Exclusive Interview: Break Fifty talk writing and recording “Every Scream Became A Whisper In The Dark”!

It may only be 23 minutes in duration but at eight tracks, including two interludes, technically speaking the new EP “Every Scream Became A Whisper In The Dark” from Break Fifty qualifies as an album on streaming services. The Nu-Core enthusiast returned after three years away with a new line up and a fresh hunger, their previous material setting a benchmark with over 150k of streams worldwide for them to surpass and they’ve hit a home run clean out of the park. Rather than retrieving the ball, we spoke to the band about what went into the writing and recording of a record so deeply personal…

How did your previous experiences writing and recording help to smooth the path of the new record?

Matt: “With covid being ever present at the time of writing we had to turn to digital, myself and our producer Ryan from Sunfall, had spent countless days if not weeks over Discord writing this EP, which could prove challenging at times but it was much smoothing being able to hear a more finished product in demo form compared to our “Band in a room” method prior”

How does the writing process of a new track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first? How does it evolve from there before you consider it the finished article?

Matt: “It really varied with this, some of the tracks were written off the sound design and some of the tracks were a random idea I recorded on my phone on an unplugged bass! But throughout it was about the feel of the song, if we felt it had enough energy and lasted the test of time, then we’d roll with it. Being able to use backing tracks now and really delving into the world of sound design for this EP really put the finishing touches on the tracks for us, it just gave everything more life”

What was it like writing such a personal record? Did you find it cathartic or did you feel like you had to have a degree of separation from the emotion of it to get it how you wanted it to be?

Angus: “I found it cathartic because I wanted to portray the message in a way that did justice for the band. But this EP was slightly different as it’s a collection of emotions not just my own. But working together on some parts really got the songs to the next level”

What was it like working with Ben Mason of Pintglass and Bound In Fear on “Dreamland“? How did the collaboration come about?

Angus: “Ben and I have been friends for a long time. Growing up in the same town and for myself, seeing him become such a force in the scene now with Bound in Fear and Pintglass I had to get him involved. As soon as I showed him the track he loved it. He added such a great element to “Dreamland” and made those heavy elements his own and just crushed it as always!”

If you had the opportunity to work with a guest in the studio next time around, who would you like to work with and why?

Any: “There are a lot of different avenues within the writing process, it would be really cool to work with someone like ‘Aphex Twin’ for things like sound design, or being able to collaborate with other artists we’d want to think outside the box, get someone like Courtney from spirit box or Travis ex Varials Vocalist”

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

Batch: “Guitars: Currently I’m running a Sub-zero VI 30” Baritone strung with Stringjoy (12-58s) thrown into a Line 6 Helix with a dual amp setup based on the Bogner Überschall and the PRS Archon. I simply can’t get over the endless advantages of solely using modelling in terms of my pedals and amps

Bass: Fender Jazz player series/ Darkglass microtubes/ Tech21 Sansamp

Drums: DW design series acrylic kit, Zildjian Cymbals – mixture of As, Ks and custom variants” 

What difference would it make to you if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer?

Batch: “Getting support from brands as a live musician is something that really helps take some weight off our shoulders on the road. Being blessed with receiving strings, sticks, picks and more ensures that we can really focus on the music itself and help play our instruments to the best of our ability. Hopefully this is something we can look forward to in the future”

“Every Scream Became A Whisper In The Dark” by Break Fifty is out now and everywhere you’d expect it to be…