Interview with TesseracT drummer Jay Postones and new vocalist Elliot Coleman

These days there are almost as many sub genres as metal bands themselves. Things from metalcore to death metal to sludge, one of the newest sub genre is djent. Djent is a progressive metal styled coined by Meshuggah and brought to the forefront by Periphery. The name is an onomatopoeia for heavily palm-muted, distorted chords, one of the latest bands taking on the sound of Djent is TesseracT. TesseracT are 4 blokes from England and a newly recruited Yankee named Elliot Coleman who is their newest singer. They have been on the road now, touring with the new singer gaining a stronger fan base show by show supporting Animals As Leaders and Between The Buried And Me. I had a chance to sit down with Elliot and drummer Jay Postones to talk about everything that has been happening in the band so far.

So how is the tour going so far?
Jay: It’s great, we are nearly at the end. We have 4 shows after tonight, we started out in late October so it’s been a really long trip. We have come across every type of weather imaginable on this tour from heat and cold and rain and snow. No one got sick either which was a first!! The shows themselves have been fantastic, a big stage tour for the first time. We have played big stages before but never on each tour date and yea, it’s just been great.

Have there been any standout moments that have happened so far on tour?
Elliot: San Fransisco was a really fun show, the crowd was just loving it for all the bands but we had an amazing response. This is our first real tour with me in the band, we did a few shows in Europe but nothing like this.

So Elliot, you are the new singer in the group, could you tell me a little about that and if you have any new material on the way?
Elliot: Well yes I am the new “voice” of the band, right now I am just covering all the previous material the band as been playing. As for new material: we have some ideas but nothing set in stone. As soon as this tour is done we will start coming up with new material.

Jay: We do have an EP we will be releasing early next year, we wanted to release it before we hit this tour but things came up and we were not able to, we are hoping it comes out in January. After that, we want to sit down and work on everything we have in mind and put out a full length with Elliot as soon as we can.

So Elliot, you have been in previous bands before this such as Sky Eats Airplane and Of Legends. How does this situation compare to those?
Elliot: It’s totally a different sound, a different crowd and I wasn’t singing before I was just playing bass. It’s different in every way really, the only thing that is the same is stage comfort. Even the switch from bass to being right upfront the comfort level hasn’t changed for me.

Have you guys done any pre pro recordings with Elliot on the new material?
Elliot: There was an idea recorded instrumentally that I had a chance to put something on. Right now all there is out there are Youtube videos of my very first few performances with the band and people are always sitting their judging you.

Jay: All of the new ideas that we have are actually 2 or 3 years old and a lot of the material off our debut even predates me joining the band. The newest track we have released was “Eden” and that was written while recording. The ideas we have though are all relatively new and we can’t even play a lot of it as a band together, we are all really excited to work on some new stuff.

If you could compare your band to a type of food out there, what would it be?
Jay: Pho, 100%. It’s always delicious and you can enjoy it anywhere you go.

I find a lot European bands such as yourselves are more open to the odd and out there when it comes to writing and sounds, why do you think that is?
Jay: I think it may be because we really have nothing to do. Mainly though, it’s just we have the time to do so. Acle spends a lot of time in his home studio tweaking and refining sounds, trying to get epic effects and tones out to everyone’s ears.

Name some music people would be surprised to know you listen to?
Jay: Jeff Buckley is probably the main one, that’s one band we all agree on that is just incredible. What’s that stuff you were listening to in the van Elliot?

Elliot: I was listening to Kimbra, she rules. Also, lot’s of video game music and scores. Things like the Heavy Rain soundtrack, Silent Hill soundtrack as well. The only time I really listen to albums anymore is when I’m driving like on tour, I don’t want to listen to bands I’ve heard over and over. I just really like anything orchestral and a lot of these video games have been greatly composed along with a lot of movies I enjoy.

Speaking of movies: the music your band writes is very picturesque and dramatic to me, something out of a movie. What movie or movies do you see your music being featured in?

Jay: I could see it being in a “War Of The Worlds” kind of picture, something really epic. It all depends who you would ask in the band you will get a different answer. For me though it would have to be something with explosions or like a Spielberg flick. “Iron Man” and |Spider Man| in the same film.

Elliot: “Jaws 6!! The Return Of.”

Who do you think would win in a fight on this tour, Animals As Leaders or Between The Buried And Me?
Elliot: BTBAM, they have more guys.

Jay: If it was all of them in a ring at the same time, BTBAM could just close line everyone down like a game of Red Rover.

So what do you guys have planned after this tour?
Jay: Well we are spending Christmas with our loved ones and we have a tiny break but in January we are going to hop right into album 2. We should be back here in the summer time and we are just in the process of booking that now, but from January till about April we will be writing and recording the newest album so that we have it ready for a release and supporting tour in about October.

Check out the song “Eden 2.0”