UNLEASH THE ARCHERS

Interview with Brittney Hayes  of Unleash The Archers

Journalists:  Samantha Ham and Keith Ham
Published:  September 9, 2013

Unleash The Archers are:
Brittney Slayes - Vocals
Brady D - Guitar, Vocals
Scott Buchanan - Drums
Grant Truesdell - Guitar, Vocals
Brad Kennedy - Bass

Located: Vancouver, B.C. 

Links:
www.unleashthearchers.com/
www.facebook.com/UnleashTheArchers

>KH: First off, both I and Samantha would like to thank you massively for this chance for an interview.  We've both been fans for quite some time (though I’ll admit that Sam has been caught listening to your albums over and over more than I) and can’t express how impressive you and the entire group are. Is there anything you’d like to say for people that, by some chance, haven’t heard of yourself or Unleash the Archers?

Well, we are a five piece metal band from Vancouver, Canada. We've been around for about 5 years and are doing our best to create a unique, yet approachable sound. Hopefully fans of all genres will find something they like in our music!

>KH: As a Canadian, who has been following Canadian Metal for some time (along with everyone else here at Metal Master Kingdom), I’m aware that making an impact is a little tough up North. How have you and Unleash the Archers fared with making a splash?

Being from Canada does make it very hard to get noticed, but we have been on the road since our first year together and have toured hard in order to get our name out there. We've played in every major city Canada has and will continue to do so from now until the end of time! We feel that 'hometown' support is very important, and will never take our local Canadian fans for granted... You were there first after all!

>KH: I’ve heard a lot about how risky UTA looks to people – you know, with the bombastic covers of battlefields, dragons and story-based lyrics. Would you say the formation of UTA was a risk or were you confident that the band would make it this far?

Being female fronted was a challenge from the start, right away people have these preconceived notions about your sound or the genre you are playing, it's downright frustrating. We just play metal, I write about whatever is interesting to me, we all love the fantastical elements that have become apart of our image; it's just us doing what we do. We try very hard to not fit into that box that so many want to force us into, but at the same time we aren't out to 'change the world' or anything. We've created a fanbase by just being ourselves, and I think others can respect that. I know it sounds cliché but nothing we do is for the novelty of it, we just love to play metal!

>KH: I’ve looked up the history of UTA a few times but, clearly, information is a little scarce (Wikipedia and all). How exactly did Unleash the Archers begin?

Scott (drums) and Brayden (guitar/screams) were in a band together back in university, I used to go to their shows and have such a kick ass time, I loved it; so naturally when that band ended Scott and I called up Brayden and decided we'd try something with me as the vocalist. We then found our old guitar and bass player on livevictoria.com and started jamming. After our first show we had made quite an impact in Victoria so we knew we had something good, and worked our asses off from that moment on to take our sound across the rest of the country. We moved over to Vancouver in 2011, which is when we lost two original members... But we found Grant (guitar) and Brad (bass) and haven't looked back since!

>SH: As Keith said, I am a huge fan of the entire band, but in particular I am a huge fan of your voice, Brittney. Who are some of your influences?

My number one inspiration is Bruce Dickinson; I used to listen to metal when I was younger, Pantera, White Zombie, that sort of stuff, but I kind of lost my way in high school... Iron Maiden brought me back, and it's all thanks to Brucey ;) Number two would be Daniel Hyman from Lost Horizon, man that guy blows my mind! I strive so hard to do what he can do. I also love Geoff Tate, Danzig, Matt Barlow, Freddie Mercury... So many others! Recently I've been listening to Blind Guardian, Angra, Gamma Ray, Soilwork; all have brilliant clean vocals :)

>SH: You have quite a powerful voice, is there any time you felt that your throat was getting to where your voice couldn’t keep up with your normal sound? What do you do to ease that?

When you are on the road for weeks at a time, taking care of yourself is very important, but of course there are times when a bug gets you and you just have to deal with it; I am a firm believer in 'the show must go on'! I once did a Western Canada tour sick as a dog the whole time, my voice just would not cooperate but I did my best! If my throat is less than par I will drink hot water with lemon, use Fisherman's Friends and sleep with a lemon Halls in my mouth to stop the coughing; it almost never ends up stuck to my face!

>SH: I saw on Twitter that you are working on some new material. What can we look forward to from Unleash the Archers?

We are currently working on a brand new full length album that is going to be so rad I'm so excited! I'm loving the new direction we are taking with our music; fun, fast and in your face! Plus the same old sing along choruses and stories of epic adventure and fantasy :) We just finished filming the music video for the first single, which we will release when the record is nearing completion... Next year ;)

>KH: On the topic of new material, I did notice that Defy the Skies was released on vinyl. As I’m a massive fan of vinyl, I can’t help but ask if there is any possible chance that future UTA releases would also be available on vinyl?

Releasing the EP on vinyl was really exciting for us and we are so proud of the result, but it was damn expensive. I think for now we will stick to CD's until we have a label or investor willing to back us. It's unfortunate, but that's the reality of it. Don't rule it out though! We will print on vinyl again, just not sure what or when.

>SH: You guys have made some great videos, including one of my favorites, "General of the Dark Army". What video was the most fun for you? And this question has been in the back of my mind; of the millions of times I have watched ‘General of the Dark Army", what was the inspiration for the video?

I would have to say that General was the most fun, with the crowdfunding campaign and the hard work everyone involved put into it; the final result was so satisfying! The inspiration was the song, for sure. Richard (director) and I talked long and hard about how important the General's story was to the video, and that if we were going to do it we had to do it right. He's the most evil being in the entire universe, he's old as hell and not even human anymore really, which was hard to portray with our budget but I think we came really close. We wanted to depict the General as the ruthless killer that he is, no mercy; but we also wanted the viewer to glimpse the humanity he once had, maybe make you think that just for one moment he would relent, and then, nope. I have the General's whole story in my head, and if I can ever get around to writing the book then one day you'll know him as well as I do :)

>SH: Keith and I wanted to thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We know you are busy, so taking your time to do this means so much. We are excited to see what is in the future for Unleash the Archers! And someone – maybe say me- would LOVE to see you guys live sometime, so you know it would be pretty awesome if you guys got the chance to come to the states, just saying ;)!

Thank you so much for listening and for being a fan! We appreciate your support immensely :) When the new record drops, we will definitely be heading back into the US, so just keep an eye on our facebook page for news and tour dates! Thanks so much for the interview guys! \m/