Born of Osiris had released their fifth LP The Simulation earlier this year (even if it was deemed a mini-album) and in my opinion this was one of the best efforts the group has released in quite awhile. Shortly after, the band took to the road with Chelsea Grin, Make Them Suffer, and Kingdom of Giants.
Although there were some delays due to snowstorms, we were able to speak to the band members about the latest record and their plans for a follow-up.
So, how’s this tour going so far? Did you guys have some nice bonding time while you stuck in a snowstorm?
Lee McKinney: You could put it that way. Bonding time? [laughs] Yeah, I guess it was bonding. We were there for two whole days, but it felt like four. We were stuck with Chelsea Grin, so we got to chill with them.
Along with Chelsea Grin, you're also joined by Make Them Suffer and Kingdom of Giants. What was your relationship with these bands prior to this run?
Cameron Losch: We’re fans of all those bands. We've toured with Chelsea Grin and definitely had some history with them for years. Every time we see them, it’s like a different lineup though. David [Flinn] has been in the band ever since we met them and Pablo [Viveros] has been in there for awhile too so it’s been cool to hang out with them and obviously meet the new singer [Tom Barber]. It was also nice to meet Make Them Suffer from Australia. I was a fan before and now I’m an even bigger fan after meeting them. They’re really cool people. And lastly Kingdom of Giants, we’re a huge fan of their latest album especially. It’s really incredible. So yeah, it’s off to a great start.
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You’re playing a good chunk of songs off the new album, The Simulation. Now that you’ve experienced them in a live setting, are there any epiphanies you’ve had about these new tracks?
Joe Buras: The vocals were a challenge for me. On the newer songs, I’m doing a lot more vocals than I’m used to in a way, and a different style, so the first week or so was just getting that dialed in.
Lee: These shows have made me realize that the song “Under the Gun” has actually gone over really well live. We’re going to be filming a video for it. It’s a unique song for us. It has a pretty poppy melody, but still a metal song I guess. I’m having some fun with it because I play some clean guitar in it and I don’t think we’ve really done that before.
Nick Rossi: Yeah, "Under the Gun" has almost an anthem feel. It’s a slower tempo like 128, which is on the slower side for some of our tunes.
Let's talk more about the concept behind The Simulation. Who and what sparked the theme?
Joe: When we sat down to start writing for the lyrics, I went to the library to check out some books. The song “Disconnectome” is about a book that I read about brain mappings and the synapses of the mind. “Analogs in a Cell” was inspired by a Polish Science Fiction novel that Lee showed me. It also plays into some of the theories we explored on The Discovery with “Singularity” and “Recreate.” “One Without the Other” is kind of about losing David [Da Rocha] and how now we have Nick. The artwork is also significant where the last album was two beings reaching out and this one is supposed to be more reaching in. It’s supposed to be indicative of going full circle with us previously reaching out and now we’re reaching in.
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Did touring for and re-recording The New Reign (The Eternal Reign) impact the writing and recording process for The Simulation?
Cameron: Yes, I would say most definitely. And also revisiting “Glorious Day” as a song, which was written when I was 16 years old or so, plus adding riffs to it, sparked a new sense of songwriting.
Lee: I think it’s nice to get back in touch with the roots of where your band started. When we went back and re-recorded and toured on that EP front to back, it made us realize our fans really loved it. We don’t want to lose those roots. I’ve heard people say there’s some similarities between that record and The Simulation. Or I’ve heard that The Simulation is a good mixture of all our albums like taking the best parts of each one and combining them. We’ve had many compliments so I’m not completely certain if revisiting The New Reign directly helped, but it sure seems like it.
Can you talk about the decision behind making The Simulation a 'mini-album'?
Cameron: I think people’s attention spans are so short that sometimes it’s necessary to give them small doses so they can take it in. And I think people overlook a lot of the songs too and they get through an album over forty minutes and some of the material gets lost. If they get a smaller amount of songs in a shorter amount of time, they might appreciate them more. We’re also playing so much more of our new album live compared to previous album tours. We’re only not playing two songs, but we’ll definitely make up for it on other tours.
Lee: That was also a goal with this one too. We wanted to make a record that we can play live a lot. I don’t think we’ve ever played this much new music in our history.
Nick: It’s sick to play six songs off the new record and then also be able to play twelve other songs from other albums.
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And in regards to the new album, to me I love how there’s so much variety. "Disconnectome" is possibly your heaviest songs, where "Under the Gun" is maybe like your most accessible. Is it your intention as a band to expand the musical spectrum of Born of Osiris’ sound?
Cameron: I don’t think it was on purpose. And there’s actually many more songs that were originally going to be included on The Simulation, but we actually ended up splitting it up. As for the other leftover songs that didn't make it on The Simulation, we’ll actually be adding to those for the next release. So people are going to get a longer album and we’re hoping to have that out later this year. We’re very excited for that upcoming album, I think it’ll actually be even better.
Lee: The release date is up in the air though. We have the full eight songs already, that was going to be the 'part two' of The Simulation, but we have decided we might want to write more songs. Nick is our new member of the band and adding a new twist to everything. He joined at the end of The Simulation. The upcoming album could be longer than the first and I think better. It’s possible that it releases this year, but we don’t know the extent of what we’re adding so it could take longer than that.
Cameron: And to clarify, as of right now, the upcoming album won’t exactly be a 'part two' to The Simulation, but rather its own thing.
What else is planned after this tour?
Lee: There's talks of having a summer tour. Since "Under the Gun" has gone over really well for us live, we've been filming it every night by Dana [Willax] the singer from Kingdom of Giants. We're going to take his footage and make a video for that song. We'll definitely be hitting the studio before the end of the year as well.
