Feature: Take The Willing - Taking the Fight All Over
Author: Chris Leggett (photography by www.relapse.co.nz)
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The moment a relatively young band takes an unexpected, seemingly meteoric climb to attention, it's time for the skeptics to start talking. Touted as one of the local hardcore scenes' next big things at an early stage in the band's lifetime, Take The Willing have not avoided this phenomenon entirely, even from their far-flung Mt Maunganui base.
According to guitarist Kurt Andersen, this was particularly evident after the band were recently offered one of the coveted Hatebreed support slots. The hardcore scene is typically ancestral - it's about paying dues and building a reputation based on long, hard slog. So when a new band was asked to support one of hardcore's international heavyweights the chatter began.
"There was a bit of talk going on as to whether we actually deserved the slot," explains Kurt. "But we turned a few heads."
The thing is - perhaps unbeknown to others - Take The Willing have paid some dues. The four core members (Andersen, vocalist Nathan Sowter, guitarist Kaya Rayner and drummer Jayden Faass) have been playing together for over a decade already.
"The four of us have been jamming together since we were about 13 or 14," says Nathan, who also claims they were hardly aware of what hardcore even was when they conceptualised the sound their current band was to take.
Leaning more to the metal end of the hardcore spectrum, Take The Willing proved an ideal support for Hatebreed, who themselves epitomise the ever-increasing metal influence over the genre. Take The Willing has received comparisons to the likes of Poison The Well, Norma Jean and Earth Crisis - all of whom are famous for blending hardcore and metal dynamics. While they don't entirely agree with these comparisons, the band embrace them as compliments, and unlike a host of other bands, do not discourage their fans from describing them in such a way.
"Everything sounds like something else. How do you explain what something sounds like without giving them a reference point?" asks Nathan. In coming up with their own sound, Take The Willing had only one goal he says.
"The goal for the music is to just be really intense, so that when we play it live or record it, it's an overwhelming beatdown on your ears. As a result, the songs can come from quite different areas, but the energy and the goal behind it's all the same."
Take The Willing started as a bedroom project, albeit more serious than anything they'd done before. It wasn't long before the boys had recorded an impressive demo that would serve as a precursor for the direction they were to take. "We [initially] got this song together called Eyes Closed that was encompassing what we wanted to do," says Nathan. "We got a few support dates off of the back of that song."
Those supports included 21 dates for Blindspott's 'End the Silence' tour last October, and also the seven-date FTW New Year tour. And having given their material plenty of road-testing, Take The Willing have now recorded their debut album, entitled 'Fight Music', at The Lab withPaul Matthews.
"[The title's] just something we picked up on the road from people talking to us," laughs Kurt. "People would say, 'it just makes me want to fight'."
"It took three weeks in the end - a week for drums and bass, a week for guitars and just mucking around really."
"And another three days for vocals," adds Nathan.
"It took three weeks in the end - a week for drums and bass, a week for guitars and just mucking around really."
"And another three days for vocals," adds Nathan.
Kurt says the band ensured they knew their stuff intimately before wasting precious time and money in the studio.
"We spent a lot of time in pre-production, so it was quite a quick process. We just tried to capture the epicness of our live show."
"We spent a lot of time in pre-production, so it was quite a quick process. We just tried to capture the epicness of our live show."
Impressively they have secured the services of Swedish superstar producers Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lovstrom to mix and master 'Fight Music'. The Swedes are well-known for producing such high-profile international releases as Refused's breakthrough album 'The Shape of Punk to Come' and Poison The Well's career-defining 'You Come Before You', alongside our very own Blindspott's sophomore 'End The Silence'. In fact, it was largely owing to Nathan's own work as an engineer on that very album that he developed a working relationship with the Swedes, and the opportunity to have them work on his own material arose.
"I just asked them if they had the time, and they were more than accommodating," he says.
Nathan flies to Sweden with the ten recordings that will constitute 'Fight Music' on April 11, and although extremely excited, he's also a little nervous of what the notoriously picky producers will do with the tracks.
Album or EP, Take The Willing intend to rush the fruits of the Swedish leg of the process to the presser the moment Nathan steps off the plane.
Kurt insists that they're definitely aiming for a May release. At the time of writing the band were uanble to confirm who was releasing their CD.
And then there's a comprehensive nationwide tour planned to support, something the boys are now itching for. And by comprehensive, they mean comprehensive. The Rolling Stones may have had a bad experience in Invercargill (reference Keith Richards' "arsehole of the universe" quip for an anecdote of their trip), but perhaps if they'd dabbled in the art of hardcore and metal, things might have been different.
And then there's a comprehensive nationwide tour planned to support, something the boys are now itching for. And by comprehensive, they mean comprehensive. The Rolling Stones may have had a bad experience in Invercargill (reference Keith Richards' "arsehole of the universe" quip for an anecdote of their trip), but perhaps if they'd dabbled in the art of hardcore and metal, things might have been different.
"We got encored in Invercargill," laughs Nathan. That was but one of many pleasant experiences the band encountered down south - a region to which many North Island musicians find a tour hard to justify. But Nathan insists that the band-starved reaches of the South Island are certainly more accessible than many might think, and that the effort most certainly does not go unrewarded.
"You go somewhere fresh, that maybe hasn't had it, and you're blown away by it."
"You go somewhere fresh, that maybe hasn't had it, and you're blown away by it."
"There's towns like Blenheim that we'll go to for the sheer support," adds Kurt of the band's proposed nationwide tour supporting the release of 'Fight Music' which is tentatively scheduled for July.
And they're not planning on doing things by halves on tour either. Rather than bringing on local supports for each date, Take The Willing intend to take a few other North Island acts of a similar vein along for the whole ride. Although it is technically their album release tour, they see it more as a travelling festival. It will also allow some of the more overwhelming equipment and travel expenses to be spread over several bands, with the intended result of a better lineup with a better sound, and a better overall experience for all involved.
"That's important for us as a band - not to put on a half-arsed show," says Nathan.
"That's important for us as a band - not to put on a half-arsed show," says Nathan.
