We recently sat down with Rivals prior to their debut album. Learn more below!
Erin Spencer/AltWire: There’s a lot of excitement around your upcoming debut album, what can fans expect?
Kalie Wolfe/Rivals: More music videos, lots of tours and plenty of hugs from us!
AltWire: How does Damned Soul Compare to your previous work?
Micket Woodle/Rivals: Maturity, us being a band for about 4 years now, actually as of December 20th its 4 years haha. We’ve just changed, we’ve written so much together at this point that I think we’ve started to really develop a sound. We wanted this Dark pop rock vibe and I really think we’ve accomplished it. Kept it colorful but also dark. Mix of our Metal and Pop backgrounds really well honestly.
AltWire: What was the album writing and recording process like for you? What did renowned producers John Espy and Aaron Edwards bring to the album?
Micket Woodle/Rivals: I wrote so many demos for this album, Kalie and I bounced ideas back and forth for some time before we even thought about recording at all. Like I’m talking 40-50 demos. Then Kalie met John Espy and it just kinda happened. We went into the studio with him and went through all the demos, chose about 15ish and started writing. Aaron came in a bit later and he took what we did with John and pushed it even farther. Aaron is really good at pushing you to do better, both of them wanted us to make this be the best thing we’ve all ever made in our lives so far and they did just that.
Kalie Wolfe/Rivals: Yeah John and Aaron were fantastic, they pushed us to points of emotional stress kind of to create something were just weren’t aware we could even make. I’m so thankful for them, if something wasn’t good, we’d get a “you can do better” and it was the honesty that they brought that pushed us to be the best we could be. We spent about 6 months with John and probably a year with Aaron. We really took our time on this album.
AltWire: Which bands or artists would you say are your biggest influences?
Katie Wolfe & Micket Woodle/Rivals: Bring Me The Horizon and 30 Seconds To Mars were the main influences on this record.
AltWire: Your cover of Twenty One Pilots Heathens got an extraordinary response, what was that like?
Kalie Wolfe/Rivals: It was weird, we’ve never in our lives had such a positive response to anything any of us have created. Plus Micket and I wrote/recorded that in like an hour, had it mixed in like a day and push the video out in a week. It was pretty crazy how quickly it all came together but were to thankful for what something as simple as a cover did for us. It really took us to the next level and opened us up to some new fans!
AltWire: You have been described as a Dark-Pop band, how accurately do you think represents your music? If not, how would you describe yourself?
Kalie Wolfe/Rivals: Its perfect like actually perfect haha, everyone else coming from metal and me coming from pop, its like exactly perfect. When someone first called us that, I got so excited cause it was the most beautiful description of us I’ve ever heard.
AltWire: Are you planning on touring after the release of the album? If so what can fans expect from your live show?
Micket Woodle/Rivals: We very much so are! We got some stuff to start the year you’ll hear about very soon! Energy, acrobats and just a good time!
AltWire: In 2014 you played on the prestigious Vans Warped Tour, what was your experience like?
Micket Woodle/Rivals: It was awesome! Hot but amazing. All the bands that were on the stage with us were very welcoming. Mainly Danger Kids, we parked next to the in the back and they were really nice and gave us tons of advice. As a band first starting it was good to hear some advice from people who had been at it for a little. They even watched our whole set which was really nice of them.
AltWire: You’ve toured with some great bands, but if you could tour with any band past or present who would it be?
Kalie Wolfe/Rivals: For me its You, Me, And Everyone We Know or Bring Me The Horizon.
AltWire: Is there anything you would like to say to your fans and our readers?
Kalie Wolfe/Rivals: Keep going. Also be sure to check our two new singles and pick up your preorder for Damned Soul out 2/2!
