Track By Tracks: Hold Fast Hope - Traitors (2018)

1. Ripple:

Ripple was actually the last track that we added to our EP. We were in and out of VuDu Studios around the time that this band Gates was in there and we just fell in love with their sound and the texture layering their music featured. We wanted to add a track to the EP that captured a cleaner and wider range of sound and ended up writing Ripple out of that.

2. Fade:

Fade was one of the first tracks that we laid out for the record. It was one of those songs that just flowed naturally from start to finish. DJ showed up with an idea for the guitar parts in the verse and by the time we left practice that night we had the skeleton of the whole song. Lyrically we wanted it to match the ebb and flow of the music, how the song grows and dissipates, slowly fading in and out. It’s for sure our favorite track on the EP as a group.

3. Traitors PT I:

Part 1 was brought to us originally by our drummer Dan who had written the guitar riff that turned into the intro/verse section. It’s definitely the heaviest track on our EP, 100%. Personally the bridge is my favorite part of it because we got to spend a good half hour just making wild ambient sound effects to layer throughout and that bass tone is just ridiculously thick and heavy. It just has this haunting O’Brother type feel that I can’t get enough of. We’re definitely incorporating more of that in the future.

4. Traitors PT II:

Sometimes when we write new songs, we jam impromptu outro sections. Essentially we would finish the song, then pick it back up and build it. Sometimes we’ll get a new intro or outro to our live set from this. When we did it with Traitors PT I we did it for long enough to just write a whole new song out of it. The two blend together and find each other through a mix of ambient noise effects that we put together to mirror the feel of a sinking ship at sea. Then just as suddenly as all the effects and ambient guitars come to an end, a tight bass and drum groove kicks in as DJ starts singing which snaps everything back to place.