Photo by Markus Laakso
Rootbrain will soon be releasing their debut album Breakwater, and after being especially impressed by their track Floating Feathers, we caught up with the band’s main songwriter Thomas Wright to find out more!
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little about the band?
My name is Thomas Wright and I’m the bass player and the main songwriter of Rootbrain. We’re a rising new band from Seattle, Finland. Our lead guitarist V Santura is from the German Seattle though. I also play in the Finnish doomsters, Kuolemanlaakso. Rootbrain was born out of an urge to create genuine and original music and out of boredom towards the current plastic state of modern metal. Our music is a peculiar mix of groove, dirt and beauty. We call our music black grunge.
How did you all meet and decide to start making music together?
We’ve all been good friends for years and have been collaborating musically in one way or another during the past. I’ve known Helle since the 90’s. In the summer of 2014 he was guitar teching for Kuolemanlaakso in Nummirock and after a couple days of afterpartying we decided it’s about time for us to finally be in the same band. It took a couple years to get actually started but it was a great decision. One of the advantages of forming a band in this age is that you know the scene and the people. In Rootbrain I have basically my best friends as bandmates. So one of the reasons behind the band is simply to spend more time with them doing what we love. Of course we have endless artistic ambitions but the friendship at the core of everything makes everything so much easier and is great platform for creative work.
Where do you draw your influences from?
Musically mostly from the 90’s. Lyrically from all the shit life throws at us and what’s happening around. And I think I also need to mention the Finnish nature as a great source of inspiration. I feel sensitivity and intuition are great artistic tools, but sometimes there is just so much sensory stimulus coming at you in the modern life that getting into nature is a perfect way to clean your mind and get into the artistic flow.
You’re currently getting ready to release your debut album Breakwater – can you describe the writing and recording process for it?
I guess I started making song demos somewhere in late 2016 after the most turbulent times of my life. I had to let go of a lot of things and people that had constituted my life until then. A long relationship with the mother of my kids ended, my father lost an intense fight against cancer and an endless stream of setbacks followed. We started having these wonderful theraphic sessions with Helle, who had had his fair share of shit as well. For a while we didn’t actually play any instruments at all at our sessions. Just tried to get inside each others heads and define the core essence of Rootbrain.
At some point I started flooding him with raw song demos and things started rolling. We rehearsed and arranged the songs as a trio with Helle and our drummer Tony and booked 10 days at V. Santura’s Woodshed studio in early 2018. We had a special connection right from the first Kuolemanlaakso session a few years ago and I just love to work and share thoughts with him. We speak the same language musically. So the session was unsurprisingly a blast and V played most of the lead guitars on the album. He was digging our songs, groove and chemistry so much that he ended up joining the band for good.
Did you run into any challenges or issues whilst creating the album, or did it all go to plan?
Well we had to wait a year to get Jules record his vocal parts and be able to fully commit to the cause. There was the end of Profane Omen and loads of stuff going on. But in the end patience got rewarded big time. He was the only singer we ever wanted.
I really like the lyrics for the songs I’ve heard already – I particularly love how emotive they are. How do you choose subjects to write about? Do you write the music around the lyrics, or do you draw inspiration from the songs once the instrumentation is nailed down?
Thank you! It’s basically the first time I’ve written any lyrics, my first intention was to let a more established writer do it. As the songwriting and recording process went on it all started to feel so personal I thought I need to have the lyrical strings in my own hands. Then I had another personal disaster and in the aftermath I just locked myself indoors and vomited all the texts in a week. It was a strange, highly intuitive process.
On this album most of the instrumentation had already been nailed down before the lyrics. I think in the future it will both ways. We have such creative minds in this band that the idea for a new song can come from anywhere.
You’ve already released a preview from the album, Floating Feathers. What has the response been like to it?
Actually we’ve put three songs on Youtube already! They’re not official singles or anything like that. We just wanted to give people a little taster of things to come. The response has been really good.
What can fans expect from the rest of Breakwater?
Bad ass riffage, attitude, emotion and killer melodies. It’s a quite diverse and original sounding entity that still always sounds like Rootbrain. Black grunge, if you like.
Once live shows are able to happen again, have you got plans to play any?
Of course! This music and this line up are made for the live environment. We already had some exciting plans for the summer and autumn before the apocalypse started. But we’re raring to go as soon as it’s safe and possible. Now our first priority is to get the album released.
So what can be expected from a Rootbrain gig?
We have loads of energy in this collective. It’s gonna be intense. We recorded the album quite fast and didn’t polish it that much. We wanted to have the real groove and raw magic of the moment on the album as well. I think what you hear on the album is pretty much how we sound live except live will be even rawer and more intimate.
And finally, what’s in store for the band in the future?
Well I guess that’s not entirely in our own hands but hopefully loads of more black grunge and world domination. We’re already writing stuff for the next album so we’re really just getting started and hungry for more. We’ll keep on enjoying the ride while taking nothing for granted.
