Exist Immortal: Finding Lights In The Darkness

Exist Immortal have emerged with much vehemence and intensity to stand amongst the leading lights of the British metalcore scene, characterised by colossal riffs, technical excellence and appropriately hair-raising refrain.

Recently they fled the domesticity of West London to roam the UK, hitting the road with Scottish Alternative Music Awards winners Akord for nine noisy dates. It was all in aid of their new single “The Void”, plus the release of the deluxe edition of 2014 full-length Darkness Of An Age.

I caught up with frontman Meyrick de la Fuente and new drummer Charlie Bines before their Gateshead show, as we crammed into their van to talk unlikely influences and lyrical subtexts – plus Ellie Goulding, Aberdeen nightlife, and their ambitions to release an Exist Immortal shampoo.

Thanks for taking the time out to chat to me! Gateshead is the fifth stop on your tour, how has it been going so far?

Meyrick: “It’s been going really well!”

Charlie: “Yeah, it’s not too bad. I’m surprisingly not rundown for five days. I thought it would be worse than it actually is!”

Meyrick: “This is our first run with Charlie actually. Turnout has been good, it’s been fun, and the guys in Akord that are touring with us have been great, so it’s just been a really good tour. Touch all of the wood!”

I know you’ve been having an interesting time, because I saw a “YMCA” video on Facebook earlier. What was all that about?

Meyrick, laughing: “We were in Aberdeen on a Monday night and there’s not really much to do.”

Charlie: “Aberdeen was Akord’s hometown show, so they were like, ‘Oh, we’re all going out afterwards’. We somehow ended up there, because it was the only place that was open, some student bar.”

Meyrick: “The cheesiest music and things like Smirnoff Ice on discount.”

Charlie: “Yeah, and really horrible, watered-down beer.”

So – besides that – what’s the average day been like on tour?

Meyrick: “Oh, it’s good. We wake up – somewhere. Normally look for a Wetherspoon’s, and then get in the van.”

Charlie: “We’re spoilt having the van, because we’re used to Meyrick driving in a Volvo with all of us piled in the back with all of the gear as well.”

Meyrick: “It’s nice to go out on a slightly bigger tour like this, we can sort of get in the van and go back to sleep after a heavy night! Then we might have a beer or something, sit in the van for many hours, and rock up to wherever we’re playing.”

Charlie: “Hunt a beer and soundcheck…”

Meyrick: “Hunt another beer. Or a coffee. Hunt another beer. After that.”

So lots of drinking.

Meyrick: “Yeah, quite a lot!”

Charlie: “Not loads. We’ve been quite good actually. I mean, videos on social media will suggest otherwise! It’s been alright.”

You’re on tour with Akord this time around. What made you decide to tour with them?

Meyrick: “It was our booking agent. He’d just taken them on, and it was quite a good match and they’re a really good band, and we’d both just released singles so it was good timing too.”

Charlie: “It’s quite nice to be playing with a band that’s not super heavy death something.” He laughs.

Charlie: “Do you know what I mean? Our music style ranges from really heavy to really melodic so it’s nice to be on tour with the melodic side rather than the heavy side.”

Love The Sinner are also on the Gateshead bill. How long have you known about them? They’re obviously quite local compared to yourselves.

Meyrick: “Well, since we knew they were playing the show really! They’re just on this show, so we checked them out and they seem cool.”

Charlie: “I haven’t been disappointed by any support band so far, they’ve all been really good. The two in Glasgow[Servant Sun and Blackwork] were great.”

Going way back to your musical beginnings: You formed in 2011, and for the uninitiated, what was the story leading to your formation?

Meyrick: “It’s a fairly long story!”

Charlie, laughing: “Have you got a diagram we can give you? It needs one!”

Meyrick: “It started when our guitarist and bass player met at college doing the same music course, and they had to form a band as part of it. There were two others who are no longer in the band, and so it started with just four of them, sharing vocal duties and stuff.

“An old member was friends with our other guitarist Monty, got him involved – initially on vocals – and through that Monty got me involved as they wanted clean singing and stuff. Eventually Monty moved on to guitar, and then we just started playing loads and loads of shows.”

You’ve been labelled as progressive metal, tech metal and metalcore, and lots more. How would you personally describe your music?

Meyrick: “That sounds about right, really.”

Charlie, objecting: “I wouldn’t go progressive! I’m weird with music, I’d say -“

Meyrick, interrupting: “Charlie thinks Kanye West is a legend, so anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt!”

Charlie: “I’m skewed.”

Meyrick: “In the grander scheme of things I think it would count as progressive as it doesn’t sound like a lot of other things, there’s things it does sound like and there’s things it’s similar to, but it’s quite difficult to sort of pigeonhole.”

Charlie: “Metal. It’s metal.”

Meyrick: “But the problem is, when you say metal, people think of like ‘yeah, fuck yeah’ and all that.”

Charlie: “Metallica.”

Meyrick: “And we’re not really like that.”

So, you mentioned the new single. What’s the meaning behind “The Void”?

Meyrick: “It kind of came about building from the themes our album was about, venting frustration at the human race, but kind of shedding it in a more positive light. It’s difficult to explain.

“The whole album concept was about the opportunities that are available to mankind which aren’t being taken. It’s an extension upon that. It’s difficult to say this without sounding like some sort of preachy dick, but it’s kind of saying like, if we’re not careful, we will eventually sort of fall over an edge into a void.”

Charlie, mocking: “Off the edge of infinity, into a void.”

Meyrick: “Ha!”

Charlie: “I knew I shouldn’t have done this interview!” Both laugh.

Meyrick: “Yeah, it stems on from that really. It’s saying if we aren’t careful we’ll end up in a situation where we can’t come back from it. And it’ll be a lot more difficult and a lot more expensive as well for the human race to do anything about it if we leave it too much longer.”

Charlie: “In terms of a non-lyrical point, it was nice to write something including myself as well, being the newest member of the band. It was nice to get something released that had all of the actual members on it.”

Meyrick: “It’s part of the reason why we decided to do a deluxe edition instead of an entirely new release. Building on what we’d already done, but with Charlie, allowing him the opportunity to write stuff and put his imprint on the band.”

There’s a couple of collaborations on the album, with Sam Rutherforth and Gaz King. What’s the one collaboration, if you had an unlimited choice, you’d –

Charlie, interrupting: “Kanye West!”

It’d be interesting!

Charlie: “In a heartbeat, I’d do a track with Kanye West, all day. Erm, seriously, anyone from Between The Buried And Me.”

Meyrick: “Yeah. Or Matt Bellamy.”

That’s quite different.

Charlie: “Or like a female pop singer would be quite cool to get on a track.”

Meyrick: “I’d get Ellie Goulding. That’d be fucking great.”

Charlie: “I was about to say Ellie Goulding, that’d be wicked. I think her voice is like really different from all the pop artists around.”

Meyrick: “The thing is, you could ask anyone in the band and they’d all give a different answer. Kurt would want Juicy J or Wiz Khalifa. James would want James Hetfield. Yeah, yeahhh.”

Charlie: “Just put a sample of that, he’d be fine! I think that itself defines the eclectic nature of us as a band, though, just how different all of our musical tastes are.”

In the same vein, who have been your main influences?

Meyrick: “It’s hard, because it stems from everything we’ve ever listened to really! There’s a lot of ambient, dark sounds that we play about with, that come from my Muse influences. I’d go as far as to say classical influences too.

“After that there’s the element that comes from Kurt when he’s writing his riffs, that definitely comes from hip-hop!”

Charlie: “The breakdowns too, you can kind of tell they’re hip-hop beats!”

Meyrick: “Kurt’ll listen to hip-hop beats he likes, and just nick ‘em and use them as riffs.”

Ok! Erm –

Meyrick: “At the same time, the stuff he writes is really technical as well, in terms of actual guitar-playing. It’s not straight-up chords.”

So, coming back to the tour. What can fans expect from the live shows?

Meyrick: “Energy.”

Charlie: “Hair. Lots of hair. You’ll see.”

Meyrick: “Lots of energy, lots of hair. It sounds big.”

Charlie: “I think that’s the goal of a live band, to make the sounds as big as possible. That’s what you want, it’s kind of the game.”

So, you’ve got the tour and the upcoming release. After that, what do Exist Immortal have in the pipeline?

Meyrick: “There’s multiple tours being planned, lots of touring definitely. Starting to think about writing for the album.”

Charlie: “Getting down to writing as an actual group as well, which will be really exciting, with as many members as possible involved in the process.”

Meyrick: “Lots of touring and lots of writing.”

The usual stuff, then.

Meyrick: “Yeah, basically! There’s not very much else that bands do!”

Finally, what is the one interesting fact about Exist Immortal that everyone should know?

Charlie: “The last thing we spoke about doing was a Juicy J cover?”

You should! Which song though?

Meyrick: “Money A Do It, something entirely obnoxious.”

Charlie: “Also, we have got a lot of hair. If we could we’d have a hair product.”

Meyrick: “After that, I’d say just come to a show, check out our stuff online, and check out our new single!”

Darkness Of An Age: Deluxe Edition was released on March 23rd. “The Void” is also out now.