Interview: Ethan Smite (This is Treason, Crucify Their Martyr)
A few days ago, I caught up with Ethan Smite, the vocalist and guitarist of up and coming screamo stars This is Treason, joke powerviolence band Crucify Their Martyr and what ever else he's doing right now. Here's how it went:
So, you and your bands are from Harrogate, England, what's the music scene like there?
Honestly, it's on and off all the time. Right now it's doing pretty well, but it's the first time that's been true since around 2012. Currently, there's some amazing alt rock bands like Strangers in Paradise and The Omega Era; hardcore bands like Bad Manifest, Mother Culture, Ericbana and Blood Youth; as well as tons of black metal because there's a record label specializing in that based up here called Glorious North Productions. And that's not even mentioning our classmates in Freezing Hot, Unknown Artist and Unholy Perpetrator.
You said it's on and off, what's notably happened in the past?
I mean obviously Utah Saints hit it massive, and there's Acid Reign, who have had members of a legendary band like Cathedral, as well as Asomvel. Also Steve and Andy from Strangers in Paradise played Leeds Fest a few years ago in their old band D'Nile. Umm... ending around 2012, there was a pretty sick metalcore scene with Waking Theo, Book of Job and When Manatees Attack. And over the years there's been tons of great hardcore bands, other than one's I've already mentioned, like Fig 4.0, Valhalla Pacifists and Weight of the World, but I have no clue what happened to any of those guys.
And of course you're near Leeds, with is renowned for it's music scene.
Yeah, obviously, the guitarist in my band Karkaroff is the brother of the guitarist of a Leeds band called Classically Handsome Brutes and I could list you off thousands of phenomenal bands from in and around Leeds: like Marmozets, Pulled Apart by Horses, Eat Defeat, Chumbawamba, Get's Worse, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Fizzy Blood, Accident/Happy, Numb Blood. It's great. There's even venues who specialize in hardcore, punk and metal like The Temple of Boom, Canal Mills and, if you broaden the scope a bit, The Key Club.
Tell us apart your new project, This is Treason.
This is Treason is band influenced primarily by the screamo scene, State Faults are probably our biggest influence but also Circle Takes the Square, City of Caterpillar, Antioch Arrows, Orchid and Pg. 99. We also try and experiment with other styles, like shoegaze and dream pop, which comes from our influence from a band like Nothing, Cloakroom or My Blood Valentine. And we also love and heavily admire Casey, Touche Amore, Alexisonfire and Give up the Ghost. You know all those bands which people are for some reason calling melodic hardcore in our days... oh and Rise Against. Proper melodic hardcore.
I completely understand what you mean about melodic hardcore, if we're encompassing the entire term as a whole, what are some of your favorite bands?
Well, I've got to star it off by saying that Rise Against are my second favorite band of all time, with my favorite being Sum 41, who there is an argument for being melodic hardcore, but really only on Does This Look Infected? and some of Chuck, which are two of their best albums. Trash Boat are a new band and are phenomenal, they're not completely melodic hardcore either, I'd say they're primarily just a pop punk band that's pretty heavy but there's definitely an argument to be made in them being melodic hardcore or skate punk, and along those same lines, Trophy Eyes and maybe Knuckle Puck. A few days ago I saw a band called Templeton Pek, who have been around a while, and if you like Sufferer or Endgame-era Rise Against then you should definitely check them out. Along those same lines, Strike Anywhere are amazing and there's a lesser known band called Consumed who are pretty great. And obviously Pennywise, Strung Out, Bad Religion and 88 Fingers Louie, rounding out the whole old school thing.
And the modern metal-influenced stuff?
That all really started with Give Up the Ghost and Have Heart and Comeback Kid, of which I love all those bands to death, I saw Comeback Kid at the same time as Templeton Pek because they were both playing Slam Dunk festival. Give up the Ghost influenced one of my favorite new bands called The White Noise, who kind of take Give up the Ghost's sound and mix it with new school metallic hardcore like Beartooth and some industrial, they're really sick. And, yeah, I do really love all of the stuff that Touche Amore and Defeater started, with the depressing lyrics and soundscapes, I feel like that's an obvious influence on This is Treason's sound, I've seen Casey and Holding Absence live three times, and speaking of Holding Absence, if you don't know Crooks UK then you should check them out. Also, Counterparts and Blood Youth, who I've seen countless times.
So, what about Crucify Their Martyr? What are your influences for that?
Obviously, Crucify Their Martyr are a joke band but the influences for that are some of the really heavy shit like Nails, Napalm Death, S.O.B., Driller Killer, Full of Hell and END (bringing up Brendan Murphy again). The first album, I think, was way too fucking raw, and not in the heavy sense, it was just really raw, the new album's gonna be raw but not like Scum-Age Blues, more like You Will Never be One of Us by Nails.
You have a lot of bands, what was your first?
I was in a punk band called Unholy Messiah for quite a while, that was probably my longest lasting, not currently standing band. Oscar, the guitarist for my band Karkaroff, joined Messiah right at the end of it's life, replacing its bassist, Zack, who was in Freezing Hot for all of a month too like two years after. The rhythm guitarist for that band was Louis, the current guitarist in Freezing Hot as well.
So did Freezing Hot and Karkaroff grow out of Unholy Messiah?
Not at all, Unholy Messiah dissolved in early-2016 and Karkaroff wasn't formed until mid-2017 and Oscar had already been in and out of a band with our friends James and Reece in late-2016. And no members of Unholy Messiah formed Freezing Hot, it was Alex, Connor, Madz, Patrick and James who formed that some times in 2016. Zack didn't join until last summer and Louis' only joined recently. Louis also had a band in between the desolation of Messiah and his joined of Freezing Hot, with the same James who Oscar was in a band with.
Sounds like you had quite an incestuous scene?
Not really, a little I guess, but most bands don't last long enough to do anything, so it's not very effective. Very few bands have lasted past a month or two.
Check out This is Treason's new single "Anaphora" here:
