When you have the chance to speak with arguably the premiere artist pushing the boundaries of what metal or guitar-based music can and should be, you savor them and better damn well take advantage. You pour over their surprisingly short back catalog and spend time with the videos that became cultural moments (“Playing God” and “G.O.A.T.” notably), the sort of phenomena that usually happens in hip hop or whenever Taylor Swift crowns herself the “Queen of Sassy Sad Songs for Aging Millennials” for the 10th year in a row.
When I got such an opportunity, a chance to take in Texas sensation Polyphia’s recent exercise in future djent pop, Remember That You Will Die, out now via Rise Records, none of my expectations were met—They were shattered. Here is a record that feels like speculative fiction’s answer to what metal might sound like in a few decades, when genres are suggestions and people have broken down preconceptions that hip hop, trap, house, and tech metal are not musical bedfellows (to be fair, not every iteration of rap/metal should be lauded…). Remember That You Will Die is a widescreen exercise in taking traditional heavy musical ingredients and making the finest pop music these ears have heard in a long time. Songs like “ABC,” “Bloodbath,” and “Chimera” couldn’t sound more different, and yet, this is a remarkably cohesive record because of (not in spite of) its diversity.
So when I had the opportunity to speak with Polyphia, with more (guitar) pyrotechnics than the 4th of July, naturally, I landed their criminally underrated drummer, Clay Aeschliman. In order to make everything sing (even in the songs without vocal guests), you need a dexterous foundation, and Aeschliman has done a remarkable job of providing that firm, frenetic base from which the three ax-men play around in. For those who followed the band, the drums feel like a much more integral part of the equation here, and that’s no accident, as Aeschliman acknowledges this and elaborates how things were different this time:
“We started working on this record probably four years ago now. It’s been a long time in the works, and I can’t really speak too much to exactly what’s going on in (the other guys’) heads when they come up with licks and start writing songs. But as a drummer, I’m always the last one to get the music. Usually, I don’t even get to hear songs until I’m in the studio, so thankfully this time it was a little different. I heard probably half of the material before I went into the studio. It was the first time that I got to actually write stuff prior to going in and recording. Usually I get there, hear everything for the first time, and just have to make it up on the spot, which is, for me, stressful (laughs).”
“It was the first time I worked with writing things out on the computer and putting them in MIDI,” he continues. “I’ve never done that before, so that was an interesting experience. And it was cool because it gave me a chance to really make trap beats that are just different than what I would normally do. Because when you just sit behind your kit and play, you just play in your style and the things you’re comfortable with. And working on a computer, I got to play around with placements of stuff, so it was cool to experiment around. (The whole experience) was fun, and I am proud of the work we put in.”
Everyone in the band had more time and were able to be more collaborative with the myriad guest artists throughout the record. It’s a record of many firsts, but one was more special to Aeschliman than others: a drum solo. He explains:
“This record is definitely the most diverse in terms of each song kind of having its own style. There are trap beat songs with rappers in them. There’s a pop song. There’s heavier songs like the one with Chino (Moreno). And then there’s ‘The Audacity;’ I don’t even know how you would describe it, a jazzy, futuristic jazz beat song. That song features Anomalie; it was basically his song that he gave to us. And man, I remember sitting in the studio hearing that, and I was like, ‘Dude, not only is this song incredible, but I think it would be perfect for a drum solo.” And I’ve mentioned drum solos in the past and (the rest of the band) all kind of just laughed and said, ‘No.’
So I just kind of threw it out there jokingly, and they were all really into the idea and (told me to) go HAM, make it crazy.” It was awesome. I got to spend an entire day, everyone just cleared out of the studio, and it was just me. And I just really took my time writing the parts to that song because it’s slightly complicated. The version that is on the record is my second. I had to tone it down. Because they told me to just go ham and give it my all, the first version I tracked to was a bit too insane (laughs). But yeah, it was super cool. I’m very glad they were into the idea.”
Much of this record reminds me of records 20 and 30 years ago, when punk, hardcore, or hip-hop albums would be absolutely littered with features. How much of these songs were collaborative, versus just featuring an artist?
“(The former for sure.) As a matter of fact, before Chino did his parts for ‘Bloodbath,’ it was almost a different song we recorded. That was one of the ones I had to go back and redo after Chino did his parts. We changed up the song to fit better around what he did to make it because what he did was awesome, and we loved it. I think Tim has mentioned this before in previous interviews, but it’s cool to see how working with guest artists influences the way we go about songwriting. We can think we have an idea of what we want a song to sound like, and then once you get a feature on it you realize you can make it better because whoever’s featuring on it did an amazing job. And you can tweak things and rewrite things to make it up to par with what they’ve done, so that was cool.”
Aeschliman has a fascinating journey to where he is now: one of the premiere heavy music drummers (my words; he’s much humbler). He explains:
“I’m relatively new to the drum kit. I did drum line in high school, but I never f*cked around on a kit before that. And the idea was pretty foreign to me. I didn’t touch a pair of sticks for five, six years because I went to college and got a corporate job. But once I got into it, I mean back then my favorite music was like metalcore music, and I thought drummers like Matt Greiner were the pinnacle of drumming. Which don’t get me wrong, because obviously he’s a great drummer, but I thought he was the top tier. This is as good as it can get. So when I started practicing on a kit, that’s all I practiced was double bass and blast beats and two four over two double bass fields. And I thought this is what real drumming is. So once I pretty got a pretty good grasp on that, I was like, all right, well, what else is there?”
“And then I discovered gospel drummers,” he continues, “and that’s when my world opened up. For example, the first non-metal drummer I discovered was Eric Moore, and that’s when I was just like, holy sh*t. He’s doing patterns and fills with a single foot, no double bass, and just playing way more advanced fills and grooves and patterns and f*cking with time and better pocket. The list goes on and on. Don’t get me wrong, there’s obviously metalcore or metal drummers that can do all that stuff. They just don’t for their music. But to me, it was just, I don’t know, it’s like I’d discovered this whole other world of drumming. And so once I did that, I ditched the double bass pedal, started working on my single foot doubles and gospel chops, basically, which became my favorite style drumming.”
“And so then going into this record, talking about influences,” he adds, “my favorite drummers have changed so much from when I started. Now it’s like the Eric Moore, Andy Prado Jr., Devon Taylor, just these guys who are just insane. And Devon Taylor, by the way, Justin Bieber’s drummer, is one of the best. You want to talk about trap drums played on a real kit, he’s insane. He has these Zildjian videos that I don’t know if you’ve seen, but you should check out because they’re just wild.”
All of the ingredients came together to make Polyphia’s most vibrant, fun, and daring record yet. It’s a treat for those who have been along for the ride for years and those who are curious where guitar-based music may be headed. Hell, it works for anyone interested in music meant to be enjoyed (rather than dissected and analyzed). Perhaps the album title is a tad morbid for some, but having a sense of humor is just another plus in my book. Aeschliman provides the heartbeat of one of the year’s best albums.
Order the record at this location, and follow the band here.
Photo courtesy of Polyphia
