Exclusive Interview: Spoiler talk “The Nihilist”!

Like Mike Tyson, Essex Nu-Metalcore quartet Spoiler returned for round #3 to knock us out with “The Nihilist” having been conceived during lockdown by musicians you may know from their time in The Dropper’s Neck and Addison Lane. Our ears were still ringing as we spoke to Will Cattanach about how things have been going for the band of late and that conversation went something like this…

The new single “The Nihilist” sees you go a couple of shades darker and grittier with the cover art and overall sound; What was the inspiration for the small change in direction? “Honestly it was a natural progression . As we write more and more music together we refine our sound and get closer to what it is we want to be musically”

That darkness is shared in the music video which accompanies the track, what was it like to work with Tech-Fest favourites Loki Films? “So this was spoilers third video and my personal fifth video with Shaun so at this point in time it’s almost like he’s a member of the band. We enjoy working with Shaun because he’s incredibly easy to work with and is able to take our rough ideas and manifest them into something great. Really can’t recommend the bloke enough!”

“The Nihilist” has a momentary clean vocal break in it which works incredibly well; is this the tip of the iceberg in terms of bringing in some clean vocals in the future or is nothing off the table in terms of creating new music? “I don’t think it’s really a question of wether we will or won’t have clean vocals, it all depends on what the song needs. In the case of The Nihilist it just felt dynamically appropriate to do it”

You’ve not made any announcement but unless our eyes deceive us it looks like you’ve gone from a quintet to a quartet and had a vocalist change? How did that come about? “Yes we parted ways with our previous vocalist [Aaron, ex-Postmortem Promises] some months ago, and since then I’ve [Will Cattanach] switched from guitar to vocals.”

What does the vocalist change mean for your existing singles “Brighter” and “Repressed“? Do you still see them as the band’s material and potentially on an EP or album going forward or might you be tempted to cut them adrift and effectively start over? “For us, SPOILER is a collective and not just one member, so any material created and released by the band will get played . Of course over time the more we release the more likely it is that some older material fades away, but in the mean time both Repress and Brighter will be a part of our live set”

You must be itching to get to the stage together? What can fans expect from the shows with InRetrospect in January? “Ants in our pants doesn’t even begin to describe it. All I can say for now is we’ll bring every ounce of energy we have to the stage in an attempt to deliver the best possible live show we can”