Review Fix chats with Texas in July guitarist Chris Davis who discusses the band’s new album, “Bloodwork.†With a new frontman in the form of JT Cavey, Davis discusses the band’s new direction and goals for the future.
Review Fix: How did you guys put the pieces back together after your frontman left?
Chris Davis: We had the fortunate situation of Alex leaving on positive terms and agreeing to finish out touring plans that we had previous to his decision to leave the band. As soon as Alex’s last tour ended, we started brainstorming on his replacement. A bunch of ideas were tossed around, but we only tried out two people. We gave both candidates a short tour to audition on, and it was clear almost immediately from his first practice with the band that JT Cavey was going to be the man that would help us push on! The biggest thing to us was that our new singer had to have a powerful voice and he had to have something to say worth people listening. I think that JT has more than delivered on both of those fronts!
Review Fix: How has the band’s creative process changed?
Davis: Well with our past albums, Adam had basically written them all musically with Christian, our former guitarist. This time around, it was much more a group effort. Nothing went forward or made the album if even one of us had a second thought about it. In a similar manner, Ben had written all of the band’s lyrics in the past, and then Alex would record them. This time around, JT wrote a majority of the lyrics for the album, and Ben helped produce the vocals and occasionally threw in his spice and ideas. I feel like this helped us write a more diverse album than we had been able to accomplish in the past!
Review Fix: What did you learn from this album?
Davis: I think we all learned a little more about functioning as a unit. This process wouldn’t have gone nearly as smooth, nor do I think we would have the final product we have today without all of us being as involved with every step as much as we were.
Review Fix: How do you think it stands up against the band’s other work?
Davis: I think that everyone in the band would agree that we are the most confident and proud of this album then we’ve ever been in any release in the past. We may not have reinvented metal music by any means, but we pushed ourselves to expand our band’s boundaries and get rid of restrictions we had given ourselves in the past. It’s been an extremely rewarding and exciting process releasing this album.
Review Fix: How was “The Void” written? Is there a story behind it?
Davis: This is actually the most negative song on the record, but in a way that’s self-reflective. It’s a about someone who lives with self-pity to a point where they lose everything and die alone because they pushed everyone away.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Davis: It was really just written as an angry outlet, but I hope it can be a reminder for some.
Review Fix:Â What are your goals for this album?
Davis: I would love to see this album reach some people who may not have heard us before or given us a chance in the past. Obviously, as every band that releases new music does, I also hope it helps bring bigger and more exciting tours our way!
Review Fix: How would you like it to be remembered?
Davis: I think we’d love to be remembered as band that has always kept true to ourselves. We’re not a band that has ever relied on gimmicks, and I hope that doesn’t go unnoticed. It’s about the music, bottom line.
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