In a remarkable journey spanning not only years but continents, Brazen Tongue’s Ethan Gifford and Scott Skopec took time out of their respective days to discuss how they create despite the geographical barriers, the origins of the band and name, their debut album Of Crackling Embers & Sorrows Drowned, and more.
ATN: With the band scattered across the globe, how did you actually come together?
ETHAN: As of now, the band itself is really just Scott and myself. We have known each other for a long time actually. We played in a band together that started all the way back in 2004 and lasted until 2007. I joined that band a few weeks after I moved to Chicago. We were playing thrashy death metal with melody, but I wouldn’t call it melodic death metal by any stretch. The band managed to record a demo in 2007 but that was all. When that band ended due to the endless problem of finding other dedicated members, we tried for a while to start something new together in Chicago, but encountered similar problems. I moved to Sweden in 2008, and Scott formed Polyptych a few months later. We kept in touch and remained friends over the years. Eventually when I was in Chicago in 2016 or so visiting family in the area, Scott suggested I work on a new project with him, even if it was at a distance. That was basically the start of Brazen Tongue.
ATN: How does the geographical difference affect the band?
ETHAN: Well, it has certainly slowed things down! The time zone difference has been a big issue in communicating effectively. We are 7 hours apart and it is tough to find time to talk to each other. Luckily software has come a long way since our last collaboration. We were able to write pretty effectively using different online cloud-based tools and guitar tab/midi apps. Due to the geography though, playing live will always be a huge challenge for us.
ATN: Why the name Brazen Tongue?
ETHAN: Scott came up with it. I sort of attribute it to the band being about saying the things we want or need to say with the music and the lyrics, and not really caring about how it is received.
SCOTT: To be perfectly honest, metal band names are hard to come by these days, and I’m not a huge fan of the current trend of digging some obscure word out of a medical textbook or an ancient Sumerian holy text that nobody can pronounce or understand. So I started scanning lyrics and song titles from my previous band Polyptych, because if I’m going to rip off anybody, it might as well be myself, and Brazen Tongue seemed like a good fit for the reasons Ethan already described. That, and I’m kind of a loudmouth. It’s not intended to tie this project to Polyptych in any way.
ATN: What comes first – music or lyrics?
ETHAN: The music was almost completely done when we started writing the lyrics, probably like 75-80% done. Enough so we could be pretty sure about what the songs were going to be music-wise.
SCOTT: One exception might be the song “Last Train from Myrdal.” I didn’t have all the lyrics done before the music, but I knew exactly what it was going to be about from the very first note.
ATN: What is the creative process for the band?
ETHAN: Most of the bones of the songs came from Scott. Once the basic rhythms were laid out, we proceeded to add other parts and layers continuously until we were satisfied. That was how it went for nearly all the tracks. The one exception is maybe the last song on the album “The Maddening Symmetries”. There I had written the intro and the outro, and Scott took that and put a new riff structure in-between them. From there we again started to layer and move things around and add new parts until we had it.
ATN: Was there any part of the writing or recording process that was harder than others for Of Crackling Embers & Sorrows Drowned?
SCOTT: Due to the geographic separation and resulting time and budgetary constraints, each instrument was tracked in its own session under vastly differing circumstances. I’ll put it like this- at one point during recording, Ethan was sitting on a milk crate. So, achieving consistency of tone and cohesion was a big challenge.
ETHAN: The guitar parts that I played on the album were recorded before anything else was. We did it with Greg Livas, who is an awesome engineer. It wasn’t done in a studio though, so it was tricky for him to get the sound right. I don’t know if it was harder exactly, but it was definitely unconventional.
Regarding the writing process, the song that we probably struggled the most with was “The Recidivist.” That song got edited quite a lot in the studio before we got the final version.
ATN: How have fan’s reactions been to “Weight of Self”?
ETHAN: Well, those who have heard it have been overwhelmingly positive. I basically haven’t heard anything other than that. I guess the trick is getting people to actually seek out new music and give it a chance. There is just so much new music out there, especially metal.
ATN: Spectacular harmonies are not always heard in metal, but “Walking the Parapets” and “Last Train From Myrdal” are two of the many tracks that have attention grabbing harmonies, was this a conscious decision during the writing process or something that developed as the recording process.
ETHAN: To a large extent, what is heard on the album is what we wrote in advance of doing any recording. I think a few parts shifted slightly, but especially the guitar harmonies were all written and planned out prior to recording. However, the clean vocals and clean vocal harmonies were largely a product of the recording process.
SCOTT: Regarding the vocal harmonies, I had never recorded cleans before or performed them outside of karaoke bars, and I was honestly not 100% sure they were even going to make the record. However, I recorded them at Bricktop with Andy Nelson, who is a fantastic engineer, and as soon as we started he got super stoked and really encouraged me to lean into it. All the vocal harmonies were pretty much written on the spot and tracked the same day, and Andy was instrumental in that. But it also presented a big mixing challenge later because there were so many layers of growls and cleans, and it’s a really delicate balance to get right.
ATN: With the intense themes explored in Crackling Embers & Sorrows Drowned, I’ve noticed that metal bands often delve into deep emotions. As a fan of the genre myself, I’m curious about how the band is feeling amidst these heavy topics. Is there a sense of catharsis or reflection that comes with exploring such themes?
ETHAN: Well, some of the lyrical content on the album comes from personal experience or reflection. In my case, I would say that it was cathartic to write about these topics. Some songs more than others, as some lyrics tied directly to personal situations we have experienced and others are more reflections of the state of the world as it is, or as it might be in the future.
SCOTT: Some of the lyrics are fictional and just imagine what it would feel like to be in a certain situation as well. “The Recidivist” would certainly fall under that category, as neither Ethan nor myself have spent time in prison and I don’t have any children. Hopefully no one is offended that we’re singing about painful things we haven’t directly experienced, but I figured no one got mad at Metallica for Ride the Lightning, even though I’m pretty sure none of them were sent to the electric chair.
ATN: How does it feel to have your debut album ready for the masses?
ETHAN: It feels really great to finally get this album out and have people hear it. In and of itself, putting the album out is cathartic, because we have been making music together for a long time now, but due to life circumstances we never really released anything together professionally. So, regardless of whether people like what we did or not, it’s in my mind a success already.
ATN: What song(s) are you most excited for fans to hear?
ETHAN: That’s a tough question to answer. All the songs are very different. I think my personal favorites right now are “Walking the Parapets” (our next single) and the closer, “The Maddening Symmetries.”
ATN: What’s on the horizon for Brazen Tongue?
ETHAN: Well, we have already got some ideas kicking around for our second album, which hopefully won’t take as long as this one did. However, a lot of what this project will become depends on how the album is received and what opportunities come out of that. So, it’s hard to say.
SAME 3 QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK
ATN: Artist / band that you feel is the most underrated and why?
ETHAN: Probably The Lord Weird Slough Feg. At least their early 2000s albums are fantastic. I think they are underrated because they are very low key, even though they are probably one of the best heavy metal/hard rock bands of the last 30 years. When I have tried to show people that band, I think that it’s often Mike Scalzi’s vocals that take some getting used to. I think he’s a great vocalist and an even better lyricist. Their use of song flow, melody, and harmony on albums like Traveler, Atavism, and Hardworlder is some of the best in all of metal.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to collaborate with and why?
ETHAN: Probably Hanzi Kürsch from Blind Guardian. He has the most insane voice, knows exactly what to do with it, and is also an incredible songwriter. Getting him to do some guest vocals on some tracks in the future would be incredible.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to tour with and why?
ETHAN: We would fit in best with more of a traditional metal act that has some extreme metal elements, or vice versa. It would be awesome to open for a big melodic death band like Dark Tranquillity, or given our thrash roots, maybe someone like Testament. However, the holy grail would probably be King Diamond, because King Diamond rules.
