With Life Is Violence, Idle Heirs have created a post-metal record that captures a certain vulnerability within its mournful sound. Embracing the idea that art can be an effective way of processing experiences, vocalist Sean Ingram channeled a complex web of grief and existential thought into his lyrics.
The album’s latest single “Dead Ringer” showcases this complexity; it is profound and poignant, and arrives today with a performance video. Ingram shares, “When I reached an emotional dead end and was prepared to admit all I’ve built was a loss, it allowed me to get past my grief. Get past myself. I decided to step off a ledge here and be prepared for ‘Dead Ringer’ to be the last thing I write. I wanted it to count for the closest people in my life so that after I’m long gone it would be the save point that they went back to, to remember anything I might have to give by. It’s my love letter to life and how fragile it is when we’re prepared to surrender it so easily.”
For over a decade, Ingram’s focus had been elsewhere; due to the prolonged hiatus of Coalesce, music was no longer at the forefront of his artistic endeavors. When events— on both a global and personal level, and specifically, where the two intersect— conspired to bring Ingram to a place where music once again became essential, the seed for Idle Heirs was planted. Rather than the conditions being right for a musical reprise, the conditions had to be all wrong, leaving only one way forward.
Having connected with musician and producer Josh Barber, Ingram already knew who his co-conspirator for this mission would be. The two friends had discussed working together on music but their earliest efforts had stalled. Describing himself as “a doer, not a dreamer”, Ingram made it clear to Barber that there was an increasing urgency to getting the project off the ground. Barber understood how imperative this was to them both, and took dramatic measures to kickstart the creative process.
Barber sequestered himself in a remote part of the Pacific Northwest for eight days, giving himself the space and time to concentrate solely on what would become the blueprint for the debut Idle Heirs album. Shedding his self-imposed attempts to compose what others expected of him, Barber wrote with a solitary, highly focussed mindset, all the while imbibing the atmosphere of the gloomy forests and storm-battered shoreline around him.
Motivated only by a need to express what roiled inside them, the duo had no intention of the band being for public consumption. Even as the creative contributions of others weaved their way into the Idle Heirs core, the pair remained focussed only on the path they sought to follow, trusting each other implicitly and pushing each other each and every step of the way.
Life Is Violence was recorded at Ocean Sound studio in Norway— something of a bucket list adventure, given Barber’s fondness of Cult of Luna. Indulging themselves in the freedom that came with creating without restriction or expectation, the pair decamped to the icy Norwegian wilderness with five of their collaborators to lay down the eight tracks. The isolation of the studio and the absence of external pressures allowed for an unparalleled clarity and exacting level of attention to detail.
Pre-order Life Is Violence here ahead of its April 11 release date and see the band at their record release show the same day in Kansas City, MO.
Idle Heirs, live:
Apr. 11 Kansas City, MO – Warehouse on Broadway (Record Release Show w/ Norma Jean [tickets])
