Hollow Stare has burst onto the deathcore scene with their debut single 'Sleep,' a track that masterfully blends raw emotion and technical prowess. From the hauntingly dark theme of sleep paralysis to the ferocious instrumentation, 'Sleep' is an intense auditory experience that leaves a lasting impression. Daniel's intricate production skills and Ben's powerful vocals create a synergy that promises great things for the future of Hollow Stares. The track is a testament to their dedication and talent, making them a band to watch in the heavy metal world.
1. 'Sleep' delves into the eerie world of sleep paralysis. What inspired you to tackle this theme, and how did you go about translating that into the music and lyrics?
Daniel: As with many of our songs, Sleep started as a full instrumental project before we put the vocals on it, and the file name of the instrumental demo of this song was already called Sleep. I think that’s what largely inspired Ben to take the song in that direction, or at least it put the idea into his head. It was one of those happy accidents! As for what inspired the lyrical content itself, that’s more a question for Ben because, thankfully, I’ve never personally had sleep paralysis but Ben has suffered it many times before and this song became a good outlet for him to carve those experiences into a form of art.
2. The production on 'Sleep' is incredibly detailed and intense. Daniel, can you share some insights into the recording and production process for this track?
Daniel: I really appreciate that compliment even though it’s in the form of a question! Sleep was one of the first full length projects I produced after graduating with my masters in audio production and I really wanted to put everything I had learned forward into a song while watching out to make sure I don’t overcook the track in places where it didn’t need, but that was also a bit of a challenge because the deathcore genre is a very overly produced sound in of itself which means it requires me to go too far in some cases, but going “too far” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think one of the key aspects of a mix that can draw the line between amateur and professional, or “overcooked vs. just right” is just intention. If you have a very specific intention behind every move you make in the production and mixing process, then it’s going to sound good. If however you’re putting, say, a compressor onto a sound simply because you think it should be super compressed for the genre, well then that is overcooking and you’re going to create a lot of your own problems. What’s funny here is that Sleep is a very, very cooked song. I’m running different processing and FX in almost every segment of the track because I wanted tons of different colors, vibes, and evolution in the mix but I made sure to only do exactly what I wanted to do, no more, and no less. It can be really hard to do this if it’s your own song to be honest, and I think most other audio engineers will tell you the same thing. A key reason why one would hire a professional engineer is because they will objectively listen to your mix, and make informed and quick decisions on precisely what should be done, used, when, and why. They’re able to do this objectively because it isn’t their song, and they’re doing their job. When it’s your own song, you’re going to be too close to the project and viewing it objectively can become almost impossible. With that in mind, it should be noted that I’d take A LOT of time between sessions working on not just Sleep, but the other tracks we have coming out over the next couple months. The only “binge” sessions I allowed myself were writing and recording sessions. Once the song was recorded and the post-production phase began, I had to throttle myself very hard to avoid ear fatigue and over-attachment.
3. Your collaboration seems to be the heart of Hollow Stare. How did your past experiences working together in other projects influence the creation of 'Sleep
Daniel: Our collaboration with each other is definitely the heart of Hollow Stare. I mean we formed the concept and idea for this band/project together from the get-go and decided on this being a full collaboration. I handle the instrumentation, engineering, and production, and Ben handles the lyrics and vocal recording. This way we can both put our full efforts and energy towards the project without stepping on each other’s toes in any way. Our past experiences are pretty connected to each other as well. We both grew up in Colorado, USA and I originally met Ben through Thomas Deibert, the guitarist for UnderSociety. Both I and UnderSociety were really new at what we do at the time and they had asked me to produce and engineer their music. I was already pretty good friends with Thomas through his brother Eric, and I wanted to get my hands on as much music as possible so I agreed outright and formed a really strong relationship with that band. Through that connection, Ben and I actually made quite a bit of music together in the past, and not just for UnderSociety but for my own solo projects where I’d bring him on as a featured vocalist. Fast forward a couple years, I’m now graduated and out in the real world, and I had decided that we work really well together and I wanted to start a perpetual project with Ben, and thus Hollow Stare was born. Sleep turned out to be a really interesting song, especially for our first one together. UnderSociety is very much a deathcore/deathmetal band and as such Ben’s influences primarily come from that world whereas I grew up as a multi-instrumentalist heavily invested in music theory and education. As such I ended up a tried and true prog-rock kid. Sleep kind of exemplifies this because it’s a healthy mash-up of deathcore and progressive rock.
3. Your collaboration seems to be the heart of Hollow Stare. How did your past experiences working together in other projects influence the creation of 'Sleep'?
Ben:
4. The music industry is known for its challenges, especially for new bands. What have been some of the biggest obstacles you've faced so far, and how have you overcome them?
Daniel: The music industry really sucks these days man. I mean it’s always been volatile and difficult but now it’s just as difficult and volatile with the added challenges of overly saturated social media, AI, drastically shortened attention spans, criminal devaluation of musical productions, and scammers overwhelming the music scene to take advantage of rampant desperation. Honestly the biggest challenge I think any up and coming band will face now, and likely in the future, is just navigating the mess of things and figuring out what actually works for them without getting too burned in the process. Hollow Stare is, honestly, my first release with actual momentum. My first “successful” release, but make no mistake it’s not like I got lucky here. I’ve been releasing music since 2018 with absolutely no feedback, no listens, no streams, no fans, no money, nothing. I spent a long, long time in the same boat as everyone else doing countless hours upon days upon months of trial and error, being beaten down more and more with every failed attempt at getting somewhere but finally I figured out a way to move forward that works for me, and works for us as Hollow Stare. For us, I realized at least my personality type does not work for being an influencer on social media. What I did realize is that our music and my productions are at a quality where they can carry themselves as long as we can get it placed in front of people. So what conclusion did that bring me to? A&Rs, paid promotions, and playlisting. Any method I could use to have our music somehow placed in front of a listener unintentionally was the key, and by far the most effective method of doing this is having your songs approved by curators and placed in popular playlists within the same genre as your song. That way people going down their favorite playlists will naturally stumble across our song, and the quality of the song is enough to hold their interest. It’s not foolproof, but it does actually work, at least for us.
5. With 'Sleep' now released, what can fans expect next from Hollow Stares? Are there any upcoming projects or performances we should be excited about?
Daniel: It’s funny you should ask this because “Sleep” is just the tip of the iceberg! We have two more tracks completed and published coming out on July 21st, and August 21st. Our plan is to continue the same process we’ve used for Sleep and build on the already present moment for our next two singles. Sleep is a great song, but we’re really excited for you all to hear what comes next.
Written by Natalie Greener
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