Void of Vision have teamed up with Jacob Charlton from Thornhill in a musical union that provides a fresh spin on the previously released Void of Vision song “Year of the Rat”.
Rather than allow 2020 to become a complete waste the respective vocalists began collaborating on several ideas throughout the year, with this being the first to see the light of day.
Void of Vision’s Jack Bergin and Thornhill’s Jacob Charlton sat down with HEAVY during the week to discuss the single and other things emanating from their respective camps.
“The song came about…” Bergin began, “… we did this whole idea of who we would like to see on this track in particular and Jacob came to mind instantly because it’s got that kind of sail away/dreamy, ambient chorus. We wanted it on the initial album but it’s so cool to finally be working together. We’ve been working on a lot of creative aspects over 2020 but it was really cool to do something in our already own creative bands worlds collectively as opposed to something new.”
“It’s the biggest track of vocals already established on the album,” Charlton added, “so it was pretty fun to have a go on something that already had the vocal parts.”
Although initial plans saw the new version follow the original more closely, by the end of the sessions both parties found this version of “Year of the Rat” had changed considerably.
“A lot more than we initially expected,” Bergin laughed. “Initially I just had Jacob on the choruses and then a few back and forth kind of heavier sections but we ended up cutting out literally all of the heavy sections and subbed it out for a bit of free reign for Jacobs parts so he got to do a bit of ad-libbing and got to chuck in a bit of stuff where half of it had no clean vocals to begin with so he really stepped up creatively and killed it. He took it into his own and now the track is definitely a Void of Vision and Jacob track but it’s definitely something that we are proud of.”
“I think originally it was just gonna be me and the choruses,” Charlton continued, “and I called him (Bergin) and said how would you feel about me maybe doing a bit more and scrapping everything and starting it again keeping just the choruses and see where I end up. We went from there and started changing parts and getting into more detail with the sections. It was really fun to really have a crack at something that isn’t mine and try to put my own creative flair on it so it was a sick experience.”
In the full interview, the guys chat about the video and it’s violent tendencies, filming the fight scenes and what injuries resulted, other things the pair have been working on and more.
Watch “Year of the Rat” featuring Jacob Charlton below:
