From Under Concrete Kings Interview


Joseph Izayea
Interviewed by Dan Craley
  • How did you guys meet and decide to start a band?

    All three of us were members of our most recent prior project, City of Homes.

  • I know it’s kind of an obvious question, but From Under Concrete Kings is a unique name where did it come from?

    Years ago a former bandmate who I’ve not spoken to since came up with it while we were trying to name a project. I liked it so much, I vowed to use it if I ever had a project I had control over.

  • I’ve noticed the band categorized under the genre “deathcore” how do you feel about that tag as there is obviously more going on here?

    It’s technically accurate in the sense that we do heavy AF breakdowns with the most monstrous death metal vocals we can pull off, so we don’t really mind. It also stands to reason that most folks who are fans of deathcore have received us well, so even though it’s not truly what we are, we don’t mind so much... especially considering we don’t really know what we actually are anyway!

  • It only takes one listen to hear there are many sources of inspiration on Modus Exodus. What musicians would you consider to be the big three influences on this EP?

    There isn’t a big three. We let all of our influences and whims get their piece of this record. The goal was and continues to be doing whatever we want musically. Having fun with it, and ignoring the trappings of genre-specifics is rule number one... The only rule, really.

  • You’ve already released two videos by Will Hall for tracks on this four song EP, can we expect two more?

    We’ve actually just released our fourth video with Will Hall behind the lens, and we’ve got one more coming soon. Will has been spectacular to work with because we’ve been friends and colleagues for years and he’s just as fluidic as we are. Josh and I get all these crazy ideas for the videos, be it lighting schemes, props, gags, scripted scenes.... Will rolls with it all and is extremely successful in helping us to bring our ideas to life.

  • “Your Occlusion Unbound” brought you some initial attention via YouTube in late 2018. How are you able to use YouTube and social media in general to the bands benefit?

    They’re both excellent platforms for teasing new content, building awareness, and giving a sense of involvement to fans, but the benefits per se aren’t really important to us. We’re creators. Teaming up with our friends and colleagues in our area to create new things and producing content that aims to be on par in quality to the high standards of the industry and the highest of our peers is the reward unto itself.

  • Are there any plans to release an LP in the near future?

    We’ll likely never release a whole LP. We prefer and plan to release smaller batches of audio more often with more supplementary and release-specific content.

  • What will it take for you to feel successful with your musical endeavors?

    We already are. Most projects never make it out of the bedroom or garage. Most new bands do lots of talk, lots of plotting, and then fail to follow through or get anything done. Homie don’t play that. Success to us is having our ideas see the light of day. We’re already enjoying great success with that, and with breakneck speed compared to other outfits in our scene... even the ones with label and management support.

  • Thus far, you have seemed to release all of your music without the help of a record label. Do you think it’s reasonable to expect success in 2020 without the backing of a label?

    We’ve already had tremendous success with this release schedule and it’s only been 7 weeks. Our YouTube channel has gotten almost 100,000 views since the first release on 1/31. Those numbers are still growing and we’ve still got more content coming. All of our expectations have been met and tremendously exceeded.

  • Will From Under Concrete Kings be doing any touring in 2020?

    We were underway in lining up some runs for the Summer months, but with everything going on with COVID-19, the progress has been slow.

  • What is the most fun part about being in this band?

    For the first time ever, I personally get out of this exactly what I put in. No giving extra to make up for others giving less. Now the extra actually translates to extra at the bottom line. It’s a wonderful feeling working with this very small crew and realizing that nothing is impossible. What seemed so huge and complex before in other projects is so easy now, it’s comical. Imagine my surprise when I learned you can move mountains when there’s no-one on your back weighing you down.

Dan Craley
Gotten Out By
Dan Craley

Dan started Getting It Out back in 2018 as a stand alone podcast. He’s been writing for music websites for over a decade and finally decided to start his own. Now living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his wife and kids, he briefly sang for Baltimore’s Pleasant Living.

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