Exclusive Interview: Redshift talk “Laws of Entropy”!

At the end of April a concept album exploring the journey through life from birth to death titled “Laws of Entropy” from Bath based Progressive Metal trio Redshift via Pale Wizard Records blew our collective minds. No strangers to creating something big, bold and brave having done likewise with their critically acclaimed debut album “Cataclysm” doing likewise in 2019, the band not only took on the challenge, but crossed the finish line in style. After we picked ourselves up off the floor, we had a chat with drummer Jack Camp, guitarist Joshua Boniface and vocalist, bassist Liam Fear that went something like this…

How have you found the reaction to “Laws Of Entropy” so far? How did the success of your 2019 debut “Cataclysm” motivate you in writing the follow up? “The reaction has been really positive so far, we’re always humbled by the support we get and it never goes under our radar. As for the motivation for this new one, we just knew we could do everything better. Even before Cataclysm came out we knew the main things we liked about it and the things we didn’t like so much. We just write whatever nonsense we want and we don’t mind if it completely fails.”

Both albums are concept records; how do you find sticking to a task when writing to the concept you’ve laid out? Do you find yourselves with leftover lyrics or music that doesn’t fit the theme which may perhaps see the light of day in the future? “It’s definitely easy to come up with a story and say we’re just gonna do a whole album about that but once you get into it you find yourself getting into dead ends and then obviously the music has to represent the lyrics well. We’d rather adapt the lyrics slightly to fit the music. With Cataclysm we decided it was gonna be a concept at the 11th hour but with this one it was a lot more planned and based on things Liam was actually going through…An alien invasion was cooler and less depressing though.”

How did you come up with the vision for the magnum opus that is “Blueshift“? A twenty one minute track of epic proportions ws something you’d got close to with “The Last Stand” on “Cataclysm“, so did that make you want to take it further? “With The Last Stand it didn’t really feel complete and we didn’t go into that song trying to make it nearly 20 minutes, it just ended up that way because we’re stupid. With Blueshift we knew we wanted it to be a big song and musically we wanted it to represent everything this band is about. I think it does a good job of taking you everywhere but then bringing back certain themes and coming to a satisfying conclusion and I think that’s the main thing with really long songs like that, if you’re going to make someone listen for 20 minutes it has to have a big pay off and it has to make sense. I think we missed the mark a bit with The Last Stand but we’re happy with Blueshift.”

If we are made up of our genes and our influences, what is in your jeans and who would you consider your influences? “Our influences are broad but I bet everyone says that. I think we’re starting to show more of our influences now such as Primus, Frank Zappa and all that stuff, as well as stuff like Rush, Dream Theater, BTBAM, Opeth. I want to see us as the kitchen sink of metal bands and I think we’re getting there slowly…doesn’t mean that’s a good thing.”

What would do more for Redshift in the current climate? A run of 10 shows across the United Kingdom in support of a band like Ne Obliviscaris, Scar Symmetry or Allegaeon or a one off festival appearance at Radar Festival in Manchester, Hellfest in France or Summer Breeze in Germany? “As much as you’d get better Instagram photos from playing Hellfest or Summer Breeze, I think doing a run of shows on a bill that suits us would do more for us. I think playing to 20 people that might actually be into what you do would be better than playing to a massive crowd of drunk festival goers. I’ve got nothing against drunk people though, my family is full of them.”

What’s next for Redshift? “We’ve got some stuff going on that we’ll announce when the time is right but we’re actually pretty full on into writing a new record. We’ve got the whole thing planned and already have a couple of songs demoed and ideas for most of the songs. So we’re pretty excited about that and then maybe we’ll play a couple of gigs if someone wants to chuck us some millions.”

“Laws of Entropy” by Redshift is out now via Pale Wizard Records with more available over at bandcamp.