Crashing Wayward Unleash 'Brass Coffin'
(SRO) Crashing Wayward paint a bleak and desperate picture of modern life on their latest single "Brass Coffin." With barbed-wire guitars, pushed-to-the-brink vocals, and gripping lyrics like "I'm feeling I'm nothing/Life's living in a brass coffin," the modern rock band deliver a powerful state-of-the-world message.
The song is the closing track on the Las Vegas band's upcoming six-song EP THE FIGHT WITHIN, out September 18 on Golden Robot Records. It marks the follow-up to their 2023 debut album "LISTEN!"
"I wanted to capture a sense of a 'Dystopian Iron Curtain' while trying to write objectively for the listener as everyone has a different story to tell," says lead singer Peter Summit, who penned the song with the band's lead guitarist David Harris. "I really wanted to portray the urgency and deprivation so many feel right now. Especially with today's large divide between political and class structures, social and racial unrest, unfortunately there is still a lot to say and a lot of progress to be made."
With its adventurous tapestry of guitar sounds, Harris says that "Brass Coffin" possesses "a lot of the things I naturally gravitate toward as a player: alternate tunings, slide guitar, and interesting rhythmic ideas. I like finding ways to make the guitar feel unpredictable without losing the song underneath it. That combination of aggression, groove, and experimentation is really what drives the track."
Can you tell us about what inspired the song and its beginnings?
PETER SUMMIT: I caught the song's title from a story I was listening to where the story's protagonist was raised in a metaphorical "Brass Coffin." I knew I had to write something based off that title alone. When Dave and I wrote the song together on tour, the words just poured out.
DAVID HARRIS: The song actually came together while we were stuck in an Airbnb on tour with four days between shows. We all had our own rooms, so Pete and I took advantage of the downtime and just started writing. With no real pressure or agenda, we were simply creating. We ended up writing two songs that are on our upcoming EP, "Still You're Perfect" and "Brass Coffin," and we also worked out the music for another song, "Bandages," which may find its way onto the next EP. It was one of those rare stretches of time on tour where you can shut out the noise and really focus on the music.
What kind of hope might you have for the future?
SUMMIT: Hope we can start having healthy and productive conversations without it leading to volatility. We have toured America consistently coast to coast the last couple of years and because of the reach that the internet and social media have, the world has really opened up. In the past when I traveled in deep remote parts of the country, I would have done my best to blend in and not draw attention to myself. Today, in those same places I feel more accepted being myself than ever before. I can only speak for myself, but because of that, I have hope that people are starting to come around and accept people a lot more for who they are rather than how they look. Economically and politically, we have a long way to go I fear, especially with AI and the possible catastrophe it will have in the tremendous loss of jobs. What I do know though, is the best thing we can do is to not lose hope.
As the vocalist, can you let us know what you wanted to bring to your performance on this song? And how you revved yourself up for it?
SUMMIT: It was very important to me that there was an urgency in my voice and the raw emotion was there. Shawn [McGhee] our producer and I made sure we were selling the story and intentionally did not overproduce that. In the studio we kind of just let the tape run and see what comes naturally. Although we kept a lot of what I had come up with in the demo, we started playing with harmonies which led us to that vocal swell starting in the second chorus. This allowed for the huge harmonies that happen in the song which I really think lifts it to another level. We decided to start the song with the hook of the chorus on a whim when I sent David a video of us working on the track. He loved what we came up with and suggested we started with it, which is something we have never done before.
What makes the song different from other tracks on the EP?
HARRIS: It was also a really rewarding part of the process for me because I produced the music track before sending it off to Shawn [McGee]. From there, Shawn worked with Pete on the vocals and brought his own production instincts to the track, before mixing it. So I got to be involved from the initial idea and arrangement all the way through to the finished recording, which made the song especially meaningful to me."
Why did the band choose to end the EP with "Brass Coffin"?
SUMMIT: When listening back to the six songs and coming up with a sequence, I always try and put it together like pieces to a puzzle. Although this EP is not conceptual, it is biographical. It has to feel a certain way sonically and lyrically to paint a story. I felt that Brass Coffin was not the nail in the coffin (pun intended), but left it open for our follow-up EP. It felt like a good place to leave our audience on a cliff hanger waiting for the next pieces of the puzzle.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]