Every once and awhile you stumble across a band that scrambles your brains and inspires you all at the same time. Well, upon hearing Wild Throne’s three song EP Blood Maker, that’s exactly what happened to me. I’ve probably spun Blood Maker at least a dozen times and some of the rhythms contained in Wild Throne’s jams are still confusing me, but that doesn’t stop me from doing some spastic bugging out. The way this trio from Bellingham, WA is able to combine soaring vocals, incredible heaviness, and technical musicianship is downright fantastic! Basically, Wild Throne’s Blood Maker is like a pachyderm sized question mark covered in peacock feathers and armed with saber-tooth tiger fangs! My intrigue and confusion for Wild Throne’s bodacious tunes lead me to get in touch with with guitarist and vocalist Josh Holland to talk about the evolution of the band, the making of Blood Maker, and what its like to chill with Ross Robinson.
How did Wild Throne come to be?
Noah (Burns, drums) and I met in college through our mutual friend Ben Kahn. Noah and Ben were a little older and cooler than I was and they turned me on to good metal and prog. The 3 of us would get together and shred in Noah’s bedroom trying to figure out how we could be like a heavy metal Dillinger meets YES kind of thing. As we were doing so we met Jeff (Johnson, bass) who was playing with this cool spazz band The Russians. When everything kind of fizzled out around the same time we shifted around a bit and formed what would eventually become Wild Throne.
When I first came across your music, you were still called Dog Shredder. Why the change in name?
Dog Shredder was an experiment with a bit of fantasy mixed in. ‘How fun would it be to have this crazy shredding band with a name as crazy as that?’, we thought. And it was actually really fun! But as our music changed over several years we all had to acknowledge that the moniker had outstayed its welcome. That it was kind of trapping us as this sort of weekend warrior grind band or something. We wanted freedom so we just kind of declared it.
The band’s sound seems to have really progressed from the last Dog Shredder release. How do you feel you’ve grown as a band?
I feel like what we’ve done now is something we have wanted to do for a long time, but maybe didn’t have the courage or confidence to do until now. When we met Ross (Robinson, producer) he really believed there was more to us than what was on the surface and he gave us a lot of guidance and confidence to explore and experiment with what we could actually do with our instruments. The new record is the fusion of all of that.
My favorite thing about Blood Maker is the heavy and progressive music paired with the soaring vocals. Josh, what is your approach to singing? Any vocal inspirations?
Thank you! When I’m singing or working on lyrics I try and draw from all of my favorite singers and bundle it into something that is my own, but totally indebted to them. I get the same feeling listening to Roy Orbison or Freddy Mercury as I do when I listen to Dave Verellen or Jacob Bannon. It’s something raw and human and filled with emotion. I go for that and I land wherever I land.
Blood Maker was produced by Ross Robinson. How did this come about and what was the experience like?
The whole thing was pretty amazing. Ross has some ties to Bellingham through my good friend Daniel Anderson of Glowbug and Idiot Pilot. He heard our last record through Daniel and got ahold of us wanting to maybe get involved. He came and saw us in LA when we were on tour with Dysrhythmia and we had a really good time shooting the shit after the show. We may have felt a little intimidated then, but we were comforted by his genuine eagerness to make something work between us and him. It ended up working out really great!
What’s your favorite Ross Robinson produced album?
Burn, Piano Island, Burn. (The Blood Brothers)
The video for “Shadow Deserts” seems to be racking up the hits. Any funny or crazy moments while filming the video?
To be 100% honest, the fact that it actually worked at all is funny and crazy. We did it ourselves really quick with a GoPro and some other footage shot by my friend Brian Webb. We had no idea what we were doing. I signed up for a 30-day trial version of some deluxe Adobe movie making software and just kind of figured out how it worked by the seat of my pants. It turned out pretty cool and not too over thought. It’s pretty raw and definitely us.
The cover for Blood Maker absolutely rules. Who designed it? Is there any meaning / symbolism behind it?
The cover is by Portland artist Orion Landau. A total badass. We got familiar with him through his work with Red Fang. Brutal Panda helped get us in touch with him and he just nailed it. Her color and intensity match the music well, I think.
Another thing I really like about you guys is that you seem to be really supportive of the other bands that you enjoy. Don’t you wish every band was the same way?
Where we come from every band is the same way. Bellingham is very small and there has always been a culture of support here, even if it briefly attempts to self-destruct here or there. It’s in our DNA as Northwesterners I suppose. We’ve always been supported and we want to support others who are raging it.
Any bands from the Washington area or Pacific Northwest that maybe “flying under the radar” that we need to check out?
A couple come to mind. Bearcubbin’! is a totally shredding band from the Northwest. They play Battles-style math with seriously brawny drumming. We’ve also grown a soft spot for a band called Gaytheist from Portland. They have this Weezer meets KARP sound that is super catchy and crushing. If you’re reading this please check them out.
I’ve read a lot of reviews that compare you guys to Mastodon and The Mars Volta. If you could compare Wild Throne to a combination of your favorite bands, what would it be?
We’re big fans of both of those bands. We owe a lot to them for bringing in a new generation of heavy metal and prog rock and helping both genres appeal to a broader audience. But that’s only a part of it. Our influences are so broad and we don’t try to clone. Maybe we get the comparison because we try and push ourselves and the boundaries of the music as much as we can and I think those bands did that too.
The world needs more Wild Throne jams. Any plans for a full length?
Yes. We have so much new music in the tank that it has to happen and soon. We’ve been trying to make a full length for a long time, but whatever circumstances of the day have always postponed it. We try to put quality over quantity and I think we’re finally ready to give a full length our all.
Any chance of a U.S. a tour this year in which I could request a Salt Lake City date?
Chance of this is 100%!