Read Northlane ’Anemoia’ | The Album Story below:
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Inspiration is hiding around every corner. You don’t know when the thing that you’ve been searching for, the missing piece of the puzzle that has been hiding at the back of your mind, is going to reveal itself. You just have to be ready for it, as best as you can.
For Northlane, it’s been a case of keeping the engine running and facing the car in the direction they have wanted their music to go for almost a decade. And that direction is heading further down the road of their love and appreciation of electronic music. It first started showing its colours on their revealing 2019 epic ‘Alien’, and further cemented its place at the core of their sound on 2022’s ‘Obsidian’.
But it was within one night, one otherworldly experience with a particular DJ and one lightbulb moment from guitarist and producer Jon Deiley that helped cement the world in which the band realised they wanted to inhabit and explore moving forwards.
“I feel like we’ve really been trying to experiment more with the electronic side of things and bringing that into the heaviness that we’ve always had in our music,” vocalist Marcus Bridge explains. “Trying to push that as far as it can possibly go was really important to us, but still keeping the songs digestible, so that there’s a bit of everything for everyone in terms of what might be expected of Northlane and what people might have assumed was coming next.
“But I think what really put a fire under Jon was bringing in trance elements. He has told me that trance, in particular, can be seen as a bit more of a cheesy thing in the electronic world, but from his experiences with an artist like Evian Christ, he has seen that they have brought a cool to it. That was quite inspiring to him, and in bringing that back into Northlane, it has allowed us to shift the electronic elements more in that direction, as opposed to maybe what we’ve done before.”
And the result, their latest full-length ‘Anemoia’, is certainly a whole new world for Northlane. The crushing intents and controlled tensions that defined their sound previously are still abundantly present, but now those elements are wrapped in a warm glow. A bold, beautiful and boundless record that blurs the lines that have always been pretty flimsy between two passionate and powerful worlds; it is a masterclass in expansive production and universal outreach. Of showing that we aren’t all so different after all, and that should be celebrated as much as possible.
THE SOUND
When an idea or stream of consciousness attaches itself to Jon, it’s clear just how much it excites the rest of Northlane’s music-making process rather than intimidating them. Though he is the expert on the electronic genre, knowing the acute differences between Detroit Techno and Industrial Techno better than most, for Marcus it is less about studying up and trying to be on the same level, but instead simply getting in Jon’s head and understanding his ambition, and then applying that to his own part of the process.
“We’re always just so excited to see what Jon comes up with; he’s really unlike anyone I’ve ever worked with in music before in how he visualises the ideas he has and how he then creates that. Trying to get inside his head, get on the same page as him, and fit into the wider scope of what the next Northlane thing is meant to be is always a challenge, but one I enjoy.
“I might not be as aware of the differences there are within electronic music, but that’s also what makes all of this so special. He guides us along the way to fit what he has in mind, but everyone also brings their own elements outside of that, and they aren’t as common in that world. Then you have something that you wouldn’t expect from either the electronic side of it or the heavy side, either.”
For this reason, a song like ‘Crucified’ glistens with as much light-reaching hope as it does bludgeoning metalcore intensity. It’s why ‘SEGA’ bristles with playful drum and bass licks as much as pit-spinning riffs. It’s also for this reason why ‘Evian’ opens with the most beautiful sense of clubland ecstasy before descending into razor-sharp hedonistic battery.
This has never been about completely shapeshifting into something they are not, but about showing the possibilities that have been sitting just below the surface, waiting to be uncovered and utilised. That’s also why, rather than ending up with loads of different pieces of different songs that could be chopped together, the band worked on a nice, even ten tracks for the record. Inspiration can run deep, but it is more important to make sure that you are actually making something coherent. Something that can stand the test of time, an element that has plagued many a band within the heavy music sphere that has attempted to bring electronic influence into their sound.
This element once again speaks to the importance of respecting the scene the band draws inspiration from. ‘Children’ by Robert Miles came out in 1995, ‘Adagio For Strings’ by Tiësto in 2005. Trance, at its most unifying and connective, can stand the test of time, defy trend or algorithm, and encourage a whole new generation to fall in love with it. And Northlane are in a position where they want to do the same thing for those discovering who they are right now as those who did some 15 years ago.
“We’re not just chucking a song in there for the sake of it,” Marcus explains. “And I also don’t know if Jon could do that. We want everything to be right and feel right, like it is all connected together. It’s not about the quantity. It’s not about just putting things out because we think we have to or we need to. Even how long it’s taken us to finish this album is a big part of it. I’ve watched Jon slave over this for the last two years, and it’s been so much more important to spend that time making a real impact as opposed to just being on people’s minds for a couple of weeks. Now we can hopefully have people kind of connect to these for a long time, not just when it comes out.”
THE LYRICS
Aside from using this process to try out different things with his voice, pushing it in ways that he wouldn’t have been able to during different album processes, ‘Anemoia’ has also allowed Marcus to focus in on other specific elements within his songwriting.
For him, the result sits on two sides of the same coin. On one side, there is his view of the state of the world right now. Of seeing people constantly at each other’s throats and not allowing a different way of thinking, or an opinion on something as simple as a movie, to enter their stratosphere. These songs carry an anger that responds to how self-absorbed and singular society has become. We no longer want to share what makes each of us shine; instead, we want to thrive in what we think makes us different.
On the other hand, there is a pursuit of self-improvement and reflection. This element has played a role in much of Marcus’ output with the band over their last few releases. Still, now that he better understands who he is and who he wants to be, he can laser-focus on what he actually wants to address and act on, rather than skirting around the edges.
Together, they make up a very human perspective, one that stands as an opposite to the otherworldly nature of the music that inspired the record, but is also, in part, completely in line with the clarity and openness that so often inspires.
“It feels easier to write very negatively and wallow in your own self-pity,” he comments. “But for this record, I definitely wanted to expose myself in the sense that I do have things that I need to work on, and that I need to address. I might need to ask for help; I might need to stop and take some time for myself to figure something out.
“It’s hard to say how the music made me feel in relation to when I was writing vocals. It feels very instinctual, and that was the kind of stuff that flowed out through songs. It feels very natural to address these things here.”
The act of the epiphany is common in electronic music, especially the kind that touches the face of heaven and earth the way trance does. It’s why so many swear by the life-changing qualities of its tension-based builds and elation-laced drops. A realisation that something bigger than us exists, that we can do incredible things if we give ourselves the chance to believe it, and that this world is more beautiful than we ever imagined. It is music that changes you.
For Marcus, that has played a huge part in not just how he views the world, but also how he views himself. Sometimes you have to let go of what you once thought was true, float in the ether, and understand that so much more is possible. You just have to convince the other versions of yourself that that is true.
“There was a moment on ‘Obsidian’ when I definitely thought nothing good was coming. I thought I was going to be miserable and depressed for the rest of my life. But in the end, trying to do what you can to improve things around you, or improve your mind, helped, but it definitely took some time.
“Obviously, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, but it is about realising and understanding that there are changes to be made and that there’s a path out of this. I feel at the moment, in terms of what’s going on in the world, it does feel pretty hopeless. But finding some kind of light, or seeing something in yourself that can push you forward and at least change the environment around you, is a step in the right direction. It’s a step towards feeling some kind of positivity in your life.”
THE TITLE
In trying to find a word that summed up all the experimentation, soul-searching, and new world-building the band experienced while making the album, it came down to a term that stuck with them and sparked debate time and time again over the course of a year.
Anemoia is defined as being nostalgia for a time, place, or thing you haven’t actually experienced or owned yourself. And in a time when everybody has access to everything in the palm of their hand, that feeling is more commonplace than we may have once thought. From clothing and music to cultural touchstones, everybody has had a moment when they wished they were somewhere else, even if they have no prior connection to it. It’s a sensation that feels even more apt when you consider its connection to the trance movement, with footage of parties and events from its heyday in the 90s and early 00s showing people what we once had and what was swiftly taken away from us.
For Marcus, that frame of mind felt like a perfect way to summarise everything that had gone into making this latest chapter in their story. Of discovering this whole world that had existed without him really knowing much about it, and now being able to view it with a clarity that wouldn’t have been available if he had known about it beforehand.
More than anything, it’s a word that makes him wonder how those who come into contact with the record will view that sense of nostalgia. At a time when culture is close to eating itself, what does the future hold for how people look back on what once was?
“I think ‘Anemoia’ as a title really sums up so much about the album, and it’s very rare that we’re finding something that perfectly sums up how we’re all feeling. It’s such a hard thing to think about, and this really just showed itself and felt like the perfect kind of capsule for what this is,” Marcus smiles.
“And to relive what was back then today in a way through people rediscovering it all and now having that in common with people finding out about it now is really joyful. It’s interesting because if I did live what this album is inspired by at the time, my experience would be different.
“And it makes me wonder what the next wave of nostalgia will actually be. Perhaps in 10 or 20 years, it will be nostalgia for a pre-AI time. There are so many tools to do your work, or do your thinking, that maybe it will be, ‘Let’s do this ourselves’, as opposed to what it might be in the future. Who really knows.”
THE FUTURE
Being so enraptured by the process of ‘Anemoia’, of allowing themselves to live inside of this new perspective and new way of viewing what Northlane is capable of, Marcus is still finding it difficult to step away and sum up exactly how it all feels. What they’ve created still carries weight, and that weight will hang heavy as they prepare to take these songs out on the road and integrate them more deeply into the rest of the Northlane story.
But with all that said, he knows what tomorrow could be. If those who adore the band love this new chapter, it lets them be even more exploratory. The surface has still only just been scratched. The potential for where and what the band could be, despite the imprint they have already made on the scene and beyond, is still vast. All they have to do now is keep on reaching for the lasers, enjoying the warm glow that they exude and feeling at peace in the fact that wherever they go next, they will be doing it for the right reasons.
“If people are receptive to what this is, it allows us to keep pushing and not be afraid,” he grins. “I think we’ve never really been afraid of doing that, but we haven’t really done anything to this extent before in terms of how we’ve approached it and how we’ve leaned in on production in the way we have. How we’ve leaned into every song, wanting it to be perfect and exactly how we wanted it to be.
“We’ve never tried to follow the conventional thing that’s happening in the world, be that in our own world or in the heavy music world, so I think with this record we are still following suit, and what we’ve always believed. But this time around it feels way more expansive, and I think we can only keep on pushing that more and more.
“We couldn’t be more proud of what we have cooked up, and I hope that people can feel that.”
