What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
Back in 2018, I was releasing my solo album and we were trying to find band name for the live shows. Zlatko and I were headed out to New Hampshire to see our friends in Enter the Haggis play, and on our way we were going through options. I mentioned “John Harris and the Otherworldly Entities,” because I’ve been a paranormal investigator for about 10 years at that point. At first, Z wasn’t sold on it. But by the end of the trip, he liked it. In 2019, we met with a very famous producer who told us we should rebrand because we were writing new material that wasn’t based on my solo work. So we decided that we are one Entity, as a band. So we became Otherworldly Entity. We’re influenced by a very eclectic range. Zlatko and I met playing acoustic shows, and we were both heavily inspired by European folk music, as well as numetal bands like System of a Down, Cold, and Deftones. So we became a blend of all of that.
How do you approach songwriting?
From a process perspective, we really don’t have a formula. A song can start with a guitar line, a drum beat, or a Lyric. It’s really song-by-song for us. For me as the lyricist, I’m inspired by life. Sometimes it’s angry, sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s fun. Life is an incredible experience, and it’s never boring.
How do you approach songwriting?
From a process perspective, we really don’t have a formula. A song can start with a guitar line, a drum beat, or a Lyric. It’s really song-by-song for us. For me as the lyricist, I’m inspired by life. Sometimes it’s angry, sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s fun. Life is an incredible experience, and it’s never boring.
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
For us, it’s the dynamics that matter the most. We’ve been surrounded by and inundated with heavy, beatdown-type bands. We always want to bring emotional dynamics to our music, the roller-coaster that life puts us through day in and day out.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Every show is different. We look at who we’re playing with, what the emotional layout of the show is, and we base our set list on that. Every show is different with us. We largely play live exactly like the album. We don’t really do anything on our albums that we can’t do live.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Every show is different. We look at who we’re playing with, what the emotional layout of the show is, and we base our set list on that. Every show is different with us. We largely play live exactly like the album. We don’t really do anything on our albums that we can’t do live.
What plans do you have for the future?
We’re about to release our new album, Inside-Out. It’s an acoustic album where we’ve picked some of our favorite songs and re-imagine them in full-band studio acoustic style. I’m really excited about the results. There’s no place to hide in an acoustic album. There’s no distortion to mask imperfections, and the subtleties become so much more important. Hopefully in 2025 we’ll also be touring more.