Courtesy Like Moths To Flames
Audio By Carbonatix
Zach Pishney is focusing on the road after wrapping up a long day in Toronto that included an appearance at the Sheet Happens Publishing headquarters and another sold-out show at Velvet Underground. The guitarist and backup vocalist for the Columbus, Ohio, metalcore band Like Moths to Flames is driving toward Detroit, where the group will again take the stage with tourmates Foreign Hands and Currents the next night.
The Death We Seek Tour is going well so far, despite the back-to-back-to-back schedule, Pishney says. But the band enjoys being busy, especially in recent years. Like Moths to Flames, which formed in 2010, already released two new singles this month (“I Found the Dark Side of Heaven” and “Predestination Paradox”), and will play Denver’s Marquis Theater on Saturday, May 20.
“We had a busy 2020 and 2021 with the full-length No Eternity in Gold and [EP] Pure Like Porcelain,” Pishney says, noting that the group feels like it got its groove back since returning from the pandemic. “I think with those releases, we expanded on our sound a little bit. I feel like No Eternity was a return-to-form record for our more OG metalcore sound. Pure Like Porcelain expanded upon that with more layers and elements. [With] these two singles, we’re doing that even more and pushing even more boundaries, trying to do new things and keep it fresh.”
He calls the newer music “heavy and more melodic” as well as “cohesive.” Pishney, who came of age in the mid-2000s Pittsburgh scene alongside bands such as Belie My Burial, officially joined Like Moths to Flames eight years ago, but ran in the same circles beforehand. He already liked what the band was doing on albums like 2011’s When We Don’t Exist.
“It’s easy to pull influence from the sound that they established in their early days working with producer Will Putney [guitarist for Fit for an Autopsy],” he says. “That dude helped shape the sound for the band in general, and metalcore and deathcore.”
Both of those genres are making somewhat of a comeback following their initial heydays in the mid- to late 2000s, and Like Moths to Flames has been there since the beginning. But change is inevitable, and Pishney says the band is always trying to explore different sonic avenues, which includes him expanding his repertoire of riffs.
“I think it’s forced and natural because it’s like survival of the fittest, which is what, Darwinism? You need to adapt to your surroundings and environment and get with the times, or you’re going to get left behind,” he says. “You need to be aware of that. You either fizzle out or you naturally start to adapt to it. I think it comes in many shapes and forms with writing.”
“We want to write stuff that’s still true to the band,” he says, and scratching “different creative itches” is part of that.
“You can’t stick to the same formula every time,” Pishney points out. “I don’t think it would do the band any justice to keep writing the same record over and over. I don’t think there’s any shame in taking a few different routes, and if it works, it works. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t mean you can’t bounce back from it and write some more shit.”
He notes that the metalcore genre’s underlying influences, particularly for guitar, include players like Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine as well as Chino Moreno and Stephen Carpenter of Deftones for introducing certain pedal effects and downtuning. Given Pishney’s extensive musical knowledge and appreciation, it’s no surprise that he writes music for Like Moths to Flames year-round.
“I always work on a song until I feel good enough with it, and then I’ll take a break and come back a few months later, but I’m always writing different songs all at the same time,” he says. “Some songs start out with a breakdown idea that eventually gets moved to the middle of the song, or some songs start with a riff or a verse or a drum groove or beat idea.”
The latest songs reflect some of those influences Pishney named, including more scratches and scrapes that give the music an unexpected edge and bark. They also make for a more energetic live set, as the packed venues can attest to.
Pishney adds that he still sees the metalcore scene as a “big community,” and even if some newcomers may not know Like Moths to Flames, the band’s catalogue speaks for itself after thirteen years.
“There’s a little bit of everything. If people might have heard of us before but haven’t dived into it, they might have a misconception that we’re just some 2010-era Risecore band. Take that with a grain of salt, but if people have that impression and never jammed us, I think they would be pleasantly surprised when they listen to stuff from 2019 and on,” he says. “I feel like we’ve rebranded ourselves a little bit with a new label and different song ideas and stylistic influences. There’s a lot more going on than there was before. I feel like we came into our sound over the years.”
Like Moths to Flames, 6 p.m. Saturday, May 20, Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer Street. Tickets are $40.
