Exclusive Interview: Schemata Theory talk writing and recording “Unity In Time”!

After last weeks first exclusive interview with one half of the dual vocal attack of Schemata Theory in Luke Wright, it’s the turn of guitarist Huw Roch to face the interrogation of a follow up about writing and recording their impressive sophomore album “Unity In Time“. If you missed it, put simply the band are armed with a Sword of Post Hardcore and a Shield of Metalcore as they carry a message in a bottle across dangerous ground with influences from Killswitch Engage and Funeral For A Friend. So grab a beverage of choice, push play on the record and have a read of this!

What did you learn from the recording of your debut album “Dry Lung Rhetoric” that helped when it came to recording “Unity In Time“?  “We came in to ‘Unity In Time’ with a very different overall approach compared to ‘Dry Lung Rhetoric’. During the time between the two, we have certainly grown and developed as a band and this very much lead to a different mindset in the studio. With ‘Dry Lung Rhetoric’ we went into the studio with a pretty rigid approach on what had been written originally was very much exactly what would end up recorded – ultimately it needed that approach to be able to achieve the level of layering in the songs in the amount of time we had. This very much influenced the writing of ‘Unity In Time’ we wanted to ultimately have a little bit less going on instrumentally, to let everything breath a bit more; and also to give us a greater ability to be flexible around what would make each track the best song it could be when being finalised in the studio. Working with Justin Hill was also a big part of this, we wanted to not only leverage his abilities as a producer but also his experience of being a vocalist in one of the original dual vocalist modern metal bands!”

How does the writing process of a new Schemata Theory track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first? “Generally they start with a single guitar part, that could be a riff or a chord progression that then has a lead melody added to it. From there, it’s fairly linear in terms of “what does it sound like this part should go into next”, this is repeated until it’s come together as a song structure that feels right initially. Josh adds his drums ideas to this and once we’re happy with that we make some demos and give them to the vocalists to start adding their ideas”

What was it like working with Justin Hill (SikTh, Heart of a Coward, Betraying The Martyrs) once again? What made you decide to return to him and not take the path less travelled? “Justin is a fantastic producer and simply put, he just gets us and what we are going for. That dynamic is massively important in the studio as if he’s asking us to try something we probably have a good idea of what he means, why he’s asking and we trust it’s worth trying even if we don’t. Equally, if we are trying something and it’s not right we all tend to be on the same wavelength there too. A really good example of this is in ‘Mind Eater’ originally the outro riff was just a small part of the second verse and the song went back into the chorus at the end. Justin said he wasn’t sure about that transition, that maybe should use the riff from earlier he’d liked; as soon as he said it I got it and I couldn’t believe we hadn’t thought of it through all the demos! It was such a great idea and really elevated the song from where it was at. It’s those moments that tell you that you are working with someone who is on the right wave length for what you are trying to do, small tweaks that make a huge difference overall but feel right straight away to everyone involved. His experience as a metal vocalist in a dual vocalist band is, in itself, invaluable too. It really helps us get the best out of the songs given we also work to that structure”

We’ve talked a lot in our review about it being important from a fans perspective to have balance so as to give something that fans can enjoy as well as thinking about the message rather than being drowned by it. How important was striking that balance for you and how much thought went into that in these songs? “To be honest we don’t directly think about it in that way too much, we do try to avoid any sort of overly direct rally cries in the lyrics but overall it’s probably an indirect consequence of the messages themselves.  Largely the messaging is about connection, compassion and communication – for the most part we aren’t really taking one side of any particular argument and trying to force home our view. Myles [Dyer, vocals] puts a large amount of time into the lyrics to ensure they are well constructed and that the messaging is appropriately nuanced in a way that can resonate with people, if they want to engage with the lyrics. Overall it’s a case that there is a message in the lyrics, we don’t mind if people don’t want to engage on that level and just enjoy the songs, but equally we aren’t trying to hide the messaging”

For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound?

“So… where to begin, between us we have built a bit of a collection over the years.

Starting with what you’ll see if you come see us live – we use Shure mics for all of the vocals. 

Josh uses Pearl drums, Evans drumheads, Zildjian cymbals, Pro Mark or Vic Firth sticks and Tama pedals.

Guitar wise, we mostly use Strandberg guitars live – they sound great, they are light weight and their size just makes them incredibly practical all round. Mario uses a ‘Boden Metal’ with Fishman pickups and I use a customised ‘Sälen Deluxe’ with Bareknuckle pickups. Strings wise we uses D’addario and Elixir strings (10-52).

Those run into Kemper Stages which have profiles of the studio rigs used on the album. For stage sound we go into 2 Headrush FRFR cabs which also have some bass coming through them.

In the studio, the guitar set up changes a bit. The heavy guitars and leads were recorded on PRS guitars and the cleans were largely on a Fender Telecaster (all with Bareknuckle pickups).

Amp wise, the rhythms are all from a Peavey 5150 (with an Ibanez TS9), leads were via a Victory Kraken (with TS9 and Mythos Mjolnir) and cleans were recorded on a Victory V40 (also with Mjolnir). We used Zilla cabs for all of the amps.

In terms of other pedals, for some parts we used a Keeley Caverns pedal, an Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master and we used a Sansamp pedal for most of the bass tracking”

What difference would it make to you as a band if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer? “We’re always open to conversations about endorsements with manufacturers, we’d want to ensure it was a mutually beneficial relationship where they believe in what we do, we believe in the products and we can both add value to each other. It’s hard to say what difference any specific endorsement would make as it would of course depend of the endorsement in question – ultimately support is support though and any endorsement relationship we can nurture would be beneficial to the band”

Catch Schemata Theory playing select cuts from “Unity In Time” later this month!

18.03 – Bracknell, The Acoustic Couch
20.03 – Bristol, The Gryphon
25.03 – Workington, Lounge 41
26.03 – Whitechurch, Percy’s Cafe Bar
27.03 – Nottingham, The Angel Microbrewery