Interview with VINTERSEA

Hello, Woven into Ashes was mixed by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland. What did they bring to the table in terms of the sound of the album?
Riley: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! This was our first time working with Carson and Grant at Atrium, and they absolutely brought a new level of experience and vision to the project. We have had the great privilege of working with incredible engineers on each and every one of our releases, and Carson and Grant have worked on some of our favorite records from the last decade – so it only made sense to work with them on our most ambitious project yet. They have a great ear for thick mixes and enormous walls of sound, which is critical to our sound.

Your music draws inspiration from the darkened skies of the Pacific Northwest. Can you talk about how your surroundings influence your music? And, what themes or topics do you explore in your lyrics?
Riley: We love where we live, and it truly is a beautiful place to live. We have four big seasons with huge weather switches, and we are surrounded by 10,000 foot stratovolcanoes on one side and the largest body of water on the planet on the other. To live here and not feel the enormity of existence is to bury your head in the sand. Whether intentional or not, that has made its way into our lyrics and our song-writing, which is often about the acceptance of our place in the grand scheme of reality and the glimmer of hope in the darkness.

Can you tell us more about the character and their journey that inspired album artwork, made by Xenoyr?
Riley: It was great to work with Xenoyr again! They really understand the themes and concepts that we want to get across, and take the time to work those details into the artwork in a way that many artists wouldn’t touch. Every album we’ve written has been a concept album, and this one tells the story of a soul as it develops through different lifetimes – from the uncertainty, fear, and rage of a brand new spirit through the process of learning to walk with its own darkness, and ultimately accepting that the end is, in many ways, simply a new beginning.

What was the biggest challenge you faced while recording Woven into Ashes?
Karl: Doing anything during the pandemic can bring challenges – navigating people getting sick, schedules getting out of whack. We ran into plenty of those.
Musically – we always try to stretch and grow so digging deep and trying to write the best music while pushing ourselves is a fun game. Did I just take that part too far? Or can I go even further?
Some songs only came together in mixing – typically we’ve jammed them alot in the practice room and demoed them but this one had a few that didn’t really come together until the end. Luckily those songs turned out great.

And what has been the most challenging aspect of being in a band so far, and how did you overcome it?
Karl: Navigating 5 different personalities and goals. While everyone basically has the same goal there can occasionally be differences of opinions on how to get there.
Also being in a band can be hard – you put lots of money and time into everything and you’re the last to get paid and it can be hard finding that “next step”.
As far as overcoming it – the band has learned how to disagree, figure out a path forward, and then rally on ideas. And how to be flexible. It’s the key to getting things done and not feeling defeated.
And as far as the “next steps” – we’ve pretty well figured things out ourselves through trial and error, talking to peers, our label has been very helpful, and two big things were getting a new manager and our first booking agent!

Vintersea’s music is known for its heavy, emotionally powerful, and technically intriguing qualities. How do you balance these different elements in your songwriting?
Riley: This is one of those things that has just gotten a lot easier the more we do it! We each bring something different to the music. Some of us are more technically proficient, and some of us are more focused on bringing conceptual consistency or emotional power. The one consistency is that we always write for the song. Whatever the song is, we always try to bring our own flavor to it in a way that serves the song. Over the last 8 years or so, we have really come to trust one another in our writing. I would never step on Jorma’s toes when he is writing a technically proficient solo, and he wouldn’t try to interfere with Avienne’s lyrical or conceptual vision for a song. That trust and kinship is the only reason we are able to strike that balance.

Avienne’s vocal range is impressive. How does she approach each song in terms of vocal delivery?
Avienne: I treat each track as its own entity, therefore the way I approach each song is different. What I like to do is to immerse myself in the concept and emotion being delivered in the song before “uncovering” the vocal style, technique, melody and lyric. I think of my voice as an instrument to personify the message in each part of a song, and since there are many styles of music we are playing, even the screams I deliver can vary.

VINTERSEA is about to embark on a tour with MOONSPELL, ELEINE and OCEANS OF SLUMBER. What can fans expect from these shows?
Karl: We are so excited for this. One thing fans can expect is us to be playing a great mixture of new tunes and songs from our previous albums. Fans can expect us put on one hell of a show – we pride ourselves on our live performances and this will be tour #4 as a band.

What was the most memorable performance or tour experience for VINTERSEA so far?
Karl: It’s hard to pick just one. During the last tour in Oakland people were rowing, in Portland we had the rowdiest crowd ever so far. But I think the big win so far was that on our last tour every show felt like a hometown show.
It was rewarding to see all our work paying off. Oh, and someone paid $500 to help us replace our tires after we blew one out. That was huge.

How does VINTERSEA balance the creative aspect of making music with the business side of the music industry?
Karl: It’s a challenge we’re still navigating. We have to censor our videos all the time and have to make creative decisions based on what won’t get us age restricted on YouTube. Picking singles based on what music video we think will be ready next, and the pressure to feed the Spotify algorithm is nonstop.
That said, we try and make sure we’re not compromising ourselves to appease the big platforms. Musically we write what we want to hear and follow our inspiration, never trying to write what we think people want to hear.

How important is connecting with your fans to VINTERSEA?
Riley: We had no idea how important it would become to us. When we released ‘Illuminated’ in 2019, to be frank we knew very little about our fans. Of course we appreciated and loved them all, but we didn’t have that many ways to connect with them other than at shows. Since that release, and through the struggle of COVID, we have really re-tooled our online game to support a close, personal relationship with our fans. We have a robust and active VINTERSEA Fan Community group on Facebook, and those people have truly become some of our best friends. The support that our fans have shown us – by requesting that our music be reacted to on YouTube, sharing our music with friends, adding it to playlists, commenting and memeing and making fun of our tendencies – man, it just makes it all worth it. We can’t get enough of it.

With a new album and tour on the horizon, what are the band’s goals for the future? Thank you!
Riley: We want to tour more widely! Unfortunately we hit the global shutdown right when we released ‘Illuminated’, which meant we had to focus on things other than touring. Over the last couple of years we have finally gotten to get out and meet some of our fans, but we have so many more all around the world that we need to get out to. We want to make it to Europe, to Central and South America, to Asia, to Australia – and we want to play with all the incredible bands that hail from those places. In the meantime, we’ll keep writing music and creating music videos, but that is all in service of playing for and meeting our incredible friends and fans. Cheers!