24 Fév INTERVIEW – Dan Searle from Architects about the making of The Sky, The Earth & All Between
We had the pleasure to have a tchat with Dan Searle, lyricist, drummer and more for Architects before the release of their new album The Sky, The Earth & All Between.
Cover photo by Ed Mason
Estelle for SOB
I was at the listening session of The Sky, The Earth & All Between, and what a masterpiece. There are songs for everyone and I believe it will speak to many different people. Can you tell us more about the album?
Dan
Well, it’s our 11th album, which is significant because I don’t think many bands release their biggest album on their 11th attempt. That was definitely our aim. When you’re releasing your 11th album, I think there is a different challenge to convince people to listen. If someone said to me: “you’ve got to check out this band’s 11th album. It’s amazing.” I’d be like: “well, I think they would have already caught my attention on one of the other albums”. It’s fair to say that if this album was our first album, people would talk about it in a different way.
In what way?
Dan
People like new things. People like new art. People just want new stuff. And so when you get this band that’s this far in, I think it’s a different challenge to capture people’s attention.
We definitely had that in mind when we were creating it, that it needs to be special if we want to achieve our goals. But ultimately our aim is to create a great album. An album that we felt was as close as we could get in that moment to fulfilling our potential. I think we had a strong feeling that we hadn’t quite reached what we were capable of in our previous work. And that’s kind of because we had changed our sound a bit, which had opened up new doors for us. And it meant that we felt that we had permission to ourselves to do different styles, different types of songs, and that meant that we could achieve something different. And with this album, it was about bringing all of the best qualities of the band together and pushing it forward and making sure that we did it to the absolute maximum.
I don’t think there’s any other album that we’ve made where we had such a clear vision to push the band forward. It was very much made with that in mind, which was difficult. We lost our guitarist, Josh. We lost Tom in the past. So we again had to discover a new creative dynamic in the band, which I think is so important to keeping our band fresh. It’s always a massive challenge and obviously we didn’t want to lose Tom under tragic circumstances, but having done it before, we kind of believed: “okay, we lost Josh, but it’s okay as long as we are focused on what we want to achieve and we try our very, very best”. It was kind of a case of, we know what we want to do and we won’t stop until we get to it.
What was the first song you created for this album?
Dan
Well, Seeing Red, I guess.
A big statement !
Dan
That was interesting because it was the first song we’d ever made where we had the concept for the song before the song. So we had the idea it was going to be a bit funny. It was going to be a heavy song about our fans wanting it to be heavy, giving them what they want.
Usually the lyrics come after. We get the idea, get the phrase, and get the melody, and then we fit the lyrics in. But with Seeing Red, we just had the concept and the opening lines of the song, and so it was about pulling off that concept to the best of our ability.
I spent a year just writing bits and pieces, riffs. Like in Curse, for instance, I had the riff and then we took those pieces to the studio and built the songs out that way. Curse was the first song we did with Jordan Fish (former member of Bring Me The Horizon), and that was when we figured out: “okay, well, this is going to work”. We have a good working relationship, and that was when we knew we should do the album together.
What was it like to work with Jordan?
Dan
Great. I mean, we had a little bit of experience before with Doomsday. But with this album, we would have some songs we wrote from scratch with him and some songs we already had quite a fleshed out piece. I knew it was going to be good.
I’ve known Jordan for a good 10 years. We have a great relationship with him. I already consider him a friend and we had spoken multiple times about working together. There was a desire from us and from him to do something together. He said he wanted to do it, but it never happened when he was in Bring Me The Horizon, he was too busy.
I mean, we were talking a lot around the time when things were falling apart with Bring Me The Horizon for him and as soon as they did fall apart, he said straight away, “should we do an album?” I said, “yeah, let’s do it. When are you free?” and we did it. We got together at the first opportunity and we wrote Curse and Evil Eyes. We did both of them in a few days and it felt good.
It was quick !
Dan
It was very quick. Once we get together, everything comes together pretty quick. It’s been really cool because there’s so many ideas between the three of us. If one person’s stuck, someone’s got the idea to fix it and to move forward.
There are two collabs on the album. Can you talk a bit more on why those artists specifically and how it happened?
Dan
Jordan has been working with House of Protection, and Stephen, one of the vocalists of House of Protection, is someone we’ve known for a long time, someone that we’re very fond of. In fact, before I even knew Jordan was involved, someone in the industry had sent me their song It’s Supposed To Hurt and instantly it was like, “okay, this band’s great.” We were working on Braindead and it just felt like a good fit. Aric Improta and Stephen Harrison, they embody energy. They have so much energy as performers and as musicians. So it just felt like the perfect song for them.
And with Amira Elfeky, that was a suggestion from Jordan because Zakk Cervini, who makes the record, had been working with her. And to be honest, I kind of didn’t take the suggestion seriously because I hadn’t heard of her. And then I listened to her and I was sold straight away.
I think that’s my favourite song from the album. Judgement Day with Amira Elfeki.
Dan
Yeah. I love what she did. I think she’s awesome and I think she’s got a big future ahead of her. She was really happy to be involved. The guests on the record were picked because we felt that they could elevate the song and they fitted in to what we had. We weren’t trying to borrow clout or borrow their fans, it was more about what they could offer the song as musicians, as vocalists.
Do you guys have a dream collab?
Dan
I love Gojira. When we first started writing this album, I texted Joe Duplantier (singer of Gojira) and asked if he would sing on the album. I was like, “I don’t have a song, but would you sing on the album?” and he said yes. “Cool, we’ll write a song for you.” And we just never found the song that was right for him, so he never heard back from me. We’re massive fans of Gojira and his voice is very unique so I would love to find a way to have him featured in a song.
That would be so cool ! I know that Sam Carter’s favourite song is the one that just came out, Blackhole. What about yours?
Dan
My favourite song is Blackhole also. All the singles have been really heavy, which is very misleading. People think that the album is going to be all heavy but it’s not.
The original plan was to do a big video for one of the more mainstream songs, but I just kind of realised that Blackhole felt like a metalcore masterpiece. It was the last song we wrote and there’s always something about the last one for some reason.
Like Animals was one of the last songs we wrote for For Those That Wish To Exist. And When We Were Young was one of the last songs we wrote for the classic symptoms of a broken spirit. There’s always these songs that come along late in the process. You’ve already set the bar for the album and then you feel like there’s no point in this song existing unless it’s going to be better than the rest.
We had the whole album written without Blackhole and Sam, Jordan and I all agreed that we needed to have this. I just wrote a bunch of riffs that I thought were ridiculous and funny. I was just having fun, you know? But we really wanted to do a chorus that had the sort of emotivity of old Architects. We wrote six choruses before we found the final one. And it’s such a challenge sometimes writing really aggressive, heavy music and then transitioning into a chorus in a tasteful way. And sometimes with metal bands, it can be like the chorus is a completely different song and the mood changes so much. That’s the real challenge, finding something that fits the mood.
So, yeah, I was very, very happy with that song. But I will say there’s no clear, major standout for me on the record. I feel there’s so many songs I’m proud of and moments that I think are really powerful. The album feels like such a consistent body of work. It takes you to different places and all the songs feel pretty powerful and interesting. Honestly, I wouldn’t say this about all our albums, but this one feels strong from start to finish.
The intro, Elegy is pretty intense !
Dan
Yeah. It kicks into the riff and it takes you somewhere completely different.
I really liked it. I also wanted to ask about the sample at the end of Whiplash. Can you tell us where it comes from ?
Dan
It’s Gordon Ramsay ! We were just joking around. The album is a confusing mix of sincere anger and sincere sadness and also us messing around. We just kind of embraced the ideas that made us laugh. And it was something really disarming. Like, Whiplash is so aggressive and serious and it slows down at the end and Sam‘s so angry and there was just something amusing to us about Gordon. And then the way it flows into Blackhole, we played it and we were like, “this is so stupid”. -said laughing
But it works.
Dan
But it works. So, don’t question it too much. Just go with it, you know? I’m hoping Gordon doesn’t hear about it, but I know that Gordon‘s daughter is engaged to Adam Peaty, who is a British Olympic swimmer, and I know that he is a fan of the band. We realised this later.
Your drumming in the album, at least in the singles already out, is more technical and difficult. Do you feel you have improved?
Dan
It’s not an improvement. It’s Jordan pushing me to push myself because I’ve been producing the last few albums, and especially once we got to the classic symptoms of a broken spirit, I haven’t really been able to play drums and practice for a long, long time.
After Tom Searle died, it was like, “I can’t play drums. I just have to write songs”. I never played drums. I never practised drums. I didn’t have anywhere to play drums. So I made the drums simple because I wanted to be able to play them properly when I performed live. And Jordan came along and was like, people like it when your drums are more technical. “Okay, I’ll play it. I’ll play the hard stuff.”
So, fortunately, now I have the means to. I have the time and the space. I have a studio in my garden. I can go and play drums. So I’m working on my chops all the time. I used to play all that kind of stuff in the earlier records. But it just became less my focus and I just actually less my tastes. I just wanted to write. I was more focused on just writing good songs and that didn’t necessarily involve crazy drums, but yeah, they’re back.
And now you’re nominated for Drummer of the Year 2024. (At that time the winners weren’t announced yet, editor’s note)
Dan
I think it’s ridiculous.
Do you think so?
Dan
Yeah. I mean, there’s so many crazy good drummers and they all inspire me. And I’ll work on it but like Eloy Casagrande, who plays for Slipknot, was better than me now when he was 14. There are people that are freakishly good. Mario Duplantier from Gojira. These guys, like, they’re freaks. They’re unbelievable.
So I got some work to do, but that’s become much more of my focus lately to improve my drumming, which has been really fun. I’ve just fallen in love with playing drums again. But this idea that I’m one of the best metal drummers in the world… I don’t think I’m a bad drummer. I believe I’m a good drummer, but the standards of some of the guys out there are just so unbelievable. So I got a lot of work to do to compete with some of these guys. I think of myself more as a songwriter and a lyricist than I do as a drummer.
For the last 10 years I’ve played drums when I go to work, when I go on tour. Now I’m trying to reimagine myself as a drummer again, which I have to do because the drums are really fucking difficult on the album. -said laughing
Good luck with that !
Dan
No pressure. -said laughing
And talking about touring, what is it like for Architects? Is it fun?
Dan
Yeah, but we do it in moderation. I think we realised, much to the annoyance of our agents and our management that we could say no. About five, six years ago, we just started saying no more. None of us are broke, none of us are rich, none of us care enough about being rich to go on tour all the time. I’ve got young children. I don’t want to miss them growing up, you know? One of my daughters is six, the other is two. They’re so young. They’re only gonna be young once. And it’s a lot for me to go on tour and leave my wife to look after two kids 24 hours a day. So we don’t tour as much as other bands.
I see some bands like Slipknot on tour all the time. It’s insane. The original members of Slipknot are 50 plus, kids are grown up. Some of them are on tour with them as support bands. And so maybe it’s different when I’m 50 and my kids are grown up or maybe not. I don’t know.
Like, there’s a balance and we like to tour enough so that when we do it, we really look forward to it. It’s really fun, there’s so many shows we play where I can’t believe it. It’s like “Wow. This is our show”. We’re still always surprised about how popular the band is. I absolutely love touring, but we tour enough so that we always want it. And I see a lot of bands who are on tour and they hate it.
It’s difficult for mental health if you are forced to do it.
Dan
Touring is horrendous for you. You go to bed at three in the morning, four in the morning, because you’re off stage at 11 and you’re full of adrenaline. And it’s like you’ve just been to the gym. Your heart’s racing, you’re full of adrenaline. You just have flashing lights in your face. And then you’re supposed to go to sleep and you can’t. So you sleep on a moving bus all night, waking up constantly. And then you wake up in the morning after a terrible night’s sleep and you’ve got to do it again. And if you do that for six months of the year. Well, you’re going to have bad mental health and you’re probably drinking alcohol and smoking weed and doing God knows what else. It’s like a cocktail of bad mental health.
As you get older it just gets harder and harder. We used to stay up drinking on the bus until 7am and wake up at 4 in the afternoon when we were in our twenties and we’re not twenty anymore. So we’re just trying to find more of a healthy balance and we’re not chasing wealth and we have money but we have an obligation to the label to do a certain amount to promote the album. We’re one of the few bands that I know of that does everything in moderation.
What’s next for Architects? The album obviously, but do you dream of something else?
Dan
I think the band will probably continue to grow. If you told me when I was 23 that the band would be where it is now and Tom wouldn’t be here and that we have the success that we have, I would have been very surprised. So God knows where we will be in another 10 years. I imagine that the band will grow and we’ll headline the festivals and play the arenas and the band will continue to be more and more successful and I feel pretty relaxed about it.
We’ve had to constantly set new goals for the band because we didn’t really have any targets when the band started. The band is so far beyond what we ever imagined it was. It was never a plan to be this popular. It looks like we’ll probably do this until we retire. I think everything will continue just to go in the direction it’s been heading for the last few years. And we all feel very grateful that we have the opportunity to do that for the first time ever.
I’m not thinking about what else I might do after the band. I just think I’ll do the band until I can’t do the band anymore. And then it will be: I sit on the beach until I die. -said laughing
Do you have any UK or Irish bands that you recommend?
Dan
Well, let me think. Have you heard of Sleep Token ? -said laughing. We listen to them, of course. Everyone does. We’re taking up Guilt Trip on the French shows that we’re doing in march, so they’re worth checking out now.
To be honest with you, I feel very disconnected, I think it’s just being 37, father of two, focused on the album, living in the countryside, away from the world. When we first started there were a million young British bands, and we all played the same bars and pubs and we all knew each other, and obviously almost all of them are gone now. They stopped. I don’t know if the scene exists like it used to. I couldn’t say. So you’ll have to tell me.
You can go on soundofbrit.fr -said laughing. We have some good writers that talk about the metal scene.
Dan
I feel like I can think of more emerging French bands like LANDMVRKS. I can feel like there’s more coming out of France. They are definitely going places, aren’t they? They’re doing really well. They’ve got a new album coming out, I know some things. -said laughing
Thanks for your time !
Dan
Thank you !
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