Where can we find you right now and what are you up to?
You can find us in our home county of Kent (UK). We're currently having a mini-break after a hectic summer of live shows and releasing new music.
Tell us a bit about your influences.
We often refer to a venn diagram of genres from pop punk, to metalcore, to prog rock, to EDM and nu-metal sits in the middle for us. Individually we have eclectic tastes but as a collective we lean towards Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Skindred, Bring Me The Horizon & so on.
How did you start?
Our band name is on the nose with the fact we "crossed paths" during the demise of 2 previous projects. Half from one and half from the other, we were left frustrated and drained but still had enough fire in the belly to want to make music and perform. This whole concept has been pure catharsis from all the wasted potential of our past. Initially, we started by demoing rough ideas in the recording studio before we hit a rehearsal room and it's developed organically from there.
What obstacles does an emerging artist have to face in our time?
Doesn't matter which genre, whether solo or in a group, it's the same battle to create "content" to stay relevant and be active on social media. All this while doing those traditional things musicians used to do like writing songs, rehearsing and gigging. Sourcing revenue streams (no pun intended) to be sustainable. We've just about broken even in 2023 so we all need to work regular jobs too.
What worked for you marketing-wise? What advice or tips would you give to new artists?
It's difficult to say anything has truly "worked" but we can pinpoint spikes in our social media engagement around noteworthy milestones. E.g. collaborating with musicians who are a little further up the ladder than us in prominence has usually lead to Spotify streams picking up. In a day & age where many would believe radio is dead, we definitely saw a peak in interaction when we received airplay from BBC & Kerrang. So our advice is: Stop, collaborate and listen.
What are your goals? Where do you see yourself in five years?
Our band only exists because of an unfulfilled bucket list. We've managed to tick a few things off in a short space of time but we still have some major ones we've not gotten near to achieving yet. We'd love to perform at Download Festival (Donington Park) and collaborate with one of our heroes such as Fred Durst or Jacoby Shaddix. In 5 years we won't exist but we hope our legacy lives on.
Tell us about your latest or upcoming release.
In May we released our 4th EP "THIS IS FIRE" and in October we just dropped a genre-mashing collaboration called "TRIPWIRE" featuring ILLAMAN (PENGSHUI) and Taj (Fused By Defiance). We're cooking up some more in the lab as we speak as we're aiming to put out music more regularly going into 2024. We'll continue to push the boundaries while retaining our core sound whatever we do.
@crostpaths