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By: Andrew Rawlinson
Canadian metallers Unleash The Archers released their first Napalm Records full-length album Time Stands Still a few weeks ago, which received very positive reviews. Andrew Rawlinson said in his review that they “are a band who are obviously having the time of their lives and this enjoyment positively flows out of your speakers and is ridiculously infectious”. Andrew asked vocalist Brittney Slayes some questions to find out more about the band and their influences.
(((o))): First up congratulations on the brilliant new record Time Stands Still. Overall it appears to have been well received in the press, has this surprised you?
Brittney: Thank you! It has surprised us actually hahaha, I mean we put our hearts and souls into this record but you’re never truly happy with your own work so the anticipation was killing us really. I feel that we made a pretty OK record, I love the songs and I have a lot of fun playing them, but who knows what everyone else is going to think! We have confidence in this album, but we always like to say ‘No expectations, no disappointments’, because if you hope for the best but prepare for the worst then you’ll always be ready for whatever comes your way.
(((o))): Early in the year it was announced the band had signed with Napalm Records, how did this partnership come about?
Brittney: Not too sure how they heard about us; we have friends on the label (Striker, Crimson Shadows, Mortillery) and friends in the metal scene here in Vancouver that could have mentioned us, but basically they just sent us an email asking if we had a new record coming out and we just happened to have Time Stands Still ready and raring to go. Well, it was written but we hadn’t recorded it yet. We had two demos recorded, one for ‘Tonight We Ride’ and one for ‘Dreamcrusher’, and they liked them both. We hit the studio excited about the possibility of signing with them, but were still pretty sure we wanted to release it independently. Needless to say, after hearing the album Napalm sent us an offer we couldn’t refuse, so we signed in December last year and have been working together ever since!
(((o))): Going back a bit, according to your biography Unleash The Archers have been active since 2007, how did the band originally meet?
Brittney: It began when Scott, Brayden and I were in university; Scott and Brayden were playing in a death metal band together, and I (being Scott’s girlfriend) loved to go to their shows and rock out. When the band broke up, I called Brayden and asked if he wanted to start a project with myself as the vocalist and Scott on drums, and he accepted! He and I started writing together right away; in the meantime he found a second guitar player and bass player online. By October 2007 we had a killer new jamspot surrounded by all the other local metal bands and things got moving pretty quick from there!
(((o))): Who are your influences and heroes as a vocalist?
Brittney: Right now I am most influenced by Daniel Heiman from Lost Horizon, and Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. I also love Jonas Heidgert, Rob Halford, Geoff Tate, Kai Hansen and Bjorn Strid. Just a little bit of a pattern there!
(((o))): On a similar note what album changed your life/had a big impact on you when you were growing up?
Brittney: The very first metal record I ever heard was Megadeth’s Countdown To Extinction, and that was basically the moment that would define my musical preferences for the rest of my life… But it was Iron Maiden’s Best Of The Beast that inspired me to use my vocal talents as a singer in a metal band. It was the first album I heard from Iron Maiden and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been listening to them up till then! I had no idea what I was missing!
(((o))): Had you been involved in any bands or music projects prior to joining Unleash The Archers?
Brittney: Not really, I had been working with a band very casually, but things were slow going and the music wasn’t exactly my style. I had also been singing in choir pretty much my whole life, and had travelled around the world with my choir in university, but Unleash The Archers was my first real band. Starting Unleash The Archers was the best thing I could have done, it allowed me to find my voice on my own time, and have a say in the direction the band would take musically.
(((o))): What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Brittney: We played Hell & Heaven Fest in Mexico City last summer, and that was pretty rad. We played the side stage but we got to see Angra and Kiss and so many other killer bands, it was such an honour even just to have our name on the poster with them. The crowd was still huge even though it wasn’t the main stage, and we gained a lot of news fans I think so that always counts for something!
(((o))): What are you favourite or lesser known Unleash The Archers songs that someone new to the band should check out?
Brittney: I’ve always loved ‘Battle In The Shadow (Of The Mountain)’ from our second full length Demons Of The AstroWaste, I am not too sure why, but I just have a strange emotional connection to that song… Also ‘Four In Hand’ from our first record Behold The Devastation is one of my favourites too; it’s all about sin becoming personified as this cloaked figure riding around in a chariot pulled by the four horsemen of the apocalypse… I’ve just always loved that particular bit of imagery hahaha!
(((o))): Your music videos (‘General Of The Dark Army’, ‘Dawn of Ages’ and new song ‘Tonight We Ride’) are always interesting and entertaining despite a seemingly low budget, who are the creative brains behind these?
Brittney: The story behind ‘Dawn Of Ages’ was a suggestion from a friend of ours, so we took his original idea and turned it into a music video with the help of a friend that had a camera. Basically we all were the directors on that one. ‘General Of The Dark Army’ was the brainchild of our director Richard Olak, he took the song and wrote this whole storyline and backstory, and got everything all arranged and managed to convince some very good local actors to work for free. He also hooked us up with the Talbot Brothers, who were the guys behind the camera; which happened to be a very nice state of the art Red camera. For ‘Tonight We Ride’, a friend introduced us to Nathan Cox (incredible heavy metal music video director) and the desert and everything was all his idea. He did such a killer job, we had filmed it when Brayden was still in the band, but Nathan had worked so hard on it we couldn’t just toss it, so we kept it as the first single and let Brayden have his last hurrah with Unleash The Archers.
(((o))): You’re given the opportunity to create your own festival. What would be the first five bands on your list?
Brittney: Iron Maiden, Lost Horizon, Iced Earth, Sabaton and Dragonland!
(((o))): Are they any places you have yet to play that you really want to? Also do you have any plans to tour the UK in the near future?
Brittney: All of Europe is pretty much uncharted territory for us! We want to play everywhere, every corner of the globe, every continent. We would love to come to the UK! My background is actually English, Scottish and Irish so it is my life’s goal to come see my ‘homeland’ someday. We also really want to play Japan, and apparently Brazil is crazy awesome too. Heck I’d like to play in Antarctica, if they got metal heads there!
(((o))): What’s next for Unleash The Archers?
Brittney: Work, work, and more work. We are touring North America this fall, and Europe is in the works for next spring. We are also working on a new music video, maybe two. And of course we have already started writing the next record, which I am ridiculously excited about. We are going to try something new on this next one, so far it’s going well but we are in the very early stages of the writing process so we’ll see how everything turns out!
Thanks so much for taking some time for Unleash The Archers! We appreciate your support.
