Interview Solace of Requiem

Interviewer: Karma E.  Omowale

Lineup: Jeff Sumrell -  Bass, Vocals Chris Young - Guitars Luke Downing - Drums

1/26/2005

Karma: Thanks for doing the interview!
 
Jeff: You’re welcome.
 
Karma: Describe Solace of Requiem to a new listener.
 
Jeff: Well, I think primarily when you listen to our music the first thing that comes out is that we sound like the old school traditional death metal than more of the new stuff that’s coming out right now. I think that’s one of the main focus points that we tried to accomplish when we got the band together too. I think we have an opinion of what the evolution of death metal should have been than of course what the evolution of death metal really was. We tried to capture a time in history where we thought that musicianship really came more into play in the music that it does here today.
 
Karma: Who would you compare your sound to, knowing your sound is dedicated to the old school of death metal as you just mentioned.
 
Jeff: Carcass, our drummer, Luke came from a background listening to a lot of pop beats like snapping pop beats like Primus, Carcass and stuff like that. I prominently listen to more of the classic death metal stuff like Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse…bands like that. Chris, our guitar player listens to just about every damn thing! [laughter ensues from all]
 
Karma: Well it’s good to be that way because all of bring different things to the table and are obviously able to meld perfectly which is awesome.
 
Jeff: Yeah, we have a lot of different styles, that’s for sure!
 
Karma: As far as your songs go, the ones I was able to listen to "Beyond Grace" & "Deceiver", blew me away, for a 3-piece, you pack one hell of a wallop!
 
Jeff: I appreciate it! Thank you!!
 
Karma: In reading your bio, it’s awesome that you "love the emotion in music"!
 
Jeff: You can definitely tell all walks of music, even foreign music, you can tell when somebody has been inspired to write music and when somebody writes music to make money. There is a difference in that even rap and all different forms of music. You can really tell when it’s from the heart and it’s meant they meant what they said when they said it.
 
Karma: This is true!
 
Jeff: That’s another thing that’s very important to us, that we write music that we all care about writing. We write music that not only feel is difficult to play but it also tells a story. Tells a story that the lyrics match the mood of the music and the mood matches the mood of the genre that we’re trying capture.
 
Within our demographic is a certain group of people and we try to please those people along with pleasing ourselves and I think the sound that we came up with especially instituting all of the jazzy sounds in our breakdowns and a couple of other trade secrets that we have when it comes to writing music. I think that we’ve developed a unique sound and hopefully, that in itself is going to be what carries us through.
 
Karma: Definitely, as it shall!
 
Luke: I think the best music takes you somewhere. You know when I listen to my favorite songs and bands I don’t think about them playing their guitars or drums or piano or whatever. I think about what that song means to me and the places that song brings to mind and the people and that sort of thing. I think that’s a big part of our music too is we want people to be taken somewhere, not necessarily for the fact that we’re playing music. The fact that we are able to come up with a pretty big sound for a three-piece helps that a lot!
 
Karma: Definitely! I think it’s great that you are focusing in on stories etc and tying that into death metal because that really is living up to the old tradition. You are taking the listener back to the roots of old school death metal because I think it’s an art form that has been lost in today’s genre.
 
Jeff: Oh right, and good lyric writing too! I take a LOT of pride in my lyrics and the way that I write with messages that I send to people. One of the things that I have preached over my time is that no matter what you write you should always take heed in writing it because you’ll never know who you’ll be influencing!
 
Karma: That is so very true!
 
Jeff: I mean we’ve always taken that to heart and tried to write not motivational or inspirational lyrics or anything like that but things that really don’t send a terrible message. We don’t use any cursing or anything like that we definitely take the art for of lyric writing in order to really expedite you into a different area. [laughs] We try to take you and your soul and mind and put it somewhere else. Put you into the same mood, the same emotion pattern we were in when we wrote the music and the lyrics.
 
The lyrics that I write are very non-literal. I try to…the lyrics when you read them you might think you’re reading about dragons, wizards, and warlocks but really, I wrote the song about some time I spent in mourning over a loss of a family member or something. I have a lot of deep meanings to my songs. But that goes along with the lyrics and the music; we try to definitely delve you into a different area when you listen to our songs just like the old school bands of death metal like Morbid Angel, David Vincent, did especially for me, when I was a young man.
 
Luke: There’s a lot of metal where…okay, I get it, you’re angry but the lyrics specifically are pretty shallow and hateful and it’s kinda hard to get anything about, you know! We’ve seen a lot of shows where they’re like, “I wrote this song about my girlfriend” and there’s a bunch of cursing in it and “I hate her” and the rest of the song is “I hate YOU” and it’s just “Kill your mother, kill your family!” And I mean we get it, you’re angry but it’s not…a lot of that is really not creative at all.
 
Karma: That’s so true!
 
Luke: It’s kind of weird message and a weird vibe. That’s not what we’re trying to do at all. [Judging from their album, they are definitely not about the hateful crap; see my review of their album]
 
Karma: You guys have been playing together since high school ('93), pretty cool to have forged a 10+ year bond with your band mates and still be a positive force in making music together.
 
Jeff: That only helps us in one arena; they have known mw long enough to be able to put up with my eccentricities [laughs] and that’s where the 10 year friendship comes into play!
 
Karma: That’s pretty good considering you need to share close quarters with your band-mates from time to time.
 
Jeff: [laughs] Any time you get a bunch of artists in a room together they are always kinda weird and peculiar in their own way. All three of us definitely have our own eccentricities! We have known each other a long time and we all have the same feeling and thought process when it comes to writing music and directions we mean to take our music too.
 
Karma: It’s wonderful to have that kind of collaborative focus!!
 
Luke: Well the logistics of a band is really hard too! I mean just getting people in a room on the same night when everybody works a fulltime job. Being able to sit down and concentrate, you know, that the hardest part a lot of times is the logistics of it. Certainly being familiar with each other like that helps a lot in that regard.
 
Karma: I’m sure it does. What's your favorite song off your newly released self-titled debut, Solace of Requiem?
 
Jeff: [Laughs] You know, I’m sure you’ve heard this a many of time but that questions kinda hard to answer and the reason why is man, are songs are really diverse. I mean one of them sounds absolutely nothing like the other! I think that I have my favorite musical piece is this song, my favorite lyrical piece is on this song, and my favorite bass line or drumbeat is…whatever. I mean I might be able to break it up for you like that. [laughs] I really like all of our stuff. I think if I had to pick one I’d be more partial to “Trials” or “Beyond Grace” What about you guys?
 
Luke: I like “Deceiver” a lot! I think that has the most feeling for me. I think that “Beyond Grace” is great too but I think that in terms of the emotional side of it I probably find myself more attracted to “Deceiver”.
 
Jeff: Another thing is too each one of those songs kinda has…right now we are in the process of writing new material and “Deceiver” is actually a more stable background to form an opinion of Solace of Requiem on. We’re trying to capture more technically advanced styling like stuff that you would hear in “Beyond Grace” but I think that musically when it comes to the dynamics of the music, how it written, how it’s put together. “Deceiver” and “It Feeds” Solace of Requiem will be. Of course, we are always going to try to get more advanced, more superior and all that stuff too!
 
Karma: How bout you Chris?
 
Chris: If I had to pick one, which is very difficult to say the least because I put all of my heart and soul into all of those guitar lines and those songs and so did the other 2 guys! We played these songs, ya know…‘cos if we don’t put our hearts and soul we don’t do it! But, if I had to pick one of our songs, I would have to go with “Beyond Grace”.
 
Karma: How's the scene in Virginia Beach?
 
Jeff: There’s a lot of people here who know what good music is but there’s not a lot of people here that supports good music.
 
Karma: Oh wow!
 
Jeff: Unfortunately, the area we live in there’s not a lot financial support. It’s a shame and I’m sure there are many other places that are suffering from the same ailments that we are.
 
Karma: Unfortunately so!
 
Jeff: Metal is obviously not as mainstream, and our type of metal is DEFINITELY not as mainstream as the stuff that you would find here. There are people that help us here like FM99. They are an absolutely HUGE radio station here and they play our music frequently.
 
Karma: That’s awesome!
 
Jeff: We’ve got XM Radio [Satellite] play, they play us in Poland, Germany and all kinds of good stuff. But just here as a following, we probably…a big show to us here in Virginia is probably about 200 – 250 people on a great night in a dank bar with a lot of cigarette smoke.
 
Luke: I mean, it’s getting better. We’ve had a lot of problems playing a nice place and then it’s closing down. That’s happened to us a couple of times but it seems like lately we have been having much better luck finding venues that are a little bit more intimate in the sense that they are smaller but there are a lot of people in the area and that it will get a lot better here.
 
Jeff: Most of our efforts have led us out of state for instance here in Northern Virginia almost in Washington D.C. right on the borderline there on the 25th of March, we’re going to be opening up for a band called Skinless and Skinless just got off of tour with Hatebreed, Six Feet Under and the Dillinger Escape Plan. They also did the BeastFest with Pantera and Slayer in 2002 [and Soulfly in Japan] We’re going to be opening up for them but I forget the name of the daggone place but it’s near Washington D.C. and will be on the website very soon!
 
Karma: Okay, cool!
 
Jeff: But you can check www.solreq.com for updates. We also have an absolutely HUGE show coming up in the summer and we’re opening up for a very, very, very, very well known band but we’re not announcing it yet because if we did, everybody and their mother would be following in our footsteps, so we’re gonna hold off! [laughs]
 
Karma: That I can understand with not letting the cat out of the bag!
 
Jeff: Yeah, very, very, soon we’re gonna be announcing a really big show in July that’s going to be taking place for us. We’ve got some things in the oven!
 
Karma: Oh, that’s great!
 
Jeff: We’ve got a lot of magazines reviewing our stuff and we’re overseas, we’re in America, we’re just now getting going and the CD seems to be doing really well. and people are into it!
 
Karma: That is so awesome! [Again, I can see why they are!]
 
Jeff: Like I said, we are definitely different! I don’t think we’re like any thing any death metal fan has ever quite heard before! Hopefully just us being different, each one of us being skilled in our instrument for example, Morbid Angel, one of the reasons I still believe they were great is because they were all good on their instruments.
 
Karma: Definitely!
 
Jeff: There’s no one member of Morbid Angel that’s better than the other is and I feel the same way about Solace of Requiem.
 
Karma: Who are some of your non-musical influences?
 
Jeff: I think that I’m inspired by the Creator everyday! Every day when I wake up I think of one thing. I think about why I’m on Earth and what the meaning of life is! I think that the philosopher’s attitude is the reason why I’m a lyric writer and say the things I say, and write what I write and into what I’m into is because of my outlook on life. I think my main inspiration is knowledge, trying to figure out why I’m alive, that’s what life’s all about that’s my motivation!
 
Karma: What about you Luke?
 
Luke: I’m an activist, so I’m really inspired by people who bend their knees everyday to help people out. I’ve been an animal rights activist for a long time and I’ve been inspired by people like Peter Singer and Bruce Friedrich rather and people like Martin Luther King and people like that who really put it on the line to help people out to make the world a better place. I think that’s huge! My parents, my brother, and my friends. My friends are just great! Those are the people that help me get out of the bed in the morning!
 
Karma: Awesome, and you Chris?
 
Chris: My father was in military and fought in the Korean War so kinda what Luke was saying, people who sacrifice themselves to do for this country, for the world and for other people.
 
Jeff: I think our heritage, our lineage, our ancestors, our families…all that stuff is very important part to everybody in Solace of Requiem but hopefully that should go without saying! I hope that everybody feels that same way about their own lineage. Definitely, that is a driving force. We write songs about people who are actually no longer here and our families and stuff like that!
 
Karma: That is so awesome! If you could tour with anybody who has name, would you like seeing on the marquee along side of yours?
 
Jeff: I will tell you now, I think that Chris is going to say the same thing as me, it can’t happen because the person we would probably most like to see in lights besides our name in lights is no longer here on earth with us and that would be, Chuck Schuldiner, RIP from Death!
 
Karma: Gotcha!
 
Jeff: If I had to pick somebody that was alive, now that David Vincent is back with Morbid Angel!
 
Luke: YES!
 
Jeff: I’ll say Morbid Angel! How bout you Luke?
 
Luke: I don’t know, I listen to all kinds of stuff but for a death metal band, I’ll have to say Carcass!
 
Chris: For me, one of my biggest influences on the guitar was James Murphy [ex-Death, Obituary, Testament]
 
Jeff: I forgot about him!
 
Chris: He’s uh, I don’t know if he’s with Testament or not but I know he used to play with them but I think I would be smiling from ear to ear if I got a chance to play with them guys!!!
 
Karma: Do you guys have any parting words?
 
Jeff: Yeah, LONG LIVE FUCKING METAL!
 
Karma: There you go!! Thanks guys!!
 
Jeff: Thank you very much!

I'd like to thank the guys in Solace of Requiem for doing this interview and wish these wonderful men the best of luck in what will be a long, illustrious career in metal!

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