Originally founded in Las Vegas, Widow’s Wail is one of the newest acts to hit the Los Angeles scene with a ferocious force. Established in 2015, Widow’s Wail has been through its trials and triumphs and is now hitting the music industry of Southern California- having just performed an incredible live show on October 26th. Rock Revolt Magazine had the pleasure of interviewing the front man and mastermind behind the project, a Mr. Ian James Christopher about his new project.
Rock Revolt: Let’s jump right in. Tell me about Widow’s Wail and the band’s sound. How would you describe your music?
Ian James Christopher: I’d say there’s a lot of heavier influence on my music, not necessarily coming from heavier bands, but more so from the desire to, well, sound heavy if that makes sense. I think there’s a good mix of angst, anxiety, aggression, depression, and the music is somewhat of an embodiment of these emotions along with others.
What image do you feel your music invokes?
For some songs, I write graphic, horror inspired lyrics, so I’d definitely look to inspire that same type of imagery. With other songs, I write from a personal perspective, so I’d like to inspire the listener to think of the passion behind the content.
If we’re talking about appearance, I’d say that I definitely pride myself in not looking like a random guy off the street. I feel like a huge aspect of performance art is your appearance, and that you could put on some incredible mind blowing performance but if you look like someone who’d blend in with a crowd then part of the “wow factor” could be lost.
What are you greatest influences in your musical career?
I feel like my music is the blended up result of all the music I listen to, from emotionally driven bands like H.I.M., Type O Negative, and From Autumn to Ashes, to heavier driven music like Whitechapel, Bleeding Through, Chimaira, and Shai Hulud. I listen to a ton of more conventional music too like Lana Del Rey and Ace of Base, and alternative “goth music” artists (like Joy Division and Siouxsie Sioux) and I feel like all of these influence me in some way, from wanting to sound heavy, to wanting to have sticky hooks in my choruses, to wanting to invoke darker imagery, and so on.
What has the writing and production process been like for you thus far?
I’ll get ideas at the most random times. I’ll be working out or hanging out with friends and some catchy line or cool riff or melody will randomly pop into my head; I’ll write ideas down and pull up word documents when working on a song in the studio to see if I can use some of those older ideas.
I love that my producer and engineer understand my creative mind well and we’ll be able to meet up, sit down for a few hours, and crank out an awesome track with little to no trouble. I’ve dealt with corrupt/greedy producers in the past who provided me with a subpar final product musically, but I feel very thankful to work with who I do now.
You were established in 2015, in Las Vegas- what pushed you to start this project?
I was living on and off in Vegas at the time but knew I was going back to college and unable to maintain regularly traveling from California to Vegas to keep up with poker and sports betting. I had previously quit playing instruments and writing music entirely around 2011 and I was missing music.
I also felt like I didn’t really give it my all when I was younger as it relates to music. I was playing guitar and bass with friends and their bands but I never really put forth an effort in succeeding, or even recording, and I wanted to make sure I got involved with music before it was too late and I ended up not having a chance to do so.
What about the metal genre attracts you? What is it about this particular niche of music that made you want to play it?
Community is a huge aspect for me. I’ve always felt like I was able to find somewhere I belong when I found music more related to an alternative lifestyle, specifically metal. People came to accept me as who I am and some even started to respect me, which was mind blowing as a youth, and helped to bolster my confidence so that I could stand up on my own both as an artist and as a person. I’m very fortunate and very thankful to have found the metal community.
I play metal both because it’s my favorite genre of music, but also because I feel like I need to leave a lasting artistic impression. To expand, I’d like to work hard in order to give back to the metal, alternative, gothic, etc. communities by being a part of something bigger than myself in music and art.
Your record is anticipated to be released in 2020. What can you tell us about it? What information can you divulge?
I pride myself on the fact that a majority of my songs don’t necessarily sound the same. Some will be quieter and more ambient with an emphasis on the instruments and accompaniment, while others will be very loud/fast paced/aggressive and prioritize the blast beats and screams to the listener’s ear, with so many other songs in-between. My producer, engineer, and I do a lot of experimenting and we like to think outside the box, while still implementing these fresh ideas in songs and working toward a goal of combining them with sounds and techniques that have been proven to be well-received, whether it be instrumentally, vocally, or composition wise.
Who are your live players? Can you tell me more about them?
My friends Dany Khouli (formerly of Blackcast, a San Diego based metalcore act) and Triston Cheshire (who plays in several deathcore/death metal/slam bands such as Angel Splitter, Harvested Existence, False Idol, Disorder, and Avarice, to name a few) are joining me on bass and guitar, respectively. I’m very happy we’re able to work together, as we’re all very passionate about music and translate it to showing on stage or in our music. I’ve seen how great of musicians they are, and if we end up working together long-term, I’d be very interested in working together on the songwriting process. I also highly suggest anyone interested listen to their bands and affiliated musical acts! These guys are legit and I’m very lucky to call them friends and musical peers.
Another good friend of mine is working behind the scenes on learning bass, and if he’s still able to work together, Dany would probably move to a second guitarist position. We’d also love to find a live drummer with the technical ability to keep up, and a potential live keyboardist as well in future. Fingers crossed!
What is your opinion on the music industry today? What is your ideology moving forward?
We’re living in a very interesting time. Thanks to the advent of the internet and social networking, we’re able to get our eyes and ears on so many bands and artists that would’ve most likely gone unnoticed 20, or even 5 years ago. However, because of this over saturation of music, some people aren’t impressed by anything anymore.
Sometimes, musicians aren’t really getting paid at all, and some people might even be signing contracts or may be working with people who don’t look out for their best interests and are essentially signing away their creative and even individual (i.e. hairstyles, wardrobe) freedoms to interest groups or other entities, etc. that get to take over their lives.
I love that I can go online and find tons of bands I’ve never heard of, but I also find that they’ve got no real following and aren’t able to establish any sort of momentum toward succeeding in getting their name out, sometimes because people will just click “next artist” if they aren’t impressed in the first 3 seconds by what they hear online and these great artists, while having their name essentially up on the world’s stage, may go unappreciated.
What does success mean to you?
I really want my MUSIC to be well known, but I don’t really have an interest in personal fame aside from maybe it being a means to an end of getting my music and my message out there. I’d definitely consider myself to not be an “I need attention” kind of guy, even if my appearance may suggest otherwise. I like the idea of being able to go to the grocery store and load up on olives at the olive bar while a song I write plays over the radio and the guy next to me has no clue that’s me (laughs).
Additionally, having some huge follower count online isn’t really a main goal of mine either. I feel like these numbers aren’t everything, and don’t want to get caught up focused on this over my product (e.g. the quality of the music).
What are your future goals and plans for Widow’s Wail?
I’d like to get Widow’s Wail established musically and built up to something successful while always being able to do things on my own terms and be my own musician and person. I have a laundry list of bands with whom I’d love to be able to say I’ve had the honor of sharing stages together. After that, I’d like to work toward putting out what fans, followers, friends, and myself would believe to be my magnum opus release, and proceeding to do one last big tour before I can call it quits on my own terms. I want to spend the next few years working to reach an apex of what I consider success and quit while I’m ahead. I graduated from business school at SDSU (go Aztecs!) and I’d like to parlay any musical success of mine toward a career as a manager, agent, songwriter, or something similar; to venture further into the business side of music is definitely a long term goal of mine.
Before then? Touring and creating incredible memories with my closest friends, making music I want to make and talking about the things either in my life or in my imagination that I’d like to talk about. I’d like to give all of my friends and musical acquaintances an opportunity to see what I’m all about musically and aesthetically, and I’d like to give back to my community.
I’d like to one day be able to sit and work to help out struggling young musicians get their voices heard, or even just help young people by being a positive influence and someone willing to lend a listening ear and a helping hand. If I can help one musician get established, or even just help one young person not end up going down a terrible path in life, I’ll feel like I was successful in that regard, though ideally I’d like to help as many people as I could.
I’ve always been very hands-on in various music scenes both in person and online. Sometimes I’ll drive hours to see bands play and be one of the only people there, but I’ll still make sure they know they’re supported and that someone genuinely enjoys their music, their band. Other times, I’ll be hard at work networking on facebook or other places online in order to get my friends in far away places’ bands noticed and help them build their names up as well, even if I can’t be there physically to help.
Any bands you’d ideally like to tour with?
I’d like to play shows or tour with all of my favorite bands, both local and big name.
A dream tour of mine would be for me to serve as a bridge between the local scene and the bigger names, something like two big bands that I admire and two smaller acts that I call friends along with myself and Widow’s Wail. I’ve been very lucky and honored to meet the minds behind Bleeding Through, Eighteen Visions, and Carnifex and I’d like to establish myself to a level where I could be seriously considered by them/their representative(s) in order to be an act on one of their tours. Some of my other favorite active bands are Motionless in White, Crystal Lake, Shadow of Intent, Jinjer, The Amity Affliction, and Fit For an Autopsy.
CLICK HERE TO CONNECT WITH WIDOW’S WAIL
[Thank you to Amanda Altman & Tayler Altman for the live photographs]
