WOUNDED TOUCH
PHOTO CREDIT: INDY ST. LOUIS
1. Welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you please introduce yourself, where you’re from, and what you do in the band?
Nick Holland. I’m originally from the metro Detroit area and I sing for the band.
2. When and how did you guys form? Walk us through the early days of the band, say pre-pandemic.
We all had known each other and been playing shows together in different bands for years, and at the end of 2018 all of our other bands had broken up recently and none of us had anything going on, so we just started tossing the idea of starting our own band together and playing some music we’d been wanting to write since high school. Our first practice didn’t even have a drummer. Just a vocalist and two guitarists trying to write songs, which became our first EP.
3. How did the pandemic affect you guys?
Much greater on a personal level than as a band. We were a newer band at that time so we had just released an EP and then were unable to tour on it, but it wasn’t comparable to our personal lives. We lost friends during Covid, some of us lost jobs. I (Nick) am a paramedic in Detroit and caught it the first month of lockdown pretty badly, so no matter what it did to us as a band, the personal effects were so much more significant. We spent the latter half of lockdown writing our debut LP in the midst of it on video chat and over the phone.
4. What are some of the major highlights (and maybe low-lights that proved to be invaluable learning experiences) of the band post-pandemic, up to, but not yet including, your signing to Ferret Music?
The major highlights prior to Ferret have been playing Furnace Fest and the preshows multiple times (specifically the 2021 preshow for the final Remembering Never show), touring the UK, having Trevor Strnad ride hard for us and feature on a song and video early on. I would say his passing was definitely a “low-light” as well as covid, especially it derailing all our initial plans that we’d set in motion beforehand.
5. So how did the signing to the Ferret come about and why is it so significant to you?
To be honest, it was such a whirlwind of perfect timing, following each other on Instagram and us dropping our most recent EP, hearing from them within 48 hours of doing so, and playing for Rick in Brooklyn less than a week later. It was incredibly serendipitous and as it was happening in real time, it all seemed to make so much sense, even if the imposter syndrome sometimes clouds over. Ferret was my favorite label growing up. I know the same goes for most of the other dudes. It can’t be overstated what this means to us.
6. Ferret is 100% one of my all-time favorites as well! So I know you guys did your individual top five Ferret releases on Instagram, so I don’t want to re-hash that, but what about a release or two from Ferret that wasn’t on your list that you think is interesting or underrated in some way?
For me (Nick), two other ones that were battling for inclusion on mine are Converge’s Petitioning the Empty Sky and Diablerie by Disembodied. Petitioning was THE Converge record for most people until JD came out, and now I feel like it’s relegated to being thought of as “old material” instead of a dethroned former masterpiece.
7. I’d like to talk a bit about your EP They Promised Eden, Vol. I, which came out in May. What was the writing and recording process like? What themes do you explore on it?
Probably our most streamlined writing process. Alex, our drummer, brought us the majority of a three piece song structure/riffs and we felt it was a perfect way to write and premiere our new lineup with a more piss and vinegar approach. So we broke it down into three songs and decided to make it a mini EP that we would do a companion piece to later and that’s how we got volume 1.
8. What does the band have coming up that we should be keeping an eye out for?
I don’t know what we can and can’t say at the moment, but we have a ton of new material coming consistently across the next year and very likely, appearances across the U.S. Follow us online to keep track of it all because I barely can myself.
9. A few fun ones to close us out: What’s one band or artist whose music you love unreasonably?
Glassjaw in every capacity.
10. You can keep two and the rest disappear forever: hoodies, jerseys, crewnecks, sleevelesses, t-shirts, and long-sleeves.
Hoodies and t-shirts is the only answer.
11. There’s a tour package being put together and you are going to be on it. What would be the other three bands—current or all-time—you’d most want to tour with (dream as big as you want haha!)?
Every dude in the band has a different answer for this one. Mine will be a little sappy and sentimental because it would entail seeing two of our friends returning to life. But it would be Remembering Never, The Black Dahlia Murder, and for good measure, let’s just add Cursed.
PHOTO CREDIT: INDY ST. LOUIS