Sentinel Complex Interview 09/07/20

 

MM: Can you tell us about your Band and whos your biggest influences
SC:Hello! We are Sentinel Complex, a two piece cyberpunk metal act with music that ranges from fast heavy riffs and drum beats to industrial electronic sound design and synths. We started making music together for a few indie game/ film projects in 2014, and after some time and realising we had a connection we started writing music for ourselves under our original name - Nova Prospect. In 2016 we rebranded under the name Sentinel Complex and have been honing our sound and style ever since. Our influences range from a bunch of different artists, since we combine elements from metal, electronic music and also a lot of film score works. For metal, our main influences are bands like Fear Factory, Mechina and The Defiled. When it comes to electronic elements, we try to pull a lot of techniques from darker artists like 1788-L, Swarm and some of Trent Reznors more electronic pieces. Film score makes up a large chunk of where our ideas come from and we both have a huge mutual admiration for Hans Zimmer! He is definitely our most loved composer, but we also love people like John Carpenter and Vangelis too for the horror and cyberpunk twists!
 

MM: Where do you draw your inspirations and ideas from
SC:This kind of ties into our last answer, our style is basically designed around what we love most - cyberpunk and horror! Think Blade Runner meets mechanical Cloverfield with a sprinkling of War Of The Worlds. Our music started off as video game score, so you only have to listen to our early work to get an idea of the choices we made towards the end of the game-score life cycle. Most of the time a lot of the ideas we have are spontaneous, we just happen to have a lot of them! When it comes to the process, we both do all of the writing and it usually goes the way of one of us will have an idea which will then be brought to the other, and then we’ll both sit down and see where we want the idea to go. Eventually we’ll end up with the final which we are both happy with, and we won’t release anything until we are both completely satisfied with it!
 

MM: What would you say is your Bands favourite song?
SC:If it’s a song by us then its our Stranger Things cover, that one definitely got the best reception! If it’s collectively our favourite song, then its either The Electro Suite by Hans Zimmer, Satisfy by Nero or Reptile by Periphery.
 

MM: Plans tour and festival wise for 2020
SC:Honestly the way things are going with the world right now we can’t really see many bands playing! However playing live is something we are going to start doing once we have enough of our own material we deem worthy of playing live, and once we have the rigs together!
 

MM: What can we expect from Sentinel Complex live
SC:Once we start playing live, expect a mix of theatrics, crazy visuals and an all-around high adrenaline show! We want to bring everything we can and put absolutely everything into our shows once they become viable for us to pull off. We don’t want to do anything by half measures.
 

MM: What do you like best and worst abt touring
SC:Touring is a great thing don’t get us wrong, and there are a load of benefits to touring. Travelling the world and being able to do what you love to infront of thousands has gotta be the dream for most artists, or something close at least! There have been a lot of stories though recently from a lot of artists about touring where it has either nearly bankrupted them, or something has happened down the road and the band has never really recovered from it, like bad arguments or declines in physical or mental health. 
 

MM: Which three Bands would be your ultimate touring buddies
SC:Jamie: In a perfect world, I would love to tour with a mix of artists from both of the genres we really find ourselves identifying with. For the metal side of things it would be bands like Fear Factory, Trivium, Bring Me The Horizon etc. For the electronic side of things I would have to say artists like 1788-L, Rezz and Swarm would be the big three for me!
Josh: I’d love to see us tour with Swarm but if I could I’d have us play with a range of artists for a day festival with Slipknot, Behemoth, Swarm, Combichrist. Just get a load of artists we love and mash everyone together for a day.
 

MM: What's the most memorable concert you've been to (other than your own) and why 
SC:Jamie: For me it there’s two, there was seeing Motionless In White the day before my birthday in 2018 and they played literally every song I love by them, or its the last gig I went to actually which was seeing Periphery in Bristol. We had been planning to see them since 2014 but because things kept getting in the way we never got the chance until recently but it was definitely worth waiting for!
Josh: Sonisphere festival 2011 - first time seeing Slipknot and the big 4. I was 16 at the time and it changed my life for certain!
 

MM: What do you feel has been your biggest accomplishment so far with Sentinel Complex
SC:Josh: I’m personally really proud of our stranger things cover lately. It still gets a lot of love on streaming services. But I must say winning Swarms remix contest really made us feel like we just took a massive step up in the music world. It should be out sometime soon for the world to enjoy so keep an eye on Swarms socials and ourselves.
Jamie: I agree there, but for me another moment was actually releasing a song globally for the first time. That was just something I never actually thought I would be able to do in my life you know?
 

MM: Which are your Two favourite Albums of all time
SC:Josh: That depends on the day you ask me. Today I’m feeling Reanimation by Linkin Park one of the first albums I bought. I know every word including the interlude phone calls... and Yeezus by Kanye West. There’s just a raw energy that I think is really relevant right now with some of the things happening over in the states... listen to Black Skinhead and tell me you don’t want to rip down the establishment.
Jamie: My all time favourites are an easy choice for me, top being Shogun by Trivium, followed by Juggernaut by Periphery. Some of the best metal you will ever hear is on those albums and I absolutely swear by them. Juggernaut has a load of story-telling elements from start to finish too which I absolutely adore.
 

MM: Can you remember the first time you ever played live and how it felt to have people watching you?
SC:Jamie: For me I was pretty young, I think the first time I played in a band I was like 13 years old playing in the school band. I didn’t actually start gigging until I was about 17-18 but the whole “fear of messing up” just never really set in because for me, I just love being on stage. It’s more fun than anything and once you get over the fact that people aren’t just there to judge you it gets a lot easier.
 

MM: Growing up which Bands posters did you have on your bedroom wall.
SC:Josh: Slipknot. And still have most of them too! I’ve got a really nice Marilyn Manson poster as well. I did have it framed in a suspended glass case but in typical Marilyn Manson style it hit the floor and broke into tiny jagged pieces. 
Jamie: I had a hell of a lot, but I think the band I had the most posters of was definitely Metallica, they were the first real metal band I properly fell in love with. I had a load of other though like Disturbed, A7X and Trivium, but I had a load of which I would cut out of magazines just to fill up the space on my empty white walls haha.
 

MM - Who do you think influenced the world of Metal / Rock more than any other person
SC:Josh: Depends on what part of rock and metal but I’ll always agree that Ozzy and Sabbath in general everyone owes a debt to. If you’re into metal, even if you don’t like them, they inspired the people who inspired you.
 

MM - What's the most important thing to the band right now?
SC:Social media, love it or hate it. We’re certainly not the best at it, but we try and that’s the main thing. You’ve got to find what you want to put out there into the world and do your best to make it content that’s worth tuning in for. On top of that, developing relationships with fans... you can act all high and mighty and it might work for you but from our experience, we’ve got loads of fans who we know on a first name basis and we consider really good friends, even though we’ve never met them. They’re always the ones who will support you to the fullest so take the extra time out of your day to make friends with fans.
 

MM: If you could do a cover of any song which one would it be and why?
SC:Jamie: I’ve always liked the idea of doing a cover of something by Gary Numan, something kinda dark and nasty I think would be a lot of fun to do for some of his works!
Josh: I’m in a slinky guitar kinda mood recently so probably either a country song or something from Marilyn Mansons High end of low.
 

MM: Tell us why we should buy and listen to your Band
SC:If you want to buy something from us, go for it! If you like a band that takes major risks with their sound and isn’t like your average metal band or for that matter an average electronic act then give us a chance. You might just hate us! We try to make clothes that represent the kind of things we enjoy ourselves or would buy if we didn’t make it too.

MM: Four words to describe Sentinel Complex
SC:Cyberpunk, horror, forward thinking.
 

Final Words for your fans and our readers
SC:Thanks for taking the time to check us out! We love connecting with everyone especially during these difficult times. 
If the world is still here when this gets published know that any reader is free to message us on Instagram and talk about music, horror movies and the like! We’d love to get to know your readers better!