How to find the words to describe progressive/metal heavyweights, Between the Buried and Me? Wading through articles and band reviews, you find words like, grandiose, dynamic, heavy, and melodic to describe their sound or simply, “how the hell do they manage to play this live?!”
But words on a page don’t do the North Carolina-based band justice, you just have to experience them yourself. Luckily for Santa Cruz audiences, Between the Buried and Me will play The Catalyst Club on Thursday, July 23.
Good Times recently sat down with Paul Waggoner (lead guitar, vocals) to chat about touring and their seventh full-length studio album, Coma Ecliptic, released on July 10.
You describe your recent release, Coma Ecliptic, as a “70-minute over-the-top rock opera,” which sounds insanely intriguing. How does it differ from your previous material?
PAUL: It was our way of describing the mentality going into the writing and production of Coma Ecliptic. We wanted to push ourselves into new territory, musically. It wasn’t so much that we were abandoning our previous sound, but rather it was an attempt at further evolving as musicians and bringing in influences that weren’t necessarily present in our earlier material.
Between the Buried and Me has been touring and recording as a group for around 15 years. What are some of the changes you’ve seen in the music business since starting out?
PAUL: When we started, the Internet was still in its infancy in terms of music sharing and purchasing. We recorded a demo and sold it at shows and played as much as we could. We all had full-time jobs and would do weekend shows locally and regionally hoping that eventually, we would pick up some steam. As we’ve progressed in our careers, the culture has shifted tremendously towards file sharing, downloading legally and illegally. We were very fortunate to have created a niche audience that seems to be steadily growing and still interested in coming to our shows. Without that, we couldn’t exist in today’s music industry climate. It’s not that we are impervious to the negative impact of lower music sales, because we certainly do see challenges in regards to that. But we’ve managed to settle into a career that doesn’t necessarily depend on that perhaps as much as the average band. Everything we’ve achieved in the 15 years of our existence has been done with very little mainstream exposure, and relatively modest record sales.
Metal and rock fans are known to have some of the most discerning ears when it comes to new music from their favorite groups and BTBNM has managed to stay not only relevant in the hardcore and metal scenes, but at the forefront of them. What keeps you at the front of the pack?
PAUL: I don’t really know. It’s difficult to analyze that from a first person perspective. We just do what comes naturally. We create music that is true to us and reflective of our growth as musicians and people, and we are just really lucky that people seem to dig it enough for us to justify doing it full time.
You’ve said before that the name, “Between the Buried and Me” comes from lyrics in a Counting Crows song called, “Ghost Train.” What other bands influenced you in the early days? And are there any new artists you find yourself listening to a lot right now?
PAUL: When we started the band we were a blank canvas. We were open to all sorts of influences even then, but we lacked the musicianship at the time to really execute it. That didn’t keep us from trying, though. We took influence from hardcore and metal, but we were also children of the 90s, so that era of rock music was ingrained in us and found its way into our sound as we progressed as a band. We’ve grown quite a bit since then, and so has our bank of influences. Right now I like a lot of classic rock. The Allman Brothers, Zeppelin, Queen. As far as modern bands, I’m really into Midlake, Devin Townsend and a bunch of other stuff. I like a lot of bluegrass/Americana stuff as well.
Your live shows look like an absolute blast.
PAUL: We are trying to incorporate as many visual elements as possible. As our sound has evolved, we have stepped up our production to complement the music. We have some snazzy lights and projection video stuff that we are pretty stoked on. Some nights the stage isn’t quite big enough for us to do everything we want to do, but that’s just the way it goes.
Info: Between the Buried and Me, with Animals As Leaders, The Contortionist. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 23. The Catalyst Club. Tickets: $20/$25. Photo credit: Justin Reich.
