Interview by Erin Eddy
British metalcore heavyweights Bury Tomorrow have just dropped their seventh studio album, aptly titled The Seventh Sun.
It was a mere two years ago that Bury Tomorrow were facing the prospect of calling it a day. Internal and external strife pushed the band to the brink of termination, however with gritted teeth and determination, the sextet pushed through and have emerged on the other side with a huge compilation of songs with The Seventh Sun.
Two new members, Tom Prendergast on keyboard and vocals and Ed Hartwell on guitar, have brought a fresh perspective and energy within the music, as well as being musicians of high technical caliber.
HEAVY was granted the opportunity to have Ed answer some questions pertaining to the new release, so please read on to get all the juicy information straight from the source!
EE: You’ve just released your seventh album, The Seventh Sun. This album is absolutely huge. How is the band feeling since the release?
Ed: We’re really blown away by the response! It’s a really great feeling to finally get music out that we finished recording almost exactly a year ago. That long of a build-up only ramped up the pressure, at least for me personally. We just finished a week of amazing release events in the UK where we did our best to meet as many people as possible and were astounded by the kindness we received from fans of the band about the new music/lineup.
The single Begin Again was the most recent single. Can you explain this song? Does it allude to recent changes within the band, or is it perhaps to do with coming out the other side of the pandemic, or am I well off track?
As a music writer in the band rather than a lyricist, I don’t want to speak for Dan or Tom too much, but I remember it being a demo which Tom started, and him and Dan met in the middle with their lyric writing. The lyrics are always open for interpretation if you can find a way to connect to it. I think it can be applied to many scenarios where wiping the slate clean and starting again is the best option, even if it’s a difficult thing to do.
Was there a particular message you wanted to portray by having Begin Again as the last of the singles to be released before unleashing the full album?
It’s a softer song, so it made sense for it to be a single, but we absolutely didn’t want to lead with it as one of the first releases because I think the real essence of the album is the heaviness, as shown in the previous singles.
When releasing singles leading up to an album drop, is there a formula on how you decide on the order in which the songs are released? Do you try to engage your listeners by selecting songs by specific topic, or feel?
We knew we wanted to lead with a bang and I think Abandon Us has a good mix of what new BT is all about, as a pretty heavy song. The singles and how they are released is discussed extensively, and we’re not always in agreement with the label or even each other at first, but ultimately we decide what we think works best for the timeline of the campaign. It’s important to showcase as much of a mix as possible, but you’ve also got to think about what translates well live, because a single is usually going to become a staple in the setlist, at least during this album’s touring cycle.
You collaborated with Loz of While She Sleeps on the track Heretic. How did that come about?
Our other guitarist Daws has known Loz for a very long time, as they’re from roughly the same area up north. The BT guys have been friends with While She Sleeps long before I joined the band as well and watched each other’s bands grow, so there’s just been this mutual respect between the two.
Daws floated the idea out to him somewhere in the tracking process and he was down. It really elevates the song and makes that 2nd verse pop in my opinion, particularly as his, Dan’s and Tom’s voices sound very different to one another.
The fact that he also travelled down to London and shot the music video with us in -5°C is a testament to the effort he put into this for us, and how much of a legend he is!
How do you decide if a song has space for a guest musician? Do you go in at the beginning of the songwriting process with that in mind, or is it something that manifests as the song is developing?
It’s absolutely a retrospective decision for us. Once we’d torn the demos apart and had the skeletons of the songs to build on, we could take a step back and decide how we could add to the album. I honestly can’t remember how we decided which song to have Loz on, just that we knew it would be a heavy song.
We also loved the idea of having a female voice on the album and the darkness of the closing track The Carcass King turned out to be perfect for Cody once she said she was keen to lend us her voice. She works with our producer Dan Weller, so it was a seamless introduction.
Did you and Loz work on the song together in person, or is that completely old school now?
His vocal part was tracked long after we were out of the studio, Daws went and met him and Sean (WSS, guitarist) at their studio in Sheffield, and they did it together there. Cody was also tracked separately after we were done, but none of us were physically present. However, we were able to listen in via something called Audiomovers, which basically meant that Dan Weller sent us all a link, and we could listen in to the studio session live while she tracked it. This was really cool, she had the lyrics but then improvised a lot of the melody, her voice is all over the song, whether as lead or a backing ambiance. We were able to throw our 2 cents in while she did that despite being hundreds of miles away from each other. They both absolutely nailed it.
The Seventh Sun is the first of your albums to feature yourself and Tom as new band members. How has the integration into Bury Tomorrow been, and has having fresh members brought about any changes to the songwriting and recording process for the band? Often new musical perspectives can really re-energise a band.
Personally it’s been incredibly rewarding to be involved in something musically creative past just playing guitar at home for myself, which is what I’d done for the past 7ish years with no real intention of being in a band again, to be honest.
When we were asked to fill in for Slam Dunk Festival (mine and Tom’s first shows) I genuinely wasn’t sure if I’d be able to still do it or if anxiety would get the better of me. I nearly said no, but it’s been reaffirming for my own confidence to be given these opportunities.
Previously Daws was the only person in the band who wrote music, so I think it’s been interesting for him to have Tom and I be able to bring demos we’ve written to the table. Ultimately it’s very collaborative when we get to the studio, I don’t think any of the songs were 100% completed structurally when we entered the studio, most of them were changed and added to when we were all together with Weller in the studio.
Ok, I’m going to get nerdy for a minute. I would love to know more about the album artwork for The Seventh Sun. I can recognise symbols of sacred geometry and of a spiritual nature. It’s a beautiful design that incorporates Metatron’s Cube, a Heptagram and the Eye of Providence. Then there’s an upturned crescent moon at the top that I’m unfamiliar with. Who designed this, and why did you choose such a design? (Get as deep as you want to with this, I love this stuff!)
The artwork was done by Daniel Martin Diaz, and it started with an idea of a 7-sided shape to coincide with the album being the 7th record and thus the name of the album. 7 represents the cyclical nature of there being 7 days in a week, and the sun also has this idea of a cycle as well, we all spin around it at all times, so it was kinda meant to represent this new sequence we find ourselves being a part of together in this band.
The inner artwork goes even deeper into the imagery and alludes to the universe as a whole and diagrams of evolution etc. I’d be lying if I said I fully understood his thought process, he went with the brief and we loved what he came back with, particularly after we decided on the oxidised copper colour scheme.
As this is your seventh album, and the title is The Seventh Sun, I thought I’d throw you a fun one. Seven is traditionally recognised, at least in Western culture, to be a lucky number. Are any of you superstitious and if so, what kind of rituals do you find yourself enacting due to your superstition?
I wouldn’t say I’m massively superstitious, but I have been in the habit of walking over 2 drains for good luck and avoiding 3 drains as they are unlucky ever since I was a kid. Honestly I don’t think I’ll ever not do that!
What plans do you have to tour in the wake of the release of The Seventh Sun, and more importantly, can we expect to see you out here in Australia any time soon?
We are going to Brazil for the first time in April, followed by our first USA headline tour in May this year. Doing some insane Europe festivals such as Rock Am Ring/Im Park as well. Very excited to say we’re also coming to your fine country in October of this year as well, so that’ll be amazing. Never been to Australia personally, so it’s a bit of a bucket list thing for me (minus the flight which I’m semi dreading!)
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! I wish you great success with this fantastic new record.
Thank you so much for your time and interest in what we’re doing!
