https://www.facebook.com/misophoniauk
From: Glasgow, UK
Sounds like: Metal
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound?
M. We had all played in bands before, all different genres,with varying levels of longevity. We all have different musical backgrounds, and somehow we all ended up here in MisophoniA. With regards to developing our sound... We have always been in a constant state of evolution, never settling into a given sound our style.
J (vocals) . We are the embodiment of the age old band clichés ; no one sounds like us, we do our own thing we don't aspire to sound like anyone else... For us each and every one of the above sentiments stand true. We do what we do, we have a tonne of influences amongst the band members and we somehow fuse these influences together and it seems to have worked so far.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
J. I have a major penchant for darkness and drama, I tend to write from a dark place but from that dark place I want to reach the proverbial light at the end of that tunnel and that's what I want our listeners to experience. Take them 'From the depths' of my musical and lyrical despair and bring them back safely whilst I nosedive back into that darkness.
M. Jay likes his melodramatics, as for the rest of us we just want to write some music and hope people at least respect what we are trying to do. We are not your average metal band we do have a darkness to what we do which some people may find off putting or feel we are trying too hard border lining on the pretentious, especially with Jays lyrical shenanigans. We've lasted this long doing what we do (10 years next year) so why change it now.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
M. We are still working out what our sound actually is. We don't suit any set genre, we class ourselves as blackened melodeath with doom tendencies. We are dark,heavy, atmospheric yet we can be orchestral and Gothic in places. Comparisons we tend to hear are Dimmu Borgir crossed with Paradise Lost by way of Dark Tranquillity and Swallow the Sun so blackened doom tinged melodeath haha. We did coin our own genre 'Misophonic metal' for a joke which is more an in-band thing rather than official sound but others (magazines and PR folk) have mentioned this in their MisophoniA appraisals. Haha
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
M. Individually we would each say something different as none of us have the same tastes. Collectively we would probably say the bands that we are compared to, Paradise Lost, Dark Tranquillity and Dimmu Borgir.
J. I think we would work amazingly on a tour with Septic Flesh, Swallow the Sun & Necronautical. The symphonic melodeath of Septic Flesh, the blackened doom and atmospherics of Swallow the Sun & the black metal vocal vibes of Necronautical.
5. What's your thoughts on AI generated music?
J. Terrifying, soul destroying, industry crippling. Ai is everywhere it is part of daily life now. Ai as an enhancing tool I can understand, especially from a producer standpoint. All mixing plug-ins are essentially artificial computer programmed generations, amp modeling and effects technology, drum triggers again are artificial enhancements same goes for auto tune and everything else digitaly processed. However for someone to say they are a musician because they typed in some prompts that AI then used to plagerize actual musical works and for the prompter to claim the 'music' as their own...Thats a big hell no!! AI music is an ever expanding black hole... Sorry bit of a rant there. I shall summarise Ai for enhancing is a grey area but I see the reasoning . Ai as creative tool for prompters claiming to be musicians Hell no!!!
M. What Jay said.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Metal?
M. Metal as a whole is in a good place it shows no sign of slowing down or going anywhere. There does seem to be an alarming amount of (far beyond over produced they're almost AI) bands both already out there and emerging with their barely even real drum clarity or their digitally glitched guitars and phenomenally over the top vocal production that is a worry. Every band these days are striving for razor sharp computer precision mixes, and diamond cut production clarity, so much so that some album mixes barely sound human. If there's any error then it's game over. Music is human expression and experience and 'to err is human' as the saying goes. Let it be rough let it be raw and visceral it's music, it's real emotion and human hands/bands that make it that way.
7. What’s the current local music scene like there in Glasgow, UK?
M. This is a grey area there are good folks and there are bad folks, there are people to get in with and people to avoid. There are also those who would hapily tarnish and set out to ruin others reputation for their own gain. There are also those who would go above and beyond in order to see you succeed.
J. Glasgow is a small city and Scotland is a hell of a small country with fewer and fewer venues. We have hell of a lot of mega worthy bands who unfortunately will go unnoticed due to the grassroots metal scene predominantly and unfortunately being in decline.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
M. Streaming is unfortunately here to stay it's the industry standard these days. Numbers are numbers but they don't merit monetary success unless you are a multi million earning major pop act or One of your major metal bands. Smaller bands struggle, sure we can add ourselves to a galaxy of playlists but that doesn't actually mean you as a band will be noticed en masse unless you have some sort of background patron paying your way. The streaming services on paper are phenomenal a galaxy of music at then click of a button. These companies are worth billions but claim they don't have enough to pay more per stream.
J. The new Spotify legislation regarding payment stating if you have less than a thousand streams then they won't pay is a total kick in the teeth. Especially for smaller bands. Regardless of streaming royalties earnings in general don't exist. Bands pour thousands of their own money into their art. As a band you need to buy on to tours, need to buy on to festival slots, need to buy on to support slots, need to pay for the privilege of a record deal, need to pay to be able to stream. Every thing is monetary outgoings with zero return. It gets to a point where you ask yourself what is the point. The age old response of 'we don't care about the money it's all about the music' can only last so long.
9. What’s next for MisophoniA?
M. We are currently in album mix limbo. We have a top name producer at the helm for our upcoming album 'The Fall' and beginning in the mixing of said album. From here we are compiling a potential release timeline regarding both the album and a lead single/promo video. We have the video in our possession but our hands are tied regarding a release as a label may want to release every thing themselves and set a label timeline for that.
J. We have 2 out of 8 album mixes in our posession as well as a blockbuster of a promo video and trailers and teasers, we have our album art all finalised it's just a waiting game as w eplan the next steps. We have a gig coming up, we've been in recording mode since last November so live performances have been minimal. However 2027 we plan to do the whole tour the album thing should our lives and failing finances allow. We wont be dormant that's for sure. There's a lot in the pipeline again it's just we need to wait for the proverbial green light.
10. Any shoutouts?
M. We need to give a mega shout out to our producer Tom Dring @ThearchRecordingStudio, also Kai@ThearchRecordingStudio for setting up the album production partnership, also a shout out to our recording engineer Lewis Andrew @ParklaneStudios. Also a massive thank you to yourselves @FromThe Depths for taking us on, mega thanks to our artist of choice Jobert Melo of Sledgehammer Graphix. Plus a massive thank you to Anyone and everyone who has supported us in the past, that support is in the present and to those that we hope will do so in the future. A single question remains though...Are you ready for The Fall.
MisophoniA are:
Jay Ros - Vocals
Cristina Barroso- Bass
Jura Bryceland - Drums
Jordan Gill - Guitars
Sean McQueen- Keys
Lewis Cowan - Guitars
Also we cannot forget our retired brother in arms Neil Dunnachie.
