Interviews: WHYTHRE

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Death Metal band, WHYTHRE from the USA. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

Shon Petrey: I was drawing in a notebook looking for letter combinations that looked visually appealing. And I like the idea of everything withering.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

Shon Petrey (guitar): I started picking up the guitar in junior high, loved thrash metal, and kept up with it. Eventually, I started writing, then got sucked into the mixing/audio realm so that I could make my creations come to life the exact way I imagine them.

Adam Chambers (guitar/ vox): As a kid, I started on piano, then moved on to guitar. I grew up in Chicago and had both metal and electronic music playing in the house from a young age. There’s a lot of Midwest history in both those genres and that was my starting point for creativity. When I took guitar lessons I got extremely lucky in that a Berklee School of Music professor was spending the summer in Chicago and just so happened to be teaching lessons at the little corner music store near my house. That helped immensely.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Shon: The project started in 2010. I was traveling a lot for work at the time and writing songs and recording them in my hotel room with a small interface and Logic. At the time, I was really into the symphonic metal and folk metal influences coming out of Europe. Composing and arranging music became my sole focus from that point forward. WHYTHRE remained a solo project till 2012. I met an opera-trained singer named Jeran Michaels. The two of us released the full-length album “Hel’s Hollows” in 2015. After several years of unsuccessfully trying to piece together a full line-up, we started playing acoustic shows locally to try and get our name out. I was wandering around Capitol Hill during the 2015 Pride Weekend, and heard a dude, Adam Chambers, playing some Children Of Bodom melodies on his guitar while busking. My lady friend lit a joint for us to all share and we exchanged info. From that point, we started a musical partnership that really defines WHYTHRE to this day. [Adam] I met Shon while busking late at night during Cap Hill Pride 2015. He gave me a link to Hel’s Hallows. I got home from busking and made some food at 4am, listened to the album & messaged him to say I was interested in joining Whythre. We jammed a few days later and have been working together ever since.

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Group favorites: Hypocrisy, Hans Zimmer, Sinergy, Alice Cooper, Children of Bodom Let’s talk more about what sound each member is going for! 

Adam & Shon: Brittle, over-compressed, monotonous, auto-tuned, and quantized hahahhaa 

Adam: For real though…Fun. At the moment... Authentic. Inspiring. Lovable. 

Steve (drums): Epic/Symphonic/Progressive/Catchy/Brutal

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Shon Petrey: This one's hard to describe…an idea sparks from somewhere. There’s no rhyme or reason for how or when it happens, but when it does I chase it as far as I can. I love movie scores, new waves, and dark waves…those all give me inspiration outside of metal.

Adam Chambers: For the music, it always starts with some kind of emotion, then I just write something that makes me feel sad emotion or makes it ‘extra’. Every time I try to bring theory into the equation the song ends up sucking, so I really just write by ear. The lyrical stuff comes from living an active life…going out in nature, reading books, listening to people’s stories…Shon and I have partied and traveled together for a few years and some songs on this album chronicle those adventures.

6. Where was your last gig?

Busking for the Seattle Mariner’s playoff game. We mean that. Playing an empty bar on a Tuesday sucks ass. Playing to a bunch of amped-up Mariner fans is fun as hell. There’s something raw about partying on the street while jamming some death metal.

7. Where would you like to play?

We’d love to experience playing in South America. The fans down there are on another level!

8. Whom would you like to feature with? 

Adam: I really only want to work with Shon 

Shon: I really only want to work with Adam

9. Whom not?

Adam: The only person that’s completely impossible for me to work with is Shon 

Shon: The only person that’s completely impossible for me to work with is Adam 

10. Have any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

What kinda stage fright? Slightly less whiskey and half a viagra goes a long way. What bands have inspired you the most?

Adam: My current tunes are mostly curated techno set collections on SoundCloud…notably from Daisychain, Pi pi pi, and ithqdetroit. A couple choice homies send me recommended metal albums that always hit, but those vary widely in the genre. Ludicra was a recent happy discovery. Long-term favorites are Sinergy, Alice Cooper, Bloody Cumshot, Angel, Anaal Nathrak / Make Them Die Slowly

Shon: I’m mostly interested in movie scores. Anything that moves me during a pilot or trailer is what I find inspiring. For metal, I’d have to say Children of Bodom, Devin Townsend, Megadeth, Hans Zimmer, Hypocrisy 

Eric (bass): I grew up in the thrash scene in Fairbanks and Seattle and bring that influence to my playing.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

The ones that ask to buy merch or music from us. The fact that anyone is willing to support us is completely mind-blowing. THANK YOU

13. What do you think of your fans?

Do we have fans? Haha, we’re just local jackasses trying to get on the map. THANK YOU to everyone that’s given us a listen.

14. What do you think of our site?

It’s killer that you give artists a chance to put themselves out there & we really appreciate the interview

15. Something to add?

We’re full steam ahead on releasing ‘Impregnate My Hate’. Everything this past year has been leading up to this moment…from filming a live music video (Scorchbreath) to working with artists on two animated lyric videos. We’re keeping everything at a pro level while running the entire project DIY in-house.