SPIRITBOX are an insane band that make cinematic metalcore that sounds like it was conjured out of an occult book.
Yes, their visuals are insane too. I even thought the video for their track Belcarra was cursed, as it eerily powered down my entire studio on two separate occasions while watching it. Vocalist Courtney LaPlante dancing in half time over the (presumably) murdered and/or sacrificed bodies of chief composer and multi instrumentalist, Mike Stringer and bass player Bill Crook. She is singing calmly, but emits the sounds of a freshly summoned demon.
We just HAD to talk to these guys.
It turns out there’s more to the name of the band below the surface, as they actually laced EVP recordings (electronic voice phenomena) throughout their already ethereal and terrifying music.
“(A Spiritbox) is just a device that scans thru radio frequencies extremely fast. The odds of picking up a full sentence or a direct response or something, you would think to be pretty slim to none, but this device actually picks up intelligent responses. To people who believe it, it’s said to be a device that communicates with the dead,” explains Stringer.
The genesis of the entire project came at the end of Courtney and Mike’s previous band, the acrobatic, gross-out, eclectic hyper metal act, iwrestledabearonce, several years ago.
“We should start a new band,”, Mike recalls thinking, “We started discussing ideas and everything. The general consensus was, we love the name Spiritbox. We’re absolutely obessed with paranormal stuff. Why not do almost, not like a concept record, but why don’t we, for at least the first stuff, we can do one long song. We can have a really consistent white noise. An atmospheric thing to blend in with the layered guitars and ambient stuff. That kind of evolved into, we’re naming our band Spiritbox..and we love this stuff. Why not, give it a whole other element, where we’re combining actual captured EVP recordings throughout and that can almost be a theme. If something really pretty is happening, that can be in the background and you don’t even notice it. When something extremely heavy and ugly is happening, that way its the contrast between, you don’t know who you’re talking to… it could be something very friendly, or something very very negative.”
Courtney points out, “We have the spiritbox session playing almost the whole time that we’re playing live too. People don’t notice, but its going out of our speakers the entire time as our sets happening. In between while we’re tuning the guitars and stuff.”
Being affected by terror through sound was something Courtney recalls experiencing herself as far back as the age of 13.
“I watched the Exorcist because my Dad watched it when he was a little kid by himself in a basement. So I was like, well I wanna watch it. I had to turn it off and watch it again in the daytime because I was so disturbed. All of the weird imagery, the weird sounds. There’s like, buzzing bees the whole time in the background. Sonically there’s a lot of weird stuff happening in that movie. A lot of weird tension.”
Spiritbox are about to embark on their first tour, a European trip supporting After The Burial. A warmup show has been scheduled Feb 22nd in their hometown of Victoria BC as well as a free performance Feb 21st in Vancouver. Tickets and info at www.spiritboxband.com
Check out the videos for Belcarra and their latest single Rule Of Nines after the jump. And listen to their entire conversation on The Boo Crew Podcast Episode 94 wherever you get your podcasts!
Follow Spiritbox on:
Instagram: @spiritboxmusic
Twitter: @spiritboxband
Follow The Boo Crew on:
Instagram: @talesfromtheboocrew
Twitter: @talesfromtheboo