Big things in store for The Unravelling’s Steve Moore

Steve Moore is a singer and songwriter for West Coast heavy metal bands The Unravelling and Post Death Soundtrack. Deanna Mac-Neil chats with Moore about his intellectual and spiritual influences.

Ryerson Free Press: When did you start writing music?

Steve Moore: I started writing music at age 15. Soon after, I began recording albums on four tracks, eight tracks and on and on. None of them were good and I’m glad they’re not heavily distributed, but they helped me move forward and gain confidence slowly but surely.

RFP: Who were your earliest influences?

SM: My very earliest influences were probably Public Enemy and Guns n’ Roses. Both were bands that I wasn’t really “supposed” to listen to because of the language and themes, and this made both bands that much more appealing in my eyes!  They were really bands that you could open up the album, read the lyrics and find lots of surprising and shocking things. That has stuck with me to this day – the importance of lyrics and uncensored self-expression.

RFP: How did you form your bands?

SM: Post Death Soundtrack formed as a duo way back in 2005 when me and Kenneth Buck started recording electronic music. We released Music As Weaponry in 2008 when we realized the music had potential, and connected with Jon Ireson and Colin Everall soon after to bring the project [to life]. We ended up becoming best friends with both of them and the project legitimately became a four piece. It’s a rare occurrence for this to happen. Post Death Soundtrack is like a tribe. We take each other’s health and happiness very seriously and no one messes with the tribe, so to speak. The music is secondary to the friendship.

The Unravelling was formed when Gus contacted me via email through the Inner Surge website (my former band), after the band had split. I liked his demos and we started recording on the weekends. As the recordings got polished and we enlisted the help of Casey Lewis for the mastering (and drums), this became 13 Arcane Hymns. We’re now playing live with Scott Taylor, Bryan Sandau and Randy Burton.

RFP: How is Calgary treating you? What is the music scene like?

SM: The scene has improved for me in particular. I used to feel like an outsider on the scene, and still do when it comes to the hipster types, but my work with The Unravelling and Post Death Soundtrack has definitely created more interest and I appreciate it. Good things seem to be happening and it inspires me to do more.

RFP: Tell me about your projects and your upcoming albums. What can we expect to hear? What do you have [in store] for us in regards to video and album production?

SM: The Unravelling will be releasing our music video for “Move Forward Until You Are Dead” in January 2011. We shot the video with Doug Cook and he did an amazing job. I’m very proud that the message of the song came through. We’ll also be working on some new material. No word at the moment what that will turn into.

Post Death Soundtrack is working on new material for a new full length and this is exciting for all of us. We’re also in the middle of a remix campaign, where we’re encouraging fans and producers to re-imagine our material, particularly the tracks “Our Time Is Now” and “Ultraviolence.” All of the remixes get posted to our Remix section on our new website, which will be launched very shortly. It’s kind of a digital band, so there will most likely be all kinds of new MP3s released over the next year, as well as potentially another music video.

RFP: Do you plan on touring anytime soon? Will you visit Toronto?

SM: Yes, I definitely hope to tour and visit Toronto. I’m not sure of the logistics at the moment but I’ll put it out there.

The Unravelling

Deanna MacNeil

Calgary’s own The Unravelling has blessed us with the deepest most meditative album since Pearl Jam’s Ten. 13 Arcane Hymns is thought expanding, mind altering progressive Canadian metal, influenced by Chomsky, Hunter S. Thompson, and Malcolm X. Prepare yourself. The Unravelling will unfold the layers of the mind, getting deep into the psyche; the part we do not explore living in a world where our minds are plugged into a wall (Disconnect-Connect).

It is difficult to lose yourself to the heavy, fast, melodic sound of this album. This is metal with intelligence that requires the listener to wake up and hear the message. The flow will be interrupted with a switch of sound and words; requiring thought and an unsettled feeling.

“Last Rights Protest” plays like Tool in sound and scope, “Breaking through these chains / I’m metal through veins.” The song channels something higher in the listener, “I will move through you if you stand on ground”. The ego is our ultimate weakness, strength lies in the id, “Ego’s drawn him close / now we change the plan”. The repetition of “I’m not dead” gets inside your head, asking for your wakeful state.

Gun shot guitar riffs speak of death on “Revived,” suffocation and bodies buried alive, “a freefall that never ends / when I gasped for air / your hands / your hands covered my mouth.” The silencing of words must not be, even when those words speak what we wish not to hear. “Revived” invites the memory of Anthony Burgess: “Never try to tear the sound from my tongue”.

Transcendental song writing is “Unscripted Disclosure;” “ born with no explanation / reckless abandon moving my tongue / feeling it’s way through my tongue / feeling it’s way through my lungs / unknown voice singing my song”. The chants and screams in the background are “gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh” ( Burgess, A Clockwork Orange). Through the embrace of darkness we find peace.

“In The Safe House” is familiar of Gord Downie; poetic and Canadian. Our harsh literary landscape is written in song, a metaphor for the call of individual survival: “calloused finger tips gripping / my tongue appealing to the sky / “Fire”…all the hopes, all the fears, all the allusions…the blood, sweat and tears…I will persevere.”

“How long? / How long will we let ourselves be pushed around?” The Unravelling asks this question as the music speaks of our illusions daring our selves to be shed of skin and facade: “let this be an open vein of blood / smeared all over the face of our illusions.” Our purest of selves will be spread all over our skin, revealing our sickness and complicity in intolerance.

“Aruna” has a pulsing bass line driving the message and flow. The medium is where it takes you. This song feels very Tool with a sound that unites power within the mind; a rejection of the outer world that enforces dominance over our thoughts: “Rattling the cages / frightening the guards / and they send a message.”

The album jacket contains this message about the first song on the album. “Move Forward Until You Are Dead” is a solemn promise to oneself. It is a personalization of the determined thought form ‘Enough is enough!’ An answer to the question “What should I do?” It is the idea of rejecting the outer realms and embracing the inner. Through this process the inside appears everywhere, and the world is merely oneself. The “dead man,” who feels disconnected from an apathetic world, reclaims his existence and seizes authenticity on his own path. He demands compliance from no one but himself, and in so doing lets go of all worldly attachments. His enemies that once latched on to him now cower in terror. He stands fearlessly in his own power and asks for nothing. He is revived.

13 Arcane Hymns can be downloaded in entirety off the website. I highly recommend it. Stay posted for an interview I will conduct with singer / song writer Steve Moore.

To learn more about The Unravelling, visit www.theunravellingmusic.com/home.cfm