Underoath 'Lost In The Sound of Separation' album

“Desperate Times, Desperate Measures”--the fast-paced first single off Underoath’s upcoming CD Lost In The Sound of Separation (out September 2 ) is now streaming live on their MusicRemedy page. The Florida sextet -- lead vocalist SPENCER CHAMBERLAIN, guitarist TIM MCTAGUE, bassist GRANT BRANDELL, drummer AARON GILLESPIE, keyboardist CHRIS DUDLEY and guitarist JAMES SMITH--shot a video for the track last week in Los Angeles with director Walter Robot (Modest Mouse’s “Missed the Boat”).

Fans can now pre-order the double-disc special edition of LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION--which includes a 40-minute making-of DVD with never before seen footage and interviews with the band, Adam D., Matt Goldman and mixer David Bendeth--via: http://underoathmerch.com/. In addition, a variety of special packages are available, including a cloth-bound deluxe edition box set with two ten-inch colored heavy-gram saw blade die-cut vinyls, the LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION CD, the DVD, a 56-page cloth covered/bound book wrapped in a 4” belly band. Each deluxe edition package is hand-numbered and autographed by every member of the group. Some packages also come with special edition t-shirts.

When fans order directly from UnderoathMerch.com, they'll have the opportunity to win exciting prizes from the band: 1) a five-piece Truth Custom Drums Aaron Gillespie signature drum kit which also includes a set of Meinl cymbals, 2) a First Act guitar, 3) a custom-designed, hand-painted suitcase from artist Justin Nelson of Verdure Studio which will include the limited edition UNDEROATH box set, poster, T-shirt, limited edition hoodie, as well as a drum head that was used during the recording of Lost In The Sound Of Separation. Only 10 of these special packages will be made; the other 9 will be available soon at UnderoathMerch.com.

Produced by Adam D., Matt Goldman and UNDEROATH, LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION--their fourth studio album--is beginning to receive early critical acclaim. Check out the five-out-of-five star lead CD review out now in the August issue of Alternative Press magazine:

“...The ‘sing-scream-harmonize-repeat’ subgenre that’s dominated the scene in recent years is played out. Odds are that Underoath will be the first six people to tell you this, which is why they’ve made an enormous effort to put an ocean’s distance between 2004’s overtly poppy (and semi-generic) breakthrough album They’re Only Chasing Safety and the music they are making today. If one listen to 2006’s jarring Define the Great Line didn’t prove this spiritualized sextet were bent on progressing, LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION will surely prove to the world-at least those who listen to their gospel-that Underoath are one of the most powerful, passionate and creative bands in heavy music today.

Separation legitimately feels like the band listened to Line, made note of the very few places they could trim some fat and then decided to one-up themselves across the board. LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION is truly 2008’s first perfect record, which is made all the more fascinating when it’s realized that it was created out of the mistakes, shortcomings and misgivings of its members from throughout the past two years. Once again, Underoath have elevated themselves to a level of their own.”

Underoath Interview
The summer of 2008 was pretty good for Underoath. "The Slipknot tour was the most fun summer tour that we've ever done," exclaims vocalist Spencer Chamberlain. "At the end, it wasn't like saying goodbye to a few close friends. We had to say it to everybody! Everyone was just so friendly. There were no egos or weirdness. It was such a good time!" Chamberlain and his band mates are in good spirits right now. Backstage preparing for a record release show in New York in support of Lost In the Sound of Separation, Chamberlain relaxes. He deserves the time to reflect. Lost is Underoath's follow-up to 2006's massively successful Define the Great Line. Define saw the band blow up during the summer of 2006, but it wasn't without its pressures and problems. The band was driven to the brink, fraught with inner tension. Nevertheless, they persevered, and they've arisen with their best album yet. Chamberlain talked to ARTISTdirect about getting Lost In the Sound of Separation and much more.

Lost feels like a darker album than Define the Great Line was. Do you feel like that's the direction that you went in? It feels like everything got a little bit heavier and a little more extreme.

Yeah, I totally think it sounds that way. It was a natural progression when we were writing. We pushed each other pretty hard-trying out new time signatures. We were just open-minded. We pushed each other by writing things that maybe a couple of the dudes couldn't even play right off the bat. That's what writing is about for us-pushing each other as friends and musicians and having fun while we're doing it. We just had a great time writing it. It was fun.

Do you feel like you experimented a bit more? There are a lot more textures coming in on that one too.

Absolutely, as a musician you don't want to put out the same record over and over again. You want to expand in every direction. It got heavier, and there are so many different time signatures that we tried out. Even on the experimental side-like the effects, different keyboard parts and just everything on the album-we felt like we needed to do what bands used to do, which is write an album. Every song had to be in the right place. Everything's cohesive within the framework of the album, even towards the end, when everything is really slow. A lot of people just download songs, and when they hear the one song, they're like, "That's not really Underoath." But it is Underoath. We want to get people to understand that this is an album not a bunch of singles. We obviously don't write singles, but most bands do nowadays. We want to take it back to the days of Pink Floyd. I'm not comparing us to them by any means because they're an amazing band, but they would approach a record as a full album. Even though our album is not necessarily a concept album, everything is in its right place and part of a thought-out process.

Underoath are like heavy music's Radiohead. Define the Great Line is like your OK Computer. It's the record that really brought you to the mainstream audience, and Lost is like your Kid A.

Dude, that's a huge compliment to me. You have no idea. They're definitely my favorite band of all time and probably a lot of the other dudes' in the band too. They've been my all time favorite band from the first time I heard them until now. Every album is right for me as I'm growing and experimenting with music and different things. I can't think of a band that does it any better than them.

Within the landscape of each song, it sounds like anything is possible. Would you say that's the case?

Totally. We didn't really talk about what we wanted to make. We just started making it. After the last two records, we realized that we didn't want to be pigeonholed in just one category or anything. Underoath is always going to be a heavy band forever. However, we want to be able to experiment and push walls down. We want to go as far as we can go in any direction without worrying about what people are going to think. We don't think about anything. We just try to write the best songs possible that we all enjoy writing and playing. We don't think about management, labels, or even like the fans. Not to be a jerk, that's not really our concern when we're writing. When you're writing with those things in mind, your writing becomes diluted. That's not really what we want to do. This is our most honest album. Musically and lyrically, there isn't really anything holding us back.

Where are you coming from lyrically on this album? It feels different from the last album.

A little bit, yeah. It's kind of like the last two years of my life in a little package [Laughs].

It seems like it was quite a journey for you to go through and explicate that on the record.

Absolutely. With every record you should be doing something that you weren't necessarily able to do before. There's always room to grow. With that mindset, it allows you to do that. People can see that with everyone in the band. You've always got to push yourself or there's no point. We just try to tie it all together in the right order. It was definitely a thought-out process for sure.

Did you come up with one concept for the entire album?

It's not per-se a concept record. There is a maturity to it. There's somewhat of a timeline of occurrences there. I just feel like every song, either lyrically or musically, makes its own concept. The way that it's laid out and how it plays out is the way it should be listened to in that order. That's why we put it in that order.

Lyrically, do you have a lot of stuff just written or did you just write to all the music?

It's actually never the case of writing to a song. I'm just writing all the time, and then it just happens. Things will work out. Sometimes there's a lyric I wrote the same week we wrote a song or a lyric from years before, but I always take it and make it work. Sometimes you have to take out some pieces and add others, but it ends up working out well.

With how vivid your lyrics are, have you ever thought of writing poetry or a book?

I've thought about it. I'm a writer and I've been writing my entire life. I really enjoy doing it. There's nothing that I like better. I probably would be doing that if I weren't a musician. At the same time, I feel like I can express things better in a song.

You're definitely telling stories, but at the same time, everything seems open to interpretation.

That's what I'm hoping for. I'm writing about things in my life, but people can apply it to their own lives and adapt it. Hopefully, I can be a little hope for some people so they don't have to live through what I've lived through.

Where did the title come from?

The title is actually a lyric from one of the songs, and it just felt pretty cohesive with the whole record. It's a long story, but going through certain situations, you have your friends telling you what to do, your parents telling you what to do and your T.V. telling you what to do. In our lives, we have what we feel is a God telling us what to do. Then there's that selfish act of what you want to do yourself, and that's being "Lost in the sound of separation"-trying to separate all that noise. At a certain point, you can't defer to one or the other. It's that question of, "Who are you as a man and who do you really want to be as a man?" It's about having to filter through all that stuff.

We're all looking for that balance in some way.

I think it's a title that everyone can somewhat relate to whether they're Christian or not-or even if they believe in anything or not.

The record's going to make people think.

That'd be nice. I just want people to buy it and hear it. I want them to read the lyrics, look at the artwork and packaging. I want them to take it all in.

Would you ever want to create some visual component to go along with the album?

We've talked about recreating another Wall. We always have these ideas, but half the time, they never get to happen. Maybe one day?

Somebody's got to do it. Regardless, you gave the fans something to ruminate on for now.

I'm hoping it registers, man. We'll see. I'm not really counting on it registering with people, but I hope so. I don't know if people have the patience anymore.

biography
As the final notes ring out on LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION, it’s evident that the six men of Tampa, FL-based UNDEROATH--who’ve built their career on being both heavy and experimental--have delivered their most ambitious and accomplished disc to date. Succinct and resolute, there’s little denying that the 43-minute, 11-track follow-up to 2006’s rapturously received and gold-certified Define The Great Line is a hard music masterpiece.

UNDEROATH–whose last three albums count combined sales in excess of one million copies–has worked diligently to reach this creative apex while building what may be the biggest metalcore following in the world. Through incessant touring and with a reputation for unrelentingly intense live shows—chronicled to perfection on the 2008 concert disc and DVD Survive, Kaleidoscope--the band has forged an unbreakable bond with its fans.

That allegiance earned the group a startling #2 debut for Define The Great Line on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart for first week sales exceeding 98,000 copies and marking the highest chart debut for a Tooth & Nail artist. On top of that, the band earned a Grammy nomination for “Best Short Form Music Video” for the surrealistic video for the album’s lead single “Writing On The Walls.” Critical acclaim for its thrilling mix of mayhem and melody, catharsis and experimentation came from both music and mainstream press alike. Alternative Press called the album “transcendent.” The Los Angeles Times took note of how “the album delves into new sonic territory, exploring phasing and untried guitar sounds...” And USA Today was unbridled in its praise of how “...singer Spencer Chamberlain howls against jagged riffs and rhythms that shift so suddenly he sounds like he’s walking an active fault line.”

Those same dedicated fans and enlightened scribes will undoubtedly embrace LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION based on audience reaction to the new material on UO’s summer 2008 trek headlining the Hot Topic stage on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour, alongside the likes of Slipknot, Disturbed and Mastodon.

***

Inside the cinder block exterior of a non-descript, Northern New Jersey industrial park, the six men of UNDEROATH has congregated at House of Loud Studios for the final playback of the album. And as LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION unfolds, the band is clearly elated.

“Breathing In A New Mentality” launches the record with an ingenious false start that ultimately gives way to an innovative ferocity. Beyond exceptional, it’s a breathtaking, brain-rattling affirmation that UNDEROATH--AARON GILLESPIE, TIM MCTAGUE, SPENCER CHAMBERLAIN, GRANT BRANDELL, CHRIS DUDLEY and JAMES SMITH--have taken a huge creative step forward. By trusting their instincts, pushing their songcraft to the limit and meticulously perfecting it with Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage) and Matt Goldman (Copeland, The Chariot), the producers of its aforementioned, gold-certified 2006 disc, the band has soared to new artistic heights.

“We wanted someone to hear it and have a first impression like, ‘Man they must have cut a lot of corners’,” guitarist MCTAGUE explains of the disc-opener. “And then it kicks in and your entire car, like, blows up. We wanted to come out, blow them away. Just shut people up. And in doing that, we’ve made the beginning of the record very memorable.”

The song also takes a subtle cue from Led Zeppelin, according to drummer AARON GILLESPIE. “It reminds me of John Bonham, when he would go in and record the drums on one side and then go back and record it all again. I wanted to bite off of that a little bit. If you listen to it with headphones, it really makes a statement. And then, when Spencer starts singing, it all comes together.”

If CHAMBERLAIN’s distinctly coarse vocals put a focus on new beginnings via sentiments like “Let me start again,” the sextet’s tense delivery is underpinned by intrinsic melodic guitar lines that continue to further distance UNDEROATH from the metalcore pack. When the blistering, forceful “Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home” takes over, the collective roar is heightened by SPENCER’s throaty proclamation: “Oh how the plot thickens!”

“I really like that vocal line,” MCTAGUE says enthusiastically. “Plus I think that’s one of the best musical pieces that we’ve ever done, in that each part introduces another unique part.” Living up to that lyrical promise, the dichotomy of “A Faultline A Fault Of Mine” follows, balancing CHAMBERLAIN’s abrasive voice with GILLESPIE’s lucid delivery. “That song progressed naturally,” SPENCER explains. “And it felt right. There were a few times on this record where I said to Aaron, why don’t we try to switch off of each other?”

So while scathing song-beasts like “Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near” or “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures, the maniacally sonic catharsis of “The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed” and the invigoratingly brutal “We Are The Involuntary” all live up to UNDEROATH’s reputation as the world’s pre-eminent metalcore troupe, material like “The Created Void” offers a melodic reprieve.

“Naturally we’re a heavy band and we want to put our best foot forward in that respect,” MCTAGUE says. “I love The Created Void,’ one of the most melodic songs we’ve ever done. But the bottom line is everything sounds the way it does on the record because we agreed that’s how it should sound, whether it’s heavy or melodic.”

“We’ve had to work hard at being open-minded about our own art and let it flow naturally, MCTAGUE continues. We love melodies, but our instincts usually go in the other direction. Anyone familiar with our band knows that Aaron is a big lover of melodies and I think he’s a huge reason why certain songs sound the way they do. But we definitely proceed with caution to ensure that we’re being true to Underoath.”

“We all love a ton of different music,” GILLESPIE adds. “That’s what makes Underoath what it is. Regardless of whether it’s Spencer singing or me here and there, Underoath is the sum of its parts. And at this point, if one guy were to leave, we’d suffer greatly.”

Defying the band’s patented approach, the uplifting “Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear” is a beautiful, near-ballad lighter destined to become a fan favorite.

“I originally wrote the music without intending it to be a quote-unquote accessible song,” MCTAGUE says of the memorable soundscape. “It was a slow paced, slowed down jam-out song. We were actually out to dinner one day out by our practice space and Aaron pulled out his iPhone and he was thinking about that song and he said, ‘I wrote these lyrics’. And what he wrote was so meaningful. It was this huge statement.”

Citing the lyric “Good God if your song leaves our lips/if your work leaves our hands/then we will be wonders and vagabonds,” the guitarist continues, “Our band has always been this Christian band and we’ve always been open about what we believe in, but there comes a certain point where a lot of the messages in our songs are very ambiguous. And that was so bold and straight up, talking about how we’re all people but without purpose we can feel lost.”

Yet with such a diverse musical display coupled with the input of six opinionated souls, the completion of LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION--thanks in part to the skilled mixing hand of rock veteran David Bendeth--is an epic achievement. “We laboriously toiled over this record,” GILLESPIE admits. “Even when we’re in the studio, I don’t know if we’re all ever totally happy. There’s constant change until we’re done. I think we should always push ourselves to make the best music imaginable.”

To call the men of UNDEROATH perfectionists wouldn’t be far from the truth. “The writing process, when it’s fresh and spontaneous and ideas are flowing, is great,” Tim says. “But the initial excitement is pretty short lived, followed up with a lot of scrutiny. It can be intense. Getting six people on the same page is virtually impossible. But without that input and criticism from everyone to serve as a filter, I don’t think we could ever come up with the same songs. It’s a really hard thing to deal with, but it’s a very, very valid thing. That’s also the only way we know how to write as a band.”

For principal lyricist CHAMBERLAIN, who penned the bulk of the disc’s revelations, the singer truly embraces his craft. “I’m the kind of guy who is always writing, whether it will end up being on a record or not,” he explains. “Writing in a book about yourself can be therapeutic. Having met a lot of people over the two years since Define The Great Line, it’s been really interesting to see how our fans can relate to some of the things I’ve been writing about.”

Perhaps most notable of all the lyrics is the heartfelt sonnet that closes out LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION. At first stark, the largely instrumental, and keyboard-steered “Desolate Earth: The End Is Near”--initially imagined by Chris Dudley-- possesses a cold atmospheric feel until a cello elevates it. Shifting into a vibrant crescendo of MCTAGUE and SMITH’s guitars, BRANDELL’s bass and GILLESPIE’s drums, CHAMBERLAIN sings:

“...You said there was nothing left down here
Well I roamed around the wasteland
And I swear I found something
I found hope, I found God
I found the dreams of the believers
...Oh God, Save Us All”

“When we got done, that song made me feel a certain way,” SPENCER says. “I just wrote something down and put the mic down a hallway--because I wanted it to have a feeling of despair. Originally we were going to put it in the beginning but it feels right at the end.”

“It gave such a strong closure to the record,” TIM adds. “Being lost, searching for answers and finding hope, we really felt like it summed up the whole record.” If it’s arguably the most artful moment in metalcore to date, it’s the kind of unique statement that explains how inspirational UNDEROATH has been to its fans and vice versa.

“It’s really cool that people accept it and I don’t know why because this is just as therapeutic as it is for us as it is for anybody else,” says GILLESPIE, beaming with pride over what he and his bandmates have crafted with LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION. “I hope they find healing and some way in life and truth. I hope that for this or any record that I’m ever a part of.”

meet the band
Aaron Gillespie – Drums/Vocals
Tim McTague – Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals
Spencer Chamberlain – Vocals/Guitar
James Smith – Rhythm Guitar
Christopher Dudley – Keyboards/Synthesizers
Grant Brandell – Bass

discography
THE CHANGING OF TIMES (2002)
THEY’RE ONLY CHASING SAFETY (2004)
DEFINE THE GREAT LINE (2006)
777 (2007)
SURVIVE, KALEIDOSCOPE [LIVE ALBUM/DVD SET] (2008)
LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION (2008)

Do you also would like to share your opinion? If so, please register or login here.

Details

Popular Songs

New Songs

Underoath - Lost In The Sound of Separation