Transcript of an interview I recorded with RYNO THERON of TRUTH DECAYED - 20201017. Full article here. MAL-
All right talking to Ryno from TRUTH DECAYED. Ryno, thanks for taking the time. RYNO- Oh, you're very welcome. MAL- Tell us a bit about the band. How you started, how long you've been around, where you're based? RYNO- Okay, well we're based in Durban, South Africa, relatively new band made up of mostly very experienced people, myself, I also have a solo thing that's done pretty well quite recently. But yeah, we're pretty much a lockdown band, myself and an old friend Warren Jones, I think we just both got bored during the lockdown. We started talking. I was writing a lot of metal riffs and i was like, 'I'd like to do a Metal project again'. Yeah, we just came up with some good thrashy sounding stuff and kind of developed from there and then Warren later introduced Johan Maree and Brandon Carey on the drums, and yeah, they just seemed like a perfect fit and it's gone pretty well, it's been quite an easy ride, you know for a band, quite organic. MAL- I've never heard the term 'lockdown band' before but I like it. Well done. RYNO- Yeah, thank you. MAL- Now, you've got a couple of tracks down. You mentioned lockdown band. How you do this? Did you do this isolated from each other and then sort of send the files? Did you manage to get together? How did you do it? RYNO- Okay, so there's two tracks recorded. We do have more in the works and stuff, especially for upcoming live shows. But yeah, so the earlier writing process was done apart because the regulations in South Africa were quite heavy at that time. As they started easing up a bit myself and Warren started meeting up and we started shaping his songs together nicely and as they eased up more we could start having rehearsals as a band and that sort of stuff and in the recording process also was pretty much a similar path. We did all the recording at home. We did the drums in the studio and the vocals in the studio. And yeah, then that's when the engineer pretty much put everything together, you know, so a lot of it was done isolated and the stuff that we had to do there, we did there. We're still under I think level one lock down here, but it's relatively easy at this point now, gradually the process just got more and more involved as we went along but it's been a pretty quick process as well as I said, it's been quite easy going and pleasurable which is nice, you know. MAL- So you've got a couple of tracks already down. Are there any more on the way? RYNO- Definitely,as I said, we do have some songs that we're working on for live shows and the intention for that is obviously to bring out a full album. This 2 track mini EP that we're bringing out is very much just to build a bit of traction, build a bit of attention. It's done quite well so far. We've gotten some wonderful feedback on social media and people seem to be connecting with it. So yeah, that's great. So hopefully yeah, don't know how many tracks or anything like that yet, but there's definitely a plan for a full album and just to keep going from strength to strength. MAL- How heavy is the lock down over there? And when do you think live gigs will return? RYNO- At this point it's a lot better. As I said earlier, we are on level 1 at the moment which, which is relatively nice, not necessarily for every industry, but for most of them and some live gigs have started getting on the go again, but it's very dependent I think on the licence of the venues, you know, if you're still licenced as a nightclub, then you're not having anything happening. But if you licence is a pub you can get away with it. MAL- Okay, that's interesting. RYNO- A lot of it has to do like, you know, some pubs will have a nightclub licence to be able to stay open longer but that backfires now because under the lockdown regulations they count as a nightclub, so they're not allowed to operate but some pubs and stuff have managed to have some gigs. It's obviously very strictly controlled and limited tickets and much earlier in the night than what it would normally be. So some things have gotten on the go also like, you know sort of restaurant, that sort of thing has opened up a bit. So yeah we're slowly getting back there. I think the main thing that people are hoping for is that we don't get hit with a second wave and we can just you know, hopefully by early next year be almost at some sort of place of normalcy again. MAL- Let's talk about the sound of the band. How would you describe it? Where did it come from? RYNO- Warren and myself both enjoy a lot of the older stuff, you know, like I suppose Johan also he's also a big fan of that. We like a lot of JUDAS PRIEST, SLAYER older METALLICA stuff, you know along that line so that you know, that's where a lot of the thrash metal life comes from. I'm also a very SEPULTURA fan myself and the drummer Brandon likes the older SEPULTURA stuff a lot. But then Johan also, our bass player, he enjoys a lot of ARCH ENEMY and and NIGHTWISH so there's a lot of different influences coming out there and if you also ever hear my solo stuff, it's very ambient and very like Pink Floyd in nature and very trippy, and some elements of that even come in in small parts of these songs. It's quite an eclectic mix, but essentially we're a thrash metal band and it's definitely got a very old-school feel to it, you know, lots of solo bursts and and all that. MAL- All right, so tell us a bit more about the the other members of the band and expand on where they've come from and how they came to be involved. RYNO- Okay. So Warren is a longtime friend of mine. We did grow up together. We went to school together, he's had different periods of being very active. The first most active period was with a band called MYSTICAL ELEMENT. They had quite a good run. They're actually very popular at a time as well. And it's just a fantastic band, really instrumental, very melodic and of more lately the last show I saw Warren at which planted the initial seed for this to come out of lockdown was a METALLICA 'Kill 'em All' tribute that that he was a part of, a great band, great bunch of guys, and yeah, he was obviously doing all the Kirk Hammett parts and everything with that and fantastic show. So yeah, Warren's a very good player, been involved in some good stuff, missed a couple of years, but it's good to have him back, you know, and he's more passionate than ever at this point. Johan is very new to the live music scene and all that. He's an accomplished musician. He plays very well. He actually had more of a keyboard background, played a bit of guitar and did some singing and stuff like that. Warren offered and he said, you know, 'if you play bass you can join the band' type of thing, you know, if you can learn how to play the bass and he's also come full steam ahead put a lot of effort and a lot of hours of practice and he's done a great job. I think he's actually handing the bass very well and he as I say he is musical, although he doesn't have a lot of live experience. He's got an ear for it and he understands music, so that's also very nice to have someone in the band that can do that, you know, and he just also comes with a hell of a lot of enthusiasm. You know, I think also because it's all quite new to him. So it's quite nice, with the rest of us, it brings that old feeling back, you know, that excitement. Myself and Brandon are the most accomplished musicians, I suppose in terms of bands we've played at, and festivals and stuff. So Brandon's also got quite a good background. He played with the band called STIGMATA DAWN which was if I'm not mistaken between 2007-2009. They they were quite active and they did very well, a lot of you know, really good metal festivals here in South Africa and I think they opened for CARCASS, I stand to be corrected, but I'm sure they were one of the bands that opened for them at a festival and I mean if you heard the songs, you know Brandon's, he's a crazy good drummer, has a very good double bass it's absolutely solid and yeah, also just an awesome guy and a great addition to the band, you know, and as I said, having him as a more experienced musician, he definitely helps sort of keep a type of level-headedness, I suppose, with decision making and moving forward. So yeah, and as far as I go I've also been playing for many years. Warren and I started back in 98, getting stuff going and I've been part of numerous projects my most actively recently with my solo stuff and that's done very well. And I think that's why I was quite inspired to want to do Metal again, I want to get involved in it because I've got quite a strong metal background in it with the solo album that I brought out also earlier this year doing well and everything, it just seemed like a logical part to take on this new challenge. MAL- Excellent, right, how can people hear the music that I've heard? How do they go about that? RYNO- Our EP launch is on the 23rd of October. So it's coming next week Friday, here in South Africa and there will be some some early stuff coming out on the 21st with some channels that have picked it up and so on, but the 23rd is the official launch date and it will be available on all streaming platforms and everything like that Spotify, iTunes all that. It's available for pre-save already and I think the best way to connect with the band, we're on Facebook and Instagram but Instagram seems to be doing really well and fan base is growing steadily there and there's a lot of engagement from people there as well. Personally I also just prefer Instagram as a channel I think is better but follow us there, follow us on Facebook. We're also more than happy to connect with people and we love any form of discussion, any questions or anything like that, you know, we're more than happy to share things about the band and our music. But yeah, it will be available on all social media. We do have a video out on YouTube as well, which is just a play through video and there's more stuff to come along that line as well, you'll find it pretty much anywhere after the 23rd. MAL- Right, good to be talking all the way from South Africa to Ryno from TRUTH DECAYED. Thanks for your time today, Ryno. RYNO- Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for having me and and chatting and yeah, it's been awesome. MAL- Always good to hear new music, broadening our world here while in lockdown. So, TRUTH DECAYED, 2 track EP coming out very soon. And then I guess we'll keep our eyes open for an album sometime in the near future. RYNO- That's the definite plan. We hoping sometime early next year, depending on how the process goes. Yeah. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |