Melbourne metalcore outfit Vatic are releasing their new single Dead End on Thursday, October 13.
Produced, mixed and mastered by Nick Sjogren (Thornhill), Dead End is the last single from the 8-track EP, out next Friday October 21. It steps away from the haunted house and its protagonist Chance on the move, as seen in the video. Hiding from the police from the safety of his car, he longs for the once traumatising visions from the all seeing mirror, and decides to return back to his house of torment.
HEAVY sent through a list of questions, which the band answered below.
HEAVY: What’s Dead End about?
VATIC: Dead End describes the life of our EP’s protagonist, Chance, outside of his haunted home at 217 East Mercer. He’s on the run from his past life, and perhaps beginning to long for that version of himself he’s lost. It describes some more grisly details of his murderous second life and his run from the police in his beat up sedan.
How was working with Nick Sjogren on the production?
Honestly, Nick is too good to us. He is a dream to work with. All of our ideas and direction is taken and refined into what we always wanted to achieve. Because of our long/close friendship with him we are able to really be ourselves and try a lot of different things without any judgement/concern. If it doesn’t work, we simply move on and try the next best idea
What horror characters/movies inspire the EP?
There’s so many! Most of us are huge horror fans, and we spent a few nights (weeks) during lockdown binging movies at night and writing throughout the day. Inspiration came from writers like Stephen King, HP Lovecraft and Thomas Harris. They have so many iconic characters like Jack Torrance and Hannibal Lecter to draw from. Movies and shows like Hill House, Hereditary, Red Dragon, The Ring and Insidious – just to name a few of our favourites. We also have a lot of love for those shitty budget horror movies that you’ve never heard of before, and after watching them you wish you never did hahaha
Was there intention behind the soundscapes heard on ‘Mercer 217’? What sounds informed or inspired the release?
The songs and soundscapes kind of form on their own, some songs sound bleak and some sound angry and we just build from there. Once the songs found their place in the story, we all worked together to create some really cool noises which was lots of fun to experiment with and create something more with this release than just sticking to our instruments.
If you could have had any artists feature on the EP, who would it be, why?
Working with someone like Jordan Fish from BMTH would be a dream and I’m sure we could create something really crazy together. Outside of the heavy umbrella we’d also love a Vatic and clipping. collaboration, or Vatic with Ben Howard. Can we/should we make those happen?
Will there be any surprises to look forward to at the show?
To answer that, I would have to say you’ll have to come and see for yourself on the 18th of November. We are all working really hard behind the scenes to create something special for this show, with some new ideas and ofcourse new music, that we are excited to set this show apart from the Vatic sets you’ve seen in the past. If you have never seen Vatic before, it is going to be an incredible evening and the perfect opportunity to change that.
Check out the HEAVY premiere of Dead End below.
