5 Questions With... is your chance to get to know a new or up-and-coming band. Surgeon are a Philadelphia based progressive metal group whose latest album is Chemical Reign. Vocalist/bassist Sean Bolton introduces us to his band.
Give us a brief history of Surgeon.
Lid (Lydia Giordano, guitar) and I have been rocking together since high school. We were in a couple of bands together, one of which was a three piece punky/thrash band. Later, with the addition of a second guitarist, Surgeon formed. We recorded a record with Steve Albini that was more of a lo-fi heavy/prog rock album. Our current lineup is the future. We are bit quirkier and heavier, and super excited for what the future holds for Surgeon.
Describe the songwriting and recording process for Chemical Reign.
The song writing process was pretty organic. We always try different ways and approaches when it comes to writing music and by the time the song is done it's really hard to remember how it started. One thing Lydia did a lot of was to layer multiple guitar tracks over each other until she's created an almost symphonic wall of sound. We then took that and translated it into a four piece band setting.
How did you style/sound evolve from your debut to this one?
We have definitely gotten harder and delved into the technical side of things more; letting our inner nerds have more play. Working with Steve Albini was cool, but engineer/producer Kevin (Antreassian) really embraced all of our quirks and helped turn them into our strengths. Before heading into the studio, we laid out the album and its themes. We then came up with ideas for interludes (marching boots, explosions etc.) to help tie together some of the themes of the record..
What has been your most memorable Surgeon live show, and what are your upcoming tour/show plans?
