INTERVIEW: Desolated’s Rich Unsworth Talks About The End
Chances are, you’ve probably heard of Desolated, a band hailing from the UK with origins in raw, gritty deathcore–but a more modern hardcore and beatdown infused sound that is honestly unlike any band there is out there. In light of the recent announcement of their debut full length, The End, coming in late 2015, I jumped at the opportunity to talk with Rich Unsworth about the band’s history, sound and plans for the future.
Connor Welsh: How did Desolated form? Any cool stories or particular reason?
Rich Unsworth (Desolated): I think we were all just young and wanted to start a band. Mitch (ex-drummer) and I had been jamming Metallica covers for years and just wanted to start a band, the line up was pretty
different then to it is now though: there aren’t really any stories or anything that I can remember it was such along time ago now, I think we were just a mess and thought it would be so easy.
Desolated’s first album, The Birth of Corruption, is a much different style of music from the Disorder of Mind type of material that you’ve developed since 2011–what lead to the style shift?
It was a slow process but a lot of it is down to when we started Desolated. We were all very young the line up at the time was all mad into death metal and straight metal. I really found hardcore during the recording process, then with a couple of line up changes through the years we slowly headed more towards the sound we have today. If you listen to the 7″ The Sixth Day that really was the bridge to how we sound today, but unfortunately no one seems to know about that record.
Oh, I am all about The Sixth Day!
What and who is your biggest inspiration for writing material? From what bands do you draw the most influence and what kind of things inspire your lyrics?
That’s such a hard question to pin point a answer to. I listen to so much stuff when I write music its mainly hardcore. I also listen to a lot of radio music and pop music. There’s a reason why those guys are so big and that their songs are so fucking catchy. I listen to a lot of bands really I just stick to what I like for inspiration. I find there’s always a new band that’s inspiring me so its so hard for me to answer that question. As for the lyrics, there pretty morbid and depressing I guess [those types of feelings and things are] what inspire them.
You guys ended a pretty huge US tour in the fall and have recently announced a full length album for September of 2015. What plans do you have leading up to it? What about afterwards?
Yeah, that tour was the best tour ever; I’ve never had so much fun in my life. We just announced the full length album The End: it’s definitely the next thing to expect from us–I can’t imagine we’ll be doing much before it but once its released we are not going to stop. We will be everywhere
If you could describe your music in one word, what would it be?
Aggressive
What’s one thing you want listeners to know about the new material you’ve got in the works?
okay so this album is a little different to previous records so i’ll try fill you in the best I can. The record is a concept album with the whole thing being a story of a man that has been suffering with psychosis his whole life. It’s really a journey into the mind that is trying to recover and avoid relapsing.
It’s a pretty different theme for us and the whole record will revolve around his life. We’ve always tried to write some form a concept album but this is it. The End is the road to sanity. It’s also a much more pacey record it doesn’t just revolve around 120bpm grooves its got more speed and way more flow and groove. Also one thing that I think is worth pointing out is it’s 11 tracks so this time it really is a full length record.
That’s incredible to hear. I know I speak for the hordes of Desolated fans out there when I say I’m hyped.
Where is your favorite place you’ve ever played a show? Who was the support?
I think for me all the Californian shows we did were my favorite shows. And New York City and every show that had BENCHPRESS on it.
If you could play a show anywhere (real or made-up) with any bands (current or past), where and with whom would you play?
I want to play This Is Hardcore with Hatebreed headlining.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions! I’m excited to hear more from you lads in the future!
