Congratulations on the release of "The Requiem EP." How has the response been, and what standout feedback have you received from fans?
Chase: Thank you! We worked really hard on it. And thank you for this interview! So far, the response has actually been pretty good. Between podcast interviews and other blog interviews, the response has been both gratifying and humbling since we are still a very new band trying to discover our own sound. I'd say the response from fans has been good, I feel like our fan base grew quite a bit after this release so that's been really cool to see.
How did the band develop their unique style, and what influences shaped it?
Chase: I love blending together sounds and ideas that kind of give this sense of dualistic expression. It's one of the reasons our music is so piano driven. Metal by nature is a very guitar based style of music. However, I wanted to blend together that vulnerability and sensitivity that the piano is able to express with the aggression that can be found in distorted guitars. It also influences how I write the lyrics, poetic/vulnerable yet brutally honest at times.
Ben: I think our style is still developing, there's an exploration aspect to our music that I hope we hold on to. Fusing all different musical elements we love into a coherent vision is part of what The Lucidia Project is all about.
Chase: As far as influences go. There's many different bands and styles that influence us. But I'd say we pull mostly from dark metal genres, atmospheric and alternative metal, alternative rock, and indie solo artists as our main inspirations, as well as classical music.
Chase, as the lead vocalist and pianist, how do you approach incorporating piano into a metal context?
Chase: I've been playing piano since I was 9 years old, and also studied it in college. So it's very centric to our sound. The challenge for me is how do I arrange an active piano part with aggressive guitars? And honestly it depends on the song. For example, songs like “In The Fray'' and “Requiem” have the breathing room and atmosphere for bigger piano parts. A song like “The End of the Lies”, on the other hand, is very heavy and straightforward. In a situation such as that, I more or less shape the piano part to act as more of an effect/atmosphere to the song rather than be a core part. Sometimes I write the piano around the guitars, other times the guitars are written around the piano. A LOT of thought goes into how we incorporate it and we can approach it from several different angles.
"The Requiem EP" introduces elements of Death Metal and Hard Rock. What motivated this exploration, and how does it enhance your musical identity?
Chase: Some of my favorite bands are melodic death metal bands. The band “Insomnium” from Finland has a very big influence on me personally. I wanted to express that influence in our music. It also goes back to the dualistic nature of our sound, and that's reflected in how I perform the vocals. I can do both death growling and clean, semi operatic/contemporary singing so I wanted to add sort of a “beauty and the beast” effect to some of our music. As far as hard rock goes, it's more song structure for me. How can I be a better songwriter? How can I write better hooks/melodic ideas? Hard rock is full of them.
Ben: Part of it is playing what we love, and what's been a part of our musical repertoire for a long time. But the metal and rock scenes also seem to have a vibrancy that celebrates creativity and exploration, and there was space there for us to dive in and find our unique voice.
How has the dynamic evolved since the addition of guitarist Chris Polasky, and how do each of you contribute to the creative process?
Chase: Chris has been amazing to work with and over this year it's been very exciting to see him grow with us in this band. He contributed an important idea in our song “Requiem” with that spoken work part and has been part of the writing process with our newer unreleased material. We also have brought in Dan, our second guitarist recently, who we've had the chance to write a little bit with, and he's been great in the writing process too. I'm excited to see how the music sounds as we corporate everyone's different personalities to the sound.
Can you take us through the creative process behind one of the new songs on the EP?
Chase: I think the song “Requiem” is probably a really cool example since that whole song was originally written in piano before it was arranged for guitars. Before writing on the piano though, I had created that initial hook for the chorus. I wanted this big belty chorus where I sustained notes above the staff. And from there I was able to create the structure at the piano. Then the main melodic ideas/hooks came. I then used software to help start the guitar arrangements. Then Ben and Chris came in and helped with the guitar arrangements/writing the lead lines, and Ben wrote his own bass line from scratch. I then used drum samples, and played them on both my keyboard and my e-kit to create the drum sections. I also arranged a string section towards the end of the writing process.
Lyrically everything came very quickly. I had some personal experiences that inspired the lyrics so they came very naturally to me. Chris then had this idea of having a reflective spoken word part to be played toward the end of the song, which we both wrote together. It was a very cool song to write because it was the first song I've ever written where multiple people had their ideas included.
Do any band members have formal music education or training, and how does your background shape your approach to creating music?
Chase: I've been studying classical music since I was 9 and I'm classically trained in piano and voice. I went to college for music and have an Associates of Fine Arts degree in music.
Ben: I studied music for 2 years before changing majors, and still pursue independent learning occasionally.
What themes or stories inspired "The Requiem EP," and what messages or emotions did you aim to convey through the lyrics?
Chase: Two of the songs, “Requiem” and “The End of the Lies” are about the same personal situation I mentioned earlier but through two different lenses. “Requiem” has a sad/reflective take on the situation while “The End of the Lies” is very angry and defiant. They both are about standing up for yourself and not allowing abuse or toxicity to come into your life.
“Eventide” is a bit more political. One of my hobbies is studying World War 1 and World War 2 history, specifically the history of the Holocaust and Fascism. Over the past few years, there has been some pretty scary legislation passing in the United States, which targets different minority groups, and it's an eerie precursor to the fascist regimes of the past. It's sort of like my call to action for all of us to look within ourselves and remember that we are all able to be influenced by propaganda, the twisting of truths, and if we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it. The nightmare will become a bird in flight.
“Deliverance” is about the initial stages of grief and loss. And the fear of letting go of the grief, and moving forward, because once you've moved through that process, you realize that this person is really gone. So in a way it's about fear of death/denial of death while in the back of your mind knowing that your loved one is really gone, and realizing the devastation of that loss.
“Interlude (seeing the truth)” was meant to be a bridge between “Deliverance” and “The End of the Lies”. I felt that the immediate jump from a piano ballad to something that resembles death metal would be very jarring to the person who's listening to our EP from cover to cover, so I wrote that little instrumental to set up the listeners' ears for the final heavy song.
What does the name "The Lucidia Project" mean to you, and how does it reflect the band's artistic vision?
Chase: I wanted a name that represented sort of the mission and vision that I have for our band, and that is to talk about topics that are dark and how to find healing from that darkness. Topics like abuse, fascism, death, trauma of all kinds, addiction, these are things that have been touched in by other bands for sure, but I wanted to add my own sense of sensitivity to these topics, and help provide a healing catharsis for the listener who might be dealing with these things.
So that is my mission or “project” for this band. Lucidia is a word that is derived from Lucidia, which means brightness, or star, or “light” in some contexts. So if I want to talk about these topics with the aim of bringing healing to whoever is listening to our music, I need to shine light up on these topics. That is why I chose the name “The Lucidia Project''. It's not just a cool name, it's got a deeper personal meaning for me.
How do you navigate the balance between experimentation and maintaining a cohesive sound?
Ben: A lot of our music has tension between opposing forces. Balancing the need to explore and find something new with creating a unified musical idea that is "our sound" is part of that tension. A lot of more experimental ideas get refined to meld back into our style.
Chase: Ben pretty much nailed it. Duality is a big concept for me with this band, and it's represented in not just the lyrics, but everywhere from the way I choose to use my voice, to the way we write songs, and how the music is written.
What are your goals for the future of The Lucidia Project?
Chase: After we've finished our promo for this EP, we plan on releasing a series of singles that will cover 2024 into 2025, and then another EP after those singles are released to help with our own artist development. Growing our fan base and making connections with our music is also a goal of ours.
With "The Requiem EP" released, can fans expect live performances, tours, or collaborations in the near future?
Chase: We are not a full line up yet. We still need to find a drummer, either as part of the main line up or for live settings. Once that happens, I do want to start playing live shows, and if we have the ability to on small regional tours. No collaborations as of yet, but we are open to them if the project feels right.