Review Fix Exclusive: Windrunner’s Trung Ton Talks ‘Mai’ And More

Review Fix chats with Windrunner’s Trung Ton, who discusses the band’s new album, “Mai,” as well as their origins and goals for 2018.

Review Fix: How did the band form?

Trung Ton: We were in two different bands a few years back, and when they broke up at the same time we decided to join forces and WINDRUNNER happened, things kind of fell into place on their own. We actually have known each other and played in bands together long before that so it was like a family reunion, everything was very smooth and organic.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Ton: Probably like many other bands, it was just the urge of wanting to create and play our own original music. We all listen to it constantly, and we follow multiple artists and genres from all over the world, so this too, was some sort of natural progression. From listening to it, to creating it.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Ton: Usually one person will come up with something and we work together to build upon that. It’s pretty natural and really based around the melodies, either from the vocals or instruments. We try to not overthink it too much, and prefer working around vocals and melodic parts, then building from that, rather than forcing those into something we’ve already created.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Ton: As for the lyrics, just life in general. We talk about our own personal experiences or how we see different things, or approach them and go through them differently, in life -both subjects we tackled in our album MAI. For the music, it’s pretty much a mix of everything as we listen to all kinds of music. You can find Metalcore, Djent, Progressive and even some soul/RnB mixed into it.

Review Fix: What makes this album special?

Ton: We believe we’ve tried to incorporate a lot of different elements to add to the “Metalcore” sound, such as the ambient sounds, the synths, the traditional instruments. Our vocalist also has a more raw kind of scream and we think that adds more emotions to it -we’ve been told it feels more real and heartfelt-, also her cleans are beautiful. Lyrically, we also talk about some topics that might be less familiar with the Western scene such as Vietnamese traditions, or ancestral worshiping. Also our lyrics were written from our point of view based on our own culture so they’re probably somewhat different as well than what you would usually expect to hear in this genre.

Review Fix: What’s the standout track?

Ton: Oh man, that’s a tough one. I don’t think we could pick just one, so let’s say that our favorites would be Mai, Rose, and Sakura. All very different among each other, but they encapsulate our sound the best, probably: heavy, melodic, and infused with Asian melodies and instruments.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Ton: It’s a pretty hard question as we believe every song is different, but we’ve used this line before “Melodic groove from Hanoi,” so maybe something along those lines? We have the heavy, we have the melodies, we have the groove, so why not?

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Ton: Probably you will be able to feel a lot more of that emotion and energy in our live shows, because it’s always easier to connect with each other face to face than through a pair of headphones or speakers. We make sure to give it our all, and have the crowd as involved as possible.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2018?

Ton: We’re gonna do few album release shows around Vietnam and hopefully tour around the region to promote the album. Considering it’s 2019 at this point, we also want to focus on even more shows, expand our reach a bit and head out to countries and cities we haven’t seen before, while always working on new music.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Ton: We hope to expand and bring our music to a lot more people around the world. We’ve already started writing for the next album and experimenting with some new ideas, and we look forward to listening to what people have to say about “MAI” see how we can improve our music.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Ton: Our new album “MAI” is out now on Famined Records and the response has been amazing in such a short amount of time. We have poured our hearts and souls into this album and we hope you feel that, too. Thanks to everyone who has supported us and we hope that you will continue to help us move forward, so if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard so far, keep spreading the word and the love.