Hello, I just wanted to say thank you for downloading Heavenward.
This album would not be possible without the help of these individuals and I give thanks to:
My family, Adam Ferrier, Logan West, Sebastian Thomas, Mason Gills, Jonathan Chun, Danielle Wyaco, Braden Holmes, Senam Palmer, Annamarie Nyriady, Colin Kauffman, Chris Lazzaro, Adam 'Blackula' Young, Deena Eckel, Jonatan Jansson, Katie Jackson, Ryan Castrati, Rodrigo Rodriguez, Gunnar Ratliff, Kelsea Blair, Christian DiStasi, Darcy Post, Hannah Tafel, Chaney Crabb, Mike Monaco, Katy Pacheco, Paul Duran, Landon Brown and anyone I might have forgotten.
Heavenward is the result of at least eight months of not writing music. Before the release of …And Embers Crash like Hail, I’ve sort of had a change of influences. I had just joined the sludge metal band Auric and I was exposed to a lot of bands I might have known about but never really appreciated before such as Converge, Mastodon, Xibalba, etc.
Initially, my project Spiralmountain was influenced by what they call “djent”, but I can’t really say that I’m really into Meshuggah, Volumes, Northlane or very many bands involved in the genre much anymore. Recently, I got turned onto a bunch of new music recently that inspired me to create this album. These artists include (and are not limited to) Touché Amoré, Rosetta, Pianos Become the Teeth, All Pigs Must Die and Deafheaven.
As a byproduct of a new musical direction, I felt that I wasn’t doing enough in my music. I planned that this album would have vocals on it from me and that I would do as much of it as possible by myself. In addition to having the voice, I would also write the lyrics. The lyrics are inspired by things I’ve went through and I’m sure things that everyone goes through at one point or another.
After spending several amounts of time recording with my somewhat limited knowhow about music production, we are now here with this in your ears. This album was created in four weeks, from August 22nd to September 11th. I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed making it.
“Observer” was the first song I wrote for the album. It deals with social anxiety and not being able to really break out of your comfort zone to talk to someone you’d really want to talk to sometimes.
“Death Valley” is inspired by aging. I never grew up with grandparents so I never knew what goes into being there for them. It makes me wonder sometimes if this is what I want to do when I get old.
“Causality Algorithm” in a way was inspired by Atackla by Russian Circles. I see it as an interlude into Demons. The name implies that there’s a pattern for losing loved ones or whatever, just something I came up with.
“Demons” is sort of based around the loss of my father in 2004 (who Fade was also written about, even though there are no lyrics). Grief can be a real bitch, so it’s always good to find an outlet. I had difficult times expressing myself and I didn’t have a lot of friends in school so diving into guitar was the right time.
“Heavenward” is also inspired by my dad. It’s about life going on after losing a loved one, because sometimes it gets bad enough to where you might not think so.
“Embrace/Neglect” is another interlude; I guess it could be about love turning sour. I just used it as a transition between Heavenward and Solitude.
“Solitude” is also inspired by the social anxiety aspect like Observer is. I thought since they’re sort of about the same thing, I could make references in the lyrics.
“Euphoria” was originally going to be called “Nowhere to Go but Down” and have lyrics, but I decided just to leave it instrumental. I’ve been really into Breaking Bad lately and I’ve thought about what you do after the role of your life and what not.
If you read this, you are probably extremely awesome and I like you. Music is my life and there’ll be more to come. Thank you for bringing joy to my passion. -Erik Ebsen
Klaryssas