Sometimes ideas that begin in high school don’t come to fruition until years later. Find out how that’s true for some current members of Rings of Saturn and Aenimus after the jump.
For guitarist Miles Dimitri Baker (Aenimus) and drummer Aaron Stechauner (Rings of Saturn), the musical journey began long ago when they first played in a band together in their sophomore year in high school. Now, in combination with Ros’ Lucas Mann, Miles and Aaron are putting out music they’ve been working on for years with the release of a new song from Interloper.
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I asked Miles how Interloper came to be.
“The idea for Interloper came to be about four or five years ago. Aaron Stechauner and I have been in bands since Sophomore year of High School. We played in a band called Mirrored for a while with Dylan Furr. After that dissipated, I had a few tunes written out and Aaron and I would get together at his house and jam them out in his garage. After a while, the musical direction changed more towards an Obscura, Wintersun, Fleshgod (Apocalypse) esque kind of thing. I wrote a song that I can’t mention right now sometime around late sophomore year, next was our debut track “A Red Letter Day” around april Junior year of High School, which was shortly followed by another tune that I wrote, that will also soon be featured. After that Aaron had joined Abiotic, started touring with them, then I joined Ænimus and started touring with them. Lucas Mann came into the picture somewhere after both of those things. He and I were working together in another project that was very short lived, then the idea came to be, why not have Lucas just join this band that is now, Interloper.”
In some ways, Miles says, Interloper offers the members more freedom than their current, more well-known projects.
“It is much more of a European type metal, a lot more melody, counterpoint, and tech stuff than a lot of American bands that are around these days. Another thing that I feel is different, is that it is much more open ended. For example, we are looking to have exclusively clean vocals in this project. We have soft sections, crazy fast sections, and there is no limit to what we will do, or want to do. It can be anything, and it will still happen. As opposed to how I feel the other projects are more or less a more distinct style of music.”
Miles acknowledges that with the busy schedule for both Rings and Aenimus, it will be tough to plan tours but Interloper isn’t just a studio project, that they intend to pull this off live.
Interloper is conducting open auditions for a clean singer to go along with this music. Miles says A Red Letter Day was always designed to be instrumental but they have plenty of other songs written that need someone who can sing cleans. If you want to audition, hit up Interloper on the band’s Facebook Page or message Miles at his Facebook profile.
For now Miles says he does most of the songwriting in what has become an exhaustive and exhausting process.
“The writing process is one of many drafts, and changing melodies around. The hardest part is with all the counterpoint going on, it’s hard to keep the independence of each part strong while not having anything clash. When you have several guitars going on at one time and they are all playing different things, it’s hard to keep each part good, as well as having each part work with each other in good harmony. I write all the guitars, bass, synth, and piano parts. Aaron writes all of the drums. Lucas and I have collaborated on a few things and we will be working more tightly in the near future, being that the new Rings of Saturn album is about to release.”
For some bands, while the band members are friends, they’re not necessarily best friends. But Miles says since they first played together in high school, he knew there was something magical about playing with Aaron, his best friend in life as well as music.
“There is something special about playing, writing, and hanging out with him that can only be understood when you have become best friends with someone while growing as musicians together. We grew so much in those years, not only musically, but as individuals. I believe we have become who we are today as musicians, and to some extent as individuals, because of one another. That is something that can’t ever be replicated with anyone else I ever meet.
“That doesn’t even touch on the fact that he is the hands down best drummer I have ever played with. You know how there are people who are just so damn good at something they do, and it almost looks effortless. You know, people who just blow your mind every single time they perform? He is one of those people, he just has it. He has not only busted his ass for so many years getting this good, but I think he has reached something more than just that, something that some people will just never be able to attain. I can’t really explain it.”
No explanation needed. Just listen to Interloper and be prepared for the next stage in this band’s musical journey.
-BS