That’s right! You did not read incorrectly, your eyes have served you well yet again! Visions, those pioneers of the early days of Tech-tationalism are back with a new single, featuring the singular, octopedian talents of a certain Mr M. Malyan.
The track, KORMA, is a savvy mixture of progressive invention and Techish impetus. A combination which almost assures its place in your head for several days after just one listen. What’s more, you can grab it for free right HERE!
So check out the ensemble playthrough video directly under this verbiage and then further down, you will find a sweet little interview with the guys, detailing their reasons for their time away, why it was the right moment to return and what its like to work with such a monumental guy as Mike. Explore and find, Chillun, Take care and stay safe.
– You guys have been away for a while, what motivated Visions to get going again?
Going away wasn’t a choice! Haha. A month after we released our single ‘These Days’ both Dan and Joe left the band, so obviously that left us in the situation where we couldn’t really be anything but quiet, as we had to find a new drummer. Luckily, our singer Boff is a machine, so for the time being, he’s going to be singing and playing guitar at the same time.
– What has changed about your sound while you were away?
Well, we were in the process of changing things up before that anyway. If you listen to These Days, it’s quite different from the material we’ve released before. I know this is such a generic thing for a band to say, but we’ve all got so many different influences, and I think we’d get quite bored just sticking to the same sound and formula every release.
When Boff joined us 2010 we already had the instruments recorded for home and 70% of instruments written for Demur so he just had to lay vocals over the top and didn’t get a chance to add the input he could have if we had written the songs with him (not to mention that most of the material for home was about 5 years old by the time we got to releasing it). These days was the first song where me, Boff and Dave (being the main writers of the band) could really sit down and create a song from scratch with a chance to put all of our influences together. It turned out to be our proudest song yet so we wanted to follow that kind of writing formula for our new material too, it seemed to really work well for us.
– Mike Malyan plays drums on your latest track, what part of the writing process did he become involved?
Basically we had already written and recorded a couple of demos with programmed drums, and he chose which one out of the two he’d liked to write and record drums to. He completely smashed it in every way, the guy is a monster on the kit.
We’ve known Mike pretty much since he joined Monuments back in the day, as I think it was roundabout the time we were recording our first album at the studio they had their HQ, back in 2010. We wanted to keep working on material and keep being productive while we were looking for a full time drummer, so we sent him a message to see if he’d be up for guesting on a track. Luckily, he was! We actually found a drummer while recording, so the timing worked out kinda weird, but it was all good in the end.
– Your new track is called Korma, in terms of spiciness it seems more a Madras to me, why this title?
Basically, the demo name for the song was ‘Korma Kormeleon’, because Boff can’t handle spicy food at all. The guy finds table pepper too spicy. We’re really bad at thinking of song names, and realised that most song names, especially in metal, are pretty ridiculous when you think about it, so we just went with Korma.
– You guys were one of the early adopters/progenitors of Tech Metal, what do you think of the way the scene has developed and matured?
The main thing I really like about the tech scene currently is how it feels like everyone (for the most part) is all friends. Me and Jake went to UK Tech Fest this year as fans, rather than playing, for the first time this year, and it’s literally like a get together of friends on a massive scale. Everyone knows each other, and everyone is friendly as fuck, it’s awesome. Back when we were first starting to gig in 2008/2009, the tech scene wasn’t anywhere near as big, so you’d end up playing with bands that aren’t really suited together. It can end up being really cool sometimes, but you’d often find yourself playing to a crowd that a lot of the stuff you’re doing they aren’t really into. Nowadays, there’s plenty of tech shows and fans, and everyone’s on the same wavelength.
– Are in the process of writing or recording an EP, or saving your material for an Album?
We’ve been working on our next album for a while now. Losing band members has obviously slowed things down, but we’re back up to full speed now and hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we’re ready to get in the studio again.
– Who are your main influences, both historically and contemporary?
Too many to name! For this album we’re trying to go for more rock orientated approach, and there’s a shit load of good new progressive rock bands out there currently. Arcane Roots and Exotic Animal Petting Zoo have been getting a lot of listens with us this past year or so. Historically, bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Thrice and Sikth are always going to be big influences on us. We’ve been looking at our influences when we were teenagers a lot for inspiration for the writing of this album too, stuff you learnt to play the guitar to, like Foo Fighters, for example, and I think that’ll come out in the material in some way too.
– Any shows coming up?
We’ve got a couple of shows booked with our new drummer booked, but nothing announced just yet. We’ll be releasing info on both of those things in the next week or two!
– John Whitmore
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