SOURCE – Let’s start with order, on the 7th June 2024 will be released the third full-length by Huntsmen, The Dry Land. What would you like to share about its general production?
Marc Stranger-Najjar (Bass, Vocals) – Chicago has a rich history of some of the most talented, innovative recording engineers and studios, one of whom is our dear friend Pete Grossmann – co-founder of Bricktop Recording. Pete and his studio mates have been such an integral part of the Chicago heavy-music scene, and delivers a rich, dynamic sound every time. We simply had to record with him and couldn’t be more pleased with the results! He really allowed space to experiment (and even allowed me to exercise supreme self-indulgence with the way I tracked my bass parts, haha).
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – Since Aimee was more of a guest vocalist on American Scrap and Mandala of Fear, we hadn’t really begun writing from ground zero with her singing as a primary instrument, so to speak. All along as a band we’ve had so much fun playing with vocal harmonies and arrangements, and one of our consistent habits is that we try to challenge ourselves with every new recording, so The Dry Land became a kind of pull-out-all-the-stops, what-can-we-do-with-this-setup kind of thing. In hindsight to writing it, think of it as we needed to stretch out and see what our capabilities were. So we all pushed our limits pretty hard.
SOURCE – The Dry Land represents the redefinition of a new era for the band. If compared to Mandala of Fear, which are the main peculiarities and differences that you notice?
Marc Stranger-Najjar (Bass, Vocals) – There was definitely an internal call to revisit our roots in Americana (from the influence Appalachian harmonies intertwine with bleak themes of loss and despair). We also have been influenced by the beauty in the tormented sounds of blackened Metal and felt there was a natural progression to tie these in, as the themes are often closely related. With everything going on in the world and in our lives at that moment, it just felt right. The juxtaposition of the lyrical, harmony-rich, hopeful moments and the dissonant, chaotic wailing of grief. It’s just been impossible to escape.
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – I’ll double down on what Marc said about the blackened metal influences and the saturation with the despair of the state of the world, as well as just a fucking heaping pile of personal loss and pain from events that have occurred over the last few years in each of our lives, and as a band. And like Marc says, we aren’t total nihilists… we want to believe there is hope, and we want to share hope, so it was like… how can we show people how to hold the bleakness and the hope within yourself, all at the same time. Because that’s what it is to be human. I don’t believe in rejecting either end of the spectrum for the sake of the other.
SOURCE – Out of The Dry Land, it was published the single In Time, All Things which it’s followed by its own amazing videoclip. Before speaking about the visuals, I would like to focus on the lyrical aspect of it. What can you share about it?
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – Thanks for the kind words about the video! The Dry Land is a concept created by my favorite author, Ursula K. Le Guin, for the Earthsea book series. It’s an arid, lightless land where most humans go when they die. The dead pass loved ones in the streets, unrecognizing. The stars never move, and stay fixed in place in an eternal night sky. It’s a frozen place of no resolution. A striking feature of this place is that it’s separated from the land of the living by a simple, low wall made of piled stones. It can be crossed, but requires great strength, and at great peril. To linger too long in the dry land risks being trapped there. To me, this is a metaphor for our ability to move on from grief, tragedy, and trauma versus being consumed by it… stuck with the dead. In the last few years, my cat died; then my mom died; then COVID happened, along with all of Huntsmen’s tour and festival cancellations; meanwhile Black Lives Matter was in full effect (I was living in Richmond, VA at my mom’s house a couple of blocks from the Robert E. Lee monument at the time); then I was bitterly divorced; then I was in a lot of debt; then I suffered debilitating health issues around my back. I felt like I was constantly clawing my way back to the wall, and the temptation to give up was often very great. As is always the case, acceptance of all that had happened, all that had been lost and suffered, all that humans are capable of inflicting on each other, this was the eventual way out. This is all a long preamble to saying, In Time, All Things is a song about accepting the coexistence of horror, despair, and beauty. I hope the lyrics convey solace and the eventual yielding of suffering to respite.
SOURCE – Music streaming has been a hot button topic as of late – both the financial viability of it, and how much benefit it may have for artists. Has music streaming benefited Huntsmen at all, and what place do you see it having in the near and distant future?
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – Oh man, this is a can of worms. Huntsmen has certainly benefited from music streaming from a visibility perspective. I don’t think anyone but Drake or whoever benefits from it from a financial perspective, hah. I love it for giving small bands like us a chance to get our stuff out there, but I hate that it low-key fosters this incessant churn of meaningless content-ization that I now feel is ruining the power music can have to really be special to people. I think it has torpedoed any real sense of community, which personally I think has to operate on a much, much smaller scale than the open internet, and is the only place where real connection between artists and fans can happen. That said, I’m just waiting to see what happens… in the course of history, humanity tends to level itself out. But then again, the internet is about as unnatural a disruptive force as I can think of, so who knows.
SOURCE – How important do you think are singles and EPs in this era in comparison to full length releases?
Marc Stranger-Najjar (Bass, Vocals) – It really depends on the artist. One could argue that there’s an oversaturation in music releases and creating content for the sake of feeding the needs of public consumption. On the other hand, a keystone for us as a band has been in our live performance – to captivate an audience, demanding attention and presence in a world inundated by information in an effort to share the moment with them. For a band like Huntsmen (who is not always active), singles/EPs serve as a means to remind folks that we are still here and enjoy sharing these snapshots of our lives. Sometimes the music is just for ourselves, however. There’s an enormous back-catalogue of music from us (individually) that will likely never be shared – it’s ok to create something just for yourself to get it out of your own head, and then put it away so you can move forward.
SOURCE – If you had to choose two song from each album for a retrospective setlist, which would you choose?
Marc Stranger-Najjar (Bass, Vocals) – Canary King/Atlantic City (American Scrap), Awake at Time’s End/God Will Stop Trying (Mandala of Fear), In Time, All Things/Herbsight (The Dry Land), Hunt For Food, Not Sport (Self-Titled EP), The Colonel (The Colonel EP), Carry On (The Dying Pines EP)
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – I like Marc’s list! I’ll throw Bury Me Deep in there, from Scrap. That one just always seems to feel great and very intimate to us and everyone in the room, even though it’s the sparsest and simplest of our catalog.
SOURCE – How have you and the other band members been keeping busy when you were not writing and recording this album?
Marc Stranger-Najjar (Bass, Vocals) – We’re all quite active – I myself have a family with two young children and I work for an instrument manufacturer (Sandberg Guitars) as well as an amp manufacturer (Bergantino Audio Systems). Ray is a brilliant visual artist/painter, Aimee has been working on metal-working/jewelry (her designs are incredible! She even repaired a couple of Ray’s cymbals recently and they sound awesome!), Gavin is a professional painter and owns his own company, and Chris is a highly-skilled developer (i hope you can try his game ‘Cheezor’ someday!) as well as prolific songwriter.
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – I’m also a slave to my cats.
SOURCE – Other than the album promotion what other plans do you and the rest of the band have?
Marc Stranger-Najjar (Bass, Vocals) – The occasional touring, writing/orchestrating, and really bonding more and more as friends.
Chris Kang (Guitar, Vocals) – Getting out of this sort of anxiety-fueled productivity mindset, and settling into the strengths we’ve been slowly cultivating over the years to just relax and have fun with writing and performing.
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Photo Credit: Sam Porter