Celebrating their 10th anniversary, DISTANT is releasing Tsukuyomi: The Origin – a fresh take on their debut EP with brand-new tracks, reimagined originals, and guest appearances from Matthew K. Heafy, Alex Erian, and more. We sat down with Elmer to chat about the journey so far, the new release, and what’s ahead for the band.
Hi! Looking back over 10 years, how has your journey as DISTANT shaped you both musically and personally?
Ten years are a significant length for young adults during a period in which you still need to find who you are. I think for all of us these ten years made us feel more confident in who we are, what we like and what we produce. The band started off as a hobby in which we could let our creative freedom let go and escape from the busy daily life, but by now it has turned around and the band has become a full time thing. Letting go of our creative freedom has just been expended as we now got bigger budgets to work with and devote more time to it.
What made you decide to revisit Tsukuyomi for the 10th anniversary? How does this new version differ from the original?
The Tsukuyomi EP of 2017 was our first real EP and a big project for us back then. Looking back at it we have always loved the songs but felt like the songs were missing the sound we developed over the years. On the other hand we created the lore behind the lyrics after the Tsukuyomi EP but felt the story that is told in the lyrics was not made public yet, hence we revisited the album and now released the book ‘’The Ascend Of Tsukuyomi’’ that tells this story.
The original tracks got completely revamped by updating the drums, recording all instruments again, adding extra synth layers, revising some riffs and adding new guest features.
You’ve added seven new tracks to Tsukuyomi: The Origin. What inspired these new songs, and how did you decide which older tracks to rework?
The older tracks inspired the new ones. The old tracks have some extreme tempo changes, mix slam with deathcore and are straight up in your face; and that mix exactly inspired us for the newer songs. For the older tracks we reworked them all.
The Tsukuyomi story is a key part of your music. How has the narrative evolved since the original EP?
The Tsukuyomi story was still a broad narrative back in the days of the original EP release. Now with the new album we took that narrative and wrote down the complete story of it, which then again inspired the lyrics for the newer songs. The name ‘’Tsukuyomi’’ has his origin from Japanese mythology, which reflects on the whole narrative.
You’ve worked with guest artists like Matthew K. Heafy and Alex Erian on this album. How did those collaborations come together and affect the album’s sound?
Both are legendary artists that have inspired us over the years in our musical tastes. We wanted to collaborate with both for a while already and now was the perfect time to work on this. In the end both features worked out perfect, so we are very happy with the result.
What are some standout moments from your recent tours with Suffocation and Born of Osiris? Did anything from these experiences influence your music?
In general we tend to absorb a lot of inspiration from bands we tour with. If its just in general on how to run your band, how to structure your live set or musical technics; it can be anything. For these specific tours we also learned a lot as for example from Suffocation we learned some sick new guitar technics.
What’s a typical day like for DISTANT while touring, and how do you balance the pressure of live shows with writing new music?
On a typical day of touring we have arrived at the city we are playing in early in the morning. First couple hours we go for a walk to explore the area and get some fresh coffee. Around lunch time it is time to load out the trailer, set up the gear inside the venue and do a soundcheck. Then it’s show time and after the show we hang out at the merch table. When the night is over we load out our gear and get back on the road to the next show. In general it is a busy schedule with very long days, but when there is some down time we tend to have a look in city, get some work done on a laptop, write some new music, hang out with the other bands or do some fun things like going to the beach.
Writing music on the road must be tough. How do you juggle staying creative with the physical and mental toll of touring?
It is tough indeed, so after a tour we often need a resting period of a couple days at least. But on the other hand touring is also very motivational, inspiring us with new ideas based on bands we play with or the vibe at shows. These ideas will then come to life when we are back home and get back into writing mode.
With such a complex narrative, how do you make sure listeners connect with the music even if they don’t dive deep into the story?
The music and the story of course match best when you delve deeper into them and listen to the music after reading the story. But the music can be listened to on its own as well, you are just missing the bigger picture then. But we also try to engage with our fans by telling the story in the videoclips and in our artworks.
How has technology played a role in shaping your sound, and how has your approach to production changed since your early days?
Technology has played a big influences on how we operate as a band and how we produce and play our music. One of the biggest differences nowadays and with us as that we developed our own guitar plugin (which releases to the public in December ’24) which we use for recordings but also for our live sound. This makes our live-rig very compact and easy for us to transport on tours but also gives us the same sound live as on the albums.
Do any of the new tracks on Tsukuyomi: The Origin hold a special meaning for you? Why?
Not a special meaning directly but yes to them in general as this concept album was another great project we loved to work on. So in that sense it will always have a special place in our hearts.
Given the lore of Tsukuyomi, have you ever thought about expanding the story into other media, like graphic novels or films?
We are definitely looking into this and the closest we came with it was doing the videoclip for ‘’The Undying’’, which summarizes the whole lore behind Tsukuyomi already. Unfortunately longer videos like a film and graphic novels and are currently out of our budget.
What are your next big goals for DISTANT, both in terms of music and connecting with new fans? Thanks for your time!
Keep on grinding! We want to continue playing a lot of live shows all around the world while working on new music at the fast paced you are now used from us. Hopefully also in parts of the world where we have never been!
https://distantband.lnk.to/TsukuyomiTheOriginAlbum
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