EVERY SINGLE MEMBER IS A MACHINE
“For me the greatest part of Converge is musicianship, and primarily Kurt Ballou. I’m a big fan of him as a person, the engineering work he does up at Godcity Studios and a lot of the bands that he has produced. Beastmilk, for example, really opened my eyes. I just fanboy out on everything he touches. He seems like a real guitar nerd, too, and I can just lose myself in hearing him express his method and love of that sort of thing. And the other guys are great, too. I’m not a drummer so I don’t know about how difficult it is to play the parts, but Ben Koller’s work in Converge and All Pigs Must Die and Mutoid Man just electrifies the music that they make. Converge is four dudes working at their absolute maximum and the levels that they reach are just awe-inspiring to me.”
THEY ARE DIY AND PUNK AS FUCK
“It’s cool that, unlike a lot of bands, Converge still maintain a sort of punkness about them. That DIY ethic has never faltered in them. You see a lot of bands get 20 years into their career and they may change members or become less active to make life a little more comfortable, but Converge are still there in their original form after all this time.”
THERE IS NO BEST CONVERGE ALBUM
“Between Jane Doe and Axe To Fall they really did no wrong. I go through stages of thinking You Fail Me is my favourite and then I just have to hear the opening two tracks of No Heroes and it changes again. And I recognise that in myself. I don’t think that any Converge fan can say they have a favourite. You know that Jane Doe changed everything, but picking that over any other from that run? It’s too hard, man.”
JACOB BANNON REMAINS A TRUE ARTIST
“I nearly worked with Jacob for some album art, but it didn’t happen in the end. It was certainly a ‘no hard feelings’ kinda deal, because I’m such a fan. I actually bought one of his pieces, called Poseidon, and my Dad and I made a frame for it. So I have Bannon in my home. And he’s an amazingly poetic lyricist. If I’m writing lyrics and get writer’s block then Converge are one of the bands I can go to for inspiration. He just paints such vivid pictures in my mind that it opens me up to be able to do that. He definitely does something quite brilliant both lyrically and visually.”
THEY ARE AS HEAVY AS ANY METAL BAND
“If I had to have a gun put to my head and asked what my favourite thing about Converge was, the tonality of the guitar and Kurt Ballou’s playing would be right up there. The direct tonality of Converge is the thing that makes them so heavy. They are a band that fill up the sound as a four-piece so much; there’s only a few things happening but they don’t need to layer it at all. It still contains that level of heaviness.”
THEY ARE TOTALLY, 100% FEARLESS
“You read these interviews with Kurt Ballou saying that the guitars on some of their albums were recorded through these $50 bass amps. And they end up making this crushing sound. That level of experimentation and willingness to push through is what is keeping metal alive. That attitude and that bravery mean the world to me.”
Converge’s Thousands Of Miles Between Us box set is out on November 27 via Deathwish. The Devil Wears Prada’s new Space EP is out now via Apple Music
