Exclusive Interview: Sonus Mortis talk “Of Red Barren Earth”!
When it comes down to brass tacks there are few who are as prolific as Kevin Byrne has been with album releases from his project Sonus Mortis. Exploring themes of corruption, dehumanisation, falsehoods, power imbalances and disillusionment with many societal structures with a desire to challenge the norms and the narratives presented to us, “Of Red Barren Earth” is the seventh album in a decade from the former Valediction bassist and it’s truly astounding. Combining elements of Doom, Death, Black, Symphonic and Gothic, this record is one that has it all, so here’s a conversation with the legend…
Seven albums in ten years is an incredible achievement for a band, but as a multi instrumentalist it seems utterly mind blowing. How do you feel looking back at the achievements of Sonus Mortis? When you released the self titled demo in 2013 did you ever think you’d have released so much music a decade on? “During the recording of the 2013 demo, originally I had all the tracks down as instrumentals… I did have lyrics/vocals for it but it was Mick Richards who encouraged me to keep tracking the vocals. So I guess that was the true birth of the project, that thumbs up from him while I was in the vocal booth when I first belted out the lyrics for ‘A Pale Reflection’. I got the bug from then on. Looking back, the first album was definitely rushed and the second one should have gone under some more strict quality control but once I hit the third album ‘Hail The Tragedies Of Man’ that’s when I personally felt it started to really come together. I feel there’s been steady progress made since that album. In terms of how I write and how I record. Since 2021 album ‘Past Lives’ for example, all songs have been tracked at my home, bass/guitars/vocals/synths etc. Which means I can bring all the songs nearly 100% ready to be mixed/mastered. The costs of tracking in a studio was getting too much for a solo artist like myself so it needed to change in order for me to continue.
I’m not entirely surprised I’ve released 7 albums in 10 years. There’s no time/energy consumed from having to go to rehearsals or go to play gigs, spend hours chopping and changing songs and ideas from others. It’s all on my time. This is my passion as such, if I need an escape, I go start writing music. I can thrash out a lot of ideas/riffs and turn them into songs within days, sometimes even hours”
On the subject of minds being blown, you recorded “Of Red Barren Earth” within a two week period in July 2023, which is astonishing given that’s guitars, drums, synths, programming, vocals… How on earth did you go about achieving that? “Well all the programming aspects are all ready to go beforehand. I write all my songs in tablature form within software called Guitar Pro, where you can program all the notes for guitar/bass/synth/drums and export in MIDI format. Then you practice off the MIDI/Guitar Pro sounds. So before July comes around – I could be listening to these songs for months beforehand! Then July came around, the first week was tracking guitars and bass and synths, sent off to the studio to start the mixing process and then the second week was vocals and then 2 more days mixing/mastering. Done and dusted. Got it down to a tee now :)”
The evolution of Sonus Mortis has been a joy to behold with so many nuances and deviations while always clearly being your work. How do you find that musical freedom? Have you ever sat back and thought about avoiding being pigeon holed, or has that simply happened naturally? “I prefer writing on my own compared to writing with 1 or several band members, just down to the control and freedom aspects, nothing is off the limits as such, so more likely to have twists and turns in my music because of that. For better or for worse it will always have my musical foundations or limitations, it’s just a case of how much more I can extract from that. How long more until the well dries up – I do not know :)”
How important has working with Mick Richards at Trackmix Studios for mixing and mastering over the past decade been to you? Does he feel almost like a co-conspirator at this point? “Well Mick has been monumental behind all the production aspects of the past 7 albums. He usually will come up with 1 or 2 ideas per album in terms of “what if you add this in there” – I think 99% of the time I’ve said yes to his suggestions but never is it the case of him editing or changing riffs or the structure of the song. More like, what if we add some choir here or some rolling timpani drums? And that’s the best kind of suggestions, additions or subtractions, never changes or edits. We’ve had a pretty much perfect working relationship the past years and I think the production levels have only improved as time has gone on. I’ve always liked to layer strings, flutes, choirs all on top of each other and he had done a fair good choice of keeping it all in balance while maintaining good weight to the songs. I personally think the last 2 albums especially are some of his best production output.”
The depth of the politically and socially aware lyrical narrative of “Of Red Barren Earth” gives the material the air of protest music; what made you choose to be so direct this time around? “Usually I like to be cryptic and leave everything open to interpretation but how this album came about, it was too on the nose the subject matter not to be a bit more descriptive and be more straightforward with it. I find a lot of lyric content from other bands is just being regurgitated and I’m trying to find my own niche that isn’t about ghouls and goblins or the Pantera or Machine Head nonsense.”
There are a lot of symphonic elements within the new record which add a real depth and texture to the music with cinematic touches. If the opportunity arose, would you be interested in writing the soundtrack for an art house movie? “I wouldn’t say no to writing a soundtrack for an art house movie or some indie gaming company. Would bring about it’s own challenges as I’d be writing for someone else or for a certain setting/mood but think it would be good to attempt at least once”
What’s next for Sonus Mortis? “A break for a while 🙂 At least a year. Would you believe it if I said I have 4 albums ready to go? Each newly written one being a sequel to the past 4 most recent albums. It’s really a matter of picking which one to fully commit to and develop to 100%. Music 90% done, lyrics are 20% there type thing. But that decision won’t be made until 2025 I reckon. I’ve considered live streaming how I approach song-writing – not sure if I will yet but would be interesting to explore – write a song from scratch live so people could see the thought process and what’s involved. One thing is for sure – I will always stay in this dark realm with this mode of writing and lyricism – as a fan said to me this week, extreme music needs more truly independent artists who can do it all in a professional manner/quality & not just copy Dimmu Borgir – so I plan on doing that as long as I possibly can :)”
“Of Red Barren Earth” by Sonus Mortis was released on 25th October 2023 and is available over at bandcamp.
