Winterstate - Empires (w/Interview)
Winterstate is an alternative rock band formed by musicians Kelvin Killmon and Alex Ortberg. The group has an interesting backstory with Kelvin and Alex both growing up in Minnesota but not having met until attending Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain, where they began working on music together. These days, Alex lives in Minnesota and Kelvin in Seattle, so the group spends a great deal of their collaboration working long-distance, with the group’s name coming from living in cold weather states. Today we have the opportunity to share our interview with Winterstate’s Kelvin and Alex as well as a write-up about our pre-release listen to their upcoming single, “Empires”, which is due out on September 25, 2020.
In “Empires”, I hear a lot of my favorite genres mixed together with elements of Emo and a straight-up alternative vibe standing as the most prevalent. Vocally, the song offers a great deal of power and heart. The concept video for “Empires” is a perfect compliment to the song, providing an excellent visualization of the lyrics as the viewer is guided through a ravaged world with encouragements of “fight for a brand new day” and “don’t wait for tomorrow”, a poignant and painfully relevant - yet still hopeful - call to action. The percussion on the song also stood out to me, having done an excellent job of driving the rhythm section while providing the song with some extra punch and energy, especially in the verses. Overall, the track does a great job of sending its message, both vocally and instrumentally.
Now let’s dive into our interview with Winterstate’s Kelvin and Alex!
1) What are some of your musical influences? In what ways do you feel like your influences find their way into your sound?
Kelvin: I’m a big fan of singers like Brandon Boyd, Maynard Keenan and Chino Moreno, who make some really bold melodic choices. It can be tricky to balance expectations and still include notes outside of the chords - or sometimes even outside of the key - that you know will go against the grain. If you do it just right, that mismatch can sound so dreamy and beautiful. But if you do it wrong… it’s a mess. Thankfully Alex is around to tell me when I’m taking things a little too far.
Alex: Some of my biggest influences when it comes to songwriting are Switchfoot, Anberlin, Paramore, Mae, The Classic Crime, and Angels & Airwaves. You'll hear it in the drum grooves, and you'll hear it in the guitar parts as well. Not only that, but a lot of times the arrangement ideas will share similarities with a lot of my favorite groups.
2) What is it like to live in separate states and make music together? Could you walk us through your basic songwriting and recording process?
Alex: It's difficult, because I would love to be in the same room writing a song together. I feel like that is the most organic way to make music. Unfortunately that's not the reality for us, so instead one of two things happen... either Kelvin writes a song on just acoustic with melody, and I put the rest of the band to it... or I write a complete song that includes everything except the vocals and lyrics and he covers that area of it. This all happens over the internet using Dropbox. Demos are sent back and forth, and ultimately all of the parts will make their way to me, I'll drop them all in pro tools and mix the song.
Kelvin: The one thing I would add is that the writing process can be a little funny on my end. Sometimes I have dreams where music is playing deafeningly loud. Parts of two of the songs on our upcoming record actually came to me while I was having those dreams. I just woke up, and wrote them down. Wish everything was that easy.
3) How has the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on your songwriting and recording process?
Alex: We are fortunate in that way... it hasn't! We would be recording in the same we are even if there was no COVID. So that has been really nice to not have to put this on hold. However, Kelvin was planning on coming to MN for the summer to get some of that more organic writing time as well as play shows. Obviously that didn't happen.
Kelvin: Right, that’s the silver lining of working long distance together - nothing really slows us down! Can’t wait to get back to playing live though…
4) The COVID-19 pandemic has put performing live on hold for a lot of artists. What are some challenges you face when trying to schedule performances/tours living so far apart? Do you have any future plans to tour once the pandemic is over with?
Kelvin: We’ll definitely be playing out a lot once this clears up, but in the meantime we’re just trying to do our part to keep everybody safe.
Alex: Yeah, shows are fairly non-existent while apart. Kelvin plays some solo shows and open mics in Seattle using our material sometimes, but since I'm not the lead singer, I don't have a chance to do anything here in MN. And yes, as soon as it's safe to travel again, I would love to get back to playing! Hopefully next summer concerts will be back to being at least somewhat normal, and we can play some shows!
5) “Empires” is your new single due out on September 25th. Is this going to be part of a new album or EP or is it a standalone release?
Alex: It is part of a new record! We've been working on this essentially since the last record "The Ride" came out. We're excited to show you these songs! They're a bit more refined than the last record, and the production value has definitely increased. There are anthemic fist pumpers, pop-y dance tracks, headbangers, and a few slower ones in there as well. Something for everyone!
6) Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/WinterstateBand, and our website is winterstateband.com. Find our music on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube! Our latest single, "Touch" is out now!
Thanks to Kelvin and Alex for the interview!
After speaking with Kelvin and Alex, I can even more easily tell where their musical influences find their way into their music (for example, the drums in “Empires” definitely reminded me of the power that Atom Willard provided while he was drumming in Angels & Airwaves). I also appreciated the insight into their song creation process, working in separate states certainly seems like a daunting task but these two do an excellent job of making it work. You can check out Winterstate’s music on Spotify, check out their website and Facebook for artist updates and information and their YouTube channel for music videos, live performances and more. Be sure to keep an eye out for that upcoming album!
One last note on “Empires” - I believe it is a truly powerful track that resonates both in today’s music landscape and in society as a whole. The track is truly exceptional and I cannot wait until you all get to hear it! “Empires” will be released on September 25, 2020. We have the YouTube premiere embedded below - make sure to save the link and check out the video when it premieres!
