Sydney punk outfit Whatever, Forever are daring to do what is almost taboo in their chosen genre, electing to explore outside of their comfort zone with their upcoming EP Slowly Dying With You, which will be released on October 29.
Since rebranding themselves as a three piece, Whatever, Forever have also refined their sound to a more complex beast than before, solidifying their existing sound by bringing in and exploring new elements.
These elements come to the fore on Slowly Dying With You, with guitarist/vocalist Chas Levi joining HEAVY to chat about their latest release.
We start by pointing out the obviously dark undertones suggested by the album title.
“Yeah, man,” Levi laughed. “It’s a bit of a morbid release to be honest with you. It’s something that maybe in the past we would have tried to look past and find other ways to talk about it and explain it, but… pretty much on the surface and all the way through it, it’s pretty morbid. It’s a full on EP, I’m not gonna lie about it. It’s music. It can be what it can be.”
With the shift in musical direction sure to become a talking point, levi is quick to stress that any changes have been ratified with the music’s best interest at heart, rather than change for the sake of change.
“For us it was quite an immense change and a huge step in terms of style and almost the genre in itself as well,” he explained. “We definitely were looking to have a change but it was somewhere we really wanted to be, I guess. We’ve all – subconsciously at first – fell into the same boat with what we wanted and liked and saw ourselves doing and it was in many ways lighter but in many other ways quite heavier if that makes sense. i guess a lot of the instruments kept its integrity but almost went a bit wider. Instead of it being rhythmic and fast and punchy we went for a bit more of a wider, deeper heavy, I guess, if you were to use the word heavy to describe the music. It changed what way we portray heavy.”
In the full interview, Chas talks about the band’s goals going into the EP, two of the members other band Justice For The Damned and what different things musically they get from each, changes in vocal pattern and delivery, how the band’s vision has changed over the years, surviving COVID, future plans and more.
