Following up after 2015’s “Little Creatures” the band recorded their new album in a whirlwind of two week. Jason flew into Chicago from Toronto, while John and Joe drove up from Kansas City, Missouri to meet up with Chris Metcalf. It had been almost 2 years since they had all seen each other. They had 2 days over the next 14 to learn and craft the songs from the the demos Jason had been passing back and forth earlier that spring. What follows is Vast Robot Armies strongest effort to date. The track ‘Mahovolich’ comes across as one of their most straight ahead rock band compositions. Loud pounding drums, crunchy guitars, and the vocals breaking through the overdrive. But hidden behind the rock configuration is a song filled with brilliant melodies, and skyscraping ambition. A true testament to chemistry found on their new record. The album ‘Dinner Music’ is out this Friday.
From the band: When I think about writing the song Mahovolich, I can recall thinking “This is going to be a divisive song” It came about in a really simple fashion. The song was born from the verse riff, which is a repetitive staccato groove that eventually transitions into soaring legato bassline chorus.
It came together really fast and I recall at the time I was attempting to write something “simple” but impactful. The challenge with simple songs, is sometimes it can be too simple and have nothing for the listener to latch onto. A good groove/vibe can only go so far. There needs be a transition or anchor point to carry the listener through.
What dialed everyone in, was our drummer Chris Metcalf. This was his favorite demo I sent him. As soon as we arrived in Chicago he was going off about Mahovolich. He said he’d been thinking of ways to really take the drum part over the top, and wanted to make sure it got special treatment. He went so far as to incorporate a double kick pedal to craft the chorus fills to have a lower feel than just applying the fill to the toms. I was impressed with his drive to make this song special. As a result that was the glue that pulled all the divisive factions together and bring together into the song it is.
