TEXT ONLY VERSION BELOW:

ERRA are still determining what it is about the last few years that has allowed them to rise to the top of the modern metalcore ladder, but they aren’t complaining. Thanks to this shift in scene perception and passion, these have been the most successful and exciting years of their decade-and-a-half career. And with that success and building a ravenously passionate fanbase, they have felt the most at ease with their creativity. They can do whatever they want, and that’s a fantastic spot to be in.

“The biggest thing we have taken in is that we are blessed to be able to do our own thing,” vocalist JT Cavey smiles. “We have always been hyper-focused on ourselves within self-improvement and creating stuff that we like, but now we are lucky to have cultivated a fanbase that just trusts us. We’ve grown substantially post-COVID, and I can’t explain why things like that have happened, but we are grateful. We can continue to be ourselves while making the things we have always been working on. It’s really nice.”

It’s with this openness that they have been able to create a record as dense, destructive, and dizzying as ‘Cure’. Weaving gleefully between all-out sonic battery, ethereal atmospheres, and experimental expansion, it is a collection of songs that pushes what is expected of the band without losing any of the phenomenal technicality and vigour that has defined them all these years.

“I think part of why this album is cool is because it does sound more accessible to us, but it doesn’t sacrifice anything,” guitarist and primary songwriter Jesse Cash expands. “It gets tricky when accessibility becomes an objective. It ends up backfiring a lot. We hoped that it would sound easy to listen to whilst still managing to be personal and profound. Hearing the end result made us realise that’s what we did. More than anything, this sounds like an ERRA record.”

To dive deeper into everything that makes ‘Cure’ what it is, Rock Sound sat down with JT and Jesse to discuss the ebbs and flows that go into crafting such a gorgeously gritty piece of art.

THE SOUND

Historically, when it comes to ERRA heading into the studio to commit a record to tape, most of the music is already in place. That comes down to meticulous pre-production and demoing from Jesse, serving as a foundation of what he anticipates that particular chapter of the band to encompass. In the case of ‘Cure’, rhythm was the focus, with more attention being put on what the right hand was doing more than the left in terms of guitar playing. The result is groove, and lots of it.

“Because of the time that had passed since our last record [2021’s ‘ERRA’], this album was going to sound different no matter what,” he muses. “I really wanted to focus mostly on groove because that is what I listen to and enjoy more recently. Bands like Tool and Gojira and Meshuggah, a lot of the technicality of those bands is just crazy rhythm. It’s way more of a workout on the right hand. So that is how my guitar adapted to the riffs I wrote. It just naturally happened, as that was the style of metal I was listening to.”

That’s how you end up with the pulsating brutality of ‘Slow Sour Bleed’ rubbing shoulders with the shimmering gorgeousness of ‘Past Life Persona’. The painstaking intensity of ‘Crawl Backwards Out Of Heaven’ slots perfectly next to the all-seeing power of ‘Glimpse’. It is a tapestry of technicality and tenacity that feels as grand as it does natural. By focusing on how their creativity can serve the individual song rather than the broader picture, the possible leaps and bounds felt all the more endless.

“I feel like we had more fun with these songs in the risks we were taking, even if you could call them a risk,” JT adds. “As long as people trust in and have faith in that, including ourselves, then we can’t go wrong.”

THE COLLABORATORS

One of the most significant changes from how ERRA have previously functioned is introducing an external producer. With Jesse being so hands-on throughout their career, they knew that if they would let somebody else into the fold, they needed to know exactly what this was all about. That’s where Daniel Braunstein comes into the mix. The man behind the desk for bands such as Spiritbox, The Ghost Inside, Volumes and Silent Planet, he is as close to modern metalcore royalty as you are going to get. Being so intertwined into understanding what it takes to write a song that is as boundary-pushing as it is wonderfully heavy, there was nobody else better on their list.

“Just the simple notion of having a producer involved meant that [this album] would be different,” Jesse explains. “There’s more space for the songs to change and evolve. And Dan was the right producer for us. He understands the assignment more than anyone else would because he is in the middle of the genre—creating a more nuanced version of metal.”

Even with such high regard and understanding for what he was capable of, Jesse went to extra lengths to ensure they were all on the same working page when it came time to hit the studio. With both him and Dan living in Los Angeles, it was easy to pop around and see how he functions whilst sitting in on a handful of sessions with other bands, one being their close friends Kingdom Of Giants as they worked on their track ‘Wasted Space’. Over two years, they built a relationship that allowed the creation of ‘Cure’ to be as seamless as possible.

“I feel like Dan allowed Jesse to be pretty experimental within this record,” JT points out. “He’s not a yes man, and he will tell you when he’s not feeling something, but he also has a lot of great ideas and is incredibly supportive. He’s very diplomatic like that. We couldn’t ask for more.”

THE LYRICS

So often in heavy music, the lyrics take a backseat. This is something that ERRA make sure is far from the case, even putting more emphasis on what their songs are saying at times than what it sounds like. Making sure that whatever direction they were heading in sonically, the words attached served them. Because of this, ‘Cure’ became quite the dark record in the grand scheme of things. Dwelling in the darkness is something that Jesse and JT are used to and more than happy to express. This time around, much of their expression came from the other forms of media that Jesse was consuming. One such morsel was the 1997 film Cure, a Japanese atmospheric crime picture that wallows in the depths of unhinged brutality and philosophical questioning. Though nothing on the record is actually inspired by the movie, despite sharing the title, the atmosphere and pondering of existence, and the pursuit of purpose within that questioning, is draped throughout.

“Records are an imprint of a time and place of where you are at,” Jesse muses. “So, when we were tracking this one, I dipped my toes into the darkness and stayed there for a few months with the content I was ingesting. It enforced the way the record sounded and felt. Because of that, the record is pretty dark but ends on a positive note. It’s the idea of focusing on the darkness, but then somebody turns on a flashlight. I like how it is focused in that way.”

Though much of what Jesse was being inspired by could be seen as nihilistic and bleak, that’s not to say it reflects on who the band are as people or how they want their mindsets to be interpreted. It’s more of a case of understanding that these ways of thinking exist and that it is possible to approach life from these angles and feel like you have everything figured out through this lens. Every person making their way through this life views their everyday differently, and that is as beautiful as it is overwhelming when you think about it too much. Using ERRA to try to interpret these different strands of humanity, no matter how pitch-black they may seem, is how Jesse learns more about himself and his own way of seeing things. It’s also so he knows that the band have done enough to cover every base they can.

“We’re making songs; it doesn’t always have to be a direct reflection of us,” He expands. “This isn’t us saying we are super dark people, but I just want to go there and see what I find. Any kind of art is about trying to nail down a relatable feeling. Something to make you understand what you are going through and feeling. That’s why I take it so seriously, and it’s what I obsess over the most during the process. Let’s make these lyrics as good as they can be. We’re going to be a band that does that.”

THE TITLE AND ARTWORK

If this album wasn’t going to be called ‘Cure’, another option batted around was ‘Wish’. Though it ended up being the former, ‘Wish’ is still an essential word to the record’s anatomy. It is not just the title of the ethereal introduction to the stunning ‘Glimpse’ but also a word that appears in a particular lyric alongside cure in the sprawling title track. In many ways, both go hand in hand. The idea of a cure is rooted in positivity, but what if the cure that ails our existence is that nothing truly matters. What if all we were wishing for was to exist in the grey rather than spiral and bounce between the black and white?

That ambiguity stretches into the eerie artwork, showing off distorted human-like figures clinging to each other like their lives depend on it. As you move further away from the details, you see how these figures make up a gigantic earth-shaped structure. Such a foreboding structure feels otherworldly in scope, but on a smaller scale, it almost represents how much we depend on connection to make it through the day. It’s as human as it is alien, depressing as it is enlightening, and that is absolutely the point.

“This collection of beings forming a sphere—it’s pretty interesting and exciting,” Jesse explains. “This broad view of humanity that, at times, can be bleak. At other times, it can be very beautiful and connecting. There’s a lyric in the title track I like where we say, ‘We are connected by loneliness, through a kinship of detachment. The juxtaposition in these words that defile one another—those are my favourite kinds of themes.”

Though many of the themes within the record come from a pursuit of understanding, Jesse realises that being able to sit and question what everything means and what purpose is within that is a luxury. Many people are just trying to make it from dawn to dusk, getting enough food, sleep and shelter. In many ways, that is what all of this is about. Being content in what we are capable of and understanding that our neighbours are just trying to do the same.

“I don’t think the record declares any answer or preaches anything. It’s a bit more open and ambiguous,” Jesse admits. “I think we are always doing that. It’s a dicey place to be, as everyone is right and everyone is wrong at exactly the same time. It’s a difficult thing to carry around and show off, but there is a sweet spot to it. It’s about not letting your mind dominate you within the ambiguity.”

THE FUTURE

On a professional level, ERRA are having the time of their lives right now. They have more eyes on them than ever before, and as they approach their biggest-ever headline tour, even more will be facing their way. Though on that more profound level, this era of the band will allow the variety of eyes and ears engaged in their output to expand. Described by JT as a “Delivery service for whatever you want from us”, it means that within the ambiguous scope of what they have achieved with ‘Cure’, the potential connection will be even more prominent. From searching for your calling to simply trying to make your brain quiet down a bit, ERRA is the cure. Though that might not have been the intention, it’s a pretty extraordinary place to be.

“The album we have made is so full of variety; the avenue you want to travel down is up to you,” JT smiles. “That’s the same across every song on the record. It’s just really fun to be able to do that. I feel like with any artist, a part of their journey is presenting a practical thing impractically and hoping it clicks with somebody. We are all on a different means of connecting and trying to meet in the middle. That feels like a global goal, and we’re having fun participating in that.”