UTG INTERVIEW: From Far Away

October 2nd, 2013

Kriston McConnell

From Far Away are a five piece hardcore outfit hailing from Hagerstown, Maryland who have been taking the hardcore scene by storm. The group signed to At Your Command earlier this year, and have been hard at work ever since to put out new material. They even went on their first tour together earlier this month.

I had the chance to get on the phone with them and have a chat about them signing to At Your Command Records, their inspirations, and some behind-the-scenes details on their EP, Recover|Repeat.

Do you plan on recording a full length album or another EP in the near future?

We’re either going to be doing a newer EP or a possible full length depending on time, whatever we have the money for.

You recently signed to At Your Command Records. How has that experience been so far being on a label?

We enjoy everybody who works with At Your Command. They really know how to push a lot of digital stuff, and for the few months we’ve been with At Your Command it’s been easy going. We really did gain an audience through At Your Command and their digital promotion abilities.

You released your EP, Recover|Repeat, a few months ago. What was the inspiration behind the title?

Josh: I came up with this idea one day, and I texted everyone in the band. Every incident that ever happens in your life, you recover from that. Life comes full circle, so you repeat that emotion or incident that happened. That’s where I came up with that name.

Is there generally just one person who writes the lyrics and wrote the lyrics for the EP or is it more of a collaborative effort?

Josh: I write all of the scream lyrics. Jay and I normally collab on clean, unless somebody has an idea for a part.

Are any of the lyrics on Recover|Repeat about any specific people or events that have happened in your lives?

Did you see our lyric video for “Outsiders”?

Yes, I did.

That is actually about a group of kids who are out here who basically run their mouths. They feel like it’s a contest to be a bigger and better band instead of keeping the music scene where we live.

“Memoirs” is another song. It’s about when my dad passed away. There was a lot of stress and guilt that came through that. It took me about three months to write it. I couldn’t find the right words to say.

What made you decide to write about those events and those people for the EP?

I feel like they are subjects worth being touched on. They are my more moral based songs, like at the end of “Outsiders” it says, “These scars are never fading.” Because you always remember everything. You always remember everything that ever happens to you.

It’s (“Memoirs”) probably the most emotional song I’ve ever written in my entire life. I will always write songs that reflect on something that happened, even to someone in the band or a friend of mine. You always want to relate to somebody when writing music. That’s how you keep everybody alive. Listening to music is relating to them. The words I write I aim for people to get emotional with my writing and my performance.

There is a large variety of genres and musical styles. What made you guys decide to be a hardcore band, and what inspires you to make that kind of music?

Josh: Steven listens to a lot of progressive music. Matt and I listen to more beat-down hardcore. Our clean influence comes from Jay, because he’s the more poppy side of the band. He listens to bands like Crown The Empire. Zach is a big metalcore fan. All hardcore bands have a very good way of expressing themselves. We all listen to music we can reflect on.

Matt: The main reason why I go with hardcore is when you are on stage. To me, I find other genres kinda boring, you can’t grab the emotion as you can in a hardcore show. Between what you give to the fans and what the fans give back makes it worth playing that type of music.

Another really good thing about hardcore, and why I fell in love with it, is the family relationship fans get for bands and each other. For a perfect example, we had one of our first shows was down by Baltimore and everybody there treated us like we were family. It was one of the most amazing experiences we had as a band.

There are a lot of bands who do cover songs, re-dos or acoustic versions of their songs. Would any of those be something you’d be interested in doing down the road?

We have discussed possibly doing a cover song. We might eventually do that. Maybe as we grow as a band we can do something acoustic. What we have written for Recover|Repeat will be really tough to perform acoustically. But as we go down the road we have talked about that. If we do write a full length, which is what we’re hoping to do, we wanted to put a clean instrumental in there. Something a little different to show that we’re not just playing what a lot of people say is just generic mess, playing random notes and it’s not a talent just a bunch of breakdowns. We want to be able to show we’re true artists and we have a variety of music.

Yeah, there’s some bands where it seems like all they do are cover songs, or remixes of existing songs.

Matt: I put a lot of effort into the writing when it comes to the guitars, and so does Steven. I’ve been in a few bands and I’ve never actually played a cover song. I want to present something that’s actually mine that I worked on that people can relate to and enjoy instead of something that’s already been done. I don’t want to be classified in that cookie cutter cover band stuff. Unless I’m 55 years old and I’m playing in a bar cover band making a living off of that then that would be a different story.

What would you say to fans who aspire to make music or sign to a label?

Matt: We have a starting local band, Finally Fading, that’s a younger high school band who looks up to us. They’ve always talked to us about stuff. I’ve always told them to take their time and to really put a lot of thought and emotion and effort into their music to make sure it’s presentable. One big thing a lot of local bands do, they want to fit in and be the cool kids and go play shows. They get picked on. I don’t know if it’s around areas where you are, but around here there’s a lot of judgmental kids at shows. I feel terrible for them, growing up I’ve always worked in those local bands until this one. It’s really hard to give advice yet because we’re kind of new to it, but I just tell them to keep up with it and don’t ever stop. If it’s your dream make your dream come true.

Josh: I’ve always had a view on music is to play what you want to play no matter what anybody else thinks about it because it doesn’t matter. It’s about what you feel when you play. As long as you’re happy with your masterpiece and what you’ve constructed. At the end of the day it’s a 10 out of 10. There’s always going to be critics and there’s going to be people to tell you that you sound generic. All that really matters is you play what you wanna play.

Interview written and conducted by: Kriston McConnell

The group just released a teaser for a new single, titled “Dead Inside,” and the full song and music video will hit the internet October 8. You can check out the teaser here. Be sure to check them out on Facebook to be one of the first to see their new video.