With the release their debut album Lionheart, Hollow Bones are preparing themselves for a very eventful future, with a CD release show coming up on June 11th among many big plans. The band gave listeners a taste of the powerful message behind their album with the release of two music videos for their songs, “The November Diaries” and “Drytooth,” and are just gearing up to release the new video for “Altruistic Lung.” We recently caught up with vocalist Patrick Anthony and talked about the themes on Lionheart, the story behind the beautiful artwork, the challenges the band overcame when working on the album and more.
Interview by Nina Schirmer
Can you tell us a little about Hollow Bones for any readers who may not be familiar?
We are Hollow Bones, and we are a melodic-hardcore/metalcore band from White Plains, NY. We have been a band for a while now, but have been operating under the name Hollow Bones for a little over a year. Today (May 27th) we released our first full length album entitled “Lionheart” and we are super excited about that!
What influences would you say really inspired your sound?
Influences are hard to nail down for us, since we all have such a diverse background in music, but the big bands that I would say connect us all are bands like Misery Signals, Counterparts, The Ghost Inside, Parkway Drive, Deftones, Oceano, Erra, PVRIS. Bands like that. Some of us like some really ambient, post rock type stuff, and some of us really like Taylor Swift, haha.
You just released your debut album Lionheart! What songs are you really looking forward to people hearing and why?
We did! We are really looking forward to people hearing “Altruistic Lung” because there MIGHT be a video coming out for it in the near future. And by “might” we mean “definitely” haha. Aside from that, “I Watched the Snow Fall, and Bury Your Bones” is a personal favorite track of everyone’s. Also “Wolfcrone”. That song is awesome.
While writing and recording the album, what did you find to be really successful and did you come across any challenges?
While writing we definitely had the challenge of writing our songs over long distance because Connor was still at school, so having full band practices was difficult a lot of the time. Thanks to technology, though, we were able to get our work done. The process was a little slow going, and at times that was frustrating, but it ended up being for the best, because it really gave us the time to listen back to everything and make it exactly how we wanted it to be.
Many of your songs have meaningful lyrics and depth. What would you say inspired a lot of the lyrics on the album?
The lyrical content of the album is largely based on two things: personal experiences with loss, self-hatred, frustration, and failure, and also with frustration at the world around us – the failures of society, the failures of our fellow man to hold each other up.
Has the music scene where you’re from in New York influenced you as a band in any way?
This is a good question, and I would say, yes, definitely. We all grew up with some really heavy hitting local bands likeThe Imagine, My Bitter End, Bless The Fallen. Even bands like Every Time I Die and It Dies Today, who are both from upstate NY, were really prominent in our local scene when we were younger, and those bands definitely helped shape who we are as musicians today.
What are you most looking forward to as you pursue to grow Hollow Bones?
This is my favorite question we have been asked! We are most looking forward to putting out more music for people to enjoy, and meeting people who connect with it. We love meeting people who really feel what we are doing, because we put a lot of passion and love into our work. Having someone say that they connect to that is the best feeling in the world. Beside maybe having the crowd singing your lyrics at you. That probably trumps everything!
Is there something specific that you definitely want listeners to take away from your music or live performances?
Yes, definitely. We are big on mental health awareness, and we are big on love. We want people who listen to this album to ask themselves if they have done right by the people they love. Have you told them you loved them today? If you haven’t, you should, because you are not guaranteed tomorrow, and you never know how much easier you can make someone’s struggle by telling them that they are important. Be good to your fellow man, because as a species, it is our responsibility to hold each other up.
What are the next steps for the band after the release of the album? Do you plan on announcing a tour or any show dates?
We have a bunch of stuff lined up this summer/fall! We have a music video coming out for “Altruistic Lung”, which is really exciting (and possibly one more video). We have our CD release show on June 11th, in Poughkeepsie NY at My Place Pizza, and then the next night we are playing with Shai Hulud at Santos Party House in NYC, which is AWESOME. Then in October we are going to be doing a small tour with our friends in Tribute, so that is exciting. Also, we may or may not be already working on our next release, haha 😉
Thank you for talking with us today! Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for having us! And we want to talk a little bit about our album cover. Our dear friend Andrea Ouellette did some really awesome street-level guerilla style work to get that snap shot. She went out into some really bad parts of Rochester to find an image that we felt captured what our album is about. There is something really sad about the picture, and there is a great sense of humanity in it. We just wanted to talk about this for a bit, because I think a lot of times bands don’t really connect their album art to their music. You can find more of Andrea’s work here: https://www.facebook.com/AMOuellettePhotography/
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