LOST IN SEPARATION – interview with Garrett Parsa and Ryon Boswell

Lost In Seperation is one among the newer Melodic Metalcore bands who carefully formulate the Progressive elements and the original Melo Metalcore sound to equate a Perfect formula for Progressive Metalcore. Their stylistic inclination fascinated a mass amount of Music Monitors as their sound seem to be very matured even though they have released only one album after getting together. They released their debut album Sister Moon this year, which is capable of competing alongside with major Melodic Metalcore acts. Here is what the band has to say about the Album and some other interesting stories.

Lost In Separation is undoubtedly the next Big Thing on Prog Metalcore. Care to share the story behind the formation.

Garrett:- Sure! Prior to being LIS, Andrew, Branden, and Josh were in a band called Telos. Early summer of 2016, Branden and I began exchanging demos, and talking about how cool it would be to collaborate. I didn’t really think it would go anywhere, but one day he approached me with the information that they would like me to tryout and I did! After a couple months of trial and error we selected Ryon to be our bassist. I knew him pretty well as he had done tech and video work for my previous band.

Ryon:- Lost in Separation was originally a band called Telos. Branden and Andrew are both original/founding members. I wasn’t around for any of that but they put out two EPs and had a few lineup changes before trying out Garrett. After Garrett joined, he brought me on board and that was pretty much it. I joined right as the album pre-pro was being finished and vocals were being tracked.

Sister Moon was your debut album which was released a month back. How hard was it to write and record the entire album?

Garrett:- It has been one of my greatest challenges ever. However it has been an incredible journey. A lot of the songs were written or in progress when I joined the band, so for some of them I began writing lyrics right away. The recording process is always fun with me because as soon as I get into the studio I might change something up completely, or even make things up as I go. That’s not to say I don’t pour countless hours into the lyrics I write, but just that I walk into the studio with a concrete idea and sometimes leave with a different product entirely.

Ryon:- As far as writing Sister Moon, I joined at the end of the process but I still had to put in a lot of hard work with Andrew preparing vocal stems for mixing and everything. I won’t speak to how difficult it was for the rest of the guys, but I can say that countless hours went into writing, revising, tracking, editing and preparing the music for the mixing and mastering process.

Speaking of Sister Moon, The Album Art is as good as the Album itself. How did you guys managed to get that fascinating artwork done?

Garrett:- Sean from Phineas actually created that along with our merch designs. He’s an incredibly talented and kind dude. He’s whipping up some new designs for us as we speak. If you’re wondering who to work with, he’s 100% your guy!

Care to share your favourite Gig Memoir. And why was it memorable?

Garrett:- We’re a new band, so there aren’t a whole lot of stories. However, my favorite thing that’s happened so far is that when we played our first out of town show, there was a kid in the crowd who knew all the words to Wasted Youth and Deathwish!

Ryon:- Although we’ve only played three shows this year, there have definitely been some memorable moments. I think playing direct support for The Word Alive for our first show ever was pretty cool. Also, having people know the words and scream Wasted Youth back at us during our release show was pretty insane. Not to mention playing our first out of state show in Oklahoma and meeting a lot of awesome people. I’m definitely looking forward to playing more shows and making more memories with the guys and all of the potential fans that we could meet.

Who do you dislike the most-Elitists,Purists or Posers and Why?

Garrett:- Here’s my thing; support the music you like, and ignore what you don’t. I will share the shit out of bands like Architects, Erra, and so on, because I appreciate what they do. If I don’t like a band, I do my best to atleast respect their art and the fact that people support them too. I just think it’s lame when people troll and talk about how things like clean singing ruin a band. The band didn’t write the music so that you would like it. They (or we) wrote it to express ourselves! (but please like it? lol)

Ryon:- I don’t dislike anybody. Everybody does their own thing and even though I don’t agree with everyone or the way they do things, I don’t dislike anyone.

Being a Prog Metalcore band yourselves, What is your take on the New Oceans Ate Alaska Album?

Garrett:- It’s badass! Took me a while to get warmed up to it, but it’s really sick. I think it’s pretty easy to tell that they’re an influence when it comes to Andrew’s writing style. Especially in Windburner.

Ryon:- As far as the new OAA album, I haven’t listened to it too much. I watched a drum playthrough though from a song off of the album and it was insane.

If you were to pick 5 bands that influenced you guys the most. How does the list look like?

Garrett:-My 5 biggest influences are Architects, The Devil Wears Prada, Texas In July, ERRA, and Hundredth.

For the other guys bands like ERRA, Novelists, Silverstein, Northlane, Invent Animate, Silent Planet, August Burns Red, Periphery, Veil of Maya, Oceans Ate Alaska, Fit For a King, Thy Art is Murder, and bands like that have influenced our sound in some way or another!

Ryon:- I think this is a more personal question because even though we have influences that we all like, we all have our individual influences that we bring to the table. For instance, my favorite band is Silverstein and they influence me a ton personally, but they’re nowhere near an influence for us as a group. If I had to pick, though, I’d say something like Northlane, Architects, Erra, Novelists, and maybe Veil of Maya.

Garrett, I heard that you visited India last year. How was your visit and Do you guys plan on touring India anytime soon?

Garrett:- It was honestly the most incredible experience of my life so far. A truly humbling and eye opening experience. I visited Ladak in the Himalayas, and saw first hand the effects of global warming at the top of the world. Increased temperatures have led to less snowfall and more rainfall, which has caused landslides, which have led to loss of life and destruction of property. In addition to this, many island nations in the pacific are being washed away, and tropical storms are becoming more and more violent. It’s becoming too real for us to try to say we aren’t affecting it. If we don’t act now, it may be too late to save our selves. These lessons and realizations led me to begin writing and brainstorming. These poems and words that I wrote eventually became the lyrics for Deathwish and Sister Moon. So if we ever played India, I would LOVE to share those songs with the people there! As far as touring goes we want to see the world. If we could get enough support in India we would love to come there! Maybe one day.

Social Media Platforms and Online Music stables have really changed the perspective of Post-Production and Endorsement. Do you think Internet helps a Local and Underrated bands?

Garrett:- They help and hurt us. The internet has made it possible to be having this conversation! Our music has reached people In Europe, China, India, Japan, Australia, and Africa. That absolutely blows my mind! On the other hand, people rarely buy music anymore because of how easy it is to stream. “Likes” can be bought, and spending lots of money seems to be the only way to “build” a following. Despite all of this there are still plenty of real bands out there, and the fact that they are still killing it gives me hope!

Ryon:- I think the internet is an amazing tool for artists to establish themselves and grow their fan base, both local and non-local. I, personally, do a lot of our online stuff and the amount of tools out there are innumerable. From merch tools, to marketing, to streaming services, it’s all there. This is probably the best time to be a musician, honestly.

One among the major breakthrough on Social Media Platforms are obviously the Memes. What is your take on Memes and its impact on Metal community?

Garrett:- I think they’re fine. We take our band very seriously, yet literally every single caption we post on our pictures is the absolute most ridiculous joke we can think of. Most of them are simply idiotic sometimes. People live to see that you’re grinding and killing it, but they also love to see that you have a sense of humor.

Ryon:- As far as memes go, I like them and I hate them. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re annoying.

Whom do you want to collaborate with in your next album? And when will we get your next album?

Garrett:- Great questions! Personally I’d love to get Sam Carter or JT Cavey to do some guest vocals on our next record. I’ve always thought it’d be cool to get someone like Adam Gray to do a guest drum solo, but logistically I’m not sure how that’d even work. We had Sam Jacobs of the Afterimage/Intervals do a guest guitar solo during Sister Moon, and he absolutely nailed it. Andrew is a song writing machine, and already has some songs written. I’d guess summer of 2018 for our next full length, but I’d expect a couple singles or maybe even some covers before then slightsmile emoticon

Ryon:- Well, we are already talking about the next album and without giving too much information away, we’re about to start pre-pro for the second LP. I think we are all pretty excited for it, honestly. I’d personally love to collaborate with a well-known producer like Cory Brunnemann or someone of that caliber. We’ve also been talking about some guest spots that we’d like to have on the next record but it’s not set in stone yet so I don’t want to name any names.

Thank You for giving us an Interview. On behalf of Metal Centre I wish you all the very best for your future works. Cheers!