Line Up:
Pete-Vocals
Ross-Guitar
Daff-Bass
John-Drums
Well,Friends of Aristocracy!
We speak again of our newsroom, where in a little while, we will have in all its emotions, the interview 187 of the Aristocracy.This time, we talked to an Irish band that abuses Death Metal with intense touches of Grindcore. Another thing to be noticed is the emotional brutality that this album carries.The rhythm and violence won't let you down at any moment. It's worth it, because it's a debut work and we want to thank the band for the work and for answering our questions.Also, of course, a thank you to Imperative PR for introducing us to this interesting band. We're talking about Strangle Wire and they show you how we speak their debut work entitled Shaped By Human Frailty.Let's go to one of their songs for this unprecedented interview to begin.Pete answer our questions.
A1:Talking albout the composition work in Shaped By Human Frailty?
Pete:In regards to how the album was written, it was pretty much done the exact same way that the dark triad was written. Ross crafts a song and sends it to us all. Usually by the next practice, John has the skeleton of the drums written, then we just polish it and shape it as the week progress. Once the track is finished musically, Daff gets the bass up to speed and then we then demo the track for me to write the vocal structures at my house. Once that’s done and everyone is happy with the vocal we mark the song as complete.
A2:What is the cataclysm that inspired this album?
Pete:I suppose we just followed the normal process.We released a single upon launching the band, and then followed that up with an MCD.An album was just the next logical step.We had flirted with the idea of releasing it in stages,such as 2 MCD’s, but we decided to go with the tried and tested method of just doing an album.
A3:Why were the four years between the EP and this album important for the band's growth?
Pete:To be honest, that was a long gap that we had anticipated, however much of that was down to the pandemic.We had the finished album audio in our hands in August 2020, but with no gigs happening and no one booking tours we decided to delay it.The upshot of this was that it gave us loads of time to develop a strong release schedule with plenty of content come the album release. I reckon that had the pandemic not been a thing we would probably have released it at the start of 2021.
A4:Some literature or film inspire the band?
Pete:The track that was really inspired by a single event/person is “Shaped by Human Frailty”. The lyrics were inspired by the Walter Jakson Freeman II who was an American physician who specialized in lobotomy. The remainder of the lyrics are based on human composites in relation to how humans cope with suffering.
A5:Is chaos necessary for your or any death metal band to thrive?
Pete:I think it requires a balance. Physically, too much chaos and I don’t think any of us would get anything done and too little would lead to complacency, that just my personal opinion. In relation to our lyrics, without inner chaos I don’t know what I would write about.
A6:Not that I don't like it, but why is the psychological side so fundamental in the eighth song?Pete:I suppose it was just a way to explain how people manage to reconcile the miserable position they are in in their life and that without the use of these psychological processes they may struggle to continue. That particular track, Psychology of the sick, is actually about how people cope doing mundane jobs that they not only hate, but makes them miserable. In order to do this, they have to either lie to themselves or justify their choices, otherwise they’d realise that they are miserable due to their own decisions and are left with the responsibly of changing things.
A7:How band know about the Imperative PR?
Pete:We used imperative for our last release and did such a good job that we went back to them. I’d highly recommend them.
A8:Is it not contradictory to realize that man, however destructive he may be, is also fragile?
Pete: I think a dialectic definitely exists in relation to that.Our album probably focuses more on the fragility of the human race, and more so the psychology fragility than the physical.
A9:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Pete:Again, we wanted the art to reflect two things.Firstly, fragility.Secondly,the inability to endure with what it takes to be human. The artwork in the retail version of the Cd has 3 skeletons in it,all representing a different stage of losing the ability to cope with suffering.
A10:Does the seventh song on the album have a reincarnation context?
Pete: Actually,it’s the opposite.Dead before the still is about the period when someone shifts from a state of suicidal thinking,to suicidal planning and finally to completion. It’s about the loss of hope.
A11:Why the band have this name?
Pete:I was in a band many years ago when one of the members of that band coined the term. I liked the sound of it and said I was stealing it for a band name.
A12:This album is conceptual?
Pete:I think so lol.The lyrics all revolve around psychological suffering and subsequent coping, or in some cases,the inability to cope.
A13:What darker parts inspire this album?
Pete:Again, I just looked at what I see in people.Everyone is trying their best to cope with what is a pretty fucked up world.I think most people would agree with me in saying that the human experience is far from easy,so its understandable,in my opinion, that humans spend much of their time trying to find ways to make it bearable.Sometimes they come up with healthy ways of coping, and sometimes they come up with unhealthy ways.Then there’s people who see no way of coping and decide to exit.
A14:Does the third song on the album have a religion-denying vibe?
Pete:Judas Switch is all about betrayal and I think the archetype of betrayal would have to be the biblical character Judas, hence the inclusion of the name in the track title.
A15:What kind of subject don´t deserve a Strangle Wire song?
Pete:We try to steer away from overtly gory concepts as it just doesn’t fit with who we are as people, or with what the band is trying to project.
A16:The band feel differences between The Dark Triad and now in Shaped By Human Frailty?
Pete:100%.We were still trying to find our sound when we wrote and recorded the dark triad. Now, we have found it and are very happy with it.The stuff we have written so far for album number 2 sits better with our album material than it does with the dark triad.