Photo by Brendan McGowan

Unto Others have been a band on the rise ever since they burst onto the scene with their nearly flawless debut Mana in 2019.

Their infectious blend of heavy metal, goth rock and post punk almost instantly won over headbangers of all stripes who couldn’t decide whether to dance or mosh. The album powered the band to a spot supporting King Diamond across North America that same year, further spreading their sound.

Since then, they’ve steadily expanded their musical footprint. The band signed to Roadrunner Records to release Strength in 2021, followed by tours across the world with the likes of Arch Enemy, Napalm Death, Behemoth and Carcass in addition to several runs of their own.

Now, as they present their third full-length record Never, Neverland – this time through Century Media Records – frontman and main creative mind Gabe Franco reflected on the steady ascent of the band through excellent songs and lots of hours on the road. 

 

“We still haven't had a breakthrough record yet,” he said. “We're slowly growing, and I'm very happy with that. In fact, we don't ever need to have a breakthrough record, in my opinion. I think we can continue slowly growing and we'll get to where we want to be in due time.

“Because right now, I'm already so much further than I ever thought I would be.“ 

KNOTFEST’s Jon Garcia spoke with Franco ahead of the release of Never, Neverland, out September 20th via Century Media Records. They discuss the band’s ascent and how pissed he was to cancel festival appearances last year, working with producers Tom Delgaty and Arthur Rizk, as well as the importance of leaving room for studio magic and fighting with Century Media to keep a Nintendo sample in a song.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

Can you enlighten me on the burnout you were feeling and canceling a string of European festivals last summer to focus on writing the album?

GABE FRANCO: I mean, that was really only half of it. It wasn't my decision. I didn't want to cancel things. I don't cancel things if I announce them, it's kind of my general rule. It's bad business to announce a tour and then blow it off. I was really pissed off, actually, that I had to cancel those shows.

But unfortunately, when you get to a more professional level you work with teams of people and you're not the king of the world all the time. Sometimes what you think is best isn't always what's best. So I had to take the advice of my booking agency, management, label and stuff like that and step back. Wait to do these festivals until we had a proper record behind it to promote, because at that point, Strength was two years old. 

I wasn't lying when I said I'm working on the record, but… What I wanted to tell the fans was, [laughs] ‘I'm being forced to cancel these festivals against my will,’ but that's not completely true, either. Because I did still agree to it, however begrudgingly I might have, right? But we did the festivals this year, and they were fucking awesome. 

Speaking to the burnout, I wasn't really burnt out in 2023. It was 2022 and fading into ‘23. I was just getting pissed off that things were moving so slowly from my band. I'm kind of a man of action, and the wheels of corporate music move really fucking slow, you know? I can book a tour in two weeks. When you get into this world, a conversation to schedule a meeting about booking a tour takes two weeks. Dude, we went from being big fish in a small pond to small fish in the big pond, and it's a transition.

   

So then how did you approach writing Never, Neverland? 

GF: I still write everything. On this album, Brandon wrote “Butterfly” which ended up being our main single, and I collaborated on that, but everything else I write the skeleton, I bring it to band practice, I go, ‘this is the song,’ Sebastian [Silva] throws a solo on it, Colin [Veranzin] drums to it, we take it in the studio.

The studio is where I really let loose the reins, because I have complete trust in my band and I had complete trust in the producer Tom [Dalgety]. Once I figured out that he knew what he was doing – which was pretty much by day two –  I felt like the more I fuck with this, the more it's gonna make it worse. So let's just be open minded, creative, let Tom do his thing, let the band do their things and see what comes out. 

We had a lot of happy surprises. Studio magic is real, and when it happens, it's like, it's fucking awesome, because it's like you didn't have to work for what you got, you know? If you do a really cool solo in the studio on a whim, it's like you didn't have to work for that.

Was the hands-off approach the biggest difference from this album from Strength? I know you were very involved with producer Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Cavalera Conspiracy, Ghostmane) on that one.

GF: Yes and no. I had nitpicked that album to death before I got to Arthur, right? Back in those days, it was like I wanted control over every single fucking drum hit and everything, you know? There was a master plan. I went in a little bit looser on this record, willing to leave this open for the guys to do some crazier shit over it. 

Working with Arthur was one of the funnest experiences we’ve ever had. We traveled across the country [to Philadelphia] to record Strength five fucking times, but we got to spend months in the city and got to become really good friends with Arthur and that friendship lasts till today. I love seeing him and Eternal Champion, the Sumerlands guys and anytime we get a chance and we're near each other we're hanging out and rocking a few beers.

Working with Arthur again is definitely not out of the question. Each album so far, I've just been like, ‘Let's try something new. Let's move forward,’ because we still haven't had a breakthrough record yet. We're slowly growing, and I'm very happy with that. In fact, we don't ever need to have a breakthrough record, in my opinion. I think we can continue slowly growing, and we'll get to where we want to be in due time. Because right now, I'm already so much further than I ever thought I would be.

I remember when I started the band, I was like, ‘Alright, guys, we're gonna have to grind clubs for five years. I'm talking like 150 days on tour a year, and then maybe we'll get on opening package tours for 500 cap venues and things like that.’ And the first year we were opening for King Diamond.

In comparison, how was working with Tom Delgety (Grave Pleasures, Creeper, The Cult,  Opeth) who has worked with a lot of bands that have a darker, more gothic edge to their sound? 

Tom has a really good ear for an arena-rock, kind of radio-rock friendly sound. He has a good ability to create beefy, meaty sonic dynamics out of something you might not think like he can. He can take a power cord and turn it into a fucking massive, audio explosion. Take a song like “Butterfly,” for example. That chorus sounds fucking huge. I don't know how he did that.

But as you know, we're always trying to be individuals here. I've always been personally and artistically, musically, really, really against globbing into a scene. I don't want to be associated with other bands. I want people to think Unto Others. That's it. Because I think once you get into a scene, you run the danger of being caught up in that fan base or whatever going up, but then you get to go down with it too. I think the more we keep our individuality, the easier it will be for us to kind of do whatever we want, right?

  

Lyrically, you touch on everything from love and mental health, to even a goofy horror-inspired track. How did you approach the album’s subject matter this time? 

I was just letting whatever emotions flow out and I'm not scared to. My mom, she has no fucking filter whatsoever. So I grew up with – if something was even slightly wrong –  my mom goes, ‘What's wrong? Are you okay? Are you sad? Are you depressed? Do you want to kill yourself?’ You're just like, ‘chill the fuck out!’

Because of that, as I've gotten older, I have no qualms or problems with, if I see someone not doing well or or someone has an issue, I have no problem confronting people and including myself.  So when it comes to writing lyrics, if something comes up that. I'm like, oh, that's kind of personal and sensitive. I don't care. I'm just like, throw it out there, because that's the truth. And the truth, to me, is more valuable than anything.

I’ve always loved the attention to detail in Unto Other’s music, especially when it comes to samples augmenting the song. Whether that’s the gunshot in “No Children Laughing Now,” the eagle in “Destiny” and now the Zelda fairy sound in “Time Goes On.” Is that what you mean by leaving room open in the studio or are all of those things imagined beforehand.

Usually the samples I think of before the studio. [With Time Goes On], I was just listening to that song and in my head I heard, ‘Hey, listen!’ and I was like, that'd be great there! That's how all the samples work. Same with the “Destiny” eagle. I think the eagle came first, to be honest with you. 

One of the biggest things you have to do as a musician is you need confidence and the ability to say no. You need to know what's good and what's bad, at least to you, and [‘Hey, listen!’] almost was not on the record, and I was like, ‘fuck you!’ I didn't say that, of course but I knew it was good.

I knew it needed to be in there and I knew I was going to get pushback from the label, because it was a Nintendo thing, right? Like, dude, do you think Nintendo gives a fucking shit? I’m also a big fan of, we'll deal with that if that becomes a problem. [laughs]

It seemed like there was also bigger emphasis on delivering more creative music videos this time around?

That's probably one of the most important things in pushing your band. I mean, you have to be something. If you try to be everything people, it just confuses people, right? I don't know what I'm pushing, except I know what's good and what's bad, and I'm confident in that.

So sometimes we go a little corny. We go ultra corny with, “Mama Likes The Door Closed” and things like that. But that's on purpose. That's because that stuff's fun, right? 

 

 

Did you have the idea for the video in your head when you wrote the song, did the song come first or at the same time?

I had the video in my mind as I was writing the lyrics. I knew that we probably had to do a video to make this song make sense, because I've actually gotten a lot of questions still, like, ‘What's that song about?’ after people listen to it. I'm like, ‘Have you seen the music video? No? Go watch it. You'll have fun.’

What do you hope people take away from Never, Neverland

You know, if I'm gonna be honest with myself, I don't really think about that very much. I don't want to say I don't care, because obviously it affects me, but I've done my best, and just hope they enjoy it. 

If they don't, I hope they listen to the whole thing before they talk shit. [laughs] Don't jam three seconds of “Butterfly” and say we're not metal, which I've been getting quite a bit. But also that's like, you know, your opinion, man.

-----

Never, Neverland by Unto Others is available everywhere now via Century Media Records. Order the album - HERE