Written by Robin Ervolina
Ashes of My Regrets is a five-part metalcore outfit from New Jersey. Don't be fooled by their baby faces. AOMR combines inspired arrangements, expert musicianship, and unbridled emotion, into their new EP Caricatures. I had a chance to listen to Caricatures and was super stoked to fire off a little Q&A with lead singer Chris Ferland.
Shockwave Magazine: Tell me how you five came together as a band.
Chris Ferland: To be honest we were all pretty much just best friends who loved the same style of music and happened to play different instruments so it kind of just came together. Brandon joined a little later after we parted ways with our original guitarist.
Caricatures released 11/4. Do you feel like there's an overall message or theme for this EP?
110% the message overall that we would like for this EP is really focused in the first single "Daydreams." That song focuses a lot on learning to love the rain and learning to just be happy even when things are going really bad. In your life you choose what to dwell on and you choose what to exaggerate, so you could dwell on everything terrible in your life or you can accept it and mold yourself a better future.
What led you to choose "Daydreams" as the first release?
One of the biggest reasons was personally we felt like it was one of if not the best song off the entire EP. It was the first to be finished and the song that captured a very strong message.
What was the filming of the "Daydreams" video like for you guys? Will we ever see Juan bang his head? How does he not? I'm banging my head right now.
It was a lot of fun to be honest. It took about five or six hours and we did about 12 takes I think in whole. We did like two or three for every shot. Haha, he definitely does at shows. To be honest, a big part of that was that when we were filming the video, the PA that we had was really hard for him to hear over his drums. So he was really focused and playing the parts right so the video didn’t look kind of weird.
Lately a lot of new bands have found success via viral video covers of popular non-metal genre tunes. Would you ever consider doing an unexpected cover, and if so, who/what song? If no, then let's say you have to cover either Garth Brooks or Cher? Which one of you would go into witness protection first?
We definitely would. I think when it comes to a song that we would cover it would probably depend on what has a lot of buzz around that time. I can’t even lie; my guilty pleasure has been "Closer" by the Chainsmokers, so I honestly would love to do a cover of that song. Oh god, that is such a painful question to answer. I think I would have to say Garth Brooks if I absolutely had to choose one.
Many bands employ two vocalists, one for dirty vocals and one for clean vocals. You cover both styles flawlessly. What's your "vocal care kit" to protect your instrument?
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. A lot of it I think has to do with making sure I warm up and cool down after every practice and every show. I steam my throat a lot in the morning and before I go to bed every single day which I think helps a lot too. It is one of the best things that you can do for your voice. Even when I was learning screaming, if it at any point it ever hurt I made sure to stop immediately and rest my voice for the day because there are a lot of screamers who will just pound their voice constantly with it hurting and destroy it.
My favorite song on the EP is "Fooled Me Twice, Now Pay The Price." It's personal to me, so I'm wondering if it's personal to you? What's the inspiration behind the song? Is there someone out there will hear this and think, "Oh shit, that's me?" Anything left unsaid in the song that you'd like to blast out to her now?
Oh yes. This song is actually about my ex-girlfriend who I was with for a couple years, and she ended up cheating on me when she went away to college. The whole thing was really fucked up and left me scarred for a long time. So if she ever listens to that song, I hope she knows it’s about her because I wrote the lyrics to this song in about 10 minutes, I was so fucked up from it. There definitely was a lot said, but pretty much she’s just completely irrelevant to me and honestly the lyrics to that song pretty much sums it up. I’m glad the song could relate to you. I definitely know what you’ve gone through.
Can we talk about the cover art for Caricatures? There are five reflections in the mirror, and five songs on the EP with lyrical content. Coincidence? What's the inspiration behind the art, and who is the artist?
Carol Aldrighi did the cover art. She has a company called Moonlover Visual Arts. She is extremely talented and we couldn’t be happier with how it came out. To be honest I didn’t realize that coincidence until now, but it definitely does work because what the mirrors are portraying are different parts of personality. In real life a caricature exaggerates a physical trait. We did a spin on it where it exaggerates human emotions. Anxiety, Depression, Betrayal etc etc.
Your press release states you put a "new spin on metalcore." What's your musical philosophy in that regard, and what is the song writing process for the tunes you bring to life?
The song writing in this case was actually different for every single song, to be honest. Every single one kind of has its own story. For example "Daydreams" was actually a lot different in the beginning, but when we were recording we changed it up a lot. I remember locking myself in the vocal booth for like two hours trying to get the lyrics and melodies perfect. Brandon and I wrote most of that song at my house. "I’ll Be Damned" started as a live intro I was making, but Juan and I kind of revamped the intro and made it into the start of the song, and most of it was written on tour. Mostly though the writing process consists of Brandon and I working on the instrumentals together, and then me going over the song after the fact and writing the lyrics and melodies over it .
What are your tour plans? Where can we catch you on the road?
As of right now were booking a tour at the end of this year in the Midwest. However in 2017 our plans are to just hit touring as hard as possible.
I love this EP so much. First time I've downloaded to review AND pre-ordered in the same hour. Kudos, guys! Hope to catch you soon.
Thank you so much for all of the support man, it seriously means the absolute world to us.
Make sure you click on the links for Ashes of My Regrets to follow their social media and stay up to date If you haven't already downloaded Caricatures, that link is provided for you as well because you need this music in your life.
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