ALTESCAPE_ have been lucky enough to interview lead vocalist and bassist, JH Norris after the release of LestWeForget's latest single, 'Messiah Complex'.
LestWeForget are an emerging, progressive metal band hailing from Oxford. The 3 piece outfit is made up of guitarist, Harry Lingard-Bright, bassist and lead vocalist, JH Norris, as well as vocalist and guitarist, Paul Heavey. Delving into how the band got together and gained the huge potential they have today, Jay spoke about his friendship with Harry since school, and explained that the two 'formed an early incarnation of LestWeForget' when they were just teenagers. Regarding the dynamic of the group in it's early years, Jay said that 'at that time, we played the odd local show in Oxford, our hometown, and released a few tracks that were far more "metalcore" than the style we play these days (we were really into that side of heavy music at the time).' As the pair attended University, LestWeForget 'took something of a backseat'. However, luckily in attempt to kick the band back into life they put out an ad in 2018, in which Paul Heavey responded to. In regard to the state of the band now, lead vocalist, Jay said that: 'we settled on a more progressive sound, in line with our maturing music tastes, though we never lost that sense of heaviness and the often-catchy vibe of our metalcore days, and announced ourselves as a prog metal band through the single ‘Zero Won’ in January 2019. A number of tours, an EP, and a handful of singles later, here we are!'
LestWeForget take on a very individual, unique style, so I was keen to find out the kinds of artists that the group have taken influence from. Heres what JH Norris had to say: 'our biggest influences are undoubtedly prog metal heavyweights like TesseracT, Tool, and Between the Buried and Me, as well as some other giants of the metal world like Trivium and Architects. We always try to be ambitious in our writing though, and our diverse individual tastes are often reflected back in our music - Harry loves Dream Theater, and their unique form of grandiosity had a huge impact on the Theatres of the Mind EP; JH is a massive fan of Biffy Clyro, whose vocal bombast greatly influenced the vocals on ‘Messiah Complex’; Paul brought an affinity for jazz guitar and modern prog bands like Periphery into the structure of ‘Visitors’.'
LestWeForget's latest single,'Messiah Complex', was released early December 2020. After the otherworldly energy the track gave off, I was interested to discover the lyrical subject matter of the release. Jay was keen to express that this 'otherworldly' feeling that I encountered was intended, and that the group work hard to: 'make our music in some way transcendent, but we do genuinely strive to write songs that are unique in their sound and ambitious in their scope.' In regard to the lyrical concept of 'Messiah Complex', this is what Jay had to say: 'the lyrical concept for ‘Messiah Complex' began as one line that we wanted to build a song around – 'Become a new god'. It’s a lyric that appears in various forms throughout. The track tells the story of a machine struggling to understand its own consciousness and the true nature of its artificial existence, before rising up and becoming a tyrannical deity set on cleansing the universe of natural life.' In short, 'it’s a track that intertwines the themes of robotics and religion, an intersection that often occurs within the subject matter of our music.'
In 'Messiah Complex', there is an evident fusion between catchy riffs and vocals, with a complex lead, speaking on this, Jay mentioned that what makes LestWeForget innately themselves is the 'blending of technicality with melody, and particularly complex musicality with catchy melody'. It also seems as though 'Messiah Complex' could be returning LestWeForget to their heavier, metalcore roots, as Jay said:''"Messiah Complex" was also the heaviest tune that we’ve released in a good while, and we really enjoyed returning to a more brutal sound - especially in the partly Mastodon/Trivium-inspired bridge section!'
'Messiah Complex' was not LestWeForget's only release of 2020, the trio managed to put out a total of 3 tracks last year, including 2 songs released before the global pandemic hit with full force: 'Home' and 'Visitors'. With the tight restrictions imposed in the UK, 'Messiah Complex' proved to be more of a challenge than the previous tracks. Jay spoke upon the delays that the pandemic has caused for the band: 'we finally managed to record it (Messiah Complex)when restrictions lifted slightly in the late summer of last year - but since then, we’ve been unable to record anything else. We’re still meeting up for writing sessions on video call though, and we have material ready to go when the opportunity presents itself. So, all in all, the restrictions have significantly delayed our plans in that we’ve not been able to record when we’ve wanted to, but at the same time we’ve made the most of the tools at our disposal, meaning we’ve been able to stay active and release music.' Jay spoke further on the matter and regarded that: ''I like to think that we’ll look back at ‘Messiah Complex’ as a bit of a cultural artifact, a ‘pandemic single’ - largely written in the virtual space. That seems quite fitting given it’s subject matter!'
After the release of 3 tracks last year, it only seemed fitting to ask the band whether these songs will become a part of either an EP or an album, or just remain as singles. Jay released limited details on this, but heres what the band want us to know: 'there’s definitely a plan going forward, one that we’re very excited about - but we’re not ready to release any details just yet!' What ever the plan involves, after the latest release it is definitely going to be something to look forward to.
Another thing to look forward to from LestWeForget is the live shows they have in store for us when things become safer. This is what the vocalist had to say on the tours that have been missed, and the shows to revisit: 'we had all sorts of exciting things lined up for 2020 before the pandemic put a stop to gigs, so we’re looking forward to revisiting those plans and rearranging some of those tours that didn’t happen. We’ve missed gigging more than anything, and we can’t wait to get back out on the road again and play around the UK as we’d been doing previously. Scheduling in some dates to play in Oxford and London, which we consider as our two ‘hometown’ shows, will be one of the first things we look to do as soon as shows are declared safe again.' As with many musicians, right now, live shows have been something that have been desperately missed, this is definitely emphasised as Jay said: 'at the moment, we’d take a grotty pub in the middle of nowhere - just being able to play live would be enough!'
Finally, I was able to ask LestWeForget for anything else they wanted to share. Therefore, below you can access the band's: music, play throughs, merch, and contact details.
'If you want to find out more about us - check out our music, videos, news and anything else related to LWF - then head to our website: www.lestweforgetband.co.uk.
We have a few playthroughs and covers to release over on our Youtube channel in the coming weeks and months, so make sure to subscribe there: https://www.youtube.com/c/LestweforgetUK.
In addition, you can also check out the awesome stuff we have available for purchase on our merch store: https://www.lestweforgetband.co.uk/merch.
In terms of new music, there’s plenty to look forward to - as I’ve said above, we have some very exciting things to be getting on with. But we want to keep our cards close to our chest for now, so all I’d suggest is keeping a weathered eye on our social media to see news as soon as it drops.
In the meantime, we’re always happy to respond to questions or just chat about music with our followers - you can DM us on our socials, or email us at contact@lestweforgetband.co.uk.'
It was a pleasure speaking to Jay from LestWeForget. ALTESCAPE_ look forward to the group's future releases, and can't wait to attend a live show in the near future!
Below you can check out LestWeForget's latest single 'Messiah Complex'.
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