Jeremy Bluteau # Interview
“The Spirit of the Metal Forest Fighting the Current: An Honest Look at Solstice Rider’s Journey”
Welcome to a new interview. Today, our special guest is a young musician from the United States; Jeremy Bluteau, guitarist, lyricist, keyboardist and singer. Together with the singer Chris Bone and the guitarist João Corceiro, formed the melo death metal band Solstice Rider.
Despite his busy schedule, Jeremy agreed to give us some insights into the band’s creative process, the themes that inspire them to writing, and also his sincere and blunt opinions about streaming and elitism within the genre, which will probably spark some debate. By Elyna Steel
Hello Jeremy, and thank you for agreeing to this interview for Blessed Altar Zine.
Thanks for having me, it’s been real fun. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you guys and I’m excited for this interview.
Oh, thanks a lot! To start with, “Renewal of Broken Blades” has been out for a few weeks now. What has been the general response to this new EP?
The general response has been overwhelmingly positive. Most of the fans agree that this EP has been a level up in so many different ways. A progression of the natural evolution of a more experienced metal band. We’ve looked at things that we’ve done well and we’ve looked at things that we can improve on and we made a lot of these improvements on this new EP. It’s a sign of things to come for our next full length.
And I can’t agree more. I loved this EP. By the Way, I noticed a certain familiarity with Amon Amarth when reviewing it. Which are the band’s major influences? What elements from those influences do you take when creating music?
The influences are varied; Sonata Arctica, Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Insomnium are some. But I’m also highly influenced by a lot of non-metal influences including video game music as well. The soundtracks of The Legend of Zelda for an example or even the Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim.
Along those lines. What does Children of Bodom mean for Solstice Rider? What is the impact it has on the sound and concept of the band? What does Alexi Lahio mean to you all?
I would say that Alex Laiho helped to ground this idea of this fantasmical sound that can happen in metal music. I know that he pulls in a lot of influences from ’80s metal and other bands from that era like Motley Crüe or Ozzy. But for me especially for the first five albums of Children of Bodom there is this frigid cold sound that was very enticing to me.
Shifting focus a little bit, the music of Solstice Rider is very rich in layers, nuances and textures. In this sense, what is the band’s composition process like? What elements do you create first?
The band’s composition process is pretty nuanced but it involves me sitting alone with an instrument. It feels like I’m creating songs as weapons in a forge. We all need protection from the cares and the wearing of the world. That’s what I feel like these songs represent. I would like to say that it’s clear-cut but my process tends to be all over the place. However the one thing that seems to be in common with the songwriting process is sitting alone in silence with my instrument. Funny enough I sort of covered this in the song “Dead Artistry”.
Tell us a bit about the writing process of the band. How do you create the lyrics? And how do you include them in the musical composition?
Believe it or not, the lyrics come the easiest for me. I usually spit them out rather quickly. I tended to do better with English in school than other subjects so I find that words come easy to me. Being that English is my native language, it also gives me a little bit of an advantage in writing.
Absolutely. The words flow easily when you are writing in your native tongue. Speaking of which, what are the themes that inspire you when it comes to writing lyrics?
Hmm, nature and fantasy give me the most inspiration. Playing open world video games does as well because it gives me a sense of wonder.
Thematically I try to keep things somewhat lyrically grounded which seems a little bit unorthodox considering I’m wrapping things in fantasy themes. I don’t try to write overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative songs. I just write songs in a sort of balanced place. The song “Suffer to Glory” is a bit of meta commentary on the lyrics of metal songwriting. You have songs about achieving your destiny and slaying the dragon. But then inversely you have songs that are just overwhelmingly depressive.
My take on the whole thing is that the world is good and bad and if anything it just is what it is. If you want to achieve your dreams and goals you have to suffer to get there but the suffering is worth it in the end. It is neither hopelessly romantic and delusional nor is it lacking in Hope. It’s essentially taking the bad with the good when trying to achieve great things.
I’m kinda wondering how the process of incorporating voices into songs is. Do you start with the melody and shape the vocals around it, or is it the vocals that guide the melody?
Either. I wish I could tell you that there was a process here but honestly everything is on the table. I’ve shaped melodic ideas to song structure ideas. And I’ve shaped song structure ideas to the melodies.
I find that being too grounded in a particular process breeds stagnation. I don’t care how the song comes to me as long as it comes to me. But I definitely can’t allow my imagination to run free unless I’m sitting alone in a room with no noise. The silence births the melody. The silence births the idea. Sometimes I have ideas and other times I have completely finished songs in my head and I’m just scribing it out onto “metaphorical parchment”. Sometimes a melody comes to me while I’m doing something in life and I have to stop everything I’m doing to get it out before I forget it.
Oh, silence. Definitely is essential when it comes to connecting with the creative “spirit”, so to speak. Making a sharp turn, I want to ask you about vocals. Solstice Rider is a Melo Death Metal band. So, along with the melodies and rhythm, guttural vocals are essential. However, you include clean vocals in your music. Moreover, “Brothers” features the gorgeous voice of your friend, “Singer X” as I named her. Why did you decide to include that type of voice in the vocal lines? What impact do you want to achieve with that combination of voices?
My very first band was a melodic power metal band that was influenced by the band Sonata Arctica. My roots are in power metal but the last 10 years I’ve been invested in much more melodic death metal as well as folk metal. Where I see myself getting into trouble is that I see no distinction between these genres for Solstice Rider. Every song I write could sound just as good with a clean vocalist as it could with a growl vocalist. There could be days in the future where I release versions of songs with completely clean vocals. I expect there will be times in the future where I do a complete album with just clean vocals which would justifiably acquire a power metal label. I’ve never seen these genres as completely different things in my head and that could possibly be some of Children of Bodom’s early influences on me. They both sound just as good and just as necessary as they have different qualities. Growl vocals convey the intensity I want. Clean vocals convey the groundedness and the etherealness I want. As it stands right now I try to have a blend of both. As it stands right now this could change. I have ideas for an album with completely growl oriented vocals. And I even have ideas where it could be completely clean as well. The last thing I want is to feel like I’m locked into one thing. Which definitely bothers people who love to use subgenres to categorize metal.
I can see some of the fans who hate clean vocals getting upset and vice versa. But back to your question I decided to have completely clean vocals for the song “Brothers” because I wanted to and it’s what the song called for . I can presume that more of this will be implemented in the future.
Jeremy, I wanna ask you something about the eternal issue of making music and having a family. There is a misconception that a family man can’t dedicate enough time to making music, otherwise he would put his family on the back burner. etc. What do you think about it? How do you manage to balance both dimensions of Jeremy?
It’s definitely a misconception that you have to choose one over the other. That being said, it is nevertheless a bit more challenging. However it’s nothing I would ever want to change. My family gives me motivation and inspiration. I can’t choose one over the other. Balancing these two dimensions of myself requires a bit of coordination with my wife who has been supportive the entire time. It is my hope one day that through releasing more music we acquire more fans who can help support us.
On a different note now, we all know that in metal, as in every other field, there are critics and haters. And there are many critics of the melodic style, particularly among Death metalheads. There are many who harshly criticize the Melo Death metal style for “it’s not true death metal”? What do you think about it? What would you say to those who argue that melo death is not “true” death metal?
Metal elitism is certainly a problem that is not going anywhere anytime soon. It has almost become political at this point. There is a sort of metal conservatism that tries to dictate on what is true metal and what is not. The reality is that all the core components that make something metal are in place for melodic death metal. I would say that the more criticisms you get from individuals about whether something is true metal or not then the more likely you are to be innovating something new. Take Babymetal for an example: objectively they are a metal band and nobody sounds like them. They are innovative and that has ruffled so many feathers because they don’t align with this “macho image” that metal is as if metal has to be one way or another.
If anyone decides to say that Solstice doesn’t have enough of “x to be this metal or that to be y metal”. I would consider it a badge of honor. I acknowledge subgenre distinctions. I know the difference between “melodic death metal” and “brutal death metal”. I know the difference between “folk metal” and “power metal”. But I am never thinking about what genre Solstice falls in at any given time when writing a song. To me it’s going to be epic sounding metal and where the chips lie, only the critics can probably decide.
How do you personally deal with negative criticism, especially when it targets your style of musical?
Personally I don’t feel like I get enough negative criticism. I should probably start causing more trouble. I would say overall the reception of our music has been overwhelmingly positive. But we do get criticism here and there and I pretty much just ignore it. Or I meme about it. Hahaha.
Good move! Fighting against hate through memes is like saying “oh do you hate what I do? Talk to my hand” hahaha. On another side, it is well known that what plays most against a band’s success are egos and differences when it comes to building the band’s melodic narrative. However, there are some legendary examples of how to make a band work. For instance, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard or Metallica, which have had little or no lineup changes. What do you think is most needed for a band to remain stable and successful over the time?
The band just needs a unified vision. And if they don’t have that they at least need to think that whatever vision is in place is working out for their best interest. We’ve had the same lineup for about 3 years now and I don’t see it changing anytime soon because I find a balance between hearing people’s concerns but also doing what’s needed for the band overall. If you can balance hearing the voices of your bandmates with the vision you’re trying to achieve, I think you should have enough harmony for a stable lineup.
In this sense, how do you see Solstice Rider from here to five or ten years from now?
No idea. I see us releasing more albums. I see myself writing something that outdoes the last thing I wrote. I’m always constantly trying to come up with little challenges for myself. For an example…. Could I take Solstice into a more commercial direction and sound good? Could I take Solstice into a more progressive direction and make it sound good? Clean vocals? Growl vocals?
I have so many ideas and most of these ideas really come from wanting to challenge myself to do different things. I don’t want to release the exact same album each and every time like some melodic death metal bands. I’m not trying to release “Twilight of the thunder God for the 20th time”. (Not throwing shade). I take calculated risks. And then I take more. If they pay off I’ll even try to take more. A band should be trying to find a balance between pleasing their fans but also challenging themselves to achieve something that they’ve never done before.
I got you. You’ve said so much that I agree! Machines do things always the same, but we are not machines, so we will always intend something different. Or a unique, authentic way to do stuff.
Now, let’s talk about a controversy. The appearance of the internet was a revolution in every sense, including metal music. On the one hand, metal became popular thanks to the appearance of YouTube, MySpace and the like, because people came to know literally thousands of bands . But on the other hand, the appearance of digital platforms like Spotify has been a double-edged sword. Although they serve to make bands visible, companies also profit from music that is not theirs. What is your opinion in this regard?
I think that streaming has been absolutely terrible for metal bands. We are quite literally getting f***** in the ass. Solstice Rider makes much less money than it could if it relied solely on physical sales. I’m not convinced that fans would rather pay a corporation for the convenience of streaming your music versus asking them to directly support you.
In the future I think that bands are going to ask more from their fans to survive or what’s going to happen is that artificial intelligence is going to fill the gap where money should be and we’re going to have a huge increase in AI music. You can’t support human artists writing music with pats on the back and kind words and expect them to keep doing it. What’s going to happen is that they’re just going to rely on AI for quick results. There are already AI bands doing better than bands that have been laboring for 20 years creating music by hand.
I absolutely refuse to rely on AI to write music because if I’m not expressing myself why am I doing it in the first place. That being said, there are lots of people who are using AI to essentially replace the metal band all together for a quick buck. People know exactly who I’m talking about too. I’m just not going to name-drop them and give them more exposure. You want to know why people are running to AI ? You can thank the streaming services.
Oh, I see this topic is something that deeply outrages you. I’m sure the majority of artists resonate with this too. Thank you for the honesty. And thank you so much for taking the time for this interview. Any final words for the audience you want to add?
I love you all and thank you for the support. We hope to keep bringing you some amazing metal music in the future. Special thanks to all the “Riders of the Solstice” who directly support us and give us the means to keep creating. We look forward to sharing some awesome news at the end of the year on the Winter Solstice. Stay tuned.
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