “The Cosmic Winds” EP. I was like “THATS IT!!!” It visually just spoke out to me and had me in awe. It was exactly what I felt the entity would look like up close in an different form, and the way it was floating and meditating was just a perfect visual as well. So I messaged Caelan and asked him if the art was available. When he said yes, it was a no brainer. We had to have it. It visually captures everything these entities are in my mind and in the lyrics to these tracks. It was a perfect rendition to everything for this EP.
You just mentioned the full-length album in the works! Is there anything you can tell us about that?
Aaron: There’s not much I can say about it at the moment BUT I can say that it is our Ultimate goal for Aerith to release a full-length. We have 7 to 8 songs on the back burner right now that have been demoed and some have had their guest solo appearances on it and been turned in. But we also want more guest vocals this time around and still have a few more guest solos to get in. We are throwing around ideas for new elements and still trying to decide how many tracks we would want on our full-length. Also, again the art work is still in the process of development. So it is going to take some time, especially since this project is done on our free time and around Ken’s touring schedule and obligations to Aborted, my priorities, and Frank’s as well. But that’s our ultimate goal to have a full-length completed. Until that time, we may release another EP or a few singles and a cover or 2 but there will be new content out before that goal is accomplished so you guys aren’t waiting too long for new material.
Time for a fun round! Given your namesake, what are your thoughts on the Final Fantasy VII remake coming up?
Aaron: I got two words for you….”FUUUUUUUUCKING STOKED!!!!!!!” It’s about time Square Enix gave us more on the gameplay and a release date! Ken and myself are very excited. I bought the First Class Edition the moment it went up for pre-order. Very excited for that and Cyberpunk 2077!!! That and FF7 are going to be the games to play in 2020!
While we’re on the nerdy topic, are there any other games, movies, music releases that you think people should be looking forward to right now?
Aaron: For games this year, I would say Days Gone was a fun open world game with a great story I enjoyed very much. Resident Evil 2 remake was hands DOWN phenomenal and captured every bit of nostalgia of my youth in 1998 when that original RE2 came out and the inner 8 year old in me was screaming with joy! Red Dead Redemption 2 was another awesome game and a must play! For games coming out towards the end of the year of 2019, I would say Doom Eternal and Kojima’s new game Death Stranding are going to be the ones to get and play! I am a HUGE Hideo Kojima fan. The man is a legend in the gaming industry and a pioneer in so many ways. He created one of my favorite games, if not top 3 favorite video game series, Metal Gear Solid! Death Stranding looks like another masterpiece for Hideo!! Gonna be a crazy in-depth abstract story from the legend himself!
Movie wise, so far EndGame was just perfect in every way! Every way! 10 years in the making and that was such an epic climatic ending for those characters and I am happy with the outcome! Was everything I personally wanted to see! Also the new John Wick was siiiiiiiiiick. I love every single one of those movies and stoked they are doing another!!!! The new Godzilla was awesome and I’m VERY excited and hyped for Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Great recommendations! And that’s all we have for today. Any last words for the fine people out there?
Aaron: I again want to thank The Circle Pit for all the support of Aerith and the amazing, fun interviews you put together! I also want to thank every person from our past guests to current guests and anyone who has contributed to Aerith and its growth, to every single person who has bought merch, given us a shout out or even gave time to listen to the music…. we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It seriously means the world to us. You are the reason we make music. Again, our new EP titled “The Cosmic Winds” will be out next month July 31st on all streaming platforms and our bandcamp! Please help us spread the word and anything you purchase from us goes right back into the project! Follow us on our Facebook page and Bandcamp page for updates! Thank you everyone and we hope you enjoy the new material!
