Interview with Ryan Adams on INANIMENT's upcoming release of 'Ambivalent'.

I got the opportunity to do an interview with Ryan Adams from INANIMENT, focusing on their new release dropping on 11/18/19. Being able to pick someone's brain about something before it comes out is a great thing, and I hope you guys enjoy some of the insight that this gives the listeners. If you think that INANIMENT sounds familiar, they were featured on Heavy Vibe a while ago in this post: COVER LIKE NO OTHER- INANIMENT - YOU SHOULD SEE ME IN A CROWN. Just a small sentence about who they are; INANIMENT is a Prog Metalcore band based out of Reno, Nevada. With this upcoming release gaining a bunch of traction lot only with their previous fans, but with new people discovering this band every day. Long story shortened into condensed milk- it's going to be a knockout karate kick to the teeth of a release. I was bestowed the ability to preview the music video before it was released, and I am pretty happy- so I'm sure you will be too.



For the people who don't know, explain your release and what 'Ambivalent' is going to be about!

We are dropping a new single called Ambivalent; the track sort of follows this thought process of watching someone you care for and have a lot of love for, turn into someone you despise. In this particular situation, we are talking about someone's addiction and letting that addiction take the reigns. This song comes from a very angry and hurt state of mind, it doesn't hold back in the sense of sparing someone's feelings due to them having an addiction, and it`s written with the idea of writing a farewell letter to this person after they have passed away.

What would you say was the hardest part of the creation of this release?
I think the hardest part was putting the feelings to words. It`s a very emotional song so trying to find the words that matched that extreme feeling of hurt wasn't easy. Luke and I sat down a few times and just talked about the things that had happened through the years regarding this person; and through my stories, he was able to put together something that really put the emotions into perspective for the listener. We wanted the person listening to feel the hurt and anger, and Luke did an amazing job doing so.

What were some of the musical influences for it?

Well first off, Kingdom of Giants is a very obvious influence on this song in particular. Dana tends to be very raw about his trials in life, Ambivalent portrays that very well. Polaris was also a large influence on this song; they have a lot of energy in their songs and something they are very good at is keeping that energy moving forward. That is something we sort of wanted to emulate. Aside from the feeling we wanted the energy to be a separate thing that continues to build throughout the song. Last, Currents was also a big influence on how the song was structured. The direction that we chose instrumentally has a lot of influence in their realm.

What was your favorite part about creating this?

Personally, for me, this was a song that I had asked the band to do for a while. I looked at this opportunity as a way to not only get a message across but it was also a way for me to come to terms with the past and cope with the situation that ensued. So I guess my favorite part about writing this was being able to put my feelings to rest while also attempting to show others that they are not alone. I think as a band the best part about creating this was really putting our chops to the test. The four of us have never written anything together as this group so it was really interesting seeing everyone work together to create something that was unique to our name and our style. Everything before our Billie Eilish cover was written by Luke and Robert. Billy and I didn't join the band until our first EP was in its recording stage.

Did you guys have any conflicting ideas? How did you work through it?

As far as the end goal, we all went into this process with the understanding that it would be about this particular turn of events. Other than that we were all really open to each other's portrayal on how certain parts should sound and how we should piece certain parts together. All in all, it was a very easy process for us in terms of putting things together and working towards an end goal that everyone was happy with and invested in. We all come from different musical backgrounds and we were all able to put a little bit of our own spin on things.

Anything you want to tell the people?
Ambivalent is a very emotionally strong song; it doesn't hold back and it is a message to those who have been through or are currently struggling with loved ones losing a fight to an addiction. It is a reminder that it's okay to feel upset, it's okay to feel angry, and it's okay to lose sympathy for someone in this situation. Someone else's addiction is not your fault and you cannot help someone who refuses to help themselves. Personally, I want to thank my band for allowing me to do this and pour these feelings into something that could help someone else and to anyone that is struggling with this issue. I can only hope that Ambivalent helps you know that you're not on your own.