TIM DRISCOLL -RUNESCARRED

HARDROCKHEAVYMETAL
14 feb 2020
Tempo di lettura: 4 min

TIM DRISCOLL - RUNESCARRED

💿 Hi, it’s a pleasure for us to have on Hardrockheavymetal Tim Driscoll, lead guitarist of RUNESCARRED!! Welcome!!

Hello to all the rock-hard and metal-heavy peoples of the world! Let’s get metallic.

💿 Can you tell us somethin’ about the birth and the name of your band? Which artists or bands impressed you the most as musicians?

The name “Runescarred” (pronounced “roon-skahrd"; not “ruin-scarred” or “running scared” as we’ve sometimes heard, heh heh) has its origins in Dungeons & Dragons from a character known as a Rune-scarred Barbarian. Before battle (or even during, if an extra boost is needed) the barbarian will carve runes into its arm for extra strength and resilience. We felt this was an apt metaphor for our experiences not only as musicians but as people. Quite simply, our past experiences and failures may “mark” or “scar” us but rather than inhibiting us, they are a source of inspiration to push forward and meet our individual and collective goals. High-grade Nerd Stuff! As for musical influences and such, each one of us has too many to list but if I had to bullet-point and brush-stroke our sound, I would say we’re at the stoplight of a 4-way intersection of Megadeth, Lamb of God, Iron Maiden, and Nevermore.

💿 THE DISTANT INFINITE, your debut full-length, will be out on Feb 21th . We have the chance to listening to in preview and we were really impressed . Can you tell us somethin' about its composition process and your multi-faceted style?

First off, thank you! We’re all quite proud of the technological terror we have constructed. The stylistic variations in the music are really just the natural outgrowth of all of our artistic backgrounds, i.e., metal is where we meet but not where we always live. We all have experience in other forms of music and performance, whether it’s jazz, classic rock, film scores, even acting and directing, so we always have many different creative wells from which to draw. For this record, most of the songs (with the exception of “Sorrow Is’, which was Ven’s brainchild) begin with me. I present most of the guitar riffs and song structures to the rest of the guys, and then they tinker with it and find ways to put their own personal stamps on their parts or offer suggestions to help liven up the arrangements, that sort of thing. Then Ven has to find a way to fit coherent and memorable vocal lines on top of our racket: no easy feat!

💿 There's a great return of format such as vinyl and cassette. What's your thinking about these classic format..love for vintage or is it impossible a future for music outside digital?

For better or for worse, digital is here to stay and one would be foolish to think otherwise or to rail against that tempest. However, I do see value in all formats: really, as long as people are listening, isn’t that the point? Digital was supposed to replace CDs which were supposed to replace cassettes which were supposed to replace 8-tracks which...you get the point. Most all of these are still around and they each have their advantages and weaknesses. I actually find it most difficult to picture a future in which music is consumed in one and only one way, and I’m glad we have as many options as we do!

💿 Inside your songs what’s the role of lyrics in the composition process? Words follow music or vice versa?

As mentioned before, (so far) we write the music first and Ven writes his lyrics second, or he may have existing lyrics that happen to work well with music that’s been written. From there, we may fine-tune a line or add backup vocal parts as needed and then we’re off and running. We’ve actually had a couple instances where my working title ended up being the lyrical inspiration and stuck as the final title for that particular song, as in the case of “Ghost Ocean” from our first EP “We Are” and from this new record, the closing song “Mammoth” (which is a personal favorite of Ven’s). So the short answer is: there is no short answer!

💿 We love the cover of DISTANT INFINITE! Can you tell us somethin' about ?

We love it too! The cover was designed by a good friend of ours named Rich Knepperath who heads up Anonymous Ink & Idea here in Austin, TX. Rich also designed t-shirt and album art for Dead Earth Politics, a band which Ven and I were part of prior to forming Runescarred. Anyway, Rich really outdid himself with this latest work. Without getting into too much detail about where the album title comes from, I do think that the eagles and the snake serve as representatives of different interpretations of the “infinite”, whether it’s the endless snake that feeds on itself, or the eagle which keeps flying in pursuit of prey. We just hope it gets people interested in the music and also makes them wonder “what the hell do these guys sound like?”.

💿 Can you tell us somethin' about your live plans to promote this album?

Well, first up, we have our hometown album release show on February 21st in Austin which we’re very excited about as we’ll be playing several of these songs for the first time ever along with a few extra surprises for our stage show. Over the next few months we’ll be playing throughout Texas and we’re currently working on putting together tour dates for late spring/early summer, as well as later in the year. In the meantime we’ve also been opening up for some real badass bands as they’ve come through Austin; bands such as Metal Church, Holy Grail, Evergrey, Death Angel, and one of my favorites, Symphony X. Suffice to say we are no strangers to the stage and we take great pride in playing these songs well in addition to being very animated and engaging with the audience, whether they know us or not!

💿 Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal!

No, no, no...thank YOU for supporting us!