For the last year or so, Varials have been defined by change, in more ways than they may have wanted.
On the surface, that came in the form of Skyler Conder, known for delivering the gutturals in Oklahoma bruisers CELL, moving from fill-in vocalist to full-time over the last Summer. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that it appears the whole band were going through significant moments in their lives, things that tested them as much as they bonded them
Such change has resulted in ‘WHERE THE LIGHT LEAVES’, a record built on frustration, disillusion and pure unbridled anger. It’s a space that Varials know very well, but within their current iteration, it takes on a whole new shade of darkness. A crushing, uncompromising and cathartic burst of hardcore intensity and shimmering metalcore exploration, it’s an album that will make the blood boil over and over again. Not just an emotional release for the quartet, but for anyone who wants to welcome them into their life.
To find out more about the path that brought them here, Rock Sound sat down with Sky, guitarist Shane Lyons and bassist Mike Foley for a catch-up.
Rock Sound: What is the atmosphere like in the band now, what with this album now being out and the hard work of the last couple of years finally coming to fruition?
Sky: I think that where we are at now is cool is the fact that we wanted this album to be straight to the point. I feel like all four of us were going through these crazy things as a collective as well as in our individual lives, and one thing we have all said previously is that you can feel and hear that on the record. It’s all authentic and genuine, from the anger to the sadness and all of the other different things compiled into it. What we have created is something that we feel like is going to be able to resonate with a lot of different fans, existing ones, but also new ones as well. It’s definitely exciting to see that happening in real time as well.
RS: What has it been like having Sky enter this world and this way of creating and thinking, especially from a place where he was a fan as well as a friend?
Shane: Sky just took hold of the role with both hands. Me and Mike had a vision for what we wanted. We had an idea of who we wanted and what sort of sound we wanted, and Sky didn’t strike me as someone who really fitted into that sound we wanted. But he has the perfect energy for what we want. It took a little bit to get his voice out, really. He was able to explore his own voice and get that sound down. But the energy was at the forefront, and that was there straight away.
Mike: Yeah, he really brought the energy both on a personal level and also being able to command a room whilst on stage.
Shane: That’s something that was really important to us. We are meant to be experienced live, and first and foremost, it’s whether you can put on a good show. You need to be able to hold your own within that, and it was cool to watch him come into the role. It took time and a few tours to get where we all liked it, but now we are there.
Sky: I filled in on those first two tours, and they were letting me do my thing, but would give me constructive points on how they wanted my voice to sound to the best of my ability. But it was when we got to the studio, and Josh [Schroeder, Producer] said, ‘I’m Josh, looking forward to working with you, let’s see what sort of noises you can make. That’s when we would go through so many different sounds, up to five different tracks simply on tone for the first load of songs. When the tone that eventually appeared on record came, that’s the one where everyone said, ‘Keep on doing that’. That was a really cool moment for all of us to experience together. It’s perfect, but it’s also not perfect at the same time, which is what we wanted to. You can hear it in these songs; I’m giving it my all, and my voice gives out at some points. It makes it more human than anything.
RS: How did finding that sound then lead to ideas and demos becoming actual songs?
Sky: The guys had sat on the first draft of songs for a long time, like two years. A handful that are on the record had been there for a while. But also, when going into the studio, we actually scrapped a lot of songs and wrote new ones. At times, Shane was like, ‘I don’t want to do that one anymore,’ and the group agreed. Being able to structure things as a full unit was a huge thing.
Shane: There were songs that weren’t written for Skyler’s voice, but that’s when we had a member change. And listening to the songs back, I was then able to craft and choose around what would suit his voice and what wouldn’t. That’s how a lot of the songs came to be. I was then writing for his voice alone, and that felt like a bit turning point. If a song wasn’t going to work, we had to keep on writing.
Sky: ‘I’ll Find The Dark’ was a song written a week or two before we went into the studio. And then, when we got there and were able to structure all the weird bits, we knew it was working and that it would need to be the first one we released. It felt like a good introduction to what the new era would be.
Mike: I guess we started doing studio stuff for this in 2023, and we scrapped so much of what we had tracked except for one song. Half the songs we tracked with the newer stuff we ended up ditching, too. It was only when it was almost done that we first felt like we had a record here.
RS: The main intent was to make sure you were returning to the intensity Varials was originally known for. That release of cathartic energy on a massive scale. What was it like making sure it returned whilst not abandoning the experimentation that has found its way in over the last few years?
Shane: It’s worth looking at a song like ‘Romance II’ within that. That simply came from someone saying, ‘Romance should have been longer’.
Mike: And we had been toying with those sorts of ideas for a while, but it was on this record where it felt like the right time to do it.
Shane: We hadn’t done much of it on the last record, either. I personally really like that sound. It just happens naturally, too. We always end up veering into that lane and adding weird stuff to our songs. I think that being able to have a continuation of that sound is just something that happens. We did go back and forth on it, though. But we will always end up experimenting with that dreariness.
RS: You mention dreariness, and this is very much a record coated in that. What was the intent in terms of the mood you wanted it to represent throughout?
Sky: A lot of it really came from that aspect of us all going through some emotional distress. Two days before I went in to record this record, my older brother unfortunately passed away. Writing the lyrics and recording and trying to let out everything that I was feeling all at once, that was my grieving process. I grieved in the studio, which I feel is a good and bad thing.
Mike: The record is definitely a reflection of all of our feelings at the time.
Sky: We were all really pissed off and had a lot to say around that, and I feel like we executed that just as we could have.
RS: Being able to even attempt to execute that off the back of tragedy is a huge thing in itself. It’s something that many wouldn’t even know where to begin. But to be able to share it, you must make the workload, both physical and emotional, that much easier.
Sky: It was a good thing for everybody to have each other in those moments. Outside of the band, we are all really close friends, too. I’ve known these guys since I was 15. That definitely helps, and it’s what saved us all from feeling alone in those moments. We were together 24 hours a day, so we had each other constantly. You’re working 12 or 13 of those hours, then hanging out afterwards and talking about things. It’s cool to have that bond. I feel like the recording bonded us all more than we already were.
Mike: It was definitely a blessing, and I feel like it’s something that a lot of other bands don’t actually have, strangely.
Sky: Connection and chemistry is a really big thing for all of us. Mike and I work together outside of Varials, too, so we are together all the time throughout the week. Of course, arguments are going to happen, but it’s never anything that we can’t talk it out. That comes with the idea of us being a family outside of our blood.
RS: When you’re making music influenced by such heartache and anger, that connection and understanding is more important than anything else. What does it mean for Varials to continue offering that to you after all these years, and for it to be more necessary now than ever?
Shane: It’s a long time to be putting your whole heart into something. Of course, there are stresses that come with it, but I think we find comfort in overcoming things together. That’s why we are still here. What’s better than coming out the other side and still doing what you do? What has happened in the past is in the past, and now it’s one foot in front of the other. One day at a time.
Mike: At the end of the day, we all just want to play music, and we are fortunate that we still get to do that. We’re also fortunate that ten years later, we still find people who resonate with what we do.
Shane: And now it is full speed ahead, what with touring. It feels good to have that locked in. It’s been stagnant for the last couple of years what with getting the record together and everything. But now, it really feels like where things start up again, and we feel really good and confident.
Sky: I want these songs to keep on resonating with people for years to come. With every tour we do, people still jump up on the stage and scream these songs that they know like the back of their hand. I think it’s going to be dope.
