Talking "anti-deathcore" and more with Pathfinders guitarist and songwriter Marcus.
Hey, thank you for asking me to do this interview. Would you mind introducing yourselves and your roles in the band?
Hey, Kayleigh! My name is Marcus Arar. I play guitar and write songs for Pathfinder. Pathfinder is a deathcore band from the GTA. We are the anti-deathcore Deathcore band. On vocals, we have Josh Willms, Taylor Marry on rhythm guitar. Brandon lucking on bass and Jason Drossis on drums.
So, Pathfinder has only been around for a couple of years, how did you guys come together as a band?
Pathfinder came about when I was considering leaving my old band. I was dissatisfied with how things were going and I decided I needed to start something new where I could create a better culture within a band dynamic. The inception of Pathfinder was a series of demos that varied in style and genre. A lot of the older songs that were scrapped were total rip offs of Angelmaker, Brand of Sacrifice and Within Destruction. Truth is, I didn't know what would stick. I like a lot of different genres and I just knew I was trying to make something more accessible than my last band. After some of the songs were fleshed out, I just sent messages to musicians in the GTA to see if he could acquire any members. It took a long time but I ended up meeting Josh and Jason through the internet when their previous bands had fizzled out. It was serendipity. These guys really understood what I was going for and they really knew how to play deathcore at a top-notch level. Me and Brandon knew each other since high school through a mutual friend. He heard the demos because I sent them to the producer Luc Chiasson. Brandon so happened to be in the studio to record, Luc played a demo in front of Brandon and he loved it and wanted to play bass. Taylor is someone we all knew from his previous band and he wasn't playing with anyone so we asked him and that's that!
What would you say you have learned together as a band that you maybe didn't expect before getting together?
Right now, we're actually learning about how difficult our music is to play. It's one thing to learn these songs and record them but to play them live and rehearse them is totally different. We actually are re-shaping our setlist to focus on different aspects of our sound. Currently, we are writing new material that is less taxing on us while being real crowd pleasers. It's tough, you know? We all come from a technical metal background. We played our music live while being tight but in order to get there, it was so much effort. We just decided that we can explore the Pathfinder tropes in a way that's easier to rock out to. As much as the music is for us, we have an audience to consider. We want to rock out and sometimes the technical stuff doesn't make people move.
You guys are based in Ontario, Canada, what would you say the heavy music scene is like there?
It's all over the place. Hamilton and the GTA has a really active hardcore scene. Very much influenced by the 90's beatdown kind of bands. The Toronto area has a bit more of death metal, deathcore and metalcore. A lot of extreme stuff comes from our region. We have so many towns and municipalities in Southern Ontario and there are a lot of people making really high-quality stuff. It's stiff competition but it keeps us in check and makes us challenge ourselves.
Where do you find your inspirations for Pathfinder?
The world around us is pretty wild so as our lives ebb and flow, we have plenty to express. We all like heavy music, goes without saying. I think we ultimately just love creation and the thrill of writing bangers.
You released your latest single at the end of last month, can you tell me a little bit about the themes of this one?
This song deals with how the Canadian government treated healthcare workers during the pandemic. I am a healthcare worker so these lyrics really hit close to home. I think Josh did an amazing job of telling this story.
'Accelerate' (Official Music Video)
'Accelerate' was your first release in October 2023, how did you decide that you wanted this to be the first single from Pathfinder?
Our producer Luc suggested it was a good introduction. We had 5 songs recorded and we just looked to an outside opinion. We love all the songs but when you're too deep into your process, it's hard to tell how an audience might perceive it. Luc thought it was a really good encapsulation of our sound and we agreed with that.
What would you say you guys focus on lyrically?
On the lyrical side, Josh writes a lot about overcoming trauma and addiction. We're all socially conscience people and we like to make our songs about things that are very important to us. All our material deals with some kind of social issue but it's abstracted in a way where the meaning isn't too obvious or ham fisted.
What is "anti-deathcore"?
It's a little idea we came up with to describe the image we're going for. We noticed a lot of deathcore bands have gorey album art, sing about destruction, revenge, the occult, general violence, etc. We didn't want to do that. We love the sound of deathcore but those themes aren't how we want to present the art. We love that stuff, but we're painfully unserious people. None of us are edgy or violent, angry dudes. We feel that we give an alternative to those that love deathcore but don't want to be immersed in dark themes or violent imagery.
I always like to add in a few this or that questions to my interviews so,
Headphones or speakers?
Speakers
Dogs or cats?
Yes
Have a vampires immortality or a werewolf's strength?
Immortality because my list of video games and movies has gotten long and I need to chip away at it.
Thank you so much for your time, is there anything Pathfinder has coming up that you would like to share? Or just anything you'd like to add?
Thank you for the interview! We have two more songs to drop with the EP. We're expecting to have that out the door at the end of the year. Also, plenty of new music is being written so recordings are always on the way.
Interview by Kayleigh McKenzie
'Powerless' (Official Music Video)
Pathfinder online
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