- What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?
The name was a result of vocabulary ignorance and pubescent hormones. I was playing scrabble when I was about 16 and could have sworn Crejuvent was a word. When I found out it wasn’t I decided to claim it as a band/project name because it yielded absolutely zero results on Google. Which, even back then, was quite an achievement.
I’m largely influenced by whatever I’m listening to during a period of my life. Right now it’s a lot of Leprous, Anaal Nathrakh, Igorrr, Between The Buried And Me, Kool And The Gang, amongst a few others. A few months ago it was a lot of Periphery, Steven Wilson, Car Bomb, The Shaggs, etc. Life changes man, and as a musician it’s important to always be listening to things.
- How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Unless I’m writing about a specific thing (a character, a film, a motif, whatever), then I’ll be writing about whatever it is I need to say or get off my chest. It’s usually about some sort of existential crisis, or a vaguely philosophical idea that I find myself focusing on, or a particularly deep depression I’m in, whatever it is I gotta say.
My general approach to songwriting is a simple musical idea, be it a melody or a riff (it’s usually a riff), and then I sketch out the song by recording guitar ideas that vaguely look like the backbone of a song. Then I’ll do the drums, bass, synths, re-do guitar parts, whatever, and then I’ll do the vocals last. Usually the lyrical ideas will come to me during this process. Other times, I’ll have an idea for a whole song in my head, as in I’ll have the vibe that I wanna go for, and then I just play around with riffs and ideas until I find something that fits the vision in my head.
- Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
I don’t know man, why does anybody do anything? When I’m writing I don’t tend to think about genre or style or what I “should” and “shouldn’t” be doing. Writing is a cathartic process for me; it just so happens that the things I feel I need to express musically tend to be heavy. But, I mean, I got an EP in the works that’s just a hard/alternative rock sorta thing, I’m working on an ambient track with a friend of mine, sometimes I’ll do something a bit more synth-heavy, whatever. There’s no reason to it, it just sort of happens and the music that comes out is the music that you hear. After I write I’ll categorize things a bit more, like “ok, this song is heavier so I’ll release it under Crejuvent, this is proggier so I’ll send it to my friend for another project, this is more hard rock/industrial sounding so I’ll pitch it to Novacrow”.
- How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
The few times I play as Crejuvent, it’s more of whatever I feel like playing on that day. I’ll sing my lines and play bass, but the rest of the songs are on backing tracks because I’m unwilling to get off my lazy ass and bother other musicians to play my shit with me. I use a lot of vocals and counterpoint in the music so I gotta pick which parts I can sing and which can be backing tracks, but the rest is a pretty straightforward process.
- What are your plans for the future?
I will be releasing a single on May 18th, along with a video and a B-side, so that’ll be exciting as I’m really looking forward to releasing it! Afterwards I’ll focus on writing some more, it’s been long enough since my last release that I feel somewhat re-energized now and I got a few ideas bouncing around in my head, so it’s just a matter of sitting down and actualising them!