The Cartographer will soon release their EP “The Cold Black”

The Cartographer are a 5 piece Metal band from the midlands UK. They have recently revealed two songs, “Vices” and “Fiend” ahead of their upcoming EP. Learn more about their projects in the following interview!
Band picture by Rob Rutley

Hey The Cartographer! For those who might discover your band via this interview, would you mind introducing yourselves?

Dan (Guitarist): We are The Cartographer, a band based in the midlands (Derby / Nottingham) and we have been around for about 10 years now! We play metal along the lines of Deathcore, Modern metal and anything in between! I’d say our sound is for fans of Alpha Wolf, Ten56 and Darko US.

You've revealed, a few weeks ago, a music video for your single “Fiend”. What's the story behind this song?

Jay (Vocalist): Fiend is a song focused around battling demons I've had in the past and how it felt like I was a totally different person back then. I aimed the lyrics to sound like I was calling an enemy out, when really its more of a callout to myself and how I'm now the one in power and the other side of me should feel threatened. The lyric "You'll have to crawl your way out, if you think your escaping me" refers to the coward I once was trying to escape me now I've got hold of it.

How was the shooting of the music video? Any funny stories to share with us?

Josh (Drummer): Shooting the video was great fun, although setting up for it was quite the challenge we weren’t expecting. Our backdrop for the video was made of black conduit surrounded by black pallet wrap and took us half a day to get it all set up. At the end of it, we had some sides shorter than others, bits sticking out in the wrong places and took a whole roll of pallet wrap to secure it although in the end we managed to make it work. The bulb you see in the video also wasn’t the only one we used, we managed to smash two of them during filming and it was a good job we had some spares! Overall, we had a great time setting up and shooting and Shaun from Loki Films is always a good laugh.

This song is taken from your upcoming EP “The Cold Black”. How long have you worked on this release and what can we expect in terms of sound?

Dan (Guitarist): We have been working solidly on this EP pretty much throughout the whole pandemic. We all knew that we wanted to shift our sound after our last release, So we changed things up. We got our former guitarist James back on guitar, started writing much heavier music and actually planned things out a lot better than any of our previous releases. Once we had it planned out and ready to record, we got in touch with Producer Josh Pearson (Bleak Audio) and started work on it. When we had the tracks fully recorded, we all knew this was the sound we were after! Much heavier, grittier and agressive!

How would you describe your usual writing process? How do you split the roles within the band?

Josh (Drummer): We are very fortunate in that we all have means of recording from home, which definitely makes it easier for the writing process where we all have input with both writing and demoing, putting together something we’ve all worked on and the roles are very much shared between us. Our tracks usually start with a riff or a few sections from one of the four of us that play guitar in the band, this is then added to by another person and once we’ve got most of a structure it gets demoed fully with programmed drums and tweaked from there, adding any samples or electronics through-out the demoing stages. From here it is taken to the rehearsal room and practiced through, seeing how everything comes together and seeing what does or doesn’t work within the track.

I noticed on your socials that you are often playing shows. Is there one show that really stood out to you? If yes, which one and why?

Josh (Drummer): In our many years of playing shows we’d collectively say there is one show that stands out, that would be UK Tech Fest 2018. With lineup changes, playing empty shows back in the day and struggling financially over the years to keep the band going and doing what we love, playing the festival made it all worth it and felt like we had finally made it. Playing alongside some of our favourite bands and even some of our friends’ bands at the festival was a real high point of the band. We are so thrilled to be back on the lineup for 2023, coming back with loads of new tracks this time ready to smash it.

The last words are for you. If you have any other projects in the making or a message to convey, here's your chance!

Jay (Vocalist): We will be releasing a lot more music this year. Each track from the new EP will be released as singles (instead of 2-3 of them) we also have some tours / festivals around the UK planned throughout the year, so expect to see us live very soon! And on top of this we have already started writing for the next record! Keep your eyes peeled!