Toronto experimentalists from RESPIRE (feat. 3 members of FOXMOULDER) join their forces with IDIOTEQ to give you a proper demonstration of their amazing new piece called “Waltz”, with lots of layers, crossing sound that includes trumpet, 3 guitars and an outstanding blend of post-rock, screamo, black metal, shoegaze, and doezens of different moods that will not let you stay indifferent. Soon after the premiere of the track “Ascent” on Open Mind / Saturated Brain magazine, IDIOTEQ is honored to host a follow up and give you “Waltz“. Check it out below and scroll down to read the official word from RESPIRE.
The band’s debut LP, Gravity and Grace, comes out on 12″ vinyl in Fall 2016 on Zegema Beach Records (Canada), Dingleberry Records (Germany), and Ozona Records (USA)!
About the record
Gravity and Grace has definitely been a labour of love. We spent two years writing it, and nine months recording and producing it. It was a grueling process, but also an incredibly rewarding one. We couldn’t have done it without the superhuman patience and attention to detail of our producer, Paul Mack.
Idea behind the Project
All of us had been playing in bands in and around Toronto for the last 5-10 years, and we wanted to really push the boundaries of heavy music and bring in a wide range of influences. I think is is the first band I’ve ever been in where the more ridiculous and self indulgent an idea is, the more likely we are to incorporate it into our music.
Inspirations behind the Tracks
An important guideline we’ve been trying to follow is to balance emotions and moods. We’re certainly a bleak band, and our lyrical themes revolve around loss, heartbreak, addiction, and existential anguish. But we try to make sure that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I think the end of our record really shows our commitment to that concept.
Photo by YOSH.
“Ascent”, premiered on March 31st:
More about RESPIRE:
In the bitter early months of 2013, Darren Scarfo and Egin Kongoli began writing songs in the frigid basement of Skramden Yards, the west Toronto home and DIY venue run by Scarfo and frequent band-mate Rohan Lilauwala. After Lilauwala insisted on being involved in the project, bassist Ben Oliver, drummer Travis Dupuis, and trumpet player Emmett O’Reilly were brought into the fray to form Respire. Six members emerged from their respective backgrounds playing in various Toronto-area bands (Foxmoulder, Stuck Out Here, Homage, Tell-Tell Hearts, Pkew Pkew Pkew (Gunshots)) to create something free of the constraints felt by the boundaries of their previous projects.
After two years of careful writing, the band spent nine months with producer Paul Mack meticulously recording their debut LP, Gravity and Grace.
The result: a sprawling memoir of genre-defying soundscapes, reverb-washed tremolo harmonies, cascading arpeggios, dreamlike textures and walls of distorted guitars roaring over frantic rhythms, punctuated by tormented vocals and a near-orchestral array of instruments and contributors. Themes of loss, addiction, heartbreak, and existential anguish paint a bleak picture, but somewhere over the horizon rests a glimmering sense of hope, resolve and forgiveness.
