SOURCE – Old Smoke is the third and latest studio record for Barishi. Where do you see this album fit in the discography and style of the band – do you feel like you’ve established key elements and formulas for delivering your songs?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – I think we’ve grown into the band that we’ve always wanted to be. We’ve always been partial to longer songs, but in the past whenever we’d try to write one it would always seem to collapse under it’s own weight. It seems to be working now. I think I’ve grown as a songwriter and player as have the other guys. It’s the first album that has me doing vocals. Those waters were very new and interesting to navigate. I think that we were all on the same page with how we wanted the record to sound, both in terms of the song writing and sonically.
SOURCE – The North American scene is both large and in quite good shape. Where do you see yourself fitting in?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – It definitely is. We are from Vermont in New England. Things are very rural, but there is a great and very diverse metal scene in Vermont and New England. Lot’s of different metal genres are well represented. There isn’t really a progressive sludge/death metal scene per se but I don’t think that matters as it’s totally cool to play stylistically diverse shows. As for the broader spectrum of North America, we’ve always had a great time in Canada and the West Coast of the U.S. NYC and Baltimore are always lots of fun. We’ve never played in Mexico, but our other guitarist Joe (plays in the band Lich King) has played down there a few times and says it’s insane.
SOURCE – In your opinion, what makes Old Smoke a better album than Blood from the Lion’s Mouth?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – I think the songs are more in line with what we want to be doing as a band.
SOURCE – Are there plans for a music video from the new album?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – We have one animated music video out for a song called ‘Entombed in Gold Forever’ but I think we might be doing another one that will hopefully be out in June.
SOURCE – You’ve been doing this for well over a decade now. Has it gotten any easier or harder for you compared to when you were on Season of Mist?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – We are actually still on Season of Mist. This new record will be our second for them, but I get your question. Things are easier in a way. The shows are typically better than they were and they pay for us to record and they put out the records. But tours are longer and when something goes wrong with our van or something on a month long tour it’s way shittier than when we would just be doing five day runs of shows. But as a whole having a solid label has definitely helped us get heard by more people. I think we are very lucky to be working with them, I hear stories about other labels from bands we are friends with and some of the stories are crazy. We have had nothing but good experiences with Season of Mist.
SOURCE – Production-wise, the album sounds very natural and raw. Do you think it would have the same effect if it were a very clean and pristine production job?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – Thanks! We definitely shot for having the most organic sound we could. I have always loved recordings where you can hear the sound of the room and have very raw performances. I think the human element of a band shines through that way. Death would be a great example of a band that has that going on. I think that if we had made this record with triggered drums or tons of amp modeling it could have killed that human element that we wanted so much.
SOURCE – With making a living at music seemingly becoming more and more difficult, what steps do you believe should be taken to make things better financially for musicians?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – I am a firm believer in holding onto a day job for as long as you can while making music. The idea of being financially beholden to maintaining a touring or album cycle that requires a musician to do things they don’t want to do really doesn’t sit well with me.
It’s one thing if you’re Iron Maiden and can make a sick album and then tour however much they want and then release an album when the feel ready, but being a smaller band and having to churn out a new record every two years so you can do two years of touring to keep the bills paid has never seemed attractive. That being said, I think that smaller bands should still be paid from their music. It seems like the money is really in creative merchandising these days, something i’m really bad at.
SOURCE – Finally, what’s on the agenda for the rest of 2020?
Graham Brooks (Guitars, Vocals) – Our new record ‘Old Smoke’ is out digitally on April 24th. The physical release was delayed due to the pandemic and will be out on the 5th of June. We had a few tours that were cancelled because of the virus. Hopefully we will tour when all this is over, but we’ll see. Just waiting and trying to stay healthy along with everyone else.
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