Stray From The Path‘s Tom Williams guides us by means of the creation of the band’s newest launch, ‘Clockworked’, out now by way of Sharptone Data.
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On April 4th, 2002, Tom Williams skilled one thing that has caught with him to today. The placement was the legendary Sahara in Syosset, a hotbed for underground hardcore and metalcore bands to thrive within the coronary heart of Lengthy Island. The event was the stacked line-up of Poison the Nicely, American Nightmare, Eighteen Visions, Codeseven, Each Time I Die, and Anterrabae, a real who’s who of American turn-of-the-millennium heaviness. And for Tom, it was what Codeseven did on the finish of their set that struck the deepest chord. On the time, their album ‘The Rescue’ was but to be launched, however as the ultimate chords of their set rang out, vocalist Jeff Jenkins pulled out a handful of copies and began to throw them to the group in entrance of him.
Serving as a likelihood for these current at that second to carry onto and expertise one thing bodily that the remainder of the world didn’t have entry to, it’s a gesture that, 23 years later, within the period of instantaneous gratification and technological dependancy, could really feel a littlealien to many. Nevertheless it’s for this very motive that Tom thought it was time to duplicate such magic. And it’s why over the Slam Dunk Competition weekend, Stray From The Path’s new album ‘Clockworked’ was that can be purchased at merch, in addition to copies being thrown out through the band’s chaotically sensible units, a complete week earlier than it was scheduled to be surprise-released. Spontaneous, thrilling and punk as fuck.
“After I was a child, I heard ‘Change (In The Home Of Flies)’ on the radio or noticed the video, and that was it,” Tom hammers dwelling. “I then bear in mind shopping for ‘White Pony’ on the day it got here out, and that was after I listened to the file, too. And I consider the individuals who caught these Codeseven albums and what a particular expertise it was and the way I’ve by no means forgotten it. And I really feel like whenever you roll albums out now, there simply isn’t that pleasure since you already know that it’s coming. That’s why we needed to do one thing completely different. It felt like there needed to be a brand new and enjoyable method to launch data, and this felt like it.”
The urgency that has accompanied this rampant rollout is mirrored brilliantly in what the album represents, too. A caustic and unrelenting takedown of recent complacency and how we’ve got all sleepwalked into feeling like that is how issues needs to be, it finds Stray at their most unforgiving, unstable and seething. A shared consensus on what so many people are feeling and a rallying name for as soon as once more not staying quiet within the face of injustice, the necessity for the band to be this unrelenting has by no means been extra mandatory.
THE SOUND
From the get-go, chaos has all the time been the Stray From The Path mannequin. Creating soundscapes that resonate with no matter course heavy music is heading at that second in time while additionally managing to sound like completely no one else concurrently, ‘Clockworked’ is not any completely different. Choosing up the place 2022’s ‘Euthanasia’ left off when it comes to the razor-sharp viciousness that encompasses it however pushing into much more discordant waters, the band have crafted an environment that’s as apocalyptic as it’s audacious, as devastating as it’s damning and as undeniably bleak as it’s unapologetically crushing.
There’s ‘Can’t Assist Myself’, which lures you into the darkness with a hip-hop-leaning underbelly earlier than delivering the killer blow by way of a blunt power breakdown of the very best calibre in addition to ‘Shocker’, which delivers the type of machine gun battery that has helped solidify Stray’s identify over time, with quintessential “Blegh” thrown in for good measure. And it’s all heading in the direction of the garish closing crescendo of ‘A Life In 4 Chapters’ that looks like the bottom caving in as a result of it could actually’t take the pressure anymore.
Though essentially the most unrelenting instance comes from ‘Fuck Them All To Hell’, a tune that Tom states was initially supposed to be launched on Election Day within the US. A mesh of blastbeats, pummelling riffs and bile-drenched intent, it’s as dizzying and debauched because the file will get, which is becoming for the subject material. An entire dressing down of the present American political system the place regardless of which field you place your cross in, the determine on the prime is an abhorrent criminal.
“The one motive we didn’t find yourself going with it on Election Day was due to Kamala Harris’s vice chairman choose,” Tom admits. “I don’t fuck with Kamala or the Democrats in any respect. Nevertheless, with Tim Walz, he had some progressive bones in his physique, and if that’s factor, then we’re sort of standing in the best way of it, and so we sort of suggested in opposition to it.
“However we additionally wrote the tune when Biden was the Democratic nominee, and it was Biden versus Trump. It was similar to, ‘Man, fuck all of this.’ That’s why the refrain is, ‘The one means I’m writing your identify is on a motherfucking gravestone’. It’s not happening a poll; it’s going in your gravestone.”
It doesn’t get a lot heavier than that, actually. However when wants should, and also you’re an artist with the type of streak that Stray has, crafting your fact has by no means been extra vital. Each weave and switch feels increasingly more like the tip of the world than the final, which, on a file that flirts with such risk inside its material, too, is greater than becoming. The potential of the tip needs to be discomforting, scary, and laborious to abdomen, so by producing essentially the most stomach-churning heaviness they’ll muster, Stray is extra doing its half in preserving that affiliation alive.
THE COLLABORATORS
Change is just doable after we stick collectively, which is why neighborhood has all the time been so very important to every little thing that Stray produces. And in the identical means, as they’ve invited Sam Carter, Keith Buckley, Bryan Garris, Jesse Barnett and Brendan Murphy, to call only a handful, into the fold previously, ‘Clockworked’ additionally serves as a platform for celebrating a few of heavy music’s greatest, each from the previous and current.
Firstly, there’s the title observe, an ode to not staying quiet as a result of it’s simpler, that includes a guttural look from LANDMVRKS’ Flo Salfati. The 2 bands toured the UK collectively in 2019, each serving as help for Whereas She Sleeps, and the connection solid over half a decade in the past has clearly stood the take a look at of time. And whereas a bit of little bit of Stray made it right into a LANDMVRKS banger just lately, with vocalist Drew York showing on their 2022 heater ‘DEATH’, the chance for Flo to specific his personal disdain for the state of issues stands out in abundance right here. A reminder that it doesn’t matter what facet of the Atlantic you might be born and raised, the need and have to denounce oppression, antagonism and injustice will all the time unite us.
And secondly, there’s ‘Our bodies In The Darkish’, which features a spine-tingling verse from Jeff Moriera of the legendary Poison The Nicely. Contemplating how a lot that fateful present in 2022 caught with Tom, having a character that has served as close to life-long inspiration showing on such an important album for them is clearly a dream come true. But for them to utterly flip perceptions and croon their means by means of a hypnotically discomforting verse on the observe relatively than shred their vocal cords, slowing issues all the way down to a glacial tempo, feels much more particular.
To signify and maintain up such completely different corners of the scene is as a lot of a present as a band can have. Nevertheless it additionally serves as a benchmark for the way each band ought to deal with their friends. For individuals who have come earlier than, it’s about paying respect and permitting them the possibility to see the lasting impression their legacy has had. And for many who are shaping the long run, it’s a case of holding them aloft and sharing their vibrancy and imaginative and prescient with those that will not be acquainted with their recreation. It’s all the time been the Stray From The Path means, and by being open to who’s on the market ready to be labored with, then the chances are really limitless. In any case, it’s precisely how they ended up recruiting a drummer!
“In America, we had been all the time a band the place folks didn’t actually like us, however bands did,” Tom laughs. “So, we all the time acquired alternatives as a result of our pals would take us out the place we might do okay, however then we might go over to Europe and England, and so they liked us and gave us a lot. They gave us Craig! We met Architects, they took us on tour, and Craig was their drum tech. And now, Craig is certainly one of my greatest pals and a fundamental songwriter within the band as effectively. All due to alternative.”
THE LYRICS
Although they’ve all the time worn their feelings firmly on their sleeves, it looks like there was an terrible lot extra for Stray to be livid about this time round. Not simply taking a look at what’s affecting them but in addition contemplating the impression on folks around the globe, ‘Clockworked’ is as a lot in regards to the plights on their doorstep as it’s in regards to the world consensus amongst residents that we’re sleepwalking in the direction of a way of life that we promised our elders we might by no means let occur once more. Be it watching on as a genocide takes place or permitting our planet to be despatched even nearer to the brink due to supposed technological advances, the band are leaving nothing to likelihood when stating how they really feel.
A chief instance of that is ‘Kubrick Stare’, written in response to Tom watching somebody get shot within the face throughout a highway rage incident on social media and, in scrolling previous it, realising how desensitised to such barbarity being on our cellphone screens we had change into, and the way that pertains to our response to a lot greater elements of historical past taking part in out in entrance of it.
“I don’t need to say I didn’t care, however, like, it simply didn’t actually have an effect on me,” he laughs, understanding how unusual a sentence that’s to affiliate with such a horrible imaginative and prescient. “And it goes additional to how folks have been capable of look the opposite means with Palestine. Like, I don’t know how one can as a result of it’s so terrible. However part of me continues to be like, ‘Nicely, folks see terrible shit daily,’ and other people have a tough time sympathising for those that aren’t themselves as a result of they’re in all probability combating their very own household.”
That type of skewed ethical compass additionally comes into play on ‘Can I Have Your Autograph?’, a really actual callout to these within the music business who flip a blind eye to disgraceful behaviour simply because these participating in it have bought thousands and thousands of data.
After which there’s ‘Shot Caller’, a tune that particulars that if you happen to push the folks too far, they may finally struggle again.
“You understand, we made ’Shot Caller’ earlier than that United Healthcare CEO acquired clipped, though it’s basically about that,” Tom provides. “How the folks getting denied healthcare after paying for it for 20 years aren’t going to take the shit no extra and are going to begin preventing again. So we made that tune, after which it occurred. We had been similar to, ‘Motherfucker’.”
Each tune is a no-holds-barred assault, leaving no stone unturned and nothing to the creativeness when it comes to the place Stray stands proper now. And it might be a testomony to how carefully tied to the need of the folks they’re that some sentiments are coming true. In fact, that has all the time been the case, however the limits that they’re pushing really feel even additional, and the anger coursing by means of their veins feels even stronger.
“It’s actually simply in regards to the stuff that has effects on us and the stuff that we see is going on,” Tom admits candidly. “It’s getting laborious to stay, and it’s laborious to outlive, and that’s what we need to converse up on. It’s typical of Stray, however that’s simply the best way we’re. We have now had the privilege of touring the world and assembly folks from numerous cultures. From Japan and Africa to England, Europe, America, and Canada. And in every single place we go, there’s so much that’s fucking with everybody, so which means it’s fucking with us. And the factor is, we are going to by no means disguise that.”
All through all of this, that facet is maybe an important one. It’s simple to be complacent, to really feel like there’s nothing that we are able to do as a result of it’s all a lot greater than us. Nevertheless, as a neighborhood, hardcore was constructed on the notion that each one it takes to vary somebody’s thoughts and life is for one different individual to face up for them. If that one particular person speaks out, then hundreds could find yourself listening to them. It’s a notion that has adopted Stray From The Path all through their careers, from VFW halls and the again of bars to enviornment phases and past and has solely grown stronger as they’ve change into extra outstanding. Regardless of the stage, they may by no means be quiet, complicit, or disguise their ideas. So, to be utilizing ‘Clockworked’ as their most unapologetic assertion on the best way they see this dumpster hearth that’s solely getting greater is the least they’ll do as a result of with out talking up, it can simply carry on rising till oblivion is the one choice. But additionally, what if it’s too late? Because the final line of the file states, closing out ‘A Life In 4 Chapters’, “Give peace an opportunity? It by no means stood an opportunity?”. If that’s the case, then no less than there’s delight available in attempting.
THE TITLE AND ARTWORK
Within the centre of the liner notes that accompany the vinyl model of ‘Clockworked’ is the sentiment ‘THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY’. This relates on to the quilt artwork that accompanies ‘Clockworked’. A easy but efficient diagram displaying a recreation of noughts and crosses. All areas have been crammed in, apart from one, the highest proper nook, with whoever’s transfer it’s on this hypothetical recreation being the supposed winner. However what if each eventualities are unhealthy ones?
Such a fragile stability is proposed when the area is left unfilled. We’re one transfer away from the potential for complete catastrophe on both facet of the desk, and we don’t know who’s sitting at it, about to make their selection. It’s a very irritating place to be in, however is it one which’s so completely different from the way it has all the time been? That’s the place the thought of the society we’re current in being ‘Clockworked’, that this example has been the case for so long as the hour and minute palms have made their means by means of the hours.
There’s undoubtedly an air of hopelessness to all of it, as if there isn’t a means out of the mess that a few of us have made, and others have been left to marvel if it can ever be cleaned up. For a band like Stray, all they’ll do is maintain the highlight firmly on these information, letting all that be recognized.
Talking of information, we must always flip our consideration again to Slam Dunk Competition, the place in addition to being bought completely, the album was additionally marketed on each billboards across the website and within the particular version of Rock Sound that was handed out to patrons. The advert learn:
NOT INTO POLITICS? OKAY. DO ME A FAVOR. GO HOME. TAKE ALL YOUR ALBUMS, ALL YOUR TAPES AND BURN THEM. CAUSE YOU WHAT? THE MUSICIANS THAT MADE ALL THAT GREAT MUSIC THAT’S ENHANCE YOUR LIVE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS? REAL FUCKING POLITICAL.
For Tom, it’s one more reason why the UK, and people attending Slam Dunk specifically, felt like the right place to share such an necessary second with first. As a result of he knew that they’d get it. That they’d see these phrases and resonate with them. That in understanding that artwork has been, and all the time be, influenced by the issues of the world, they may even perceive precisely the place this physique of labor has come from. It’s as soon as once more all about connection, and in sharing the file with the UK first, Tom hopes that folks perceive simply how a lot the help has meant to him.
“We all the time say, like, we’re from New York and the UK,” he beams. “I like the UK. We by no means have a nasty present right here. The UK, and Slam Dunk, have given us a lot. It’s such an enormous a part of our historical past. And, like, we weren’t going inform anybody ever in regards to the album. No press, no nothing. However after we remembered how a lot this place has given us, that’s after we thought, ‘Let’s go inform them first’.”
THE FUTURE
The truth is that who truthfully is aware of what tomorrow holds. The uncertainty of issues is terrifying, to say the least, however Stray From The Path is aware of that they’ve carried out all they’ll to let their emotions on every little thing be recognized. And regardless of the place they roam, there can be an viewers that stands with them. In fact, coming from a rustic that’s so divided, these numbers fluctuate relying on the town by which they reside.
“Again dwelling, we are going to play Denver and completely crush it, however then we are going to undergo Dallas, and there can be like 100 folks there,” Tom shrugs. “Like, that’s alright as a result of there’s in all probability a transparent motive why. However then it’s why it’s humorous that after we go to Australia and Canada and the UK and Europe, and we crush it. It’s simply the best way it’s. We love to stay out, and that has all the time been factor in addition to a nasty factor.”
And it’s in protruding, in not diluting their views and in all the time being utterly themselves that one factor will all the time be true. For anybody feeling like they aren’t being heard and that no one cares about how near the tip we’re, Stray From The Path is a band that hears them. Stray From The Path is a band that sees them. Stray From The Path is a band who’re as infuriated as them. If all of this had been to finish tomorrow, that truth would by no means change. Actually, it has been the case all through the final 20 years of Stray’s profession and can stay the case no matter what the following 20 years appear to be. So long as we all know we aren’t doing this alone, then there’s nonetheless hope. And hope, even in drabs, is a remarkably highly effective factor.
