FRIDAY GIANTS INTERVIEW

Photo Credit: Chris Hughes

​INTERVIEW BY: MEG

It’s been nearly two years since your debut LP came out, and four since the release of your debut EP, both of which are very different musically to this EP. How would you describe the change in sound from those two releases to this one?

Zac (vocals): I think it has a lot to do with the band finding our lineup. I was not even apart of the group when the debut EP was release. I came into the picture around a year or so after they released the EP and was there for the process of Twenty Nothings. The sound’s a bit different when you change vocalists, but I did help Gavin work with lyrics and songwriting. We were prideful in releasing a full length album and I think the sound on Twenty Nothings had some cutesy acoustic songs, and songs that are kick your teeth in heavy metal. When it came to us narrowing a sound for an EP, we wanted to pick an avenue from Twenty Nothings that works and the title track is one of my favorites the band has ever written, and it was kind of the inspiration for Flatline, one of the songs on the new EP. I want these projects to sound at least a little bit similar, so we used Twenty Nothings as templates. I’d like to think that all the songs on the new EP have parallels and that the sound of it… we kind of picked an avenue from Twenty Nothings and ran with it.

Persistence and Anywhere But Here show you guys going in a darker and much more aggressive direction. Was this something that you had planned going into making these songs, or something that just kind of happened naturally?

Zac: That’s just something that came together when we were in the studio. I tried to think for myself vocally and what I could and couldn’t do, and I guess my voice doesn’t necessarily suit the pop punk genre and I think the tone really fit this style of music, and we kind of played to those aggressive and attention grabbing vocals on songs like Persistence. The EP is in your face and makes you pay attention. We wanted to balance that out a little with the first two being heavier, and the title track is a little more mellowed out and more radio rock; I definitely wanted to have that option.

Who would you say are some of your inspirations for this side of the sound on the EP? Were there any heavier bands/artists you listened to that influenced the more aggressive aspects of these tracks?

Zac: A ton. The music we listen to as a band, the spectrum kind of varies. As far as heavier bands, we’re fans of bands like Wage War, Devil Wears Prada, but I think the band I can credit being our favorite collectively is Beartooth, and their record they put out at the end of last year was a guiding light with putting together these songs. The demo name for Something Worth Saving was ParaUnderStein, a mashup of Paramore, Underoath and Silverstein.

Regarding the lyrical content - you seem to explore a few various themes across the EP, from mental health to relationships. What are some of the more specific stories you’re trying to tell with the lyrics and what sort of messages are you trying to portray to the listeners?

Zac: With Flatline being one of the first songs I worked on, the whole songwriting thing was very new to me. I had never written an entire song lyrically and finding themes was something I cared a lot about because I wanted to tell a story. 2017 was a rough year, two of my biggest vocal idols (Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington) had died that year. I wanted to write Flatline as sort of an ode to my hero and has mixed emotions. It’s a song of loss and feeling helpless, not really being able to do anything. Carolina was also kind of relationship based, just a bit before the studio I was in a long distance relationship with someone I thought was the one, but we knew going into it that the relationship would be hard and it took its toll on both of us, and I had to make the hard decision to end the relationship.

As this was your first time songwriting, what did you learn from the writing process?

Zac: I learned a lot while we were up in the studio. Songwriting is a tough thing. You can write to the music in a way that it makes you feel, and that’s what I found worked. I had so many lyrics left to write as we went to the studio, and most of it was done in the studio. Once we put these songs together with Seth, the lyrics just kind of clicked and everything just fell into place. There was a vocal booth room we coined the “Sad Boy Zone” and I would write to everyone else’s parts. I learned basic structuring of songs and melodies. A lot of it I was dealing with for the first time, but Seth is a mastermind and was doing a great job at coaching me. He left me to my devices with what the songs are about but he was a great coach for what was working and what wasn’t - he’s got a great ear for that sort of stuff.

With the EP out now, what are some of your plans and goals for the release cycle? What do you have coming up in support of the release and what do you want to achieve during the release cycle?

​Zac: We’re really excited to come out of hibernation when it comes to live shows - we haven’t really played many shows since September. There’s a pretty big venue here called Bogart’s that we have our release show at, and we’re very very antsy to get back on the stage. Maybe tiny weekend tours… we have some video releases planned, and we already have plans to do another shoot soon. Getting these videos released is really going to help spread the word about the EP. I’d really hope to get feedback from bands that we love, and I’d love the EP to fall in the hands of a band we love. I guess any band’s intention is to be picked up by a decent label, and all our minds are pointed towards some sort of tour, to get on the road and get our music out there beyond the greater Cincinnati area.

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FRIDAY GIANTS' LATEST EP, "SOMETHING WORTH SAVING," IS AVAILABLE NOW. LISTEN TO IT HERE: