Having only recently formed, Richmond-based death-metal quintet Crop Circles hasn’t traveled far outside of their hometown just yet, but their balls-to-the-wall live performances are already making a splash within their local scene. The group recently recorded a demo, now available online, and plans for future touring are in the works. Vocalist Wesley Warren, formerly of They Found Her in Pieces, was cool enough to sit down and answer a few questions for me.
How'd you guys meet?
Eugene and I were in a band previously, and we had known Craig for years. Davis and Michael contacted the three of us about joining up, and after some practices we got down to business and wrote a demo.
Do you believe in crop circles?
Not really [laughs]. Definitely believe in extraterrestrial life though. I think it would be weird that the only way a super advanced alien civilization would chose to communicate with us would be to draw pictures in some corn.
Who writes your lyrics?
I write all of the lyrics.
They’re pretty dark. The first two tracks on your EP, "The Clouds Are Following Me" and "Isolationism," in particular seem to deal with themes like depression and frustration. Are these things that you have dealt with personally?
Yep. I think they are things that everyone deals with in their own way. Playing the kind of music we play, I feel it is appropriate to talk about it. Though I'm not a super depressed person by any means.
What do you have in mind when you write?
I don't really write situational things per se. More about just general feelings. When something bad happens I don't go grab a pen and write about it. I just write what I think would fit with the song, and try to put a part of myself into it. There's no overall message to what we play, but I would like whoever listens to it to come away with something.
What is your cover art about? Is that a cloud or an iris or what? Who does your artwork?
It's actually an image we found on the internet and doctored a bit. It’s a free image. Me and [guitarist] Craig saw it, thought it looked really bleak, and figured it would be cool as an album cover. I think it’s snow.
Your Facebook describes you as having "only one purpose: to play the most hateful music ever heard," and possessing a "total disgust for the inner workings of the world." Care to elaborate?
Well, beyond the obvious poetic license we use in our description, we as a group just don't agree with most of the stuff going on in the world. It's very easy to sit around and say "the government sucks" or "my job sucks," but when you look at the underlying causes of some of the problems that most people in the world, or at least in the western world, experience, it becomes sickening. Be it the failing education system, class struggle or a myriad of others, there's a lot of things to stand against in the modern world. Becoming involved with actively opposing the things which bring you down is something I support one hundred percent, although we try our best not to be preachy about it.
How do you feel about the Richmond music scene?
I feel the Richmond scene is just like every other music scene. There's always new bands and older bands and cool dudes and elitists.
What are your thoughts on djent?
Eh, not my thing. I'm a huge fan of older hardcore, black metal and 80's death metal, so most of the newer things coming out in the commercial metal scene don't really interest me. However, I'm sure there're some good bands that do it well.
What’s your tour schedule like?
Well, our first show ever was the first show of our first tour, so that should tell you something. We've only done 1 tour so far, down to South Carolina and back with our very good pals in Thrown to Belial (which ruled), but we've only been a band for 3 1/2 or 4 months. We're planning some more things very soon.
Is it hard to balance your other commitments with the band?
We all work our asses off at shitty jobs and playing music is our escape from that. When I'm not at Crop Circles practice I'm in one of the other bands I'm in.
How do you think downloading and file-sharing is affecting bands in earlier stages of their career?
I think it's helping so much. Bands can get so much exposure these days through people downloading their music.
What happened to your previous band, They Found Her In Pieces? You guys were together for quite a while.
Well, to make a very long story short, we finished our first tour under Active Management, and when we got back to Richmond, our drummer decided it wasn't for him anymore. At that time, we already had a fill-in guitarist and Craig was filling in on bass. Miguel and I decided that we should just call it quits on a good note. It was obviously over, and we didn't want to draw it out until it became something it wasn't. No hard feelings.
What was your recording experience like?
We recorded with our guitarist Craig. He's VERY good at what he does and I would recommend anyone from any style of music to get in touch with him. Recording this demo was very laid back and easy compared to some of the studio experiences I've had. There wasn't really a bad moment at all.
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