It's become a very familiar story line associated with the last couple of years, but one that has proven productive for the modern rock tandem of Set the Sun.
Confronted with the reality of being an emerging band during an era of unprecedented silence in the way of live music was undoubtedly daunting for many. For the team of Arc & Eris, the pair of musicians found themselves uncertain of the future, but committed to their craft. Navigating personal turmoil and the same uncertainty that the world was coping with, the guys poured that nervous energy into their work, composing a important collection of songs that would not only serve as therapy, but would prove an emphatic introduction.
The arrival of the band's debut EP, In Absentia, bookends a pivotal period in the duo's career. Emerging from a historic lockdown with a five-song testament to their artistry, the pair tapped into the spirit of collaborative work, sourcing the contributions of the likes of Keith Wallen (Breaking Benjamin), Clint Lowery (Sevendust), Ryan Clark (Demon Hunter), Michael Lessard (The Contortionist), and Thomas Freckleton (Silent Planet) in a collection of tracks that showcases the band's dynamic brand of wholly convincing rock.
To mark the culmination of the lead up to the release, Set the Sun have unveiled the visual for the third single from the EP for the track, "The Way Back". Recruiting Telle from The Word Alive and DJ Lethal from the Limp Bizkit, the track serves well in encapsulating the emotional heft of the project overall - traversing the feeling of losing purpose and struggling to find meaning - a theme that seemed to resonate all too well during the pandemic era.
The band shared, "The Way Back was written about the feeling that you've lost yourself - whether that's your passion, your confidence, or your reason to keep fighting, and remembering how life used to feel. The older you get, the more life throws at you and the more scars you accumulate, and that can lead to feeling like a shadow of yourself. Sometimes you wish you could go back to a different version of yourself. After we wrote most of the music, we decided to finish writing the song with Keith Wallen. And since the main riff gave us a Wes Borland vibe, we thought it would be cool to hear what DJ Lethal would do over top of it, so we hit him up; he experimented over a bunch of the track and then we picked our favorite bits and it sounds awesome & almost electronic. We were also able to get Producer/Composer Matt Lange to contribute to the production of the song. Finally, we wanted to have edgier vocals for the bridge, and we've always loved TELLE's voice & his screams, so we were delighted when we found out he had time to track it. And he absolutely nailed it and took things to the next level."
Thematic significance aside, the EP's collaborative lean underscores the band's broader artistic vision. The tandem work together and source from a network of artists they have coined, "The Collective" to add their own stylistic signature, making for a presentation that never flirts with being repetitive. Citing the ensemble cast as a team of artists both Arc and Eris "admire and respect", the project points to a progressive way to think and grow collectively. The band explained, "They all added their own touch and it gave each song its own unique feel, so we're delighted with how it all turned out. There's a good mix of sadness, aggression, and eeriness that we feel will be a good introduction to Set the Sun. "
In Absentia from Set the Sun is currently available - HERE. In addition to the standard release, a remix version of In Absentia will be released on August 12th. Watch the Knotfest premiere for "The Way Back" featuring Telle of The Word Alive and DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit below.
