Illinois Entertainer August 2023 | Page 22

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written about reminiscing on the good old days , reminiscing on the successes that you ' ve had . As Covid happened , I think that song actually took on a whole new life . And it wasn ' t that the feelings changed ; it was more intensified . We were concerned that maybe our industry wouldn ' t come back as strong because it did take a while to come back , and now it ' s thriving for sure .
IE : Opinions are out that Eye for an Eye … is more diverse and …’ Til the World ’ s Blind is more in the vein of your previous albums . Is that a coincidence , or was that planned ? CH : You know , people always say this and I think that we ' ve always been pretty multifaceted in the things that we write . We ' ve always had big , poppy choruses , and yes , the stuff on Eye for an Eye … is probably a more advanced version of what we were doing before with those choruses . We ' ve grown a lot . But we ' ve always ran the gamut with our songs from radio-friendly to really intense , super metal stuff . So , I think we ' ve always done that . I think that we just have matured so much over the years that it sounds worlds apart .
IE : What ’ s the symbolism of the wind chimes on the cover of both albums ? CH : When we were in Michigan , we stayed at this incredible Airbnb that was kind of like a little hunter ' s lodge ; there were antlers all over the walls . It was the middle of winter and there was a wind chime on the patio that just had the most haunting melody . It was in the middle of nowhere , too . So , if you step outside , you just see ( the wind chimes ) against the frozen terrain . It was a very haunting sound and image . It became the perfect symbol , to sum up our time in Michigan recording that album . HS : My bedroom and this Airbnb were right next to this wind chime and I would hear it first thing in the morning , just in the wind . It ’ s actually the last thing you hear on the last song on the album (“’ 33Til the World ' s Blind ”). It ’ s the actual wind chime . We took a tape recorder out – a literal tape recorder – and recorded the wind chimes in the middle of the night . And that is the last thing that you hear on the album . So , other people get to experience exactly those wind chimes like we experienced it . It ' s just kind of a little Easter egg . And you know what else is a fun little Easter egg ? The very last lyric on the very last song is also “ eye for an eye till the world ' s blind .” So , it all ties in together .
IE : It has been ten years since your debut album Goliath was released , in which you pay homage to that era of the band on the track “ Red Thunder .” Looking back on when you began , is this now where you thought you ’ d be back then ? CH : I don ' t think that we ever dreamed that we would have all these albums . I was looking at our album listing on Spotify and you gotta pinch yourself . We ’ re just kids from Detroit and Provo , Utah , and we found each other in a sea of other people in Los Angeles and we wanted to make some noise and just play music with our best friends . I don ' t think we ever thought that we ' d actually get signed and do that first album and do these amazing tours , let alone five albums later . We ’ ve been all over the world together . It ' s pretty insane and we ' re pretty lucky . We ' re grateful for that .
IE : With your long-standing friendship and your sister-like bond , “ Best Friend ” from Saweetie and Doja Cat seems to be the perfect track to cover . HS : Carla and I find inspiration in so many different kinds of music . We love everything . If you were to attend one of our late-night parties or ride on our bus from city to city , a lot of the times we listen to ’ 90s gangster rap and hip-hop . One of our favorites is Lil ’ Kim on the bus . When we first heard “ Best Friend ” from Saweetie and Doja Cat , it was like , “ Oh my gosh , this song was written for us !” If there ' s a song for us to cover , it has to be this one . Everything in it just made sense for us and it was really cool . I love being able to play that song together . It ' s so fun when we ' re on stage and we just get to play off of each other . And I think it ' s really cool to recognize that there are two females in this band . We ' ve been best friends even before we started this band , and we were in a band together prior to this . It ’ s really cool and it should be celebrated that women can work together like this for almost two decades and still remain best friends . And when we get on stage , we ' re still those two best friends on the Sunset Strip playing the Cat Club . No matter where we are in the world , it ' s still those two best friends .
IE : One of the most intriguing tracks on the album has to be the ballad “ Last December .” Is this the first time you thought about doing a more delicate type of song ? HS : No , we have ballads on all of our albums , actually . We have a really intense ballad called “ Thrown Away ” on our second album . We have one called ” Look What We ' ve Done ” on our third album . “ Last December ” was written in 2020 via Zoom with a really incredible writer out of Nashville named Blair Daly . And we were at home just like everybody else , experimenting , writing different things . There are these notes that I had taken Continues from an on expe- page 36